Multispectral camouflage and radiative cooling using dynamically tunable metasurface.

With the increasing demand for privacy, multispectral camouflage devices that utilize metasurface designs in combination with mature detection technologies have become effective. However, these early designs face challenges in realizing multispectral camouflage with a single metasurface and restricted modes. Therefore, this paper proposes a dynamically tunable metasurface. The metasurface consists of gold (Au), antimony selenide (Sb2Se3), and aluminum (Al), which enables radiative cooling, light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and infrared camouflage. In the amorphous phase of Sb2Se3, the thermal radiation reduction rate in the mid wave infrared range (MWIR) is up to 98.2%. The echo signal reduction rate for the 1064 nm LiDAR can reach 96.3%. In the crystalline phase of Sb2Se3, the highest cooling power is 65.5 Wm-2. Hence the metasurface can reduce the surface temperature and achieve efficient infrared camouflage. This metasurface design provides a new strategy for making devices compatible with multispectral camouflage and radiative cooling.

H2S-driven chemotherapy and mild photothermal therapy induced mitochondrial reprogramming to promote cuproptosis.

The elevated level of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in colon cancer hinders complete cure with a single therapy. However, excessive H2S also offers a treatment target. A multifunctional cascade bioreactor based on the H2S-responsive mesoporous Cu2Cl(OH)3-loaded hypoxic prodrug tirapazamine (TPZ), in which the outer layer was coated with hyaluronic acid (HA) to form TPZ@Cu2Cl(OH)3-HA (TCuH) nanoparticles (NPs), demonstrated a synergistic antitumor effect through combining the H2S-driven cuproptosis and mild photothermal therapy. The HA coating endowed the NPs with targeting delivery to enhance drug accumulation in the tumor tissue. The presence of both the high level of H2S and the near-infrared II (NIR II) irradiation achieved the in situ generation of photothermic agent copper sulfide (Cu9S8) from the TCuH, followed with the release of TPZ. The depletion of H2S stimulated consumption of oxygen, resulting in hypoxic state and mitochondrial reprogramming. The hypoxic state activated prodrug TPZ to activated TPZ (TPZ-ed) for chemotherapy in turn. Furthermore, the exacerbated hypoxia inhibited the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate, decreasing expression of heat shock proteins and subsequently improving the photothermal therapy. The enriched Cu2+ induced not only cuproptosis by promoting lipoacylated dihydrolipoamide S-acetyltransferase (DLAT) heteromerization but also performed chemodynamic therapy though catalyzing H2O2 to produce highly toxic hydroxyl radicals ·OH. Therefore, the nanoparticles TCuH offer a versatile platform to exert copper-related synergistic antitumor therapy.

Non-O blood types are associated with a greater risk of large artery atherosclerosis stroke and dysregulation of cholesterol metabolism: an observational study.

BACKGROUND: Previous research on ABO blood types and stroke has been controversial, predominantly suggesting heightened risk of stroke in non-O blood types. Nonetheless, investigations into the correlation and underlying mechanisms between ABO blood groups and stroke subtypes, especially within Chinese cohorts, remain limited. METHODS: The ABO blood types of 9,542 ischaemic stroke (IS) patients were inferred using two ABO gene loci (c.261G > del; c.802G > A). The healthy population was derived from the 1000 Genomes Project. Patients were classified by the causative classification system (CCS). Volcano plot and gene ontology (GO) analysis were employed to explore protein differential expression among blood types. Additionally, HT29 and SW480 cell lines with downregulated ABO expression were generated to evaluate its impact on cholesterol uptake and efflux. RESULTS: A greater proportion of stroke patients had non-O blood types (70.46%) than did healthy individuals (61.54%). Notable differences in blood type distributions were observed among stroke subtypes, with non-O blood type patients mainly classified as having large artery atherosclerosis (LAA). Clinical baseline characteristics, such as the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol level, activated partial thromboplastin time and thrombin time, varied significantly among blood types. A volcano plot revealed 17 upregulated and 42 downregulated proteins in the O blood type. GO term analysis indicated that downregulated proteins were primarily associated with lipid metabolism pathways. In vitro experiments revealed that reducing ABO gene expression decreased cholesterol uptake and increased cholesterol efflux. CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed that the non-O blood type increased the risk of LAA stroke through cholesterol metabolism.

Controlled Self-Assembly of the Catalytic Core of Hydrolases Using DNA Scaffolds.

