Dual-Carbon Phase-Encapsulated Prelithiated SiOx Microrod Anode for Lithium-Ion Batteries.

Among silicon-based anode family for Li-ion battery technology, SiOx, a nonstoichiometric silicon suboxide holds the potential for significant near-term commercial impact. In this context, this study mainly focuses on demonstrating an innovative SiOx@C anode design that adopts a pre-lithiation strategy based on in situ pyrolysis of Li-salt of silsesquioxane trisilanolate without the need for lithium metal or active lithium compounds and creates dual carbon encapsulation of SiOC nanodomains by simply one-step thermal treatment. This ingenious design ensures the pre-lithiation process and pre-lithiation material with high-environmental stability. Moreover, phenyl-rich organosiloxane clusters and polyacrylonitrile polymers are expected to serve as internal and external carbon source, respectively. The formation of an interpenetrating and continuous carbon matrix network would not only synergistically offer an improved electrochemical accessibility of active sites but also alleviate the volume expansion effect during cycling. As a result, this new type of anode delivered a high reversible capacity, remarkable cycle stability as well as excellent high-rate capability. In particular, the L2-SiOx@C material has a high initial coulomb efficienc of 80.4% and, after 500 cycles, a capacity retention as high as 97.5% at 0.5 A g-1 with a reversible specific capacity of 654.5 mA h g-1.

Cellenium-a scalable and interactive visual analytics app for exploring multimodal single-cell data.

SUMMARY: Multimodal single-cell sequencing data provide detailed views into the molecular biology of cells. To allow for interactive analyses of such rich data and to readily derive insights from it, new analysis solutions are required. In this work, we present Cellenium, our new scalable visual analytics web application that enables users to semantically integrate and organize all their single-cell RNA-, ATAC-, and CITE-sequencing studies. Users can then find relevant studies and analyze single-cell data within and across studies. An interactive cell annotation feature allows for adding user-defined cell types. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: Source code and documentation are freely available under an MIT license and are available on GitHub (https://github.com/Bayer-Group/cellenium). The server backend is implemented in PostgreSQL, Python 3, and GraphQL, the frontend is written in ReactJS, TypeScript, and Mantine css, and plots are generated using plotlyjs, seaborn, vega-lite, and nivo.rocks. The application is dockerized and can be deployed and orchestrated on a standard workstation via docker-compose.

Macrophages-derived exo-miR-4449 induced by Cryptococcus affects HUVEC permeability and promotes pyroptosis in BEAS-2B via the HIC1 pathway.

Macrophages have recently been discovered to assume a significant role in the progression of cryptococcosis. However, the potential involvement of macrophage-derived exosomes in the pathogenesis of cryptococcosis remains uncertain. In this study, we investigated the changes of microRNAs in macrophage exosomes (exo-miRNAs) in cryptococcal infections and the role of markedly altered exo-miRNAs in the modulation of Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVEC) permeability and ROS accumulation and pyroptosis in Human Bronchial Epithelioid Cells (BEAS-2B). Techniques such as microarray analysis and real-time quantitative PCR were used to detect different exo-miRNAs and to screen for the most highly expressed exo-miRNAs. Then its mimics were transfected into HUVEC to study its effect on the monolayer permeability of HUVEC. Finally, the relationship between this exo-miRNAs and the ROS accumulation and pyroptosis was verified by bioinformatics analysis. The results showed that five exo-miRNAs were overexpressed and two exo-miRNAs were reduced, among which, exo-miR-4449 was expressed at the highest level. Exo-miR-4449 could be internalized by HUVEC and enhanced its monolayer permeability. Moreover, exo-miR-4449 was found to promote ROS accumulation and pyroptosis in BEAS-2B through HIC1 pathway. Thus, exo-miR-4449 plays an important role in the pathogenesis of cryptococcosis and holds promise as a significant biomarker for treatment.

