Interferon-responsive neutrophils and macrophages extricate SARS-CoV-2 Omicron critical patients from the nasty fate of sepsis.

The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant is characterized by its high transmissibility, which has caused a worldwide epidemiological event. Yet, it turns ominous once the disease progression degenerates into severe pneumonia and sepsis, presenting a horrendous lethality. To elucidate the alveolar immune or inflammatory landscapes of Omicron critical-ill patients, we performed single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from the patients with critical pneumonia caused by Omicron infection, and analyzed the correlation between the clinical severity scores and different immune cell subpopulations.

Temperature difference and systemic risk: Evidence from LASSO-VAR-DY based on China's pan-financial market.

Climate change-induced pan-financial market and the contagion of systemic financial risks are becoming important issues in the financial sector. The paper measures the temperature difference in terms of the degree and direction of deviation of the actual temperature relative to the average temperature of the same historical period. Based on the high-dimensional time-series variable LASSO-VAR-DY framework, we construct a pan-financial market volatility correlation network consisting of 112 Chinese listed companies in banking, insurance, securities, real estate, traditional energy, and new energy, use eigenvector centrality to measure the systematic risk of each firm, and then empirically test the effect of temperature difference on systematic risk under pan-financial market scenario.

The moderate level of digital transformation: from the perspective of green total factor productivity.

In the context of accelerated development of the digital economy, whether enterprises can drive green total factor productivity (GTFP) through digital technology has become the key to promoting high-quality development of the economy and achieving the goal of "dual-carbon", However, the relationship between digital transformation and GTFP is still controversial in existing studies. Based on the data of 150 listed companies in China's A-share energy industry from 2011 to 2021, this study empirically analyzes the impact of digital transformation on GTFP using a fixed-effect model. The study shows an inverted U-shaped nonlinear effect of digital transformation on enterprises' GTFP, and the conclusion still holds after a series of robustness tests.

Mitochondrial IRG1 traps MCL-1 to induce hepatocyte apoptosis and promote carcinogenesis.

Hepatocarcinogenesis is initiated by repeated hepatocyte death and liver damage, and the underlying mechanisms mediating cell death and the subsequent carcinogenesis remain to be fully investigated. Immunoresponsive gene 1 (IRG1) and its enzymatic metabolite itaconate are known to suppress inflammation in myeloid cells, and its expression in liver parenchymal hepatocytes is currently determined. However, the potential roles of IRG1 in hepatocarcinogenesis are still unknown.

Digital financial and banking competition network: Evidence from China.

The rapid development of digital finance resulted in fierce competition in the banking industry. The study used Bank-corporate credit data to measure interbank competition based on social network model, and we transformed the regional digital finance index into bank-level digital finance index using each bank's registry and license information. Furthermore, we employed QAP (quadratic assignment procedure) to empirically test the effects of digital finance on the competitive structure among banks.

JMJD4-demethylated RIG-I prevents hepatic steatosis and carcinogenesis.

Background: Hepatocarcinogenesis is driven by necroinflammation or metabolic disorders, and the underlying mechanisms remain largely elusive. We previously found that retinoic acid-inducible gene-I (RIG-I), a sensor for recognizing RNA virus in innate immune cells, is mainly expressed by parenchymal hepatocytes in the liver. However, its roles in hepatocarcinogenesis are unknown, which is intensively investigated in this study.

Malignant progression of liver cancer progenitors requires lysine acetyltransferase 7-acetylated and cytoplasm-translocated G protein GαS.

Background And Aims: Hepatocarcinogenesis goes through HCC progenitor cells (HcPCs) to fully established HCC, and the mechanisms driving the development of HcPCs are still largely unknown.

Approach And Results: Proteomic analysis in nonaggregated hepatocytes and aggregates containing HcPCs from a diethylnitrosamine-induced HCC mouse model was screened using a quantitative mass spectrometry-based approach to elucidate the dysregulated proteins in HcPCs. The heterotrimeric G stimulating protein α subunit (GαS) protein level was significantly increased in liver cancer progenitor HcPCs, which promotes their response to oncogenic and proinflammatory cytokine IL-6 and drives premalignant HcPCs to fully established HCC.

SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein enhances ACE2 expression via facilitating Interferon effects in bronchial epithelium.

Objective: In this study, we focused on the interaction between SARS-CoV-2 and host Type I Interferon (IFN) response, so as to identify whether IFN effects could be influenced by the products of SARS-CoV-2.

Methods: All the structural and non-structural proteins of SARS-CoV-2 were transfected and overexpressed in the bronchial epithelial cell line BEAS-2B respectively, and typical antiviral IFN-stimulated gene (ISG) ISG15 expression was detected by qRT-PCR. RNA-seq based transcriptome analysis was performed between control and Spike (S) protein-overexpressed BEAS-2B cells.

microRNA-199a-3p inhibits hepatic apoptosis and hepatocarcinogenesis by targeting PDCD4.

Hepatic apoptosis and the initiated liver inflammation play the initial roles in inflammation-induced hepatocarcinogenesis. Molecular mechanisms underlying the regulation of hepatocyte apoptosis and their roles in hepatocarcinogenesis have attracted much attention. A set of microRNAs (miRNAs) have been determined to be dysregulated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and participated in cancer progression, however, the roles of these dysregulated miRNAs in carcinogenesis are still poorly understood.