Ovarian hormones predict cooperative strategies updating during multiple rounds of the prisoner's dilemma.

Increasing research has focused on how ovarian hormones influence individual prosocial motivation and cooperation. However, most results remain ambiguous and contradictory. Here, we collected progesterone (PROG) and oestradiol from 62 healthy women with regular menstrual cycles to explore whether variations in ovarian hormones could flexibly change their cooperative preference according to their opponents' strategies in multiple rounds of a prisoner's dilemma (PD) game. Participants in different menstrual phases (32 in the follicular phase [FP] and 30 in the luteal phase [LP]) were asked to complete 20 rounds of PD games with each of three computer opponents holding different cooperative strategies. The results revealed that in PD games that did not require cooperation for increased outcomes, women in the LP (high PROG) reduced their cooperation rate more significantly than women in the FP (low PROG). In contrast, when the game design required reciprocity, simultaneously elevated levels of PROG and oestradiol predicted greater instances of participants choosing to cooperate. Furthermore, we found that elevated PROG levels accounted for women's elevated prosocial choices, regardless of the need to increase outcomes through cooperation. These results implied higher levels of PROG and oestradiol influence women's cooperative strategies resulting in increased social interactions.

Efficacy and safety of perioperative therapy for locally resectable gastric cancer: A network meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.

BACKGROUND: Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most commonly diagnosed malignancy worldwide, with over 1 million new cases per year, and the third leading cause of cancer-related death. AIM: To determine the optimal perioperative treatment regimen for patients with locally resectable GC. METHODS: A comprehensive literature search was conducted, focusing on phase II/III randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing perioperative chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy in treating locally resectable GC. The R0 resection rate, overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), and incidence of grade 3 or higher nonsurgical severe adverse events (SAEs) associated with various perioperative regimens were analyzed. A Bayesian network meta-analysis was performed to compare treatment regimens and rank their efficacy. RESULTS: Thirty RCTs involving 8346 patients were included in this study. Neoadjuvant XELOX plus neoadjuvant radiotherapy and neoadjuvant CF were found to significantly improve the R0 resection rate compared with surgery alone, and the former had the highest probability of being the most effective option in this context. Neoadjuvant plus adjuvant FLOT was associated with the highest probability of being the best regimen for improving OS. Owing to limited data, no definitive ranking could be determined for DFS. Considering nonsurgical SAEs, FLO has emerged as the safest treatment regimen. CONCLUSION: This study provides valuable insights for clinicians when selecting perioperative treatment regimens for patients with locally resectable GC. Further studies are required to validate these findings.

Searching for Novel Noncovalent Nuclear Export Inhibitors through a Drug Repurposing Approach.

Chromosomal region maintenance protein 1 (CRM1) is a validated anticancer drug target, and its covalent inhibitor KPT-330 has been approved for marketing. However, the development of CRM1 inhibitors, especially the noncovalent ones, is still very limited. Drug repurposing is an effective strategy to develop drug leads for new targets. In this work, we virtually screened a library of marketed drugs and identified zafirlukast as a new CRM1 inhibitor. Biochemical and structural analysis revealed that zafirlukast was a noncovalent CRM1 inhibitor that bound to four subpockets in the nuclear-export-signal (NES) groove. Methylation of the sulfonamide group rendered zafirlukast completely inactive against CRM1. Zafirlukast inhibited the growth of a variety of cancer cells and worked synergistically with the drug doxorubicin. Taken together, these works laid a solid foundation for reshaping zafirlukast as a valuable lead compound for further design of noncovalent, specific, and potent CRM1 inhibitors toward the treatment of various cancers.

Common and unique neural mechanisms of social and nonsocial conflict resolving and adaptation.

