Publications by authors named "Mingcai Zhao"

Purpose: Cervical cancer is a common gynecological malignancy, pathologically associated with persistent infection of high-risk types of human papillomavirus (HPV). Previous studies revealed that HPV-positive cervical cancer displays genomic instability; however, the underlying mechanism is not fully understood.

Methods: To investigate if DNA damage responses are aggravated in precancerous lesions of HPV-positive cervical epithelium, cervical tissues were biopsied and cryosectioned, and subjected to immunofluorescent staining.

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Li-metal and silicon are potential anode materials in all-solid-state Li-ion batteries (ASSBs) due to high specific capacity. However, both materials form gaps at the interface with solid electrolytes (SEs) during charging/discharging, resulting in increased impedance and uneven current density distribution. In this perspective, the different mechanisms of formation of these gaps are elaborated in detail.

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Gout is a common inflammatory disease. The activation of NLRP3 inflammasome induced by monosodium urate (MSU) crystals has a critical role in gout, and its prevention is beneficial for patients. Lipoxin A4 (LXA4) is an endogenous lipoxygenase-derived eicosanoid mediator with powerful anti-inflammatory properties.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates how obesity affects the production of neutralizing antibodies in response to an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, given that obesity is a significant risk factor for COVID-19.
  • A total of 239 healthcare workers participated, with results showing that those with obesity had the highest counts of peripheral monocytes and eosinophils, but the lowest neutralizing antibody titers compared to other weight groups.
  • The findings suggest that obesity may contribute to chronic inflammation and lower vaccine-induced antibody responses, indicating a need for tailored vaccination strategies for obese individuals.
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Malignancies including ovarian cancer (OvCa) are genetically unstable. Genomic integrity is maintained by tumor suppressor p53 and DNA damage response network, which crosstalk to each other via not well characterized mechanisms. In this work, we characterize features of damage-related signals in cultured epithelial OvCa cells and tumor biopsies.

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Air pollution is a critical risk factor for the prevalence of COVID-19. However, few studies have focused on whether air pollution affects the efficacy of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. To better guide the knowledge surrounding this vaccination, we conducted a cross-section study to identify the relationships between air pollutant exposure and plasma neutralizing antibody (NAb) titers of an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (Vero cell, CoronaVac, SINOVΛC, China).

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The commercial applications of silicon nanomaterials as anode in lithium-ion batteries must solve two important problems, namely low expansion and long-term cycle stability. The former is related to nano-silicon structure, while the latter depends on silicon/carbon composite structure and preparation process. In order to suppress volume expansion appeared during lithiation, this paper selects a kind of silicon nanoparticles (SiNPs) with a high degree of amorphization (81.

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This work aims to prepare the silicon nanoparticles with the nanocrystal-embedded amorphous structure through spark erosion followed by bead milling. Spark erosion breaks up monocrystal silicon ingots into micro/nanoparticles, refines the crystal grains, makes the crystals randomly disordered, and increases isotropic character. Bead milling further refines the crystal grains to a few nanometers and increases the amorphous portion in the structure, eventually forming an amorphous structure with the nanocrystals embedded.

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Impairment of genome instability drives the development of cancer by disrupting anti-cancer barriers. Upon genotoxic insults, DNA damage responsive factors, notably ATM kinase, is crucial to protect genomic integrity while promoting cell death. Meanwhile, cytotoxic therapy-inducing DNA lesions is double-edged sword by causing cancer metastasis based on animal models and clinical observations.

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LipoxinA4 (LXA4) is a well-known key mediator of endogenous anti-inflammation and of the resolution of inflammation. Considerable oxidative stress occurs during inflammation due to the generation of reactive oxidative species (ROS). Moreover, high levels of uric acid (UA) contribute to endothelial cell dysfunction, which can promote disease-related morbidity, and NADPH oxidase-derived ROS are crucial regulatory factors in these responses.

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The present study aimed to examine the expression of hyperuricemia (HUA)-related factors in the body fluids of HUA patients and in renal tissues and body fluids of HUA mice to elucidate the underlying mechanism of HUA and provide theoretical basis for the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of this disease. A total of 51 HUA patients (HUA group), and 36 healthy subjects (control group) were included in the present study. The peripheral blood and urine were collected from all patients and healthy subjects.

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The average age of hyperuricemia patients has gradually decreased, but young patients with primary hyperuricemia often do not exhibit clinical symptoms and have not received sufficient attention. However, a lack of symptoms with primary hyperuricemia does not mean that high serum uric acid (UA) levels cannot lead to pathological effects, such as oxidative stress and inflammation, and the specific damage is still unclear. We aimed to determine the relationship between oxidative stress and inflammation to explore the possible role of pathological damage in asymptomatic young patients with primary hyperuricemia.