Antibiotic resistance of Helicobacter pylori in Chinese children: A multicenter study from 2016 to 2023.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the antibiotic resistance of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) strains to clarithromycin, metronidazole, amoxicillin, levofloxacin, furazolidone, and tetracycline in Chinese children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This multicenter, retrospective study was conducted from January 2016 through May 2023. Gastric mucosa biopsies were obtained from pediatric participants who underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy at 96 hospitals in northern, southwestern, and southeastern China. The susceptibility of H. pylori to six commonly used antibiotics was determined by agar dilution method. RESULTS: Among the 3074 H. pylori isolates, 36.7% were resistant to clarithromycin, 77.3% to metronidazole, 16.6% to levofloxacin, and 0.3% to amoxicillin. No strains were detected to be resistant to furazolidone or tetracycline. During the 8-year study period, resistance to clarithromycin and metronidazole showed a significant upward trend, while the resistance pattern of the other antibiotics demonstrated a slight but nonsignificant fluctuation. Significant regional differences were found in the distribution of clarithromycin resistance among the northern (66.0%), southwestern (48.2%), and southeastern (34.6%) regions. The metronidazole resistance rate was significantly lower in the southeastern coastal region (76.3%) than in the other two regions (88.2% in the north and 87.7% in the southwest). Multi-drug resistance for two or more antibiotics was detected in 36.3% of the H. pylori strains, and the predominant multi-resistance pattern was the dual resistance to clarithromycin and metronidazole. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of H. pylori resistance to clarithromycin and metronidazole is rather high in Chinese children and has been increasing over time. A relatively high resistance rate to levofloxacin was also noticed in children, while almost all strains were susceptible to amoxicillin, furazolidone, and tetracycline. It will be of great clinical significance to continuously monitor the antibiotic-resistance patterns of H. pylori in the pediatric population.

Cellular Regulation of Macropinocytosis.

Interest in macropinocytosis has risen in recent years owing to its function in tumorigenesis, immune reaction, and viral infection. Cancer cells utilize macropinocytosis to acquire nutrients to support their uncontrolled proliferation and energy consumption. Macropinocytosis, a highly dynamic endocytic and vesicular process, is regulated by a series of cellular signaling pathways. The activation of small GTPases in conjunction with phosphoinositide signaling pivotally regulates the process of macropinocytosis. In this review, we summarize important findings about the regulation of macropinocytosis and provide information to increase our understanding of the regulatory mechanism underlying it.

[Impact of primary duodenogastric reflux and Helicobacter pylori infection on gastritis and antibiotic resistance in children]. / å„¿ç«¥åŽŸå‘æ€§åäºŒæŒ‡è‚ èƒƒåæµä¸Žå¹½é—¨èžºæ†èŒæ„ŸæŸ“å¯¹èƒƒç‚Žå’ŒæŠ—ç”Ÿç´ è€è¯æ€§çš„å½±å“.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the risk factors for Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection in children with primary duodenogastric reflux (DGR) and its impact on gastritis and antibioticresistance. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed on the clinical data of 2 190 children who underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy in Wuxi Children's Hospital from January 2019 to February 2022, among whom 308 children were diagnosed with primary DGR. According to the presence or absence of HP infection, the children were classified to HP infection group (53 children) and non-HP infection group (255 children). The risk factors for HP infection and its impact on the incidence rate and severity of gastritis were analyzed. According to the presence or absence of primary DGR, 331 children with HP infection were classified to primary DGR group (29 children) and non-primary DGR group (302 children), and then the impact of primary DGR with HP infection on antibiotic resistance was analyzed. RESULTS: The HP infection group had a significantly higher age than the non-HP infection group (P<0.05), and there was a significant difference in the age distribution between the two groups (P<0.05), while there were no significant differences in the incidence rate and severity of gastritis between the two groups (P>0.05). The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that older age was a risk factor for HP infection in children with DGR (P<0.05). Drug sensitivity test showed that there were no significant differences in the single and combined resistance rates of metronidazole, clarithromycin, and levofloxacin between the primary DGR group and the non-primary DGR group (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Older age is closely associated with HP infection in children with DGR. Primary DGR with HP infection has no significant impact on gastritis and antibiotic resistance in children.

