Programmable DNA Templates for Silver Nanoclusters Synthesis To Develop On-Demand FRET Aptasensor.

DNA-templated silver nanoclusters (AgNCs-DNA) can be synthesized via a one-pot method bypassing the tedious process of biomolecular labeling. Appending an aptamer to DNA templates results in dual-functionalized DNA strands that can be utilized for synthesizing aptamer-modified AgNCs, thereby enabling the development of label-free fluorescence aptasensors. However, a major challenge lies in the necessity to redesign the dual-functionalized DNA strand for each specific target, thus increasing the complexity and hindering widespread application of these aptasensors. To overcome this challenge, we designed six DNA strands (DNA1-DNA6) that incorporate the templates for AgNCs synthesis and A4-linker for further aptamer coupling. Among all the synthesized AgNCs-DNA samples, it was found that both AgNCs-DNA1 and AgNCs-DNA2 stood out for their excellent long-term stability. After capturing the T4-linker that connected with aptamer1 specific for aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), however, we found that only AgNCs-DNA1/aptamer1 maintained excellent long-term stability. This finding highlighted the potential of AgNCs-DNA1 as a versatile label-free fluorescence probe for the development of on-demand fluorescence aptasensors. To emphasize its benefits in aptasensing applications, we utilized AgNCs-DNA1/aptamer1 as the fluorescence probe and MoS2 nanosheets as the quencher to develop a FRET aptasensor for AFB1 detection. This aptasensor demonstrated remarkable sensitivity, enabling the detection of AFB1 within a wide concentration range of 0.03-120 ng/mL, with a limit of detection as low as 3.6 pg/mL (S/N = 3). The versatility of the aptasensor has been validated through the recognition of diverse targets, employing aptamer2 specific for ochratoxin A and aptamer3 specific for zearalenone, thereby showcasing its extensive applicability for on-demand detection. The universal applicability of this aptasensor holds great promise for future applications in diverse fields including food safety, environmental monitoring, and clinical diagnosis.

Genome-wide identification of heat shock protein gene family and their responses to pathogen challenge in Trachinotus ovatus.

Heat Shock Proteins (HSPs) are a widely distributed family of proteins produced in response to heat and other stresses. To develop a deeper understanding of the mechanisms governing expression of HSPs in the bony fish Trachinotus ovatus, we carried out a whole genome analysis and identified 43 HSP genes. Based on their phylogenetic relationships with Danio rerio, Seriola dumerili, and Seriola lalandi, they were divided into four subfamilies: HSP20, HSP60, HSP70, and HSP90. We performed an analysis of the predicted physicochemical properties and subcellular localization of proteins encoded by these genes. The chromosomal localization results showed that the HSP genes are distributed across 20 chromosomes of T. ovatus.These genes were found to be expressed in different tissues, and they showed differential expression in the immune response against Streptococcus agalactiae. However, there was no significant differential expression in the different skin tissue locations of T. ovatus after infection by Cryptocaryon irritans Brown. This study provides basic information for further research on the evolution and structure and function of HSPs in teleosts.

Isolated superior mesenteric artery dissection with concomitant vascular aberrancy: Extremely rare cases and clinical implications.

OBJECTIVE: Vascular aberrancy of superior mesenteric artery (SMA) may contribute to the occurrence of SMA dissection. However, there is no direct evidence to support this hypothesis. Etiology, natural history, classification, and treatment options of ISMAD are still in controversial at some degree. We also review the current understanding of ISMAD based on our results. METHODS: Out of 57 patients, 2 cases of isolated superior mesenteric artery dissection (ISMAD) which concomitant with replaced common hepatic artery with SMA origin, are first reported. RESULTS: Two patients have no any typical etiological factors, such as atherosclerosis, hypertension, long-term smoking, and connective tissue disease. The contrast-enhanced computed tomography and (or) angiography showed concomitant SMA aberrancy. They have 81.2°, 132.7° SMA angle, respectively. After conservative treatment of 4, 6 days, respectively, these 2 patients were discharged smoothly. CONCLUSION: Vascular aberrancy may be a new identified risk factor for ISMAD. Even in ISMAD cases with vascular aberrancy, conservative treatment still can be used as first line therapy.

