Osteocalcin inhibits myocyte aging through promotion of starvation-induced autophagy via IL-6/STAT3 signaling.

This study aimed to investigate the effects and mechanisms of osteocalcin on autophagy in myoblasts, as well as its possible therapeutic effects in aging muscle. Starved murine myoblast C2C12 cells with or without interleukin (IL)-6 siRNA were treated with osteocalcin. Expression of the autophagy protein marker LC3, as well as IL-6 and phosphorylated STAT3 were detected by immunoblotting, immunofluorescence, or immunohistochemistry.

Depressive Symptoms and Cognitive Decline Among Chinese Rural Elderly Individuals: A Longitudinal Study With 2-Year Follow-Up.

Background: Depressive symptoms and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are highly prevalent in rural China. The study aimed to investigate the longitudinal associations between changes in depressive symptoms and cognitive decline and MCI incidence among Chinese rural elderly individuals.

Methods: A 2-year follow-up study was conducted among 1,477 participants from the Anhui Healthy Longevity Survey (AHLS).

Chest CT features associated with the clinical characteristics of patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.

Objectives: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has rapidly swept across the world. This study aimed to explore the relationship between the chest CT findings and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients.

Methods: Patients with COVID-19 confirmed by next-generation sequencing or RT-PCR who had undergone more than 4 serial chest CT procedures were retrospectively enrolled.

Analysis of epidemiological trends in chronic diseases of Chinese residents.

Following the population aging in China, dramatic changes have been observed in the spectrum of diseases among Chinese residents. E.g.

Upregulated β-arrestin1 predicts poor prognosis and promotes metastasis via AKT/ERK signaling pathway in gastric cancer.

Background: β-Arrestins have been found to regulate cell proliferation, invasion and migration; transmit anti-apoptotic survival signals; and affect other characteristics of tumours. However, their role in gastric cancer (GC) is not clear. We investigated the role and mechanism of β-arrestins in the regulation of GC.

The Wnt3a/β-catenin/TCF7L2 signaling axis reduces the sensitivity of HER2-positive epithelial ovarian cancer to trastuzumab.

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is one of the most common and lethal gynecological cancers. Novel therapeutic agents have been developed for EOC, but patient survival remains poor. Trastuzumab has been approved for breast and gastric cancers with high expression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), but it has not achieved any clinical success in EOC.

Intrinsically altered lung-resident γδT cells control lung melanoma by producing interleukin-17A in the elderly.

Cancer is an age-associated disease, potentially related to the altered immune system of elderly individuals. However, cancer has gradually decreased incidence in the eldest globally such as the most common lung cancer, the mechanisms of which remain to be elucidated. In this study, it was found that the number of lung-resident γδT cells was significantly increased with altered gene expression in aged mice (20-24 months) versus young mice (10-16 weeks).

The association between weight fluctuation and all-cause mortality: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Many observational studies have reported an association between weight fluctuation and all-cause mortality. However, the conclusions obtained from these studies have been unclear.

Objective: The current meta-analysis aimed to clarify the association between weight fluctuation and all-cause mortality.

MiR-92a antagonized the facilitation effect of extracellular matrix protein 1 in GC metastasis through targeting its 3'UTR region.

MicroRNAs were known to play very important roles in human diseases, and have attracted great interests of research scientists in medicine, toxicology and functional foods. Gastric carcinoma (GC) remains one of the most common and lethal types of malignancy worldwide. However, the molecular mechanism of GC and the role of microRNAs in GC development remain unclear.

Dendritic cell-targeted CD40 DNA vaccine suppresses Th17 and ameliorates progression of experimental autoimmune glomerulonephritis.

The CD40-CD40L costimulatory pathway is critical for T cell activation in autoimmune disease. We have previously found that blocking the CD40-CD40L pathway using a dendritic cell-targeted CD40 DNA (DEC-CD40) vaccine prevented the development of Heymann nephritis. In this study, we explored the effect of a DEC-CD40 vaccine in the treatment of experimental autoimmune glomerulonephritis (EAG), an animal model of human Goodpasture's disease induced by antigen α3IV-NC1.

Paraoxonase 3 is involved in the multi-drug resistance of esophageal cancer.

Background: Drug resistance prevents the effective treatment of cancers. DNA methylation has been found to participate in the development of cancer drug resistance.

Methods: We performed the wound-healing and invasion assays to test the effect of the paraoxonase gene PON3 on esophageal cancer (EC) cells.

Glycemic reduction alters white blood cell counts and inflammatory gene expression in diabetes.

Objective: Systemic inflammation contributes to cardiovascular disease in patients with type 2 diabetes, and elevated white blood cell (WBC) counts are an established risk factor. Our goal is to describe changes in WBCs and inflammatory markers after glycemic reductions in diabetes.

Research Design And Methods: This study enrolled 63 subjects with poorly controlled diabetes, defined as hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) ≥8% [64 mmol/mol].

