First report of anthracnose of Lithocarpus polystachyus caused by Colletotrichum fructicola in China.

Lithocarpus polystachyus (Wall. ex A. DC.), an economically valuable plant species belonging to the Fagaceae family, has been used as herbal tea to prevent diabetes because of the high content of flavonoids and dihydrochalcones in the leaves (Shang et al. 2022). In July 2022, the severe leaf lesion on L. polystachyus was first observed in Yongshun County, Xiangxi autonomous prefecture (28°45'34''N, 109°40'11''E), Hunan province, China. Yongshun County is characterized by hills and mountains, situated in a subtropical region with a mild and humid climate. A second outbreak in July 2023 was observed in the same area. The observed incident rates in the past two years were 87.3% and 90.6%, respectively. Once infected, almost all plant leaves will be infected, leading to a substantial reduction in the yield of L. polystachyus. The disease presented symptoms characterized by round or irregularly shaped lesions that initially manifested as brown spots. These lesions frequently merged into larger, dark-brown areas along the leaf margins before eventually wilting. To ascertain the pathogenic species responsible for this disease, fungal isolation was conducted using a tissue separation method (Xu et al. 2023). The infected leaf tissues were surface-disinfected with 75% ethanol and 0.1% HgCl then small pieces (1×1 cm), were placed onto potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium (Sigma-Aldrich, 70139) and incubated at 28°C for 6-9 days. Colonies were villiform and initially white, becoming gray after 6 days. Sterilized dissecting needles were used to pick single hyphal tips from the edge of the colonies and placed onto PDA for strain purification. After 15 days, the purified colonies grew fluffy white hyphae with abundant conidia. The conidia were cylindrical, had round ends, and ranged from 5.75 to 14.83 µm long and 1.75 to 2.38 µm wide (n=50). According to morphological and cultural characteristics, these isolates were preliminarily identified as Colletotrichum fructicola Prihast., L. Cai & K.D. Hyde (Damm et al. 2012). To further affirm the identity of the pathogen, DNA was extracted from mycelia using a DNA extraction kit (Sigma-Aldrich, G2N70). The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, the transcription elongation factor (TEF), and the actin (ACT) gene were then amplified from genomic DNA extracted from three isolates (Cof1, Cof2, and Cof3) using specific primers. The primers utilized were ITS1/ITS4 (White et al. 1990), EF1-728F/EF1-986R and ACT-512F/ACT-783R (Carbone and Kohn 1999) for ITS region, transcription elongation factor gene and actin gene amplification, respectively. Sequence identity indicated that these isolates were highly homologous to C. fructicola. The ITS (Genbank No. PP002156, OR880553 and OR880554), TEF (No. PP061421, PP061422 and PP061423), and ACT (No. PP061418, PP061419 and PP061420) sequences of the isolates Cof1, Cof2, and Cof3 shared 99 to 100% identity with their counterparts (No. OR083309, MF627961, and OQ427895) in C. fructicola, respectively. A neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree constructed using MEGA11 (Tamura et al. 2021) also indicated that these isolates were C. fructicola. Both morphological and molecular characteristics confirmed the identification of this pathogen as C. fructicola. Colletotrichum species are known to cause anthracnose disease in a variety of economically important crops (Sharma and Kulshrestha 2015). To further validate the ability of the isolated C. fructicola to induce the same symptoms as observed in the field, the pathogenicity assay was assessed following Koch's postulates (Gradmann, 2014). Conidial suspensions (1×105 conidia per mL) from three isolates were individually inoculated onto artificially wounded leaves of 3-year-old L. polystachyus. Negative controls were established by inoculating leaf wounds with sterile distilled water. The plants were incubated in a greenhouse at 28°C and 90% humidity with a 12-h photoperiod. The experiment was replicated three times. Necrotic lesions were observed on all pathogen-inoculated wounds within 6 days after inoculation, whereas controls showed no observable symptoms. Morphological and molecular characterization of re-isolated pathogens from infected leaves indicated that the pathogens were identical. To our knowledge, this is the first report of anthracnose of L. polystachyus caused by C. fructicola in China. Farmers in the local mountainous areas are economically reliant on L. polystachyus production, while anthracnose has caused over half of the trees to lose their commercial value, resulting in significant economic losses. Our findings hold great promise for advancing strategies in the prevention and treatment of anthracnose in L. polystachyus.

