Covalent organic framework-sodium alginate-Ca2+-polyacrylic acid composite beads for convenient dispersive solid-phase extraction of neonicotinoid insecticides in fruit and vegetables.

Neonicotinoids, the fastest-growing class of insecticides, have posed a multi-media residue problem with adverse effects on environment, biodiversity and human health. Herein, covalent organic framework-sodium alginate-Ca2+-polyacrylic acid composite beads (CACPs), facilely prepared at room temperature, were used in convenient dispersive solid-phase extraction (dSPE) and combined with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for the detection of five neonicotinoid insecticides (thiamethoxam, acetamiprid, dinotefuran, clothianidin, imidacloprid). CACPs can be completely separated within 1 min without centrifugation. After seven adsorption/desorption cycles, it maintained high extraction efficiencies (>90%). The developed method exhibited a wide linear range (0.01 âˆ¼ 10 µg mL-1), low limits of detection (LODs, 0.0028 âˆ¼ 0.0031 mg kg-1), and good repeatability (RSD ≤ 8.11%, n = 3). Moreover, it was applied to the determination of five neonicotinoids in fruit and vegetables (peach, pear, lettuce, cucumber, tomato), and recoveries ranged from 73.6% to 116.2%.

Spatial distribution characteristics and prediction of fluorine concentration in groundwater based on driving factors analysis.

Excess fluoride (F-) in groundwater can be hazardous to human health. A total of 360 ground water samples was collected from northern Anhui, China, to study the levels, distribution, and source of F-. And on this basis, predicting the spatial distribution of F- in a wider scale space. The range of F- was 0.1-5.8 mg/L, with a mean value of 1.2 mg/L, and 26.4 % of the samples exceeded the acceptable level of 1.5 mg/L. Moreover, the water-rock interaction (fluorite dissolution) and cation alternate adsorption were considered to be two main driving factors of high F- in groundwater. To further illustrate the spatial effects, the BME-RF model was established by combining the main environmental factors. The spatial distribution of F- was quantitatively predicted, and the response to environmental variables was analyzed. The R2 of BME-RF model reached 0.93, the prediction results showed that the region with 1.0-1.5 mg/L of F- accounts for 47.2 % of the total area. The predicted F- content of nearly 70 % of groundwater in this area has exceeded 1.0 mg/L, which was dominated by Na+ and HCO3- type. The spatial variability of F- in the study area was mainly affected by hydrogeological conditions, and the vertical distribution characteristics were related to the spatial variation of slope, distance from runoff, and hydrochemical types. The results of the study provide new insights into the F- concentration prediction in underground environment, especially in the borehole gap area.

Isolation and Screening of High-Yielding α-Amylase Mutants of Bacillus subtilis by Heavy Ion Mutagenesis.

To improve fermentative production of α-amylase, heavy-ion mutagenesis technology was used to irradiate Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis) to obtain the high yielding mutants in this study. After continuous cultivation for 12 generations, eight mutants exhibited positive mutation rate with greater H/C. The α-amylase production was stable and obviously exceeded that by the parent strain, which shows that the mutants have a good genetic stability. Among the mutants, the α-amylase activity of B. subtilis KC-180-2 was 72.26 U·mL-1, which was 82.34% higher than that of the original strain. After optimization of fermentation conditions and media, the α-amylase activity of B. subtilis KC-180-2 reached a maximum of 156.83 U·mL-1 at 36 h in a bioreactor. In addition, the optimized fermentation temperature of B. subtilis KC-180-2 was increased to 49℃, indicating B. subtilis KC-180-2 possesses high-temperature resistance, which has great application prospects for industrial fermentation for α-amylase production.

Three New Lanostanoids with Anti-HCV Effects from Abies nukiangensis.

Three new lanostane derivatives (1-3) and twelve known triterpenoids (4-15) were isolated from the twigs and leaves of Abies nukiangensis. The structures of the new compounds were elucidated mainly by detailed analysis of their NMR and HR-ESI-MS spectroscopic data. Evaluation of the anti-HCV effects of all isolates showed that 3 exhibited moderate effect with the EC50 value of 11.09 µM.

[Construction and application of lentivirus overexpression vector with two labeling genes fused with CopGFP and PuroR].

