Fecal microbiota transplantation alleviates cognitive impairment by improving gut microbiome composition and barrier function in male rats of traumatic brain injury following gas explosion.

Background: Dysbiosis of gut microbiota (GM) is intricately linked with cognitive impairment and the incidence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in both animal models and human subjects. However, there is limited understanding of the impact and mechanisms of fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) on brain and gut barrier function in the treatment of TBI induced by gas explosion (GE).

Methods: We have employed FMT technology to establish models of gut microbiota dysbiosis in male rats, and subsequently conducted non-targeted metabolomics and microbiota diversity analysis to explore the bacteria with potential functional roles.

Mitochondrial dysfunction induced by ambient fine particulate matter and potential mechanisms.

Air pollution is one of the major environmental threats contributing to the global burden of disease. Among diverse air pollutants, fine particulate matter (PM) poses a significant adverse health impact and causes multi-system damage. As a highly dynamic organelle, mitochondria are essential for cellular energy metabolism and vital for cellular homeostasis and body fitness.

Activation of Sirtuin3 by honokiol ameliorates alveolar epithelial cell senescence in experimental silicosis via the cGAS-STING pathway.

Background: Silicosis, characterized by interstitial lung inflammation and fibrosis, poses a significant health threat. ATII cells play a crucial role in alveolar epithelial repair and structural integrity maintenance. Inhibiting ATII cell senescence has shown promise in silicosis treatment.

Enrichment of prime-edited mammalian cells with surrogate Puro reporters.

Prime editing is a programmable genetic method that can precisely generate any desired small-scale variations in cells without requiring double-strand breaks and DNA donors. However, higher editing efficiency is greatly desirable for wide practical applications. In this study, we developed a target-specific prime editing reporter (tsPER) and a universal prime editing reporter (UPER) to facilitate rapid selection of desired edited cells through puromycin screening.

Time series analysis-based seasonal autoregressive fractionally integrated moving average to estimate hepatitis B and C epidemics in China.

Background: Hepatitis B (HB) and hepatitis C (HC) place the largest burden in China, and a goal of eliminating them as a major public health threat by 2030 has been set. Making more informed and accurate forecasts of their spread is essential for developing effective strategies, heightening the requirement for early warning to deal with such a major public health threat.

Aim: To monitor HB and HC epidemics by the design of a paradigmatic seasonal autoregressive fractionally integrated moving average (SARFIMA) for projections into 2030, and to compare the effectiveness with the seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA).

Low Expression of Lipoic Acid Synthase Aggravates Silica-Induced Pulmonary Fibrosis by Inhibiting the Differentiation of Tregs in Mice.

In addition to reducing the respiratory function, crystalline silica (SiO) disturbs the immune response by affecting immune cells during the progression of silicosis. Regulatory T cell (Treg) differentiation may play a key role in the abnormal polarization of T helper cell (Th)1 and Th2 cells in the development of silicosis-induced fibrosis. Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) has immunomodulatory effects by promoting Tregs differentiation.

Curcumin alleviates traumatic brain injury induced by gas explosion through modulating gut microbiota and suppressing the LPS/TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB pathway.

Gas explosions (GE) are a prevalent and widespread cause of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in coal miners. However, the impact and mechanism of curcumin on GE-induced TBI in rats remain unclear. In this study, we simulated GE-induced TBI in rats and administered curcumin orally at a dose of 100 mg/kg every other day for 7 days to modulate the gut microbiota in TBI rats.

Facile fabrication of 3D hollow porous aminopyridine rings decorated polymeric carbon nitride for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution and dye elimination.

In consideration of energy shortages and environmental pollution, there is a critical need to develop a photocatalyst with high catalytic performance for rapid hydrogen production and efficient pollutant degradation. We synthesized a photocatalytic composite catalyst with three-dimensional (3D) porous aminopyridine rings grafted on the edge of g-CN (APCN) using melamine, cyanuric acid and 4-aminopyridine as raw materials. The composite catalyst exhibited excellent photocatalytic performance for H production (2.

Protective effects of curcumin against thyroid hormone imbalance after gas explosion-induced traumatic brain injury via activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis in male rats.

Gas explosion (GE)-induced traumatic brain injury (TBI) can affect thyroid hormone (TH) homeostasis in miners. This study evaluated the effects of hepatic transthyretin and hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis on thyroids and explored the protective effect and mechanism of curcumin on GE-induced TBI. Thirty rats were randomly divided into three groups (10 per group): first group (control group)-rats received GE treatment once; second group (GE group)-rats received GE treatment (200 m from the source of the explosion once); third group (GE + Cur group)-rats received curcumin (Cur) by lavage at a dose of 100 mg/kg/day once every other day for 7 days after receiving GE.

Estimating the Effects of the COVID-19 Outbreak on the Reductions in Tuberculosis Cases and the Epidemiological Trends in China: A Causal Impact Analysis.

Objective: COVID-19 may have a demonstrable influence on disease patterns. However, it remained unknown how tuberculosis (TB) epidemics are impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. The purposes of this study are to evaluate the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on the decreases in the TB case notifications and to forecast the epidemiological trends in China.

Estimating the Long-Term Epidemiological Trends and Seasonality of Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome in China.

Objective: We aim to examine the adequacy of an innovation state-space modeling framework (called TBATS) in forecasting the long-term epidemic seasonality and trends of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS).

