Clinical characteristics of community-onset Clostridioides difficile infections at a tertiary hospital in mainland China: A fourteen-year (2010-2023) retrospective study.

Background: Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is an increasingly common disease in healthcare facilities and community settings. However, there are limited reports of community-onset CDI (CO-CDI) in China.

Methods: We collected diarrheal stool samples from 3885 patients who went to outpatient department or emergency department in a tertiary hospital in China during 2010-2023, analyzed the correlation between patients' basic information and the detection rate of CDI.

A novel heterozygous deletion in ABCB4 gene in a Chinese family with intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy, neonatal hyperbilirubinemia, and cholelithiasis: Case reports and literature review.

Background: ABCB4 gene (OMIM *171060) variant is associated with a wide clinical spectrum of hepatobiliary diseases, including familial intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP), progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis type 3 (PFIC3), and neonatal hyperbilirubinemia due to impaired protection of the bile duct. The majority of reported cases, however, were missense or nonsense variants, with few deletion variant findings in the Chinese population.

Method: We performed whole genome sequencing and confirmed it with Sanger sequencing of the proband infant and his families.

Dihydromyricetin alleviates hippocampal ferroptosis in type 2 diabetic cognitive impairment rats via inhibiting the JNK-inflammatory factor pathway.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is frequently associated with diabetic cognitive impairment (DCI), and recent studies have shown a strong association between DCI and hippocampal ferroptosis. In this study, we administered dihydromyricetin (DHM) or JNK inhibitor SP600125, to T2DM rats and monitored changes in blood glucose levels, conducted behavioral tests, and detected changes in JNK, inflammatory factors and ferroptosis-related indicators. Our findings demonstrated that T2DM rats displayed signs of cognitive impairment (CI), with ferrozine assays indicating elevated iron content in the hippocampus.

Encephalomyelitis Caused by in a Woman With Breast Cancer: A Case Report and Review of the Literature.

is one cause of a rare and severe brain infection called granulomatous amoebic encephalitis (GAE), which has a mortality rate of >90%. Diagnosis of GAE is difficult because symptoms are non-specific. Here, we report a case of amoebic encephalomyelitis (encephalitis and myelitis) in a woman with breast cancer.

Immune dysfunction following COVID-19, especially in severe patients.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been spreading worldwide. Severe cases quickly progressed with unfavorable outcomes. We aim to investigate the clinical features of COVID-19 and identify the risk factors associated with its progression.

Characterization of cytokine profile to distinguish latent tuberculosis from active tuberculosis and healthy controls.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease and its mortality rate ranks first. Latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) means that a patient is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but has no relative clinical symptoms. It has been estimated that approximately 10% of patients with LTBI would develop into active tuberculosis.

Characteristics and outcomes of acute-on-chronic liver failure patients with or without cirrhosis using two criteria.

The aim of the study was to identify the characteristics and outcomes in acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) patients with or without cirrhosis using two criteria. Patients with acute deterioration of chronic hepatic disease or acute decompensation of cirrhosis were included retrospectively from April 10, 2016 to April 10, 2019. European Association for the Study of the Liver-chronic liver failure (EASL-CLIF) criterion except for consideration of cirrhosis and Chinese Group on the Study of Severe Hepatitis B (COSSH) criterion were used.

Cellular context- and protein level-dependent interaction of pluripotency factor OCT4A with multiple octamer motifs of the same target gene.

Aims: To compare how OCT4A proteins interact with and regulate multiple OCT4A-octamer motifs (OMs) in different regions of the FOS gene expressed in somatic cancer cells versus pluripotent stem cells.

Materials And Methods: Two FOS reporter gene systems harboring predicted OMs or their mutational counterparts were introduced into HeLa and NCCIT cells with varying OCT4A protein levels. The transcription of dsGFP reflecting FOS expression was quantitated by RT-qPCR, the OCT4A-OMs binding and the correlation between OCT4A and FOS transcription was determined by ChIP-PCR and RNA-Seq, respectively.