CircRNA CDR1as affects functional repair after spinal cord injury and regulates fibrosis through the SMAD pathway.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a complex problem in modern medicine. Fibroblast activation and fibroscarring after SCI impede nerve recovery. Non-coding RNA plays an important role in the progression of many diseases, but the study of its role in the progression of spinal fibrosis is still emerging. Here, we investigated the function of circular RNAs, specifically antisense to the cerebellar degeneration-related protein 1 (CDR1as), in spinal fibrosis and characterized its molecular mechanism and pathophysiology. The presence of CDR1as in the spinal cord was verified by sequencing and RNA expression assays. The effects of inhibition of CDR1as on scar formation, inflammation and nerve regeneration after spinal cord injury were investigated in vivo and in vitro. Further, gene expression of miR-7a-5p and protein expression of transforming Growth Factor Beta Receptor II (TGF-ßR2) were measured to evaluate their predicted interactions with CDR1as. The regulatory effects and activation pathways were subsequently verified by miR-7a-5p inhibitor and siCDR1as. These results indicate that CDR1as/miR-7a-5p/TGF-ßR2 interactions may exert scars and nerves functions and suggest potential therapeutic targets for treating spinal fibrotic diseases.

Interpersonal neural synchronization underlies mnemonic similarity during collaborative remembering.

Although collaborative remembering is a ubiquitous feature of human beings, its underlying neurocognitive process is not well understood. Here we hypothesized that interpersonal neural synchronization (INS) might underlie collaborative remembering, while real collaboration as opposed to other modes of offline collaboration should enhance INS and facilitate mnemonic similarity. To test these hypotheses, brain activity was measured simultaneously from two individuals who performed a group-based selective retrieval practice task either in a real collaboration or in a pseudo-collaboration, i.e., an individual performed the task together with a pre-recorded audio. The results showed that the memory of two individuals converged to a greater level than the chance level in real collaboration but not in control condition. Moreover, collaborative remembering was associated with significant INS increase in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) relative to the baseline in the real collaboration only. Additionally, INS increase was significantly greater in the real collaboration than in control condition. Finally, the PFC's INS increase was positively correlated with and could accurately predict the level of mnemonic similarity in real collaboration. These findings support the hypothesis that the enhanced INS underlies the cognitive process of collaborative remembering.

The time course of category-based attentional template pre-activation depends on the category framework.

When searching for a target defined by a set of objects, attention can be directed toward task-relevant objects by creating a category-based attentional template (CAT). Previous studies have found that CAT can be activated before the onset of the target. However, the time course of CAT pre-activation and whether the category framework (prototypical or semantic) can modulate it remain unclear. To explore the time course of CAT pre-activation, we employed a rapid serial probe presentation paradigm (RSPP) with event-related potentials (ERPs). To investigate the effect of the category framework on the time course of CAT pre-activation, the target category was defined as the prototypical category (Experiment 1) or the semantic category (Experiment 2). The results showed that the prototype-based CAT was pre-activated 300 ms prior to the target, whereas the semantics-based CAT was pre-activated 1500 ms before the onset of the target. The difference in the time course of pre-activation between the two CAT types indicates that the category framework can modulate the time course of CAT pre-activation. Additionally, during the attentional selection phase, an overall comparison of the target revealed that a larger N2pc was elicited by the prototype-based CAT than by the semantics-based CAT, suggesting that the prototype-based CAT could capture more attention than the semantics-based CAT. The findings on the difference between the two CAT frameworks in the preparatory and attentional selection phases provide more evidence for categorical information in visual search and extend our understanding of the mechanism of categorical attentional selection.

High-throughput functional screen identifies YWHAZ as a key regulator of pancreatic cancer metastasis.

Pancreatic cancer is a leading cause of cancer death due to its early metastasis and limited response to the current therapies. Metastasis is a complicated multistep process, which is determined by complex genetic alterations. Despite the identification of many metastasis-related genes, distinguishing the drivers from numerous passengers and establishing the causality in cancer pathophysiology remains challenging. Here, we established a high-throughput and piggyBac transposon-based genetic screening platform, which enables either reduced or increased expression of chromosomal genes near the incorporation site of the gene search vector cassette that contains a doxycycline-regulated promoter. Using this strategy, we identified YWHAZ as a key regulator of pancreatic cancer metastasis. We demonstrated that functional activation of Ywhaz by the gene search vector led to enhanced metastatic capability in mouse pancreatic cancer cells. The metastasis-promoting role of YWHAZ was further validated in human pancreatic cancer cells. Overexpression of YWHAZ resulted in more aggressive metastatic phenotypes in vitro and a shorter survival rate in vivo by modulating epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. Hence, our study established a high-throughput screening method to investigate the functional relevance of novel genes and validated YWHAZ as a key regulator of pancreatic cancer metastasis.

