Search Our Scientific Publications & Authors

Biochem Biophys Res Commun 2021 Apr 14;557:166-173. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

Department of Nephrology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai, China. Electronic address:

Background: Renal ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI) has become a growing concern in clinical practice with high morbidity and mortality rates. There is currently no effective prophylactic regimen available to prevent its occurrence and to improve its clinical prognosis. Dl-3-n-butylphthalide (NBP) has been used for stroke treatment in China for years. Read More

Biochem Biophys Res Commun 2021 Apr 14;557:159-165. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

College of Information Engineering, Shanghai Maritime University, 1550 Haigang Ave., Shanghai, 201306, PR China. Electronic address:

Studies have shown that the specific entry of peripheral cells into the brain parenchyma caused by BBB injury and the imbalance of the immune microenvironment in the brain are closely related to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Because of the difficulty of obtaining data inside the brain, it is urgent to find out the relationship between the peripheral and intracerebral data and their influence on the development of AD by machine learning methods. However, in the actual algorithm design, it is still a challenge to extract relevant information from a variety of data to establish a complete and accurate regulatory network. Read More

Biochem Biophys Res Commun 2021 Apr 14;557:151-158. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

Department of Engineering Sciences: Applied Materials Sciences, The Ångström Laboratory, SE-751 21, Uppsala, Sweden. Electronic address:

Towards repairing bone defects, calcium sulfate and calcium phosphate cement have been recognized as promising bone grafts. However, the current bone cements are generally lack of proper porosity for cell migration and new tissue formation. On the other hand, porous scaffold cannot be delivered by injection, which limits its use its clinical use. Read More

Ticks Tick Borne Dis 2021 Apr 5;12(4):101720. Epub 2021 Apr 5.

Laboratory of Parasitology, Graduate School of Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. Electronic address:

Ticks (Ixodidae and Argasidae) are important arthropod vectors of various pathogens that cause human and animal infectious diseases. Many previously published studies on tick-borne pathogens focused on those transmitted by ixodid ticks. Although there are increasing reports of viral pathogens associated with argasid ticks, information on bacterial pathogens they transmit is scarce. Read More

Ticks Tick Borne Dis 2021 Apr 9;12(4):101727. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

Center of Excellence for Vector-Borne Diseases (CEVBD), Department of Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA. Electronic address:

Anaplasma platys is a tick-transmitted rickettsial pathogen, which is known to be the etiologic agent for cyclic thrombocytopenia in its primary canine host. Infections with this pathogen are also reported in cats, cattle and people. Similarly, Ehrlichia canis is another tick-borne rickettsial pathogen responsible for canine monocytic ehrlichiosis and is also reported to cause infections in people. Read More

Sci Total Environ 2021 Apr 8;783:146967. Epub 2021 Apr 8.

University of Belgrade, Institute for Biological Research "Siniša Stanković", National Institute of Republic of Serbia, Department of Hydroecology and Water Protection, Bulevar despota Stefana 142, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.

In Serbia less than 13% of collected municipal wastewaters is being treated before their release in the environment. This includes all municipal wastewater discharges from Belgrade (capital city of Serbia; population 1,700,000). Previous research has identified the impacts of raw wastewater discharges from Belgrade on the Danube River, and this study investigated if such discharges also provided a pathway for SARS-CoV-2 RNA material. Read More

Sci Total Environ 2021 Apr 9;783:147003. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, PR China. Electronic address:

Microplastics (MPs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are universally detected in the marine ecosystem and may exert adverse impacts on marine species. Although under realistic pollution scenarios, PAH pollution usually occurs as a mixture of different PAH compounds, the toxic impacts of PAH mixtures on marine organisms remain largely unknown to date, including their interactions with other emergent pollutants such as MPs. In this study, the single and combined toxic impacts of polystyrene MPs and a mixture of PAHs (standard mix of 16 representative PAHs) on haematic parameters were evaluated in the blood clam Tegillarca granosa. Read More

Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol 2021 Apr 14;145:110711. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, 530021, China; Regional Key Laboratory of Early Prevention and Treatment of High-Rise Tumors, Nanning, 530021, China. Electronic address:

Objective: Waardenburg syndrome type 2 (WS2) is a rare neural-crest disorder, characterized by heterochromic irides or blue eyes and sensorineural hearing loss. The aim of this study was to analyze the clinical features and investigate the genetic cause of WS2 in a small family from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region.

