Polysaccharides from Balanophora harlandii Hook: Isolation, characterization, and anti-inflammation activities.

Balanophora harlandii Hook (B. harlandii), a folk medicine, has been traditionally employed to treat traumatic bleeding, gastroenteritis, icteric hepatitis, hemorrhoids, and other conditions. In this work, polysaccharides with anti-inflammatory effects were extracted from B. harlandii and purified. The extraction conditions were optimized, and the properties of one purified neutral fraction, denoted as BHPs-W-S3, were analyzed. BHPs-W-S3 has a molecular weight of 14.1 kDa, and its three main monosaccharides are glucose, galactose, and xylose, with a molar ratio of 6.4:1.7:1.1. Its main chain consists of →6)-α-D-Glcp-(1→, →4,6)-α-D-Glcp-(1→, →6)-ß-D-Galp-(1→, →3,6)-ß-D-Galp-(1→, and it has branch chains at the O-4 and/or O-3 positions. In addition, in vitro experiments showed that the polysaccharides from B. harlandi can decrease the phosphorylation level of p65 and IκBα in LPS-induced RAW264.7 cells to reduce the expression of the pro-inflammatory genes such as TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1ß.

Hybrid algorithm for initial phase calibration of optical phased array.

The synthesis of laser coherence and the accuracy of beam scanning, which are based on an optical phased array (OPA), are severely constrained by phase noise. This limitation hampers their applications in various fields. Currently, the most widely utilized calibration method is adaptive optics, which can effectively mitigate phase noise and enhance the quality of the output beam. However, because of the multiple array elements of the OPA and the large optimization range for each element, the adaptive optimization method experiences slow convergence and a high risk of falling into local optima. We propose a narrowing search range algorithm that can quickly reduce phase noise by narrowing the search range of the optimal value. After initial optimization, the SPGD algorithm was used. This study was verified through simulations and experiments utilizing the OPA of various array elements. These findings indicate that the hybrid algorithm expedites the calibration process, requires simple experimental equipment, and can be broadly utilized.

LINC00667: A Novel Vital Oncogenic LincRNA.

Long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs) have a variety of properties that differ from those of messenger RNAs (mRNAs) encoding proteins. Long intergenic nonprotein coding RNA 667 (LINC00667) is a non-coding transcript located on chromosome 18p11.31. Recently, many studies have found that LINC00667 can enhance the progression of various cancers and play a key part in a lot of diseases, such as tumorigenesis. Therefore, LINC00667 can be recognized as a potential biomarker and therapeutic target. So, we reviewed the biological functions, relevant mechanisms, as well as clinical significance of LINC00667 in several human cancers in detail.

Composite scanning mechanism based on an aperiodic optical phased array.

A composite scanning mechanism is proposed based on an aperiodic optical phased array (OPA). The OPA of this scheme has a two-stage scanning mode of sub-aperture multi-beam and single-beam high-resolution scanning. The scanning mode can be adaptively switched according to different environmental conditions. While retaining the advantages of high-speed and multi-target detection of sub-aperture multi-beam steering, a high-resolution scanning of the region of interest is realized. Simultaneously, the array distribution of the phased array is optimized using the adaptive-reference-point-based multi-objective evolutionary algorithm to reduce the grating lobe. The research conducted provides ideas for OPAs in practical applications.

LncSNHG14 promotes nutlin3a resistance by inhibiting ferroptosis via the miR-206 /SLC7A11 axis in osteosarcoma cells.

