Self-care ability and associated factors in community-dwelling older adults living with oral frailty using the COM-B model.

BACKGROUND: Self-care can improve overall oral health. However, few studies have investigated this in community-dwelling older adults with oral frailty. The Capability, Opportunity, Motivation and Behaviour (COM-B) model may be an appropriate framework to identify factors that affect self-care ability. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate the current status of and factors influencing self-care ability in community-dwelling older adults living with oral frailty, and to analyse the risk factors of low self-care ability. METHODS: Two hundred seventy-five community-dwelling older adults with oral frailty participated in this cross-sectional study from October 2022 to March 2023. Participants underwent evaluations of oral health knowledge and behaviour, oral health literacy, nutritional condition, social support, oral health-related quality of life, self-efficacy and self-care ability using questionnaires. The self-care ability of older adults was assessed using the Chinese version of self-care ability scale for the elderly (SASE). The influencing factors were evaluated by single-factor analysis, correlation analysis and multi-factor analysis. Furthermore, we conducted additional analysis, wherein self-care ability was analysed as a categorical variable. RESULTS: Of the participants, the SASE score was 62.43 ± 7.33, and 73.09% were inadequate at self-care ability. There was a positive correlation between the level of self-care ability and each variable (p < .001). Multiple linear regression showed that health literacy (p < .001), age (p < .001), nutritional condition (p = .001), gender (p = .003), quality of life (p = .014) and self-efficacy (p = .040) were significantly associated with decreased self-care ability (R2 = 0.444, F = 19.241). Binomial logistic regression analysis showed that gender, educational level, nutritional condition, oral health literacy and quality of life (all P<0.05) were risk factors for developing low levels of self-care ability. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that health literacy, age, nutritional condition, quality of life, gender and self-efficacy are important factors that influence self-care ability in community-dwelling older adults living with oral frailty.

Probiotic characterization of Bacillus smithii: Research advances, concerns, and prospective trends.

Bacillus smithii is a thermophilic Bacillus that can be isolated from white wine, hot spring soil, high-temperature compost, and coffee grounds, with various biofunctions and wide applications. It is resistant to both gastric acid and high temperature, which makes it easier to perform probiotic effects than traditional commercial probiotics, so it can maintain good vitality during food processing and has great application prospects. This paper starts with the taxonomy and genetics and focuses on aspects, including genetic transformation, functional enzyme production, waste utilization, and application in the field of food science as a potential probiotic. According to available studies during the past 30 years, we considered that B. smithii is a novel class of microorganisms with a wide range of functional enzymes such as hydrolytic enzymes and hydrolases, as well as resistance to pathogenic bacteria. It is available in waste degradation, organic fertilizer production, the feed and chemical industries, the pharmaceutical sector, and food fortification. Moreover, B. smithii has great potentials for applications in the food industry, as it presents high resistance to the technological processes that guarantee its health benefits. It is also necessary to systematically evaluate the safety, flavor, and texture of B. smithii and explore its biological mechanism of action, which is of great value for further application in multiple fields, especially in food and medicine.

Tracking Chinese newspaper coverage of elephant ivory through topic modeling.

Mass media worldwide has contributed to increasing awareness of the illegal wildlife trade and its significant impact on wildlife conservation. We used mass media coverage as a proxy for macro-level public opinion to analyze the media framing of elephant ivory in 6394 Chinese newspaper articles published from 2000 to 2021 and thus determine the effects of wildlife policies on public opinion. We focused on 2 events: the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) approval of China as a trading partner in the purchase and import of ivory stockpiles from Africa in July 2008 and the Chinese government's announcement of a domestic ivory ban in December 2016. Using latent Dirichlet allocation topic modeling, we identified 8 topics about elephant ivory and grouped them into 3 frames: ivory arts and culture, ivory crimes, and elephant conservation. Over the last 2 decades, topics related to ivory crimes remained the most prevalent in news articles. Topics about ivory arts and culture showed a significant shift in media salience before and after the 2 events (from 0.44 to 0.19 and from 0.08 to 0.15, respectively, p < 0.05), whereas the other 2 frames did not change significantly. Contrary to popular belief, our results indicated that Chinese macro-level public opinion on ivory had become more negative following the CITES approval of ivory importation and less negative after the ivory ban announcement, at least for certain periods. The relationship between mass media, public opinion, and wildlife trade policies is complex and requires further examination of the sociopolitical dynamics that influence media narratives. Our results showed the value of topic modeling in monitoring and assessing media representations of wildlife issues in the era of big data. Conservationists should remain vigilant of mass media coverage and collaborate with media practitioners to produce comprehensive narratives on wildlife issues if resources permit.

