Analysis of the Influence of Serum MMP-2 and vWF Levels on the Predictive Value of Risk Grade and Prognosis of Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

The expression of serum MMP-2 and von Willebrand factor (vWF) in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) at different risks and their predictive value and prognostic impact were investigated. A total of 105 AML patients admitted to our hospital from February 2020 to February 2022 are divided into group A (32 cases), group B (46 cases), and group C (27 cases) according to risk stratification from low to high. The patients in the three groups are treated with induction chemotherapy according to the risk grade, and the expression of serum matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and vWF antigen in the three groups are detected before and after treatment. Pearson correlation is used to analyze the correlation between MMP-2 and vWF expression and prognosis of AML patients. ROC curve is used to analyze the predictive value of MMP-2 and vWF expression for risk grading of AML patients. MMP-2 and vWF are highly expressed in middle and high-risk patients, had high predictive value for the risk grade of AML patients, and are correlated with the prognosis of AML patients to a certain extent.

Upregulation of Synuclein-γ and Snai1 Contributes to Poor Clinical Prognosis in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Patients.

Synuclein-γ (SNCG) and Snai1 play an important role in the occurrence and development of different types of malignant tumors. However, the association between SNCG and Snai1 and the effect of their combination on oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) are unknown. The purpose of this study was to assess the expression of SNCG and Snai1 in OSCC tissues and their role in the genesis, development, diagnosis, and prognosis of OSCC. In this study, we first analyzed the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database to determine the expression of SNCG and Snai1 in OSCC. And we also evaluated the correlation between the expression of SNCG and Snai1 and clinical pathological parameters in OSCC from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Then, the expression of SNCG and Snai1 in OSCC and its adjacent tissues in our experimental cohort were detected by qRT-PCR, Western blot, and immunohistochemistry, and the relationship between their expression and clinical pathological parameters were analyzed. At the same time, the correlation between the expression of SNCG and Snai1 was analyzed from the TCGA, GEO database, and our experimental cohort. Next, the ROC curves were constructed to explore the diagnostic value of SNCG and Snai1 in OSCC. Finally, the survival curves were drawn, and the univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed to determine the prognostic value of SNCG and Snai1 in OSCC. The study found that SNCG and Snai1 were highly expressed in OSCC tissues. The expression of SNCG was related to the differentiation of OSCC, while that of Snai1 was related to the T stage, lymph node metastasis, clinical stage, and differentiation. Besides, the expression of SNCG in OSCC was positively correlated with that of Snai1. In addition, we also found that SNCG and Snai1 could well distinguish OSCC patients from normal people; especially, the combined diagnosis of SNCG and Snai1 had a better effect, with a specificity up to 96.67%. Moreover, SNCG-negative/Snai1-negative OSCC patients had the best prognosis. Multivariate analysis displayed that SNCG-positive expression was an independent risk factor for prognosis in OSCC patients. The results of this study strongly suggested that SNCG and Snai1 might have a cooperative effect in the occurrence and development of OSCC. They may become new markers for the diagnosis and prognosis of OSCC.

Metabolic profiling unravels the effects of enhanced output and harvesting time on royal jelly quality.

Royal jelly (RJ), a natural secretion of nurse bees, is a functional food with health-promoting properties. To investigate RJ quality changes with enhanced output and harvesting time, we compared metabolic profiles of RJ harvested at 24 h, 48 h, and 72 h after larval grafting into queen cells from Italian bees (ITBs) and high RJ-producing bees (RJBs) selected from ITBs. A total of 77 high-abundance compounds were identified with reverse-phase liquid chromatography- and hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry. Metabolite abundance, water content, and antibacterial activity were found largely unchanged between both bee strains, indicating that a similar RJ quality was achieved. Notably, the observed 10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid content in RJBs (1.98%) and ITBs (2.41%) meet the standard for premium RJ in China. RJ harvested at 48 h and 72 h had similar metabolic profiles, indicating little influence of the two harvesting times on RJ quality. The harvesting at 24 h could lead to a higher RJ quality with higher abundance levels of many bioactive compounds and lower water content. Our data based mainly on RJ metabolic composition constitute evidence for mass production of high-quality RJ.

[Expression of MiR-429 in Patients with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and Its Prognostic Value].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the expression level of miR-429 in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia(ALL) and its clinical prognostic value. METHODS: One hundred and Twenty-six patients with ALL treated in our hospital from April 2016 to February 2018 were selected, and 100 healthy persons in the same period were selected as control group. Bone marrow mononuclear cells were collected. The expression level of miR-429 in bone marrow mononuclear cells was detected by RT-PCR, and the correlation of miR-429 expression with clinical characteristics and therapeutic efficacy was analyzed. Kaplan-Meier method and multi-factorial Cox regression model were used to analyze the correlation between the level of microRNA-429 and the prognosis of ALL patients. RESULTS: The relative level of miR-429 in ALL patients was 2.47±0.07, which was signifi-cantly higher than that in control group (P<0.05). The level of miR-429 significantly correlated with the leucocyte level（r=0.994）, LDH（r=0.992）, the ratio of bone marrow primordial cells（r=0.995） and risk grade of ALL patients（r=0.991). The level of miR-429 not correlate with the age, sex, Hb level, Plt level and immunophenotype of ALL patients (P>0.05). The level of miR-429 was not significantly different between CR patients and control group (P>0.05); the level of miR-429 in PR patients was higher than that in control group and CR patients (P<0.05). The level of miR-429 in NR patients was higher than that in other groups (P<0.05). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the overall survival rate of ALL patients with low expression of miR-429 was better than that of ALL patients with high expression of miR-429 (P<0.05). Univariate Cox regression analysis showed that leukocyte level, ratio of bone marrow primordial cells, Hb and LDH level, risk grading and miR-429 were the factors influencing overall survival rate in ALL patients (P<0.05). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that leukocyte level, ratio of bone marrow primordial cells, risk grading, and miR-429 were the factors influencing overall survival rate (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The expression of miR-429 is high in ALL patients, which closely relates to the curative effect and pro-gnosis of ALL patients, and can be used as a reference index for evaluation of clinical prognosis of ALL patients.

