Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding cardiovascular disease prevention among middle school students in China: a cross-sectional study.

Background: The prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is rapidly increasing globally. With a concerning increase among adolescents due to unhealthy habits, obesity, and hypertension, understanding the current status of knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) related to CVD prevention among middle school students is crucial for developing effective school-based health programs to prevent CVD. Methods: The analytic cross-sectional survey is used in questionnaires to assess KAP related to CVD prevention among middle school students (N = 17,731) from 50 schools across 16 provinces in China in June-July 2023. The pass rate of KAP scores is categorized as good and poor. Independent predictors of good KAP of CVD prevention are ascertained using a binary logistic regression model. Results: The study surveyed 8,118 (45.78%) junior high school students and 9,613 (54.22%) high school students. The overall mean [standard deviation (SD)] for the knowledge, attitude, and practice scores were 26.88 (8.12), 53.53 (7.22), and 39.80 (5.96), respectively. The knowledge scores had the lowest pass rate at 56.89%. Only 6.83% of the students know "the definition of blood pressure in adolescents." Attitudes toward health were positive, though the attitude regarding "the danger of prolonged sedentary to cardiovascular health" scored lowest at 73.55%. The practice section had a pass rate of 89.30%; 40.27% of students reported that they spend more than an hour a day on screens. Only one-third of the students would go to bed before 12 o'clock. In univariate analysis, junior high school and high school students differed significantly in knowledge and practice (p < 0.001), but attitude did not differ significantly (p = 0.103). Conclusion: The majority of students lack sufficient knowledge about CVD. It is also found that socioeconomic background, family environment, and educational levels have an impact on cardiovascular health behaviors among students. Strengthening health education involving students, parents, teachers, and communities is essential to promote health knowledge and practices among adolescents.

Molecular dynamics simulation study on the binding mechanism between carbon nanotubes and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have potential prospects in disease treatment, so it is of great significance to study CNTs as the possible inhibitors of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). Through the way of using the RdRp of SARS-COV-2 as a model, five armchair single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) (namely Dn, which stands for CNTs (n, m = n), n = 3-7) and RdRp have been selected to study the interactions by means of molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation. After five SWCNT-RdRp complex systems have been subjected to the molecular dynamics simulations of 100 ns, and Molecular Mechanics Poisson - Boltzmann Surface Area (MMPBSA) has been used to calculate the binding free energy, it is found that the binding free energy of the D6 system (-189.541 kJ/mol) is significantly higher than that of the other four systems, and most of the amino acids with strong positive effects on binding are usually basic amino acids. What's more, in the further investigation of the specific interaction mechanism between CNT (6,6) and RdRp, it is revealed that the three amino acid residues LYS545, ARG553 and ARG555 located in the nucleoside triphosphate (NTP) entry channel all have strong effects. In addition, it is also observed that when ARG555 has been inserted into SWCNT, a stable structure will be formed, which will break the original NTP entry channel structure and inhibit virus replication. Therefore, it can be concluded that certain specific types of SWCNT, such as CNT (6,6), could be potential small molecule inhibitors in the treatment of coronavirus.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

3,000 km and 1,500-year presence of Aureococcus anophagefferens reveals indigenous origin of brown tides in China.

The nonmotile, spherical, picoplanktonic (2-µm-sized) pelagophyte Aureococcus anophagefferens has caused numerous harmful blooms ("brown tides") across global marine ecosystems. Blooms have developed along the east coast of the USA since 1985, a limited number of times in South Africa around 1997, and frequently in China since 2009. As a consequence, the harmful blooms have caused massive losses in aquaculture and coastal ecosystems, particularly mortalities in cultured shellfish. Therefore, whether A. anophagefferens was recently introduced to China via natural/artificial transport of resting stage cells or has been an indigenous species has become a question of profound ecological significance and broad interest, which motivated our extensive investigation on the geographic and historical presence of this species in the seas of China. We applied a combined approach of extensive PCR-based detection and sequencing, germination experiments and monoclonal antibody staining of germlings to samples of surface sediment and sediment core (dated via combined isotopic measurements) collected from all four seas of China, and searched the supplementary data set of a recent Science publication. We discovered that A. anophagefferens does have a resting stage in the sediment, but it also has a wide geographic distribution both in China (covering a range of ~30° in latitude, ~15.7° in longitude and 2.5-3,456 m in water depth; temperate to tropical and coastal to open oceans) and in almost all oceans of the world and a historical presence of >1,500 years in the Bohai Sea, China. The work revealed that A. anophagefferens is not a recently introduced, but an indigenous species in China and has in fact a globally cosmopolitan distribution.