Los medios masivos han contribuido a una mayor conciencia mundial del mercado ilegal de fauna y el impacto significativo que tiene sobre la conservación. Usamos la cobertura de los medios masivos como sustituto de la opinión pública a nivel macro para analizar el encuadre mediático que le dan al marfil 6,394 artículos publicados en periódicos chinos entre el 2000 y 2021 para así determinar los efectos que tienen las políticas de fauna sobre la opinión pública. Nos enfocamos en dos eventos: la autorización que dio la Convención sobre el Comercio Internacional de Especies Amenazadas (CITES) a China como socio comercial en la compra e importación de reservas de marfil desde África en julio de 2008 y la prohibición doméstica de marfil anunciada por el gobierno chino en diciembre de 2016. Usamos el modelado de asignación latente de Dirichlet para identificar ocho temas sobre el marfil y los agrupamos en tres encuadres: arte y cultura del marfil, crimen del marfil y conservación de elefantes. Durante las últimas dos décadas, los temas relacionados con los crímenes del marfil fueron los más prevalentes en los artículos periodísticos. Los temas relacionados al arte y cultura del marfil mostraron un cambio significativo en la relevancia mediática antes y después de los dos eventos (de 0.44 a 0.19 y de 0.08 a 0.15, respectivamente, p<0.05), mientras que los otros dos encuadres no cambiaron significativamente. Contrario a las creencias populares, nuestros resultados indicaron que la opinión pública a nivel macro sobre el marfil en China se ha vuelto más negativa después de la autorización de CITES y menos negativa después de la prohibición del marfil, al menos durante ciertos periodos. La relación entre los medios masivos, la opinión pública y las políticas del comercio de fauna es compleja y requiere un análisis más profundo de las dinámicas sociopolíticas que influyen sobre las narrativas mediáticas. Nuestros resultados muestran el valor del modelado de temas en el monitoreo y evaluación de la representación en medios de los temas sobre fauna en tiempos de los macrodatos. Los conservacionistas deberían permanecer atentos a la cobertura de los medios masivos y colaborar con los profesionales de los medios para producir narraciones completas sobre la fauna si los recursos lo permiten.

Alleviative effects of a novel strain Bacillus coagulans XY2 on copper-induced toxicity in zebrafish larvae.

Copper (Cu) is a kind of micronutrient element that is essential for human metabolism. However, it is also considered as an environmental pollutant which is toxic to organisms at a high concentration level. Probiotics, regarded as beneficial microorganisms for promoting human health, have functions of antioxidant capacity, immune-enhancing properties, intestinal barrier protection and regulation. Several studies have reported that probiotics show positive effects on alleviating and intervening heavy metals toxicity. However, evidence for relieving copper-induced toxicity by probiotics is still limited. In this study, we firstly conducted a zebrafish larvae model to screen out microorganisms which are helpful for CuSO4 toxicity resistance and one novel strain named as Bacillus coagulans XY2 was discovered with the best protective activity. B. coagulans XY2 significantly reduced the mortality of zebrafish larvae exposed to 10 µmol/L CuSO4 for 96 hr, as well as alleviated the neutrophils infiltration in the larvae lateral line under a 2 hr exposure. B. coagulans XY2 exhibited a high in vitro antioxidant activity and against CuSO4-induced oxidative stress in zebrafish larvae by up-regulating sod1, gstp1 and cat gene transcriptional levels and relevant enzymatic activities. CuSO4 stimulated the inflammation process resulting in obvious increases of gene il-1ß and il-10 transcription, which were suppressed by B. coagulans XY2 intervention. Overall, our results underline the bio-function of B. coagulans XY2 on protecting zebrafish larvae from copper toxicity, suggesting the potential application values of probiotics in copper toxicity alleviation on human and the environment.