Affine image registration of arterial spin labeling MRI using deep learning networks.

Convolutional neural networks (CNN) have demonstrated good accuracy and speed in spatially registering high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) images. However, some functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) images, e.g., those acquired from arterial spin labeling (ASL) perfusion fMRI, are of intrinsically low SNR and therefore the quality of registering ASL images using CNN is not clear. In this work, we aimed to explore the feasibility of a CNN-based affine registration network (ARN) for registration of low-SNR three-dimensional ASL perfusion image time series and compare its performance with that from the state-of-the-art statistical parametric mapping (SPM) algorithm. The six affine parameters were learned from the ARN using both simulated motion and real acquisitions from ASL perfusion fMRI data and the registered images were generated by applying the transformation derived from the affine parameters. The speed and registration accuracy were compared between ARN and SPM. Several independent datasets, including meditation study (10 subjects × 2), bipolar disorder study (26 controls, 19 bipolar disorder subjects), and aging study (27 young subjects, 33 older subjects), were used to validate the generality of the trained ARN model. The ARN method achieves superior image affine registration accuracy (total translation/total rotation errors of ARN vs. SPM: 1.17 mm/1.23° vs. 6.09 mm/12.90° for simulated images and reduced MSE/L1/DSSIM/Total errors of 18.07% / 19.02% / 0.04% / 29.59% for real ASL test images) and 4.4 times (ARN vs. SPM: 0.50 s vs. 2.21 s) faster speed compared to SPM. The trained ARN can be generalized to align ASL perfusion image time series acquired with different scanners, and from different image resolutions, and from healthy or diseased populations. The results demonstrated that our ARN markedly outperforms the iteration-based SPM both for simulated motion and real acquisitions in terms of registration accuracy, speed, and generalization.

Construction of an alanine dehydrogenase gene deletion strain for vaccine development against Nocardia seriolae in hybrid snakehead (Channa maculata ♀ × Channa argus ♂).

Nocardia seriolae is the main pathogen of fish nocardiosis. In our previous study, alanine dehydrogenase was identified as a potential virulence factor of N. seriolae. On the basis of this fact, the alanine dehydrogenase gene of N. seriolae (NsAld) was knocked out to establish the strain ΔNsAld for vaccine development against fish nocardiosis in this study. The LD50 of strain ΔNsAld was 3.90 × 105 CFU/fish, higher than that of wild strain (5.28 × 104 CFU/fish) significantly (p < 0.05). When the strain ΔNsAld was used as a live vaccine to immunize hybrid snakehead (Channa maculata ♀ × Channa argus ♂) at 2.47 × 105 CFU/fish by intraperitoneal injection, the non-specific immune indexes (LZM, CAT, AKP, ACP and SOD activities), specific antibody (IgM) titers and several immune-related genes (CD4, CD8α, IL-1ß, MHCIα, MHCIIα and TNFα) were up-regulated in different tissues, indicating that this vaccine could induce humoral and cell-mediated immune responses. Furthermore, the relative percentage survival (RPS) of ΔNsAld vaccine was calculated as 76.48% after wild N. seriolae challenge. All these results suggest that the strain ΔNsAld could be a potential candidate for live vaccine development to control fish nocardiosis in aquaculture.

Computational Modeling to Determine the Effect of Phenotypic Heterogeneity in Tumors on the Collective Tumor-Immune Interactions.

Tumor immunotherapy aims to maintain or enhance the killing capability of CD8+ T cells to clear tumor cells. The tumor-immune interactions affect the function of CD8+ T cells. However, the effect of phenotype heterogeneity of a tumor mass on the collective tumor-immune interactions is insufficiently investigated. We developed the cellular-level computational model based on the principle of cellular Potts model to solve the case mentioned above. We considered how asymmetric division and glucose distribution jointly regulated the transient changes in the proportion of proliferating/quiescent tumor cells in a solid tumor mass. The evolution of a tumor mass in contact with T cells was explored and validated by comparing it with previous studies. Our modeling exhibited that proliferating/quiescent tumor cells, exhibiting distinct anti-apoptotic and suppressive behaviors, redistributed within the domain accompanied by the evolution of a tumor mass. Collectively, a tumor mass prone to a quiescent state weakened the collective suppressive functions of a tumor mass on cytotoxic T cells and triggered a decline of apoptosis of tumor cells. Although quiescent tumor cells did not sufficiently do their inhibitory functions, the possibility of long-term survival was improved due to their interior location within a mass. Overall, the proposed model provides a useful framework to investigate collective-targeted strategies for improving the efficiency of immunotherapy.

