Clinical characteristics and high-resolution computed tomography findings of 805 patients with mild or moderate infection from SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariant BA.2.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 is a global pandemic. Currently, the predominant strain is SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariant BA.2 in many countries. Understanding its infection characteristics can facilitate clinical management. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to characterize the clinical, laboratory, and high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) findings in patients with mild or moderate infection from SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariant BA.2. METHODS: We performed a retrospective study on patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariant BA.2 between April 4th and April 17th, 2022. The clinical characteristics, laboratory features, and HRCT images were reviewed. RESULTS: A total of 805 patients were included (411 males and 394 females, median age 33 years old). The infection was mild, moderate, severe, and asymptomatic in 490 (60.9%), 37 (4.6%), 0 (0.0%), and 278 (34.5%) patients, respectively. Notably, 186 (23.1%), 96 (11.9%), 265 (32.9%), 11 (3.4%), 7 (0.9%), and 398 (49.4%) patients had fever, cough, throat discomfort, stuffy or runny nose, fatigue, and no complaint, respectively. Furthermore, 162 (20.1%), 332 (41.2%), and 289 (35.9%) patients had decreased white blood cell counts, reduced lymphocytes, and elevated C-reactive protein levels, respectively. HRCT revealed pneumonia in 53 (6.6%) patients. The majority of the lung involvements were ground-glass opacity (50, 94.3%) mostly in the subpleural area. The grade of lung injury was mainly mild (90.6%). Short-term follow-ups showed that most patients with pneumonia recovered. CONCLUSION: Most patients with mild or moderate infection from SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariant BA.2 were adults, with fever and upper respiratory symptoms as the main clinical presentations. Lower respiratory infection was mild, with ground-glass opacity in the subpleural area as the main finding.

Halofuginone protects HUVECs from H2O2-induced injury by modulating VEGF/JNK signaling pathway.

BACKGROUND: Halofuginone, which is the main active ingredient of Dichroa fabrifuga, was used to inhibit the synthesis of type I collagen and played increasingly important roles in tumor therapy. This study aims to investigate the protective effects of halofuginone on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) from H2O2-induced apoptosis and oxidative stress. METHODS: Propidium iodide and Annexin-V double staining assay was used to measure the apoptosis. Cell viability assay, the measurements of reactive oxygen species (ROS) parameters malondialdehyde and superoxide dismutase, western-blot assays, and quantitative PCR were used to elucidate the effects and mechanisms of halofuginone in protecting H2O2-induced injury. RESULTS: The results showed that halofuginone counteracted H2O2-induced cell viability decline and PCNA downregulation. Furthermore, halofuginone decreased ROS levels and protected HUVECs from H2O2-induced apoptosis. In detail, it showed that H2O2 induced a transient activation of Mitogen-activated protein kinases members ERK1/2 and p38, whereas induced a sustained activation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), which play dominant roles in triggering apoptosis. Inhibition of JNK activation also inhibited H2O2-mediated apoptosis. Finally, it was shown that halofuginone upregulated VEGF expressions, which functioned by inhibiting sustained JNK activation, thus protecting HUVECs. CONCLUSION: Halofuginone has powerful effects in protecting HUVECs from H2O2-induced apoptosis, via upregulating VEGF and inhibiting overactivated JNK phosphorylation. Halofuginone might be a promising preventive drug for cardiovascular diseases.

A novel approach to select differential pathways associated with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy based on gene co­expression analysis.

The present study was designed to develop a novel method for identifying significant pathways associated with human hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), based on gene co­expression analysis. The microarray dataset associated with HCM (E­GEOD­36961) was obtained from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory­European Bioinformatics Institute database. Informative pathways were selected based on the Reactome pathway database and screening treatments. An empirical Bayes method was utilized to construct co­expression networks for informative pathways, and a weight value was assigned to each pathway. Differential pathways were extracted based on weight threshold, which was calculated using a random model. In order to assess whether the co­expression method was feasible, it was compared with traditional pathway enrichment analysis of differentially expressed genes, which were identified using the significance analysis of microarrays package. A total of 1,074 informative pathways were screened out for subsequent investigations and their weight values were also obtained. According to the threshold of weight value of 0.01057, 447 differential pathways, including folding of actin by chaperonin containing T­complex protein 1 (CCT)/T­complex protein 1 ring complex (TRiC), purine ribonucleoside monophosphate biosynthesis and ubiquinol biosynthesis, were obtained. Compared with traditional pathway enrichment analysis, the number of pathways obtained from the co­expression approach was increased. The results of the present study demonstrated that this method may be useful to predict marker pathways for HCM. The pathways of folding of actin by CCT/TRiC and purine ribonucleoside monophosphate biosynthesis may provide evidence of the underlying molecular mechanisms of HCM, and offer novel therapeutic directions for HCM.

Attractors of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy using maximal cliques and attract methods.