Robust Trajectory and Resource Optimization in UAV-Enabled IoT Networks under Probabilistic LoS Channel in Presence of Jammers.

This paper studies the anti-jamming problem of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-enabled Internet of Things (IoT) communication networks in the presence of a jammer under the accurate probabilistic line-of-sight (LoS) model. Our goal is to maximize the information collection throughput of the system under the assumption that only the jammer's approximate location is known. To this end, we formulate a throughput maximization problem by optimizing the UAV trajectory, the IoT devices' transmit power, and communication scheduling under the accurate real-time probabilistic LoS channel. However, the proposed optimization problem is non-convex and coupled, and hence intractable to be solved. In order to tackle the problem, a robust iterative algorithm is proposed by leveraging the block coordinate descent (BCD) method, the successive convex approximation (SCA) technology, the difference of convex (D.C) programming approach, and the S-procedure. Extensive simulation results show that our proposed algorithm significantly improves the system throughput while achieving a practical anti-jamming effect compared with the benchmark algorithms.

Baicalein inhibits mitochondrial apoptosis induced by oxidative stress in cardiomyocytes by stabilizing MARCH5 expression.

Abnormal mitochondrial fission and mitophagy participate in the pathogenesis of many cardiovascular diseases. Baicalein is a key active component in the roots of traditional Chinese medicinal herb Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi. It has been reported that baicalein can resist cardiotoxicity induced by several stress, but the mechanisms of baicalein operate in the protection of cardiomyocytes need to be researched further. Here we report that baicalein can promote cell survival under oxidative stress by up-regulating the expression level of MARCH5 in cardiomyocytes. Pre-treatment cells or mice with baicalein can stabilize the expression of MARCH5, which plays a crucial role in the regulation of mitochondrial network and mitophagy. Overexpressed MARCH5 is able to against H2 O2 and ischaemia/reperfusion (I/R) stress by suppressing mitochondrial fission and enhancing mitophagy, and then attenuate cells apoptosis. Altogether, our present study investigated that baicalein exerts a protective effect through regulating KLF4-MARCH5-Drp1 pathway, our research also provided a novel theoretical basis for the clinical application of baicalein.

Reach and messages of the world's largest ivory burn.

Recent increases in ivory poaching have depressed African elephant populations. Successful enforcement has led to ivory stockpiling. Stockpile destruction is becoming increasingly popular, and most destruction has occurred in the last 5 years. Ivory destruction is intended to send a strong message against ivory consumption, both in promoting a taboo on ivory use and catalyzing policy change. However, there has been no effort to establish the distribution and extent of media reporting on ivory destruction events globally. We analyzed media coverage of the largest ivory destruction event in history (Kenya, 30 April 2016) across 11 nation states connected to ivory trade. We used an online-media crawling tool to search online media outlets and subjected 5 of the largest print newspapers (by circulation) in 5 nations of interest to content analysis. Most online news on the ivory burn came from the United States (81% of 1944 articles), whereas most of the print news articles came from Kenya (61% of 157 articles). Eighty-six to 97% of all online articles reported the burn as a positive conservation action, whereas 4-50% discussed ivory burning as having a negative impact on elephant conservation. Most articles discussed law enforcement and trade bans as effective for elephant conservation. There was more relative search interest globally in the 2016 Kenyan ivory burn than any other burn in 5 years. Ours is the first attempt to track the reach of media coverage relative to an ivory burn and provides a case study in tracking the effects of a conservation-marketing event.

