Circulating miR-106a may Function as Potential Biomarkers in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease.

BACKGROUND: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a common cardiovascular disorder, and CAD is also the main cause of sudden cardiac death. Thus, identification of novel biomarkers for the early diagnosis and treatment of CAD is urgently needed. This study aims to explore the clinical significance of the plasma level of miR-106a in CAD. METHODS: A total of 92 patients were enrolled in the present study, and 92 healthy volunteers were enrolled as the control. The plasma samples of the participants were collected, and the expression levels of miR-106a in the plasma of the patients and healthy controls were compared by RT-qPCR methods. Moreover, the association between the plasma level of miR-106a and the SYNTAX scoring (SS) of the patients were analyzed. Finally, the serum levels of 25 (OH) D3 and oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) between the patients and healthy controls were compared, and the correlation between the plasma level of miR-106a and the serum level of 25 (OH) D3 and ox-LDL in patients with CAD were analyzed. RESULTS: miR-106a was significantly up-regulated in plasma of patients with CAD. Results of receiver operation characteristics (ROC) curve showed that the plasma level of miR-106a is a sensitive biomarker for the diagnosis of CAD (AUC = 0.8189, 95% CI = 0.7578 to 0.8799). Furthermore, the plasma level of miR-106a was positively correlated with the SS of the patients. Finally, ox-LDL was markedly increased and 25 (OH) D3 was significantly de-creased in the serum of patients with CAD. The plasma level of miR-106a was positively correlated with the level of ox-LDL and negatively correlated with the level of 25 (OH) D3 in patients with CAD. CONCLUSIONS: miR-106a was up-regulated in CAD, and miR-106a may serve as a potential biomarker for the early diagnosis and evaluation of clinical outcomes of CAD.

Does Walking Have an Association with Osteoarthritis? A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Analysis.

Objective: Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the major disabling human diseases. The related studies indicate a potential correlation between walking and OA. However, there is still a lack of evidence in genetics to support the correlation between walking and OA. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the relationship between walking and OA at the genetic level. Methods: The publicly available Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) data were used, with inverse variance weighting (IVW, the random-effects model) as the main analysis method, whereas MR-Egger, Weighted median, Simple mode, and Weighted mode as the secondary analysis methods. In addition, Cochran's Q test, pleiotropy test, and MR-Egger intercept test were conducted to examine the heterogeneity and pleiotropy of the outcome. Results: In the MR analysis, IVW results showed a negative correlation between types of physical activity in last 4 weeks: Walking for pleasure (not as a means of transport) and OA (KOA or HOA) (odds ratio (OR) = 0.3224, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.1261 to 0.8243), and the difference was of statistical significance (P = 0.0181). Moreover, IVW results also revealed a negative correlation between types of physical activity in last 4 weeks: Walking for pleasure (not as a means of transport) and KOA (OR = 0.1396, 95% CI: 0.0484 to 0.4026), and the difference was statistically significant (P = 0.0003). However, IVW results did not demonstrate any statistical significance types of physical activity in last 4 weeks: Walking for pleasure (not as a means of transport) and HOA (OR = 1.2075, 95% CI: 0.1978 to 7.3727, P = 0.8381). Conclusion: From genetic studies, types of physical activity in last 4 weeks: Walking for pleasure (not as a means of transport) is negatively correlated with knee osteoarthritis (KOA), but there is no clear evidence supporting its correlation with hip osteoarthritis (HOA).

A Bidirectional Mendelian Randomization Study of Sarcopenia-Related Traits and Knee Osteoarthritis.

Background: With the development of population aging worldwide, sarcopenia and knee osteoarthritis (KOA), two age-related diseases, will continue to impose increasing medical and economic burdens on the society. Previous studies have discovered an association between the two, but the causality remains controversial, and it is difficult to eliminate confounding factors. Therefore, a Mendelian randomization (MR) study was conducted to overcome these confounding factors and investigate the causal relationship between sarcopenia and KOA. Objective: The present work focused on assessing the causality between KOA and sarcopenia, so as to provide new strategies to prevent and treat these two conditions in clinic. Methods: We registered the title with PROSPERO (ID: CRD42023421096). The two-sample bidirectional MR analysis was conducted in two steps, with sarcopenia being the exposure whereas KOA being the outcome in the first step, and vice versa in the second step. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) data on low hand-grip strength (n=256,523), walking pace (n=459,915), appendicular lean mass (ALM, n=450,243), and KOA (n=403,124) were obtained from the UK Biobank. Methods such as the inverse variance weighted (IVW) and weighted median were utilized for assessing the causality of KOA with sarcopenia, and sensitivity analyses were also conducted. Results: In the main MR analysis using the IVW method, evidence suggested that low hand-grip strength, walking pace, and ALM had adverse effects on KOA (p-value 0.0001, odds ratio (OR) 1.4569, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2007-1.7677 for low hand-grip strength; p-value 0.0003, OR 1.1500, 95% CI 1.050-1.183 for ALM; p-value 5.29E-19, OR 0.0932, 95% CI 0.0553-0.1572 for walking pace). However, there was no causality of KOA with sarcopenia in the opposite direction. Conclusion: Our study suggests an obvious unidirectional causality of KOA with sarcopenia, and supports the notion that patients with sarcopenia are more susceptible to the development of KOA.