The most prevalent form of primary osseous malignant tumor in adolescents and children is osteosarcoma (OS). A combination of surgery and neoadjuvant/post-surgery chemotherapy is currently the standard therapy. While the chemoresistance associated with OS generally leads to poor efficacy of therapeutic agents, the relevant molecular interaction is still elusive. Here, the lncRNA (long non-coding RNA) SNHG14 was found to be significantly upregulated in the nutlin3a-resistant OS cell line NR-SJSA1 and contributes to treatment resistance by suppressing ferroptosis. In NR-SJSA1 cells, knockdown of LncRNA SNHG14 resulted in a reversal of drug resistance and activation of ferroptosis, which disappeared when ferrostatin-1, a ferroptosis inhibitor, was added. Mechanistically, lncRNA SNHG14 targeted and down-regulated the expression of miR-206, further affecting the common ferroptosis inhibitor SLC7A11, and preventing NR-SJSA1 cells from undergoing ferroptosis. In conclusion, our findings highlight the involvement of lncRNA SNHG14 in ferroptosis and chemotherapy resistance of nutlin3a-resistant NR-SJSA1 cells, thus shedding new insight on how to overcome drug resistance in osteosarcoma cells and improve treatment efficacy.

An investigation of codon usage pattern analysis in pancreatitis associated genes.

BACKGROUND: Pancreatitis is an inflammatory disorder resulting from the autoactivation of trypsinogen in the pancreas. The genetic basis of the disease is an old phenomenon, and evidence is accumulating for the involvement of synonymous/non-synonymous codon variants in disease initiation and progression. RESULTS: The present study envisaged a panel of 26 genes involved in pancreatitis for their codon choices, compositional analysis, relative dinucleotide frequency, nucleotide disproportion, protein physical properties, gene expression, codon bias, and interrelated of all these factors. In this set of genes, gene length was positively correlated with nucleotide skews and codon usage bias. Codon usage of any gene is dependent upon its AT and GC component; however, AGG, CGT, and CGA encoding for Arg, TCG for Ser, GTC for Val, and CCA for Pro were independent of nucleotide compositions. In addition, Codon GTC showed a correlation with protein properties, isoelectric point, instability index, and frequency of basic amino acids. We also investigated the effect of various evolutionary forces in shaping the codon usage choices of genes. CONCLUSIONS: This study will enable us to gain insight into the molecular signatures associated with the disease that might help identify more potential genes contributing to enhanced risk for pancreatitis. All the genes associated with pancreatitis are generally associated with physiological function, and mutations causing loss of function, over or under expression leads to an ailment. Therefore, the present study attempts to envisage the molecular signature in a group of genes that lead to pancreatitis in case of malfunction.

Preliminary Expression Analysis of the OSCA Gene Family in Maize and Their Involvement in Temperature Stress.

Hyperosmolality-gated calcium-permeable channels (OSCA) are characterized as an osmosensor in plants; they are able to recognize and respond to exogenous and endogenous osmotic changes, and play a vital role in plant growth and adaptability to environmental stress. To explore the potential biological functions of OSCAs in maize, we performed a bioinformatics and expression analysis of the ZmOSCA gene family. Using bioinformatics methods, we identified twelve OSCA genes from the genome database of maize. According to their sequence composition and phylogenetic relationship, the maize OSCA family was classified into four groups (Ⅰ, Ⅱ, Ⅲ, and Ⅳ). Multiple sequence alignment analysis revealed a conserved DUF221 domain in these members. We modeled the calcium binding sites of four OSCA families using the autodocking technique. The expression profiles of ZmOSCA genes were analyzed in different tissues and under diverse abiotic stresses such as drought, salt, high temperature, and chilling using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). We found that the expression of twelve ZmOSCA genes is variant in different tissues of maize. Furthermore, abiotic stresses such as drought, salt, high temperature, and chilling differentially induced the expression of twelve ZmOSCA genes. We chose ZmOSCA2.2 and ZmOSCA2.3, which responded most strongly to temperature stress, for prediction of protein interactions. We modeled the calcium binding sites of four OSCA families using autodocking tools, obtaining a number of new results. These results are helpful in understanding the function of the plant OSCA gene family for study of the molecular mechanism of plant osmotic stress and response, as well as exploration of the interaction between osmotic stress, high-temperature stress, and low-temperature stress signal transduction mechanisms. As such, they can provide a theoretical basis for crop breeding.