TikTok use and psychosocial factors among adolescents: Comparisons of non-users, moderate users, and addictive users.

Short-video applications like TikTok are increasingly popular. This study examines the association between short-video application use (SVU) and psychosocial factors in 1,346 adolescents (Mage = 14.97, 51.8% female). 199 non-users and 1147 users (686 moderate users, 461 addictive users) were identified. Results revealed a high prevalence of addictive SVU in the sample. Addictive users exhibited worse mental health conditions than non-users and moderate users, including higher levels of depression, anxiety, stress, loneliness, social anxiety, attention problems, and lower life satisfaction and sleep quality. Addictive users also faced higher academic stress, poorer academic performance, more bullying victimization, worse parental relationships, more negative parenting styles, and lower parental education levels. Moderate users had different family environments than non-users, but no differences in mental health or school performance. Together, these findings suggest that addictive users experience a more disadvantageous situation across mental health, family, and school conditions, while non-users have advantageous family environments. Moderate SVU may not be associated with negative mental health condition or poor school performance. Moderate and addictive SVU should be considered distinct phenomena. Given the psychiatric symptoms present in addictive users of TikTok and similar apps, targeted interventions and treatments are urgently needed.

A Hybrid Method for Performance Degradation Probability Prediction of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell.

The proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is a promising power source, but the short lifespan and high maintenance cost restrict its development and widespread application. Performance degradation prediction is an effective technique to extend the lifespan and reduce the maintenance cost of PEMFC. This paper proposed a novel hybrid method for the performance degradation prediction of PEMFC. Firstly, considering the randomness of PEMFC degradation, a Wiener process model is established to describe the degradation of the aging factor. Secondly, the unscented Kalman filter algorithm is used to estimate the degradation state of the aging factor from monitoring voltage. Then, in order to predict the degradation state of PEMFC, the transformer structure is used to capture the data characteristics and fluctuations of the aging factor. To quantify the uncertainty of the predicted results, we also add the Monte Carlo dropout technology to the transformer to obtain the confidence interval of the predicted result. Finally, the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method are verified on the experimental datasets.

Alterations in white matter integrity and network topological properties are associated with a decrease in global motion perception in older adults.

Previous studies have mainly explored the effects of structural and functional aging of cortical regions on global motion sensitivity in older adults, but none have explored the structural white matter (WM) substrates underlying the age-related decrease in global motion perception (GMP). In this study, random dot kinematogram and diffusion tensor imaging were used to investigate the effects of age-related reductions in WM fiber integrity and connectivity across various regions on GMP. We recruited 106 younger adults and 94 older adults and utilized both tract-based spatial statistics analysis and graph theoretical analysis to comprehensively investigate group differences in WM microstructural and network connections between older and younger adults at the microscopic and macroscopic levels. Moreover, partial correlation analysis was used to explore the relationship between alterations in WM and the age-related decrease in GMP. The results showed that decreased GMP in older adults was related to decreased fractional anisotropy (FA) of the inferior frontal-occipital fasciculus, inferior longitudinal fasciculus, anterior thalamic radiation, superior longitudinal fasciculus, and cingulum cingulate gyrus. Decreased global efficiency of the WM structural network and increased characteristic path length were closely associated with decreased global motion sensitivity. These results suggest that the reduced GMP in older adults may stem from reduced WM integrity in specific regions of WM fiber tracts as well as decreased efficiency of information integration and communication between distant cortical regions, supporting the "disconnection hypothesis" of cognitive aging.

Effect of composted pig manure, biochar, and their combination on antibiotic resistome dissipation in swine wastewater-treated soil.

The prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), owing to irrigation using untreated swine wastewater, in vegetable-cultivated soils around swine farms poses severe threats to human health. Furthermore, at the field scale, the remediation of such soils is still challenging. Therefore, here, we performed field-scale experiments involving the cultivation of Brassica pekinensis in a swine wastewater-treated soil amended with composted pig manure, biochar, or their combination. Specifically, the ARG and mobile genetic element (MGE) profiles of bulk soil (BS), rhizosphere soil (RS), and root endophyte (RE) samples were examined using high-throughput quantitative polymerase chain reaction. In total, 117 ARGs and 22 MGEs were detected. Moreover, we observed that soil amendment using composted pig manure, biochar, or their combination decreased the absolute abundance of ARGs in BS and RE after 90 days of treatment. However, the decrease in the abundance of ARGs in RS was not significant. We also observed that the manure and biochar co-application showed a minimal synergistic effect. To clarify this observation, we performed network and Spearman correlation analyses and used structure equation models to explore the correlations among ARGs, MGEs, bacterial composition, and soil properties. The results revealed that the soil amendments reduced the abundances of MGEs and potential ARG-carrying bacteria. Additionally, weakened horizontal gene transfer was responsible for the dissipation of ARGs. Thus, our results indicate that composted manure application, with or without biochar, is a useful strategy for soil nutrient supplementation and alleviating farmland ARG pollution, providing a justification for using an alternative to the common agricultural practice of treating the soil using only untreated swine wastewater. Additionally, our results are important in the context of soil health for sustainable agriculture.

The structural basis of age-related decline in global motion perception at fast and slow speeds.

A decrease in global motion perception (GMP) has been reported in older adults, and this age-related decline in GMP varies with the speed of global motion. However, no studies have investigated whether the asynchronous age-related decline in GMP is related to degenerative changes in brain structure. In this study, the random dot kinematogram paradigm and structural magnetic resonance imaging were used to investigate the asynchronous aging of GMP at fast and slow speeds (called fast GMP and slow GMP, respectively) and their relationships with brain structure. Ninety-four older adults (65.74 ± 4.50 yrs) and 90 younger adults (22.83 ± 4.84 yrs) participated in the experiment. The results showed that older adults had higher motion coherence thresholds (MCT) than younger adults at both fast and slow speeds. Brain-behavior correlation analyses of younger adults revealed that none of the correlations between morphological measures and MCTs survived correction for multiple comparisons. For older adults, slow MCT was correlated with cortical thickness in the bilateral V4v, V5/MT+, left V7, V8, LO, and surface area in the right V7. Fast MCT was significantly correlated with gray matter volume in the right V7 and thickness in the left V5/MT+. These results support the view that global motion extraction occurs within two speed-tuned systems that are at least partially independent in terms of their neural substrates, which deteriorate with age at different speeds. Aging of GMP is also associated with morphological changes in the visual cortex. Age-related cerebral atrophy in the dorsal stream may impair both fast and slow GMP, whereas aging of the ventral stream specifically impairs slow GMP.

Attentional Bias to Emotional Facial Expressions in Undergraduates With Suicidal Ideation: An ERP Study.

Individuals who with suicide behaviors pay more attention to negative signals than positive ones. However, it is unclear that whether this bias exists when suicide ideators perceive interpersonal stimuli (such as faces with emotion) and the underlying neural mechanism of the attention process. The present study aimed to examine the attentional bias toward emotional facial expressions by employing event-related potentials in a population with suicide ideation. Twenty-five undergraduates with suicide ideation (SI group) and sixteen undergraduates without suicide ideation (NSI group) participated in a modified dot-probe task. Compared to the NSI group, the SI group exhibited: (1) a longer mean reaction time to fearful faces; (2) a larger N1 component to fearful faces; (3) a larger N1 component to the location of sad faces, as well as to the opposite location of fearful faces and happy faces; and (4) a larger N1 component to the contralateral location of happy faces, whereas the NSI group elicited a larger N1 component to the ipsilateral location of happy faces. These results indicated that the SI group was more sensitive to negative emotions (fearful and sad faces) than positive emotions (happy faces), and the negative interpersonal stimuli in suicide ideators was processed at an early attention stage.

3D Sodiophilic Ti3C2 MXene@g-C3N4 Hetero-Interphase Raises the Stability of Sodium Metal Anodes.

