ATF1/miR-214-5p/ITGA7 axis promotes osteoclastogenesis to alter OVX-induced bone absorption.

BACKGROUND: The dynamic balance of osteoblast and osteoclast is critical for bone homeostasis and overactive osteoclastic function may lead to osteoporosis. Activating transcription factor 1 (ATF1) is involved in osteoclastogenesis. However, the detailed mechanisms remain to be explored. METHODS: RAW264.7 cells were used and induced toward osteoclast by RANKL administration. We performed flow cytometry, CCK-8 assay and tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) staining to examine cell apoptosis, proliferation and differentiation of RAW264.7 cells, respectively. Mice were subjected to ovariectomy to induce osteoporosis. Micro CT, HE staining and TRAP staining were performed to evaluate bone loss in the OVX mouse model. Bioinformatics methods, luciferase assays and Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP) were used to predict and validate the interaction among ATF1, miR-214-5p, and ITGA7. RESULTS: ATF1 and miR-214-5p were up-regulated while ITGA7 was inhibited in RANKL-induced osteoclasts. MiR-214-5p was transcriptionally activated by ATF1. ATF1 knockdown suppressed osteoclast formation by miR-214-5p inhibition. ITGA7 was the direct target of miR-214-5p. Knockdown of miR-214-5p abolished osteoclastogenesis, which was reversed by ITGA7 knockdown. In OVX model, miR-214-5p knockdown suppressed osteoclast differentiation and prevented bone loss. CONCLUSION: ATF1/miR-214-5p/ITGA7 axis regulated osteoclast formation both in vivo and in vitro, thereby affecting OVX-induced bone resorption in mice. Knockdown of ATF1 might be a promising strategy to manage osteoporosis.

Evaluation of Xpert GBS assay and Xpert GBS LB assay for detection of Streptococcus agalactiae.

BACKGROUND: Group B Streptococcal (GBS) infection is the primary agent of neonatal morbidity and mortality. Rapid and simple methods to detect GBS are Xpert GBS and GBS LB assays based on real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). However, since the diagnostic accuracy of the two techniques in diagnosing GBS remains unclear, we designed this study to appraise the diagnostic accuracy of the aforementioned. METHODS: A systematic search of all literature published before July 16, 2020 was conducted using Embase, PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library. The study quality was evaluated through Review Manager 5.3. Accordingly, data extracted in the included studies were analyzed using Meta-DiSc 1.4 and Stata 12.0 software. The diagnosis odds ratio (DOR) and bivariate boxplot were utilized to evaluate the heterogeneity. Publication bias was appraised by using Deeks' funnel plot. RESULTS: A total of 13 studies were adopted and only 19 sets of data met the criteria. The sensitivity and specificity of Xpert GBS were 0.91 (95% CI 0.89-0.92) and 0.93 (95% CI 0.92-0.94). The area under the curve (AUC) was 0.9806. The sensitivity and specificity results of Xpert GBS LB were 0.96 (95% CI 0.95-0.98) and 0.94 (95% CI 0.92-0.95), respectively. The AUC was 0.9950. No publication bias was found. CONCLUSIONS: The Xpert GBS and GBS LB assays are valuable alternative methods with high sensitivity and specificity. However, determining whether they can be used as clinical diagnostic standards for GBS is essential for the future.

Immediate early response 3 gene promotes aggressive progression and autophagy of AML by negatively regulating AKT/mTOR.

BACKGROUND: Immediate early response 3 (IER3) plays a vital role in many tumors. This study aims to explore the function and mechanism of IER3 in Acute myeloid leukemia (AML). METHODS: The expression of IER3 in AML was performed by bioinformatics analysis. CCK-8 proliferation assay, flow cytometry cycle assay, clone formation assay, and tumorigenic ability were used to investigate the effect of IER3 on AML cells. Unbiased label-free quantitative proteomics and label-free quantitative phosphoproteomics analysis were performed. The regulatory relationship between SATB1(Special AT-rich sequence binding protein 1) and IER3 was investigated by Real time-PCR, Western blot, Chromatin immunoprecipitation (CHIP), and PCR. RESULTS: The result indicated that the prognosis of the high IER3 expression group was significantly worse than that of the low expression group. CCK-8 assay showed that IER3 enhanced the proliferation ability. Cell cycle analysis showed IER3 could promote HL60 cells to enter the S phase of DNA synthesis from the quiescent phase. IER3 could stimulate HEL cells to enter mitosis. Clone-formation experiments suggested that IER3 enhanced clonogenic ability.IER3 promoted the tumorigenesis of AML. Further experimental investigation revealed that IER3 promoted autophagy and induced the occurrence and development of AML by negatively regulating the phosphorylation activation of AKT/mTOR pathway. SATB1 was found to bind to the promoter region of IER3 gene and negatively regulate its transcription. CONCLUSION: IER3 could promote the development of AML and induce autophagy of AML cells by negatively regulating the phosphorylation and activation of AKT/mTOR. By the way, SATB1 may negatively target regulates IER3 transcription.

[Identification of major components of traditional Chinese medicine Naodesheng tablet by HPLC-DAD-MS(n)].

