Publications by authors named "XiaoLu Zhang"

The IMPROVE program (Interagency Monitoring of PROtected Visual Environments) tracks long-term trends in the composition and optics of regional haze aerosols in the United States. The absorptance of red (633-nm) light is monitored by filter photometry of 24 h-integrated samples of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5).

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Background And Aims: Ambiguous understanding of tumors and the tumor microenvironments (TMEs) hinders accurate diagnosis and available treatment for multifocal hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) covering intrahepatic metastasis (IM) and multicentric occurrence (MO). Here, we characterized the diverse TMEs of IM and MO identified by whole-exome sequencing (WES) at single-cell resolution.

Approach And Results: We performed parallel WES and single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) on twenty-three samples from seven patients to profile their TMEs when major results were validated by immunohistochemistry in the additional cohort.

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Macrophages are fundamental cellular components of atherosclerotic plaques, and inhibition of macrophage inflammation can delay the development of atherosclerotic plaques. Sodium danshensu (SDSS) can inhibit inflammatory responses and thus delay atherosclerosis, but the specific mechanism remains unclear. The effect of SDSS in inhibiting atherosclerosis was confirmed by observing and detecting atherosclerotic plaque area, morphology and lipid levels in the aorta.

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  • Relational utility is the concept that emphasizes how valuable another person is to achieving one's personal goals through social interactions, which can affect feelings of guilt when one harms that person.
  • A study by Nelissen (2014) suggested that people experience stronger guilt for hurting someone with high relational utility, but this connection wasn't consistently replicated in newer research, especially regarding the role of regret.
  • The present research aimed to explore the relationship between relational utility, guilt, and regret by conducting two studies, finding a link between relational utility and regret in one study but not in the other, prompting discussions on potential reasons for the differing results.
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Background And Hypothesis: The amygdala, crucial for mood, anxiety, fear, and reward regulation, shows neuroanatomical and molecular divergence in psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression. This region is also emerging as an important regulator of metabolic and immune pathways. The goal of this study is to address the paucity of molecular studies in the human amygdala.

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Proteinase inhibitors constitute a significant component of Lepidoptera cocoon. BmSPI51 is the most abundant protease inhibitors in silkworm cocoons. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the biological function of BmSPI51 in both the silkworm silk gland and cocoon formation.

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Ischemic stroke is currently the second leading cause of mortality worldwide, with limited treatment options available. As resident immune cells, microglia promptly respond to cerebral ischemic injury, influencing neuroinflammatory damage and neurorepair. Studies suggest that microglia undergo metabolic reprogramming from mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation to glycolysis in response to ischemia, significantly impacting their function during ischemic stroke.

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  • The study investigates DNA methylation patterns of specific solute carrier genes linked to epilepsy in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and healthy controls.
  • Results show that TLE patients have significantly lower DNA methylation rates compared to controls, which may help in developing predictive models for TLE.
  • The findings indicate that reduced methylation could potentially lead to increased gene expression in TLE, but further research is needed to clarify the mechanisms involved.
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Omics studies use large-scale high-throughput data to explain changes underlying different traits or conditions. However, omics analysis often results in long lists of pathways that are difficult to interpret. Therefore, it is of interest to describe a tool named PAVER (Pathway Analysis Visualization with Embedding Representations) for large scale genomic analysis.

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Background: Patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) are at an increased risk of developing venous thromboembolic events, including deep vein thrombosis (DVT). To date, the study of DVT in MASH has been hampered by the lack of reliable models that mimic the pathologic aspects of human disease.

Objectives: To evaluate DVT severity and hypercoagulability in murine and human MASH.

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Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a neurodegenerative condition that is clinically prevalent among the elderly. EGB761 is widely recognized for its promising therapeutic properties in both the prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of EGB761 in MCI and the underlying molecular mechanism.

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Background: Multiple studies have shown that tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) promote cancer initiation and progression. However, the reprogramming of macrophages in the tumor microenvironment (TME) and the cross-talk between TAMs and malignant subclones in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) has not been fully characterized, especially in a spatially resolved manner. Deciphering the spatial architecture of variable tissue cellular components in iCCA could contribute to the positional context of gene expression containing information pathological changes and cellular variability.

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In this work, a highly efficient rongalite/iodine-mediated oxime formation reaction for the preparation of thiohydroximic acids from methyl ketones by employing copper nitrate as the [NO] reagent has been developed. Notably, copper nitrate participated as both a catalyst and the mild oximation reagent in the transformation. This reaction is highly efficient and facile, with a broad substrate scope, especially for fused ring skeleton substrates, heterocyclic skeleton substrates, and acetyl-substituted natural products.