Methods: Whole-exome sequencing and mutational analysis were used to identify disease-causing genes in this family. Read More

Bioorg Chem 2021 Mar 31;111:104883. Epub 2021 Mar 31.

Department of Organic and Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Sadat City, Menoufiya 32897 Egypt.

A novel series of thiazolo-pyrazole hybrids has been prepared and assessed for their in vitro COX-1/COX-2 inhibitory activity. Compound 6c exhibited the most selective COX-2 inhibition profile (SI of 264) not far of Celecoxib (294). In-vivo anti-inflammatory activity revealed that compound 6d exhibited the highest activity (97. Read More

J Environ Manage 2021 Apr 14;289:112576. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Ecological Effect and Risk Assessment of Chemicals, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China. Electronic address:

The increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the soil environment poses a serious threat to crop safety and even public health. In this study, the fate of ARGs in the soil was investigated during the growth period of pakchoi and after harvesting with the application of different kinds of fertilizers. The result showed that increasing rate of soil ARGs during the growth period of pakchoi followed the order of composted manure > commercial fertilizer > mineral fertilizer. Read More

Environ Int 2021 Apr 14;154:106559. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

Advanced Water Management Centre, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia. Electronic address:

Although pig farms are hotspots of antibiotic resistance due to intensive use of antibiotics, little is known about the abundance, diversity and transmission of airborne antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). This study reports that bioaerosol is an important spread route of ARGs in pig farms. ARGs, mobile genetic elements (MGEs), and bacterial communities were investigated in both air and feces samples during winter and summer. Read More

Fish Shellfish Immunol 2021 Apr 14. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 164 West Xingang Road, Guangzhou, 510301, China; Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory, Guangzhou, 511458. Electronic address:

The Smad protein family is an important medium for transducing BMP-Smads signals, and which have been proved that their important role in regulating shell biomineralization in Pinctada fucata martensii in our previous study. The members of TGF-β superfamily were involved in innate immunity in vertebrates and invertebrates, and Smad regulatory networks construct a balanced immune system. However, little is known about the role of Smad1/5 in immunity in P. Read More

Int J Antimicrob Agents 2021 Apr 14:106342. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Institute of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan. Electronic address:

Colistin is one of the last-resort antibiotics for treating carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP). However, colistin resistance in CRKP poses a global antimicrobial crisis as therapeutic options are limited. We investigated risk factors for in vivo emergence of colistin resistance in CRKP and explored the underlying resistance mechanisms. Read More

J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol 2021 Apr 14:105899. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

Shanghai Institute of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, Shanghai, 200025, PR China. Electronic address:

Context: Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is a group of autosomal recessive genetic diseases caused by genetic deficiency in nine genes encoding steroidogenesis enzymes and cofactors.

Objective: To establish a targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) assay for all nine CAH candidate genes.

Methods: We developed a customized targeted NGS assay of CAH candidate genes (CYP21A2, CYP17A1, CYP11B1, StAR, CYP11A1, POR, HSD3B2, H6PD, CYP11B2) and apply this assay plus MLPA of CYP21A2 in a total of 469 patients with CAH like signs and symptoms. Read More

Int J Infect Dis 2021 Apr 14. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

Department of Clinical Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. Electronic address:

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the performance of the NitroSpeed-Carba NP test for detecting carbapenemases in the clinical strains of Enterobacterales and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and analyze its advantages and limitations.

