Association between animal source foods consumption and risk of hypertension: a cohort study.

PURPOSE: This study assessed the association between animal source foods (ASF) consumption and hypertension, a recognised risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Adverse effects of red and processed meat (RPM) consumption and beneficial effects of the consumption of dairy products and other ASF have been discovered separately; however, the constrained nature of food intake has been typically ignored. We assessed the effects of substituting RPM and other ASF. METHODS: We followed-up 5394 Chinese adults (age 18-60 years) at baseline using the China Health and Nutrition Survey from 2004 to 2011. Food consumption was assessed using individual-based consecutive 24-h recall and household-based food weighing approaches. Both traditional substitution analysis and substitution analysis based on compositional transformation were used to assess substitution effects. RESULTS: In total, 1267 participants were newly diagnosed with hypertension during the median follow-up time of 6.81 years (range, 2.97-6.99 years). The traditional substitution analysis found that substituting eggs for RPM was associated with a lower risk of hypertension. The compositional transformation substitution analysis revealed that replacing RPM with any other ASF was associated with a lower risk of hypertension; it implemented substitutions of one or many ASF for RPM; it also revealed different substitution effects of RPM and dairy products, and substituting dairy products for RPM was associated with reduced hypertension risks. CONCLUSION: The compositional transformation substitution analysis considers the constrained and relative nature of food consumption. It is a flexible approach to estimating substitution effects using different patterns to obtain personalised estimation effects and provide individualised dietary recommendations.

Heterlimnius luyashanensis sp. n. and Zaitzevia triangularis sp. n. from Shanxi Province, China (Coleoptera: Elmidae).

Two new species, Heterlimnius luyashanensis sp. n. and Zaitzevia triangularis sp. n. are described from Shanxi Province, China. The genus Heterlimnius Hinton, 1935 and Zaitzevia Champion, 1923 are reported from Shanxi Province for the first time. Heterlimnius luyashanensis sp. n. belonging to the Heterlimnius trachys species group has the following characteristics: 1. anterior margin of pronotum strongly produced anteriad; 2. median longitudinal sulcus of pronotum extends from basal 0.3 to 0.8. Zaitzevia triangularis sp. n. has a larger body size and a triangular apex of penis.

The complete mitochondrial genome of Apatura laverna (lepidoptera: Nymphalidae).

Apatura laverna is subordinate to Apatura Fabricius of Nymphalidae, and endemic to China. The complete mitochondrial genome of A. laverna was sequenced and analyzed in the study. The length of the complete mitogenome is 15,187 bp, including 37 genes and a control region. COI gene initiate with a CGA codon, the rest 12 genes start with typical ATN. Eleven of 13 PCGs have a complete stop codon TAN except for COII and ND4 have a single T. The phylogenetic analyses support that A. laverna has a close relationship with the clade including A. metis and A. ilia.

The complete mitochondrial genome of Pontia edusa (Lepidoptera: Pieridae).

The complete mitochondrial genome of Pontia edusa was sequenced and analyzed in the study. The length of the complete mitogenome is 15,125 bp, including 37 genes and a control region. Twelve genes start with typical ATN, but COI gene initiate with a CGA codon. Twelve of 13 PCGs have a complete stop codon TAA or TAG except for COI has an incomplete stop codon T--. Twenty-one of the 22 tRNAs have a typical clover-leaf secondary structure. The tRNASer(AGN) gene lacked the DHU loop. Bayesian analyses highly support the monophyly of Pieridae. In Pieridae, P. edusa is subordinate to the Pierinae clade.

Complete mitochondrial genome of Mycalesis intermedia (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae).

The Mycalesis intermedia belongs to Nymphalidae in Lepidoptera. We described the complete mitogenome of M. intermedia, which is typical circular duplex molecules and 15,386 bp in length, containing the standard metazoan set of 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes, and an A + T-rich region with macro-repeat sequences. All the inferred tRNA secondary structures show the common cloverleaf pattern, with the exception of trnS1(AGN) which lacks the DHU arm. The M. intermedia mitochondrial genome has the same gene order with other lepidopterans.