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  • Major developmental changes in the hippocampus during the third trimester and neonatal phase include rapid dendritic growth and astrocyte development.
  • The study hypothesized that signals from developing astrocytes influence dendritic development in neurons, and found that neonatal ethanol exposure in mice led to increased dendritic growth.
  • The research revealed that certain gene translations in astrocytes, inhibited by ethanol, regulate chondroitin sulfate glycosaminoglycan (CS-GAG) levels, which in turn affect neuronal dendritic arborization.
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The NOD-like receptor thermal protein domain associated protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome is a key component of the innate immune system that triggers inflammation and pyroptosis and contributes to the development of several diseases. Therefore, blocking the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome has therapeutic potential for the treatment of these diseases. MCC950, a selective small molecule inhibitor, has emerged as a promising candidate for blocking NLRP3 inflammasome activation.

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Ethnopharmacological Relevance: The incidence and mortality of cerebrovascular diseases are increasing year by year. Cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury (CIRI) is common in patients with ischemic stroke. Naoxintong (NXT) is composed of a variety of Chinese medicines and has the ability to treat CIRI.

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Calpain, a key member of the Calpain cysteine protease superfamily, performs limited protein hydrolysis in a calcium-dependent manner. Its activity is tightly regulated due to the potential for non-specific cleavage of various intracellular proteins upon aberrant activation. A thorough review of the literature from 2010 to 2023 reveals 121 references discussing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

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Background: Endometriosis (EMs) is a chronic disease characterized by endometrial-like tissue present outside of the uterus. Macrophages have been confirmed to participate in the development of EMs. Integrin β3 (ITGB3), a β-subunit of the integrin family, is crucial in tumor progression.

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  • * Two primary methods were identified: a common one where pupae are anchored to trees with a silk pad, and a unique method called "pupa contigua" that involves wrapping silk around the pupae, similar to a silk girdle.
  • * The study highlights how the structure and protein sequence of butterfly silk affects its strength, which is inferior to silkworm silk, prompting butterflies to use multiple silk threads for added durability, ensuring the safety of pupae during metamorphosis in challenging weather.
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Background/aim: Uveal melanoma is an ocular malignancy whose prognosis severely worsens following metastasis. In order to improve the understanding of molecular physiology of metastatic uveal melanoma, we identified genes and pathways implicated in metastatic vs non-metastatic uveal melanoma.

Patients And Methods: A previously published dataset from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) was used to identify differentially expressed genes between metastatic and non-metastatic samples as well as to conduct pathway and perturbagen analyses using Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA), EnrichR, and iLINCS.

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Silk is a natural protein fiber that is predominantly comprised of fibroin and sericin. In addition, it contains seroins, protease inhibitors, enzymes, and other proteins. We found an ecdysone oxidase BmGMC2, notably, which is specifically and highly expressed only in the silk glands of silkworms (Bombyx mori L.

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Using Illumina sequencing technology, we generated complete mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) of three constituent species of the aphid genus Koch, (Blanchard), Ghulamullah, and (Geoffroy). The sizes of the mitogenomes range from 15,306 to 15,410 bp, primarily due to variations in the length of non-coding regions. The mitogenomes consist of 37 coding genes arranged in the order of the ancestral insect mitogenome, a control region, and a repeat region between and According to the COI-based analysis, one previously reported mitogenome of should be assigned to .

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Background: Catenin beta 1 (CTNNB1) mutations are one of the most common mutations involved in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progression. However, the association between CTNNB1 mutations and HCC remains controversial.

Methods: Five tumor samples with wild-type CTNNB1 and three tumor samples with CTNNB1 mutations were collected from patients with HCC for whole transcriptome sequencing.

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is a microaerophilic Gram-negative bacterium that resides in the human stomach and is classified as a class I carcinogen for gastric cancer. Numerous studies have demonstrated that infection plays a role in regulating the function of host cells, thereby contributing to the malignant transformation of these cells. However, infection is a chronic process, and short-term cellular experiments may not provide a comprehensive understanding of the situation, especially when considering the lower oxygen levels in the human stomach.

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Purpose: The aim of this study was to describe the longitudinal developmental trajectories and its influencing factors of sexual activity in patients with breast cancer during treatment.

Methods: A prospective longitudinal study was conducted, including 225 newly diagnosed breast cancer patients in A tumor specialty three-class hospital in Southwest China. We measured sexual activity at the time of admission and diagnosis (T) and one month (T), three months (T), six months (T), and nine months (T) after diagnosis.

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