Horizontally Transferred Salivary Protein Promotes Insect Feeding by Suppressing Ferredoxin-Mediated Plant Defenses.

Herbivorous insects such as whiteflies, planthoppers, and aphids secrete abundant orphan proteins to facilitate feeding. Yet, how these genes are recruited and evolve to mediate plant-insect interaction remains unknown. In this study, we report a horizontal gene transfer (HGT) event from fungi to an ancestor of Aleyrodidae insects approximately 42 to 190 million years ago. BtFTSP1 is a salivary protein that is secreted into host plants during Bemisia tabaci feeding. It targets a defensive ferredoxin 1 in Nicotiana tabacum (NtFD1) and disrupts the NtFD1-NtFD1 interaction in plant cytosol, leading to the degradation of NtFD1 in a ubiquitin-dependent manner. Silencing BtFTSP1 has negative effects on B. tabaci feeding while overexpressing BtFTSP1 in N. tabacum benefits insects and rescues the adverse effect caused by NtFD1 overexpression. The association between BtFTSP1 and NtFD1 is newly evolved after HGT, with the homologous FTSP in its fungal donor failing to interact and destabilize NtFD1. Our study illustrates the important roles of horizontally transferred genes in plant-insect interactions and suggests the potential origin of orphan salivary genes.

Iatrogenic Pneumothorax during Acupuncture: Case Report.

Acupuncture treatment in local areas is commonly used to treat pain or soreness; however, acupuncture around the neck or shoulder may be a risk factor for pneumothorax. Herein, we report two cases of iatrogenic pneumothorax after acupuncture. These points indicate that physicians should be aware of these risk factors through history-taking before acupuncture. Chronic pulmonary diseases, such as chronic bronchitis, emphysema, tuberculosis, lung cancer, pneumonia, and thoracic surgery, may be associated with a higher risk of iatrogenic pneumothorax after acupuncture. Even if the incidence of pneumothorax should be low under caution and fully evaluated, it is still recommended to arrange further imaging examinations to rule out the possibility of iatrogenic pneumothorax.

Curbing COVID-19 progression and mortality with traditional Chinese medicine among hospitalized patients with COVID-19: A propensity score-matched analysis.

BACKGROUND: Viral- and host-targeted traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formulae NRICM101 and NRICM102 were administered to hospitalized patients with COVID-19 during the mid-2021 outbreak in Taiwan. We report the outcomes by measuring the risks of intubation or admission to intensive care unit (ICU) for patients requiring no oxygen support, and death for those requiring oxygen therapy. METHODS: This multicenter retrospective study retrieved data of 840 patients admitted to 9 hospitals between May 1 and July 26, 2021. After propensity score matching, 302 patients (151 received NRICM101 and 151 did not) and 246 patients (123 received NRICM102 and 123 did not) were included in the analysis to assess relative risks. RESULTS: During the 30-day observation period, no endpoint occurred in the patients receiving NRICM101 plus usual care while 14 (9.27%) in the group receiving only usual care were intubated or admitted to ICU. The numbers of deceased patients were 7 (5.69%) in the group receiving NRICM102 plus usual care and 27 (21.95%) in the usual care group. No patients receiving NRICM101 transitioned to a more severe status; NRICM102 users were 74.07% less likely to die than non-users (relative risk= 25.93%, 95% confidence interval 11.73%-57.29%). CONCLUSION: NRICM101 and NRICM102 were significantly associated with a lower risk of intubation/ICU admission or death among patients with mild-to-severe COVID-19. This study provides real-world evidence of adopting broad-spectrum oral therapeutics and shortening the gap between outbreak and effective response. It offers a new vision in our preparation for future pandemics.

The Ameliorative Effects of Saikosaponin in Thioacetamide-Induced Liver Injury and Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Mice.

Liver disorders are a major health concern. Saikosaponin-d (SSd) is an effective active ingredient extracted from Bupleurum falcatum, a traditional Chinese medicinal plant, with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. However, its hepatoprotective properties and underlying mechanisms are unknown. We investigated the effects and underlying mechanisms of SSd treatment for thioacetamide (TAA)-induced liver injury and high-fat-diet (HFD)-induced non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in male C57BL/6 mice. The SSd group showed significantly higher food intake, body weight, and hepatic antioxidative enzymes (catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and superoxide dismutase (SOD)) and lower hepatic cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), interleukin (IL)-1ß, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and fibroblast growth factor-21 (FGF21) compared with controls, as well as reduced expression of inflammation-related genes (nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS)) messenger RNA (mRNA). In NAFLD mice, SSd reduced serum ALT, AST, triglycerides, fatty acid-binding protein 4 (FABP4) and sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1 (SREBP1) mRNA, and endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-stress-related proteins (phosphorylated eukaryotic initiation factor 2α subunit (p-eIF2α), activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4), and C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP). SSd has a hepatoprotective effect in liver injury by suppressing inflammatory responses and acting as an antioxidant.

The Ameliorative Effects of Fucoidan in Thioacetaide-Induced Liver Injury in Mice.