Methods: The antimicrobial susceptibility tests were performed according to the agar dilution method. Using the modified carbapenemase inactivation method (mCIM), polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and sequencing, the production of carbapenemase and the prevalence of genes were studied. Read More

Int J Infect Dis 2021 Apr 14. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

State Key of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Life Science, Nanjing University, China. Electronic address:

Objective: Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae and remains a significant health problem in several parts of the world. Early and accurate diagnosis of this disease is therefore important. Previously published LAMP protocols for detection of mycobacterial species used conventional specific primers and targeted the 16S rRNA, gyrB, and insertion sequence genes. Read More

J Allergy Clin Immunol 2021 Apr 14. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

Department of Medicine (Medical Genetics) and Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle WA. Electronic address:

Background: Most patients with childhood-onset immune dysregulation, polyendocrinopathy and enteropathy have no genetic diagnosis for their illness. These patients may undergo empirical immunosuppressive treatment with highly variable outcomes.

Objective: To determine the genetic basis of disease in patients referred with "IPEX-like" disease, but with no mutation in FOXP3; then to assess consequences of genetic diagnoses for clinical management. Read More

Int J Biol Macromol 2021 Apr 14. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, and Collaborative Innovation Center of Biotherapy, Chengdu 610041, PR China. Electronic address:

In the adaptation stage of CRISPR-Cas systems, the Cas1-Cas2 integrase captures and integrates new invader-derived spacers into the CRISPR locus, serving as a molecular memory of prior infection. As of yet, the structural information of Cas1-Cas2 complex is available only for two species. Here we present the crystal structure of Cas1-Cas2 complex of Pyrococcus furiosus, which showed a distinct architecture from the known Cas1-Cas2 complexes. Read More

Int J Biol Macromol 2021 Apr 14. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

Key Laboratory for Space Bioscience and Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, Shaanxi, People's Republic of China. Electronic address:

Artemisia sphaerocephala Krasch polysaccharide (ASKP) consists of two main fractions, 60P (molecular weight at 551 kDa) and 60S (molecular weight at 39 kDa). The anti-obesity effects of ASKP and its two fractions were investigated in high-fat-diet-fed mice and showed similar capability in efficiently preventing the development of obesity. The final body weight and body weight gain of obesity mice model were reduced by 12. Read More

Lancet Infect Dis 2021 Apr 14. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

Malaria Branch, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, United States; US President's Malaria Initiative, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Kigali, Rwanda. Electronic address:

Background: Partial artemisinin resistance is suspected if delayed parasite clearance (ie, persistence of parasitaemia on day 3 after treatment initiation) is observed. Validated markers of artemisinin partial resistance in southeast Asia, Plasmodium falciparum kelch13 (Pfkelch13) R561H and P574L, have been reported in Rwanda but no association with parasite clearance has been observed. We aimed to establish the efficacy of artemether-lumefantrine and genetic characterisation of Pfkelch13 alleles and their association with treatment outcomes. Read More

Dev Biol 2021 Apr 14. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Texas at Austin, TX, 78712, USA. Electronic address:

Female fertility in mammals requires iterative remodeling of the entire adult female reproductive tract across the menstrual/estrous cycle. However, while transcriptome dynamics across the estrous cycle have been reported in human and bovine models, no global analysis of gene expression across the estrous cycle has yet been reported for the mouse. Here, we examined the cellular composition and global transcriptional dynamics of the mouse oviduct along the anteroposterior axis and across the estrous cycle. Read More

Dev Biol 2021 Apr 14. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

Department of Molecular Pathobiology, New York University, College of Dentistry, New York, USA. Electronic address:

Nager syndrome is a rare human developmental disorder characterized by hypoplastic neural crest-derived craniofacial bones and limb defects. Mutations in SF3B4 gene, which encodes a component of the spliceosome, are a major cause for Nager. A review of the literature indicates that 45% of confirmed cases are also affected by conductive, sensorineural or mixed hearing loss. Read More

Cell 2021 Apr 13. Epub 2021 Apr 13.

Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Department of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. Electronic address:

Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) genes have well-established and important impacts on molecular and cellular functions. However, among the thousands of lncRNA genes, it is still a major challenge to identify the subset with disease or trait relevance. To systematically characterize these lncRNA genes, we used Genotype Tissue Expression (GTEx) project v8 genetic and multi-tissue transcriptomic data to profile the expression, genetic regulation, cellular contexts, and trait associations of 14,100 lncRNA genes across 49 tissues for 101 distinct complex genetic traits. Read More

Eur J Neurol 2021 Apr 17. Epub 2021 Apr 17.