Owing to several advantages of metallic sodium (Na), such as a relatively high theoretical capacity, low redox potential, wide availability, and low cost, Na metal batteries are being extensively studied, which are expected to play a major role in the fields of electric vehicles and grid-scale energy storage. Although considerable efforts have been devoted to utilizing MXene-based materials for suppressing Na dendrites, achieving a stable cycling of Na metal anodes remains extremely challenging due to, for example, the low Coulombic efficiency (CE) caused by the severe side reactions. Herein, a g-C3N4 layer was attached in situ on the Ti3C2 MXene surface, inducing a surface state reconstruction and thus forming a stable hetero-interphase with excellent sodiophilicity between the MXene and g-C3N4 to inhibit side reactions and guide uniform Na ion flux. The 3D construction can not only lower the local current density to facilitate uniform Na plating/stripping but also mitigate volume change to stabilize the electrolyte/electrode interphase. Thus, the 3D Ti3C2 MXene@g-C3N4 nanocomposite enables much enhanced average CEs (99.9% at 1 mA h cm-2, 0.5 mA cm-2) in asymmetric half cells, long-term stability (up to 700 h) for symmetric cells, and stable cycling (up to 800 cycles at 2 C), together with outstanding rate capability (up to 20 C), of full cells. The present study demonstrates an approach in developing practically high performance for Na metal anodes.

Regulating Dendrite-Free Zn Deposition by a Self-Assembled OH-Terminated SiO2 Nanosphere Layer toward a Zn Metal Anode.

Zn dendrite growth during repeated plating and stripping of a Zn metal anode often causes short-circuiting by puncturing the separator. Herein, we propose a separator modification strategy to regulate the Zn-ion flux and achieve uniform Zn deposition through the OH-terminated SiO2 nanosphere coating. The interspaces between the uniform SiO2 nanospheres construct a network of Zn-ion transport channels, and the negatively charged hydroxyl groups on the surface of SiO2 nanospheres can electrostatically attract the Zn ions to direct the ion migration. The negative charges on SiO2 nanospheres are retained at a higher pH, which enables the SiO2 coating to consistently regulate the Zn-ion flux in the operating pH range of the Zn stripping/plating process. With a uniform Zn deposition guided by the SiO2 coating, the dendrite formation is suppressed and the side reactions are alleviated. As a result, the Zn||Zn symmetric cell achieves a cyclic life of 1000 h at both 3 and 5 mA cm-2. Meanwhile, the Zn||Cu asymmetric cell is able to maintain a Coulombic efficiency of 99.62% at 1 mA cm-2 for 2000 cycles, which outperforms many previously reported strategies.

The Lateralization of Attentional Functions in Action Video Game Players.

Action video game players (AVGPs) are proven to be significantly different from non-AVGPs (NAVGPs) in attention, which is proposed to be divided into three functional networks: alerting, orienting, and execution control. However, whether the hemispheric lateralization of attentional functions is influenced by the action video game is unclear. In the present study, we examined the lateralization of the three attentional functions in a group of AVGPs (n = 33) compared to NAVGPs (n = 34). The results showed that, relative to NAVGPs, the interactions between orienting and executive control in the left hemispheres of AVGPs were higher than those in the right hemisphere. Moreover, the correlations among the functions are much more sensitive in the left hemisphere. These results suggest significant left lateralization of the attentional functions in AVGPs.

Improvements in xylose stability and thermalstability of GH39 ß-xylosidase from Dictyoglomus thermophilum by site-directed mutagenesis and insights into its xylose tolerance mechanism.

ß-Xylosidases are often inhibited by its reaction product xylose or inactivated by high temperature environment, which limited its application in hemicellulosic biomass conversion to fuel and food processing. Remarkably, some ß-xylosidases from GH39 family are tolerant to xylose. Therefore, it is of great significance to elucidate the effect mechanism of xylose on GH39 ß-xylosidases to improve their application. In this paper, based on the homologous model and prediction of protein active pocket constructed by I-TASSA and PyMOL, two putative xylose tolerance relevant sites (283 and 284) were mutated at the bottom of the protein active pocket, where xylose sensitivity and thermostability of Dictyoglomus thermophilum ß-xylosidase Xln-DT were improved by site-directed mutagenesis. The Xln-DT mutant Xln-DT-284ASP and Xln-DT-284ALA showed high xylose tolerance, with the Ki values of 4602 mM and 3708 mM, respectively, which increased by 9-35% compared with the wildtype Xln-DT. The thermostability of mutant Xln-DT-284ASP was significantly improved at 75 and 85 °C, while the activity of the wild enzyme Xln-DT decreased to 40-20%, the activity of the mutant enzyme still remained 100%. The mutant Xln-DT-284ALA showed excellent stability at pH 4.0-7.0, but Xln-DT-284ASP showed slightly decreased activity. Furthermore, in order to explore the key sites and mechanism of xylose's effect on ß-xylosidase activity, the interaction between xylose and enzyme was simulated by molecular docking. Besides binding to the active sites at the bottom of the substrate channel, xylose can also bind to sites in the middle or entrance of the channel with different affinities, which may determine the xylose inhibition of ß-xylosidase. In conclusion, the improved xylose tolerance of mutant enzyme could be more advantageous in the degradation of hemicellulose and the biotransformation of other natural active substances containing xylose. This study supplies new insights into general mechanism of xylose effect on the activity of GH 39 ß-xylosidases as well as related enzymes that modulate their activity via feedback control mechanism.

