Effects of Contact Surface Shape on Dynamic Lifetime and Strength of Molecular Bond Clusters under Displacement- and Force-Controlled Loading Conditions.

Many experimental and theoretical studies have shown that the mechanical properties of cells and the extracellular matrix can significantly affect the lifetime and strength of the adhesion clusters of molecular bonds. However, there are few studies on how the shape of the contact surface affects the lifetime and strength of the adhesion clusters of molecular bonds, especially theoretical studies in this area. An idealized model of focal adhesion is adopted, in which two rigid media are bonded together by an array of receptor-ligand bonds modeled as Hookean springs on a complex surface topography, which is described by three parameters: the surface shape factor β, the length of a single identical surface shape , and the amplitude of surface shapes .

Pachymic acid protects hepatic cells against oxygen-glucose deprivation/reperfusion injury by activating sirtuin 1 to inhibit HMGB1 acetylation and inflammatory signaling.

Ischemia-reperfusion injury is an important cause of liver injury occurring during liver transplantation. It is usually caused by inflammatory response and oxidative stress-induced oxidative damage. Pachymic acid (PA) has various biological activities such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-cancer.

Effect of Matrix Metalloproteinase 23 Accelerating Wound Healing Induced by Hydroxybutyl Chitosan.

Skin wounds may cause severe financial and social burden due to the difficulties in wound healing. Original inert dressings cannot meet multiple needs in the process of wound healing. Therefore, the development of materials to accelerate healing progress is essential and urgent.

MRI-based machine learning model: A potential modality for predicting cognitive dysfunction in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a crucial risk factor for cognitive impairment. Accurate assessment of patients' cognitive function and early intervention is helpful to improve patient's quality of life. At present, neuropsychiatric screening tests is often used to perform this task in clinical practice.

Circulating tumour cell combined with DNA methylation for early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma.

The inadequate early detection strategies makes hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with poor prognisis. Therefore, more effective detection methods are urgently needed for early detection and early intervention of HCC. 17 cases of suspected HCC patients and 11 cases of HBV-related decompensated cirrhosis (HBV-DeCi) patients were enrolled.

Identification of CFHR4 associated with poor prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most leading causes of cancer death worldwide. The 5-year survival rate of HCC patients remains low due to the lack of early-stage symptoms. Human complement factor H-related protein 4 (CFHR4) is a critical gene that belongs to the factor H family of plasma glycoproteins, which has not been linked to HCC development.

Metformin Regulates Alveolar Macrophage Polarization to Protect Against Acute Lung Injury in Rats Caused by Paraquat Poisoning.

This study explored the role of metformin (MET) in regulating the polarization of alveolar macrophages to protect against acute lung injury (ALI) in rats caused by paraquat (PQ) poisoning. The studies showed that the 35 mg/kg dose of MET increased the survival rate of rats, alleviated pathological damages to the lungs and their systemic inflammation, promoted the reduction of the pro-inflammatory factors interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) levels, and increased the anti-inflammatory factor IL-10 levels in the rat serum. At the same time, the MET intervention decreased the expression of M1 macrophage marker iNOS in the lungs of the PQ-poisoned rats while increasing the M2 macrophage marker, Arg1, expression.

IL-36γ and IL-36Ra Reciprocally Regulate Colon Inflammation and Tumorigenesis by Modulating the Cell-Matrix Adhesion Network and Wnt Signaling.

Inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer are associated with dysregulation of cytokine networks. However, it is challenging to target cytokines for effective intervention because of the overlapping functions and unpredictable interactions of cytokines in such diverse networks. Here, it is shown that IL-36γ and IL-36Ra, an agonist and an antagonist for IL-36R signaling respectively, reciprocally regulate the experimental colitis and the colon cancer development in mice.

Successful Treatment of Severe Toxic Hepatitis and Encephalopathy Without Respiratory Failure Caused by Paraquat Intoxication.

Lung damage is a characteristic feature of paraquat intoxication; most deaths resulting from ingesting paraquat are due to progressive respiratory failure. Liver failure caused by paraquat intoxication is rare. A case of orally ingested paraquat intoxication is reported in which serious liver injury and toxic encephalopathy were observed, but little lung damage was found.

Severity Assessment of COVID-19 Using a CT-Based Radiomics Model.

The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) has evolved into a worldwide pandemic. Although CT is sensitive in detecting lesions and assessing their severity, these works mainly depend on radiologists' subjective judgment, which is inefficient in case of a large-scale outbreak. This work focuses on developing a CT-based radiomics model to assess whether COVID-19 patients are in the early, progressive, severe, or absorption stages of the disease.

A novel simple risk model to predict the prognosis of patients with paraquat poisoning.

To identify risk factors and develop a simple model to predict early prognosis of acute paraquat (PQ) poisoning patients, we performed a retrospective cohort study of acute PQ poisoning patients (n = 1199). Patients (n = 913) with PQ poisoning from 2011 to 2018 were randomly divided into training (n = 609) and test (n = 304) samples. Another two independent cohorts were used as validation samples for a different time (n = 207) and site (n = 79).

Pharmacokinetics and bioavailability of solid dispersion formulation of tilmicosin in pigs.

Tilmicosin (TMS) is a semisynthetic macrolide antibiotic restricted to veterinary use but is only partially soluble in aqueous solutions, which limits its administration in treatments. We developed a strategy to enhance the supersaturated solubility of TMS using amorphous solid dispersion (SD). The dissolution profile shown that the dissolution rate of TMS-SD was obviously faster than TMS.

The deubiquitinase USP25 supports colonic inflammation and bacterial infection and promotes colorectal cancer.

