Benzalkonium chloride induces hematopoietic stem cell reduction and immunotoxicity in zebrafish larvae.

Benzalkonium chloride (BAC) is a broad-spectrum antibacterial agent that possesses cleaning and bactericidal properties, but impact of BAC on wellbeing of aquatic organisms remains uncertain. Consequently, in this current study, we have examined the immunotoxic potential of BAC in zebrafish embryos, thus marking it as the pioneering effort in this field. According to the findings, zebrafish embryos exposed to BAC exhibited a decline in yolk area that varied with the concentration, along with a significant decrease in the count of neutrophils, macrophages, red blood cells, and thymus T-cells. We observed significantly up-regulated expression of immune-related signaling genes such as cxcl-c1c, il-8, tir4 and inf-γ, but expression of nf-κb was downregulated. In addition, we observed a marked reduction in the number of hematopoietic stem cells in zebrafish larvae after BAC exposure, which could be the result of oxidative stress-mediated apoptosis. We found that compared with the control group, the number of red blood cells in juvenile zebrafish in BAC-exposure group was significantly down-regulated, which could be attributed to hematopoietic stem cell defect. Astaxanthin restored immune cells and hematopoietic stem cells after BAC exposure, whereas Inhibitor of Wnt Response-1(IWR-1) restored neutrophils after BAC exposure. The research findings demonstrated that exposure to BAC displayed harmful effects on the development and immune system of zebrafish embryos. These effects might be associated with alterations in reactive oxygen species(ROS) levels and activation of the Wnt signaling pathway caused by BAC.

Migrant adolescents' behavioral problems compared to host adolescents and adolescents in their region of origin: a longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND: Since the 1990s, families from the ecologically hostile mountainous southern areas of Ningxia Province, China, have been migrating to the northern areas of the province. This study compared the prevalence of behavioral problems among migrant adolescents to those among host adolescents (adolescents from the northern areas) and adolescents in the region of origin (adolescents from the southern areas), to determine whether ecological migration is related to adolescent behavioral problems, and possible changes in such problems over time. METHODS: We used the Children and Adolescents Ecological Migration Survey on Mental Health, administered to 4805 students aged 12-16 years and their parents between 2012 and 2014 (W1), of whom 1753 students and their parents completed the follow-up between 2014 and 2017 (W2). Parents answered questions related to adolescent behavioral problems, main source of family income, parents' desire to reverse migrate, improved standard of living, and parents' educational attainment, while children completed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and a classroom environment questionnaire. RESULTS: The prevalence of behavioral problems among the migrant adolescents (28.04%) was significantly higher than among host adolescents (21.59%) or adolescents in the region of origin (24.37%; p < 0.001) at W1. After adjusting for gender and age, parents' work outside the home was the main source of family income (OR = 1.42, 95% CI = 1.13-1.78), and adolescents' learning burden (OR = 1.04, 95% CI = 1.01-1.06) in school negatively influenced behavioral problems. Strong student-teacher relationships (OR = 0.97,95% CI = 0.94-0.99) and parents who had no intention to move back to the original residence (OR = 0.70, 95% CI = 0.52-0.94) exerted a protective effect at W1; at W2, a protective effect was associated with improved living conditions (OR = 0.39-0.55, 95% CI = 0.25-0.84). The extent of behavioral problems among migrant adolescents significantly decreased after two years. CONCLUSION: Ecological migration will increase children's behavioral problems in the early stage, with various factors influencing the extent of these problems.

Regional brain activity and connectivity associated with childhood trauma in drug-naive patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by intrusive thoughts and repetitive, compulsive behaviors, with childhood trauma recognized as a contributing factor to its pathophysiology. This study aimed to delineate brain functional aberrations in OCD patients and explore the association between these abnormalities and childhood trauma, to gain insights into the neural underpinnings of OCD. Forty-eight drug-naive OCD patients and forty-two healthy controls (HC) underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and clinical assessments, including the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) and Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF). Compared to HCs, OCD patients exhibited significantly decreased amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) in the right cerebellum, decreased regional homogeneity (ReHo) in the right cerebellum and right superior occipital lobes (FWE-corrected p < 0.05), which negatively correlated with Y-BOCS scores (p < 0.05). Furthermore, cerebellar ALFF negatively correlated with the CTQ emotional abuse subscale (r = - 0.514, p < 0.01). Mediation analysis revealed that cerebellar ALFF mediated the relationship between CTQ-emotional abuse and Y-BOCS (good model fit: R2 = 0.231, MSE = 14.311, F = 5.721, p < 0.01; direct effect, c' = 0.153, indirect effect, a*b = 0.191). Findings indicated abnormal spontaneous and regional cerebellar activity in OCD, suggesting childhood trauma impacts OCD symptoms through cerebellar neural remodeling, highlighting its importance for clinical treatment selection.