Mitochondrial genome characterization of the family Trigonidiidae (Orthoptera) reveals novel structural features and nad1 transcript ends.

The Trigonidiidae, a family of crickets, comprises 981 valid species with only one mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) sequenced to date. To explore mitogenome features of Trigonidiidae, six mitogenomes from its two subfamilies (Nemobiinae and Trigonidiinae) were determined. Two types of gene rearrangements involving a trnN-trnS1-trnE inversion and a trnV shuffling were shared by Trigonidiidae. A long intergenic spacer was observed between trnQ and trnM in Trigonidiinae (210-369 bp) and Nemobiinae (80-216 bp), which was capable of forming extensive stem-loop secondary structures in Trigonidiinae but not in Nemobiinae. The anticodon of trnS1 was TCT in Trigonidiinae, rather than GCT in Nemobiinae and other related subfamilies. There was no overlap between nad4 and nad4l in Dianemobius, as opposed to a conserved 7-bp overlap commonly found in insects. Furthermore, combined comparative analysis and transcript verification revealed that nad1 transcripts ended with a U, corresponding to the T immediately preceding a conserved motif GAGAC in the superfamily Grylloidea, plus poly-A tails. The resultant UAA served as a stop codon for species lacking full stop codons upstream of the motif. Our findings gain novel understanding of mitogenome structural diversity and provide insight into accurate mitogenome annotation.

The complete mitochondrial genome of a field cricket Turanogryllus eous (Insecta: Orthoptera).

The complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of a field cricket Turanogryllus eous Bey-Bienko, 1956 was determined using next-generation sequencing. The mitogenome was 16,045 bp in length comprising 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, two ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes, and a control region. Relative to the ancestral insect gene order, T. eous possessed an inversion of trnN-trnS1-trnE. The control region contained 3.4 tandem copies of a 194-bp sequence. Phylogenetic analysis supported that T. eous was sister to the clade comprising Teleogryllus and Velarifictorus. This study provides essential genetic information for genetic diversity analysis of T. eous.

The prognostic value of pretreatment neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio in breast cancer: Deleterious or advantageous?

Breast cancer is one of the leading malignant tumors that endanger women's health worldwide. Despite the rapid progress on the therapies, including chemotherapy, surgical resection, and other auxiliary methods, there were still numerous people died of breast cancer, which promoted the researchers to concentrate on the prognostic factor of breast cancer. In recent years, an increasing number of studies have been focused on the prognostic value of pretreatment neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio in breast cancer. This article is a brief review of the associations between neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and the prognosis of breast cancer patients, which may give a greater insight into the development of breast cancer and enable clinicians to cure it completely.

The effect of fetal and early postnatal iron deficiency on iron metabolism in adult rats.

Undernutrition during pregnancy and/or lactation plays an important role on the overall health of offspring later in life. Using a rodent model, the present study was conducted to examine the effect of fetal and early postnatal iron deficiency on iron metabolism in adult animals. Rats were treated with three stages of low or normal iron diets from gestation until the end of the study. During the first stage (4 weeks prior to 3 weeks after pregnancy, total 7 weeks), two groups of adult females (dams) were fed with either a low-iron (7.4 mg iron/kg, group LD) or control-iron (274 mg/kg, group CD) diet. During the second stage (from 3 to 13 weeks of age, total 10 weeks), all pups from stage 1 (both the LD and CD groups) were placed on a control-iron diet for 10 weeks (groups LD-CD and CD-CD, respectively). During the third stage (from 13 to 29 weeks of age, total 16 weeks), both LD-CD and CD-CD groups from stage 2 were fed with a low-iron (named LD-CD-LD and CD-CD-LD groups, respectively). We found that the live birth rate of the offspring of the LD dams (84.7 %) was significantly lower than that of the CD dams (95.4 %). During stage 2, the mean body weight of the LD-CD male or LD-CD female rats exceeded the CD-CD male rats (p < 0.05). Compared with the CD-CD-LD rats, the LD-CD-LD rats had significantly increased total iron binding capacity, and higher levels of transferrin, serum erythropoietin (EPO), renal EPO mRNA, duodenal divalent metal transporter-1, and renal transferrin receptors. These findings indicate that rats with an early-life experience of iron deficiency (during pregnancy and the nursing period) can develop stronger iron absorption capabilities in adulthood.

Water-soluble and fluorescent dendritic perylene bisimides for live-cell imaging.

We prepared dendritic perylene bisimide probes with triblock structures: perylene bisimides fluorescence cores, branched oligo(glutamic acid)s and polyethylene glycol chains. These probes showed good water solubility, low cytotoxicity and strong fluorescence in live cells.