Participation of the nucleus tractus solitarius in the therapeutic effect of electroacupuncture on post-stroke dysphagia through the primary motor cortex.

BACKGROUND: Post-stroke dysphagia (PSD), a common and serious disease, affects the quality of life of many patients and their families. Electroacupuncture (EA) has been commonly used effectively in the treatment of PSD, but the therapeutic mechanism is still under exploration at present. We aim to investigate the effect of the nucleus tractus solitarus (NTS) on the treatment of PSD by EA at Lianquan (CV23) through the primary motor cortex (M1). METHODS: C57 male mice were used to construct a PSD mouse model using photothrombotic technique, and the swallowing function was evaluated by electromyography (EMG) recording. C-Fos-positive neurons and types of neurons in the NTS were detected by immunofluorescence. Optogenetics and chemical genetics were used to regulate the NTS, and the firing rate of neurons was recorded via multichannel recording. RESULTS: The results showed that most of the activated neurons in the NTS were excitatory neurons, and multichannel recording indicated that the activity levels of both pyramidal neurons and interneurons in the NTS were regulated by M1. This process was involved in the EA treatment. Furthermore, while chemogenetic inhibition of the NTS reduced the EMG signal associated with the swallowing response induced by activation of M1 in PSD mice, EA rescued this signal. CONCLUSION: Overall, the NTS was shown to participate in the regulation of PSD by EA at CV23 through M1.

Super-pangenome analyses highlight genomic diversity and structural variation across wild and cultivated tomato species.

Effective utilization of wild relatives is key to overcoming challenges in genetic improvement of cultivated tomato, which has a narrow genetic basis; however, current efforts to decipher high-quality genomes for tomato wild species are insufficient. Here, we report chromosome-scale tomato genomes from nine wild species and two cultivated accessions, representative of Solanum section Lycopersicon, the tomato clade. Together with two previously released genomes, we elucidate the phylogeny of Lycopersicon and construct a section-wide gene repertoire. We reveal the landscape of structural variants and provide entry to the genomic diversity among tomato wild relatives, enabling the discovery of a wild tomato gene with the potential to increase yields of modern cultivated tomatoes. Construction of a graph-based genome enables structural-variant-based genome-wide association studies, identifying numerous signals associated with tomato flavor-related traits and fruit metabolites. The tomato super-pangenome resources will expedite biological studies and breeding of this globally important crop.

[Effect of navel acupuncture on bladder emptying function in patients with urinary retention after stroke].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of navel acupuncture on bladder emptying function in patients with urinary retention after stroke based on the conventional treatment. METHODS: A total of 106 patients with urinary retention after stroke were randomly divided into an observation group (53 cases, 3 cases dropped off) and a control group (53 cases, 3 cases dropped off). Patients in the control group were treated with drugs, catheterization and bladder function rehabilitation training. On the basis of the treatment in the control group, the observation group was treated with navel acupuncture, 30 min each time, once every other day, for 4 weeks. The bladder residual urine volume, spontaneous urination volume and catheterization times before and after treatment were compared between the two groups, and the clinical efficacy was evaluated. RESULTS: After treatment, in the two groups, the bladder residual urine volume and catheterization times were lower than those before treatment (P<0.01), and the spontaneous urination volume was higher than that before treatment (P<0.01); the bladder residual urine volume and catheterization times in the observation group were less than those in the control group (P<0.05, P<0.01), and the spontaneous urination volume was higher than that in the control group (P<0.01). The effective rate of the observation group was 90.0 % (45/50), which was higher than 72.0 % (36/50) in the control group (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: On the basis of conventional treatment, navel acupuncture can effectively improve the bladder emptying function of patients with urinary retention after stroke.

A calcium-dependent protein kinase gene SpCPK33 from Solanum pennellii associated with increased cold tolerance in tomato.

Calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs, CPKs) represent a vital class of calcium sensors, which play a crucial role in plant growth, development and adaption to complex environmental stresses. Wild species tend to exhibit greater tolerance than cultivated species under environmental stress. Here, we isolated a calcium-dependent protein kinase gene SpCPK33 located primarily on the plasma membrane of abiotic-resistant species (Solanum pennellii LA0716). It was highly expressed in stems and leaves and was also induced by cold stress. Compared with WT plants, the overexpression of SpCPK33 in cultivated tomato (cv M82) enhanced its tolerance to cold stress. Transgenic lines demonstrated strong vitality under low temperature treatment. Moreover, the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) were decreased in SpCPK33-overexpressing plants. The activities of antioxidant enzymes and the levels of osmotic regulatory substances were higher. The transcript levels of cold stress-related genes were up-regulated. In summary, the results indicate that SpCPK33-overexpressing transgenic plants experience less severe chilling injury under cold stress, and improved tomato cold tolerance by scavenging ROS accumulation and modulating the expression of stress-related genes.

