Modifying soil bacterial communities in saline mudflats with organic acids and substrates.

Aims: The high salinity of soil, nutrient scarcity, and poor aggregate structure limit the exploitation and utilization of coastal mudflat resources and the sustainable development of saline soil agriculture. In this paper, the effects of applying exogenous organic acids combined with biological substrate on the composition and diversity of soil bacterial community were studied in moderately saline mudflats in Jiangsu Province. Methods: A combination of three exogenous organic acids (humic acid, fulvic acid, and citric acid) and four biological substrates (cottonseed hull, cow manure, grass charcoal, and pine needle) was set up set up on a coastal saline mudflat planted with a salt-tolerant forage grass, sweet sorghum. A total of 120 kg ha-1 of organic acids and 5,000 kg ha-1 of substrates were used, plus two treatments, CK without application of organic acids and substrates and CK0 in bare ground, for a total of 14 treatments. Results: No significant difference was found in the alpha diversity of soil bacterial community among all treatments (p ≥ 0.05), with the fulvic acid composite pine needle (FPN) treatment showing the largest increase in each index. The beta diversity differed significantly (p < 0.05) among all treatments, and the difference between citric acid-grass charcoal (CGC) and CK treatments was greater than that of other treatments. All treatments were effective in increasing the number of bacterial ASVs and affecting the structural composition of the community. Citric acid-cow manure (CCM), FPN, and CGC treatments were found to be beneficial for increasing the relative abundance of Proteobacteria, Chloroflexi, and Actinobacteria, respectively. By contrast, all treatments triggered a decrease in the relative abundance of Acidobacteria. Conclusion: Among the 12 different combinations of exogenous organic acid composite biomass substrates applied to the coastal beach, the CGC treatment was more conducive to increasing the relative abundance of the salt-tolerant bacteria Proteobacteria, Chloroflexi and Actinobacteria, and improving the community structure of soil bacteria. The FPN treatment was more conducive to increase the species diversity of the soil bacterial community and adjust the species composition of the bacterial community.

Trailblazing in Adjuvant Research: Succinate's Uncharted Territory with Neutrophils.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the previously unknown connection that succinate has with neutrophils in the setting of adjuvant-mediated immunological enhancement. It has been discovered that succinates stimulate the recruitment of neutrophils in immunization sites, which in turn induces the expression of what is known as neutrophil-derived B cell-activating factor (BAFF). Further amplification of vaccine-induced antibody responses is provided via the SUCNR1-IRF5-BAFF signaling pathway, which provides insights into a unique mechanism for immunological enhancement.

Progressive sarcopenia and myosteatosis predict prognosis of advanced HCC patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Background: Immunotherapy stands as a pivotal modality in the therapeutic landscape for the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, yet responses vary among patients. This study delves into the potential impact of sarcopenia, myosteatosis and adiposity indicators, as well as their changes during immunotherapy, on treatment response and prognosis in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors. Methods: In this retrospective analysis, 116 patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors were recruited. Skeletal muscle, intramuscular, subcutaneous, and visceral adipose tissue were assessed by computed tomography at the level of the third lumbar vertebrae before and after 3 months of treatment. Sarcopenia and myosteatosis were evaluated by skeletal muscle index and mean muscle density using predefined threshold values. Patients were stratified based on specific baseline values or median values, along with alterations observed during the treatment course. Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were compared using the log-rank test and a multifactorial Cox proportional risk model. Results: A total of 116 patients were recruited and divided into two cohorts, 81 patients for the training set and 35 patients for the validating set. In the overall cohort, progressive sarcopenia (P=0.021) and progressive myosteatosis (P=0.001) were associated with objective response rates, whereas progressive myosteatosis (P<0.001) was associated with disease control rates. In the training set, baseline sarcopenia, myosteatosis, and subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue were not significantly associated with PFS and OS. In multivariate analysis adjusting for sex, age, and other factors, progressive sarcopenia(P=0.002) and myosteatosis (P=0.018) remained independent predictors of PFS. Progressive sarcopenia (P=0.005), performance status (P=0.006) and visceral adipose tissue index (P=0.001) were all independent predictors of OS. The predictive models developed in the training set also had good feasibility in the validating set. Conclusion: Progressive sarcopenia and myosteatosis are predictors of poor clinical outcomes in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors, and high baseline visceral adiposity is associated with a poorer survival.

