Apple peel polyphenol alleviates antibiotic-induced intestinal dysbiosis by modulating tight junction proteins, the TLR4/NF-κB pathway and intestinal flora.

The intestine and its flora have established a strong link with each other and co-evolved to become a micro-ecological system that plays an important role in human health. Plant polyphenols have attracted a great deal of attention as potential interventions to regulate the intestinal microecology. In this study, we investigated the effects of apple peel polyphenol (APP) on the intestinal ecology by establishing an intestinal ecological dysregulation model using lincomycin hydrochloride-induced Balb/c mice. The results showed that APP enhanced the mechanical barrier function of mice by upregulating the expression of the tight junction proteins at the transcriptional and translational levels. In terms of the immune barrier, APP downregulated the protein and mRNA expression of TLR4 and NF-κB. As for the biological barrier, APP promoted the growth of beneficial bacteria as well as increasing the diversity of intestinal flora. In addition, APP treatment significantly increased the contents of short-chain fatty acids in mice. In conclusion, APP can alleviate intestinal inflammation and epithelial damage as well as inducing potentially beneficial changes in the intestinal microbiota, which helps to reveal the potential mechanisms of host-microbial interactions and polyphenol regulation of intestinal ecology.

Long Noncoding RNA LINC00899/miR-944/ESR1 Axis Regulates Cervical Cancer Cell Proliferation, Migration, and Invasion.

Cervical cancer (CC) is a common malignancy in women. Long noncoding RNA LINC00899 plays a role in cancer, but its effects in CC are unknown. Our experiment aims to investigate the specific effects of LINC00899 in CC. LINC00899 was lowly expressed in CC tissues and cells, and overexpressed LINC0089 inhibited the viability, proliferation, migration, and invasion of CC cells, whereas silencing of LINC00899 had the opposite effect. There is a targeting relationship between LINC0089 and miR-944. It was found that miR-944 could competitively bind with LINC00899, and LINC00899 in turn, could downregulate expression of miR-944. Moreover, estrogen receptor 1 (ESR1) was the target gene of miR-944. Overexpressed miR-944 inhibited ESR1 expression, yet enhanced the migration and invasion of CC cells and promoted the expression levels of N-cadherin and Vimentin while inhibiting the expression of E-cadherin. However, overexpressed ESR1 reversed the effect of miR-944 overexpression on CC cells. LINC00899/miR-944/ESR1 axis regulates the proliferation, migration, and invasion of CC cells by regulating the expression levels of related proteins.

Tea consumption is associated with cognitive impairment in older Chinese adults.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the association between tea consumption and cognitive impairment (CoI). METHODS: 4579 adults (≥60 years) from the Weitang Geratric Diseases Study were assessed for characteristics of tea consumption and cognitive function by administering questionnaires and the Abbreviated Mental Test (AMT), respectively. We divided the subjects into normal cognitive function group (AMT score ≥8) and CoI group (AMT score ≤7).   The association between tea consumption and risk of CoI was determined by logistic regression models. RESULTS: The least-squared means of the AMT scores for the subjects who seldom consumed tea were less favorable than those who habitually consumed tea. An inverse association was found between tea consumption (of any type) and prevalence of CoI (odds ratio = 0.74, 95% confidence interval = 0.57-0.98, P = 0.032). Interestingly, the protective correlation of tea was more obvious in never smokers (odds ratio = 0.63), but vanished in current/former smokers (odds ratio = 1.10). In never smokers, frequency of tea consumption was significantly associated with CoI (P for trend = 0.010). CONCLUSION: Habitual tea consumption is suggested to be associated with a decreased risk of CoI among elders in Suzhou, and a higher frequency of tea consumption was associated with a lower prevalence of CoI among never smokers.