Methods: The HFRS morbidity data from January 1995 to December 2020 were taken, and subsequently, the data were split into six different training and testing segments (including 12, 24, 36, 60, 84, and 108 holdout monthly data) to investigate its predictive ability of the TBATS method, and its forecasting performance was compared with the seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA).

Results: The TBATS (0.

Time Series Analysis and Forecasting of the Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease Morbidity in China Using An Advanced Exponential Smoothing State Space TBATS Model.

Objective: The high morbidity, complex seasonality, and recurring risk of hand-foot-and-mouth disease (HFMD) exert a major burden in China. Forecasting its epidemic trends is greatly instrumental in informing vaccine and targeted interventions. This study sets out to investigate the usefulness of an advanced exponential smoothing state space framework by combining Box-Cox transformations, Fourier representations with time-varying coefficients and autoregressive moving average (ARMA) error correction (TBATS) method to assess the temporal trends of HFMD in China.

Preclinical and clinical studies of smoke-inhalation-induced acute lung injury: update on both pathogenesis and innovative therapy.

Smoke-inhalation-induced acute lung injury (SI-ALI) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in victims of fire tragedies. SI-ALI contributes to an estimated 30% of burn-caused patient deaths, and recently, more attention has been paid to the specific interventions for this devastating respiratory illness. In the last decade, much progress has been made in the understanding of SI-ALI patho-mechanisms and in the development of new therapeutic strategies in both preclinical and clinical studies.

Efficient SSA-mediated precise genome editing using CRISPR/Cas9.

CRISPR/Cas9 has been emerging as a main player in genome editing field since its advent. However, CRISPR/Cas9-induced precise gene editing remains challenging since it requires no scar left after editing. Among the few reports regarding two-step 'pop in & out' technologies for precise gene editing, the combination of CRISPR/Cas9 with Cre/LoxP demonstrates a higher efficiency, but leaves behind a 34-base pair of tag sequence due to its inherent property.

Gene editing as a promising approach for respiratory diseases.

Respiratory diseases, which are leading causes of mortality and morbidity in the world, are dysfunctions of the nasopharynx, the trachea, the bronchus, the lung and the pleural cavity. Symptoms of chronic respiratory diseases, such as cough, sneezing and difficulty breathing, may seriously affect the productivity, sleep quality and physical and mental well-being of patients, and patients with acute respiratory diseases may have difficulty breathing, anoxia and even life-threatening respiratory failure. Respiratory diseases are generally heterogeneous, with multifaceted causes including smoking, ageing, air pollution, infection and gene mutations.

Enhancing CRISPR/Cas9-mediated homology-directed repair in mammalian cells by expressing Saccharomyces cerevisiae Rad52.

Precise genome editing with desired point mutations can be generated by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated homology-directed repair (HDR) and is of great significance for gene function study, gene therapy and animal breeding. However, HDR efficiency is inherently low and improvements are necessitated. Herein, we determined that the HDR efficiency could be enhanced by expressing Rad52, a gene that is involved in the homologous recombination process.

Efficient Genome Editing in Chicken DF-1 Cells Using the CRISPR/Cas9 System.

In recent years, genome engineering technology has provided unprecedented opportunities for site-specific modification of biological genomes. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated (Cas) 9 is one such means that can target a specific genome locus. It has been applied in human cells and many other organisms.

[Research progress in developing reporter systems for the enrichment of positive cells with targeted genome modification].

Targeted genome editing technology plays an important role in studies of gene function, gene therapy and transgenic breeding. Moreover, the efficiency of targeted genome editing is increased dramatically with the application of recently developed artificial nucleases such as ZFNs, TALENs and CRISPR/Cas9. However, obtaining positive cells with targeted genome modification is restricted to some extent by nucleases expression plasmid transfection efficiency, nucleases expression and activity, and repair efficiency after genome editing.

Recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae serves as novel carrier for oral DNA vaccines in Carassius auratus.

Oral delivery of DNA vaccines represents a promising vaccinating method for fish. Recombinant yeast has been proved to be a safe carrier for delivering antigen proteins and DNAs to some species in vivo. However, whether recombinant yeast can be used to deliver functional DNAs for vaccination to fish is still unknown.

Molecular cloning and SNP association analysis of chicken PMCH gene.

The pre-melanin-concentrating hormone (PMCH) gene is an important gene functionally concerning the regulations of body fat content, feeding behavior and energy balance. In this study, the full-length cDNA of chicken PMCH gene was amplified by SMART RACE method. The single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the PMCH gene were screened by comparative sequence analysis.

Polymorphisms of the pro-opiomelanocortin and agouti-related protein genes and their association with chicken production traits.

Pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) and agouti-related protein (AGRP) are hypothalamic neuropeptides that play a central role in the regulation of food intake and energy expenditure and for this reason the variations in the POMC and AGRP genes in chicken were examined by screening the DNA pools. Two silent cSNPs mutations in POMC gene and one silent cSNP mutation in AGRP gene were identified. PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) was used to test the cSNPs c.

Novel SNPs in the PRDM16 gene and their associations with performance traits in chickens.

The PR domain containing 16 (PRDM16) is a member of the Prdm family, and is known to regulate cell differentiation. In the present study, DNA pool sequencing methods were employed to screen genetic variations in the chicken PRDM16 gene. The results revealed four novel single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs): NC_006108.