Genus-Wide Comparative Genomics Analysis of Neisseria to Identify New Genes Associated with Pathogenicity and Niche Adaptation of Neisseria Pathogens.

N. gonorrhoeae and N. meningitidis, the only two human pathogens of Neisseria, are closely related species. But the niches they survived in and their pathogenic characteristics are distinctly different. However, the genetic basis of these differences has not yet been fully elucidated. In this study, comparative genomics analysis was performed based on 15 N. gonorrhoeae, 75 N. meningitidis, and 7 nonpathogenic Neisseria genomes. Core-pangenome analysis found 1111 conserved gene families among them, and each of these species groups had opening pangenome. We found that 452, 78, and 319 gene families were unique in N. gonorrhoeae, N. meningitidis, and both of them, respectively. Those unique gene families were regarded as candidates that related to their pathogenicity and niche adaptation. The relationships among them have been partly verified by functional annotation analysis. But at least one-third genes for each gene set have not found the certain functional information. Simple sequence repeat (SSR), the basis of gene phase variation, was found abundant in the membrane or related genes of each unique gene set, which may facilitate their adaptation to variable host environments. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis found at least five distinct PPI clusters in N. gonorrhoeae and four in N. meningitides, and 167 and 52 proteins with unknown function were contained within them, respectively.

Statistical analysis on 2213 inpatients with traffic injuries from January 2003 to September 2005 in Ningbo city.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the epidemiological conditions and characteristics of inpatients with traffic trauma in order to provide objective data for basic research and clinical application of traffic trauma. METHODS: The data of 2213 inpatients with traffic trauma admitted to Lihuili Hospital, Ningbo Medical Centre, Ningbo, China, from January 2003 to September 2005 were studied retrospectively. According to the transportation ways, the patients were divided into four groups: pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists, and automobilists. And the data of injured regions, combined injuries and causes of death were analyzed statistically. RESULTS: Among the 2213 patients, there were 550 pedestrians (23.5%), 521 bicyclists (24.9%), 738 motorcyclists (33.3%), and 404 automobilists (18.3%). Male patients were more than female ones, with the ratio of male to female of 2.8:1. Single region injury was found in 1663 patients (75.15%) and multiple injuries in 550 patients (24.85%). In total, 2849 regions were injured. Fracture of extremities (53.3%) occurred most often, craniocerebral trauma (19.4%) next, then followed in turn by thoraco-abdominal visceral injury (6.56%), spine fracture (5.37%), fracture of ribs (4.88%), and pelvic fracture (4.18%). The percentage of multiple injuries (33.2%) was highest and the percentage of thoraco-abdominal injury (18.0%) was higher in motorcyclists. The percentages of craniocerebral trauma in pedestrians and bicyclists were 27.8% and 28.2%, respectively. The incidence of fracture of extremities in motorcyclists reached 73.8%, but with the lowest case-fatality ratio of 1.4%. The incidence of traffic accidents caused by motorcyclists themselves (32.8%) was highest. A total of 56 patients died, with the case-fatality ratio of 2.53%. Among the deaths, 47 died from craniocerebral injury, 6 from multiple fractures combined with hemorrhagic shock, 2 from combined injury in the thoraco-abdominal region, and 1 from cervical cord injury. CONCLUSIONS: Nowadays, the patients with traffic trauma are mainly pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists, and they suffer generally from fracture of extremities and craniocerebral injury. The main cause of death is craniocerebral injury. Another characteristic of traffic trauma is that the ratio of multiple injuries is higher.

Comparative Genomics of H. pylori and Non-Pylori Helicobacter Species to Identify New Regions Associated with Its Pathogenicity and Adaptability.