Four centrosome-related genes to predict the prognosis and drug sensitivity of patients with colon cancer.

BACKGROUND: As the primary microtubule organizing center in animal cells, centrosome abnormalities are involved in human colon cancer. AIM: To explore the role of centrosome-related genes (CRGs) in colon cancer. METHODS: CRGs were collected from public databases. Consensus clustering analysis was performed to separate the Cancer Genome Atlas cohort. Univariate Cox and least absolute shrinkage selection operator regression analyses were performed to identify candidate prognostic CRGs and construct a centrosome-related signature (CRS) to score colon cancer patients. A nomogram was developed to evaluate the CRS risk in colon cancer patients. An integrated bioinformatics analysis was conducted to explore the correlation between the CRS and tumor immune microenvironment and response to immunotherapy, chemotherapy, and targeted therapy. Single-cell transcriptome analysis was conducted to examine the immune cell landscape of core prognostic genes. RESULTS: A total of 726 CRGs were collected from public databases. A CRS was constructed, which consisted of the following four genes: TSC1, AXIN2, COPS7A, and MTUS1. Colon cancer patients with a high-risk signature had poor survival. Patients with a high-risk signature exhibited decreased levels of plasma cells and activated memory CD4+ T cells. Regarding treatment response, patients with a high-risk signature were resistant to immunotherapy, chemotherapy, and targeted therapy. COPS7A expression was relatively high in endothelial cells and fibroblasts. MTUS1 expression was high in endothelial cells, fibroblasts, and malignant cells. CONCLUSION: We constructed a centrosome-related prognostic signature that can accurately predict the prognosis of colon cancer patients, contributing to the development of individualized treatment for colon cancer.

Evaluation of the JF5-based Aspergillus galactomannoprotein lateral flow device for diagnosing invasive aspergillosis in cancer patients.

PURPOSE: Cancer patients are at heightened risk for invasive aspergillosis (IA), a condition associated with elevated mortality risk. The JF5-based Aspergillus Galactomannoprotein Lateral Flow Device (AspLFD) offers rapid point-of-care testing (POCT) for IA. This study evaluated the diagnostic performance of AspLFD in cancer populations. METHODS: This retrospective study examined cancer patient bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and serum samples collected between September 2021 and January 2023. Both AspLFD and galactomannan (GM) assays were conducted, and the results were analysed by two independent researchers. RESULTS: This study included 242 samples from 218 cancer patients, with 58 BALF and 184 serum samples. The overall agreement between AspLFD and GM assay results was 92.1%, with a kappa value of 0.552. AspLFD diagnosed proven/probable IA with a sensitivity and specificity of 91.7% and 95.3%, respectively, whereas GM exhibited sensitivity and specificity values of 83.3% and 93.7%, respectively. There were no statistical differences in the sensitivity and specificity between the two methods (P > 0.05). For serum analyses, AspLFD and GM exhibited similar sensitivity (66.7% vs. 66.7%, P > 0.05) and specificity (98.6% vs. 96.6%, P > 0.05) values. However, the sensitivity of the AspLFD was superior to the GM assay (100% vs. 88.9%) in BALF analyses but the difference was not statistically significant (P > 0.05), with no difference in specificity (83.7% vs. 83.7%, P > 0.05). In the solid-tumour cohort, both the AspLFD and GM assay exhibited high sensitivity (100% for both) and specificity (94.2% vs. 92.8%, P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: The AspLFD demonstrated good performance in diagnosing IA in cancer patients, especially those with solid tumours. The AspLFD is thus an alternative POCT, particularly when GM evaluations are not readily available.

Investigating genetic links between blood metabolites and preeclampsia.

