LncRNA HOTTIP from synovial fibroblast-derived exosomes: A novel molecular target for rheumatoid arthritis through the miR-1908-5p/STAT3 axis.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammation mediated by autoimmune responses. HOTTIP, a long noncoding RNA (lncRNA), participates in cell proliferation and invasion. However, the correlation between HOTTIP and RA remains unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to clarify how HOTTIP works in RA and to investigate its role in the development of RA. Flow cytometry was used to analyze cell cycle progression. Binding between HOTTIP, signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) and miR-1908-5p was demonstrated by dual-luciferase assays. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to measure the expression of T cell differentiation-related proteins. We found that HOTTIP was upregulated in rheumatoid arthritis synovial fibroblasts (RASFs). HOTTIP directly bound to miR-1908-5p and negatively modulated miR-1908-5p expression while positively regulating STAT3. The effects of HOTTIP overexpression on regulating the balance of the Th17/Treg cell ratio were partly reversed by miR-1908-5p overexpression. In addition, in vivo experiments demonstrated that overexpression of HOTTIP aggravated inflammation in RA mice, which was demonstrated by hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining and the increased expression levels of CD4+ interleukin (IL)-17+, forkhead Box P3 (FOXP3) and retinoid-related orphan receptor gamma-t (RORγt). In summary, our study suggests that HOTTIP plays a damaging role in RA by promoting inflammation, which may be related to the regulation of miR-1908-5p expression and the STAT3 signaling pathway. These results suggest that the regulation of HOTTIP may be a promising therapeutic strategy for RA.

Evidence of Chinese herbal fumigation for knee osteoarthritis: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is the most common cause of musculoskeletal pain and disability worldwide. Chinese herbal fumigation, an external therapy, is commonly used for the treatment of KOA, while there is no systematic review or meta-analysis designed to evaluate the effects of Chinese herbal fumigation on KOA. METHODS: Seven databases including Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, EMBASE, PubMed, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang data, VIP, and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database will be searched up to October 31, 2020. Data that meet the inclusion criteria will be extracted and analyzed by using RevMan V.5.3 software. Two reviewers will assess quality of the included studies based on the Cochrane Collaboration risk of bias tool. The funnel plot and Begg test will be used to evaluate publication bias. And Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation will be employed to assess the quality of evidence. RESULTS: This study will provide high-quality evidence for Chinese herbal fumigation for the treatment of KOA in terms of effectiveness and safety. CONCLUSION: This systematic review will provide evidence to help us confirm the clinical efficacy of Chinese herbal fumigation in the treatment of KOA.

Electroacupuncture for the Prevention of Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction Among Older Adults Undergoing Hip and Knee Arthroplasty: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

Background: Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is a common surgical complication in elderly patients undergoing hip and knee replacement. Electroacupuncture (EA) may have a protective effect on postoperative cognitive function, but relevant evidence remains uncertain. Objective: To systematically evaluate the evidence of EA for the prevention of POCD after total joint arthroplasty. Methods: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Data, VIP, and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM) databases were searched until May 1, 2021. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in which patients undergoing hip and knee replacement pretreated with EA for preventing POCD were included. The risk of bias was assessed by the Cochrane Collaboration tool. Meta-analysis was performed using Review Manager version 5.4. Results: A total of 11 RCTs with 949 patients were identified. Meta-analysis showed that compared with controls, EA pretreatment significantly reduced the incidence of POCD at 1, 3, and 7 days and 3 and 6 months after the operation. EA was also superior in improving the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores on the third postoperative day, but not on the first postoperative day. Neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and interleukin-1ß (IL-1ß) in the EA group were significantly lower than that in the control group. There was no difference in S100ß between the EA group and the control group. Compared to the control group, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) levels were not significantly lower in the EA group at postoperative hour 0, while significantly decreased at postoperative hours 24 and 48. Conclusion: Our results suggest that EA pretreatment is an effective adjunctive therapy for reducing the incidence of POCD for patients receiving total joint replacement surgery. Its effect was embodied in improving the MMSE scores and NSE, IL-1ß, and TNF-α levels, whereas it had no significant effect on S100ß levels. Meanwhile, the benefits of EA for improving POCD need further strengthening and support from more large-scale, high-quality, and good-homogeneity RCTs. Systematic Review Registration: https://osf.io/xb3e8.

Oxymatrine prevents synovial inflammation and migration via blocking NF-κB activation in rheumatoid fibroblast-like synoviocytes.

The fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLSs) has the aggressive phenotype, which is very important for cartilage destruction in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). To the pathology of RA, the increased FLSs migration, activation and proliferation are essential factors. Oxymatrine is a traditional Chinese herb, which is the extraction from the root of Sophora flavescens and regarded as quinolizidine alkaloid compounds and has been shown to inhibit inflammation, proliferation and migration in vitro or vivo. However, whether oxymatrine effects in the treatment of RA FLSs is undefined. In our study, the inhibition of oxymatrine in RA FLSs inflammation, proliferation and migration in RA FLS are evaluated. We found that oxymatrine decreased the IL-6 and IL-8 expression and the proliferation, migration and invasion of RA FLSs. We also evaluated the molecular mechanisms and we found the effect of oxymatrine on NF-κB activation. The results showed that oxymatrine inhibited the activity of NF-κB. And the treatment activity of oxymatrine on collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) was further explored by us. Thus, we conclude that oxymatrine may protect joint destruction of RA by inhibiting synoviocyte activation, migration, invasion, and proliferation.

A proof-of-principle simulation for closed-loop control based on preexisting experimental thalamic DBS-enhanced instrumental learning.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has been applied as an effective therapy for treating Parkinson's disease or essential tremor. Several open-loop DBS control strategies have been developed for clinical experiments, but they are limited by short battery life and inefficient therapy. Therefore, many closed-loop DBS control systems have been designed to tackle these problems by automatically adjusting the stimulation parameters via feedback from neural signals, which has been reported to reduce the power consumption. However, when the association between the biomarkers of the model and stimulation is unclear, it is difficult to develop an optimal control scheme for other DBS applications, i.e., DBS-enhanced instrumental learning. Furthermore, few studies have investigated the effect of closed-loop DBS control for cognition function, such as instrumental skill learning, and have been implemented in simulation environments. In this paper, we proposed a proof-of-principle design for a closed-loop DBS system, cognitive-enhancing DBS (ceDBS), which enhanced skill learning based on in vivo experimental data. The ceDBS acquired local field potential (LFP) signal from the thalamic central lateral (CL) nuclei of animals through a neural signal processing system. A strong coupling of the theta oscillation (4-7 Hz) and the learning period was found in the water reward-related lever-pressing learning task. Therefore, the theta-band power ratio, which was the averaged theta band to averaged total band (1-55 Hz) power ratio, could be used as a physiological marker for enhancement of instrumental skill learning. The on-line extraction of the theta-band power ratio was implemented on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). An autoregressive with exogenous inputs (ARX)-based predictor was designed to construct a CL-thalamic DBS model and forecast the future physiological marker according to the past physiological marker and applied DBS. The prediction could further assist the design of a closed-loop DBS controller. A DBS controller based on a fuzzy expert system was devised to automatically control DBS according to the predicted physiological marker via a set of rules. The simulated experimental results demonstrate that the ceDBS based on the closed-loop control architecture not only reduced power consumption using the predictive physiological marker, but also achieved a desired level of physiological marker through the DBS controller.

Dual-Targeting Lactoferrin-Conjugated Polymerized Magnetic Polydiacetylene-Assembled Nanocarriers with Self-Responsive Fluorescence/Magnetic Resonance Imaging for In Vivo Brain Tumor Therapy.

Maintaining a high concentration of therapeutic agents in the brain is difficult due to the restrictions of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and rapid removal from blood circulation. To enable controlled drug release and enhance the blood-brain barrier (BBB)-crossing efficiency for brain tumor therapy, a new dual-targeting magnetic polydiacetylene nanocarriers (PDNCs) delivery system modified with lactoferrin (Lf) is developed. The PDNCs are synthesized using the ultraviolet (UV) cross-linkable 10,12-pentacosadiynoic acid (PCDA) monomers through spontaneous assembling onto the surface of superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) nanoparticles to form micelles-polymerized structures. The results demonstrate that PDNCs will reduce the drug leakage and further control the drug release, and display self-responsive fluorescence upon intracellular uptake for cell trafficking and imaging-guided tumor treatment. The magnetic Lf-modified PDNCs with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and dual-targeting ability can enhance the transportation of the PDNCs across the BBB for tracking and targeting gliomas. An enhanced therapeutic efficiency can be obtained using Lf-Cur (Curcumin)-PDNCs by improving the retention time of the encapsulated Cur and producing fourfold higher Cur amounts in the brain compared to free Cur. Animal studies also confirm that Lf targeting and controlled release act synergistically to significantly suppress tumors in orthotopic brain-bearing rats.

Sauna lung: hypersensitivity pneumonitis due to Exophiala jeanselmei.

A 55-year-old man developed progressive cough and dyspnoea after regular attendance at a public steam bath. Hypoxaemia, diffuse pulmonary infiltrates and a predominance of lymphocytes with an increased percentage of CD8+ T cells in his bronchoalveolar lavage fluid suggested hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Microbial cultures from the steam bath room and tank identified Exophiala jeanselmei. Immunoblotting assays from the patient's serum confirmed the major antigenic stimulus. The patient recovered fully after systemic corticosteroid treatment and cessation of further exposure.