OBJECTIVE: To identify the major components of traditional Chinese medicine Naodesheng tablet. METHODS: A HPLC-DAD-MS(n) based method was developed to analyze and identify the major components of Naodesheng tablet. Separation was performed on an Agilent Zorbax SB-C(18) column (4.6 mm X 250 mm, i.d, 5 µm) with mobile phase consisting of water with 0.05 % formic acid and acetonitrile as gradient eluent at the flow rate of 0.5 ml.min(-1). RESULTS: A total of 43 components were detected, among which 22 were identified by comparing their UV absorption profiles, the information of molecular Glucosyl puerarin weights, and structures provided by ESI-MS(n) with those of available standards and reference data, such as Safflor yellow A, 4'-O-Glucosyl puerarin, 3'-hydroxypuerarin, Genistein-8-C-apiosyl (1-6) glucoside, Puerarin, 6"-O-xylosyl puerarin, 6"-O-apiosyl puerarin, 3'-methoxy puerarin, 3'-methoxy-6"-o-xylosyl puerarin, Daidzin, Genistin, Pueroside A, Notoginsenoside R(1), Ginsenoside Re, Ginsenoside Rg1,Daidzein,Biochanin A,Ginsenoside Rb(1), Ginsenoside Rc, Ginsenoside Rb(2), Ginsenoside Rb(3), Ginsenoside Rd. CONCLUSION: The proposed method can identify the main components of Naodesheng tablet and provide information for the quality control of this medicine.

Design and Implementation of Chinese Common Braille Translation System Integrating Braille Word Segmentation and Concatenation Rules.

An important sign of the accessibility of Braille information is the realization of the mutual translation between Chinese and the Braille. Due to the irregularity and uncertainty of the Prevailing Mandarin Braille, coupled with the lack of a large-scale Braille corpus, the quality of Chinese-Braille translation seems to be poor. In July 2018, the National Language Commission released the "Chinese Common Braille Scheme" and advocated replacing the "Prevailing Mandarin Braille." Aimed at improving translation accuracy, this research, which is based on the self-built Chinese Common Braille corpus and combined with the HanLP (Han Language Processing) dictionary and the Chinese-Braille word corpus (a Braille word segmentation and concatenation dictionary for generating a unigram language model), uses the n-gram language model to design and implement a Chinese-Braille intertranslation system that integrates Chinese and Braille Word Segmentation and Concatenation Rules. More importantly, this research proposes an experimental plan for improving the Braille Word Segmentation and Concatenation Rules using a Chinese-Braille word corpus. Experiments show that in the field of educational literature, the accuracy rate of translation from Chinese to Chinese Common Braille has reached 95.01%, and the accuracy of Chinese Common Braille to Chinese translation has reached 90.15%.

Evaluation of GeneXpert vanA/vanB in the early diagnosis of vancomycin-resistant enterococci infection.

PURPOSE: Vancomycin-resistant enterococci infection is a worrying worldwide clinical problem. To evaluate the accuracy of GeneXpert vanA/vanB in the diagnosis of VRE, we conducted a systematic review in the study. METHODS: Experimental data were extracted from publications until May 03 2021 related to the diagnostic accuracy of GeneXpert vanA/vanB for VRE in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and the Cochrane Library. The accuracy of GeneXpert vanA/vanB for VRE was evaluated using summary receiver to operate characteristic curve, pooled sensitivity, pooled specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, and diagnostic odds ratio. RESULTS: 8 publications were divided into 3 groups according to two golden standard references, vanA and vanB group, vanA group, vanB group, including 6 researches, 5 researches and 5 researches, respectively. The pooled sensitivity and specificity of group vanA and vanB were 0.96 (95% CI, 0.93-0.98) and 0.90 (95% CI, 0.88-0.91) respectively. The DOR was 440.77 (95% CI, 37.92-5123.55). The pooled sensitivity and specificity of group vanA were 0.86 (95% CI, 0.81-0.90) and 0.99 (95% CI, 0.99-0.99) respectively, and those of group vanB were 0.85 (95% CI, 0.63-0.97) and 0.82 (95% CI, 0.80-0.83) respectively. CONCLUSION: GeneXpert vanA/vanB can diagnose VRE with high-accuracy and shows greater accuracy in diagnosing vanA.

Combining pretreatment plasma Epstein-Barr virus DNA level and cervical node necrosis improves prognostic stratification in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma: A cohort study.

This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of combining pretreatment Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNA level and cervical node necrosis (CNN) for patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) receiving intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). A total of 607 incident nonmetastatic NPC patients treated with IMRT ± chemotherapy were reviewed. Patients were divided into four groups based on EBV DNA level and CNN status. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS). Kaplan-Meier curves with log-rank test were applied to compare survival outcomes and the Cox proportional model was used to identify independent prognostic factors. Pretreatment EBV DNA level and CNN status were independent prognostic factors. Patients in the low-level EBV DNA group or non-CNN group had significantly better 5-year PFS. Multivariate analyses demonstrated that CNN was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival (OS) (HR = 1.927, 95% CI: 1.129-3.290, P = .016), PFS (HR = 1.492, 95% CI: 1.005-2.214, P = .047), distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) (HR = 1.661, 95% CI: 1.044-2.644, P = .032), but not locoregional relapse-free survival. EBV DNA levels correlated significantly with CNN with a correlation coefficient of .324 (P < .001). Compared with low-level EBV DNA and non-CNN grouping, high-level EBV DNA and CNN grouping had poor PFS. The combined classification was an independent prognostic factor for OS (P < .001), PFS (P = .001), and DMFS (P = .018). Pretreatment plasma EBV DNA level and CNN status both closely correlated with prognosis of NPC patients in the IMRT era. Combined EBV DNA level and CNN status improves risk stratification and prognostic value.