BACKGROUND: Observational studies have revealed that metabolic disorders are closely related to the development of preeclampsia (PE). However, there is still a research gap on the causal role of metabolites in promoting or preventing PE. We aimed to systematically explore the causal association between circulating metabolites and PE. METHODS: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 486 blood metabolites (7,824 participants) were extracted as instrumental variables (P < 1 × 10- 5), GWAS summary statistics for PE were obtained from FinnGen consortium (7,212 cases and 194,266 controls) as outcome, and a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was conducted. Inverse variance weighted (IVW) was set as the primary method, with MR-Egger and weighted median as auxiliary methods; the instrumental variable strength and confounding factors were also assessed. Sensitivity analyses including MR-Egger, Cochran's Q test, MR-PRESSO and leave-one-out analysis were performed to test the robustness of the MR results. For significant associations, repeated MR and meta-analysis were performed by another metabolite GWAS (8,299 participants). Furthermore, significantly associated metabolites were subjected to a metabolic pathway analysis. RESULTS: The instrumental variables for the metabolites ranged from 3 to 493. Primary analysis revealed a total of 12 known (e.g., phenol sulfate, citrulline, lactate and gamma-glutamylglutamine) and 11 unknown metabolites were associated with PE. Heterogeneity and pleiotropy tests verified the robustness of the MR results. Validation with another metabolite GWAS dataset revealed consistency trends in 6 of the known metabolites with preliminary analysis, particularly the finding that genetic susceptibility to low levels of arachidonate (20:4n6) and citrulline were risk factors for PE. The pathway analysis revealed glycolysis/gluconeogenesis and arginine biosynthesis involved in the pathogenesis of PE. CONCLUSIONS: This study identifies a causal relationship between some circulating metabolites and PE. Our study presented new perspectives on the pathogenesis of PE by integrating metabolomics with genomics, which opens up avenues for more accurate understanding and management of the disease, providing new potential candidate metabolic molecular markers for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of PE. Considering the limitations of MR studies, further research is needed to confirm the causality and underlying mechanisms of these findings.

Prevention and treatment of HPV-related cancer through a mRNA vaccine expressing APC-targeting antigen.

Persistent human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is associated with multiple malignancies. Developing therapeutic vaccines to eliminate HPV-infected and malignant cells holds significant value. In this study, we introduced a lipid nanoparticle encapsulated mRNA vaccine expressing tHA-mE7-mE6. Mutations were introduced into E6 and E7 of HPV to eliminate their tumourigenicity. A truncated influenza haemagglutinin protein (tHA), which binds to the CD209 receptor on the surface of dendritic cells (DCs), was fused with mE7-mE6 in order to allow efficient uptake of antigen by antigen presenting cells. The tHA-mE7-mE6 (mRNA) showed higher therapeutic efficacy than mE7-mE6 (mRNA) in an E6 and E7+ tumour model. The treatment resulted in complete tumour regression and prevented tumour formation. Strong CD8+ T-cell immune response was induced, contributing to preventing and curing of E6 and E7+ tumour. Antigen-specific CD8+ T were found in spleens, peripheral blood and in tumours. In addition, the tumour infiltration of DC and NK cells were increased post therapy. In conclusion, this study described a therapeutic mRNA vaccine inducing strong anti-tumour immunity in peripheral and in tumour microenvironment, holding promising potential to treat HPV-induced cancer and to prevent cancer recurrence.

Multicolor melting curve analysis discloses high carrier frequency of hearing loss-associated variants among neonates in Jiangsu province.

BACKGROUND: Genetic disorders ascribe to half of cases of congenital hearing loss. Hearing screening is significant in detecting hearing loss (HL) but weak at diagnosis, which can be complemented by genetic screening. METHODS: To find a feasible method to accomplish genetic screening and evaluate its advantage when combined with hearing screening, between 1 January 2022, and 10 December 2023, we performed an observational cohort study based on 2488 neonates from the Han population at three hospitals in Jiangsu province. Genetic screening for 20 variants in four common HL-associated genes by multicolor melting curve analysis (MMCA) and hearing screening were offered concurrently to all participants. RESULTS: In total, 170 (6.8%) of 2488 eligible neonates were detected at least one variant and among them, the proportion of referral was higher (p < 0.05). Genetic screening combined with hearing screening was associated with a 25.0% increase (2 of 8) in discovering cases of diagnosed hearing loss that were missed by hearing screening. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that genetic screening combined with hearing screening by MMCA is effective at finding potential HL cases and practical to be validated in other places.

Engineering amino acid residues of pentacyclic triterpene synthases for improving the activity.