Precisely organizing functional molecules of the catalytic cores in natural enzymes to promote catalytic performance is a challenging goal in respect to artificial enzyme construction. In this work, we report a DNA-scaffolded mimicry of the catalytic cores of hydrolases, which showed a controllable and hierarchical acceleration of the hydrolysis of fluorescein diacetate (FDA). The results revealed that the efficiency of hydrolysis was greatly increased by the DNA-scaffold-induced proximity of catalytic amino acid residues (histidine and arginine) with up to 4-fold improvement relative to the free amino acids. In addition, DNA-scaffolded one-dimensional and two-dimensional assemblies of multiple catalytic cores could further accelerate the hydrolysis. This work demonstrated that the DNA-guided assembly could be used as a promising platform to build enzyme mimics in a programmable and hierarchical way.

Influence of neutron irradiation on the electronic properties of hexagonal boron nitride measured by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy.

Due to the low atomic number of B, hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) has a large neutron scattering cross section and, therefore, is an ideal material for the realization of solid-state neutron detector. Here we apply the THz time-domain spectroscopy to study the effect of neutron irradiation on electronic properties of pyrolytic (PBN) and hot-pressed boron nitride (HBN). The key electronic parameters of these samples, such as the static dielectric constant ε b, the effective carrier density N*, the carrier relaxation time τ, and the electronic localization factor α, are determined optically, and their dependences upon the neutron irradiation fluence (NIF) are examined. We find that for hBN,N* and ε b decrease while τ and |α| increase with increasing NIF. These results can be used to further understand the neutron irradiation effects on the basic physical properties of hBN material. We believe that the results obtained from this work can benefit to the design and application of hBN material for neutron detectors.

Congenital absence of the left pericardium: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Congenital absence of the pericardium (CAP) is rare in clinical practice, the symptoms vary among patients, and most doctors do not have enough knowledge of the condition. Most reported CAP cases are incidental findings. Therefore, this case report aimed to present a rare case of left partial CAP that presented with non-specific, possibly cardiac-related symptoms. CASE PRESENTATION: The patient, male, 56 years old, Asian, was admitted on March 2, 2021. The patient complained of occasional dizziness in the past week. The patient was suffering from hyperlipidemia and hypertension (stage 2), both untreated. The patient reported chest pain, palpitations, discomfort in the precordium, and dyspnea in the lateral recumbent position after strenuous activities, all of which started when he was about 15 years old. ECG showed sinus rhythm, 76 bpm, premature ventricular beats, incomplete right bundle branch block, and clockwise rotation of the electrical axis. Most of the ascending aorta could be detected in the parasternal intercostal space 2-4 by transthoracic echocardiography in the left lateral position. Chest computed tomography revealed the absence of pericardium between the aorta and the pulmonary artery, and part of the left lung was extending into the space. No changes in his condition have been reported up to now (March 2023). CONCLUSIONS: CAP should be considered when multiple examinations suggest heart rotation and a large moving range of the heart in the thoracic cavity.

Enhanced tumor accumulation and therapeutic efficacy of liposomal drugs through over-threshold dosing.

BACKGROUND: Most intravenously administered drug-loaded nanoparticles are taken up by liver Kupffer cells, and only a small portion can accumulate at the tumor, resulting in an unsatisfactory therapeutic efficacy and side effects for chemotherapeutic agents. Tumor-targeted drug delivery proves to be the best way to solve this problem; however, the complex synthesis, or surface modification process, together with the astonishing high cost make its clinical translation nearly impossible. METHODS: Referring to Ouyang's work and over-threshold dosing theory in general, blank PEGylated liposomes (PEG-Lipo) were prepared and used as tumor delivery enhancers to determine whether they could significantly enhance the tumor accumulation and in vivo antitumor efficacy of co-injected liposomal ACGs (PEG-ACGs-Lipo), a naturally resourced chemotherapeutic. Here, the phospholipid dose was used as an indicator of the number of liposomes particles with similar particle sizes, and the liposomes was labelled with DiR, a near-red fluorescent probe, to trace their in vivo biodistribution. Two mouse models, 4T1-bearing and U87-bearing, were employed for in vivo examination. RESULTS: PEG-Lipo and PEG-ACGs-Lipo had similar diameters. At a low-threshold dose (12 mg/kg equivalent phospholipids), PEG-Lipo was mainly distributed in the liver rather than in the tumor, with the relative tumor targeting index (RTTI) being ~ 0.38 at 72 h after administration. When over-threshold was administered (50 mg/kg or 80 mg/kg of equivalent phospholipids), a much higher and quicker drug accumulation in tumors and a much lower drug accumulation in the liver were observed, with the RTTI increasing to ~ 0.9. The in vivo antitumor study in 4T1 tumor-bearing mice showed that, compared to PEG-ACGs-Lipo alone (2.25 mg/kg phospholipids), the co-injection of a large dose of blank PEG-Lipo (50 mg/kg of phospholipids) significantly reduced the tumor volume of the mice by 22.6% (P < 0.05) and enhanced the RTTI from 0.41 to 1.34. The intravenous injection of a low drug loading content (LDLC) of liposomal ACGs (the same dose of ACGs at 50 mg/kg of equivalent phospholipids) achieved a similar tumor inhibition rate (TIR) to that of co-injection. In the U87 MG tumor-bearing mouse model, co-injection of the enhancer also significantly promoted the TIR (83.32% vs. 66.80%, P < 0.05) and survival time of PEG-ACGs-Lipo. CONCLUSION: An over-threshold dosing strategy proved to be a simple and feasible way to enhance the tumor delivery and antitumor efficacy of nanomedicines and was benefited to benefit their clinical result, especially for liposomal drugs.

