Bupleurum chinense DC. is a perennial herb plant belonging to the Umbelliferae family, genus Bupleurum, that is used as a traditional Chinese medicine. Coumarins are characteristic secondary metabolites of the Apiaceous family, which possess anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and antiviral activities, among others. Few studies on the coumarin biosynthesis pathways in B. Chinese have been reported. In this study, we identified 89 differentially expressed genes belonging to 7 gene families involved in the synthesis of coumarins in...

Pyroptosis is an inflammatory programmed cell death, showing potentials to be a novel anti-cancer approach. However, the roles of pyroptosis-related (PR) genes (PRGs) in pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD) remain elusive. In the present study, we constructed a novel PR risk signature through the lasso regression analysis. The risk signature was greatly conducive to PAAD prognostic assessment. PR risk score was identified as an independent prognostic factor and could distinguish the prognostic differences of most clinical subgroups....

Skin of Niagara grapes is thin and light green, but browning and postharvest disease seriously shorten their storage life after harvest. In this study, we studied the effects of 1.0 μL L−1 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) combined with 200 μL L−1 SO2 on the grape quality of Niagara grapes. It was stored in cold storage for 6 days after cold storage at low temperature and modified atmosphere packaging. 1-MCP combined with SO2 can delay the consumption of...

Skin of Niagara grapes is thin and light green, but browning and postharvest disease seriously shorten their storage life after harvest. In this study, we studied the effects of 1.0 μL L−1 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) combined with 200 μL L−1 SO2 on the grape quality of Niagara grapes. It was stored in cold storage for 6 days after cold storage at low temperature and modified atmosphere packaging. 1-MCP combined with SO2 can delay the consumption of...

In the present study, we aimed to investigate the role of long non-coding RNA terminal differentiation-induced non-coding RNA (TINCR) in cisplatin (DDP) resistance of choroidal melanoma (CM) and the potential molecular mechanisms. CM and non-CM tissues were collected from 60 CM patients. DDP-resistant CM cells were obtained by selection with linearly increased DDP treatment. The expression levels of TINCR, microR-19b-3p (miR-19b-3p), and extracellular signal-regulated kinase 2 (ERK-2) were detected by quantitative real-time PCR. Cholecystokinin octapeptide...

Graft failure (GF) is an intractable complication of transplantation, which can severely affect the efficacy of the graft; however, the characteristics, incidence, and risk factors of primary GF have not been well described. This study aimed to analyze the risk factors and outcomes of primary GF to swiftly identify high-risk patients for GF. We performed a case-control study with a case-control ratio of 1:4 with 869 patients who underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT)...

Macroautophagy/autophagy is a conserved cellular process associated with tumorigenesis and aggressiveness, while mechanisms regulating expression of autophagic machinery genes in cancers still remain elusive. Herein, we identified E2F4 (E2F transcription factor 4) as a novel transcriptional activator of cytoprotective autophagy crucial for zinc homeostasis in cancer cells. Gain- and loss-of-function studies showed that E2F4 promoted autophagy in a cell cycle-dependent manner, resulting in facilitated degradation of MT (metallothionein) proteins, elevated distribution of Zn2+ within autophagosomes,...

Macroautophagy/autophagy is a conserved cellular process associated with tumorigenesis and aggressiveness, while mechanisms regulating expression of autophagic machinery genes in cancers still remain elusive. Herein, we identified E2F4 (E2F transcription factor 4) as a novel transcriptional activator of cytoprotective autophagy crucial for zinc homeostasis in cancer cells. Gain- and loss-of-function studies showed that E2F4 promoted autophagy in a cell cycle-dependent manner, resulting in facilitated degradation of MT (metallothionein) proteins, elevated distribution of Zn2+ within autophagosomes,...

Growth-regulating factors (GRFs) are plant-specific transcription factors with vital roles in multiple biological processes. Although GRFs have been identified in various plant species, a comprehensive analysis of GRF genes in peach (Prunus persica) has not yet been reported. In this study, 10 PpGRF genes distributed on 6 chromosomes were identified in peach genome and their properties were analyzed systematically. Expression pattern analysis suggested that most PpGRFs were preferentially expressed in young tissues. Multiple types of...

Chronological and geochemical studies of adakites and adakitic rocks are important in understanding the tectonic evolution and geodynamic processes. We present new zircon U–Pb ages, Hf isotope, and geochemical analyses of adakitic rocks exposed in the Baishan area, southeastern Jilin Province, China. These new ages, together with existing age data, indicate that adakitic magmatism in southeastern Jilin Province can be subdivided into four stages: Early–Middle Triassic (251–235 Ma), Late Triassic (221–219 Ma), late Early–early Late...

