Description: PLZF play as an indirect facilitator of thymic retention for the innate-like T-cells to aquire innate-like functions PLZF play as an indirect facilitator of thymic retention for the innate-like T-cells to aquire innate-like functions, Published online: 11 October 2018; doi:10.1038/s41419-018-1075-y PLZF play as an indirect facilitator of thymic retention for the innate-like T-cells to aquire innate-like functions

Description: Background: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is commonly used in China for the management of coronary artery disease (CAD). However, few studies have been conducted to investigate the prevalence, perceived effectiveness, types, and reasons of CAM use in patients diagnosed with CAD. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was adopted. Questionnaires were distributed at the outpatient cardiac clinics of four tertiary-level teaching general hospitals in Beijing. Quantitative data were analyzed using Student's t-test. Categorical data were analyzed using chi-square test. Logistic regression was employed to explore factors associated with the use of CAM as well as CAM use features in Chinese medicine (CM) hospitals when significant differences were found upon comparisons. Results: From May to July, 2009, a total of 600 questionnaires were distributed, and 546 patients with a diagnosis of CAD responded with valid values and were included in the present study. CAM was used by 69.1% of the patients with CAD; the majority (75.9%) of these CAM users believes that CAM is effective. "Few side effects" (49.6%) was the main reason of CAM use; whereas "doubt of effect" (61.5%) was the main reason for non-use. Patent herbal medicine (90.7%) was the most commonly used CAM type. Compared with non-CAM users, CAM users tended to be older (p 〈 0.01), have a longer disease duration (p = 0.02) and better current health status. In addition, CAM users had significant lower odds for emergency admission and hospitalization within the past one year. Patients with CAD from CM and WM hospitals differ in CAM use frequency, types, perceived effectiveness, as well as reasons for CAM use or non-CAM use. Conclusion: The present study suggested a group of significant factors which could influence the use of CAM in patients with CAD. CAM use patterns differ in patients from CM and WM hospitals.

Description: Background: Pyocyanin (PCN), an extracellular product of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and a blue redox active secondary metabolite, plays an important role in invasive pulmonary infection. However, the detailed inflammatory response triggered by PCN infection in inflammatory cells (particularly macrophages), if present, remains to be clarified. To investigate the effects of PCN on macrophages, the ability of PCN to induce inflammation reaction and the signaling pathway for IL-8 release in PCN-induced differentiated U937 cells were examined. Results: It was found that PCN increased IL-8 release and mRNA expression in Phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) differentiated U937 cells in both a concentration- and time-dependent manner by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). P38 and ERK MAPKs were activated after 10 min of induction with PCN and their levels returned to baselines after 30 min by Western blotting. It was also found that within 10 min of PCN incubation, the level of p-I-kappaBalpha in the cytosol was increased, which returned to baseline level after 60 min. Meanwhile, the level of p-p65 was increased in the nuclear extract and cytosol, and maintained high in total cell lysates. The results were further confirmed by the observation that p38, ERK1/2 and NF-kappaB inhibitors inhibited PCN-induced NF-kappaB activation and attenuated PCN-induced IL-8 expression in U937 cells as a function of their concentrations. Moreover, it was shown that PCN induced oxidative stress in U937 cells and N-acetyl cysteine, an antioxidant, was able to inhibit PCN-induced IL-8 protein expression. Conclusions: It is concluded that PCN induces IL-8 secretion and mRNA expression in PMA-differentiated U937 cells in a concentration- and time- dependent manner. Furthermore, p38 and ERK MAPKs and NF-kappaBeta signaling pathways may be involved in the expression of IL-8 in PCN-incubated PMA-differentiated U937 cells.

Description: A novel class of microRNA-recognition elements that function only within open reading frames A novel class of microRNA-recognition elements that function only within open reading frames, Published online: 08 October 2018; doi:10.1038/s41594-018-0136-3 A new class of miRNA-recognition elements that function exclusively in protein-coding regions use distinct target-recognition rules and mediate translational repression instead of mRNA destabilization.

