Medicinal Foods, YT and RH Combination, Suppress Cigarette Smoke-Induced Inflammation and Oxidative Stress by Inhibiting NF-B/ERK Signaling Pathways.

Background: Cigarette smoke is a risk factor for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Given the lack of COPD curative treatment, dietary management for COPD patients has become important. This study investigated whether the medicinal foods (YT and RH) could suppress cigarette smoke exposure-induced inflammation and oxidative stress.

Intracellular and Extracellular Lipopolysaccharide Signaling in Sepsis: Avenues for Novel Therapeutic Strategies.

Sepsis is defined as organ dysfunction due to a dysregulated systemic host response to infection. During gram-negative bacterial infection and other acute illness such as absorption from the gut infection, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a major mediator in sepsis. LPS is able to trigger inflammation through both intracellular and extracellular pathways.

Functional disability and post-traumatic stress disorder in survivors of mechanical ventilation: a cross-sectional study in Guangzhou, China.

Background: Critical illness is associated with cognitive, physical, and psychological impairments; however, evidence of the severity and frequency of impairments in Chinese survivors of mechanical ventilation in an intensive care unit (ICU) remains limited. Our aim was to investigate the incidence and severity of impairments in Chinese survivors of mechanical ventilation in ICU and to explore risk factors influencing specific impairments.

Methods: Patients discharged alive after mechanical ventilation in a large general ICU for ≥2 days were enrolled in this single-center cross-sectional study.

Rapid identification and isolation of neuraminidase inhibitors from mockstrawberry ( Andr.) based on ligand fishing combined with HR-ESI-Q-TOF-MS.

Neuraminidase inhibitors (NAIs) are the mainstay antiviral drugs against influenza infection. In this study, a ligand fishing protocol was developed to screen NAIs using neuraminidase immobilized magnetic beads (NA-MB). After verifying the feasibility of NA-MB with an artificial mixture including NA inhibitors and non-inhibitors, the developed ligand fishing protocol was applied to screen NAIs from the crude extracts of Andr.

Management of critically ill patients with COVID-19 in ICU: statement from front-line intensive care experts in Wuhan, China.

Background: The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-2019) pandemic has swept all over the world, posing a great pressure on critical care resources due to large number of patients needing critical care. Statements from front-line experts in the field of intensive care are urgently needed.

Methods: Sixteen front-line experts in China fighting against the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan were organized to develop an expert statement after 5 rounds of expert seminars and discussions to provide trustworthy recommendation on the management of critically ill COVID-19 patients.

A comprehensive comparison and overview of R packages for calculating sample entropy.

Sample entropy is a powerful tool for analyzing the complexity and irregularity of physiology signals which may be associated with human health. Nevertheless, the sophistication of its calculation hinders its universal application. As of today, the R language provides multiple open-source packages for calculating sample entropy.

Modulation of Human Neutrophil Peptides on Killing, Epithelial Cell Inflammation and Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Secretome Profiles.

Objective: Neutrophil infiltration and release of the abundant human neutrophil peptides (HNP) are a common clinical feature in critically ill patients. We tested a hypothesis that different cell types respond to HNP differently in lung microenvironment that may influence the host responses.

Methods: Plasma concentrations of HNP were measured in healthy volunteers and patients with sepsis.

SGK1 Mediates Hypoxic Pulmonary Hypertension through Promoting Macrophage Infiltration and Activation.

Inflammation plays a pivotal role in the development of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Meanwhile, serum glucocorticoid-regulated kinase-1 (SGK1) has been considered to be an important factor in the regulation of inflammation in some vascular disease. However, the role of SGK1 in hypoxia-induced inflammation and PAH is still unknown.

Classification of Sputum Sounds Using Artificial Neural Network and Wavelet Transform.

Sputum sounds are biological signals used to evaluate the condition of sputum deposition in a respiratory system. To improve the efficiency of intensive care unit (ICU) staff and achieve timely clearance of secretion in patients with mechanical ventilation, we propose a method consisting of feature extraction of sputum sound signals using the wavelet transform and classification of sputum existence using artificial neural network (ANN). Sputum sound signals were decomposed into the frequency subbands using the wavelet transform.

Distinctive Roles and Mechanisms of Human Neutrophil Peptides in Experimental Sepsis and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.

Objectives: To examine the effects and mechanisms of human neutrophil peptides in systemic infection and noninfectious inflammatory lung injury.

Design: Prospective experimental study.

Setting: University hospital-based research laboratory.

Entropy Change of Biological Dynamics in Asthmatic Patients and Its Diagnostic Value in Individualized Treatment: A Systematic Review.

Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease featured with unpredictable flare-ups, for which continuous lung function monitoring is the key for symptoms control. To find new indices to individually classify severity and predict disease prognosis, continuous physiological data collected from monitoring devices is being studied from different perspectives. Entropy, as an analysis method for quantifying the inner irregularity of data, has been widely applied in physiological signals.

Complexity Change in Cardiovascular Disease.

With the fast development of wearable medical device in recent years, it becomes critical to conduct research on continuously measured physiological signals. Entropy is a key metric for quantifying the irregularity and/or complexity contained in human physiological signals. In this review, we focus on exploring how entropy changes in various physiological signals in cardiovascular diseases.

SCD1 is associated with tumor promotion, late stage and poor survival in lung adenocarcinoma.