Alpha-1 antitrypsin inhibits fractalkine-mediated monocyte-lung endothelial cell interactions.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by nonresolving inflammation fueled by breach in the endothelial barrier and leukocyte recruitment into the airspaces. Among the ligand-receptor axes that control leukocyte recruitment, the full-length fractalkine ligand (CX3CL1)-receptor (CX3CR1) ensures homeostatic endothelial-leukocyte interactions. Cigarette smoke (CS) exposure and respiratory pathogens increase expression of endothelial sheddases, such as a-disintegrin-and-metalloproteinase-domain 17 (ADAM17, TACE), inhibited by the anti-protease α-1 antitrypsin (AAT). In the systemic endothelium, TACE cleaves CX3CL1 to release soluble CX3CL1 (sCX3CL1). During CS exposure, it is not known whether AAT inhibits sCX3CL1 shedding and CX3CR1+ leukocyte transendothelial migration across lung microvasculature. We investigated the mechanism of sCX3CL1 shedding, its role in endothelial-monocyte interactions, and AAT effect on these interactions during acute inflammation. We used two, CS and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) models of acute inflammation in transgenic Cx3cr1gfp/gfp mice and primary human endothelial cells and monocytes to study sCX3CL1-mediated CX3CR1+ monocyte adhesion and migration. We measured sCX3CL1 levels in plasma and bronchoalveolar lavage (BALF) of individuals with COPD. Both sCX3CL1 shedding and CX3CR1+ monocytes transendothelial migration were triggered by LPS and CS exposure in mice, and were significantly attenuated by AAT. The inhibition of monocyte-endothelial adhesion and migration by AAT was TACE-dependent. Compared with healthy controls, sCX3CL1 levels were increased in plasma and BALF of individuals with COPD, and were associated with clinical parameters of emphysema. Our results indicate that inhibition of sCX3CL1 as well as AAT augmentation may be effective approaches to decrease excessive monocyte lung recruitment during acute and chronic inflammatory states.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Our novel findings that AAT and other inhibitors of TACE, the sheddase that controls full-length fractalkine (CX3CL1) endothelial expression, may provide fine-tuning of the CX3CL1-CX3CR1 axis specifically involved in endothelial-monocyte cross talk and leukocyte recruitment to the alveolar space, suggests that AAT and inhibitors of sCX3CL1 signaling may be harnessed to reduce lung inflammation.

Activation of E3 ubiquitin ligase WWP2 by non-receptor tyrosine kinase ACK1.

WW domain containing E3 ubiquitin protein ligase 2 (WWP2) is a member of the NEDD4 E3 ubiquitin ligase family. WWP2 ligase activity is regulated by the 2, 3-linker auto-inhibition. Tyrosine phosphorylation of the 2, 3-linker was identified as an activating means for releasing the auto-inhibition of WWP2. However, the tyrosine kinase (TK) for the phosphorylation and activation remains unknown. In this report, we have found that non-receptor TK ACK1 binds to the WW3 domain of WWP2 and phosphorylates WWP2. ACK1 phosphorylates WWP2 at the 2, 3-linker and partially activates the ubiquitination ligase activity. Unexpectedly, tyrosine phosphorylation of the 2, 3-linker seems not a major mode for activation of WWP2, as ACK1 causes much higher activation of the 2, 3-linker tyrosine phosphorylation defective mutants of WWP2 than that of wild-type WWP2. Furthermore, epidermal growth factor (EGF) stimulates tyrosine phosphorylation of WWP2 and this EGF-stimulated phosphorylation of WWP2 is mediated by ACK1. Finally, knockdown of WWP2 by shWWP2 inhibits the EGF-dependent cell proliferation of lung cancer A549 cells, suggesting that WWP2 may function in the EGFR signaling in lung cancer progression. Taken together, our findings have revealed a novel mechanism underlying activation of WWP2.