On-Chip Photon Angular Momentum Absolute Measurement Based on Angle Detection.

Photon angular momentum (AM) has been widely studied due to its unique properties. The accurate detection of photon AM is very important in its wide applications. Though various on-chip AM detectors based on surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) have been proposed, most of them can only realize relative measurement. For example, most photon orbital angular momentum (OAM) detectors measure the high order OAM via measuring the relative interval between the intensity spots of the SPPs excited by the target order OAM beam and the reference order (usually 0th order) OAM beam. In this paper, we propose a simple on-chip photon AM detector. It can realize absolute measurement of photon OAM via angle detection, whose measurement result does not depend on the measurement of any reference OAM beam. At the same time, it can also recognize photon spin angular momentum (SAM). The proposed detector provides a new way for absolute measurement of photon AM, which may have some potential applications in the field of integrated photonic device.

Effects of chronic exposure to different sizes and polymers of microplastics on the characteristics of activated sludge.

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have become an important source of microplastics (MPs) contamination and most MPs remain in the sludge inducing potential impacts on sludge disposal. However, little is known about the influence of MPs on the characteristics of sludge, which is essential for sludge disposal. In this study, the dewaterability of activated sludge in response to chronic exposure (60 days) to MPs of different sizes (213.7 nm ~ 4.2 mm) and polymers (polystyrene, polyethylene, and polyvinyl chloride) were investigated. Overall, different particle sizes caused more evident effects on sludge dewatering than different polymer types did. Millimeter MPs (~4 mm) dramatically reduced the dewaterability of sludge by 29.6% ~ 47.7%. These effects were mainly caused by the physical crushing of MPs on sludge flocs, except polyvinyl chloride (PVC)-MPs, possibly containing additives, induced toxicity on sludge. Moreover, 100 mg/L nano-size MPs (213 nm) also reduced the dewatering performance of sludge. The potential mechanism is that nano-size MPs inhibited sludge activity and decreased the abundance of key microorganisms, which subsequently altered the composition and spatial distribution of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), and finally impeded sludge dewatering. Our results highlight the impacts of different sizes of MPs on the characteristics of sludge, affecting the final disposal of sludge.

Microplastics enhance the developmental toxicity of synthetic phenolic antioxidants by disturbing the thyroid function and metabolism in developing zebrafish.

Coexposure of MPs and other contaminants adsorbed from the environment has raised many attentions, but the understanding of the combined effects of MPs and plastic additives are limited. Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), a widely used synthetic phenolic antioxidant in plastics, has gained high concerns due to their unintended environmental release and potential threat to aquatic organisms. This study was conducted to reveal the influences of MPs on the bioaccumulation and developmental toxicity of BHA in zebrafish larvae. As a result, MPs promoted the accumulation of BHA in zebrafish larvae and enhanced the toxicity of BHA in larvae development manifested by reduced hatching rates, increased malformation rates and decreased calcified vertebrae. Although the concentration of MPs was not sufficient to cause obvious developmental toxicity, the impacts of MPs on thyroid hormones status might contribute to the aggravated join toxicity. The metabolomic mechanism was revealed to be that the coexposure of BHA and MPs affected the development of zebrafish larvae via disturbing the metabolism of arachidonic acid, glycerophospholipid, and lipids. Our results emphasized that MPs, even at the nontoxic concentrations, in combination with additives caused health risk that should not be ignored.

Construction and operation of a system for secure and precise medical material distribution in disaster areas after Wenchuan earthquake.

After the Wenchuan Earthquake on May 12th , 2008, under the strong leadership of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee, the People's Government of Sichuan Province, and the Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China, the Medical Security Team working at the Sichuan Provincial Headquarters for Wenchuan Earthquake and Disaster Relief Work constructed a secure medical material distribution system through coordination and interaction among and between regions, systems, and departments.