Pentacyclic triterpenoids exhibit a wide range of biological activities which have wide applications in the food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industries. High-performance chassis strains have been developed for the production of various pentacyclic triterpenoids, e.g., lupane-type and oleanane-type triterpenoids. The production of common pentacyclic triterpenes and their derivatives is limited by the poor activity of typical pentacyclic triterpene synthases (PTSs). However, a general strategy applicable to typical PTSs is still lacking. As typical pentacyclic triterpenes are derived from the baccharenyl cation, engineering the non-active-site residues in the MXXXXR motif might be beneficial for the catalytic efficiencies of typical PTSs by the stabilization of the baccharenyl cation. Here, we develop a general strategy for improving the activity of typical PTSs. As a proof of concept, the activity of three PTSs such as lupeol synthase, ß-amyrin synthase, and α-amyrin synthases was significantly increased up to 7.3-fold by site-directed saturation mutagenesis. This strategy could be applied to improve the activity of various typical PTSs. KEY POINTS: • The strategy could be applied to typical PTSs for improving the activity. • The catalytic activity of typical PTSs was significantly increased.

Identification of heterosis and combining ability in the hybrids of male sterile and restorer sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] lines.

In sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench], combining ability and heterosis analysis are commonly used to evaluate superior parental lines and to screen for strongly heterotic hybrids, which helps in sorghum variety selection and breeding. In this context, combining ability and heterosis analysis were assessed using 14 restorer lines and seven cytoplasmic male sterile (CMS) lines in 2019 and 2020. The analysis of variance of all cross combinations had highly significant differences for all characters studied, which indicated a wide variation across the parents, lines, testers, and crosses. Combining ability analysis showed that the general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) of the different parents were differed significantly among different traits. Most combinations with high SCA also showed high GCA in their parent lines. The heritability in the narrow sense of grain weight per panicle and grain yield was relatively low, indicating that the ability of these traits to be directly inherited by offspring was weak, that they were greatly affected by the environment. The better-parent heterosis for plant height, grain weight per panicle, panicle length, and 1000-grain weight was consistent with the order of mid-parent heterosis from strong to weak. The GCA effects of two lines 10480A, 3765A and three testers 0-30R, R111, and JY15R were significant for the majority of the agronomic traits including grain yield and might be used for improving the yield of grains in sorghum as parents of excellent specific combining ability. Seven strongly heterotic F1 hybrids were screened; of these, hybrids 3765A × R111, 1102A × L2R, and 3765A × JY15R showed significant increases in seed iristectorigenin A content and will feature into the creation of new sorghum varieties rich in iristectorigenin A.

Palladium-Catalyzed Dual C-H Carbonylation of Diarylamines Leading to Diversified Acridones under CO-Free Conditions.

A Pd-catalyzed dual C-H carbonylation of commercially available diarylamines using Co2(CO)8 as a safe CO source has been developed. This methodology provides a facile approach for the synthesis of diversified acridones in moderate to good yields. The protocol features good functional group compatibility, operational safety, easy scale-up, and versatile transformations.

Dietary tryptophan decreases the impacts of seawater temperature changes on behavior and gut health of the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus.

Seawater temperature change is an important concern for seed production and pond culture of sea cucumbers. The present study found that tentacle activity frequency was significantly lower in sea cucumbers exposed to continuous and rapid temperature increases than that of those at ambient temperature. Feeding behavior directly determines food intake, and further affects physiology and growth efficiency of sea cucumbers. This means that the decline in feeding caused by continuous and rapid temperature increases needs to be addressed in sea cucumber aquaculture. However, a sudden temperature change of 5 °C had no significant effect on behaviors of sea cucumbers. This indicates that continuous temperature increases, rather than a sudden increase, result in behavioral impacts on sea cucumbers. Therefore, we recommend aqua-farmers reduce the feeding amount for sea cucumbers during continuous and rapid temperature increases. In the present study, feeding behavior was significantly higher in sea cucumbers fed with 3% dietary tryptophan than that of those fed with 0% and 5% dietary tryptophan. This indicates that 3% dietary tryptophan increases the food intake of sea cucumbers, and mitigates the feeding decline caused by continuous and rapid temperature increase. This indicates that tryptophan has the potential to promote the feeding of sea cucumbers in seed production and pond culture. Adhesion capacity of sea cucumbers fed with 5% dietary tryptophan was significantly higher than that of individuals fed with 0% and 3% dietary tryptophan. This suggests that dietary tryptophan increases the feeding of sea cucumbers exposed to continuous and rapid temperature increases in pond culture and seed production. In addition, this study found that sea cucumbers fed with 3% dietary tryptophan had higher intestinal colony richness under the continuously rapid temperature change. The present study provides an effective method to improve adhesion behavior and to alleviate the impacts on feeding behavior for seed production and pond culture of sea cucumbers exposed to continuous and rapid temperature increases.