Association of furanone C-30 with biofilm formation & antibiotic resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Background & objectives: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that can cause nosocomial bloodstream infections in humans. This study was aimed to explore the association of furanone C-30 with biofilm formation, quorum sensing (QS) system and antibiotic resistance in P. aeruginosa. Methods: An in vitro model of P. aeruginosa bacterial biofilm was established using the standard P. aeruginosa strain (PAO-1). After treatment with 2.5 and 5 µg/ml of furanone C-30, the change of biofilm morphology of PAO-1 was observed, and the expression levels of QS-regulated virulence genes (lasB, rhlA and phzA2), QS receptor genes (lasR, rhlR and pqsR) as well as QS signal molecule synthase genes (lasI, rhlI, pqsE and pqsH) were determined. Besides, the AmpC expression was quantified in planktonic and mature biofilm induced by antibiotics. Results: Furanone C-30 treatment significantly inhibited biofilm formation in a dose-dependent manner. With the increase of furanone C-30 concentration, the expression levels of lasB, rhlA, phzA2, pqsR, lasI, rhlI pqsE and pqsH significantly decreased in mature biofilm bacteria while the expression levels of lasR and rhlR markedly increased. The AmpC expression was significantly decreased in both planktonic and biofilm bacteria induced by imipenem and ceftazidime. Interpretation & conclusions: Furanone C-30 may inhibit biofilm formation and antibiotic resistance in P. aeruginosa through regulating QS genes. The inhibitory effect of furanone C-30 on las system appeared to be stronger than that on rhl system. Further studies need to be done with different strains of P. aeruginosa to confirm our findings.

Monocular lens dislocation due to vomiting-a case report.

BACKGROUND: Lens dislocation is a common disease in ophthalmology, which leads to vision loss, while the lens dislocation caused by vomiting has not been reported yet. We report a case of lens dislocation caused by simple vomiting. This case further implicated for the pathogenesis of lens dislocation. CASE PRESENTATION: A 51-year-old male who complained about "dizziness, vomiting, and the vision decreased for 4 h in right eye", after the eye examination, he was been diagnosed with "lens dislocation induced by simply vomiting ". Surgery was performed successfully.We highlight the pathogenesis and development of the lens dislocation in this rare condition. CONCLUSION: Lens dislocation could be induced by simple vomitting, which increased the vitrous cavity presure to shock the zonular fiber and push the lens into the anterior chamber.

Diagnostic accuracy of the soluble Fms-like tyrosine kinase-1/placental growth factor ratio for preeclampsia: a meta-analysis based on 20 studies.

PURPOSE: To investigate the accuracy of the soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1(sFlt-1)/placental growth factor (PlGF) ratio to predict preeclampsia (PE). METHODS: A search in the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library was conducted for human studies without language restriction. We included the studies reported sufficient data to reconstruct the diagnostic 2 × 2 table of sFlt-1/PlGF with testing of PlGF and sFlt-1 in serum or plasma. Two reviewers independently screened the articles. Disagreements were resolved by a third reviewer. Unpublished data were requested from the authors of the study by email. RESULTS: Twenty studies with 28 groups of women with different gestational ages were included in our study. The pooled diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of sFlt-1/PlGF were 0.78 and 0.84 with the area under the SROC curve (AUC) of 0.88. In subgroup analyses, the diagnostic value of sFlt-1/PlGF for early-onset PE is highest with a pooled diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) of 241 and AUC of 0.98. CONCLUSIONS: The accuracy of sFlt-1/PlGF ratio for screening PE was moderate and was high for early-onset PE. High-quality studies are needed to confirm their usefulness in prediction of PE in clinical practice.

FoxO signaling pathway stimulation by Bacillus smithii XY1 contributes to alleviating copper-induced neurotoxicity.