Non-hippo kinases: indispensable roles in YAP/TAZ signaling and implications in cancer therapy.

The transcriptional co-activators Yes-associated protein (YAP) and PDZ-binding domain (TAZ) are the known downstream effectors of the Hippo kinase cascade. YAP/TAZ have been shown to play important roles in cellular growth and differentiation, tissue development and carcinogenesis. Recent studies have found that, in addition to the Hippo kinase cascade, multiple non-Hippo kinases also regulate the YAP/TAZ cellular signaling and produce important effects on cellular functions, particularly on tumorigenesis and progression. In this article, we will review the multifaceted regulation of the YAP/TAZ signaling by the non-Hippo kinases and discuss the potential application of the non-Hippo kinase-regulated YAP/TAZ signaling for cancer therapy.

Hydrogen-rich water alleviates chilling injury-induced lignification of kiwifruit by inhibiting peroxidase activity and improving antioxidant system.

BACKGROUND: Kiwifruit is prone to chilling stress and displays chilling injury (CI) such as lignification; however, the underlying physicochemical mechanism remains largely unknown. Here, the changes in levels of quality attributes, lignin biosynthesis, antioxidant system and sugars were compared in kiwifruit between control and hydrogen-rich water (HRW) treatments during cold storage for 90 days at 0 °C. RESULTS: The results reveal that HRW is an effective measure for CI alleviation, as indicated by the decrease in lignification level with repressed peroxidase activity but enhanced polyphenol oxidase activity. The amelioration of membrane peroxidation was suggested by the repressed levels of H2 O2 and malondialdehyde. They were accompanied by the improvement of antioxidant system, which is supported by the enhancement of sugars including fructose and glucose. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, HRW can enhance chilling tolerance, as suggested by the alleviation of lignification through inhibiting peroxidase activity and elevating the antioxidant system to attenuate membrane peroxidation. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.

BMSCs mediates endothelial cell autophagy by upregulating miR-155-5p to alleviate ventilator-induced lung injury.

In this study, we explored to detect the effects and mechanism of bone-marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) on ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI). We transplanted BMSCs in mice and then induced VILI using mechanical ventilation (MV) treatment. The pathological changes, the content of PaO2 and PaCO2 , wet/dry weight ratio (W/D) of the lung, levels of tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-6 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, and apoptosis were detected. The autophagy-associated factor p62, LC3, and Beclin-1 expression were analyzed by western blot. The quantitative polymerase chain reaction was applied to detect abnormally expressed microRNAs, including miR-155-5p. Subsequently, we overexpressed miR-155-5p in VILI mice to detect the effects of miR-155-5p on MV-induced lung injury. Then, we carried out bioinformatics analysis to verify the BMSCs-regulated miR-155-5p that target messenger RNA. It was observed that BMSCs transplantation mitigated the severity of VILI in mice. BMSCs transplantation reduced lung inflammation, strengthened the arterial oxygen partial pressure, and reduced apoptosis and the W/D of the lung. BMSCs promoted autophagy of pulmonary endothelial cells accompanied by decreased p62 and increased LC3 II/I and Beclin-1. BMSCs increased the levels of miR-155-5p in VILI mice. Overexpression of miR-155-5p alleviated lung injury in VILI mice following reduced apoptosis and increased autophagy. Finally, TAB2 was identified as a downstream target of miR-155-5p and regulated by miR-155-5p. BMSCs may protect lung tissues from MV-induced injury, inhibit lung inflammation, promote autophagy through upregulating of miR-155-5p.

UV-C treatment inhibits browning, inactivates Pseudomonas tolaasii and reduces associated chemical and enzymatic changes of button mushrooms.

