LOXL1-AS1 promotes cell proliferation in hepatocellular carcinomathrough miR-1224-5p/ITPRIPL2/AKT axis.

LncRNA has been validated to be related to different cancers, whereas its regulation mechanism in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is poorly known. In this study, LOXL1-AS1 was overexpressed in HCC cell lines, and LOXL1-AS1 knockdown repressed cell proliferation and stimulated apoptosis in HCC. Besides, the activating role of LOXL1-AS1 in the AKT pathway was also confirmed. Further, miR-1224-5p was sponged by LOXL1-AS1, and overexpression exerted inhibitory function in HCC. Moreover, ITPRIPL2 as amiR-1224-5ptarget gene. Meanwhile, ITPRIPL2 deficiency suppressed HCC cell proliferation. Finally, miR-1224-5p inhibitor reversed the hindering role of LOXL1-AS1 depletion in HCC cell proliferation and AKT pathway, and this rescuing effect was offset by ITPRIPL2 silencing. In summary, LOXL1-AS1 induced cell proliferation and suppresses cell apoptosis in primary HCCvia activating AKT pathway, sponging miR-1224-5p and upregulating ITPRIPL2, which may provide some fresh thoughts for researches about the molecular regulation mechanism of lncRNA in HCC.

A network meta-analysis of different acupuncture modalities in the treatment of bronchial asthma.

BACKGROUND: Glucocorticoids and Beta-2 receptor agonists are commonly used for the treatment of asthma in clinical practice, while these agents are accompanied by adverse reactions of different kinds. Studies have shown that acupuncture is effective in treating bronchial asthma. However, different acupuncture modalities have different costs and skill requirements, and there remains a lack of comparisons between different acupuncture modalities. This study aims to assess the efficacy of various acupuncture modalities in the treatment of asthma. METHODS: The following databases were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on acupuncture for the treatment of bronchial asthma from database inception to August 26, 2022: PubMed, Embase, The Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Chinese Journal Full-text Database (CNKI), Wanfang Database (Wanfang Date), VIP Database (VIP), China Biology Medicine disc (CBM). Stata 15.1 software was used to conduct network meta-analysis. The risk of bias in the included studies was evaluated using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Assessment Tool 2 (RoB2). RESULTS: A total of 8,693 relevant studies were found, and 30 RCTs were included, involving 2,722 patients with bronchial asthma and eight acupuncture modalities: manual acupuncture, moxibustion, electroacupuncture, ignipuncture, flying needle acupuncture, acupoint catgut embedding, acupoint application, and warm-needle moxibustion. The other 29 studies had certain risks, with the quality graded as "moderate". Among the pair-wise comparisons of statistical significance (p < 0.05), acupoint application was the most effective in improving pulmonary function (FEV1: Traditional medicine therapy-acupoint application [-7.29 (-12.11,-2.47)]; acupoint application-moxibustion [7.20 (0.28,14.11)]; FVC: acupoint application-Traditional medicine therapy [8.02 (2.54,13.50)]). Acupoint catgut embedding was the most effective in improving the ACT score of the patients (Traditional medicine therapy-acupoint catgut embedding [-4.29 (-7.94, -0.65)]; acupoint catgut embedding-moxibustion [5.52 (1.05,9.99)]). CONCLUSION: Acupoint application has evident merits in improving the clinical response rate and pulmonary function, while acupoint catgut embedding can improve other secondary indicators. For the clinical treatment of asthma, acupoint application can be selected as a complementary and alternative therapy, while the other acupuncture therapies can also be considered according to the examination results of the patients.

The Complete Chloroplast Genome Sequences of Six Rehmannia Species.

Rehmannia is a non-parasitic genus in Orobanchaceae including six species mainly distributed in central and north China. Its phylogenetic position and infrageneric relationships remain uncertain due to potential hybridization and polyploidization. In this study, we sequenced and compared the complete chloroplast genomes of six Rehmannia species using Illumina sequencing technology to elucidate the interspecific variations. Rehmannia plastomes exhibited typical quadripartite and circular structures with good synteny of gene order. The complete genomes ranged from 153,622 bp to 154,055 bp in length, including 133 genes encoding 88 proteins, 37 tRNAs, and 8 rRNAs. Three genes (rpoA, rpoC2, accD) have potentially experienced positive selection. Plastome size variation of Rehmannia was mainly ascribed to the expansion and contraction of the border regions between the inverted repeat (IR) region and the single-copy (SC) regions. Despite of the conserved structure in Rehmannia plastomes, sequence variations provide useful phylogenetic information. Phylogenetic trees of 23 Lamiales species reconstructed with the complete plastomes suggested that Rehmannia was monophyletic and sister to the clade of Lindenbergia and the parasitic taxa in Orobanchaceae. The interspecific relationships within Rehmannia were completely different with the previous studies. In future, population phylogenomic works based on plastomes are urgently needed to clarify the evolutionary history of Rehmannia.