Design and implementation of a highly integrated dual hemisphere capsule robot.

To achieve cancer screening in any appointed position in 3D regions of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract such as esophagus, stomach and colon, a highly integrated dual hemisphere capsule robot (DHCR) with a novel three-layer nested structure is proposed. Based on tracking effect, in which the robotic axis is likely to be approximately coincident with the orientation of the space universal rotating magnetic field (SURMF) using the gyroscope dynamic balance, the dual hemisphere structure realizes the observation at a fixed-point in the passive mode and the rolling locomotion in the active mode by the dynamic posture control of the SURMF manipulation. The image acquisition module, wireless transmission module and driving actuator are tuned in a spherical structure, making the DHCR more compact and less invasive. To verify the maneuverability of the innovative DHCR both for observation at a fixed-point and navigation in curved intestine by aid of image, experiments are conducted in the simulated GI tract environment. The results show that the DHCR achieves effective conversion between posture adjustment and rolling locomotion, which lays a foundation for all-over inspection and medical operation inside 3D regions of the GI tract of human body.

Induction of attenuated Nocardia seriolae and their use as live vaccine trials against fish nocardiosis.

Nocardia seriolae, a Gram-positive facultative intercellular pathogen, has been identified as the causative agent of fish nocardiosis, causing substantial mortality and morbidity of a wide range of fish species. Looking into that fact, the effective vaccine against this pathogen is urgently needed to control the significant losses in aquaculture practices. In order to induct attenuated strains for developing the potential live vaccines, the mutagenic N. seriolae strain S-250 and U-20 were obtained from wild-type strain ZJ0503 through continuous passaging and ultraviolet (UV) irradiation, respectively. Additionally, the biological characteristic, virulence, stability, mediating immune response and supplying protective efficacy to hybrid snakehead of the S-250 and U-20 strains were determined in the present study. The results showed that U-20 strain displayed dramatic changes in morphological characteristic and significant decreased in the virulence to hybrid snakehead, while that of S-250 strain had no obvious different in comparison to ZJ0503 strain. When hybrid snakehead were intraperitoneally injected with ZJ0503, S-250 and U-20 strains at their respective sub-clinical dosage, the non-specific immunity parameters (serum LYZ, POD, ACP, AKP and SOD activities), specific antibody (IgM) titers production and immune-related genes (CC1, CC2, IL-1ß, IL-8, TNFα, IFNγ, MHCIα, MHCIIα, CD4, CD8α, TCRα and TCRß) expression were up-regulated, indicating that they were able to trigger humoral and cell-mediated immune responses. Furthermore, the protective efficacy in hybrid snakehead after vaccination with ZJ0503, S-250 and U-20 strains, in terms of relative percentage survival (RPS), were 28.85%, 56.89% and 89.65% respectively. Taken together, two attenuated N. seriolae strains S-250 and U-20 were obtained successfully and they could elicit strong immune response and supply protective efficacy to hybrid snakehead against N. seriolae, which suggested that these two attenuated strains were the potential candidates for live vaccine development to control fish nocardiosis in aquaculture.

Occupational health risk assessment of BTEX in municipal solid waste landfill based on external and internal exposure.

Benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) released from landfills have received increased attention because of their health risks. In this study, individual external and internal exposures of BTEX in a municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill were simultaneously studied for the first time. Eight workers from the landfill (as the case group) and eight control subjects were enrolled in the study. In total, 88 air samples and 232 urine samples (194 samples from the case group and 38 samples from the control group) were obtained from 2018 to 2019. According to the results of external exposure monitoring, benzene was the predominant component of BTEX, and the exposure level was higher in winter than in other seasons. Carcinogenic (RiskT) and noncarcinogenic (HIT) risks were calculated based on a dose-response model. The RiskT (1.64 × 10-8-1.09 × 10-6) might exceeded the limit, whereas HIT (9.84 × 10-4-1.40 × 10-2) was within their thresholds. Benzene was the major contributor to both RiskT and HIT. Internal exposures were evaluated by measuring urinary metabolites of BTEX. Levels of urinary BTEX metabolites for case group were higher than those for control group. A remarkable increase in urinary metabolites was observed from the urine samples of the case group after their shift compared with those before their shift. t,t-MA, the metabolite of benzene, was found to exceed the biomonitoring guidance limits of both China and the United States of America. Landfills can be considered as a potential BTEX exposure source for landfill employees. Minimizing occupational exposures and appropriate personal protective equipment are needed in reducing BTEX exposures.

Pharmacokinetics, bioavailability and metabolism of neferine in rat by LC-MS/MS and LC-HRMS.

In this study, a simple and sensitive analytical method based on liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was developed and validated for the determination of neferine in rat plasma. After acetonitrile-mediated protein precipitation, the samples were separated on an Acquity BEH C18 column (2.1 × 50 mm, 1.7 µm) maintained at 40°C. The mobile phase comprising 0.1% formic acid in water and acetonitrile was delivered at a flow rate of 0.4 ml/min. The mass detection was conducted using multiple reaction monitoring mode with ion transitions at 625.4 > 206.3 and m/z 622.9 > 380.9 for neferine and internal standard, respectively. The assay was demonstrated to be linear over the concentration range of 0.5-1,000 ng/ml, with correlation coefficient >0.999 (r > 0.999). The validated method was further applied to the pharmacokinetic study of neferine in rat plasma. In addition, the metabolism of neferine was investigated using high-resolution mass spectrometry. A total of six metabolites from rat liver microsomes and plasma were detected and their structures were identified according to their fragment ions. The proposed metabolic pathways of neferine were demethylation, dealkylation, dehydrogenation and glucuronidation.

OIP5-AS1 contributes to tumorigenesis in hepatocellular carcinoma by miR-300/YY1-activated WNT pathway.

BACKGROUND: It has reported that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) exerted regulatory functions by targeting specific genes through a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) pathway. LncRNA OIP5-AS1 has been identified as a tumor-enhancer in several tumor types. Nonetheless, its molecular mechanism in HCC remains to be masked. AIM OF THE STUDY: This study was aimed at exploring whether and how OIP5-AS1 exert functions in HCC. METHODS: qRT-PCR and western blot were employed for detecting gene expression. CCK-8, colony formation and EdU assays were implemented to evaluate the proliferative ability of HCC cells. Caspase-3 activity and flow cytometry analyses were implemented to determine cell apoptosis and cell cycle distribution. RNA pull down, ChIP, RIP and luciferase reporter assays explored the interplays between molecules. RESULTS: YY1 was upregulated in HCC cells, and silenced YY1 restrained HCC cell proliferation in vitro and hampered tumor growth in vivo. Later, we discovered that miR-300 could regulate WNT pathway via targeting YY1. Furthermore, OIP5-AS1 was identified as the sponge of miR-300 and promoted cell growth in HCC. Importantly, YY1 transcriptionally activate OIP5-AS1 in turn. Rescue experiments indicated that miR-300 inhibition or YY1 overexpression abrogated the inhibitive effect of OIP5-AS1 silencing on the malignant growth of HCC cells. CONCLUSIONS: OIP5-AS1/miR-300/YY1 feedback loop facilitates cell growth in HCC by activating WNT pathway.

VOCs released from municipal solid waste at the initial decomposition stage: Emission characteristics and an odor impact assessment.