Humans often need to deal with various forms of information conflicts that arise when they receive inconsistent information. However, it remains unclear how we resolve them and whether the brain may recruit similar or distinct brain mechanisms to process different domains (e.g. social vs. nonsocial) of conflicts. To address this, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging and scanned 50 healthy participants when they were asked to perform 2 Stroop tasks with different forms of conflicts: social (i.e. face-gender incongruency) and nonsocial (i.e. color-word incongruency) conflicts. Neuroimaging results revealed that the ventral lateral prefrontal cortex was generally activated in processing incongruent versus congruent stimuli regardless of the task type, serving as a common mechanism for conflict resolving across domains. Notably, trial-based and model-based results jointly demonstrated that the dorsal and rostral medial prefrontal cortices were uniquely engaged in processing social incongruent stimuli, suggesting distinct neural substrates of social conflict resolving and adaptation. The findings uncover that the common but unique brain mechanisms are recruited when humans resolve and adapt to social conflicts.

Vulvovaginal myeloid sarcoma with massive pelvic floor infiltration: A case report and review of literature.

BACKGROUND: Myeloid sarcoma (MS), including isolated and leukaemic MS, is an extramedullary myeloid tumour. MS can involve any anatomical site, but MS of the female genital tract is rare, with the ovaries and uterine body and cervix being the most commonly seen sites. Involvement of the vagina and vulva is extremely rare. CASE SUMMARY: We report a rare case of MS with involvement of the vulva and vagina and massive infiltration of the pelvic floor. A 26-year-old woman presented with a vulvar mass, irregular vaginal bleeding and night sweats. Magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated an ill-defined, irregular vulvovaginal mass with massive involvement of the paravaginal tissue, urethra, posterior wall of the bladder, and pelvic floor. The signal and enhancement of the huge mass was homogeneous without haemorrhage or necrosis. Positron emission tomography/computed tomography showed high fluorodeoxyglucose uptake by the mass. Peripheral blood count detected blast cells. Vulvovaginal mass and bone marrow biopsies were performed, and immunohistochemistry confirmed the diagnosis of acute myeloid leukaemia (M-2 type, FAB classification) and vulvovaginal MS. The patient was treated with induction chemotherapy followed by allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and achieved complete remission. A systemic review of the literature on vulvovaginal MS was conducted to explore this rare entity's clinical and radiological features. CONCLUSION: Vulvovaginal MS is extremely rare. Diagnosis of vulvovaginal MS can only be confirmed histopathologically. Even though its clinical and imaging presentations are nonspecific, MS should be considered in the differential diagnosis of a newly developed T2-hyperintense, homogeneously enhanced vulvovaginal mass, especially in a patient with suspected haematological malignancy.

Social Orientation in the Luteal Phase: Increased Social Feedback Sensitivity, Inhibitory Response, Interpersonal Anxiety and Cooperation Preference.

Cyclical fluctuations of the ovarian hormones estrogen (E2) and progesterone (PROG) have multiple effects on reproduction and development. However, little is known about the roles of E2 and PROG in women's social behaviors. Here, based on evolutionary theory suggesting social sensitivity and inhibition ability are conductive to maintaining social relationships, we provide evidence for the association between menstrual phases and social orientation. In Study 1, 78 women provided saliva samples and reported their intensity of behavioral activation/inhibition system (BAS/BIS) and interpersonal sensitivity at either of two phases of the menstrual cycle: late follicular phase (FP), and mid-luteal phase (LP). A significant between-subject association emerged, revealing that women with higher PROG levels reported higher levels of social feedback sensitivity, and women with relatively high PROG levels showed a positive association between their E2 levels and inhibitory response. In Study 2, 30 women reported their interpersonal anxiety and finished the social value orientation (SVO) measures at both late FP and mid-LP. A significant within-person effect emerged: women in the mid-LP, which is characterized by higher PROG levels, reported higher levels of interpersonal anxiety and SVO. In sum, these findings revealed that women's social orientation could fluctuate naturally with ovarian hormones across the menstrual cycle.

Neural Basis of Increased Cognitive Control of Impulsivity During the Mid-Luteal Phase Relative to the Late Follicular Phase of the Menstrual Cycle.