Increasingly copper pollution in the environment exacerbates the risk of neurodegenerative diseases. It is necessary to look for effective targets and safe methods for protecting from copper-induced neurotoxicity. Here we firstly explored the impact of copper-exposure on expression profiles in zebrafish. Copper reduced embryo hatching, increased mortality and caused embryonic developmental abnormalities and behavioral dysfunction in juveniles. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that differential genes related to neuron were highly associated with oxidative stress especially enriched to FoxO pathway. Through further validation in Caenorhabditis elegans, copper resulted in nematode neurodegenerative movement disorders and neuronal damage, along with increased levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) as well as decreased expressions of antioxidant-related enzymes and downstream genes which was also involved in FoxO signaling pathway. Bacillus smithii XY1, a novel strain with an excellent antioxidative activity, showed a great alleviative effect on copper-induced neurotoxicity that was related to FoxO stimulation, being a potential candidate for copper pollution management. Overall, these results suggested that FoxO pathway activation can regard as a strategy for mitigating neurotoxicity caused by copper and B. smithii XY1 with excellent tolerance and outstanding antioxidation specially targeted for FoxO has a promising application in controlling copper contamination.

Mitochondria UPR stimulation by pelargonidin-3-glucoside contributes to ameliorating lipid accumulation under copper exposure.

Intensification of copper pollution in the environment has led to its excessive accumulation in humans, causing oxidative stress and lipid metabolism disorders. It is necessary to look for effective targets and safe methods to alleviate copper toxicity. Pelargonidin-3-glucoside (Pg3G) is a natural anthocyanin with metal ion chelating ability and multiple physiological activities. In this study, lipid accumulation was investigated under copper exposure in Caenorhabditis elegans which can be improved by Pg3G. Transcriptome analysis revealed that differentially expressed genes are enriched in lipid metabolism and protein folding/degradation. Pg3G activated mitochondrial unfold protein response (UPRmt) to mitigate mitochondrial damage caused by copper and regulated the expression of genes involved in lipid absorption, transport, and synthesis, thereby reducing lipid levels in C. elegans. This improvement disappeared in the ubl-5 knockout strain, indicating that ubl-5 is one target of Pg3G. Meanwhile, in HepG2 cells, Pg3G enhanced the cellular antioxidant capacity by activating UPRmt for maintaining mitochondrial homeostasis, followed by inhibition of excessive lipid accumulation. Overall, these results suggested that UPRmt activation can be a strategy for mitigating lipid disorders induced by copper and Pg3G with excellent ability to resist oxidative stress specially targeted for ubl-5 has a promising application in controlling copper contamination.

Circular RNA-circLRP6 protects cardiomyocyte from hypoxia-induced apoptosis by facilitating hnRNPM-mediated expression of FGF-9.

Coronary atherosclerosis-induced myocardial ischemia leads to cardiomyocyte apoptosis. The regulatory mechanisms for cardiomyocyte apoptosis have not been fully understood. Circular RNAs are non-coding RNAs which play important roles in heart function maintenance and progression of heart diseases by regulating gene transcription and protein translation. Here, we reported a conserved cardiac circular RNA, which is generated from the second exon of LRP6 and named circLRP62-2 . CircLRP62-2 can protect cardiomyocyte from hypoxia-induced apoptosis. The expression of circLRP62-2 in cardiomyocytes was down-regulated under hypoxia, while forced expression of circLRP62-2 inhibited cell apoptosis. Normally, circLRP62-2 was mainly localized in the nucleus. Under hypoxia, circLRP62-2 is associated with heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein M (hnRNPM) to be translocated into the cytoplasm. It recruited hnRNPM to fibroblast growth factor 9 (FGF9) mRNA to enhance the expression of FGF9 protein, promoting hypoxia-adaption and viability of cardiomyocytes. In summary, this study uncovers a new inhibitor of apoptosis and reveals a novel anti-apoptotic pathway composed of circLRP62-2 , hnRNPM, and FGF9, which may provide therapeutic targets for coronary heart disease and ischemic myocardial injury.

The relationship between self-regulated learning, mindful agency, and psychological resilience in Chinese master of nursing specialists: A cross-sectional study.