Objective: To construct the lentivirus overexpression vector with two label genes fused with CopGFP and PuroR and to detect the emission of green fluorescence as well as resistance to puromycin in liver cancer cells infected with lentivirus packaged with the above vector. Methods: Firstly, two fragments containing copGFP and PuroR coding sequences were amplified from pCDH-CMV-MCS-copGFP and pLKO.1 respectively; secondly, the two amplified regions were fused with each other by recombinant PCR; thirdly, the fusion DNA fragment was cut and inserted into pCDH-CMV-MCS-copGFP vector, which was linearized with the same restriction endonuclease as used to digest fusion DNA fragment: BamH Ⅰ and Sal Ⅰ. The fusion region in the constructed vector was confirmed by DNA sequencing. The checked vector was co-transfected with package assistant plasmids, namely PLP1, PLP2 and VSVG into in 293T cells and the culture supernatant was subjected to centrifuge and infect liver cancer MHCC97H cells, which were then used to detect their resistance to puromycin (infected cells were treated with 1 mg/ml puromycin for 7 days after infection) and to observe green fluorescence emission in microscope. To determine its efficiency in expressing foreign target protein, the Sp1 coding region was inserted into the MCS sites of the vector, and Sp1 mRNA and protein expression levels were compared with the vehicle vector by RT-qPCR and Western blot. Results: The lentivirus overexpression vector with two label genes fused with CopGFP and PuroR was successfully constructed, and the liver cancer cells infected with lentivirus packaged with the vector expressing two labeling genes fused with CopGFP and PuroRshowed both emission of green fluorescence and resistance to puromycin simultaneously, while cells containing with the vector inserted with Sp1 coding region improved Sp1 mRNA level with 3.3 fold and protein level with 2.2 fold higher in comparison with cells containing the vehicle vector (P＜0.01). Conclusion: The fused label genes consisting of copGFP and PuroR are correctly cloned into the lentivirus vector and confer cells with the ability to emission of green fluorescence and resistance to puromycin, besides, the vector may promote the expression of the target gene with long coding sequence.

Overexpression of enzymes in glycolysis and energy metabolic pathways to enhance coenzyme Q10 production in Rhodobacter sphaeroides VK-2-3.

We subjected the components of the glycolysis and energy metabolism pathways of Rhodobacter sphaeroides (R. sphaeroides) to metabolic engineering to improve the titer and yield of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10). Phosphofructokinase (PFK), cyclic adenylate-dependent protein kinase (PKAC), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), and adenosine triphosphate hydrolase (KdpC) were overexpressed in R. sphaeroides VK-2-3 (VK-2-3). The strains were labeled R. sphaeroides PFK (RS.PFK), RS.PKAC, RS.PFK-PKAC, RS.KdpC, RS.GAPDH, and RS.KdpC-GAPDH. Results showed that the CoQ10 titers of RS.PFK, RS.PKAC, and RS.PFK-PKAC were 300.96 ± 0.87, 405.94 ± 4.77, and 379.94 ± 0.42 mg/l, respectively. The CoQ10 titers of RS.PFK and VK-2-3 were not significantly different; however, those for RS.PKAC and RS.PFK-PKAC were 13 and 6% higher than that of VK-2-3, respectively. Further, the titers of RS.KdpC, RS.GAPDH, and RS.KdpC-GAPDH were 360.17 ± 0.39, 409.79 ± 0.76, and 359.87 ± 1.14 mg/l, respectively. The titers of RS.KdpC and RS.KdpC-GAPDH were not significantly different from that for VK-2-3, whereas that for RS.GAPDH was 14% higher than that of VK-2-3. Finally, when the cultures of RS.GAPDH and VK-2-3 were scaled up in 5-L fermenters, the CoQ10 titers and RS.GAPDH yields increased by 44.3 and 37.8%, respectively, compared with VK-2-3.To the best of our knowledge, the glycolysis pathway of R. sphaeroides was studied for the first time in this study. We genetically modified the components of the energy metabolism pathway to obtain the strain with high yield of CoQ10 mutant RS.GAPDH. The findings of this study can serve as a basis for future studies involving metabolic engineering of CoQ10-producing strains.

Dissociable Neural Representations of Adversarially Perturbed Images in Convolutional Neural Networks and the Human Brain.

