Publications by authors named "Li Chenghua"

Background: Visceral adipose tissue (VAT) is known to play a role in the development of metabolic and cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, the age- and sex-specific associations between VAT and these diseases remain unclear.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 1,150 participants (39.

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Autophagy is essential for maintaining material balance and energy circulation and plays a critical role as a regulatory mechanism in tissue regeneration. However, current studies primarily describe this phenotype, with limited exploration of its molecular mechanisms. In this study, we provided the first evidence that autophagy is required for intestinal regeneration in Apostichopus japonicus and identified a previously unrecognized regulatory mechanism involved in this process.

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  • Soil water deficit significantly impacts peanut yield and quality throughout all growth stages, primarily reducing pod numbers and weights.
  • The study investigated both common and high oleic acid peanut varieties, finding that drought-sensitive varieties showed a notable decrease in oil accumulation and altered fatty acid composition.
  • Results indicated that the disruption in enzyme activities related to oil synthesis was linked to lower oil content and lipid quality, particularly in the high oleic acid variety, emphasizing the need for strategies to improve peanut resilience in water-stressed conditions.
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Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the most aggressive cancers and is highly prevalent in China, exhibiting resistance to current treatments. ΔNP63α, the main isoform of p63, is frequently amplified in ESCC and contributes to therapeutic resistance, although the molecular mechanisms remain unknown. Here, we report that ΔNP63α is highly expressed in ESCC and is associated with radioresistance by reducing ROS level.

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Echinoderms possess unique biological traits that make them valuable models in immunology, regeneration, and developmental biology studies. As a class rich in active substances with significant nutritional and medicinal value, echinoderms face threats from marine pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoa, and parasites, which have caused substantial economic losses in echinoderm aquaculture. Echinoderms counteract pathogen invasion through innate immunity and programmed cell death, in particular, with apoptosis being essential for eliminating infected or damaged cells and maintaining homeostasis in many echinoderm cell types.

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  • Diabetes, particularly gestational diabetes (GDM), shows diverse characteristics and outcomes based on specific phenotypes, such as fasting hyperglycemia and postload hyperglycemia.
  • A study involving 2,050 pregnant women found that those with isolated impaired fasting glucose (GDM-IFG) had higher insulin resistance, while those with isolated impaired postload glucose tolerance (GDM-IGT) exhibited poorer β-cell function.
  • Different phenotypes of GDM correlated with varied pregnancy outcomes: GDM-IFG linked to excessive weight gain and larger infants, while GDM-IGT was associated with increased risks of preterm birth and neonatal brain injury.
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Bacteria at different growth stages usually coordinate capsular polysaccharide (CPS) formation and may affect their susceptibility to phage. In this study, we evaluated the infection efficacy of phage vB_VspM_VS2 in V. splendidus AJ01 at different growth stages and explored the role of growth stage-related CPS translocon Wza in the susceptibility of V.

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Esophageal cancer is mainly divided into esophageal adenocarcinoma and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). China is one of the high-incidence areas of esophageal cancer, of which about 90% are ESCC. The deubiquitinase USP38 has been reported to play significant roles in several biological processes, including inflammatory responses, antiviral infection, cell proliferation, migration, invasion, DNA damage repair, and chemotherapy resistance.

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  • Circular RNAs (circRNAs) play significant roles in biological processes, with this study focusing on circ-FGL1, which prevents cell death in the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus during bacterial infection.* -
  • Circ-FGL1 inhibits coelomocyte apoptosis by binding to the transcription factor AjMyc, preventing its degradation; during Vibrio splendidus infection, circ-FGL1 levels decrease, allowing AjMyc to promote apoptosis.* -
  • The findings highlight the need to further explore circRNA functions, potentially offering new therapeutic strategies for treating echinoderm infections.*
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  • The study focuses on the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) gene from the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus, examining its role in the innate immune response, particularly during bacterial infection.
  • Researchers identified the full-length cDNA of AjJNK, which includes specific structural elements and transcription factor-binding sites relevant to immune functions.
  • Findings indicated that AjJNK is widely expressed in various tissues, with increased activity in coelomocytes during bacterial challenges, suggesting it plays a key role in regulating immune responses and cell apoptosis.
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When organisms are exposed to external stimuli, misfolded proteins accumulate continuously, resulting in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. Autophagy is of great significance for eliminating aggregated proteins and maintaining cellular homeostasis. However, the molecular mechanism of activating autophagy in response to ER stress in sea cucumber is remain unclear.

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Copper is one of the predominant water pollutants. Excessive exposure to copper can cause harm to animal health, affecting the central nervous system and causing blood abnormalities. Cuproptosis is a novel form of cell death that differs from previous programmed cell death methods.