BACKGROUND: Button mushrooms with completely white appearance are popular with consumers. However, button mushrooms are susceptible to infection with Pseudomonas tolaasii, which results in browning. This study evaluates the effects of ultraviolet-C (UV-C) treatment on the inactivation of P. tolaasii in vitro and in vivo and on the physiological and chemical changes of button mushrooms during storage for 21 days at 4 °C. RESULTS: UV-C doses of 0.5 to 9.0 kJ m-2 resulted in 3.91-6.26 log CFU mL-1 reduction of P. tolaasii populations in vitro, and UV-C treatment reduced P. tolaasii populations inoculated on mushroom cap surfaces and browning severity. Moreover, P. tolaasii increased polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity, and decreased phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) activity, the accumulation of phenolics and contents of brown melanin precursors, including γ-l-glutaminyl-4-hydroxybenzene (GHB), γ-l-glutaminyl-3,4-dihydroxybenzene (GDHB), and tyrosine in button mushrooms. UV-C treatment was found to reduce the negative changes due to P. tolaasii infection. CONCLUSION: These results indicated that the application of UV-C treatment inhibited browning, inactivated P. tolaasii and reduced P. tolaasii - associated chemical and enzymatic changes of button mushrooms. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.

Compositional and functional alterations of gut microbiota in patients with stroke.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: There is accumulating evidence that gut microbiota plays a key role in cardiovascular diseases. Gut bacteria can transform dietary choline, l-carnitine, and trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) into trimethylamine, which can be oxidized into TMAO again in the liver. However, the alterations of the gut microbiota in large artery atherosclerotic (LAA) stroke and cardioembolic (CE) stroke have been less studied. METHODS AND RESULTS: We performed a case-control study in patients with LAA and CE types of strokes. We profiled the gut microbiome using Illumina sequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene (V4-V5 regions), and TMAO was determined via liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Our results showed that the TMAO levels in the plasma of patients with LAA and CE strokes were significantly higher than those in controls (LAA stroke, 2931 ± 456.4 ng/mL; CE stroke, 4220 ± 577.6 ng/mL; healthy control, 1663 ± 117.8 ng/mL; adjusted p < 0.05). The TMAO level in the plasma of patients with LAA stroke was positively correlated with the carotid plaque area (rho = 0.333, 95% CI = 0.08-0.55, p = 0.0093). Notably, the composition and the function of gut microbiota in the LAA stroke group were significantly different from those in the control group (FDR-adjusted p-value < 0.05). There was no significant association between gut microbiota and CE stroke in our study. CONCLUSION: This study provides evidence for significant compositional and functional alterations of the gut microbiome in patients with LAA stroke. Gut microbiota might serve as a potential biomarker for patients with LAA stroke.

Jasmonic acid and salicylic acid induce the accumulation of sucrose and increase resistance to chilling injury in peach fruit.

BACKGROUND: Salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid (JA) can both enhance resistance of chilling injury (CI) in cold-storage peach fruit, but the regulatory mechanisms involved and whether there is a coordinated regulation between them is unclear. In this study, postharvest peach fruit were treated with an aqueous SA solution for 15 min or an aqueous JA solution for 30 s before storage at 4 °C for 35 days. RESULTS: SA and JA treatments both delayed and reduced development of internal browning (a symptom of CI) and induced the accumulation of hydrogen peroxide and sucrose. The SA and JA also reduced catalase and peroxidase activities, which are involved in hydrogen peroxide generation. The SA and JA treatments significantly regulated the transcript abundance of genes related to sucrose biosynthesis and degradation consistent with the observed increase in sucrose content. CONCLUSION: These results intimate that JA and SA may be involved in coordinating the alleviation of CI via increased accumulation of sucrose. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.

Cascaded Cross-Modality Fusion Network for 3D Object Detection.