Pilot study on the value of echocardiography combined with lung ultrasound to evaluate COVID-19 pneumonia.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between echocardiography results and lung ultrasound score (LUS) in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia patients and evaluate the impact of the combined application of these techniques in the evaluation of COVID-19 pneumonia. METHODS: Hospitalized COVID-19 pneumonia patients who underwent daily lung ultrasound and echocardiography were included in this study. Patients with tricuspid regurgitation within three days of admission were enrolled. Moreover, the correlation and differences between their pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) and LUS on days 3, 8, and 13 were analyzed. The inner diameter of the pulmonary artery root as well as the size of the atria and ventricles were also considered. RESULTS: The PAP on days 3, 8, and 13 of hospitalization was positively correlated with the LUS (r = 0.448, p = 0.003; r = 0.738, p < 0.001; r = 0.325, p = 0.036, respectively). On day 8, the values of both PAP and LUS were higher than on days 3 and 13 (p < 0.01). Similarly, PAP and LUS were significantly increased in 92.9% (39/42) and 90.5% (38/42) of patients, respectively, and at least one of these two values was positive in 97.6% (41/42) of cases. The inner diameters of the right atrium, right ventricle, and pulmonary artery also differed significantly from their corresponding values on days 3 and 13 (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: PAP is positively correlated with LUS in COVID-19 pneumonia. The two values could be combined for a more precise assessment of disease progression and recovery status.

Part-Per-Billion Level Chemical Sensing with a Gold-Based SERS-Active Substrate.

We used surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) for the rapid and sensitive detection and quantification of caffeine in solution. Such a technique incorporated into a portable device is finding wide applications in trace chemical analysis in various fields, including law enforcement, medicine, environmental monitoring, and food quality control. To realize such applications, we are currently developing portable and handheld trace chemical analyzers based on SERS, which are integrated with a sensor embedded with activated gold nanoparticles in a porous glass matrix. In this study, we used this gold SERS-active substrate to measure aqueous solutions of the drug caffeine as a test chemical to benchmark sensor performance by defining sensitivity (lowest measured concentration (LMC) and estimated limit of detection (LOD)), determining concentration dependence and quantification capabilities by constructing calibration curves; by evaluating the effects of pH values of 3, 7, and 11; and by examining the reproducibility of the SERS measurements. The results demonstrate that the SERS sensor is sensitive, with caffeine detected at an LMC of 50 parts per billion (ppb) with an LOD of 0.63 ppb. The results further show that the sensor is very stable and can be used to make reproducible measurements, even under extremely acidic to basic pH conditions. Vibrational assignments of all observed SERS peaks are made and reported for the first time for caffeine on a gold substrate.

A Potent Antagonist of Smoothened in Hedgehog Signaling for Epilepsy.

Epilepsy is one of the common encephalopathies caused by sudden abnormal discharges of neurons in the brain. About 30% of patients with epilepsy are insensitive and refractory to existing antiseizure medications. The sonic hedgehog signaling pathway is essential to the development and homeostasis of brain. Aberrant sonic hedgehog signaling is increased in refractory epileptic lesions and may involve the etiology of epilepsy. Thus, new inhibitors of Smoothened, a key signal transducer of this signaling pathway are urgently need for refractory epilepsy. We have established a high-throughput screening platform and discovered several active small molecules targeting Smoothened including TT22. Here we show that the novel Smoothened inhibitor TT22 could block the translocation of ßarrestin2-GFP to Smoothened, reduce the accumulation of Smoothened on primary cilia, displace Bodipy-cyclopamine binding to Smoothened, and inhibit the expression of downstream Gli transcription factor. Moreover, TT22 inhibits the abnormal seizure-like activity in neurons. Furthermore, we demonstrated that FDA-approved Smoothened inhibitor GDC-0449 and LDE-225 are able to inhibit abnormal seizure-like activity in neurons. Thus, our study suggests that targeting the sonic hedgehog signaling with new small-molecule Smoothened inhibitors might provide a potential new therapeutic avenue for refractory epilepsy.