Background: Self-regulated learning helps to improve academic performance and is an important strategy for the sustainable development of Master of Nursing Specialists. Consequently, it is relevant to identify the factors that affect self-regulated learning and analyze the correlation between them. Objective: This study examined the status quo of self-regulated learning, the relationship between self-regulated learning, mindful agency, and psychological resilience, and explored whether mindful agency and psychological resilience influence self-regulation learning. Methods: Chinese Master of Nursing Specialists were recruited to participate in an online survey from March to November 2022. Self-regulated learning, mindful agency, and psychological resilience were measured using three questionnaires, including the Self-Regulated Learning Scale for Clinical Nursing Practice Scale (SRLS-CNP), the Mindful Agency Scale, and the 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-10). The data were processed and analyzed using SPSS26.0. The statistical methods included descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation analyses, and multiple linear regression. Results: Self-regulated learning of Chinese Master of Nursing Specialists was medium level (59.24 ± 9.33 scores). Mindful agency and psychological resilience were positively correlated with self-regulated learning (p < 0.01) and important predictors of self-regulated learning of Master of Nursing Specialists, explaining 44.6% of the variation. Conclusion: Mindful agency and psychological resilience affected the self-regulated learning level of Master of Nursing Specialists in clinical practice. These results will enable clinical educators to pay more attention to the personal psychological factors of Master of Nursing Specialists to improve their self-regulated learning ability through mindful agency and psychological resilience.

Enhancement of biocontrol efficacy of Kluyveromyces marxianus induced by N-acetylglucosamine against Penicillium expansum.

This research aimed to investigate the effect of N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) on the biocontrol activity of Kluyveromyces marxianus and involved possible mechanisms. The results indicated that 0.5% GlcNAc significantly improved the antagonistic efficacy of K. marxianus against Penicillium expansum. GlcNAc supplementation led to increases of biocontrol-related enzymes and stress-resistant substances in K. marxianus including chitinase, ß-1,3-glucanase, trehalose and proline, being beneficial for yeasts vigor maintenance under adverse circumstances. The antioxidative-related enzyme activities in K. marxianus, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and others, were increased by GlcNAc along with more quickly excess reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging. GlcNAc resulted in an enhancement of proliferative capacity in K. marxianus according to the transcriptomic analysis. Consequently, GlcNAc contributed to improvements of K. marxianus in the environmental adaptability and stress resistance. Our study demonstrated that both GlcNAc and K. marxianus could be regarded as potential candidates for postharvest technology application.

Bacillus coagulans (Weizmannia coagulans) XY2 attenuates Cu-induced oxidative stress via DAF-16/FoxO and SKN-1/Nrf2 pathways and gut microbiota regulation.

Copper (Cu) pollution has become a serious environmental problem especially in recent decades. In this study, the mechanisms of Bacillus coagulans (Weizmannia coagulans) XY2 against Cu-induced oxidative stress were explored through a dual model. In mice, Cu disturbed microbial community structure, revealing an increased level of Enterorhabdus abundance and decreased levels of Intestinimonas, Faecalibaculu, Ruminococcaceae and Coriobacteriaceae_UCG-002 abundance. Meanwhile, B. coagulans (W. coagulans) XY2 intervention reversed this trend along with alleviated Cu-induced metabolic disturbances by increasing levels of hypotaurine and L-glutamate and declining levels of phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine. In Caenorhabditis elegans, nuclear translocation of DAF-16 and SKN-1 was inhibited by Cu, which in turn suppressed antioxidant-related enzymes activities. XY2 mitigated biotoxicity associated with oxidative damage caused by Cu exposure via regulating DAF-16/FoxO and SKN-1/Nrf2 pathways and intestinal flora to eliminate excess ROS. Our study provides a theoretical basis formulating future strategy of probiotics against heavy metal contamination.

Bacillus coagulans XY2 ameliorates copper-induced toxicity by bioadsorption, gut microbiota and lipid metabolism regulation.