Description: Background: Amino acid neurotransmitters and nitric oxide (NO) are involved in the pathogenesis of major depressive disorder (MDD). Here we want to establish whether changes in their plasma levels may serve as biomarker for the melancholic subtype of this disorder. Methods: Plasma levels of glutamic acid (Glu), aspartic acid (Asp), glycine (Gly), gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), and NO were determined in 27 medicine-naive melancholic MDD patients and 30 matched controls. Seven of the MDD patients participated also in a follow-up study after 2 months' antidepressant treatment. The relationship between plasma and cerebral-spinal fluid (CSF) levels of these compounds was analyzed in an additional group of 10 non-depressed subjects. Results: The plasma levels of Asp, Gly and GABA were significantly lower whereas the NO levels were significantly higher in melancholic MDD patients, also after 2 months of fluoxetine treatment. In the additional 10 non-depressed subjects, no significant correlation was observed between plasma and CSF levels of these compounds. Conclusion: These data give the first indication that decreased plasma levels of Asp, Gly and GABA and increased NO levels may serve as a clinical trait-marker for melancholic MDD. The specificity and selectivity of this putative trait-marker has to be investigated in follow-up studies.

Description: Background: The formation and development of bulblets are crucial to the Lilium genus since these processes are closely related to carbohydrate metabolism, especially to starch and sucrose metabolism. However, little is known about the transcriptional regulation of both processes. To gain insight into carbohydrate-related genes involved in bulblet formation and development, we conducted comparative transcriptome profiling of Lilium davidii var. unicolor bulblets at 0 d, 15 d (bulblets emerged) and 35 d (bulblets formed a basic shape with three or four scales) after scale propagation. Results: Analysis of the transcriptome revealed that a total of 52,901 unigenes with an average sequence size of 630?bp were generated. Based on Clusters of Orthologous Groups (COG) analysis, 8% of the sequences were attributed to carbohydrate transport and metabolism. The results of KEGG pathway enrichment analysis showed that starch and sucrose metabolism constituted the predominant pathway among the three library pairs. The starch content in mother scales and bulblets decreased and increased, respectively, with almost the same trend as sucrose content. Gene expression analysis of the key enzymes in starch and sucrose metabolism suggested that sucrose synthase (SuSy) and invertase (INV), mainly hydrolyzing sucrose, presented higher gene expression in mother scales and bulblets at stages of bulblet appearance and enlargement, while sucrose phosphate synthase (SPS) showed higher expression in bulblets at morphogenesis. The enzymes involved in the starch synthetic direction such as ADPG pyrophosphorylase (AGPase), soluble starch synthase (SSS), starch branching enzyme (SBE) and granule-bound starch synthase (GBSS) showed a decreasing trend in mother scales and higher gene expression in bulblets at bulblet appearance and enlargement stages while the enzyme in the cleavage direction, starch de-branching enzyme (SDBE), showed higher gene expression in mother scales than in bulblets. Conclusions: An extensive transcriptome analysis of three bulblet development stages contributes considerable novel information to our understanding of carbohydrate metabolism-related genes in Lilium at the transcriptional level, and demonstrates the fundamentality of carbohydrate metabolism in bulblet emergence and development at the molecular level. This could facilitate further investigation into the molecular mechanisms underlying these processes in lily and other related species.

Description: The predictive power of age at diagnosis and smoking history for ALK rearrangements and EGFR mutations in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains not fully understood. In this cross-sectional study, 1160 NSCLC patients were prospectively enrolled and genotyped for EML4-ALK rearrangements and EGFR mutations. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to explore the association between clinicopathological features and these two genetic aberrations. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves methodology was applied to evaluate the predictive value. We showed that younger age at diagnosis was the only independent variable associated with EML4-ALK rearrangements (odds ratio (OR) per 5 years' increment, 0.68; p 〈 0.001), while lower tobacco exposure (OR per 5 pack-years' increment, 0.88; p 〈 0.001), adenocarcinoma (OR, 6.61; p 〈 0.001), and moderate to high differentiation (OR, 2.05; p 〈 0.001) were independently associated with EGFR mutations. Age at diagnosis was a very strong predictor of ALK rearrangements but poorly predicted EGFR mutations, while smoking pack-years may predict the presence of EGFR mutations and ALK rearrangements but with rather limited power. These findings should assist clinicians in assessing the likelihood of EML4-ALK rearrangements and EGFR mutations and understanding their biological implications in NSCLC. Scientific Reports 4 doi: 10.1038/srep07268