Tracing the origin of honey products based on metagenomics and machine learning.

The adulteration of honey is common. Recently, High Throughput Sequencing (HTS)-based metabarcoding method has been applied successfully to pollen/honey identification to determine floral composition that, in turn, can be used to identify the geographical origins of honeys. However, the lack of local references materials posed a serious challenge for HTS-based pollen identification methods. Here, we sampled 28 honey samples from various geographic origins without prior knowledge of local floral information and applied a machine learning method to determine geographical origins. The machine learning method uses a resilient backpropagation algorithm to train a neural network. The results showed that biological components in honey provided characteristic traits that enabled accurate geographic tracing for nearly all honey samples, confidently discriminating honeys to their geographic origin with >99% success rates, including those separated by as little as 39 km.

Gene reuse facilitates rapid radiation and independent adaptation to diverse habitats in the Asian honeybee.

Animals with recent shared ancestry frequently adapt in parallel to new but similar habitats, a process often underlined by repeated selection of the same genes. Yet, in contrast, few examples have demonstrated the significance of gene reuse in colonization of multiple disparate habitats. By analyzing 343 genomes of the widespread Asian honeybee, Apis cerana, we showed that multiple peripheral subspecies radiated from a central ancestral population and adapted independently to diverse habitats. We found strong evidence of gene reuse in the Leucokinin receptor (Lkr), which was repeatedly selected in almost all peripheral subspecies. Differential expression and RNA interference knockdown revealed the role of Lkr in influencing foraging labor division, suggesting that Lkr facilitates collective tendency for pollen/nectar collection as an adaptation to floral changes. Our results suggest that honeybees may accommodate diverse floral shifts during rapid radiation through fine-tuning individual foraging tendency, a seemingly complex process accomplished by gene reuse.

[Discussion on ancient theory of acupuncture for post-stroke aphasia from "kidney"].

The relevant articles in the Inner Canon of Yellow Emperor and different physicians' clinical experience regarding acupuncture for post-stroke aphasia were summarized. The etiology, pathogenesis and acupuncture treatment principles for post-stroke aphasia were explored from the perspectives of "treatment based on kidney" "kidney-qi internal exhaustion" of syndrome differentiation of zang-fu and "kidney meridian as core with equal importance to multiple meridians" of syndrome differentiation of meridians, which is aimed to provide reference for clinical treatment.

[Mechanism research of curcumin on cancer cells based on cell metabolic profiling].

In this study, gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry(GC-MS) was used to analyze the changes of 12 kinds of cancer cells treated by curcumin. The related differential metabolites were screened and the metabolic pathways were analyzed to explore the anti-tumor mechanism of curcumin. Methyl thiazol tetrazolium(MTT) assay was used to detect the 50% inhibiting concentration(IC_(50)) of curcumin on 12 human tumor cells. After treatment with curcumin for 48 h, the cells were collected and analyzed by GC-MS, followed by pathway analysis and multivariate data analysis including principal component analysis(PCA), orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis(OPLS-DA) and One-way analysis of variance(ANOVA),etc. Overall, 34 metabolites showed significant concentration changes after intervention for 48 h, mainly involving multiple metabolic pathways, including lysine degradation, glycine, serine and threonine metabolism, arginine and proline metabolism, cysteine and methionine metabolism, aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis, primary bile acid biosynthesis, lysine biosynthesis. In this study, the anti-tumor mechanisms of curcumin interfering with energy metabolism, amino acid metabolism, microtubule system, protein synthesis and oxidative stress response of tumor cells were analyzed from the perspective of metabolism, providing a new reference for further tumor pharmacology study.

Genome-skimming provides accurate quantification for pollen mixtures.