Short-Course Rather Than Low-Dose Amphotericin B May Exert Potential Influence on Mortality in Cryptococcal Meningitis Patients Treated With Amphotericin B Plus Flucytosine Alone or in Combination With Fluconazole.

Background: The influence of Amphotericin B (AmB) dose and the addition of fluconazole (Flu) on the AmB + 5-flucytosine (5FC) regimen for cryptococcal meningitis (CM) treatment remain debatable.

Methods: A retrospective study was conducted to compare 44 CM patients treated with AmB + 5FC and 78 CM patients treated with AmB + 5FC + Flu using the propensity score matching method. The effects of AmB dosage, AmB course and Flu addition on the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) chemical profile recovery, adverse effects, and 90-day mortality were compared between the groups.

Multi-perspective predictive modeling for acute kidney injury in general hospital populations using electronic medical records.

Objectives: Acute kidney injury (AKI) in hospitalized patients puts them at much higher risk for developing future health problems such as chronic kidney disease, stroke, and heart disease. Accurate AKI prediction would allow timely prevention and intervention. However, current AKI prediction researches pay less attention to model building strategies that meet complex clinical application scenario.

Dynamic changes of key metabolites during liver fibrosis in rats.

Background: Fibrosis is the single most important predictor of significant morbidity and mortality in patients with chronic liver disease. Established non-invasive tests for monitoring fibrosis are lacking, and new biomarkers of liver fibrosis and function are needed.

Aim: To depict the process of liver fibrosis and look for novel biomarkers for diagnosis and monitoring fibrosis progression.

Comprehensive Analysis of Lysine Acetylome Reveals a Site-Specific Pattern in Rapamycin-Induced Autophagy.

Protein acetylation reportedly acts as a key regulator of autophagy. However, up to now, the relationship between acetylome and autophagy has remained unclear. Here stable isotope labeling of amino acids in cell culture and high-throughput quantitative mass spectrometry were used to perform an acetylome analysis of rapamycin-induced autophagy in vitro.

[Ameliorative effects and the mechanism of lyceum barbarum polysaccharide on insulin resistance of HepG2 cell].

Objective: To observe the effects of lyceum barbarum polysaccharide (LBP) on insulin resistance of HepG2 cells and investigate its possible mechanism.

Methods: IR-HepG2 cell model was induced with high glucose and high insulin in combination for 24 hours,with 10/vaccination in the 96-well plates, hole density after adherent cells (30 μg/ml、100 μg/ml、300 μg/ml) LBP cultivate 48 h, 200 μl/hole, each all had four holes. The effects of LBP at different concentrations on HepG2 cell activity and insulin resistance were tested.

Endogenous authentic OCT4A proteins directly regulate FOS/AP-1 transcription in somatic cancer cells.

OCT4A is well established as a master transcription factor for pluripotent stem cell (PSC) self-renewal and a pioneer factor for initiating somatic cell reprogramming, yet its presence and functionality in somatic cancer cells remain controversial and obscure. By combining the CRISPR-Cas9-based gene editing with highly specific PCR assays, highly sensitive immunoassays, and mass spectrometry, we provide unequivocal evidence here that full-length authentic OCT4A transcripts and proteins were both present in somatic cancer cells, and OCT4A proteins were heterogeneously expressed in the whole cell population and when expressed, they are predominantly localized in cell nucleus. Despite their extremely low abundance (approximately three orders of magnitude lower than in PSCs), OCT4A proteins bound to the promoter/enhancer regions of the AP-1 transcription factor subunit c-FOS gene and critically regulated its transcription.

Causal risk factor discovery for severe acute kidney injury using electronic health records.

Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI), characterized by abrupt deterioration of renal function, is a common clinical event among hospitalized patients and it is associated with high morbidity and mortality. AKI is defined in three stages with stage-3 being the most severe phase which is irreversible. It is important to effectively discover the true risk factors in order to identify high-risk AKI patients and allow better targeting of tailored interventions.