Liver disorders have been recognized as one major health concern. Fucoidan, a sulfated polysaccharide extracted from the brown seaweed Fucus serratus, has previously been reported as an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant. However, the discovery and validation of its hepatoprotective properties and elucidation of its mechanisms of action are still unknown. The objective of the current study was to investigate the effect and possible modes of action of a treatment of fucoidan against thioacetamide (TAA)-induced liver injury in male C57BL/6 mice by serum biochemical and histological analyses. The mouse model for liver damage was developed by the administration of TAA thrice a week for six weeks. The mice with TAA-induced liver injury were orally administered fucoidan once a day for 42 days. The treated mice showed significantly higher body weights; food intakes; hepatic antioxidative enzymes (catalase, glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and superoxide dismutase (SOD)); and a lower serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1ß (IL-1ß), and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels. Additionally, a reduced hepatic IL-6 level and a decreased expression of inflammatory-related genes, such as cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) mRNA was observed. These results demonstrated that fucoidan had a hepatoprotective effect on liver injury through the suppression of the inflammatory responses and acting as an antioxidant. In addition, here, we validated the use of fucoidan against liver disorders with supporting molecular data.

Development and interpretation of a pathomics-based model for the prediction of microsatellite instability in Colorectal Cancer.

Microsatellite instability (MSI) has been approved as a pan-cancer biomarker for immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy. However, current MSI identification methods are not available for all patients. We proposed an ensemble multiple instance deep learning model to predict microsatellite status based on histopathology images, and interpreted the pathomics-based model with multi-omics correlation. Methods: Two cohorts of patients were collected, including 429 from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA-COAD) and 785 from an Asian colorectal cancer (CRC) cohort (Asian-CRC). We established the pathomics model, named Ensembled Patch Likelihood Aggregation (EPLA), based on two consecutive stages: patch-level prediction and WSI-level prediction. The initial model was developed and validated in TCGA-COAD, and then generalized in Asian-CRC through transfer learning. The pathological signatures extracted from the model were analyzed with genomic and transcriptomic profiles for model interpretation. Results: The EPLA model achieved an area-under-the-curve (AUC) of 0.8848 (95% CI: 0.8185-0.9512) in the TCGA-COAD test set and an AUC of 0.8504 (95% CI: 0.7591-0.9323) in the external validation set Asian-CRC after transfer learning. Notably, EPLA captured the relationship between pathological phenotype of poor differentiation and MSI (P < 0.001). Furthermore, the five pathological imaging signatures identified from the EPLA model were associated with mutation burden and DNA damage repair related genotype in the genomic profiles, and antitumor immunity activated pathway in the transcriptomic profiles. Conclusions: Our pathomics-based deep learning model can effectively predict MSI from histopathology images and is transferable to a new patient cohort. The interpretability of our model by association with pathological, genomic and transcriptomic phenotypes lays the foundation for prospective clinical trials of the application of this artificial intelligence (AI) platform in ICB therapy.

Effects of endogenous inflammation signals elicited by nerve growth factor, interferon-γ, and interleukin-4 on peripheral nerve regeneration.

BACKGROUND: Large gap healing is a difficult issue in the recovery of peripheral nerve injury. The present study provides in vivo trials of silicone rubber chambers filled with collagen containing IFN-γ or IL-4 to bridge a 15 mm sciatic nerve defect in rats. Fillings of NGF and normal saline were used as the positive and negative controls. Neuronal electrophysiology, neuronal connectivity, macrophage infiltration, location and expression levels of calcitonin gene-related peptide and histology of the regenerated nerves were evaluated. RESULTS: At the end of 6 weeks, animals from the groups of NGF and IL-4 had dramatic higher rates of successful regeneration (100 and 80%) across the wide gap as compared to the groups of IFN-γ and saline controls (30 and 40%). In addition, the NGF group had significantly higher NCV and shorter latency compared to IFN-γ group (P < 0.05). The IL-4 group recruited significantly more macrophages in the nerves as compared to the saline controls and the NGF-treated animals (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The current study demonstrated that NGF and IL-4 show potential growth-promoting capability for peripheral nerve regeneration. These fillings in the bridging conduits may modulate local inflammatory conditions affecting recovery of the nerves.

Can knowledge of election results change recall of our predictions? Neural correlates of political hindsight bias.

Hindsight bias (HB) is the tendency to retrospectively exaggerate one's foresight knowledge about the outcome of an event. Cognitive processes influenced by newly obtained outcome information are used to explain the HB phenomenon, but the neural correlates remain unknown. This study investigated HB in the context of election results using a memory design and functional magnetic resonance imaging for the first time. Participants were asked to predict and recall the percentage of votes obtained by (pairs of) candidates before and after an election. The results revealed that 88% of participants showed HB by recalling that their predictions were closer to the actual outcomes than they really were; and participants had HB for 38% of the events. The HB effect was associated with activation in the medial superior frontal gyrus and bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), which have been implicated in updating an old belief due to new information and is similar to the process of reconstruction bias. Furthermore, participants with a greater HB effect showed greater activation of the left IFG. In conclusion, we successfully observed the HB phenomenon in election results, and our imaging results suggested that the HB phenomenon might involve reconstruction bias.