Hormonal changes across the menstrual cycle have been shown to influence reward-related motivation and impulsive behaviors. Here, with the aim of examining the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive control of impulsivity, we compared event-related monetary delay discounting task behavior and concurrent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) revealed brain activity as well as resting state (rs)-fMRI activity, between women in the mid-luteal phase (LP) and women in the late follicular phase (FP). The behavioral data were analyzed and related to neural activation data. In the delay discounting task, women in the late FP were more responsive to short-term rewards (i.e., showed a greater discount rate) than women in the mid-LP, while also showing greater activity in the dorsal striatum (DS). Discount rate (transformed k) correlated with functional connectivity between the DS and dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), consistent with previous findings indicating that DS-dlPFC circuitry may regulate impulsivity. Our rs-fMRI data further showed that the right dlPFC was significantly more active in the mid-LP than in late FP, and this effect was sensitive to absolute and relative estradiol levels during the mid-LP. DS-dlPFC functional connectivity magnitude correlated negatively with psychometric impulsivity scores during the late FP, consistent with our behavioral data and further indicating that relative estradiol levels may play an important role in augmenting cognitive control. These findings provide new insight into the treatment of conditions characterized by hyper-impulsivity, such as obsessive compulsive disorder, Parkinson disease, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. In conclusion, our results suggest that cyclical gonadal hormones affect cognitive control of impulsive behavior in a periodic manner, possibility via DS-dlPFC circuitry.

An unexpected Lewis acid-mediated structural conversion of a Euphorbia Diterpene: From a Lathyrane skeleton to diterpene pseudo-alkaloids.

Three types of new Euphorbia diterpene pseudo-alkaloids possessing 5/6/7/3 (1), 5/6/6/4 (2-5), and 5/7/7/4 (6-7) fused ring skeletons were obtained through an unexpected BF3·Et2O/CH3CN-mediated structural conversion and amination of lathyrane diterpene (Euphorbia factor L1), in which the solution acetonitrile had been introduced into the Euphorbia diterpene as a nitrogen source and tandem amination/oxirane-opening (cyclopropane-opening)/oxa-Michael addition reaction was involved in the conversion. The structures of new Euphorbia diterpene pseudo-alkaloids were elucidated by a combination of spectroscopic data and single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The basic skeletons of Euphorbia diterpene pseudo-alkaloids 1 and 2-5 could fall into the structural types of euphoractine B and euphoractine A diterpenes, respectively, suggesting the possible biogenetic pathway relationship between lathyrane diterpene with euphoractines A and B types diterpenes. Pseudo-alkaloids 1-7 did not show any potential cytotoxicity against several tumor cell lines.

How ovarian hormones influence the behavioral activation and inhibition system through the dopamine pathway.

The behavioral activation system (BAS) and the behavioral inhibition system (BIS) have been proposed to relate to stable traits that predict inter-individual differences in motivation. Prior reports point dopamine (DA) pathways, mainly including ventral tegmental area (VTA) and substantia nigra (SN), implicate in subserving reward-related functions associated with BAS and inhibitory functions related with BIS. However, as an important factor that affects DA releasing, it remains an open question whether the ovarian hormones may also be related to BIS/BAS. Here, to investigate effects of the estradiol (E2) and progesterone (PROG) on BIS/BAS and related DA pathways, we employed a BIS/BAS scale and the resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during the late follicular phase (FP) and the mid-luteal phase (LP). On the behavioral level, when women had high PROG levels, their E2 levels were found positively correlated with BIS scores, but those women whose PROG levels were low, their E2 levels were negative correlation with BIS scores. On the neural level, we demonstrated BAS was related with the VTA pathway, included brain reward regions of nucleus accumbens (NAc) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Meanwhile, the BIS was correlated with the SN-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) pathway. ROI-based resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) analyses further revealed that, RSFC between the SN and dlPFC was modulated by ovarian hormones. With higher PROG levels, increased E2 levels among women were accompanied by stronger RSFC of the SN-dlPFC, but when PROG levels were low, E2 levels were negatively correlated with the SN-dlPFC RSFC. These findings revealed a combined enhancement effect of E2 and PROG on BIS, and the SN-dlPFC pathway was mainly involved in this process.