The nuisance from odor caused by municipal solid waste (MSW) is resulting in a growing number of public complaints and concerns. Odor pollution occurs in the initial decomposition stage of MSW, including waste collection, transportation and early pre-treatment. Furthermore, decomposition takes place in waste facilities that are often close to living areas, which can result in odor impacts on local inhabitants. However, this aspect of odor impact from MSW has not been well studied. In the current study, lab-scale waste cells were designed to simulate MSW storage conditions in the early stage. The characteristics of VOCs emissions with different waste compositions were analyzed. The odor concentration (CO, non-dimensional) method and odor intensity were used for the assessment of odor. Ethanol was the substance with highest emission rate. The release rate of VOCs increased with the growth easily biodegradable waste (EBW). VOCs emissions was reduced by 25% when the proportion of EBW decreased from 60% to 45%. Methyl sulfide, ethanol, dimethyl disulfide and ethyl acetate were identified as typical odorants. The EBW proportion in waste is the main factor significantly influencing odor pollution. The CO was 244.51 for the 60% EBW condition, which was only 61.46 for 15% EBW condition. These study results provide important information for the implementation of a garbage sorting policy and the monitoring of odor pollution from waste management.

Factors affecting thrombohemorrhagic early death in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia treated with arsenic trioxide alone.

Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is often accompanied by a potentially devastating coagulopathy. Predictors of thrombohemorrhagic early death (TH-ED)/early bleeding death are not well characterized. In this retrospective study, eleven baseline clinical variables that can be assessed easily and promptly were chosen for evaluation in a cohort of 364 patients with APL who were administered arsenic trioxide (ATO) alone as remission induction therapy. TH-ED was defined as death from bleeding or thrombosis within 30 days after hospital admission. Cox proportional hazards regression model was used for both the univariate and multivariate analyses. Totally, 53 patients died from severe bleeding (51 cases) or thrombosis (2 cases), and at 30 days the cumulative incidences of TH-ED were 14.6%. Six independent risk factors for TH-ED were identified, including relapse, male, white blood cell (WBC) count above 10 × 109/L, fibrinogen level below 1 g/L, D-dimer level above 4 mg/L and increased creatinine level. Increased creatinine level was the most powerful risk factor, followed by WBC count > 10 × 109/L. This study identified risk factors for TH-ED in a large cohort of patients with APL, which enriched clinical information on identifying patients at high risk of TH-ED.

Difference in causes and prognostic factors of early death between cohorts with de novo and relapsed acute promyelocytic leukemia.

Early death (ED) remains the most critical issue in the current care of patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). Very limited data are available regarding ED in patients with relapsed APL. In this retrospective study, 285 de novo and 79 relapsed patients were included. All patients received single-agent arsenic trioxide as induction therapy. The differences in baseline clinical features, incidence, causes, and prognostic factors of ED were compared between the two patient cohorts. The relapse cohort exhibited a better overall condition than the de novo cohort upon hospital admission. The ED rate in the relapsed patients (24.1%) was somewhat higher than that in the de novo patients (17.9%), although the difference was not significant (P = 0.219). For both cohorts, hemorrhage was the main cause of ED, followed by differentiation syndrome, infection, and other causes. Increased serum creatinine level, older age, male sex, white blood cell (WBC) count > 10 × 109/L, and fibrinogen < 1 g/L were independently risk factors for ED in the de novo patients, whereas WBC count > 10 × 109/L, elevated serum uric acid level, and D-dimer > 4 mg/L were independent risk factors for ED in the relapsed patients. These data furnish clinically relevant information that might be useful for designing more appropriate risk-adapted treatment protocols aimed at reducing ED rate in patients with relapsed APL.

[Nursing care of endovascular aneurysm repair patients].

The treatment of aortic disease previously used conventional open surgery to replace the aorta with artificial vascular prosthesis after resecting the lesioned segment. The recently developed technique of endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) uses a stent graft to reinforce the diseased aortic wall while allowing blood flow continuity and preventing further aortic expansion, dissection and aortic rupture. Taiwan's National Health Insurance now covers payment for authorized EVAR procedures, making treatments safer for patients who are elderly, have congestive heart failure, have multiple comorbidities, or have other high-risk factors. EVAR is gradually replacing previous methods to become the primary treatment approach for aortic disease. This article discusses the development of EVAR, indications, operative procedures, complications, postoperative risk factors, and clinical nursing problems. We hope that this article provides new information on nursing care for patients undergoing endovascular aneurysm repair surgery.

Alpha-Asarone Ameliorates Neurological Dysfunction of Subarachnoid Hemorrhagic Rats in Both Acute and Recovery Phases via Regulating the CaMKII-Dependent Pathways.