Despite the remarkable similarities between convolutional neural networks (CNN) and the human brain, CNNs still fall behind humans in many visual tasks, indicating that there still exist considerable differences between the two systems. Here, we leverage adversarial noise (AN) and adversarial interference (AI) images to quantify the consistency between neural representations and perceptual outcomes in the two systems. Humans can successfully recognize AI images as the same categories as their corresponding regular images but perceive AN images as meaningless noise. In contrast, CNNs can recognize AN images similar as corresponding regular images but classify AI images into wrong categories with surprisingly high confidence. We use functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure brain activity evoked by regular and adversarial images in the human brain, and compare it to the activity of artificial neurons in a prototypical CNN-AlexNet. In the human brain, we find that the representational similarity between regular and adversarial images largely echoes their perceptual similarity in all early visual areas. In AlexNet, however, the neural representations of adversarial images are inconsistent with network outputs in all intermediate processing layers, providing no neural foundations for the similarities at the perceptual level. Furthermore, we show that voxel-encoding models trained on regular images can successfully generalize to the neural responses to AI images but not AN images. These remarkable differences between the human brain and AlexNet in representation-perception association suggest that future CNNs should emulate both behavior and the internal neural presentations of the human brain.

Risk assessment of malignancy in solitary pulmonary nodules in lung computed tomography: a multivariable predictive model study.

BACKGROUND: Computed tomography images are easy to misjudge because of their complexity, especially images of solitary pulmonary nodules, of which diagnosis as benign or malignant is extremely important in lung cancer treatment. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a more effective strategy in lung cancer diagnosis. In our study, we aimed to externally validate and revise the Mayo model, and a new model was established. METHODS: A total of 1450 patients from three centers with solitary pulmonary nodules who underwent surgery were included in the study and were divided into training, internal validation, and external validation sets (n = 849, 365, and 236, respectively). External verification and recalibration of the Mayo model and establishment of new logistic regression model were performed on the training set. Overall performance of each model was evaluated using area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Finally, the model validation was completed on the validation data set. RESULTS: The AUC of the Mayo model on the training set was 0.653 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.613-0.694). After re-estimation of the coefficients of all covariates included in the original Mayo model, the revised Mayo model achieved an AUC of 0.671 (95% CI: 0.635-0.706). We then developed a new model that achieved a higher AUC of 0.891 (95% CI: 0.865-0.917). It had an AUC of 0.888 (95% CI: 0.842-0.934) on the internal validation set, which was significantly higher than that of the revised Mayo model (AUC: 0.577, 95% CI: 0.509-0.646) and the Mayo model (AUC: 0.609, 95% CI, 0.544-0.675) (P < 0.001). The AUC of the new model was 0.876 (95% CI: 0.831-0.920) on the external verification set, which was higher than the corresponding value of the Mayo model (AUC: 0.705, 95% CI: 0.639-0.772) and revised Mayo model (AUC: 0.706, 95% CI: 0.640-0.772) (P < 0.001). Then the prediction model was presented as a nomogram, which is easier to generalize. CONCLUSIONS: After external verification and recalibration of the Mayo model, the results show that they are not suitable for the prediction of malignant pulmonary nodules in the Chinese population. Therefore, a new model was established by a backward stepwise process. The new model was constructed to rapidly discriminate benign from malignant pulmonary nodules, which could achieve accurate diagnosis of potential patients with lung cancer.

Risk factors and predictive value of perioperative neurocognitive disorders in elderly patients with gastrointestinal tumors.