Effect of autologous bone marrow stem cells-scaffold transplantation on the ongoing pregnancy rate in intrauterine adhesion women: a randomized, controlled trial.

Intrauterine adhesion is a major cause of female reproductive disorders. Although we and others uncontrolled pilot studies showed that treatment with autologous bone marrow stem cells made a few patients with severe intrauterine adhesion obtain live birth, no large sample randomized controlled studies on this therapeutic strategy in such patients have been reported so far. To verify if the therapy of autologous bone marrow stem cells-scaffold is superior to traditional treatment in moderate to severe intrauterine adhesion patients in increasing their ongoing pregnancy rate, we conducted this randomized controlled clinical trial. Totally 195 participants with moderate to severe intrauterine adhesion were screened and 152 of them were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to either group with autologous bone marrow stem cells-scaffold plus Foley balloon catheter or group with only Foley balloon catheter (control group) from February 2016 to January 2020. The per-protocol analysis included 140 participants: 72 in bone marrow stem cells-scaffold group and 68 in control group. The ongoing pregnancy occurred in 45/72 (62.5%) participants in the bone marrow stem cells-scaffold group which was significantly higher than that in the control group (28/68, 41.2%) (RR=1.52, 95%CI 1.08-2.12, P=0.012). The situation was similar in live birth rate (bone marrow stem cells-scaffold group 56.9% (41/72) vs. control group 38.2% (26/68), RR=1.49, 95%CI 1.04-2.14, P=0.027). Compared with control group, participants in bone marrow stem cells-scaffold group showed more menstrual blood volume in the 3rd and 6th cycles and maximal endometrial thickness in the 6th cycle after hysteroscopic adhesiolysis. The incidence of mild placenta accrete was increased in bone marrow stem cells-scaffold group and no severe adverse effects were observed. In conclusion, transplantation of bone marrow stem cells-scaffold into uterine cavities of the participants with moderate to severe intrauterine adhesion increased their ongoing pregnancy and live birth rates, and this therapy was relatively safe.

ABHD5-CPT1B: An Important Way of Regulating Placental Lipid Metabolism in Gestational Diabetes Mellitus.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is one of the most common metabolic disorders in pregnancy, and a novel association of maternal lipid profile has been suggested to play an important role. However, the molecular mechanism is not clear. METHODS: Bio-analyzed combined with placental metabonomics and single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) successfully identified a potentially important molecule: α-ß hydrolase domain-containing protein 5 (ABHD5). The syncytiotrophoblast (SCT) cell model was adopted as a fusion of BeWo cells in response to forskolin. On this basis, the high glucose-stimulated cell experiment was carried out. 15 women with GDM and 15 normal pregnant women were recruited for validation experiments. RESULTS: ABHD5 was mainly expressed in the trophoblast cells, especially in SCT cells, and significantly decreased in the GDM placenta. After stimulation by high glucose, the expression of ABHD5 was downregulated in a time-dependent manner in BeWo cells treated with forskolin. At the same time, lipid droplets (LDs) were increased in the SCT. LD storage was also increased in the SCT with siABHD5, while it was significantly reduced in SCT cells with high ABHD5 expression. However, this effect could be attenuated by downregulated carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1B (CPT1B). CONCLUSIONS: ABHD5-CPT1B is confirmed as an important regulator of placental lipid metabolism.

Behavior, intestinal health, and growth of small sea cucumbers Apostichopus japonicus in different color morphs.