BACKGROUND: Our study was designed to identify the differential attractor modules related with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) by integrating clustering-based on maximal cliques algorithm and Attract method. METHODS: We firstly recruited the HCM-related microarray data from ArrayExpress database. Next, protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks of normal and HCM were constructed and re-weighted using spearman correlation coefficient (SCC). Then, maximal cliques were found from the PPI networks through the clustering-based on maximal cliques approach. Afterwards, highly overlapped cliques were eliminated or merged according to the interconnectivity, and then modules were obtained. Subsequently, we used Attract method to identify differential attractor modules, following by the pathway enrichment analyses for genes in differential attractor modules. RESULTS: After removing the cliques with nodes less than or equal to 4, 926 and 1118 maximal cliques in normal and HCM PPI networks were obtained for module analysis. Then, we obtained 32 and 55 modules from the PPI networks of normal and HCM, respectively. By comparing with normal condition, there were 5 module pairs with the same or similar gene composition. Significantly, based on attract method, we found that these 5 modules were differential attractors. Pathway enrichment analyses indicated that proteasome, ribosome and oxidative phosphorylation were the significant pathways. CONCLUSIONS: Proteasome, ribosome and oxidative phosphorylation might play pathophysiological roles in HCM.

Effects of Exogenous Enzymatic Treatment During Processing on the Sensory Quality of Summer Tieguanyin Oolong Tea from the Chinese Anxi County.

In order to attenuate the bitter taste and improve the aroma of the summer tieguanyin oolong tea from the Chinese Anxi county, the effects of processing treatment with exogenous laccase and α-galactosidase on tea sensory quality and related compounds were investigated. The solutions of laccase and/or α-galactosidase were sprayed on the tea leaves before the first drying process. The sensory evaluation results showed that the sensory quality of the tea was significantly enhanced with the enzymatic treatment. The combined application of laccase at 8.25 and α-galactosidase at 22 U per kg of fresh tea shoots achieved the most satisfying sensory quality. Further analysis of flavour-related constituents was carried out by HPLC and GC-MS. The HPLC analysis showed that the contents of catechins and total polyphenols were reduced, compared to the untreated group, by 11.9 and 13.3% respectively, and the total soluble sugars and water extract content were increased by 19.4 and 6.6% respectively, after the treatment with both enzymes. The decrease of catechins and total polyphenols reduced the bitterness and astringency of the summer tea, while the increase of total soluble sugars and water extract content improved the sweetness and mellow taste. The aromatic compound data from GC-MS showed that the total essential oil content in these tea samples co-treated with laccase and α-galactosidase increased significantly, in which aldehydes, alcohols, esters and alkenes increased by 23.28, 37.05, 20.10 and 38.99%, respectively. Our data suggest that the exogenous enzymatic treatment can enhance the summer oolong tea quality, especially its taste and aroma.

Compatibility studies on tea polysaccharide/amylose/water and tea polysaccharide/amylopectin/water.

The compatibilities of amylose/tea polysaccharide (Am/TPS) and amylopectin/tea polysaccharide (Ap/TPS) in water were investigated with theoretical calculations and experimental measurements. To achieve this, dilute-solution viscometry (DSV) and high-speed differential scanning calorimetry (hyper-DSC) were used. The compatibility criteria on the basis of Δb(m), ΔB(m), µ, Δ[η](m) and thermodynamic parameters, T(g) and ΔT(g) were estimated. The data obtained from DSV show that the Am/TPS mixtures with 0.65:0.35, the Ap/TPS mixtures with (a) 0.85:0.15 and (b) 0.75:0.25 at limited moisture are completely miscible. The results were also confirmed using DSC. A texture analyzer was also used to study effects of Am/TPS and Ap/TPS with different weight fractions on the textures of mixed sol. The results show that the firmness, consistency, cohesiveness and index of viscosity of the Am/TPS and Ap/TPS sol increase with the increase of TPS level and that TPS could provide a more desirable physical structure for starch-based foods.

Antiseptic activity and phenolic constituents of the aerial parts of Vitex negundo var. cannabifolia.

Four phenolics, salviaplebeiaside (1), γ-tocopherol (2), chrysosplenol-D (4), and isovitexin (5), along with α-tocoquinone (3) and ß-sitosterol (6) were isolated from the aerial parts of Vitex negundo var. cannabifolia. The isolation was performed using bio-assay tracking experiments. The structures of compounds 1-5 were established by spectroscopic means. The antibacterial activities of the compounds were assessed against Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Micrococcus tetragenus and Pseudomonas fluorescens. Chrysosplenol-D (4) exhibited activities against all the four spoilage microorganisms.

[Changes of brain mast cells after transient global ischemia in rats].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate changes of brain mast cells after transient global ischemia in rats. METHODS: Transient global ischemia damage was induced by four-vessel occlusion. After 1 h to 14 days of ischemia, rats were perfused intracardially by 4% paraformaldehyde. The brains were dissected to serial sections using freeze microtome, and then stained with toluidine blue. Brain mast cell was observed under microscope. RESULT: Most brain mast cells were located in thalamus. The number of mast cells in thalamus markedly decreased during reperfusion after transient global ischemia. However, the degranulation rate of thalamus mast cells showed reverse change after ischemia. CONCLUSION: Brain mast cells markedly degranulate after transient global ischemia, which may be involved in the pathological process after ischemia.