Corrigendum: Role and mechanism of DNA methylation and its inhibitors in hepatic fibrosis.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2023.1124330.].

Sleep Traits Causally Affect the Brain Cortical Structure: A Mendelian Randomization Study.

Background: Brain imaging results in sleep deprived patients showed structural changes in the cerebral cortex; however, the reasons for this phenomenon need to be further explored. Methods: This MR study evaluated causal associations between morningness, ease of getting up, insomnia, long sleep, short sleep, and the cortex structure. Results: At the functional level, morningness increased the surface area (SA) of cuneus with global weighted (beta(b) (95% CI): 32.63 (10.35, 54.90), p = 0.004). Short sleep increased SA of the lateral occipital with global weighted (b (95% CI): 394.37(107.89, 680.85), p = 0.007. Short sleep reduced cortical thickness (TH) of paracentral with global weighted (OR (95% CI): -0.11 (-0.19, -0.03), p = 0.006). Short sleep reduced TH of parahippocampal with global weighted (b (95% CI): -0.25 (-0.42, -0.07), p = 0.006). No pleiotropy was detected. However, none of the Bonferroni-corrected p values of the causal relationship between cortical structure and the five types of sleep traits met the threshold. Conclusions: Our results potentially show evidence of a higher risk association between neuropsychiatric disorders and not only paracentral and parahippocampal brain areas atrophy, but also an increase in the middle temporal zone. Our findings shed light on the associations of cortical structure with the occurrence of five types of sleep traits.

Novel albumin-binding multifunctional probe for synergistic enhancement of FL/MR dual-modal imaging and photothermal therapy.

The fluorescence/magnetic resonance (FL/MR) dual-modal imaging could provide accurate tumor visualization to guide photothermal therapy (PTT) of cancer, which has attracted widespread attention from scientists. However, facile and effective strategies to synergistically enhance fluorescence intensity, MR contrast and photothermal efficacy have rarely been reported. This study presents a novel multifunctional probe Gd-EB-ICG (GI) for FL/MR dual-modal imaging-guided PTT of cancer. GIs can self-assemble with endogenous albumin to form drug-albumin complexes (GIAs), which exhibit excellent biocompatibility. Albumin can protect GIAs from the recognition and clearance by the mononuclear phagocytic system (MPS). High plasma concentration and long half-life allow GIAs to accumulate continuously in the tumor area through EPR effect and specific uptake of tumor. Because of the prolonged rotational correlation time (τR) of Gd chelates, GIAs exhibited superior MR contrast performance over GIs with more than 3 times enhancement of longitudinal relaxation efficiency (r1). The fluorescence quantum yield and photothermal conversion efficiency of GIAs was also significantly improved due to the constrained geometry, disrupted aggregation and enhanced photothermal stability. This simple and feasible strategy successfully resulted in a synergistic effect for FL/MR dual-modal imaging and photothermal therapy, which can cast a new light for the clinical translation of multifunctional probes.

Role and mechanism of DNA methylation and its inhibitors in hepatic fibrosis.

Liver fibrosis is a repair response to injury caused by various chronic stimuli that continually act on the liver. Among them, the activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and their transformation into a myofibroblast phenotype is a key event leading to liver fibrosis, however the mechanism has not yet been elucidated. The molecular basis of HSC activation involves changes in the regulation of gene expression without changes in the genome sequence, namely, via epigenetic regulation. DNA methylation is a key focus of epigenetic research, as it affects the expression of fibrosis-related, metabolism-related, and tumor suppressor genes. Increasing studies have shown that DNA methylation is closely related to several physiological and pathological processes including HSC activation and liver fibrosis. This review aimed to discuss the mechanism of DNA methylation in the pathogenesis of liver fibrosis, explore DNA methylation inhibitors as potential therapies for liver fibrosis, and provide new insights on the prevention and clinical treatment of liver fibrosis.

Novel albumin-binding photodynamic agent EB-Ppa for targeted fluorescent imaging guided tumour photodynamic therapy.

The targeted and novel albumin-binding strategy has been attractive in the field of cancer therapy. Herein, we have developed an organic small molecule-based photosensitizer, Evans Blue-Pyropheophorbide-alpha (EB-Ppa), to treat solid tumors with extremely high photodynamic therapeutic efficiency, which is stable in serum-containing aqueous media and can effectively accumulate in the tumor site due to the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect. Particularly, after the photodynamic therapeutic treatment with EB-Ppa, all breast tumors (4T1 cell line) xenografted in nude mice shrink fast due to the singlet oxygen generated by EB-Ppa with laser irradiation. Furthermore, EB-Ppa shows negligible toxicity in major organs. These results demonstrate that EB-Ppa presents the great potential of photodynamic therapy for efficient tumor treatment.