Investigation of Lipid Metabolism in Dynamic Progression of Coronary Artery Atherosclerosis of Humans by Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry.

Alterations in lipid metabolites in coronary artery tissues are phenotypic changes in the progression of atherosclerosis (AS). A full picture of the spatiotemporal distribution of lipid metabolites in coronary AS is needed for a deeper understanding of its pathology and the identification of potential biomarkers of disease progression. In this work, the changes in species, quantity, and distribution of lipid metabolites at different stages of AS, which were standardized by the disease areas, were analyzed through the high spatial resolution- and high sensitivity-time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) under delayed extraction mode. Based on high lateral resolution imaging, we further analyzed the ToF-SIMS data extracted from the subregions of AS lesion tissues at different disease progression stages by semiquantitative comparison, clustering analysis (t-stochastic neighbor embedding and HCA), and KEGG enrichment. Thus, a much-detailed description of lipids' features in coronary AS was achieved. We constructed a ToF-SIMS mass spectrometry database of coronary AS lipids. 40 specific lipid metabolites with distinctive patterns between different pathological stages were obtained. Chemical imaging unveiled further details regarding the spatial distribution of lipids. Moreover, linoleic acid and arachidonic acid metabolic pathway were predicted to be critical in AS progression.

[Effects of natural organic soil amendments on quality of Panax notoginseng].

The effects of four natural organic soil amendments on the quality and pesticide residues of Panax notoginseng were investigated through field experiments and the suitable dosage ratio of each soil amendment was selected to provide a new idea for the pollution-free cultivation of P. notoginseng. The four natural organic soil amendments used in this study were Jishibao, Jihuo, Fudujing, and omnipotent nutrients, which were produced by mixed fermentation of aboveground parts of different plants, biological waste residue, and biochar. During the experiments, only four soil amendments were applied to P. notoginseng instead of any pesticides and fertilizers. The experiment was designed as four factors and three levels. There were three dosage gradients(low, medium, and high) for Jishibao(A), Jihuo(B), Fudujing(C), and omnipotent nutrients(D). When the dosage of one soil amendment changed, the do-sage of the other soil amendments remained medium. There were 10 groups in addition to the soil amendment-free group as control(CK). The results showed that the four soil amendments could significantly improve the growth environment of P. notoginseng and increase the seedling survival rate and saponin content of P. notoginseng. The seedling survival rates of the treatment groups increased by 8.24%-30.05% as compared with the control group. Furthermore, the content of pesticide residues in P. notoginseng was too low to be detected, and that of heavy metals in P. notoginseng was far lower than the specified content in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia(2020). The optimal effect was achieved at medium dosage for all the soil amendments with the highest content of saponins, high seedling survival rate, and significantly reduced heavy metals, such as lead, cadmium, arsenic, and mercury.

[Comprehensive antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity of alcohol extracts from Chrysanthemum indicum in different areas based on entropy weight and TOPSIS methodology].

The study is aiming at investigating the application of entropy weight TOPSIS method in the comparison of the scavenging effect of DPPH, ABTS and hydroxyl radical and the inhibition effect of xanthine oxidase(XOD) and lipoxygenase(LOX) of Chrysanthemum indicum. The DPPH, ABTS, salicylic acid and spectrophotometry were used to determine the scavenging effect of DPPH, ABTS and hydroxyl radical and the inhibition effect of xanthine oxidase(XOD) and lipoxygenase(LOX) of Ch. indicum from 31 different areas in vitro. Take the half inhibition rate of as the evaluation index, two principal components were extracted by the principal component analysis, and their cumulative contribution rate reached at 92.4%. The different areas of Ch. indicum could be divided into Dabei Mountain and Qinling-Taihang Mountain by use principal component to analysis. The entropy weight TOPSIS method was used to objectively assign weights to five indexes, calculate the weight of each index and set up the best and worst scheme of the evaluation object, and the relative proximity(C_i) was used as the measure to construct the multi-index comprehensive evaluation model of Ch. indicum. And then sort with the relative proximity value. The results showed that the relative proximity was between 0.098 and 0.983 which represents there were significant differences in the scavenging effect of DPPH, ABTS and hydroxyl radical and the inhibition effect of xanthine oxidase(XOD) and lipoxygenase(LOX) between extracts of Ch. indicum from different areas. The Ch. indicum from Dabie Mountain area have a relatively high relative degree of measurement and high-quality ranking. Taken together, the quality of Ch. indicum.from the Dabie Mountain area is better. The index weight coefficient and the classification result of producing area are basically consistent with the result of principal component analysis. The results show that the TOPSIS method based on entropy weight method can be used to evaluate the comprehensive quality of Ch. indicum.