BACKGROUND: This study aims to investigate the risk factors of perioperative neurocognitive disorders (PNDs) mainly including postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) in elderly patients with gastrointestinal tumors, and evaluate its predictive value. METHODS: A total of 222 eligible elderly patients (≥65 years) scheduled for elective gastroenterectomy under general anesthesia were enrolled. The cognitive function assessment was carried out 1 day before surgery and 7 days after surgery. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed to evaluate the predictive value of risk factors for early POCD. The risk factors for POCD were analyzed using univariate and multivariate logistic regression model. RESULTS: Of all the 222 enrolled patients, 91 (41.0%) developed early POCD and 40 (18.0%) were identified as major POCD within 7 days after the surgery. Visual analogue score (VAS, 1st day, resting) ≥4 (OR = 7.618[3.231-17.962], P < 0.001) and alcohol exposure (OR = 2.398[1.174-4.900], P = 0.016) were independent risk factors for early POCD. VAS score (1st, resting) ≥4 (OR = 13.823[4.779-39.981], P < 0.001), preoperative white blood cell (WBC) levels ≥10 × 10*9/L (OR = 5.548[1.128-26.221], P = 0.035), blood loss ≥500 ml (OR = 3.317[1.094-10.059], P = 0.034), history of hypertension (OR = 3.046[1.267-7.322], P = 0.013), and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) ≥2 (OR = 3.261[1.020-10.419], P = 0.046) were independent risk factors for major POCD. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis indicated that VAS score (1st day, resting) was a significant predictor for major POCD with a cut-off value of 2.68 and an area under the curve of 0.860 (95% confidence interval: 0.801-0.920, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The risk factors for early POCD after gastroenterectomy included high VAS score (1st day, resting) and alcohol exposure. High VAS score, preoperative WBC levels ≥10 × 10*9/L, blood loss ≥500 ml, NLR ≥2, and history of hypertension were independent risk factors for major POCD. Among them, VAS score was one of the important predictors.

Traditional Chinese medicine for gouty arthritis: A protocol for meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Gouty arthritis (GA) is a chronic disease caused by monosodium urate crystal deposition. Repeated attacks of arthritis may lead to the deposition of urate to form gout stone, resulting in joint deformity and joint damage. Although GA is not fatal, it causes low work productivity and low quality of life. Western drug, such as febuxostat, colchicine, allopurinol, often cannot get satisfying curative effect, and may even lead to serious side effects, such as exfoliative dermatitis or uremia. However, the therapeutic effect of Traditional Chinese medicine is very satisfactory. The treatment effect of simiao powder, a Chinese patent medicine, combined with acupuncture was widely used on treatment of GA. Although it has been widely used in clinical practice, its relative effectiveness and safety have not been confirmed. Therefore, this study will use meta-analysis to verify the efficacy and safety of simiao powder combined with acupuncture in the treatment of GA. METHODS: All randomized controlled trial of simiao powder combined with acupuncture for the treatment of RA from their inception 29 October, 2020 will be searched form the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Database, Chinese Science and Technology Periodical Database, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, Pubmed, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane library. Two authors will independently select studies, extract data based on pre-designed inclusion and exclusion criteria. Methodological quality assessment and risk of bias will be assessed using Cochrane bias risk tool. All data analysis will be conducted using Revman5.3, WinBUGS 1.4.3, and Stata14.2 software. RESULTS: We will compare the different outcome indicators of various studies to provide a synthesis of the efficacy and safety of Simiao powder combined with acupuncture for GA patients. The main outcome measures included efficacy, remission rate (no drug symptoms), recurrence rate, clinical absolute score and relative score. Secondary outcome measures included related adverse reactions and uric acid concentration. CONCLUSION: The findings of the study will provide helpful evidence for the efficacy and safety of simiao powder combined with acupuncture in the treatment of GA. REGISTRATION NUMBER: This study protocol have been funded through a protocol registry. The registry number is INPLASY2020110028.

Protective effect of water extracts of Orychophragmus violaceus seeds on TAA-induced acute liver injury in mice / 中国中药杂志