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Abiotic stress is a limiting factor in peanut production. Peanut is an important oil crop and cash crop in China. Peanut yield is vulnerable to abiotic stress due to its seeds grown underground.

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Pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) mediate the innate immune responses and play a crucial role in host defense against pathogen infections. Apextrin C-terminal (ApeC)-containing proteins (ACPs), a newly discovered class of PRRs specific to invertebrates, recognize pathogens through their ApeC domain as intracellular or extracellular effectors. However, the other immunological functions of ACPs remain unclear.

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Iron homeostasis is vital for the host's defense against pathogenic invasion and the ferritinophagy is a crucial mechanism in maintaining intracellular iron homeostasis by facilitating the degradation and recycling of stored iron. The nuclear receptor coactivator 4 (NCOA4) serves as a ferritinophagy receptor, facilitating the binding and delivery of ferritin to the autophagosome and lysosome. However, NCOA4 of the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus (AjNCOA4) has not been reported until now.

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Skin ulceration syndrome (SUS) is currently the main disease threatening aquaculture due to its higher mortality rate and infectivity, which is caused by . Our previous studies have demonstrated that SUS is accompanied by intestinal microbiota (IM) dysbiosis, alteration of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) content and the damage to the intestinal barrier. However, the mediating effect of IM on intestine dysfunction is largely unknown.

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Introduction Background: Disulfidptosis is a prevalent apoptotic mechanism, intrinsically linked to cancer prognosis. However, the specific involvement of disulfidptosis-related long non-coding RNA (DRLncRNAs) in Kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) remains incompletely understood. This study aims to elucidate the potential prognostic significance of disulfidptosis-related LncRNAs in KIRC.

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  • Akirin2 is crucial in regulating immune responses in vertebrates, but its role in invertebrates, like sea cucumbers, was previously unclear.
  • Researchers cloned the complete cDNA sequence of Akirin2 from A. japonicus, revealing its consistent expression in various tissues and a significant role during pathogen infection.
  • The study demonstrated that Akirin2 interacts with Aj14-3-3ζ to modulate immune responses, as knockdown of either protein led to higher bacterial load and impaired inflammation-related gene expression, highlighting Akirin2's importance in antibacterial defense.
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Sea cucumbers are widely known for their powerful regenerative abilities, which allow them to regenerate a complete digestive tract within a relatively short time following injury or autotomy. Recently, even though the histological changes and cellular events in the processes of intestinal regeneration have been extensively studied, the molecular machinery behind this faculty remains unclear. In this study, tandem mass tag (TMT)-based quantitation was utilized to investigate protein abundance changes during the process of intestine regeneration.

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Ferroptosis, a kind of programmed cell death, is characterized with iron-dependent lipid ROS buildup, which is considered as an important cellular immunity in resisting intracellular bacterial infection in mammalian macrophages. In this process, lipid ROS oxidizes the bacterial biofilm to inhibit intracellular bacteria. However, the function of ferroptosis in invertebrate remains unknown.

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Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) is a member of TLR family that plays important roles in the innate immune system, such as pathogen recognition and inflammation regulation. In this study, the TLR2 homologue was cloned from razor clam Sinonovacula constricta (denoted as ScTLR2) and its immune function was explored. The full-length cDNA of ScTLR2 comprised 2890 nucleotides with a 5'-UTR of 218 bp, an open reading frame of 2169 bp encoding 722 amino acids and a 3'-UTR of 503 bp.

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Alpha-2-macroglobulin (A2M) is an extracellular macromolecule mainly known for its role as a broad-spectrum protease inhibitor in mammals. However, the immune recognition and regulation mechanisms of A2M in invertebrates are still not well investigated. In the current study, the role of sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus A2M in the regulation of innate immune responses was explored.

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As is well known, apoptosis is an important form of immune response and immune regulation, particularly playing a crucial role in combating microbial infections. Apoptosis-inducing factor 1 (AIF-1) is essential for apoptosis to induce chromatin condensation and DNA fragmentation via a caspase-independent pathway. The nuclear translocation of AIF-1 is a key step in apoptosis but the molecular mechanism is still unclear.

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Takifugu rubripes (T. rubripes) is a valuable commercial fish, and Cryptocaryon irritans (C. irritans) has a significant impact on its aquaculture productivity.

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Article Synopsis
  • m6A-modified circRNA388 was identified in sea cucumber coelomocytes and plays a key role in immune response against Vibrio splendidus by promoting autophagy.
  • Knocking down circRNA388 showed a reduction in V. splendidus, indicating its importance in fighting the infection.
  • The study highlights that the nuclear export of this circRNA relies on the YTHDC1 protein and exportin-1, emphasizing the significance of m6A modification in its function.
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