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Background: Ovarian cancer is one of the most deadly gynecological malignancies and inclined to recurrence and drug resistance. Previous studies showed that the tumorigenesis of ovarian cancers and their major histotypes are associated with genomic instability caused by defined sets of pathogenic mutations. In contrast, the mechanism that influences the development of drug resistance and disease recurrence is not well elucidated.

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Gouty arthritis is the most common type of inflammatory and immune disease, and the prevalence and incidence of gout increases annually. Genetic variations in the DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) gene have not, to the best of our knowledge, been reported to influence gene expression and to participate in the pathogenesis of gout. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the , and polymorphisms contribute to gout susceptibility.

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Acute gouty arthritis (AGA) is an auto-inflammatory disease characterized by resolving spontaneously, which suggests that negative feedback loops control inflammatory and immunological responses to monosodium urate (MSU) crystals. By now, the molecular mechanism for spontaneous resolution of acute GA remains unclear; this study was undertaken to evaluate whether IL-37 is involved in spontaneous resolution of AGA. A total of 45 acute GA (AGA),29 non-acute GA (NAGA) male patients and 82 male health control (HC) were involved in this study, we measured IL-7 expression in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), together with levels of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α and TGF-β1 in the serum.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to investigate the expression of the PYCARD gene and its mRNA variants in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from patients with primary gout compared to healthy controls.
  • Results showed significantly higher levels of PYCARD gene and mRNA variants in both acute and non-acute gout patients compared to healthy individuals, with specific increases also noted in the non-acute group.
  • The findings suggest that abnormal expression of the PYCARD gene and its variants may contribute to the inflammatory response in primary gout patients.
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Glut9 is highly expressed in the human kidney proximal convoluted tubular and plays a crucial role in the regulation of plasma urate levels. The gene effects were stronger among women. Our results show that 17-β-estradiol (E2) through ER (estrogen receptor) β downregulates Glut9 protein expression on human renal tubular epithelial cell line (HK2).

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Objectives: Individual genetic association studies examining the relationship between the ABCG2 gene polymorphisms and gout have yielded inconsistent results. This study aims to evaluate the association between the ABCG2 gene variants and gout using meta-analysis.

Materials And Methods: Relevant studies were identified by searching databases extensively.

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Objective: To investigate the effects of Danshen Injection (DSI) on the proliferation of rheumatoid arthritis fibroblast-like synoviocytes (RA FLSs) cultured in RA patients' serum.

Methods: The RA FLSs harvested from RA patients' synovial fluid were primarily cultured by routines. The cells were cultured with 10% inactivated human serum (the healthy human serum and the RA patients' serum) for 24 h.

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We undertook this study to determine whether the altered expression of telomeric proteins TPP1 and POT1 in fibroblast-like synovial cells (FLS) could provide insights into the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). FLS were isolated from patients with RA, osteoarthritis (OA) and traumatic joint disease, and cultured in vitro. TPP1 and POT1 mRNA level of FLS were measured using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) in 42 RA, 23 OA and 13 healthy cases.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to explore the role of the invA gene in the pathogenicity of Leptospira by creating a recombinant vector and introducing it into L. biflexa.
  • The invA gene was successfully cloned into a shuttle vector, and after electroporation into the L. biflexa strain Patoc I, suitable mutants were identified through PCR.
  • The findings suggest that the generated recombinant L. biflexa strain can serve as a model for further research into the pathogenic functions of invA in living organisms.
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This study was conducted to amplify the cfpl0-esat6 fusion gene by SOE and insert into the integrating shuttle plasmid pMV361 to form the recombinant plasmid. Then another recombinant plasmid was constructed by insertinga-A g signal sequence of BCG. The two recombinant plasmids were introduced into BCG and the induced products from recombinant BCG were analyzed.

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Objective: To express a recombinant fusion protein CFP10-ESAT6 of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and obtain the polyclonal antibodies of this fusion protein by immune rabbit.

Methods: The 630 bp cfpl0-esat6 fusion gene fragments were amplified from the genomic DNA of a Mycobacterium tuberculosis reference strain H37Rv and inserted into the expression plasmid pET32a (+) to generate the recombinant plasmid pET-cfp10-esat6. The recombinat expression plasmid was transformed into E.

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Objective: To construct a prokaryotic expression vector bearing Rv2994 gene from Mycobacterium tuberculosis and provide materials for investigating the function of the gene.

Methods: The Rv2994 gene was amplified by Polymerase Chain Reaction from Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv strain and cloned into prokaryotic expression vector pGEX-1lamdaXT. The recombinant plasmid pGEX-2994 was sequenced and transformed into E.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to enhance the expression of a virulent outer membrane protein, OmpL17, from Leptospira interrogans serovar Lai and test its immunogenicity in rabbits.
  • The OmpL17 protein was cloned into a bacterial expression vector, leading to its successful expression and purification.
  • High levels of specific antibodies against OmpL17 were generated in rabbits, laying the groundwork for further research into the protein's role in disease and immune response.
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