Clinicopathological and prognostic significance of circulating tumor cells in patients with lung cancer: a meta-analysis.

Background: The prognostic significance of circulating tumor cells in patients with lung cancer is controversial. Therefore, we aimed to comprehensively and quantitatively assess the prognostic role of CTCs in patients with lung cancer.

Methods: The relevant literature was searched using PubMed, the Cochrane database and the China National Knowledge Internet database (up to June 2016).

Analysis of serum undercarboxylated osteocalcin level in rats with type 2 diabetes mellitus and the correlation with cognitive impairment.

The aim of the study was to investigate the correlation between the serum undercarboxylated osteocalcin (ucOC) level and the blood biochemistry and cognitive impairment in rats with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into the normal control group (NC) and type 2 DM group. DM group received the high-fat and high-sugar diet combined with the intraperitoneal injection of low-dose STZ to establish the type 2 DM rat model.

A Risk Factor Analysis of Cognitive Impairment in Elderly Patients with Chronic Diseases in a Chinese Population.

BACKGROUND This study analyzed the risk factors of cognitive impairment (CI) in elderly patients with chronic diseases. MATERIAL AND METHODS In total of 385 elderly patients with chronic diseases were selected and assigned into CI and normal groups. The activities of daily living (ADL), global deterioration scale (GDS), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale (MoCA), patient-generated subjective global assessment (PG-SGA), and mini nutritional assessment (MNA) were performed to analyze the differences between the 2 groups.

Commensal microbiota maintains alveolar macrophages with a low level of CCL24 production to generate anti-metastatic tumor activity.

Microbiota maintains host tissue homeostasis and influences tissue-resident macrophages. However, the mechanisms by which commensal bacteria in regulating the alveolar macrophages remain unclear. Here, by using an antibiotic-treated (Abt) mouse model, we found commensal bacteria depletion induced lower frequencies and numbers of alveolar macrophages.

Lung-resident γδ T cells and their roles in lung diseases.

γδ T cells are greatly enriched in mucosal and epithelial sites, such as the skin, respiratory, digestive and reproductive tracts, and they are defined as tissue-resident immune cells. In these tissues, the characteristics and biological roles of γδ T cells are distinguished from each other. The lungs represent the most challenging immunological dilemma for the host, and they have their own effective immune system.

Relationship between epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) overexpression and gastric cancer patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objectives: The epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) is one of the most commonly used markers of cancer stem cells (CSCs), but the clinical and prognostic significance of EpCAM in gastric cancer (GC) remains disputable. Motivated by heterogeneous and inconclusive results, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to systematically summarize and elucidate the association between EpCAM overexpression and GC patients.

Methods: The PubMed, Cochrane Library, Medline, Web of Knowledge and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases were searched to identify relevant studies.

MiR-20a-5p promotes radio-resistance by targeting Rab27B in nasopharyngeal cancer cells.

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) was reported to be involved in cancer radio-resistance, which remains a major obstacle for effective cancer therapy.

Methods: The differently expressed miRNAs were detected by RNA-seq experiment in nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) cells. MiR-20a-5p was selected as our target, which was subject to finding its target gene Rab27B via bioinformatics analysis.

Tumor suppressor genes and their underlying interactions in paclitaxel resistance in cancer therapy.

Objectives: Paclitaxel (PTX) is frequently used in the clinical treatment of solid tumors. But the PTX-resistance is a great obstacle in cancer treatment. Exploration of the mechanisms of drug resistance suggests that tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) play a key role in the response of chemotherapeutic drugs.

Clinical practice guidelines for hypertension in China: a systematic review of the methodological quality.

Objective: Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) provide clinicians with specific recommendations for practice, but due to the increasing number of CPGs developed by diverse organisations over the past few years, there are concerns about the quality of some CPGs. This paper proposes a systematic review of the methodological quality of the CPGs for hypertension that were developed in China.

Design: A systematic review of CPGs for the management of hypertension in adult patients in China.

Cardiomyocyte-specific loss of diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1 (DGAT1) reproduces the abnormalities in lipids found in severe heart failure.

Diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1 (DGAT1) catalyzes the final step in triglyceride synthesis, the conversion of diacylglycerol (DAG) to triglyceride. Dgat1(-/-) mice exhibit a number of beneficial metabolic effects including reduced obesity and improved insulin sensitivity and no known cardiac dysfunction. In contrast, failing human hearts have severely reduced DGAT1 expression associated with accumulation of DAGs and ceramides.

Systematic review of hypertension clinical practice guidelines based on the burden of disease: a global perspective.

Objective: To perform a systematic review for the development, geographical distribution, and subject classification of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for hypertension worldwide.

Methods: CPGs for the management of hypertension were identified through the searching of Ovid, EMbase, and Chinese electronic databases. Major guidelines websites such as NGC (National Guideline Clearinghouse), GIN (Guidelines International Network), NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) and CPGN (Clinical Practice Guideline Network), as well as Google Scholar were also screened for additional information.