Early brain injury (EBI) is the leading cause of poor prognosis for patients suffering from subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), particularly learning and memory deficits in the repair phase. A recent report has involved calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) in the pathophysiological process underlying SAH-induced EBI. Alpha-asarone (ASA), a major compound isolated from the Chinese medicinal herb Acorus tatarinowii Schott, was proven to reduce secondary brain injury by decreasing CaMKII over-phosphorylation in rats' model of intracerebral hemorrhage in our previous report. However, the effect of ASA on SAH remains unclear, and the role of CaMKII in both acute and recovery stages of SAH needs further investigation. In this work, we first established a classic SAH rat model by endovascular perforation and intraperitoneally administrated different ASA doses (10, 20, and 40 mg/kg) 2 h after successful modeling. Then, the short- and long-term neurobehavioral performances were blindly evaluated to confirm ASA's efficacy against SAH. Subsequently, we explored ASA's therapeutic mechanism in both acute and recovery stages using histopathological examination, TUNEL staining, flow cytometry, Western-blot, double-immunofluorescence staining, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation. Finally, KN93, a selective CaMKII inhibitor, was applied in oxyhemoglobin-damaged HT22 cells to explore the role of CaMKII in ASA's neuroprotective effect. The results demonstrated that ASA alleviated short- and long-term neurological dysfunction, reduced mortality and seizure rate within 24 h, and prolonged 14-day survival in SAH rats. Histopathological examination showed a reduction of neuronal damage and a restoration of the hippocampal structure after ASA treatment in both acute and recovery phases of SAH. In the acute stage, the Western-blot and flow cytometer analyses showed that ASA restored E/I balance, reduced calcium overload and CaMKII phosphorylation, and inhibited mitochondrion-involved apoptosis, thus preventing neuronal damage and apoptosis underlying EBI post-SAH. In the recovery stage, the TEM observation, double-immunofluorescence staining, and Western-blot analyses indicated that ASA increased the numbers of synapses and enhanced synaptic plasticity in the ipsilateral hippocampi, probably by promoting NR2B/CaMKII interaction and activating subsequent CREB/BDNF/TrkB signaling pathways. Furthermore, KN93 notably reversed ASA's neuroprotective effect on oxyhemoglobin-damaged HT22 cells, confirming CaMKII a potential target for ASA's efficacy against SAH. Our study confirmed for the first time that ASA ameliorated the SAH rats' neurobehavioral deterioration, possibly via modulating CaMKII-involved pathways. These findings provided a promising candidate for the clinical treatment of SAH and shed light on future drug discovery against SAH.

Neuroprotection of boropinol-B in cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury by inhibiting inflammation and apoptosis.

Ischemic stroke is the leading cause of death and disability worldwide. The activation of gamma-aminobutyric acid A (GABAA) receptors can attenuate cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury (CI/RI). Boropinol-B, originally isolated from Boronia pinnata Sm. (Rutaceae), has been proved the ability to activate GABAA receptors synergistically. However, whether boropinol-B has neuroprotection in CI/RI remains unknown. Here we reported the neuroprotective effect of boropinol-B on CI/RI and its underlying mechanism, focusing on inhibiting inflammation and apoptosis. The oxygen and glucose deprivation and reperfusion (OGD/R) cell model showed that boropinol-B could improve cell viability, mitigate cell injury, and inhibit apoptosis. In rats, the transient ischemic model was induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) for 2 h followed by reperfusion. Our results indicated that boropinol-B improved neurological scores, reduced cerebral infarction and neuronal necrosis of rats 24 h after ischemia, and prolonged median survival time after continuous administration for 14 days. Furthermore, we found that boropinol-B inhibited the over-activation of microglia and astrocytes, reduced the release of pro-inflammatory factors, and down-regulated the expression of matrix metalloproteinases-3/9, thus alleviating cerebral edema and blood-brain barrier dysfunction. Also, it suppressed apoptosis by increasing Bcl-2 expression and decreasing the expression of Bax, Active Caspase-3, and Cytochrome C. In conclusion, boropinol-B demonstrated anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic properties that contributed to the neuroprotective effect against CI/RI, suggesting that it may be an up-and-coming drug candidate to treat ischemic stroke.