LncRNA KCNQ1OT1: Molecular mechanisms and pathogenic roles in human diseases.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) exhibit a length more than 200 nucleotides and they are characterized by non-coding RNAs (ncRNA) not encoded into proteins. Over the past few years, the role and development of lncRNAs have aroused the rising attention of researchers. To be specific, KCNQ1OT1, the KCNQ1 opposite strand/antisense transcript 1, is clearly classified as a regulatory ncRNA. KCNQ1OT1 is capable of interacting with miRNAs, RNAs and proteins, thereby affecting gene expression and various cell functions (e.g., cell proliferation, migration, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), apoptosis, viability, autophagy and inflammation). KCNQ1OT1 is dysregulated in a wide range of human diseases (e.g., cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and cataract), and it is speculated to act as a therapeutic target for treating various human diseases. On the whole, this review aims to explore the biological functions, underlying mechanisms and pathogenic roles of KCNQ1OT1 in human diseases.

NEAT1: A Novel Long Non-coding RNA Involved in Mediating Type 2 Diabetes and its Various Complications.

BACKGROUND: Nuclear-enriched abundant transcript 1 (abbreviated as NEAT1) is a long-chain noncoding RNA involved in various physiological and pathological processes. This study aimed to clarify the effect and molecule system of NEAT1 within non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) as well as type 2 diabetes (T2DM). METHODS: In this review, current studies concerning mechanisms of NEAT1l, in the development of type 2 diabetes and its complications have been summarized and analyzed. Also, we searched the papers based on NEAT1 related to NAFLD. The related studies were obtained through a systematic search of Pubmed. RESULTS: NEAT1 displays a close correlation with how T2DM occurs and develops, and it was confirmed to be significantly up-regulated in T2DM and its various complications (e.g., diabetics nephropathy, diabetics cardiomyopathy, diabetics retinopathy as well as diabetic neuropathy). Besides, NEAT1 is capable of impacting the occurrence, development and prognosis of NAFLD and T2DM. CONCLUSION: LncRNA NEAT1 is likely to act as a novel therapeutic target for T2DM and its complications. Moreover, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is also correlated with NEAT1.

Biological function of calcium-sensing receptor (CAS) and its coupling calcium signaling in plants.

The calcium-sensing receptor (CAS), as a chloroplast thylakoid membrane protein, is involved in the process of external Ca2+-induced cytosolic Ca2+ increase in plants. However, the underlying mechanism regulating this process is lacking. Furthermore, recent evidence suggests that CAS may perform additional roles in plants. Here, we provided an update covering the multiple roles of CAS in stomatal movement regulation and Ca2+ signaling in plants. We also analyzed the possible phosphorylation mechanism of CAS by light and discuss the role of CAS in abiotic stress (drought, salt stress) and biotic stresses (plant immune signaling). Finally, we proposed a perspective for future experiments that are required to fill gaps in our understanding of the biological function of CAS in plants.

The Role of LncRNA TUG1 in Obesity-related Diseases.

As the living standards of people are increasingly improved, obesity has become a hotspot in our daily life. Obesity has been found as a chronic and recurrent disease with serious adverse consequences. Over the past few years, several articles indicated that long non-coding RNA taurine increased gene 1 (lncRNA TUG1), a useful RNA, which was indicated to show a relationship to obesity- related disease occurrence and development. Exosomes are recognized as an emerging research field that includes substances actively involved in regulating the molecular mechanisms of disease. This review summarizes the current relevant TUG1 in different molecular pathways of obesityassociated diseases, the correlation between exosomes and TUG1, or obesity-associated diseases. The aim is to explore TUG1 as a novel target for obesity, which can deepen the knowledge regarding the epigenetic regulation pathway. Furthermore, it is expected to focus on diseases associated with obesity treatment and diagnosis.

Dietary Intake of Hydrolyzable Tannins and Condensed Tannins to Regulate Lipid Metabolism.

