The Association of Myopia Progression with Changes in Retinal Thickness among Primary School Students with Myopia.

Purpose: To observe the relationship between myopia progression and changes in retinal thickness during one year of follow-up among primary school children. Methods: The study included 1161 eyes of 708 myopic children, with 616 (53.06%) right eyes and 545 (46.94%) left eyes. The participants underwent a comprehensive ophthalmic examination, including visual acuity, axial length (AL), autorefraction, and optical coherence tomography (OCT) examination in 2016 and in 2017. An analysis was conducted on the differences in retinal thickness between different genders and between high myopia and nonhigh myopia. Furthermore, the study delved into the correlation between the progression of myopia and the changes of retinal thickness. Results: The average diopter was -1.83 ± 1.29D, average AL was 23.78 ± 0.94 mm, and average foveal thickness was 228.02 ± 23.00 µm. For the inner retina, the median value [the lower quartile value, the upper quartile value] of the foveal thickness was thicker in the high myopia group than the nonhigh myopia group (67 [64; 74] µm vs. 63 [56; 70] µm), while the parafoveal region and perifoveal region were thinner in the high myopia group than the nonhigh myopia group (106 [100; 123] µm vs. 124 [117; 130] µm; 95.0 [93; 102] µm vs. 104 [100; 108] µm). Among all the children with myopia, 67.53% (784/1161) of them have a diopter progression within one year. The AL progression was 95.43% (1108/1161). The retinal thickness of all children has slightly increased in various regions. As the AL of the eye increased and the diopter decreased, the progression degree of inner retinal thickness and full retinal thickness (exclusive of full fovea) decreased. Conclusion: For the school-age myopic children, the inner foveal retinal thickness were thicker in highly myopic students than in the nonhighly myopic students, while the parafoveal and perifoveal retina were thinner in highly myopic students. The inner and full retinal thicknesses of male students were thicker than that of females. The progression of myopia mainly affected the changes of the inner retinal thickness in the one-year follow-up.

Establishment of RNAi-Mediated Pest Control Method for Red Imported Fire Ant, Solenopsis invicta.

RNAi plays a crucial role in insect gene function research and pest control field. Nonetheless, the variable efficiency of RNAi across diverse insects and off-target effects also limited its further application. In this study, we cloned six essential housekeeping genes from Solenopsis invicta and conducted RNAi experiments by orally administering dsRNA. Then, we found that mixing with liposomes significantly enhanced the RNAi efficiency by targeting for SiV-ATPaseE. Additionally, we observed a certain lethal effect of this dsRNA on queens by our established RNAi system. Furthermore, no strict sequence-related off-target effects were detected. Finally, the RNAi effect of large-scale bacteria expressing dsRNA was successfully confirmed for controlling S. invicta. In summary, this study established an RNAi system for S. invicta and provided a research template for the future development of nucleic acid drugs based on RNAi.

Biocontrol efficiency and characterization of insecticidal protein from sugarcane endophytic Serratia marcescens (SM) against oriental armyworm Mythimna separata (Walker).

The plant endophytic bacteria are a great source of nature insecticides. However, no such endophytic bacteria have been found in sugarcane, to address this gap, we isolated and identified a strain of Serratia marcescens with moderate insecticidal activity from sugarcane. Taken armyworm Mythimna separata as example, the mortality rates of oral infection and injection infection were 47.06 % and 91 %, respectively. The SM has significant negative affect on the growth, development, and reproduction of M. separata. After determining that these insecticidal substances, 33 potential virulence proteins were screened through the identification and prediction of bacterial proteins. Later we confirmed serralysin was a vital toxic protein from SM that caused M. separata death by prokaryotic expression. In addition, we also found that the intestinal tissue cells infected with SM or serralysin were severely diseased, which may be a major factor in M. separata demise. Finally, through gene expression level, protein molecular docking, we found the aminopeptidase-N would be one of the potential receptors of serralysin. Taken together, our findings indicate that sugarcane endophyte S. marcescens may be beneficial for pest control in sugarcane and explain its insecticidal mechanism. This study provides new ideas and materials for the biological control of pests.

Effects of atropine eyedrops at ten different concentrations for myopia control in children: A systematic review on meta-analysis.

PURPOSE: To estimate the effect of atropine eyedrops at different concentrations for myopia control in children. METHODS: We conducted a Bayesian random-effects network meta-analysis based on randomized controlled trials (RCT). Primary outcomes include changes in spherical equivalent error (SER) and changes in axial length (AL), mean difference (MD) together with 95% credible interval (CrI) were used to evaluate the efficacy. RESULTS: 28 RCTs (6608 children) were included in this review. Comparing ten atropine eyedrops (0.0025%, 0.005%, 0.01%, 0.02%, 0.025%, 0.05%, 0.1%, 0.25%, 0.5% and 1% concentrations) with the placebo, the MDs and 95%CrIs of changes in SER are -0.006 (-0.269, 0.256) D, 0.216 (-0.078, 0.508) D, 0.146 (0.094, 0.199) D, 0.167 (0.039, 0.297) D, 0.201 (0.064, 0.341) D, 0.344 (0.251, 0.440) D, 0.255 (0.114, 0.396) D, 0.296 (0.140, 0.452) D, 0.331 (0.215, 0.447) D, and 0.286 (0.195, 0.337) D, respectively. The MDs and 95%CrIs of changes in AL are -0.048 (-0.182, 0.085) mm, -0.078 (-0.222, 0.066) mm, -0.095 (-0.130, -0.060) mm, -0.096 (-0.183, -0.009) mm, -0.083 (-0.164, -0.004) mm, -0.114 (-0.176, -0.056) mm, -0.134 (-0.198, -0.032) mm, -0.174 (-0.315, -0.061) mm, -0.184 (-0.291, -0.073) mm, and -0.171 (-0.203, -0.097) mm, respectively.Whether evaluated by SER or AL, 1% concentration ranks first in efficacy, but the risk of photophobia is 17 times higher than 0.01% concentration. CONCLUSIONS: 0.01% or higher concentration atropine eyedrops are effective for myopia control, while 0.0025% and 0.005% concentrations may not. As the concentration increases, the effect tends to increase, 1% concentration may have the strongest effect.

Knockout of TGF-ß receptor II by CRISPR/Cas9 delays mesenchymal transition of Lens epithelium and posterior capsule opacification.

Posterior capsule opacification (PCO) is the most common postoperative complication of cataract surgery. Transforming growth factor-ß (TGF-ß) is related to epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of lens epithelial cells (LECs) that is proven to induce PCO formation in clinical and experimental studies. In this study, CRISPR sequences targeting exon of TGF-ßRII were knocked out with lentiviral transfection in LECs. Rabbits' PCO model was established and recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV) for transferring the gRNA of TGF ßRII were intravitreally injected. SgRNA inhibited TGF-ßRII expression and human LECs proliferation. In TGF-ßRII knockout group, LECs motility and migration were suppressed, N-cadherin and vimentin expressions were significantly decreased, whereas E-cadherin was increased. The animal model showed that TGF-ßRII knockout in vivo was effective in suppressing PCO. The current study suggested that the CRISPR/Cas9 endonuclease system could suppress TGF-ßRII secretion, which participates in the EMT procedure of LECs in vitro and PCO in vivo. These findings might provide a new gene-editing approach and insight into a novel therapeutic strategy for PCO.