Maternal transfer of immunity in scallop Chlamys farreri and its trans-generational immune protection to offspring against bacterial challenge.

Maternal immunity plays a crucial role in protecting the offspring at early stages of life and contributes a trans-generational effect on the offspring's phenotype. In the present study, maternal transfer of immunity and its trans-generational effect on offspring in scallop Chlamys farreri were investigated. The proteins including CfLGBP, CfLBP/BPI, CfLYZ and CfCu/Zn-SOD existed in the scallop eggs with high level while CfLec-3 was not detected. In contrast, the mRNA levels of these proteins were extremely low except that of CfCu/Zn-SOD. The protein extracts of scallop eggs exhibited remarkable agglutination activity and bactericidal effect against gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli and Vibro anguillarum, and fungi Pichia pastoris. When the maternal scallops were stimulated with heat-killed V. anguillarum, the mRNA levels of CfLBP/BPI and CfLYZ in their offspring were expressed significant higher in D-shaped larvae. Furthermore, the protein levels of CfLBP/BPI and CfCu/Zn-SOD in the offspring of maternal immune stimulation group were higher than that of control at almost all the developmental stages, while the level of CfLec-3 and CfLYZ was higher than that of control just in eggs or trochophore, respectively. A significant enhancement of Cu/Zn-SOD and antibacterial activities was also observed in eggs, 4-cell embryos and trochophore of offspring from immune stimulated mother scallops. Moreover, the mortality of offspring from the immune stimulated mother scallops was significantly lower than that of control after bacterial challenge, especially in trochophore. The results indicated that scallop eggs or embryos received maternal derived immune competence to defense against the invading pathogens, and the maternal scallops received an immune stimulation endowed their offspring with a trans-generational immune capability to protect them against infections effectively.

Identification and characterization of a serine protease inhibitor Esserpin from the Chinese mitten crab Eriocheir sinensis.

Serine protease inhibitors (serpins) represent an expanding superfamily of endogenous inhibitors that regulate proteolytic events and involve in a variety of physiological processes. A serine protease inhibitor, namely Esserpin, was identified from Chinese mitten crab Eriocheir sinensis based on expressed sequence tag (EST) analysis. The full-length cDNA of Esserpin was of 2367 bp, including an open reading frame (ORF) of 1371 bp encoding a polypeptide of 456 amino acids with estimated molecular mass of 49.95 kDa and theoretical isoelectric point of 6.03. A putative signal peptide of 23 amino acids and a classical serpin domain were identified in Esserpin. The deduced amino acid sequence of Esserpin shared homology with serpins from Fenneropenaeus chinensis and Pacifastacus leniusculus. The mRNA transcripts of Esserpin could be detected in all the examined tissues including heart, gill, hemocytes, muscle, gonad and hepatopancreas, and the highest expression level was present in gonad. After the crabs were challenged by Vibrio anguillarum and Pichia pastoris, the expression levels of Esserpin transcripts in hemocytes were significantly up-regulated, and peaked at 24 h (5.18-fold of blank group, P < 0.05) and 3 h (2.87-fold of blank group, P < 0.05), respectively. The functional activity of Esserpin was investigated by recombination and expression of the cDNA fragment encoding its mature peptide in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3)-pLysS. The recombinant Esserpin (rEsserpin) could inhibit trypsin activities in a dose-dependent manner, and it could lead to 100% inhibition of trypsin activities under the concentration of 873.76 nM, while there was no evident inhibition of chymotrypsin observed with rEsserpin. Moreover, rEsserpin inhibited the growth of E. coli at the final concentration of 1747.52 nM, and it also significantly depressed (P < 0.05) the phenoloxidase activity in the plasma at the final concentration of 873.76 nM. These results indicated that Esserpin was a homologue of serpin in crab and it could be induced after immune stimulation and mediate immune response possibly via the inhibition of bacterial growth and the regulation of prophenoloxidase-activating system.