Association of Constipation with risk of end-stage renal disease in patients with chronic kidney disease.

BACKGROUND: Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is a growing public health problem. Many risk factors were identified and interventions were applied accordingly, but the incidence of end-stage renal disease continued increasing. Some other risk factors may be ignored. Gut microbiota has been recognized as an important endogenous organ. The kidney-gut axis would contribute to gut dysbiosis, which might worsen CKD. Constipation, commonly seen in CKD, was one of the clinical presentation of gut dysbiosis. The clinical impact of constipation to CKD remains unknown. Our study aimed at assessing the risk of ESRD between CKD patients with and without constipation in a nationwide database. METHODS: We identified newly diagnosed cases of CKD without constipation history before in 2000-2011 from the Taiwan National Health Insurance database. Subjects who developed constipation later formed constipation group. The others without constipation matched by propensity score formed non-constipation group. The incidence rates and hazards of ESRD in patients with and without constipation by the end of 2013 were compared by using Cox proportional hazard models with a time-dependent variable. RESULTS: The incidences of ESRD per 1000 person-years were 22.9 for constipation group and 12.2 for non-constipation group, respectively. Cox proportional hazard models with a time-dependent variable revealed an adjusted hazard ratio of 1.90 (95% CI, 1.60-2.27). Compared to the CKD patients without constipation, adjusted hazard ratio for the CKD patients with laxatives < 33, 33-197 and ≥ 198 days per year were 0.45 (0.31-0.63), 1.85 (1.47-2.31) and 4.41 (3.61-5.39) respectively. CONCLUSION: In a population of newly-diagnosed CKD patients, we observed that subjects with de novo constipation, as compared with non-constipation, have increased risk of developing ESRD. More severe constipation would increase the risk further.

[Comprehensive nursing intervention helps improve medication compliance of prostate cancer patients undergoing endocrine therapy].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the role of comprehensive nursing intervention in improving medication compliance of prostate cancer patients undergoing endocrine therapy. METHODS: We practiced comprehensive nursing intervention in 43 prostate cancer patients undergoing endocrine therapy in our hospital from January 2016 to December 2018. Using the 8-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8), we investigated the medication compliance of the patients at 1, 3 and 6 months after treatment. RESULTS: The MMAS-8 score of the patients was 7.8 ± 1.1 at 1 month after medication, decreased to 6.2 ± 1.9 at 3 months (P < 0.05), and increased to 7.9 ± 1.2 at 6 months (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Comprehensive nursing intervention can improve the medication compliance of prostate cancer patients undergoing endocrine therapy and the outcomes of treatment as well.

Contributions of perceptual and motor experience of an observed action to anticipating its result.

To gain deeper insight into respective contributions of perceptual and motor experience of an observed action to anticipating its result, we examined the perceptual anticipation of players with different action roles in striking sports. Baseball pitchers and batters at both advanced and intermediate levels were asked to make a decision about whether to swing the bat when viewing a series of videos showing incomplete sequences of a model pitcher throwing a strike or a ball. The results revealed that first 100 ms of ball flight could discriminate advanced batters from intermediate pitchers and batters (with no difference between intermediate pitchers and batters). Particularly, advanced batters (perceptual experts with regard to pitching action) were statistically more accurate and less uncertain in making decisions than were intermediate players, whereas advanced pitchers (motor experts) only showed this tendency without reaching a statistically significant level. Moreover, advanced batters demonstrated greater perceptual sensitivity in discriminating when to swing at strikes over balls than all other players. Our findings suggested that when players were above intermediate level, perceptual experience of an observed action facilitated the perceptual anticipation to a greater extent than motor experience of producing it. (PsycINFO Database Record

Integrating human genome database into electronic health record with sequence alignment and compression mechanism.

With the initial completion of Human Genome Project, the post-genomic era is coming. Although the genome map of human has been decoded, the roles that each segment of sequences acts are not totally discovered. On the other hand, with the rapid expansion of sequence information, the issues of data compilation and data storage are increasingly important. In this paper, a "Human genome database system" is designed and implemented in National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH). By accessing this system, the doctors can store and manage the experimental sequence data. The achievement of this system is that it integrates the modules of sequence alignment and data compression. By embedding with the NCBI alignment program-blastall [1], it automatically aligns the uploaded sequences and searches for the corresponding genomic positions. Besides, the system encodes the differences between sequences, effectively compresses them and decreases the demand of storage spaces by the compression ratio at 12.28. At the same time, it offers a variety of query methods. Users can quickly access the interesting data by inputting the keywords of specimen number, GI and sequence position, etc. The electronic health record (EHR) in Health Information System (HIS) of NTUH is also combined in this system and the doctors can utilize the valuable information to figure out the relation between the diseases and genes. With this system, a genetic personal healthcare environment will be established in the future.