Treatment strategies for periodontitis patients with systemic disease / 华西口腔医学杂志

Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease that destroys the integrity of tooth-supporting tissue. Periodontitis is listed as a major oral disease by the World Health Organization and is a public-health problem affecting global oral and systemic health. The fourth national oral health epidemiological survey has revealed that periodontitis is one of the most common oral problems in China. With the development of science and medicine, increased attention is being paid to the importance of oral health and its influence on general health. Accordingly, stomatologists are required to master more relevant information on clinical diagnosis and treatment, as well as to pay more attention to the diagnosis and treatment methods of patients with different systemic diseases. This article expounds the diagnosis and treatment strategy of patients with systemic disease periodontitis. We aimed to help stomatologists make more reasonable diagnosis and treatment decisions.

In vitro Targeting of Transcription Factors to Control the Cytokine Release Syndrome in COVID-19

Treatment of the cytokine release syndrome (CRS) has become an important part of rescuing hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Here, we systematically explored the transcriptional regulators of inflammatory cytokines involved in the COVID-19 CRS to identify candidate transcription factors (TFs) for therapeutic targeting using approved drugs. We integrated a resource of TF-cytokine gene interactions with single-cell RNA-seq expression data from bronchoalveolar lavage fluid cells of COVID-19 patients. We found 581 significantly correlated interactions, between 95 TFs and 16 cytokines upregulated in the COVID-19 patients, that may contribute to pathogenesis of the disease. Among these, we identified 19 TFs that are targets of FDA approved drugs. We investigated the potential therapeutic effect of 10 drugs and 25 drug combinations on inflammatory cytokine production in peripheral blood mononuclear cells, which revealed two drugs that inhibited cytokine production and numerous combinations that show synergistic efficacy in downregulating cytokine production. Further studies of these candidate repurposable drugs could lead to a therapeutic regimen to treat the CRS in COVID-19 patients.

Curcumin inhibits HeLa cell invasion and migration by decreasing inducible nitric oxide synthase / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the inhibitory effects of curcumin against HeLa cell invasion and migration and explore the underlying mechanisms.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>HeLa cells were exposed to curcumin treatment at the concentrations of 0, 10, 25, 50, 100, 150 and 200 µmol/L for 24 h. MTT and TUNEL assays were used to assess the cell proliferation inhibition and apoptosis, respectively. Transwell assay was used to evaluate the invasiveness and migration of the treated cells, and RT-PCR and Western blotting were employed to detect the changes in the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), and MMP-9 and E-cad, the 2 markers of cell invasion and migration, were detected by Western blotting. The capacity of NO production in HeLa cells was measured by Griess method.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Curcumin inhibited the proliferation of HeLa cells by inducing cell apoptosis in a concentration-dependent manner. Curcumin inhibited the invasion and migration of HeLa cells by increasing E-cad expression and decreasing MMP-9 expression, and also decreased the expression level of iNOS and NO production in the cells.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Curcumin inhibits the invasion and migration of HeLa cells by decreasing the expression of iNOS.</p>

MicroRNA in the regulation of nervous system development / 中南大学学报(医学版)

Several types of molecules, including the small non-coding RNAs, are involved in the precision regulation of neural development. The expression of microRNAs appears in a specific spatialtemporal sequence during the neural development, and abnormal expression may lead to neural dysplasia. MicroRNAs also play important roles in the regulation of cell biological behaviors in terms of survival, proliferation and differentiation. Neural stem cells are the mother cell of the nervous system. The proliferation, differentiation and migration of neural stem cells are tightly controlled so as to generate appropriate number and phenotype of daughter cells to ensure normal neural development. MicroRNAs are involved in the regulation of neural stem cell proliferation and differentiation via affecting the expression and function of their target mRNAs.