Association of ovarian hormones with mapping concept of self and others in the brain's default mode network.

The brain's default mode network (DMN) has become closely associated with self-referential mental activity, particularly in the resting-state. Prior reports point that the sex hormones are potent modulators of brain plasticity and functional connectivity. However, it is uncertain whether changes in ovarian hormones, as occur during the monthly menstrual cycle, substantially affects the functional connectivity of DMN. Here, we employed a Self-Awareness Scale (SAS) and the resting-state functional MRI in the late follicular phase and the mid-luteal phase to investigate the effect of the estradiol (E2) and progesterone on the SAS and DMN. On the behavioral level, increased progesterone facilitated women's other-focused attention. The regions of interest-based resting-state functional connectivity analyses continued to demonstrate a negative correlation of the relative progesterone and the medial prefrontal cortex-inferior temporal gyrus (mPFC-ITG) functional connectivity, and a facilitated effect of relative E2 on the mPFC-inferior parietal lobule functional connectivity in the DMN. Furthermore, as a core hub of the 'theory of mind', the functional connectivity between the ITG and thalamus was found negatively correlated with the relative E2. Meanwhile, the mid-luteal phase, which had significantly lower relative E2 levels, was indicated had stronger ITG-thalamus functional connectivity during the resting state. These results demonstrated an opposite effect of E2 and progesterone on the DMN and the other-focused preference in the mid-luteal phase, extended previous evidence of the potentially adaptive psychological effects of ovarian hormones on mapping self and others in the brain networks.

Bioaccumulation of endocrine disrupting compounds in fish with different feeding habits along the largest subtropical river, China.

Endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) are becoming an increasing concern regarding bioaccumulation in aquatic biota. However, the effects of regional pollution levels and specific feeding habits on the bioaccumulation of EDCs in fish are rarely reported. 4-Nonylphenol (4-NP), bisphenol A (BPA), 4-tert-octylphenol (4-t-OP), triclocarban (TCC) and triclosan (TCS) were determined in abiotic compartments [water, sediment, suspended particulate matter (SPM)] and fish with different feeding habits along the Pearl River, China. EDCs in abiotic compartments exhibited significant (p < 0.05) spatial variations, forming five zones clustered based on site-specific EDC concentrations. 4-NP was the dominant compound, contributing 58-98% of the EDCs in fish, followed by BPA (<41%), 4-t-OP (<13%), and TCC and TCS (<4.7%). The concentrations of 4-NP and 4-t-OP, BPA, and TCC and TCS were the highest in brackish carnivorous, planktivorous, and detritivorous fish, respectively. The bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) showed that 4-NP accumulated (BAF > 5000) in all fish except for suck-feeding detritivores, while 4-t-OP and TCC accumulated in filter-feeding planktivores. The concentration of 4-NP in carnivores was significantly higher than that in detritivores, indicating the potential biomagnification of 4-NP along food chains. EDCs in sediment and SPM and those in water were most positively correlated with those in detritivores and planktivores, respectively, suggesting the potential of fish with these two feeding habits to act as bioindicators of EDC pollutants.

Lewis acid-mediated skeleton transformation of Euphorbia diterpenes: From lathyrane to euphoractane and myrsinane.

Natural euphoractane and myrsinane diterpene skeletons, together with an unnatural 5/7/7/4 fused-ring diterpene skeleton were furnished via BF3·Et2O-mediated transformation of lathyrane-type diterpene, Euphorbia factor L1. The skeleton transformation process was mainly involved in the cascade oxirane-opening (cyclopropane-opening)/oxe-Micheal addition reaction. The structures of three diterpenes were confirmed by comprehensive spectra analysis and single crystals X-ray diffraction. Current results proved the biogenesis pathway between lathyrane with euphoractane and myrsinane by chemical transformation for the first time.

[Spatio-Temporal Patterns and Environmental Risk of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals in the Liuxi River].