Bacterial infection or abnormal colonization in the gastrointestinal system is associated with subsets of inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer. Here we demonstrated essential roles of ubiquitin-specific protease 25 (USP25) in experimental colitis, bacterial infections and colon cancer. Knockout or pharmacologic inhibition of USP25 potentiated immune responses after induction of experimental colitis or bacterial infections that promoted clearance of infected bacteria and resolution of inflammation and attenuated Wnt and SOCS3-pSTAT3 signaling, which inhibited colonic tumorigenesis.

As(III) removal from aqueous solution by katoite (CaAl(OH)).

As (III) is widely distributed in groundwater which is relatively harder to be removed comparing to As (V). Co-grinding Ca(OH) with Al(OH) was conducted to manufacture katoite (CaAl(OH)) for the complete removal of As(III) (concentration below drinking water standard of WHO (<10 ppb)) during one-step agitation operation. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TG), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were applied for the illustration of adsorption mechanism.

Octreotide alleviates pancreatic damage caused by paraquat in rats by reducing inflammatory responses and oxidative stress.

This study explores the efficacy and mechanism by which octreotide (OCT) alleviates paraquat (PQ)-induced pancreatic injury. Twenty-four adult male rats were randomly divided into three groups: the normal control (NC), PQ poisoning, and OCT treatment groups. The PQ-induced pancreatic injury rat model was established by administering PQ (120 mg/kg).

Mechanochemical approach to synthesize citric acid-soluble fertilizer of dittmarite (NHMgPO·HO) from talc/NHHPO mixture.

In this study, a citric acid-soluble fertilizer of dittmarite (NHMgPO·HO) was synthesized by balling talc with NHHPO. The effects of ball milling speed and milling time on the dissolution rates of N, P and Mg in deionized water and 2% citric acid were explored. Characterization technologies such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TG) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were applied to test the prepared samples.

Muir-Torre Syndrome With a Frame-shift Mutation in the MSH2 Gene: A Rare Case Report and Literature Review.

Muir-Torre syndrome is a rare subtype of Lynch syndrome characterized by coincidence of skin neoplasm and visceral malignancies. Here, we report a case of this rare disease, whose diagnosis of the syndrome was first suspected by the pathologist. This was a 60-yr-old woman who presented with an axillary skin nodule, which was diagnosed as basal cell carcinoma.

Evaluation of changes in magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging after treatment of delayed encephalopathy due to carbon monoxide poisoning.

Diffusion tensor imaging of the brain tissue microstructure was performed to predict or diagnose the pathophysiological mechanism underlying delayed encephalopathy after carbon monoxide poisoning and the treatment effect was analyzed. The changes in the diffusion parameters (average diffusion coefficient and fractional anisotropy) in adult patients after hyperbaric oxygen therapy of delayed encephalopathy after carbon monoxide poisoning were not significant differences of the two lateral ventricles or anterior or posterior limb of the internal capsule. In the group exposed to hyperbaric oxygen therapy, the fractional anisotropy values of the white matter in the ventricles of the brain and anterior and posterior limbs of the internal capsule were higher than those recorded before therapy, while the average diffusion coefficient values were significantly lower.

Isolation and characterization of spontaneously immortalized B-lymphocyte lines from HIV-infected patients with and without non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

Isolation of viable circulating tumor cells (CTC) holds the promise for improving screening, early diagnosis, and personalized treatment of lymphoma. In this study, we isolated and characterized spontaneously immortalized B-lymphocyte (SIBC) lines from HIV-infected patients with and without Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (AIDS-NHL). A total of 22 SIBC lines was isolated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of HIV-infected patients with (n = 40) and without (n = 77) clinically detectable NHL, but not from healthy individuals (n = 34).

The effect of an alternative chromosome 17 probe on fluorescence hybridization for the assessment of HER2 amplification in invasive breast cancer.

Fluorescent hybridization (FISH) is commonly used to determine the ratio of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) to centromere enumeration probe for chromosome 17 (CEP17), which further determines HER2 gene status in breast cancer. However, due to copy number alteration in CEP17, inaccurate diagnoses can occur. The current study was performed to investigate the diagnostic value of an alternative CEP17 reference probe for HER2 status in invasive breast cancer.

USP49 negatively regulates cellular antiviral responses via deconjugating K63-linked ubiquitination of MITA.

Mediator of IRF3 activation (MITA, also known as STING and ERIS) is an essential adaptor protein for cytoplasmic DNA-triggered signaling and involved in innate immune responses, autoimmunity and tumorigenesis. The activity of MITA is critically regulated by ubiquitination and deubiquitination. Here, we report that USP49 interacts with and deubiquitinates MITA after HSV-1 infection, thereby turning down cellular antiviral responses.

USP20 Promotes Cellular Antiviral Responses via Deconjugating K48-Linked Ubiquitination of MITA.

Mediator of IRF3 activation ([MITA] also known as STING) is a direct sensor of cyclic dinucleotide and critically mediates cytoplasmic DNA--triggered innate immune signaling. The activity of MITA is extensively regulated by ubiquitination and deubiquitination. In this study, we report that USP20 interacts with and removes K48-linked ubiquitin chains from MITA after HSV-1 infection, thereby stabilizing MITA and promoting cellular antiviral responses.

mA mRNA methylation regulates AKT activity to promote the proliferation and tumorigenicity of endometrial cancer.

N-methyladenosine (mA) messenger RNA methylation is a gene regulatory mechanism affecting cell differentiation and proliferation in development and cancer. To study the roles of mA mRNA methylation in cell proliferation and tumorigenicity, we investigated human endometrial cancer in which a hotspot R298P mutation is present in a key component of the methyltransferase complex (METTL14). We found that about 70% of endometrial tumours exhibit reductions in mA methylation that are probably due to either this METTL14 mutation or reduced expression of METTL3, another component of the methyltransferase complex.