Studies on foraging partitioning in pollinators can provide critical information to the understanding of food-web niche and pollination functions, thus aiding conservation. Metabarcoding based on PCR amplification and high-throughput sequencing has seen increasing applications in characterizing pollen loads carried by pollinators. However, amplification bias across taxa could lead to unpredictable artefacts in estimation of pollen compositions. We examined the efficacy of a genome-skimming method based on direct shotgun sequencing in quantifying mixed pollen, using mock samples (five and 14 mocks of flower and bee pollen, respectively). The results demonstrated a high level of repeatability and accuracy in identifying pollen from mixtures of varied species ratios. All pollen species were detected in all mocks, and pollen frequencies estimated from the number of sequence reads of each species were significantly correlated with pollen count proportions (linear model, R2  = 86.7%, p = 2.2e-16). For >97% of the mixed taxa, pollen proportion could be quantified by sequencing to the correct order of magnitude, even for species which constituted only 0.2% of the total pollen. In addition, DNA extracted from pollen grains equivalent to those collected from a single honeybee corbicula was sufficient for genome-skimming. We conclude that genome-skimming is a feasible approach to identifying and quantifying mixed pollen samples. By providing reliable and sensitive taxon identification and relative abundance, this method is expected to improve our understanding in studies that involve plant-pollinator interactions, such as pollen preference in corbiculate bees, pollen diet analyses and identification of landscape pollen resource use from beehives.

Pharmacokinetics and liver uptake of three Schisandra lignans in rats after oral administration of liposome encapsulating ß-cyclodextrin inclusion compound of Schisandra extract.

Schisandra chinensis fructus (SCF) is widely used traditional Chinese medicine, which possesses hepato-protective potential. Schisandrin (SD), schisantherin (ST), and γ-schizandrin (SZ) are the major bioactive lignans. The main problem associated with the major bioactive lignans oral administration is low oral bioavailability due to the lignans' poor aqueous solubility and taste. The aim of the present research work was to develop liposome (SCL) encapsulated ß-cyclodextrin (ß-CD) inclusion complex loaded with SCF extract (SCF-E). The SD, ST, and SZ were selected as effective candidates to perform comparisons of liver targeting among the solution (SES), ß-cyclodextrin inclusion compound (SCF-E-ß-CD), liposome (SEL), and SCL of SCF-E to characterize the pharmacokinetic behaviors and liver targeting in rats. The ß-CD inclusion complex (SCF-E-ß-CD) was used to improve the solubility. The concentrations were determined using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and analyzed by DAS3.0. The pharmacokinetic results indicate that the plasma concentration-time courses were fitted well to the one-compartment model with the first weighing factor. The half-life period (t1/2) and area under the concentration-time curve (AUC) of the three components in SCL were the largest. The SCL exhibit a relatively high liver targeting effect. The results would be helpful for guiding the clinical application of this herbal medicine.

Six New neo-Clerodane Diterpenoids from Aerial Parts of Scutellaria barbata and Their Cytotoxic Activities.

Six new neo-clerodane diterpenoids (1: -6: ), scutebatas X - Z, A1-C1, along with twelve known ones (7: -18: ) were obtained via the phytochemical investigation of the aerial parts of Scutellaria barbata. Their structures were established by detailed spectroscopic analysis. The absolute configurations of 1: and 2: , as the representative members of this type, were identified based on a circular dichroic exciton chirality method. Moreover, in vitro cytotoxicity of compounds 1: -6: were evaluated against three human cancer cell lines (SGC-7901, MCF-7, and A-549) using the MTT method. Compound 6: showed cytotoxic activities against all the three cell lines with IC50 values of 17.9, 29.9, and 35.7 µM, respectively.

[Process comparison of fingerprints of different extracts of Plumbago zeylanica by high performance liquid chromatography].

OBJECTIVE: To optimize the separation conditions of fingerprints of Plumbago zeylanica by high performance liquid chromatography, on this basis, to choose the best way for extracting Plumbago zeylanica by high performance liquid chromatography. METHODS: The investigation of HPLC-FPs of the different extraction samples was by the retention time and the relative area of common peaks in fingerprints. RESULTS: We established the optimum separation conditions of HPLC-FPs for Plumbago zeylanica and there were 4 common peaks in fingerprints. According to the contrast research, the HPLC-FPs of the 90% ethanol extraction and SBE extraction of Plumbago zeylanica were quite similar, and they both had 9 common peaks in fingerprints, It was better to use SBE rather than WE in the extraction of Plumbago zeylanica. CONCLUSION: The SBE may replace the WE and ethanol extraction of Plumbago zeylanica.