Excessive copper pollutes the environment and endangers human health, attracting plenty of global attention. In this study, a novel strain named Bacillus coagulans XY2 was discovered to have a great copper tolerance and adsorption capacity. B. coagulans XY2 might maintain copper homeostasis through multisystem synergies of copper resistance, sulfur metabolism, Fe-S cluster assembly, and siderophore transport. In mice, by promoting the expression of SREBF-1 and SREBF-2 and their downstream genes, B. coagulans XY2 significantly inhibited the copper-induced decrease in weight growth rate, ameliorated dyslipidemia, restored total cholesterol and triglyceride contents both in serum and liver. Furthermore, B. coagulans XY2 recovered the diversity of gut microbiota and suppressed the copper-induced reduction in the ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidota. Serum metabolomics analysis showed that the alleviating effect of B. coagulans XY2 on copper toxicity was mainly related to lipid metabolism. For the first time, we demonstrated mechanisms of copper toxicity mitigation by B. coagulans XY2, which was related to self-adsorption, host copper excretion promotion, and lipid metabolism regulation. Moreover, working model of B. coagulans XY2 on copper homeostasis was predicted by whole-genome analysis. Our study provides a new solution for harmfulness caused by copper both in human health and the environment.

The Particular Expression Profiles of Circular RNA in Peripheral Blood of Myocardial Infarction Patients by RNA Sequencing.

Myocardial infarction (MI) is one of the most common illnesses seriously harmful to human health. Notwithstanding, the systems of its pathogenesis are as yet not totally demonstrated. CircRNA is one sort of non-coding RNA, and late distributed information proposes that circRNAs assume a significant part in heart diseases; however, their expression profiles in the peripheral blood of patients with MI are not yet totally characterized. Therefore, RNAs from peripheral blood were recruited for high-throughput RNA-seq analysis. A total of 3,862 circRNAs were distinguished to be remarkably different, including 2,738 circRNAs being upregulated and 1,124 circRNAs being downregulated. circTMEM165, circUBAC2, circZNF609, circANKRD12, and circSLC8A1 were reconfirmed by RT-qPCR in the cell model. ROC curves uncovered that they have great sensitivity and specificity in the determination of MI. Besides, circRNAs are associated with cell metabolism and function by directing complex networks among circular RNAs, microRNAs, and messenger RNAs. In outline, our study portrayed the specific articulation profiles of circular RNA in patients with MI. The outcomes showed that circRNAs might fill in as a sort of ideal biomarkers for MI diagnosis. Further exploration of these circRNAs may enrich our understanding of MI etiology and progression.

Phytochemicals, Pharmacological Effects and Molecular Mechanisms of Mulberry.

There are numerous varieties of mulberry, and each has high medicinal value and is regarded as a promising source of traditional medicines and functional foods. Nevertheless, the nutrients and uses of mulberry differ from species (Morus alba L., Morus nigra L. and Morus rubra L.). Phenolic compounds are prominent among the biologically active ingredients in mulberry, especially flavonoids, anthocyanins and phenolic acids. Epidemiologic studies suggest that mulberry contains a rich, effective chemical composition and a wide range of biological activity, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor and so on. However, compared with other berries, there has been a lack of systematic research on mulberry, and this hinders its further expansion as a functional fruit. The main purpose of this review is to provide the latest data regarding the effective chemical constituents and pharmacological effects of mulberry to support its further therapeutic potential and health functions.

Emerging Role of Non-Coding RNAs in Aortic Dissection.

Aortic dissection (AD) is a fatal cardiovascular acute disease with high incidence and mortality, and it seriously threatens patients' lives and health. The pathogenesis of AD mainly includes vascular inflammation, extracellular matrix degradation, and phenotypic conversion as well as apoptosis of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs); however, its detailed mechanisms are still not fully elucidated. Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), including microRNAs (miRNAs), long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), and circular RNAs (circRNAs), are an emerging class of RNA molecules without protein-coding ability, and they play crucial roles in the progression of many diseases, including AD. A growing number of studies have shown that the dysregulation of ncRNAs contributes to the occurrence and development of AD by modulating the expression of specific target genes or the activity of related proteins. In addition, some ncRNAs exhibit great potential as promising biomarkers and therapeutic targets in AD treatment. In this review, we systematically summarize the recent findings on the underlying mechanism of ncRNA involved in AD regulation and highlight their clinical application as biomarkers and therapeutic targets in AD treatment. The information reviewed here will be of great benefit to the development of ncRNA-based therapeutic strategies for AD patients.