Selecting high-quality seeds with long-term advantages in behavior, intestinal health, and growth are the key to improve production efficiency of sea cucumber aquaculture. It is proposed to distinguish the seed quality of sea cucumbers by color morphs. In the present study, we carried out a 6-week experiment to investigate behavior, intestinal health, and growth of small sea cucumbers Apostichopus japonicus in different color morphs. We found that dark-colored seeds of sea cucumber were significantly more adhesive than those with light-colored seeds. This indicates that the dark-colored seeds of A. japonicus are more adaptive in complex environments in stock enhancement. Food consumption and defecation outputs of dark-colored seeds were significantly higher than those of light-colored seeds. In addition, the feces of dark-colored seeds of sea cucumber had significantly lower crude protein content and better intestinal morphology, but there was no advantage in digestive enzyme activities. This suggests that there are potential digestive benefits in dark-colored seeds. Further, dark-colored seeds of A. japonicus showed significantly better intestinal microbiota composition and faster growth rate than that of light-colored seeds. In conclusion, the present results prove that dark-colored seeds of sea cucumber have long-term advantages in behavior, intestinal health and growth. Overall, this study provides important information for the early selection of seeds and the consequent production efficiency in sea cucumber aquaculture.

A coumarin-based multifunctional chemosensor for Cu2+/Al3+ as an AD theranostic agent: Synthesis, X-ray single crystal analysis and activity study.

The pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is complex. So far there is no effective drug to treat the disease. The pathological changes of AD began 30 years before symptoms, so early diagnosis is considered to be important for AD treatment. Integrating diagnosis and therapy into a single regent has provided a new opportunity for AD treatment. Given that metal dyshomeostasis is thought to be one of the key factors to cause AD, a Schiff base substituted coumarin (probe 1) has been designed and synthesized as a selective metal chelator for multi-factor anti-AD in this work. The results of metal ions recognition showed that probe 1 had high selective fluorescent turn-on response to Al3+ and fluorescent turn-off response to Cu2+, due to intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) mechanism. Meanwhile, the results of both in vitro and in vivo bioactivities evaluation including metal chelation, reactive oxide species (ROS) elimination, self-/Cu2+-induced Aß aggregation showed that 1 and 1-Cu(II) complex had excellent synergistic anti-AD activities. In addition, 1 had low cytotoxicity and was predicted to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Noticeably, X-ray single crystal diffraction of 1-Cu(II) provided molecular level information to explain the structure and theranostic activity relationship. To sum up, 1 may be a promising candidate for the development of AD theranostic agent.

Bacillus licheniformis reduces mortality, improves symptoms, and controls residual pathogenicity in juvenile sea cucumbers Apostichopus japonicus infected with skin ulceration syndrome.

Mass mortality caused by skin ulceration syndrome (SUS) is the bottle-neck for the sustainable aquaculture of the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus. In the present study, probiotic Bacillus licheniformis (0.25 × 109 CFU/g) was used as the treatment for A. japonicus infected with the SUS that caused by Vibrio harveyi. We found that B. licheniformis significantly reduced the number of infected sea cucumbers 5 days and 7 days after the treatment (group B), compared to those without B. licheniformis treatment (group C) (P < 0.001; P < 0.001). Further, the sea cucumbers fed B. licheniformis had significantly lower mortality at the end of the experiment (<10%) than that of those without the B. licheniformis treatment (>60%) (P < 0.001). These results suggest that the treatment of B. licheniformis is an effective method to reduce the mass mortality resulted from SUS in sea cucumber aquaculture. Further, 3-5 days of treatment significantly improved the adverse symptoms of SUS on the physiology and behavior of sea cucumbers, including the righting behavior, adhesion behavior, food consumption, fecal output and mobility. This indicates B. licheniformis treatment has the advantage in the recovery of sea cucumbers after SUS. Moreover, there was no significant difference observed in the physiology and behavior of sea cucumbers between the SUS infected sea cucumbers after the 7-day treatment of B. licheniformis and the healthy individuals. SUS infected sea cucumbers effectively returned to a stage of normalcy. Further, we found a significantly lower infected rate in sea cucumbers exposed to the culture water of group B (∼5%) than that of those in exposure to the culture water of group C (∼60%). This indicates that the treatment of B. licheniformis efficiently controls the residual pathogenicity of SUS in culture water. The present study demonstrated the effectiveness of B. licheniformis treatment as an environmentally friendly approach to reducing mortality, improving symptoms, and controlling residual pathogenicity in sea cucumber aquaculture.

Palladium-Catalyzed Carbonylative Dearomatization of Indoles to Achieve Carbonyl-Containing Spirocyclic Indolenines Bearing an All-Carbon Quaternary Center.