Alerting network, cognitive flexibility in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and the moderating effect of neuroticism.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder, and cognitive flexibility is a sub-component of executive functioning. Studies have shown impairments in cognitive flexibility in ADHD, which is affected by attentional processes. Personality, as a long-standing trait, has a profound effect on ADHD. However, previous studies have not assessed the relationship between attentional function, personality traits, and cognitive flexibility in children with ADHD. This study explored the association between attention networks, personality, and cognitive flexibility in ADHD, filling a gap in the related field. We expect our findings will provide insights into and clues for the prevention and interventional treatment of ADHD. This study primarily aimed to analyze differences in cognitive flexibility between individuals with ADHD and those without and further examine associations between attention networks, personality, and cognitive flexibility in children with ADHD. Overall, 55 children aged 7 to 11 years diagnosed with ADHD and 40 children without ADHD participated in this study. Cognitive flexibility, personality traits, and attentional networks were assessed using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and Attention Network Test, respectively. Additionally, the association between personality traits and strong attentional functioning and cognitive flexibility was investigated using multiple regression analysis. Children with ADHD had significant deficits in cognitive flexibility. A multiple regression analysis revealed that the alerting effect was highly associated with cognitive flexibility at high levels of neuroticism. This association was not salient in individuals with low levels of neuroticism. This study demonstrated that the ADHD group experienced lower cognitive flexibility than the control group. In addition, we showed the effect of neuroticism and alerting networks on cognitive flexibility. These findings may help psychiatrists provide intervention strategies to mitigate the impairment of social functioning in ADHD with cognitive spirituality deficits.

Cytokine levels in patients with non-M3 myeloid leukemia are key indicators of how well the disease responds to chemotherapy.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a malignant hematological neoplastic disease. Autocrine or paracrine cytokines released by leukemic cells regulate the proliferation of AML cells. It is uncertain whether cytokines can indicate whether patients with AML are in remission with chemotherapy. The goal of this study was to evaluate the levels of Th1/Th2/Th17 cytokines in AML patients before and after chemotherapy to determine whether the cytokine levels could predict disease remission after chemotherapy. It was found that the levels of IL-5, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, TNF-α, TNF-ß, IL-17F, and IL-22 were significantly increased at the time of AML diagnosis in patients who achieved remission after two chemotherapy treatments (P < 0.05). After chemotherapy, the cytokine levels were reduced in patients with remission, while the levels of IL-6 and IL-8 were raised in patients without remission (P < 0.05). A comparison of cytokine levels before and after chemotherapy in patients who achieved remission showed areas under the curve (AUCs) of 0.69 for both IL-6 and IL-8. In addition, a comparison of the remission and non-remission groups after chemotherapy showed an AUC of 0.77 for IL-6. We then calculated the cutoff value using receiver operating characteristic curves. Values of IL-6 < 9.99 and IL-8 < 8.46 at the time of diagnosis were predictive of chemotherapy success and remission, while IL-6 > 14.89 at diagnosis suggested that chemotherapy would not be successful and remission would not be achieved. Multifactorial analysis showed that age, Neu, IL-6, and IL-8 were independent risk factors for AML prognosis, and IL-6 (OR = 5.48, P = 0.0038) was superior to age (OR = 3.36, P = 0.0379), Neu (OR = 0.28, P = 0.0308), IL-8 (OR = 0.0421, P = 0.0421). In conclusion, IL-6 levels were found to be predictive of the likelihood of remission.

[Effects of Cytokines on Early Death in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect of cytokine levels on early death and coagulation function of patients with newly diagnosed acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). METHODS: Routine examination was performed on 69 newly diagnosed APL patients at admission. Meanwhile, 4 ml fasting venous blood was extracted from the patients. And then the supernatant was taken after centrifugation. The concentrations of cytokines, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and ferritin were detected by using the corresponding kits. RESULTS: It was confirmed that cerebral hemorrhage was a major cause of early death in APL patients. Elevated LDH, decreased platelets (PLT) count and prolonged prothrombin time (PT) were high risk factors for early death (P <0.05). The increases of IL-5, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12p70 and IL-17A were closely related to the early death of newly diagnosed APL patients, and the increases of IL-5 and IL-17A also induced coagulation disorder in APL patients by prolonging PT (P <0.05). In newly diagnosed APL patients, ferritin and LDH showed a positive effect on the expression of IL-5, IL-10 and IL-17A, especially ferritin had a highly positive correlation with IL-5 (r =0.867) and IL-17A (r =0.841). Moreover, there was a certain correlation between these five high-risk cytokines, among which IL-5 and IL-17A (r =0.827), IL-6 and IL-10 (r =0.823) were highly positively correlated. CONCLUSION: Elevated cytokine levels in newly diagnosed APL patients increase the risk of early bleeding and death. In addition to the interaction between cytokines themselves, ferritin and LDH positively affect the expression of cytokines, thus affecting the prognosis of APL patients.