Clinical Effects of Ultrasound-Guided Acupotomy in Knee Osteoarthritis Treatment.

The protocol presented here demonstrates the operation method of ultrasound-guided acupotomy for knee osteoarthritis (KOA), including patient recruitment, preoperative preparation, manual operation, and postoperative care. The purpose of this protocol is to relieve pain and improve knee function in patients with KOA. A total of 60 patients with KOA admitted between June 2022 and June 2023 were treated with ultrasound-guided acupotomy. Pathological changes and knee function scores were compared before and after the treatment. After 1 week of treatment, the synovial thickness of the suprapatellar bursae was significantly lesser than before treatment (p < 0.05), the Hospital for Special Surgery Knee Score (HSS) was significantly higher than before treatment (p < 0.05), the Visual analogue scale (VAS) was significantly lower than those of the control group (p < 0.05) and Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) were significantly lower than those of the control group (p < 0.05). Therefore, ultrasound-guided acupotomy for the treatment of KOA can reduce synovial thickness, relieve pain, improve knee joint function, and have a remarkable curative effect.

Genome Sequence of Cluster BI1 Streptomyces griseus Phage TaidaOne.

Bacteriophage TaidaOne was isolated from soil collected in Taipei, Taiwan, using the host Streptomyces griseus. It is a siphovirus with a 56,183-bp genome that contains 86 protein-coding genes. Based on gene content similarity, it was assigned to actinobacteriophage subcluster BI1, within which only TaidaOne and GirlPower genomes contain an acetyltransferase homolog gene.

HSF1/AMPKα2 mediated alteration of metabolic phenotypes confers increased oxaliplatin resistance in HCC cells.

Recent studies suggest that up-regulated HSF1 possesses metabolic phenotypes switch and chemoresistance in cancer cells. However, the mechanism in which these characteristics are still ambiguous. Our study aims to identify how HSF1 confers chemoresistance through regulating metabolic pathway in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Oxaliplatin (OXA)-resistant HCC cells (HCC-OXR) in both of abundant glucose (AG; 25 mM) and low glucose (LG; 5.5 mM) conditions were constructed; then glucose consumption, lactate production, intracellular ATP level and oxygen consumption of parental and OXA-resistant cells were determined by using the associated detected kits. Moreover, HSF1 was knocked down to analyze its effects on metabolic phenotypes alteration and chemoresistance formation in HCC cells. Compared to cells in AG condition, HCC cells delayed to form chemoresistance to OXA in LG condition; and OXA-resistant cells underwent a metabolic switch from glycolysis to oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS), which presented decreased glucose uptake and lactate production with increased levels of oxygen consumption and intercellular ATP; interestingly, this energy-producing pathway was blocked in HSF1-knockdown OXA-resistant cells, especially in LG condition. Analysis on previous data revealed that AMPK pathway was a critical regulator in the metabolism of OXA-resistance HCC cells. Furthermore, AMPKα2 was identified as an important factor regulated by HSF1 to achieve metabolic phenotype switch in OXA-resistance HCC cells. Consequently, these results suggest that combining restrictive glucose uptake and targeting HSF1/AMPKα2 is an attractive strategy to prevent chemoresistance to OXA in HCC patients.

Molecular insights into the origin of the brown rust resistance gene Bru1 among Saccharum species.

KEY MESSAGE: Analysis of 387 sugarcane clones using Bru 1 diagnostic markers revealed two possible sources of Bru 1 in Chinese cultivars: one from Saccharum spontaneum and another from Saccharum robustum of New Guinea. Sugarcane brown rust (SBR) is an important fungal disease in many sugarcane production areas around the world, and can cause considerable yield losses in susceptible sugarcane cultivars. One major SBR resistance gene, named Bru1, initially identified from cultivar R570, was shown to be a major SBR resistance source in most of the sugarcane producing areas of the world. In this study, by using the two Bru1-associated markers, R12H16 and 9O20-F4, we surveyed the presence of Bru1 in a Chinese sugarcane germplasm collection of 387 clones, consisting of 228 hybrid cultivars bred by different Chinese sugarcane breeding establishments, 54 exotic hybrid cultivars introduced from other countries and 105 clones of sugarcane ancestral species. The Bru1-bearing haplotype was detected in 43.4% of Chinese sugarcane cultivars, 20.4% of exotic hybrid cultivars, and only 3.8% of ancestral species. Among the 33 Chinese cultivars for which phenotypes of resistance to SBR were available, Bru1 was present in 69.2% (18/26) of the resistant clones. Analyses of the allelic sequence variations of R12H16 and 9O20-F4 suggested two possible sources of Bru1 in Chinese cultivars: one from S. spontaneum and another from S. robustum of New Guinea. In addition, we developed an improved Bru1 diagnostic marker, 9O20-F4-HaeIII, which can eliminate all the false results of 9O20-F4-RsaI observed among S. spontaneum, as well as a new dominant Bru1 diagnostic marker, R12E03-2, from the BAC ShCIR12E03. Our results provide valuable information for further efforts of breeding SBR-resistant varieties, searching new SBR resistance sources and cloning of Bru1 in sugarcane.

High-throughput procedure for single pollen grain collection and polymerase chain reaction in plants.

Single pollen grain polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has succeeded in several species, however only limited numbers of pollen grains were involved due to difficulties in pollen isolation and lysis. This has limited its application in genetic analysis and mapping studies in plants. A high-throughput (HT) procedure for collecting and detecting genetic variation in a large number of individual pollen grains by PCR is reported. The HT procedure involved the collection of individual pollen grains by a pair of special forceps and the lysis of pollen grains in a heated alkali/detergent solution followed by neutralization with a tris-ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (TE) buffer. These resulting template solutions yielded PCR reactions involving the 5S ribosomal RNA intergenic spacers, randomly amplified polymorphic DNA, and simple sequence repeats markers. Using this procedure, one person with experience could collect and process up to 288 single pollen grain PCR reactions per day. The method worked well on sugarcane, corn, Miscanthus spp., snap bean, sorghum, and tomato. The ability to collect and conduct PCR on individual pollen grains on a large scale offers a new approach to genetic analyses and mapping studies in an easily controllable environment with a considerable cost reduction. The method will also significantly benefit studies in species that are difficult subjects for classical genetic research.