Pulmonary hypertension secondary to seronegative rheumatoid arthritis overlapping antisynthetase syndrome: A case report.

BACKGROUND: Polyarthritis is the most frequent clinical manifestation in antisynthetase syndrome (ASS) forms of idiopathic inflammatory myositis and may be misdiagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), particularly in patients with seronegative RA (SNRA). It is unclear whether there is an overlap between ASS and RA, or if ASS sometimes mimics RA. Pulmonary hypertension (PAH) is common in connective tissue diseases (CTDs). However, published reports on CTD-PAH do not include overlapping CTDs, and its incidence and impact on patient prognosis are unclear. CASE SUMMARY: We report the case of a 63-year-old woman who presented with a 3-mo history of symptom aggravation of recurrent symmetrical joint swelling and pain that had persisted for over 10 years. The patient was diagnosed with RA and interstitial lung disease. The patient repeatedly presented to the hospital's respiratory and rheumatology departments with arthralgia, plus shortness of breath after activity. Relevant tests indicated that anti-CCP and RF remained negative, while anti-J0-1 and anti-Ro-52 were strongly positive. It was not until recently that we recognized that this could be an unusual case of SNRA with concurrent ASS. Joint pain was relieved after regular anti-rheumatic treatment. Chest computed tomography scans showed that pulmonary interstitial changes did not progress significantly over several years; however, they showed gradual widening of the pulmonary artery, and cardiac ultrasound indicated elevated pulmonary artery systolic pressure. The prescribed treatment of PAH was not effective in improving shortness of breath. CONCLUSION: Overlap of RA and ASS may be missed. Further research is necessary to facilitate early diagnosis, effective evaluation, and prognosis.

Autophagic Survival Precedes Programmed Cell Death in Wheat Seedlings Exposed to Drought Stress.

Although studies have shown the concomitant occurrence of autophagic and programmed cell death (PCD) in plants, the relationship between autophagy and PCD and the factors determining this relationship remain unclear. In this study, seedlings of the wheat cultivar Jimai 22 were used to examine the occurrence of autophagy and PCD during polyethylene glycol (PEG)-8000-induced drought stress. Autophagy and PCD occurred sequentially, with autophagy at a relatively early stage and PCD at a much later stage. These findings suggest that the duration of drought stress determines the occurrence of PCD following autophagy. Furthermore, the addition of 3-methyladenine (3-MA, an autophagy inhibitor) and the knockdown of autophagy-related gene 6 (ATG6) accelerated PEG-8000-induced PCD, respectively, suggesting that inhibition of autophagy also results in PCD under drought stress. Overall, these findings confirm that wheat seedlings undergo autophagic survival under mild drought stress, with subsequent PCD only under severe drought.

Self-Assembly by Coordination with Organic Antenna Chromophores for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells.

The development of new sensitizers and new sensitization methods is one of the important means to enhance the conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs); the ultimate goal is to broaden the spectral response of dyes, reduce electron recombination, and suppress dye aggregation. In this study, we have developed a series of new self-assembled dyes and applied them in DSSCs. We prepared two organic antenna chromophores S1 and S2 and coordinated them with two acceptors A1 and A2 via zinc to construct A-Zn-S series self-assembled dyes. This method is very simple and feasible and can avoid the complex synthesis steps of traditional dyes; the results show that the light-harvesting ability of devices can be improved and charge recombination can be reduced by adjusting the structures of the antenna chromophores and acceptors. The device with A2-Zn-S1 gave a power conversion efficiency of 4.25%, which was higher than those with A1-Zn-S1 (3.88%), A1-Zn-S2 (3.21%), and A2-Zn-S2 (3.52%); the main reason for this is that the different coordination combinations between the antenna chromophore and the acceptor show great differences in Voc and Jsc. The device based on A2-Zn-S1 showed a high Voc of 632 mV and a high Jsc of 9.54 mA cm-2; one reason for this is that S1 has better spectral responsiveness and another reason is that A2 has better steric resistance that effectively reduces charge recombination. Besides, IR spectra indicate that these self-assembled dyes anchored on a TiO2 surface by bicarboxyl anchoring groups are also very beneficial for improving the performance of dyes.

Molecular and Cytogenetic Characterization of a Powdery Mildew-Resistant Wheat-Aegilops mutica Partial Amphiploid and Addition Line.

Aegilops mutica Boiss., a diploid species (2n = 2x = 14, TT), has been rarely studied before. In this research, a hexaploid wheat (cv. Chinese Spring)-Ae. mutica partial amphiploid and a wheat-Ae. mutica addition line were characterized by chromosome karyotyping, FISH using oligonucleotides Oligo-pTa535-1, Oligo-pSc119.2-1, and (GAA)8 as probes, and EST-based molecular markers. The results showed that the partial amphiploid strain consisted of 20 pairs of wheat chromosomes and 7 pairs of Ae. mutica chromosomes, with both wheat 7B chromosomes missing. EST-based molecular marker data suggested that the wheat-Ae. mutica addition line carries the 7T chromosome. Resistance tests indicated that both the partial amphiploid and the 7T addition line were highly resistant to powdery mildew, whereas the wheat control line Chinese Spring was highly susceptible, indicating the presence of a potentially new powdery mildew resistance gene on the Ae. mutica 7T chromosome. The karyotype, FISH patterns, and molecular markers can now be used to identify Ae. mutica chromatin in a wheat background, and the 7T addition could be used as a new powdery mildew resistance source for wheat breeding.