Investigation and Countermeasures Research of Hospital Information Construction of Tertiary Class-A Public Hospitals in China: Questionnaire Study.

BACKGROUND: Medical informatization has initially demonstrated its advantages in improving the medical service industry. Over the past decade, the Chinese government have made a lot of effort to complete infrastructural information construction in the medical and health domain, and smart hospitals will be the next priority according to policies released by Chinese government in recent years. OBJECTIVE: To provide strategic support for further development of medical information construction in China, this study aimed to investigate the current situation of medical information construction in tertiary class-A public hospitals and analyze the existing problems and countermeasures. METHODS: This study surveyed 23 tertiary class-A public hospitals in China who voluntarily responded to a self-designed questionnaire distributed in April 2020 to investigate the current medical information construction status. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the current configurations of hospital information department, hospital information systems, hospital internet service and its application, and the satisfaction of hospital information construction. Interviews were also conducted with the respondents in this study for requirement analysis. RESULTS: The results show that hospital information construction has become one of the priorities of the hospitals' daily work, and the medical information infrastructural construction and internet service application of the hospitals are good; however, a remarkable gap among the different level of hospitals can be observed. Although most hospitals had built their own IT team to undertake information construction work, the actual utilization rate of big data collected and stored in the hospital information system was not satisfactory. CONCLUSIONS: Support for the construction of information technology in primary care institutions should be increased to balance the level of development of medical informatization in medical institutions at all levels. The training of complex talents with both IT and medical backgrounds should be emphasized, and specialized disease information standards should be developed to lay a solid data foundation for data utilization and improve the utilization of medical big data.

Immune Remodeling during Aging and the Clinical Significance of Immunonutrition in Healthy Aging.

Aging is associated with changes in the immune system and the gut microbiota. Immunosenescence may lead to a low-grade, sterile chronic inflammation in a multifactorial and dynamic way, which plays a critical role in most age-related diseases. Age-related changes in the gut microbiota also shape the immune and inflammatory responses. Nutrition is a determinant of immune function and of the gut microbiota. Immunonutrion has been regarded as a new strategy for disease prevention and management, including many age-related diseases. However, the understanding of the cause-effect relationship is required to be more certain about the role of immunonutrition in supporting the immune homeostasis and its clinical relevance in elderly individuals. Herein, we review the remarkable quantitative and qualitative changes during aging that contribute to immunosenescence, inflammaging and microbial dysbiosis, and the effects on late-life health conditions. Furthermore, we discuss the clinical significance of immunonutrition in the treatment of age-related diseases by systematically reviewing its modulation of the immune system and the gut microbiota to clarify the effect of immunonutrition-based interventions on the healthy aging.

Benzene, 1,2,4-Trimethoxy-5-(2-Methyl-1-Propen-1-yl) Attenuates D-galactose/AlCl3-induced Cognitive Impairment by Inhibiting Inflammation, Apoptosis, and improving Expression of Memory-Related Proteins.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by decreased learning ability and memory deficits. Our previous findings suggested that benzene, 1,2,4-trimethoxy-5-(2-methyl-1-propen-1-yl) (BTY) can ameliorate the dysfunction of GABAergic inhibitory neurons associated with neurological diseases. On this basis, we investigated the neuroprotective effect of BTY on AD and explored the underlying mechanism. This study included in vitro and in vivo experiments. BTY could maintain cell morphology, improve cell survival rate, reduce cell damage, and inhibit cell apoptosis in vitro experiments. Further, BTY has good pharmacological activity in vivo experiments, of which behavioral experiments showed that BTY could improve AD-like mice's learning and memory abilities. Besides, histopathological experiments indicated that BTY could maintain the morphology and function of neurons, reduce amyloid ß-protein 42 (Aß42) and phosphorylated tau (p-tau) accumulation, and decrease the levels of inflammatory cytokines. Finally, western blot experiments showed that BTY could inhibit the expression of apoptosis-related proteins and promote the expression of memory-related proteins. In conclusion, this study indicated that BTY may be a promising drug candidate for AD.