This study aimed to investigate the protective effect of water extracts of Orychophragmus violaceus seeds on liver injury induced by thioacetamide(TAA) in mice. ICR male mice were randomly divided into seven groups: normal group, model group, bicyclol positive control group(200 mg·kg~(-1)), Kuihua Hugan Tablets group(350 mg·kg~(-1)), O. violaceus seeds low-dose water extract group(125 mg·kg~(-1)), middle-dose water extract group(250 mg·kg~(-1)), and high-dose water extract group(500 mg·kg~(-1)). Intragastric administration was given in all groups at 0.02 mL·g~(-1) body weight, 1 time a day for continuous 4 days. One h after the administration on the 4 th day, the liver injury model was induced by intraperitoneal injection of TAA(100 mg·kg~(-1)). The mice were put to death 24 hours later. Blood and tissues were taken and organ indexes were calculated. The activities of ALT, AST and TBiL in serum were detected. The content of MDA, GSH and the activity of SOD, GSH-Px in liver homogenate were examined by colorimetry method. HE staining was used to observe the pathological changes of liver tissues in mice. The protein expression levels of NF-κB p65, Keap-1, Nrf2, p-p38, p-JNK, p-ERK, Bax, Bcl-2, caspase-3, cleaved caspase-3 and caspase-8 were detected by Western blot. The results showed that as compared with the model group, various O. violaceus seeds groups could significantly improve the pathological conditions of liver and reduce ALT, AST, TBiL activities in serum of mice with liver injury. In the high-dose group, the activities of SOD, GSH-Px and the content of GSH were significantly increased, while MDA content was sharply declined. Meanwhile, O. violaceus seeds extract down-regulated the expressions of Bax, Keap-1, p-p38, p-JNK, p-ERK, NF-κB p65, cleaved caspase-3 and up-regulated the expressions of Nrf2, Bcl-2, caspase-3 and caspase-8. In conclusion, O. violaceus seeds extract exhibited potent protective effect on liver injury induced by TAA in mice, and its mechanism may be related to down-regulating levels of Keap-1, up-regulating the expressions of Nrf2, inhibiting the expressions of p-p38, p-ERK and NF-κB p65 signaling pathway, and inhibiting hepatocyte apoptosis by down-regulating the expressions of p-JNK and Bax and up-regulating the expressions of Bcl-2.

Anti-tumor Efficacy and Safety of Zeylenone on Acute T Lymphoblastic Leukemia / 中国实验方剂学杂志

Objective:To investigate the anti-tumor efficacy, mechanism and safety of zeylenone on acute T lymphocytic leukemia. Method:In vitro, Molt-4 cells were treated with various concentrations of zeylenone (0.2, 0.4, 0.8, 1.6, 3.2 μmol·L-1) for 48 h, and the cell viability was measured with cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay. nonobese diabetic-severce combined immunodeficient mice（NOD/SCID） mice were randomly divided into six groups: normal group, model group, vincristine group (1 mg·kg-1), low-dose zeylenone group (12.5 mg·kg-1), medium-dose zeylenone group (25 mg·kg-1), high-dose zeylenone group (50 mg·kg-1). With the exception of normal group, mice were pre-irradiated with 60Co and inoculated subcutaneously with Molt-4 cells to establish the Molt-4 xenograft model. Then NOD/SCID mice were sacrificed after 13 days of administration. The tumor inhibition rates, relative tumor growth rates and organ indexes were calculated. Hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining was used to observe the pathological changes of liver and spleen tissues in mice. The expressions of phosphorylation signal transducer and activator of transcription (p-STAT3), B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2), Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax) and cysteine aspartate-specific protease-3 (Caspase-3) were detected in tumor tissues by Western blot. Result:In vitro, zeylenone had an obvious inhibitory effect on Molt-4 cells. IC50 values of zeylenone was 1.49 μmol·L-1. In vivo, compared with the model group, medium and high-dose zeylenone groups had significant tumor inhibition effects, with the inhibition rates of 50.24% and 60.75%, respectively (P<0.01). Additionally, liver and spleen injuries were slight in the above mentioned two groups compared with the vincristine group, indicating that zeylenone was safe. Western blot analysis showed that medium and high-dose zeylenone groups showed significant declines in proteins p-STAT3, Caspase-3 and Bcl-2, and marked increases in pro-apoptotic protein Bax compared with the model group (P<0.05, P<0.01). Conclusion:zeylenone could obviously inhibit the proliferation and induce the apoptosis of Molt-4 cells; and its mechanism may be related to the down-regulation of p-STAT3, Caspase-3, Bcl-2 and the up-regulation of Bax expressions. In addition, zeylenone had less damage to liver and spleen, and was safer than vincristine.

Metformin alleviates inflammatory response in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis by restraining signal transducer and activator of transcription 3-mediated autophagy inhibition in vitro and in vivo.