Soybean lecithin stabilizes disulfiram nanosuspensions with a high drug-loading content: remarkably improved antitumor efficacy.

Disulfiram (DSF) has been considered as "Repurposing drug" in cancer therapy in recent years based on its good antitumor efficacy. DSF is traditionally used as an oral drug in the treatment of alcoholism. To overcome its rapid degradation and instability, DSF nanosuspensions (DSF/SPC-NSps) were prepared using soybean lecithin (SPC) as a stabilizer of high drug-loaded content (44.36 ± 1.09%). Comprehensive characterization of the nanosuspensions was performed, and cell cytotoxicity, in vivo antitumor efficacy and biodistribution were studied. DSF/SPC-NSps, having a spherical appearance with particle size of 155 nm, could remain very stable in different physiological media, and sustained release. The in vitro MTT assay indicated that the cytotoxicity of DSF/SPC-NSps was enhanced remarkably compared to free DSF against the 4T1 cell line. The IC50 value decreased by 11-fold (1.23 vs. 13.93 µg/mL, p < 0.01). DSF/SPC-NSps groups administered via intravenous injections exhibited better antitumor efficacy compared to the commercial paclitaxel injection (PTX injection) and had a dose-dependent effect in vivo. Notably, DSF/SPC-NSps exhibited similar antitumor activity following oral administration as PTX administration via injection into a vein. These results suggest that the prepared nanosuspensions can be used as a stable delivery vehicle for disulfiram, which has potential application in breast cancer chemotherapy.

Diagnostic application of prenatal ultrasound in foetal heart complex malformation in twin pregnancy.

To explore the value of prenatal ultrasound in the diagnosis of twin pregnancy with foetal heart malformation, 30 foetuses with congenital heart disease of twin pregnancy who were 19-37 weeks between July 2016 and January 2018 were selected for prenatal ultrasound examination. The prenatal ultrasound was carried out and the data were collected and analyzed statistically. The results showed that there were 11 cases of ventricular septal defect (VSD), 3 cases of endocardial cushion defect, 3 cases of left cardiac dysplasia, 4 cases of right ventricular double outlet, 5 cases of aortic stenosis, 2 cases of tetralogy of Fallot, and 2 cases of aortic disconnection. It was found that VSD had the highest detection rate amongst foetal congenital heart disease. Therefore, prenatal ultrasound is the most effective method to diagnose foetal congenital heart disease.

Graphene quantum dots enhanced ToF-SIMS for single-cell imaging.

Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) has shown promising applications in single-cell analysis owing to its high spatial resolution molecular imaging capability. One of the main drawbacks hindering progress in this field is the relatively low ionization efficiency for biological systems. The complex chemical micro-environment in single cells typically causes severe matrix effects, leading to significant signal suppression of biomolecules. In this work, we investigated the signal enhancement effect of graphene quantum dots (GE QDs) in ToF-SIMS analysis. A × 160 magnification of ToF-SIMS signal for amiodarone casted on glass slide was observed by adding amino-functionalized GE QDs (amino-GE QDs), which was significantly higher than adding previously reported signal enhancement materials and hydroxyl group-functionalized GE QDs (hydroxyl-GE QDs). A possible mechanism for GE QD-induced signal enhancement was proposed. Further, effects of amino-GE QDs and hydroxyl-GE QDs on amiodarone-treated breast cancer cells were compared. A significant signal improvement for lipids and amiodarone was achieved using both types of GE QDs, especially for amino-GE QDs. In addition, ToF-SIMS chemical mapping of single cells with better quality was obtained after signal enhancement. Our strategy for effective ToF-SIMS signal enhancement holds great potential for further investigation of drug metabolism pathways and the interactions between the cell and micro-environment.