A Pd-catalyzed carbonylative dearomatization via an acyl Pd complex has been developed. Diversified carbonyl-containing spirocyclic indolenines with an all-carbon quaternary center were constructed in an efficient and straightforward way with good to excellent yields. The protocol features a simple catalytic system, operational simplicity, a broad substrate scope, easy scale-up, and versatile transformations. In addition, the asymmetric reaction was initially explored with moderate enantioselectivity.

CHAF1A promotes the proliferation and growth of epithelial ovarian cancer cells by affecting the phosphorylation of JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway.

The molecular mechanism of chromatin assembly factor 1 unit A (CHAF1A) promoting the proliferation and growth of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) cells hasn't been reported at present. In this study, recombinant CHAF1A siRNA/overexpression plasmid (si-RNA1/pcDNA3.1-CHAF1A) was designed and constructed, and stable cell lines with knockdown or overexpression of CHAF1A were constructed. The changes of JAK2/STAT3 pathway were detected by Western blot. JAK2/STAT3 pathway was inhibited by Peficitinib, and then cell proliferation and growth ability were detected. Bioinformatics analysis suggested that CHAF1A was up-regulated in epithelial ovarian cancer. JAK2/STAT3 pathway phosphorylation was inhibited in si-RNA1 group, while it was increased in pcDNA3.1-CHAF1A group. After inhibiting JAK2/STAT3 pathway, the promoting effect of CHAF1A on epithelial ovarian cancer cell proliferation disappeared, meanwhile the inhibitory effect of CHAF1A on apoptosis enhanced. In conclusion, CHAF1A promotes the proliferation and growth of epithelial ovarian cancer cells by affecting the phosphorylation of JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway.

Characterizing the key genes of COVID-19 that regulate tumor immune microenvironment and prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a highly heterogeneous malignant tumor associated with a poor prognosis, is a common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, with a limited survival benefit for patients despite ongoing therapeutic breakthroughs. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a severe infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is a global pandemic and a serious threat to human health. The increased susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection and a poor prognosis in patients with cancer necessitate the exploration of the potential link between the two. No studies have investigated the relationship of COVID-19 genes with the prognosis and tumor development in patients with HCC. We screened prognosis-related COVID-19 genes in HCC, performed molecular typing, developed a stable and reliable COVID-19 genes signature for predicting survival, characterized the immune microenvironment in HCC patients, and explored new molecular therapeutic targets. Datasets of HCC patients, including RNA sequencing data and clinical information, were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC), and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases. Prognosis-related COVID-19 genes were identified by univariate Cox analysis. Molecular typing of HCC was performed using the consensus non-negative matrix factorization method (cNMF), followed by the analysis of survival, tumor microenvironment, and pathway enrichment for each subtype. Prognostic signatures were constructed using LASSO-Cox regression models, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to validate the predictive performance of the signature. The same approach was used for the test and external validation sets. Seven software packages were applied to determine the abundance of immune infiltration in HCC patients and investigate its relationship with the risk scores. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to explore the potential mechanisms by which the COVID-19 genes affect hepatocarcinogenesis and prognosis. Three types of machine learning methods were combined to identify the most critical genes in the signature and localize their expression at the single cell level. We identified 53 prognosis-related COVID-19 genes and classified HCC into two molecular subtypes (C1, C2) by using the NMF method. The prognosis of C2 was significantly better than that of C1, and the two subtypes differed remarkably in terms of the tumor immune microenvironment and biological functions. The 17 COVID-19 genes were screened using the LASSO regression method to develop a 17 COVID-19 genes signature, which demonstrated a good predictive performance for 1-, 2- and 3-year OS of patients with HCC. The risk score as an independent prognostic factor for HCC has better predictive accuracy than traditional clinical variables. Patients in the TCGA cohort were categorized by risk score into the high- and low-risk groups, with the high-risk group mainly enriched in the immune modulation-related pathways and the low-risk group mainly enriched in the metabolism-related pathways, suggesting that the COVID-19 genes may affect disease progression and prognosis by regulating the tumor immune microenvironment and metabolism in HCC. NOL10 was identified as the most critical gene in the signature and hypothesized to be a potential therapeutic target for HCC. Objectively, the COVID-19 genes signature developed in this study, as an independent prognostic factor in HCC patients, is closely associated with the prognosis and tumor immune microenvironment of HCC patients and indicates that they may regulate the development of HCC in multiple ways, providing us with new perspectives for understanding the molecular mechanisms of HCC and finding effective therapeutic targets.