This study aimed to investigate the occurrence and spatio-temporal distribution of 4-tert-octylphenol (4-t-OP), 4-nonylphenol (4-NP), triclosan (TCS), estrone (E1), 17ß-estradiol (E2), and bisphenol-A (BPA) as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in the water of the Liuxi River and to evaluate the risks for estrogenic activity. The results showed that EDCs had been detected at the 14 monitoring sites and the total concentration ranged from 26.07 ng·L-1 to 7109.5 ng·L-1, with the highest contribution rate coming from 4-NP (78.62%), followed by BPA (11.91%), and the other four EDCs (≤ 4.92%). On a spatial and temporal scale, the EDC contents increased longitudinally from upstream to downstream, especially in the heavily-polluted Baiyun section where the water quality was lower than level Ⅴ. The EDC contents in the tributaries were much higher than those in the main channels. Influenced by the monsoon precipitation, the contents of 4-NP, 4-t-OP, and total EDCs in the rainy season were significantly (P<0.05) higher than those in the dry season, while the seasonal changes of E1 and E2 followed the opposite tendency. A Pearson correlation analysis showed that DO was significantly negatively correlated with all the EDCs, suggesting that the EDCs and reductive organic pollutants might coexist. As TN, TP, NH4+-N, permanganate index, and EC were significantly positively correlated with E1, E2, BPA, and TCS but not obviously correlated with 4-NP (P>0.05), we presumed that the pollution source of E1, E2, BPA, and TCS might be the same with nitrogen and phosphorus nutrition, originating from the point source emission of the domestic sewage, industrial, and agricultural wastewater. In contrast, 4-NP and 4-t-OP more likely originated from the non-point source pollution from agriculture. RDA results showed that the variation of the EDCs contents by season was more obvious than that in space (RDA1 56.14%>RDA2 14.20%), which was much more influenced by 4-NP in the rainy season and by BPA in the dry season. As E1, E2, and TCS were positively correlated with the Cu, Zn, cyanide, and fecal coliform, these three target compounds could be used to indicate the multiple pollution components for water quality. Compared with the worldwide reported EDC contents in waters, 4-NP, BPA, and TCS contents in the middle and lower reaches of the Liuxi River were at higher levels, while E1, E2, and 4-t-OP were at the middle and lower levels. The risk assessment for estrogenic activity showed that the RQ values in the middle and lower reaches of the Liuxi River were all greater than 1, indicating that the downstream river sections were under high risk for estrogenic activity. As a result, appropriate precautions are needed to improve environmental management.

An Attempt at Matching Waking Events Into Dream Reports by Independent Judges.

Correlations between memories and dreaming has typically been studied by linking conscious experiences and dream reports, which has illustrated that dreaming reflects waking life events, thoughts, and emotions. As some research suggests that sleep has a function of memory consolidation, and dreams reflect this, researching this relationship further may uncover more useful insights. However, most related research has been conducted using the self-report method which asks participants to judge the relationship between their own conscious experiences and dreams. This method may cause errors when the research purpose is to make comparisons between different groups, because individual differences cannot be balanced out when the results are compared among groups. Based on a knowledge of metaphors and symbols, we developed two operationalized definitions for independent judges to match conscious experiences and dreams, the descriptive incorporation and the metaphorical incorporation, and tested their reliability for the matching purpose. Two independent judges were asked to complete a linking task for 212 paired event-dreams. Results showed almost half dreams can be matched by independent judges, and the independent-judge method could provide similar proportions for the linking task, when compared with the self-report method.

Cytotoxic Lathyrane-Type Diterpenes from Seeds of Euphorbia lathyris.