The genus Helicobacter is a group of Gram-negative, helical-shaped pathogens consisting of at least 36 bacterial species. Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), infecting more than 50% of the human population, is considered as the major cause of gastritis, peptic ulcer, and gastric cancer. However, the genetic underpinnings of H. pylori that are responsible for its large scale epidemic and gastrointestinal environment adaption within human beings remain unclear. Core-pan genome analysis was performed among 75 representative H. pylori and 24 non-pylori Helicobacter genomes. There were 1173 conserved protein families of H. pylori and 673 of all 99 Helicobacter genus strains. We found 79 genome unique regions, a total of 202,359bp, shared by at least 80% of the H. pylori but lacked in non-pylori Helicobacter species. The operons, genes, and sRNAs within the H. pylori unique regions were considered as potential ones associated with its pathogenicity and adaptability, and the relativity among them has been partially confirmed by functional annotation analysis. However, functions of at least 54 genes and 10 sRNAs were still unclear. Our analysis of protein-protein interaction showed that 30 genes within them may have the cooperation relationship.

[Functional analysis of cancer-derived immunoglobulin G whole molecule-interacting proteins identified by LC-MS/MS].

OBJECTIVE: To identify cancer-derived immunoglobulin G (IgG) whole molecule-interacting proteins to provide important clues for studying IgG biological functions. METHOS: HeLa cell lysate was immunoprecipitated with rabbit antihuman IgG whole molecule antibody and normal rabbit IgG. The immunocomplex underwent sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and was detected with silver staining. Three prominently enhanced bands were subjected to protein identification with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), and the MS data were analyzed with Swiss-Prot database. Cancer-derived IgG whole molecule-interacting proteins were screened and functionally annotated. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: We identified 6 potential cancer-derived IgG whole molecule-interacting proteins with co-immunoprecipitation combined with LC-MS/MS, which provides valuable clues for studying the function of cancer-derived IgG.

Theoretical Studies on Pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine Derivatives as Potent Dual c-Src/Abl Inhibitors Using 3D-QSAR and Docking Approaches.

In recent years, the development of dual or multi-targeted inhibitors has captured extensive attention of research for treating of malignancies. In this paper, three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationship and docking studies were performed on 87 pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidines as dual Src/Abl inhibitors. The appropriate binding orientations and conformations of these compounds interacting with both Src and Abl kinases were revealed by docking studies, and the established optimum CoMFA models yielded q(2) =0.856, R(2) =0.966 for Src and q(2) =0.869, R(2) =0.974 for Abl, and the best CoMSIA models gave q(2) =0.877, R(2) =0.979 for Src and q(2) =0.885, R(2) =0.982 for Abl. Systemic external validations further confirm the satisfactory predictive power of these models, producing R(2) pred values of 0.872 and 0.865 for Src, 0.876 and 0.867 for Abl, r(2) m values of 0.832 and 0.928 for Src, 0.838 and 0.904 for Abl, respectively. In addition, through a comparison between 3D-QSAR contour maps and docking results, it is revealed that the hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions of compounds play significant roles for the inhibitory activity against both Src and Abl kinases. Some structural factors influencing the activities of these compounds were discussed in detail. The key amino acids impacting the receptor-ligand interactions have been identified. These theoretical results can offer useful references for designing novel potential dual Src/Abl inhibitors.

The complete mitochondrial genome of Sasakia funebris (Leech) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) and comparison with other Apaturinae insects.

Sasakia funebris, a member of the lepidopteran family, Nymphalidae (superfamily Papilionoidea) is a rare species and is found only in some areas of South China. In this study, the 15,233 bp long complete mitochondrial genome of S. funebris was determined, and harbors the gene arrangement identical to all other sequenced lepidopteran insects. The nucleotide composition of the genome is highly A+T biased, accounting for 81.2%. All protein-coding genes (PCGs) start with typical ATN codons, except for COI which begins with the CGA codon. All tRNAs have a typical clover-leaf secondary structure, except for tRNASer(AGN), the dihydrouridine (DHU) arm of which forms a simple loop. The S. funebris A+T-rich region of 370 bp contains several features common to the Lepidoptera insects, including the motif ATAGA followed by a 19 bp poly-T stretch, and two tandem repeats consisting of 18 bp repeat units and 14 bp repeat units. The phylogenetic analyses of Apaturinae based on mitogenome sequences showed: (S. funebris+Sasakia charonda)+(Apatura metis+Apatura ilia). This result is consistent with the morphological classification.