Investigation of Silver Nanoparticle Induced Lipids Changes on a Single Cell Surface by Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry.

Lipids are the main component of the cell membrane. They not only provide structural support of cells but also directly participate in complex cellular metabolic processes. Lipid signaling is an important part of cell signaling. Evidence showed that abnormal cellular metabolism may induce lipids changes. Besides, owing to single cell heterogeneity, it is necessary to distinguish different behaviors of individual cells. Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) is a sensitive surface analysis technique with high spatial resolution, which is useful in single cell surface analysis. Herein, we used ToF-SIMS to investigate silver nanoparticle induced lipids changes on the surface of single macrophage cells. Delayed extraction mode of ToF-SIMS was used to simultaneously obtain high mass resolution of mass spectra and high spatial resolution of single cell chemical imaging. Principle component analysis (PCA) results showed good agreement with the cytotoxicity assay results. Clear distinctions were observed between the cell groups treated with high or low dose of silver nanoparticles. The loadings plots revealed that the separation was mainly due to changes of cholesterol and diacylglycerol (DAG) as well as monoacylglycerol (MAG). Meanwhile, the chemical mapping of single cell components showed that cholesterol and DAG tend to migrate to the surrounding of the cells after high dose silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) treatment. Our results demonstrated the feasibility of ToF-SIMS for characterizing the changes of the lipids on a single cell surface, providing a better understanding of the mechanism of cell-nanoparticle interactions at the molecular level.

Improvement of the activity and thermostability of microbial transglutaminase by multiple-site mutagenesis.

Microbial transglutaminase (MTG) is an enzyme widely used in the food industry. Mutiple-site mutagenesis of Streptomyces mobaraensis transglutaminase was performed in Escherichia coli. According to enzymatic assay and thermostability study, among three penta-site MTG mutants (DM01-03), DM01 exhibited the highest enzymatic activity of 55.7 ± 1.4 U/mg and longest half-life at 50 °C (418.2 min) and 60 °C (24.8 min).

LncRNA CRNDE triggers inflammation through the TLR3-NF-κB-Cytokine signaling pathway.

Colorectal neoplasia differentially expressed (CRNDE), an oncogene, is highly expressed in many tumor cells and affects cellular proliferation, migration, invasion, and apoptosis. Its function and mechanism of action is a research hotspot. In this study, microarray analysis was performed to discover the differentially expressed genes in CRNDE over-expression cells. RT² Profiler PCR Array was used to study the expression of genes related to the toll-like receptor (TLR) pathway. We found that over-expression of CRNDE in astrocytes increased the expression of key factors in the toll-like receptor signaling pathway, especially toll-like receptor-3-mediated MyD88-independent pathway. Furthermore, it up-regulated expression levels of downstream transcription factor such as nuclear factor kappa B and numerous cytokines. In contrast, CRNDE knockdown in glioma U87MG cell line showed an opposite trend in the expression of the above-mentioned genes. We speculated that CRNDE might trigger inflammation to regulate tumorigenesis and tumor development through the toll-like receptor pathway.

Comparison between smaller ruptured intracranial aneurysm and larger un-ruptured intracranial aneurysm: gene expression profile analysis.

As it grows in size, an intracranial aneurysm (IA) is prone to rupture. In this study, we compared two extreme groups of IAs, ruptured IAs (RIAs) smaller than 10 mm and un-ruptured IAs (UIAs) larger than 10 mm, to investigate the genes involved in the facilitation and prevention of IA rupture. The aneurismal walls of 6 smaller saccular RIAs (size smaller than 10 mm), 6 larger saccular UIAs (size larger than 10 mm) and 12 paired control arteries were obtained during surgery. The transcription profiles of these samples were studied by microarray analysis. RT-qPCR was used to confirm the expression of the genes of interest. In addition, functional group analysis of the differentially expressed genes was performed. Between smaller RIAs and larger UIAs, 101 genes and 179 genes were significantly over-expressed, respectively. In addition, functional group analysis demonstrated that the up-regulated genes in smaller RIAs mainly participated in the cellular response to metal ions and inorganic substances, while most of the up-regulated genes in larger UIAs were involved in inflammation and extracellular matrix (ECM) organization. Moreover, compared with control arteries, inflammation was up-regulated and muscle-related biological processes were down-regulated in both smaller RIAs and larger UIAs. The genes involved in the cellular response to metal ions and inorganic substances may facilitate the rupture of IAs. In addition, the healing process, involving inflammation and ECM organization, may protect IAs from rupture.