The Influence of Action Video Games on Attentional Functions Across Visual and Auditory Modalities.

Attention can help an individual efficiently find a specific target among multiple distractors and is proposed to consist of three functions: alerting, orienting, and executive control. Action video games (AVGs) have been shown to enhance attention. However, whether AVG can affect the attentional functions across different modalities remains to be determined. In the present study, a group of action video game players (AVGPs) and a group of non-action video game players (NAVGPs) selected by a video game usage questionnaire successively participated in two tasks, including an attention network task-visual version (ANT-V) and an attention network task-auditory version (ANT-A). The results indicated that AVGPs showed an advantage in orienting under the effects of conflicting stimuli (executive control) in both tasks, and NAVGPs may have a reduced ability to disengage when conflict occurs in visual task, suggesting that the AVGs can improve guidance toward targets and inhibition of distractors with the function of executive control. AVGPs also showed more correlations among attentional functions. Importantly, the alerting functions of AVGPs in visual and auditory tasks were significantly related, indicating that the experience of AVGs could help us to generate a supramodal alerting effect across visual and auditory modalities.

Tolerogenic dendritic cells suppress titanium particle-induced inflammation.

Aseptic loosening is a major complication of prosthetic joint surgery. The leading cause of arthroplasty failure is particulate wear debris such as titanium particles. Dendritic cells (DCs) are one type of immune cells that play an important role in the initiation and progression of inflammatory processes. DCs can develop into tolerogenic DCs (tolDCs), which present an alternative therapeutic strategy for inflammatory disorders. Previously, antigen-specific tolDCs were generated, which showed a promising effect in treating inflammatory arthritis and immune thrombocytopenia. The present study reports that tolDCs effectively inhibited titanium particle-induced inflammation in an air-pouch mouse model by decreasing pro-inflammatory cytokines. In addition, a mechanistic study demonstrated that tolDCs significantly protected against titanium particle-induced inflammatory processes in vitro by releasing anti-inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin-10. Collectively, these findings not only demonstrate that tolDCs play an important role in inhibiting titanium particle-induced inflammation but also provide a potential alternative for the prevention or treatment of titanium particle-induced inflammation.

Circular RNA Plek promotes fibrogenic activation by regulating the miR-135b-5p/TGF-ßR1 axis after spinal cord injury.

OBJECTIVES: The spinal cord rarely repairs itself when damaged; however, methods for encouraging nerves to regrow are on the horizon. Although circular RNAs (circRNAs) contribute to various biological processes, including neuronal processes, their functions in the subacute phase of spinal cord injury (SCI) have not been elucidated. In this study, we identified a novel circRNA, named CircPlek, with increased expression in spinal tissues after SCI. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We predicted a regulatory relationship between CircPlek and miR-135b-5p, which showed the most obvious decrease in post-SCI expression. We established the CircPlek/miR-135b-5p/transforming growth factor-beta receptor type I (TGF-ßR1) axis using a bioinformatics approach and further evaluated the potential function of the interaction network in vitro. RESULTS: We confirmed that in TGF-ß1-induced fibroblasts, the overexpression of miR-135b-5p or/and inhibition of CircPlek inhibited fibrosis activation via the Smad pathway. Inhibitors of miR-135b-5p had antagonistic effects on CircPlek. CONCLUSIONS: the CircPlek/miR-135b-5p/TGF-ßR1 axis may exert important functions in SCI and is a potential therapeutic target.