The Circular RNA circSKA3 Facilitates the Malignant Biological Behaviors of Medulloblastoma via miR-520 h/CDK6 Pathway.

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are reported to participate in the development of diverse human malignancies. This work investigated the mechanism of circSKA3 in modulating medulloblastoma progression. A total of 15 cases of medulloblastoma were collected in this work.

Charged Tubular Supramolecule Boosting Multivalent Interactions for the Drastic Suppression of Aβ Fibrillation.

Anti-Aβ therapy has dominated clinical trials for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, suppressing Aβ aggregation and disintegrating mature fibrils simultaneously remains a great challenge. In this work, we developed a new strategy using a charged tubular supramolecule (CTS) with pillar[5]arene as the backbone and modifying amino and carboxyl groups at the tubular terminals (noted as CTS-A, CTS-A/C, and CTS-C, respectively) to suppress Aβ fibrillation for the first time.

Voltage-Driven Flipping of Zwitterionic Artificial Channels in Lipid Bilayers to Rectify Ion Transport.

We developed a voltage-sensitive artificial transmembrane channel by mimicking the dipolar structure of natural alamethicin channel. The artificial channel featured a zwitterionic structure and could undergo voltage-driven flipping in the lipid bilayers. Importantly, this flipping of the channel could lead to their directional alignment in the bilayers and rectifying behavior for ion transport.

Spreading predictability in complex networks.

Many state-of-the-art researches focus on predicting infection scale or threshold in infectious diseases or rumor and give the vaccination strategies correspondingly. In these works, most of them assume that the infection probability and initially infected individuals are known at the very beginning. Generally, infectious diseases or rumor has been spreading for some time when it is noticed.

Network pharmacology study on the mechanism of the herb pair of prepared Rehmannia root-Chinese arborvitae kernel for anxiety disorders.

Background: Although anxiety disorders are one of the most common mental illness in population, antianxiety drugs often only have single action targets, require long-term use, and are associated with many adverse reactions and dependencies. Professor Yan Zhaojun from Shandong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has applied the modified Renshu Powder, a TCM formula, to treat anxiety disorders, with satisfactory outcomes. Here, we investigated the mechanism of action of two core herbs (prepared Rehmannia root and Chinese arborvitae kernel) in the Renshu Powder in the treatment of anxiety disorders by using network pharmacology approaches.

Utilizing network pharmacology to explore the underlying mechanism of Qiangzhi decoction in treating Tourette's syndrome.

Background: Tourette's syndrome (TS) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by multiple motor and vocal tics. Qiangzhi decoction (QD), a well-known herbal decoction, has been used in treating TS in China for decades. We have found relevance between the indications of QD and the classic symptoms of TS.

Artificial Aquaporin That Restores Wound Healing of Impaired Cells.

Artificial aquaporins are synthetic molecules that mimic the structure and function of natural aquaporins (AQPs) in cell membranes. The development of artificial aquaporins would provide an alternative strategy for treatment of AQP-related diseases. In this report, an artificial aquaporin has been constructed from an amino-terminated tubular molecule, which operates in a unimolecular mechanism.

Clinical Characteristics and Blood Test Results in COVID-19 Patients.

Objective: An outbreak of pneumonia named COVID-19 caused by a novel coronavirus in Wuhan is rapidly spreading worldwide. The objective of the present study was to clarify further the clinical characteristics and blood parameters in COVID-19 patients.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-three suspected patients and 64 patients with laboratory-confirmed SARS-Cov-2 infection were admitted to a designated hospital.

Identifying critical edges in complex networks.

The critical edges in complex networks are extraordinary edges which play more significant role than other edges on the structure and function of networks. The research on identifying critical edges in complex networks has attracted much attention because of its theoretical significance as well as wide range of applications. Considering the topological structure of networks and the ability to disseminate information, an edge ranking algorithm BCC based on cliques and paths in networks is proposed in this report.

Verapamil suppresses cardiac alternans and ventricular arrhythmias in acute myocardial ischemia via ryanodine receptor inhibition.

T-wave alternans (TWA) is a potent arrhythmia substrate under the conditions of acute myocardial ischemia. Abnormal intracellular calcium cycling contributes to the genesis of cardiac alternans. Ryanodine receptor (RyR) is a pivotal Ca cycling protein central to Ca signaling in the heart.

KN-93, A CaMKII inhibitor, suppresses ventricular arrhythmia induced by LQT2 without decreasing TDR.

Abnormal enhanced transmural dispersion of repolarization (TDR) plays an important role in the maintaining of the severe ventricular arrhythmias such as torsades de pointes (TDP) which can be induced in long-QT (LQT) syndrome. Taking advantage of an in vitro rabbit model of LQT2, we detected the effects of KN-93, a CaM-dependent kinase (CaMK) II inhibitor on repolarization heterogeneity of ventricular myocardium. Using the monophasic action potential recording technique, the action potentials of epicardium and endocardium were recorded in rabbit cardiac wedge infused with hypokalemic, hypomagnesaemic Tyrode's solution.

[Effect of ERK/AP-1 signaling pathway on proliferation of hepatoma cells induced by PAR-2 agonists].

Objective: To investigate the expression of protease activated receptor-2 (PAR-2) in human HepG2 hepatoma cells and elucidate the effects of trypsin and PAR-2 agonist peptide SLIGKV-NH(2) upon the proliferation of hepatoma cells and its intracellular signaling mechanism.

Methods: PAR-2 protein and mRNA expression were detected by immunofluorescence and RT-PCR. The cells were treated with SLIGKV-NH(2), trypsin, reverse PAR-2 agonist peptide VKGILS-NH(2) or PD98059.

Brief report: How do they manage social interaction? The influence of concealing academic achievement information on self-monitoring by adolescents with low achievement.

During social interactions people self-monitor their behavior at least partially to conceal socially devalued characteristics. This study examined the influences of concealing academic achievement on self-monitoring in an academically-relevant social interaction. An interview paradigm called for school-aged adolescent participants (total N=86) who either did or did not have low (academic) achievement to play the role of someone who did or did not have low achievement while answering academically-relevant questions.

Adolescents' cognition of projectile motion: a pilot study.

Previous work on the development of intuitive knowledge about projectile motion has shown a dissociation between action knowledge expressed on an action task and conceptual knowledge expressed on a judgment task for young children. The research investigated the generality of dissociation for adolescents. On the action task, participants were asked to swing Ball A of a bifilar pendulum to some height then release it to collide with Ball B, which was projected to hit a target.

[Effect of matrine and oxymatrine on proliferation and expression of Stat3 and Stat5 in SMMC-7721 cell line].

Objective: To study the effect of matrine and oxymatrine on proliferation and the expression of Stat3, Stat5 mRNA in SMMC-7721 cell line.

Method: Treated with matrine and oxymatrine, the inhibitory effect on SMMC-7721 cell proliferation was detected by MTT, double fluorescence labeling was applied to measure the apotosis ratios of SMMC-7721cells, the expression of Stat3 and Stat5 mRNA in SMMC-7721 cell line were assessed with RT-PCR.

Result: Matrine and oxymatrine could inhibit the proliferation and induce the apoptosis of SMMC-7721 cells and it was time and dose dependent, the expression of Stat3 and Stat5 mRNA in SMMC-7721 cell with matrine and oxymatrine were significantly lower than those in control group (P<0.