Lipid metabolism disorder is a multifactor issue, which contributes to several serious health consequences, such as obesity, hyperlipidemia, atherosclerosis diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver, etc. Tannins, applied as naturally derived plants, are commonly used in the study of lipid metabolism disease with excellent safety and effectiveness while producing less toxic and side effects. Meanwhile, recognition of the significance of dietary tannins in lipid metabolism disease prevention has increased. As suggested by existing evidence, dietary tannins can reduce lipid accumulation, block adipocyte differentiation, enhance antioxidant capacity, increase the content of short-chain fatty acids, and lower blood lipid levels, thus alleviating lipid metabolism disorder. This study is purposed to sum up and analyze plenty of documents on tannins, so as to provide the information required to assess the lipid metabolism of tannins.

Long Non-Coding RNA GAS5 in Age-Related Diseases.

Aging refers to a natural process and a universal phenomenon in all cells, tissues, organs, and the whole organism. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are non-coding RNAs with a length of 200 nucleotides. LncRNA growth arrest-specific 5 (lncRNA GAS5) is often down-regulated in cancer. The accumulation of lncRNA GAS5 has been found to be able to inhibit cancer growth, invasion, and metastasis while enhancing the sensitivity of cells to chemotherapy drugs. LncRNA GAS5 can be a signaling protein, which is specifically transcribed under different triggering conditions. Subsequently, it is involved in signal transmission in numerous pathways as a signal node. LncRNA GAS5, with a close relationship to multiple miRNAs, was suggested to be involved in the signaling pathway under three action modes (i.e., signal, bait, and guidance). LncRNA GAS5 was found to be involved in different age-related diseases (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis, type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis, cancer, etc.). This study mainly summarized the regulatory effect exerted by lncRNA GAS5 on age-related diseases.

H19: A Vital Long Noncoding RNA in the Treatment of Diabetes and Diabetic Complications.

BACKGROUND: Increasing academic efforts have been made to explore the correlation of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) with human diseases, particularly metabolic diseases like diabetes mellitus. Taking lncRNA H19 as an example, this review intends to reveal the functions and mechanism of lncRNA H19 in diabetes mellitus and diabetic complications. METHODS: The research results associated with lncRNA H19 and diabetes mellitus are collected and summarized on PubMed. CONCLUSION: LncRNA H19 is a potential instructive marker for the treatment of diabetes mellitus and diabetic complications.

Dynamic observation of 5-fluorouracil-induced myocardial injury and mitochondrial autophagy in aging rats.

Patients treated with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) can develop rare but potentially severe cardiac effects, including cardiomyopathy, angina pectoris, heart failure and cardiogenic shock. The specific pathologies and underlying mechanisms are yet to be fully understood. The results of previous studies have indicated that mitochondrial autophagy is widely detected in many angiocardiopathies. In the present study, the dynamic changes in the homeostasis of mitochondrial injury and autophagy were observed in rats treated with 5-FU for different durations. A corresponding control group and a 5-FU model group were established in groups of Sprague-Dawley rats aged 2 and 18 months, and the myocardial enzyme levels were determined at different time points. At 2 weeks post-model establishment, cardiac ultrasound and myocardial histological staining were performed, cardiomyocyte apoptosis and myocardial mitochondrial function were assessed, and mitochondrial ultrastructure was examined. In addition, the expression levels of autophagy-related proteins were evaluated in the 18-month-old rats on days 7 and 14 of 5-FU administration. The experimental results demonstrated that 5-FU induced an elevation in the levels of myocardial enzymes, as well as changes in the cardiac structure and function, and that these changes were more prominent over longer drug durations. In addition, 5-FU decreased the levels of myocardial mitochondrial ATP and mitochondrial membrane potential, and aggravated myocardial fibrosis and cardiomyocyte apoptosis compared with those observed in the untreated control group, treated with the same volume of saline as 5-FU in the 5-FU group. These injuries were particularly evident in aging rats. Notably, 5-FU increased the expression levels of myocardial mitochondrial autophagy-related proteins, and electron microscopy revealed a more severe autophagic state in the model groups compared with that in the control groups. In conclusion, 5-FU induced myocardial mitochondrial damage, the degree of which was more severe in aging rats compared with that in young rats. The mitochondrial autophagy induced by 5-FU was excessive, and the degree of autophagy was aggravated with increased 5-FU administration time.