We isolated two new lathyrane-type diterpenes L27 (1) and L28 (2) along with seven known compounds (3-9) from the seeds of Euphorbia lathyris. These compounds were identified by NMR, high-resolution electrospray ionisation (HR-ESI)-MS as well as IR spectroscopy. Compounds 1 and 2 were assigned NMR spectrums with 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, distortionless enhancement by polarization (DEPT), correlation spectroscopy (COSY), heteronuclear multiple quantum coherence (HMQC), heteronuclear multiple bond connectivity (HMBC) and nuclear Overhauser effect spectroscopy (NOESY). Stereo configuration of 1 and 2 were confirmed by comprehensive interpretation of their nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE) relationship and showed they were first natural lathyrane-type diterpenes possessing α-configuration substitutes at C-3. Cytotoxicity assay of isolated compounds were evaluated against breast cancer cell lines MCF-7 or MDA-MB-231, 786-0 and liver cancer cell lines HepG2. As a result, Euphorbia factor L28 (2) showed strongly cytotoxicity to the 786-0 and HepG2 cell lines, with an IC50 value of 9.43 and 13.22 µM, respectively, which preliminarily suggested that the configuration of lathyrane-type diterpene at C-3 has a significant effect on its bioactivity.

A novel IL-1RA-PEP fusion protein with enhanced brain penetration ameliorates cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury by inhibition of oxidative stress and neuroinflammation.

Neuroinflammation and oxidative stress are involved in cerebral ischemia-reperfusion, in which Interleukin 1 (IL-1), as an effective intervention target, is implicated. Interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA) is the natural inhibitor of IL-1, but blood-brain barrier (BBB) limits the brain penetration of intravenously administered IL-1RA, thereby restricting its therapeutic effect against neuroinflammation. In this study, we evaluated the potential effects of anti-inflammation and anti-oxidative stress of a novel protein IL-1RA-PEP, which fused IL-1RA with a cell penetrating peptide (CPP). Studies were carried out in transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in rats and oxygen glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R) in primary cortical neurons. In MCAO rat model, IL-1RA-PEP (50mg/kg) injected i.v., penetrated BBB effectively, and alleviated brain infarction, cerebral edema, neurological deficit score and motor performance as well as inhibited the inflammatory cytokines expression. Furthermore, our results firstly showed that IL-1RA-PEP also regulated the oxidases expression, decreased the levels of NO, MDA and ROS. In addition, the inhibitory effects of IL-1RA-PEP on oxidative stress and inflammation were confirmed in rat cortical neurons induced by OGD/R, it reduced ROS, IL-6 and TNF-α. Further study showed that the effects of IL-1RA-PEP were closely associated with the NF-κB and p38 pathways which were proved respectively by their inhibitors JSH-23 and SB203580. Our results indicated that IL-1RA-PEP could effectively penetrate the brain of MCAO rats, alleviated the cerebral ischemia reperfusion injury by inhibiting neuroinflammation and oxidative stress, showing a great clinical potential for stroke.

Women ornament themselves for intrasexual competition near ovulation, but for intersexual attraction in luteal phase.

The present study examined women's attentional bias toward ornamental objects in relation to their menstrual phase as well as to motivations of intersexual courtship or intrasexual competition. In Experiment 1, 33 healthy heterosexual women were tested in a bias-assessment visual cuing task twice: once on a high-fertility day (during the ovulatory phase) and once on a low-fertility day (during the luteal phase). They paid greater attention to pictures of ornamental objects than to pictures of non-ornamental objects near ovulation, but not during the luteal phase, suggesting an ornamental bias during the high-fertility phase. In Experiment 2, before the visual cuing task, 40 participants viewed 10 same-sex or opposite-sex facial photographs with either high or low attractiveness as priming tasks to activate the intrasexual competition or intersexual courtship motives. Results showed that women's ornamental bias was dependent on the interaction of menstrual phase and mating motive. Specifically, the ornamental bias was observed on the high-fertility day when the subjects were primed with high-attractive same-sex images (intrasexual competition) and was observed on the low-fertility day when they were primed with high-attractive opposite-sex photographs (intersexual courtship). In conclusion, the present findings confirm the hypothesis that, during the high-fertility phase, women have an attentional bias toward ornamental objects and further support the hypothesis that the ornamental bias is driven by intrasexual competition motivation near ovulation, but driven by intersexual courtship motivation during the luteal phase.