We focus on exploring the LIDAR-RGB fusion-based 3D object detection in this paper. This task is still challenging in two aspects: (1) the difference of data formats and sensor positions contributes to the misalignment of reasoning between the semantic features of images and the geometric features of point clouds. (2) The optimization of traditional IoU is not equal to the regression loss of bounding boxes, resulting in biased back-propagation for non-overlapping cases. In this work, we propose a cascaded cross-modality fusion network (CCFNet), which includes a cascaded multi-scale fusion module (CMF) and a novel center 3D IoU loss to resolve these two issues. Our CMF module is developed to reinforce the discriminative representation of objects by reasoning the relation of corresponding LIDAR geometric capability and RGB semantic capability of the object from two modalities. Specifically, CMF is added in a cascaded way between the RGB and LIDAR streams, which selects salient points and transmits multi-scale point cloud features to each stage of RGB streams. Moreover, our center 3D IoU loss incorporates the distance between anchor centers to avoid the oversimple optimization for non-overlapping bounding boxes. Extensive experiments on the KITTI benchmark have demonstrated that our proposed approach performs better than the compared methods.

Analysis of Phenolic Components and Related Biological Activities of 35 Apple (Malus pumila Mill.) Cultivars.

Apple (Malus pumila Mill.) is a popular fruit with high economic values and various biological activities that are beneficial to human health. In this study, 35 apple cultivars were collected and were evaluated for their basic quality indexes, phenolic compositions, antioxidant activity, anti-tumour, and anti-diabetic activities. The compositions of phenolics were detected by using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and high-resolution mass spectroscopy (HRMS) assays. The antioxidant activities of peel and pulp extracts from 35 apple cultivars were evaluated by using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging assay and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay. Results showed that the contents of phenolic acids and proanthocyanidins showed significant correlations with the antioxidant activities. Phenolic-rich extracts significantly inhibited HepG2 cell proliferation, with the inhibition activity varied significantly between cultivars. 'Gold Delicious' pulp extract, 'Xiboliyabaidian' peel and pulp extracts showed protective effects on H2O2-induced injury of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). 'Red Fuji' peel extract, 'Xiboliyabaidian' peel and pulp extracts, as well as 'Gold Delicious' peel extract, significantly increased glucose consumption of HepG2 cells, in a dose-dependent manner. This research may provide theoretical guidance for further nutritional investigation of the apple resources.

The HECT E3 ubiquitin ligase NEDD4 interacts with and ubiquitylates SQSTM1 for inclusion body autophagy.

Our previous studies have shown that the HECT E3 ubiquitin ligase NEDD4 interacts with LC3 and is required for starvation and rapamycin-induced activation of autophagy. Here, we report that NEDD4 directly binds to SQSTM1 via its HECT domain and polyubiquitylates SQSTM1. This ubiquitylation is through K63 conjugation and is not involved in proteasomal degradation. Mutational analysis indicates that NEDD4 interacts with and ubiquitylates the PB1 domain of SQSTM1. Depletion of NEDD4 or overexpression of the ligase-defective mutant of NEDD4 induced accumulation of aberrant enlarged SQSTM1-positive inclusion bodies that are co-localized with the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) marker CANX, suggesting that the ubiquitylation functions in the SQSTM1-mediated biogenic process in inclusion body autophagosomes. Taken together, our studies show that NEDD4 is an autophagic E3 ubiquitin ligase that ubiquitylates SQSTM1, facilitating SQSTM1-mediated inclusion body autophagy.