The discovery of Warburg effect opens a new era in anti-cancer therapy. Aerobic glycolysis is regarded as a hallmark of cancer cells and increasing literatures indicates that metabolic changes are critical for the maintenance and progression of cancer cells. Besides aerobic glycolysis, increased fatty acid synthesis is also required for the rapid growth of cancer cells, and is considered as one of the most typical metabolic symbols of cancer either.

miR-200b is a key regulator of tumor progression and metabolism targeting lactate dehydrogenase A in human malignant glioma.

Lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA) is involved in various cancers. In this study, we investigated the expression and function of LDHA in glioma. We found that LDHA was up-regulated in glioma samples.

Compound Library Screening Identified Cardiac Glycoside Digitoxin as an Effective Growth Inhibitor of Gefitinib-Resistant Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer via Downregulation of α-Tubulin and Inhibition of Microtubule Formation.

Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) dominates over 85% of all lung cancer cases. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) activating mutation is a common situation in NSCLC. In the clinic, molecular-targeting with Gefitinib as a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) for EGFR downstream signaling is initially effective.

[Nose-only cigarette smoke exposure plus airway lipopolysaccharide inhalation induced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and associated pulmonary hypertension in mice].

Objective: To establish a mouse model of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and associated pulmonary hypertension (COPD-PH) induced by nose-only cigarette smoking exposure plus airway lipopolysaccharide (LPS) inhalation.

Methods: There were 24 male C57B6 mice divided into a control group and a model group at random. The model group was given LPS by intranasal inhalation on day 1 and day 14 and exposed to the cigarette smoke in a nose-only exposure system, while the control group was given physiological saline and exposed to normal air.

Antioxidant Carbocysteine Treatment in Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the effects of carbocysteine in OSAS patients.

Methods: A total of 40 patients with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) were randomly divided into two groups. One group was treated with 1500 mg carbocysteine daily, and the other was treated with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) at night.

Leydig cell tumor with lung metastasis diagnosed by lung biopsy.

Leydig cell tumors are very rare and account for only 3% of testicular tumors and are generally benign. Only less than 0.2% of all testicular cancers were evidenced by metastatic spread.

Metformin suppresses hypoxia-induced stabilization of HIF-1α through reprogramming of oxygen metabolism in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Overexpression of hypoxia-induced factor 1α (HIF-1α) has been shown to be involved in the development and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). HIF-1α should therefore be a promising molecular target for the development of anti-HCC agents. Metformin, an established antidiabetic drug, has proved to also be effective in treating cancer although the precise underlying mechanisms of this activity are not fully elucidated.

Hypoxia inducible factor-1-dependent up-regulation of BMP4 mediates hypoxia-induced increase of TRPC expression in PASMCs.

Aims: Previously we demonstrated that both hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) and bone morphogenetic protein-4 (BMP4) up-regulate transient receptor potential canonical (TRPC) 1 and TRPC6, resulting in increased basal intracellular Ca(2+) concentration ([Ca(2+)]i) in pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (PASMCs), driving development of chronic hypoxia (CH)-induced pulmonary hypertension (CHPH). This study aims to determine whether HIF-1 regulates BMP4, and whether BMP4 mediates TRPC and basal [Ca(2+)]i increases in hypoxic PASMCs.

Methods And Results: The level of BMP4 mature protein was increased for ∼183% in distal pulmonary arterial smooth muscle (PA) from CH (10% O2 for 21 days; CH) exposed rats, and 143% in PASMCs cultured under prolonged hypoxia (4% O2 for 60 h).

BMP4 increases the expression of TRPC and basal [Ca2+]i via the p38MAPK and ERK1/2 pathways independent of BMPRII in PASMCs.

Multiple abnormalities of bone morphogenetic protein (BMPs) signaling are implicated in the process of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). BMP4 plays an important role during the process of pulmonary arterial remodeling and mutant of the principle BMP4 receptor, BMP receptors II (BMPRII), is found to associate with the development of PAH. However, the likely mechanism defining the contribution of BMPRII to BMP4 mediated signaling in pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) remains comprehensively unclear.

NOX4 mediates BMP4-induced upregulation of TRPC1 and 6 protein expressions in distal pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells.

Rationale: Our previous studies demonstrated that bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4) mediated, elevated expression of canonical transient receptor potential (TRPC) largely accounts for the enhanced proliferation in pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (PASMCs). In the present study, we sought to determine the signaling pathway through which BMP4 up-regulates TRPC expression.

Methods: We employed recombinant human BMP4 (rhBMP4) to determine the effects of BMP4 on NADPH oxidase 4 (NOX4) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in rat distal PASMCs.

Re-challenge with ovalbumin failed to induce bronchial asthma in mice with eosinophilic bronchitis.

Objective: To investigate whether eosinophilic bronchitis without airway hyperresponsiveness will develop bronchial asthma in allergic mice.

Methods: Mice were sensitized with OVA on days 0, 7, and 14, challenged on days 21 to 23 (1(st) OVA challenge), and re-challenged on days 46 to 48 (2(nd) OVA challenge), intranasally with 10 (the EB group) and 200 (the AS group) μg OVA. Lung resistance (RL) was assessed 24 h after each challenge and on day 45 followed by analysis of leukocyte distribution in the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid and histological examination.