Astragaloside IV ameliorates fat metabolism in the liver of ageing mice through targeting mitochondrial activity.

Astragaloside IV (AST) is a major bioactive compound of Radix Astragali with medical and health benefits. Previous studies have found that AST can reduce the body weights of high-fat diet fed mice. However, the effect of AST on fat metabolism of ageing mice is unclear. In this study, naturally ageing mice were administered intragastrically with AST at 30 mg/kg/day (ageing + AST-L group) and 90 mg/kg/day (ageing + AST-H group) for 16-20 months. Adult (4 months old) and ageing mice were given 1% sodium carboxyl methylcellulose as vehicle. Energy metabolism-related biological parameters of living mice were examined. Moreover, mRNA and protein levels of key enzymes/proteins involved in triglyceride (TG) lipolysis, fatty acid ß-oxidation (FAO), ketone body (KB) production and mitochondrial respiratory chain were also examined after sacrifice. Results demonstrated that treatment with AST significantly reduced body weight, white fat and liver/body weight ratio of ageing mice, significantly reduced serum/hepatic TG levels, respiratory quotient, promoted fatty acid mobilization in white adipose tissue, mitochondrial FAO and KB production and mitochondrial biosynthesis/functions in the liver of ageing mice. AST also up-regulated the expression of phosphorylated AMP-activated protein kinase, acetyl-CoA carboxylase, acetyl-coenzyme A synthetase, carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1a/1b, enoyl coenzyme A hydratase-short chain, acyl-CoA dehydrogenase medium chain and mitochondrial 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA synthase-2 involved in fat metabolism. These results indicated that mitochondrial activity could be the target of AST to treat abnormal fat metabolism during ageing.

Discrimination of Patients with Varying Degrees of Coronary Artery Stenosis by ECG and PCG Signals Based on Entropy.

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of cardiovascular death. This study aimed to propose an effective method for mining cardiac mechano-electric coupling information and to evaluate its ability to distinguish patients with varying degrees of coronary artery stenosis (VDCAS). Five minutes of electrocardiogram and phonocardiogram signals was collected synchronously from 191 VDCAS patients to construct heartbeat interval (RRI)-systolic time interval (STI), RRI-diastolic time interval (DTI), HR-corrected QT interval (QTcI)-STI, QTcI-DTI, Tpeak-Tend interval (TpeI)-STI, TpeI-DTI, Tpe/QT interval (Tpe/QTI)-STI, and Tpe/QTI-DTI series. Then, the cross sample entropy (XSampEn), cross fuzzy entropy (XFuzzyEn), joint distribution entropy (JDistEn), magnitude-squared coherence function, cross power spectral density, and mutual information were applied to evaluate the coupling of the series. Subsequently, support vector machine recursive feature elimination and XGBoost were utilized for feature selection and classification, respectively. Results showed that the joint analysis of XSampEn, XFuzzyEn, and JDistEn had the best ability to distinguish patients with VDCAS. The classification accuracy of severe CHD-mild-to-moderate CHD group, severe CHD-chest pain and normal coronary angiography (CPNCA) group, and mild-to-moderate CHD-CPNCA group were 0.8043, 0.7659, and 0.7500, respectively. The study indicates that the joint analysis of XSampEn, XFuzzyEn, and JDistEn can effectively capture the cardiac mechano-electric coupling information of patients with VDCAS, which can provide valuable information for clinicians to diagnose CHD.

Detection of Coronary Artery Disease Using Multi-Domain Feature Fusion of Multi-Channel Heart Sound Signals.

