Hydrogen (H) Inhibits Isoproterenol-Induced Cardiac Hypertrophy via Antioxidative Pathways.

Hydrogen (H) has been shown to have a strong antioxidant effect on preventing oxidative stress-related diseases. The goal of the present study is to determine the pharmacodynamics of H in a model of isoproterenol (ISO)-induced cardiac hypertrophy. Mice (C57BL/6J; 8-10 weeks of age) were randomly assigned to four groups: Control group ( = 10), ISO group ( = 12), ISO plus H group ( = 12), and H group ( = 12).

Progress and prospect of mesenchymal stem cell-based therapy in atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the arterial intima, occurring usually in the aged populations who are suffering from hypertension, dyslipidemia and diabetes for a long time. Research on atherosclerosis has shown that macrophage foam cell formation, inflammation, dyslipidemia and immune cells infiltration are all involved in regulating the onset and progression of atherosclerosis. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) originated from different kinds of tissue are a group of cells possessing well-established self-renewal and multipotent differentiation properties as well as immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory roles.

Prognostic value of autophagy related proteins ULK1, Beclin 1, ATG3, ATG5, ATG7, ATG9, ATG10, ATG12, LC3B and p62/SQSTM1 in gastric cancer.

Autophagy-related (ATG) genes contributed to tumorigenesis and cancer progression. This study aims to investigate the expression of ATG proteins and their clinicopathological significance in gastric cancer. Nine well-known ATG proteins, (ULK1, Beclin 1, ATG3, ATG5, ATG7, ATG9, ATG10, ATG12 and LC3B) and p62/SQSTM1, which represented key regulators that participated in whole autophagosomes stepwise processes, were detected in a large cohort of 352 primary gastric cancer patients.

Drug Discovery via Human-Derived Stem Cell Organoids.

Patient-derived cell lines and animal models have proven invaluable for the understanding of human intestinal diseases and for drug development although both inherently comprise disadvantages and caveats. Many genetically determined intestinal diseases occur in specific tissue microenvironments that are not adequately modeled by monolayer cell culture. Likewise, animal models incompletely recapitulate the complex pathologies of intestinal diseases of humans and fall short in predicting the effects of candidate drugs.

Invasive Chloroplast Population Genetics of in China: No Local Adaptation and Negative Correlation between Diversity and Geographic Distance.

Two fundamental questions on how invasive species are able to rapidly colonize novel habitat have emerged. One asks whether a negative correlation exists between the genetic diversity of invasive populations and their geographic distance from the origin of introduction. The other is whether selection on the chloroplast genome is important driver of adaptation to novel soil environments.

Preparation and Characterization of Loperamide-Loaded Dynasan 114 Solid Lipid Nanoparticles for Increased Oral Absorption In the Treatment of Diarrhea.

The aim of the project was to assemble two optimum solid lipid nanoparticle (SLN) formulations for oral delivery of loperamide (LPM) to treat different types of diarrhea, and to evaluate their release profiles and pharmacokinetic properties . In this work, glyceryl trimyristate (Dynasan 114) nanoparticles containing the drug LPM and sodium cholate as a stabilizer were prepared using a modified solvent evaporation technique. Two LPM-loaded SLNs, namely LPM-SLN-1 (LPM-SLN with a high ratio rate of lipid to drug) and LPM-SLN-2 (LPM-SLN with a low ratio rate of lipid to drug), were prepared by the solvent evaporation method.

Efficient Production of a Bioactive Bevacizumab Monoclonal Antibody Using the 2A Self-cleavage Peptide in Transgenic Rice Callus.

Bevacizumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody (mAb) targeting to the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), has been widely used in clinical practice for the treatment of multiple cancers. Bevacizumab was mostly produced by the mammalian cell expression system. We here reported the first plant-derived Bevacizumab by using transgenic rice callus as an alternative gene expression system.

Drug Delivery Using Nanoparticles for Cancer Stem-Like Cell Targeting.

The theory of cancer stem-like cell (or cancer stem cell, CSC) has been established to explain how tumor heterogeneity arises and contributes to tumor progression in diverse cancer types. CSCs are believed to drive tumor growth and elicit resistance to conventional therapeutics. Therefore, CSCs are becoming novel target in both medical researches and clinical studies.

Decoding Subjective Intensity of Nociceptive Pain from Pre-stimulus and Post-stimulus Brain Activities.

Pain is a highly subjective experience. Self-report is the gold standard for pain assessment in clinical practice, but it may not be available or reliable in some populations. Neuroimaging data, such as electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), have the potential to be used to provide physiology-based and quantitative nociceptive pain assessment tools that complements self-report.

Genomic Analysis of Storage Protein Deficiency in Genetically Related Lines of Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris).

A series of genetically related lines of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) integrate a progressive deficiency in major storage proteins, the 7S globulin phaseolin and lectins. SARC1 integrates a lectin-like protein, arcelin-1 from a wild common bean accession.

Interactions of Opioids and HIV Infection in the Pathogenesis of Chronic Pain.

Over 50% of HIV-1/AIDS patients suffer chronic pain. Currently, opioids are the cornerstone medications for treating severe pain in these patients. Ironically, emerging clinical data indicates that repeated use of opiate pain medicines might in fact heighten the chronic pain states in HIV patients.

Expression and significance of Nodal in human cancers: a meta-analysis.

Cancer is a global and growing problem. Nodal, which has been showed to be involved in occurrence and development of cancers, is an important embryonic morphogen. The aim of this study was to evaluate the significance of Nodal expression in human cancers based on the published related articles.

Association analysis of HLA-DRA in Chinese patients with sporadic Parkinson's disease.

Our aim is to explore the linkage between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DRA and Parkinson's disease (PD). 542 sporadic PD patients and 674 healthy controls were recruited to investigate this association in the Chinese population by the screening of 15 SNPs in HLA-DRA, and the association of rs3129882 was further re-evaluated by performing meta-analysis and meta-regression analysis. No SNPs in HLA-DRA were significantly associated with PD in the Chinese patients.