Unit of Neurology, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy.

Background: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) susceptibility is influenced by genetics, however little is known about genetic determinants of disease expression. We aimed at assessing genetic factors influencing quantitative neuroimaging measures in two cohorts of Progressive (PMS) and Relapsing-Remitting (RRMS) patients.

Methods: Ninety-nine PMS and 214 RRMS patients underwent a 3T brain MRI scan, with the measurement of five MRI metrics including T2 lesion volumes and measures of white matter, grey matter, deep grey matter and hippocampal volumes. Read More

New Phytol 2021 Apr 17. Epub 2021 Apr 17.

State Key Lab of Plant Genomics, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, INASEED, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.

Soybean (Glycine max) is one of the most important oilseed crops. However, limited information is known about the regulatory mechanism of oil accumulation in soybean. In this study, a member of tandem CCCH zinc finger (TZF) proteins, GmZF392, from our previous RNA-seq analysis for seed-preferred transcription factors, was found to function as a positive regulator of lipid production. Read More

Mol Med Rep 2021 Jun 13;23(6). Epub 2021 Apr 13.

Department of Gastroenterology, Clinical Medical College and The First Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, Sichuan 610000, P.R. China.

In recent years, increasing evidence has confirmed that exosomal circular RNAs (circRNAs) serve a crucial role in the prognostic prediction and diagnosis of liver cancer (LC). The present study compared the expression patterns of exosomal circRNAs during transarterial chemoembolization (TACE). CircRNA sequencing analysis identified 390 differentially expressed circRNAs between the prior TACE and following the first TACE operation groups and 489 differentially expressed circRNAs between the prior to TACE and following the second TACE operation groups. Read More

Plant J 2021 Apr 17. Epub 2021 Apr 17.

School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, 24061, USA.

Flooding and drought are serious constraints that reduce crop productivity worldwide. Previous studies identified genes conferring tolerance to both water extremes in various plants. However, overlapping responses to flooding and drought at the genome-scale remain obscure. Read More

Clin Transl Oncol 2021 Apr 17. Epub 2021 Apr 17.

Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, The First People's Hospital of Yueyang, Yueyang Avenue, Yueyang Tower District, Yueyang City, 414000, Hunan Province, China.

Objectives: Former studies found that circRNAs play an important part in the occurrence of a variety of malignant biological characteristics that are critical for cancer progression. It has been shown that circ_03955 is highly expressed and implicated with quantities of biological processes in solid tumor. However, whether circ_03955 regulates the tumorigenesis and Warburg effect of pancreatic cancer (PC) remains largely unknown. Read More

Genes Genomics 2021 Apr 17. Epub 2021 Apr 17.

Department of Biological Sciences, Konkuk University, 120 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, 05029, Republic of Korea.

Background: Haploinsufficiency of the human nuclear receptor binding suppressor of variegation 3-9, enhancer of zeste, and trithorax (SET) domain 1 (NSD1) gene causes a developmental disorder called Sotos syndrome 1 (SOTOS1), which is associated with overgrowth and macrocephaly. NSD family proteins encoding histone H3 lysine 36 (H3K36) methyltransferases are conserved in many species, and Drosophila has a single NSD homolog gene, NSD.

Objective: To gain insight into the biological functions of NSD1 deficiency in the developmental anomalies seen in SOTOS1 patients using an NSD-deleted Drosophila mutant. Read More

Genes Genomics 2021 Apr 17. Epub 2021 Apr 17.

College of Life Science, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, 150030, China.

Background: In response to various abiotic stressors such as drought, many plants engage different protein phosphatases linked to several physiological and developmental processes. However, comprehensive analysis of this gene family is lacking for soybean.

Objective: This study was performed to identify the TOPP-type protein phosphatase family in soybean and investigate the gene's role under drought stress. Read More