Heart sound signals reflect valuable information about heart condition. Previous studies have suggested that the information contained in single-channel heart sound signals can be used to detect coronary artery disease (CAD). But accuracy based on single-channel heart sound signal is not satisfactory. This paper proposed a method based on multi-domain feature fusion of multi-channel heart sound signals, in which entropy features and cross entropy features are also included. A total of 36 subjects enrolled in the data collection, including 21 CAD patients and 15 non-CAD subjects. For each subject, five-channel heart sound signals were recorded synchronously for 5 min. After data segmentation and quality evaluation, 553 samples were left in the CAD group and 438 samples in the non-CAD group. The time-domain, frequency-domain, entropy, and cross entropy features were extracted. After feature selection, the optimal feature set was fed into the support vector machine for classification. The results showed that from single-channel to multi-channel, the classification accuracy has increased from 78.75% to 86.70%. After adding entropy features and cross entropy features, the classification accuracy continued to increase to 90.92%. The study indicated that the method based on multi-domain feature fusion of multi-channel heart sound signals could provide more information for CAD detection, and entropy features and cross entropy features played an important role in it.

Ubiquitin­proteasomes are the dominant mediators of the regulatory effect of microRNA­1 on cardiac remodeling after myocardial infarction.

Patients with ischemic hearts who have refused coronary vascular reconstruction may exhibit dynamic myocardial remodeling and cardiac dysfunction. In the present study, the role of miRNA­1 and its association with the ubiquitin­proteasome system (UPS) in regulating myocardial remodeling was investigated. A myocardial infarction (MI) model was constructed and the hearts were treated with miRNA­1 antagomir, miRNA­1 lentiviral vectors and the UPS proteasome blocker bortezomib. The expression levels of miRNA­1 were evaluated using reverse transcription PCR and the abundance of the ubiquitin­proteasome protein and caspase­3 were evaluated via western blot analysis. Furthermore, the collagen volume fraction was calculated using Masson's trichrome staining, and the apoptosis index was detected via terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP­biotin nick end labeling staining. Transforming growth factor (TGF)­ß expression was assessed via immunohistochemical staining. Echocardiographic characteristics and myocardial infarct size were analyzed. miRNA­1 expression levels were found to be increased following MI. miRNA­1 antagomir administration clearly inhibited miRNA­1 expression, whereas the miRNA­1 lentiviral vector exerted the opposite effect. The levels of 19s proteasome, 20S proteasome and ubiquitin ligase E3 were decreased in the miRNA­1 antagomir group, but were significantly increased in the miRNA­1 lentiviral group; however, only 20S proteasome expression was decreased in the bortezomib group. Collagen hyperplasia and TGF­ß expression were decreased in both the miRNA­1 antagomir and bortezomib groups, although the effects of the miRNA­1 antagomir were more noticeable. The miRNA­1 antagomir and the UPS proteasome blocker both alleviated the ultrastructural impairments, demonstrated by a decreased left ventricular (LV) end­diastolic diameter and LV mass, but the miRNA­1 antagomir was also able to increase LV ejection fraction and LV fractional shortening. miRNA­1 regulated UPS­associated mRNA expression and affected the majority of the UPS components in the myocardium, thereby leading to increased myocardial cell apoptosis, myocardial fibrosis and remodeling. The miRNA­1 antagomir exerted a more prominent cardioprotective effect compared with the UPS proteasome blocker bortezomib.

Statistical properties of dynamic speckles in application to laser focusing systems.

Dynamic speckles, which carry information about beam parameters of a diffuse object, are produced by a moving diffuse object under illumination of a Gaussian beam. In this paper, we consider that the diffuse object moves in a plane with constant velocity and discuss the statistical properties of dynamic speckles for estimating the variation of focusing spot size. The space-time statistical properties of dynamic speckle have been revealed by analyzing the space-time cross-correlation function of speckle intensity fluctuations detected at two points in the receiving plane. We discuss the influence of the distance between two point detectors on the detection results by simulation analyses, and the theoretical analysis results are verified by experiment. This method, which applies feedback of the dynamic speckle fields for estimating the variation of focusing spot size, will help a laser focusing system optimize focusing performance.