Autophagy is an intracellular recycling and degradation process for regulating cell survival and drug resistance. Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is becoming a widespread disease in developing countries. However, the role of autophagy in NASH has not yet been fully elucidated. The present study determined that signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), in the inflammation and autophagy regulation, was the key in the progression of NASH. In NASH mouse and cell models, STAT3 mRNA and protein expressions were significantly increased, while the induction of autophagy was radically decreased. Furthermore, the effects of metformin on STAT3 expression level and NASH inflammation were investigated. The current results showed that metformin activated autophagy and decreased the mRNA expressions of inflammatory cytokines, IL-1ß, IL-6, and TNF-α via inhibition of the STAT3 mRNA and protein expression. The siRNA targeting STAT3 activated autophagy and inhibited the NASH inflammatory response by reducing the mRNA expressions of the inflammatory cytokines in vivo and in vitro. The correlation between autophagy and inflammation was also explored. Autophagy induced by metformin attenuated the inflammatory response. This phenomenon of inflammation reduction was partially restored by treatment with the autophagy inhibitor 3-methylindole (3-MA). In conclusion, this study demonstrated that metformin alleviated the inflammatory response in the liver and the hepatocyte of the NASH model via STAT3-mediated autophagy induction. This mechanism provides a strategy for targeting the NASH inflammatory response.

Abinukitrine A, a unique 17,18-cyclolanostane triterpenoid from Abies nukiangensis.

Abinukitrine A (1), a novel triterpenoid, was isolated from Abies nukiangensis. Comprehensive spectroscopic analysis revealed that 1 is the first example of 17,18-cyclolanostane bearing a unique 6/6/6/5/3 ring system. Its absolute configuration was unequivocally assigned by Cu-Kα X-ray single-crystallography. Compound 1 showed a potent anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) effect.

Protective effect of raspberry extract on ConA-induced acute liver injuryin mice / 中国中药杂志

In this experiment,the antioxidant capacity of raspberry extract and the protective effect on liver injury induced by ConA in mice were investigated. Balb/C male mice were randomly divided into six groups: normal group,model group,bicyclol control group( 200 mg·kg~(-1)),low-dose raspberry extract group( 200 mg·kg~(-1)),middle-dose raspberry extract group( 400 mg·kg~(-1)),and highdose raspberry extract group( 800 mg·kg~(-1)). Each group was intragastrically administered with drugs according to the body weight once a day. Seven days later,all of the groups except for the normal group were treated with ConA( 20 mg·kg~(-1)) through tail vein injection to establish the acute liver injury model. The mice were put to death 8 hours later. The organ indexes were calculated. These rum levels of ALT,AST and LDH and the activities of SOD,CAT,GSH and MDA in liver tissue were detected. HE staining was used to observe the pathological changes of liver tissue in mice. Western blot was used to detect the expressions of Bax,Bcl-2,Nrf2 and Keap-1. The antioxidant capacity of raspberry extract was measured by CAA assay. The results showed that,raspberry extract had a strong antioxidant capacity. Simultaneously,compared with the model group,raspberry extract can significantly improve the pathological conditions of liver,and significantly reduce ALT,AST and LDH activities in serum of liver injury mice( P<0. 01). The activities of SOD,CAT in liver homogenate supernatant were significantly increased in the high-dose group,the content of GSH increased,while the content of MDA was sharply declined in the high-dose group( P<0. 01). Meanwhile,raspberry extract down-regulated the expressions of Bax and Keap-1 and up-regulated the expressions of Bcl-2 and Nrf2. CAA showed that the compound raspberry extract had a strong antioxidant capacity. Therefore,raspberry extract has an obvious protective effect on acute liver injury induced by ConA in mice.

Finite Element Investigation of the Effects of the Low-Frequency Vibration Generated by Vehicle Driving on the Human Lumbar Mechanical Properties.

Long-term exposure to low-frequency vibration generated by vehicle driving impairs human lumbar spine health. However, few studies have investigated how low-frequency vibration affects human lumbar mechanical properties. This study established a poroelastic finite element model of human lumbar spinal segments L2-L3 to perform time-dependent vibrational simulation analysis and investigated the effects of different vibrational frequencies generated by normal vehicle driving on the lumbar mechanical properties in one hour. Analysis results showed that vibrational load caused more injury to lumbar health than static load, and vibration at the resonant frequency generated the most serious injury. The axial effective stress and the radial displacement in the intervertebral disc, as well as the fluid loss in the nucleus pulposus, increased, whereas the pore pressure in the nucleus pulposus decreased with increased vibrational frequency under the same vibrational time, which may aggravate the injury degree of human lumbar spine. Therefore, long-term driving on a well-paved road also induces negative effects on human lumbar spine health. When driving on a nonpaved road or operating engineering machinery under poor navigating condition, the auto seat transmits relatively high vibrational frequency, which is highly detrimental to the lumbar spine health of a driver.