This study aimed to investigate the molecular mechanism of how melatonin (MT) interferes with hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF1A) and toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) expression, which is implicated in the management of delayed brain injury (DBI) after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Luciferase assay, real-time PCR, Western-blot analysis and immunohistochemistry (IHC) assays were utilized to explore the interaction among H19, miR-675, HIF1A and TLR4, and to evaluate the effect of MT on the expression of above transcripts in...

Organic farming supports higher biodiversity than conventional farming, but at the cost of lower yields. We conducted a meta-analysis quantifying the trade-off between biodiversity and yield, comparing conventional and organic farming. We developed a compatibility index to assess whether biodiversity gains from organic farming exceed yield losses, and a substitution index to assess whether organic farming would increase biodiversity in an area if maintaining total production under organic farming would require cultivating more land at...

Recent research unveiled that LINC00857 plays a regulatory role in multiple human cancers, such as lung adenocarcinoma and gastric cancer. Nevertheless, the function of LINC00857 in pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD) remains unclear. This study concentrates on LINC00857 to discuss the relevant molecular mechanism of this gene in PAAD. Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and western blot were implemented for measuring the expressions of RNAs and proteins. Wound healing and Transwell assays were used to...

Increase in air pollution caused by acidic gases, such as nitrogen dioxide, call for the need to study potential effects on the structure of textile materials. Wool is a natural protein fiber which is easily damaged due to rich reaction positions and cross-linked bonds in the fiber. This study reports, for the first time, effect of nitrogen dioxide, as a model acid gas pollutant, on the structure of wool. On the macro level, wool fabric...

Grey mould, caused by Botrytis cinerea, is an increasingly destructive disease of ginseng (Panax ginseng) in China. However, the extent of variation in the morphological characteristics of fungal colonies, genetic background and pathogenicity of different strains of this pathogen remains unknown. In this study, we isolated and identified 102 isolates of B. cinerea from ginseng. Among these, the sclerotial phenotype was dominant, followed by the mycelial and conidial phenotypes, with the proportion of each phenotype...

Two episodes of late Neoarchean-early Paleoproterozoic and late Paleoproterozoic garnet-bearing leucogranite, named the Baotou and Jining–Liangcheng garnet-bearing leucogranite are recognized from the Khondalite Belt in the North China Craton. Geochemical studies show that garnet-bearing leucogranite has high Al2O3 content and FeOT/MgO ratio, with a large variation in the CaO content and K2O/Na2O ratio. Additionally, the garnet-bearing leucogranite is enriched in light rare earth elements and large ion lithophile elements and depleted in Nb, Ta, P,...

The demonstration of batch-to-batch consistency is indispensable for quality control of vaccines. We conducted a randomized, double-blind, parallel-controlled trial to evaluate the immunogenicity consistency of a single shot of Ad5-nCoV in healthy adults who had not previously received any COVID-19 vaccine. All eligible participants were randomly assigned equally to receive one of the three consecutive batches of Ad5-nCoV (5 × 1010 viral particles/vial, 0.5 mL). The primary endpoint was geometric mean titers (GMTs) of serum...

The demonstration of batch-to-batch consistency is indispensable for quality control of vaccines. We did a randomized, double-blind, parallel-controlled trial to evaluate the immunogenicity consistency of one shot of Ad5-nCoV in healthy adults who had not received any COVID-19 vaccine before. All eligible participants were randomly assigned equally to receive one of three consecutive batches of Ad5-nCoV (5×1010 viral particles/vial, 0.5 mL). The primary endpoint was geometric mean titers (GMTs) of serum SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain...

Corporate probability of default (PD) prediction is vitally important for risk management and asset pricing. In search of accurate PD prediction, we propose a flexible yet easy-to-interpret default-prediction single-index hazard model (DSI). By applying it to a comprehensive U.S. corporate bankruptcy database we constructed, we discover an interesting V-shaped relationship, indicating a violation of the common linear hazard specification. Most importantly, the single-index hazard model passes the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit calibration test while neither does a...

The reduction of CO2 into valuable chemicals through electrocatalytic techniques provides a potential strategy to alleviate energy crises and environmental pollution. In this study, 2D M3(THT)2 (M = Fe, Co, Ni, Ru, Rh, Pd, THT = 2,3,6,7,10,11-triphenylenehexathiolate) framework as CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) electrocatalysts was investigated by using the density functional method. The results showed that the studied catalysts are stable both thermodynamically and electrochemically. Rh3(THT)2 exhibits the best catalytic performance to produce CH4 with...

Additional file 1.

Additional file 1. Original images for western blot.

Additional file 2.

Additional file 1: Figure S1. The mRNA level of CBFA1 in qRT-PCR (a) and RNA-Seq (b). *P < 0.05.

Additional file 4: Figure S4. HE (scale bar = 50 μm) and Masson (scale bar = 50 μm) staining were performed to evaluate ectopic bone formation in nude mice (n=4).