[The effects of dihydromyricetin on cognitive dysfunction in type 2 diabetes mice].

Objective: To observe the effects of dihydromyricetin(DHM) on cognitive dysfunction and expression of brain derived neurotrophic factor(BDNF) protein in hippocampus of type 2 diabetic mice(T2DM).

Methods: Forty C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided into two groups, normal control group (=8):normal diet feeding; T2DM model group (=32):high-glucose and high-fat combined with 100 mg/kg streptozocin(STZ) treatment (five mice died during modeling and three failed). Twenty-four diabetic mice were modeled successfully and divided into three groups (T2DM group, T2DM+L-DHM group and T2DM+H-DHM group).

[The effects of arecoline on the lipid metabolism of 3T3-L1 adipocytes].

Objective: To observe the effects of arecoline on lipid metabolism in 3T3-L1 adipocytes and explore its possible mechanisms.

Methods: 3T3-L1 pre-adipocytes were induced into adipocytes with the classic "cocktail" method, subsequently, adipocytes were treated with arecoline at the concentrations of 0, 25, 50 and 100 mol/L for 72 hours. After 72 hours, cell vability was measured with MTT method, lipid droplet accumulation in the cytoplasm was observed with oil red O staining, the protein expression of fatty acid synthase (FAS), adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL) and hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) were detected by Western blot assay.

Slow reduction of IP-10 Levels predicts HBeAg seroconversion in chronic hepatitis B patients with 5 years of entecavir treatment.

The aim of this study was to determine the correlation between dynamic changes in serum cytokine/chemokine expression levels in response to entecavir (ETV) treatment and HBV e antigen (HBeAg) seroconversion in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB). Four cytokines (interleukin [IL]-4, IL-6, IL-8, and interferon-γ) and five chemokines (macro-phage inflammatory protein [MIP]-1α, MIP-1β, platelet derived growth factor-BB, and interferon-inducible protein 10 [IP-10]) before ETV therapy and at 3, 6, 12, 24, 36 and 60 months during therapy in 105 CHB patients were analyzed. The results showed that the low decrease rate of IP-10 levels after 1 year of ETV treatment was an independent predictor of HBeAg seroconversion at year 5 (Hazard ratio = 0.

[Effect of arecoline on proliferation and apoptosis of MCF-7 human breast cancer cells].

Objective: To observe the effects of arecoline on proliferation and apoptosis of MCF-7 human breast cancer cells and to ex-plore its possible mechanism.

Methods: Human breast cancer MCF-7 cells were treated with arecoline at the concentrations of 0,10,30,50, 100,300,500mol/L, the cell proliferation were detected by MTT assay, cell apoptosis were analyzed by Hoechst 33342 staining and flow cy-tometry, the protein expression of Bax,Bcl-2 and P53 were detected by Western blot.

Results: Low concentration(0,10,30, 50 mol/L) arecoline had no effect on the proliferation and apoptosis of MCF-7.

IL-6 Inhibits Starvation-induced Autophagy via the STAT3/Bcl-2 Signaling Pathway.

IL-6, a pleiotropic cytokine, has been investigated for its role in regulating autophagy. Yet, its mechanism of action remains unclear. Here, we show that IL-6 exerted anti-autophagic effects on U937 cells through the STAT3 signaling pathway in vitro.

The miR-30a Negatively Regulates IL-17-Mediated Signal Transduction by Targeting Traf3ip2.

Interleukin-17 (IL-17) has been proved to be involved in the pathogenesis of several autoimmune diseases, including lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and inflammatory bowel disease. The regulation of IL-17 signal transduction is less studied. miR-30a has been identified to be downregulated in these human autoimmune diseases and their related animal models.

Osteopontin promotes dendritic cell maturation and function in response to HBV antigens.

Purpose: Dendritic cells (DCs) play critical roles in promoting innate and adaptive immunity in microbial infection. Functional impairment of DCs may mediate the suppression of viral-specific T-cell immune response in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. Osteopontin (OPN) is involved in several liver diseases and infectious diseases.