The Hippo signaling effector WWTR1 is a metastatic biomarker of gastric cardia adenocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Gastric cardia adenocarcinoma (GCA) is an aggressive subtype of gastric cancer with a high metastatic rate. However, the metastatic biomarker of GCA has not been established. METHODS: To search for the biomarker for GCA metastasis, we here examined expression of the Hippo signaling effector WWTR1 (WW domain containing transcription regulator 1, commonly listed as TAZ) in tumor tissue samples from 214 GCA cases using the tissue microarray assay (TMA), and statistically analyzed association of the WWTR1 expression with metastasis-related pathological outcomes and cumulative survival of the GCA patients. Furthermore, shRNA knockdown was used to determine the role of WWTR1 in promoting cell migration in gastric cancer cells. RESULTS: The results have shown that WWTR1 is overexpressed in 66.4% of the GCA tumor samples. Expression of WWTR1 has a significant inverse correlation with cumulative survival of GCA patients (p < 0.01). WWTR1 positive patients had a mean survival of 56.9 ± 4.4 months, comparing to WWTR1 negative mean survival of 77.3 ± 5.9 months. More importantly, expression of WWTR1 significantly associated with tumor invasion and metastasis (in T stage, p = 0.031; N stage, p < 0.01; and TNM stage, p < 0.001). Furthermore, knockdown of WWTR1 impaired migration of gastric cancer AGS cells. CONCLUSIONS: Our studies have identified WWTR1 as a metastatic biomarker of GCA for poor prognosis, defined a role of WWTR1 in driving metastasis of gastric cancer, and suggested WWTR1 as a potential target for anti-metastatic therapy of GCA.

Mutation of IFNLR1, an interferon lambda receptor 1, is associated with autosomal-dominant non-syndromic hearing loss.

Background Hereditary sensorineural hearing loss is a genetically heterogeneous disorder. Objectives This study was designed to explore the genetic etiology of deafness in a large Chinese family with autosomal dominant, nonsyndromic, progressive sensorineural hearing loss (ADNSHL). Methods Whole exome sequencing and linkage analysis were performed to identify pathogenic mutation. Inner ear expression of Ifnlr1 was investigated by immunostaining in mice. ifnlr1 Morpholino knockdown Zebrafish were constructed to explore the deafness mechanism. Results We identified a cosegregating heterozygous missense mutation, c.296G>A (p.Arg99His) in the gene encoding interferon lambda receptor 1 (IFNLR1) - a protein that functions in the Jak/ STAT pathway- are associated with ADNSHL Morpholino knockdown of ifnlr1 leads to a significant decrease in hair cells and non-inflation of the swim bladder in late-stage zebrafish, which can be reversed by injection with normal Zebrafish ifnlr1 mRNA. Knockdown of ifnlr1 in zebrafish causes significant upregulation of cytokine receptor family member b4 (interleukin-10r2), jak1, tyrosine kinase 2, stat3, and stat5b in the Jak1/STAT3 pathway at the mRNA level. ConclusionIFNLR1 function is required in the auditory system and that IFNLR1 mutations are associated with ADNSHL. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study implicating an interferon lambda receptor in auditory function.

Changes in serum pepsinogen levels and their value as a predictor of treatment outcomes in children with peptic ulcer.

AIM: To investigate pepsinogen secretion from the neonatal stage to childhood and its diagnostic value for peptic ulcer (PU) in children. METHODS: In this study, 2114 'healthy' children and 51 children with PUs undergoing a medical examination by gastroscopy were selected as subjects. The serum content of pepsinogen I (PGI) and serum pepsinogen II (PGII) was tested for each of the subjects using time-resolved fluorescence immunoassay, which is characterised by high sensitivity and a wide measuring range. RESULTS: The serum PGI and PGII levels were found to increase with age, becoming stable and similar to those of adults at the age of 16. In 51 children with PUs, PGI was 201.03 ± 30.74 ng/mL before treatment and 187.92 ± 19.86 ng/mL after treatment (P > 0.05); PGII was 17.36 ± 1.47 ng/mL before treatment and 17.20 ± 3.98 ng/mL after treatment (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: It is difficult to establish the normal range of PG in children owing to its variance by age. However, if the normal reference range for individual age groups is known, it may still serve as a useful diagnosis system as well as a detecting indicator during the course of PU treatment. There are significant differences in PGI expression in children with PU before and after PU is cured, whereas other indicators show no differences before and after treatment.