MiR-134, epigenetically silenced in gliomas, could mitigate the malignant phenotype by targeting KRAS.

Gliomas are characterized by a malignant phenotype with proliferation, cell cycle arrest and invasion. To explore the biological consequences of epigenetically regulated miRNAs, we performed a microarray-based screening (whose expression was affected by 5-AZA treatment) followed by bisulfite sequencing validation. We found that miR-134 as an epigenetically regulated suppressor gene with prognostic value in gliomas. MicroRNA-134 was downregulated in high-grade gliomas, especially in GBM samples. Functional studies in vitro and in vivo in mouse models showed that overexpression of miR-134 was sufficient to reduce cell cycle arrest, cell proliferation and invasion. Target analysis and functional assays correlated the malignant phenotype with miR-134 target gene KRAS, an established upstream regulator of ERK and AKT pathways. Overall, our results highlighted a role for miR-134 in explaining the malignant phenotype of gliomas and suggested its relevance as a target to develop for early diagnostics and therapy.

Performance verification and comparison of TianLong automatic hypersensitive hepatitis B virus DNA quantification system with Roche CAP/CTM system.

AIM: To investigate and compare the analytical and clinical performance of TianLong automatic hypersensitive hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA quantification system and Roche CAP/CTM system. METHODS: Two hundred blood samples for HBV DNA testing, HBV-DNA negative samples and high-titer HBV-DNA mixture samples were collected and prepared. National standard materials for serum HBV and a worldwide HBV DNA panel were employed for performance verification. The analytical performance, such as limit of detection, limit of quantification, accuracy, precision, reproducibility, linearity, genotype coverage and cross-contamination, was determined using the TianLong automatic hypersensitive HBV DNA quantification system (TL system). Correlation and Bland-Altman plot analyses were carried out to compare the clinical performance of the TL system assay and the CAP/CTM system. RESULTS: The detection limit of the TL system was 10 IU/mL, and its limit of quantification was 30 IU/mL. The differences between the expected and tested concentrations of the national standards were less than ± 0.4 Log10 IU/mL, which showed high accuracy of the system. Results of the precision, reproducibility and linearity tests showed that the multiple test coefficient of variation (CV) of the same sample was less than 5% for 102-106 IU/mL; and for 30-108 IU/mL, the linear correlation coefficient r2 = 0.99. The TL system detected HBV DNA (A-H) genotypes and there was no cross-contamination during the "checkerboard" test. When compared with the CAP/CTM assay, the two assays showed 100% consistency in both negative and positive sample results (15 negative samples and 185 positive samples). No statistical differences between the two assays in the HBV DNA quantification values were observed (P > 0.05). Correlation analysis indicated a significant correlation between the two assays, r2 = 0.9774. The Bland-Altman plot analysis showed that 98.9% of the positive data were within the 95% acceptable range, and the maximum difference was -0.49. CONCLUSION: The TL system has good analytical performance, and exhibits good agreement with the CAP/CTM system in clinical performance.

Overexpression of Transforming Acidic Coiled Coil­Containing Protein 3 Reflects Malignant Characteristics and Poor Prognosis of Glioma.

Gliomas are malignant primary brain tumors with poor prognosis. Recently, research was indicative of a tight connection between tumor malignancy and genetic alterations. Here, we propose an oncogenic implication of transforming acidic coiled-coil-containing protein 3 (TACC3) in gliomas. By comprehensively analyzing the Chinese glioma genome atlas (CGGA) and publicly available data, we demonstrated that TACC3 were overexpressed along with glioma grade and served as an independent negative prognostic biomarker for glioma patients. Functions' annotations and gene sets' enrichment analysis suggested that TACC3 may participate in cell cycle, DNA repair, epithelium-mesenchymal transition and other tumor-related biological processes and molecular pathways. Patients with high TACC3 expression showed CD133⁺ stem cell properties, glioma plasticity and shorter overall survival time under chemo-/radio-therapy. Additionally, a TACC3 associated the miRNA-mRNA network was constructed based on in silico prediction and expression pattern, which provide a foundation for further detection of TACC3-miRNA-mRNA axis function. Collectively, our observations identify TACC3 as an oncogene of tumor malignancy, as well as a prognostic and motoring biomarker for glioma patients.