Transient receptor potential vanilloid 2 (TRPV2), a potential novel biomarker in childhood asthma.

BACKGROUND: The presence of transient receptor potential vanilloid 2 (TRPV2) in human peripheral blood cells may suggest a role under pathological conditions. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between the expression profile of TRPV2 gene and childhood asthma in the north of China. The effects of allergens exposure on the expression of TRPV2 gene were also investigated. METHODS: Sixty asthmatics children confirmed by physician diagnosis and 60 healthy children as a control group were recruited. Serum total IgE and specific IgE were measured. Using quantitative Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (qRT-PCR), TRPV2 was detected in total RNA extracted from peripheral blood lymphocytes. Student's t-test and chi-square test were used to analyze the relationship between TRPV2 transcript and different parameter variables on susceptibility of childhood asthma. Multiple logistic regression was used to analyze the associations between TRPV2 gene and allergens. RESULTS: The expression level of TRPV2 gene was increased 2.6 times in asthmatic children compared with controls (p < .01). The up-regulation of TRPV2 gene and sensitization to one of three the allergens-spring pollen, dust mite, and dog and cat hair-were correlated with childhood asthma. In addition, the hypersensitivity to spring pollen, cockroach, and dust mite and up-regulation of TRPV2 gene expression may be the risk factors for the childhood asthma in Beijing. CONCLUSIONS: The increased expression of TRPV2 gene in peripheral lymphocytes is closely correlated with childhood asthma in the north of China. This study provides a potential new biomarker of childhood asthma and lays the basis for further clarification of the pathogenesis underlying asthma.

[Quantitative method for detection of plasma lumbrokinase content and its assessment].

This study was aimed to set up and evaluate a quantitative method for detecting lumbrokinase level in plasma. The lumbrokinase was used to immunize rabbit and BALB/c mouse for preparation of rabbit or mouse-derived polyclonal antibodies, and then the standard curves were drawn up by detecting the lumbrokinase diluted in PBS using the double antibody sandwich ELISA. This method further was analyzed for its specificity, precision and recovery rate. This established double antibody sandwich ELISA was used to assay the lumbrokinase in human plasma, and the assayed results were assessed. The results showed that a double antibody sandwich ELISA for the detection of lumbrokinase has been established. And the standard curve fitting R value > 0.99, the precision assessment showed that the measured values of coefficient of variation (CV) in 3 batches were all < 15%; recovery assessment in 3 batches showed that all the measured recovery rates were > 80%; the quantitative low limit was assessed as 5 ng/ml (precision CV < 15%, recovery rate > 85%). It is concluded that this method is consistent with the criteria stipulated by the Pharmacopeia, which provides a reliable measurement method for quantitative detection of plasma lumbrokinase in clinical trials.

Hepatoprotective effects of IL-22 on fulminant hepatic failure induced by d-galactosamine and lipopolysaccharide in mice.

Interleukin-22 (IL-22), a member of the IL-10 cytokine family that is produced by activated Th22, Th1 and Th17 cells as well as natural killer cells, plays an important role in increase of innate immunity, protection from damage and enhancement of regeneration. Here, we examined the effects of IL-22 on acute liver failure model induced by d-galactosamine (GalN) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Administration of recombinant human IL-22 (rhIL-22) reduced the death rate markedly and prevented mice from severe hepatic injury, as evidenced by decreased serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and total bilirubin (T.Bil) activity as well as improved histological signs in liver. Furthermore, IL-22 treatment decreased the hepatic malondialdehyde (MDA) contents and increased the reduced glutathione levels. Serum tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) level and hepatic caspase-3 activity were significantly lower in mice administrated with IL-22. Moreover, IL-22 treatment significantly enhanced activation of STAT3 and up-regulated the expression of Bcl-xL, heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and redox factor-1 (Ref-1) in the liver injury induced by GalN/LPS. Collectively, these data indicate that IL-22 can provide critical protection against GalN/LPS-induced liver injury through anti-apoptotic, anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory actions.