Streptococcus suis (S. suis), more specifically serotype 2, is a bacterial pathogen that threatens the lives of pigs and humans. Like many other pathogens, S. suis exhibits quorum sensing (QS) system-controlled virulence factors, such as biofilm formation that complicates treatment. Therefore, impairing the QS involving LuxS/AI-2 cycle in S. suis, may be a promising alternative strategy for overcoming S. suis infections. In this study, we investigated paeoniflorin (PF), a monoterpenoid glycoside compound extracted from peony,...

Users rely heavily on mobile phones as multi-purpose devices to support all kinds of tasks. This study conceptualises mobile phone deep structure use and aims at unveiling such behaviour. Towards this end, this study goes beyond the traditional technology usage theories based on rationality and instrumentality. It is replaced by a relationship-based theory, the attachment theory, to investigate how users’ attachment to mobile phones is formed and how such attachment influences mobile phone deep structure...

In the present study, a total of 7793 samples from 5 different types of hosts were collected and tested, with a seroprevalence of 2.4% (184/7793). Although the seroprevalence of human and animal brucellosis is relatively low, numbers of human brucellosis cases reported have increased continuously from 2004 to 2018. A total of 118 Brucella strains containing 4 biotypes were obtained, including Brucella melitensis bv.1 (n = 8) and bv.3 (n = 106), Brucella abortus bv.3...

Circulating in China and 158 other countries and areas, the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak has caused devastating mortality and posed a great threat to public health. However, efforts to identify effectively supportive therapeutic drugs and treatments has been hampered by our limited understanding of host immune response for this fatal disease. To characterize the transcriptional signatures of host inflammatory response to SARS-CoV-2 (HCoV-19) infection, we carried out transcriptome sequencing of the RNAs isolated from the bronchoalveolar...

Drug development can be costly, and the availability of clinical trial participants may be limited either due to the disease setting (rare or pediatric diseases) or due to many sponsors evaluating multiple drugs or combinations in the same patient population. To maximize resource utilization, sponsors may leverage patient-level control data from historical trials. However, in a study with no control arm, it is impossible to evaluate if the historical controls are an appropriate comparator for...

The high-molecular-weight glutenin subunits (HMW-GS) at Glu-D1 have a larger contribution to the processing property of wheat flours than those at the Glu-A1 and Glu-B1 loci and are always expressed in nature. Wheat lines missing one subunit at Glu-D1, either x or y, attract great interest for their potential quality value. Major quality parameters including SDS-sedimentation value, gluten-related indices, and other dough strength parameters such as development time, stability time, degree of softening, and farinograph...

A .tre file with 300 phylogenetic trees of proboscideans without zero-length branches obtained from MrBayes
An Excel file with occurrence data and trait information.

Phytochemical investigation of Melodinus fusiformis led to a new aspidosperma-aspidosperma bisindole alkaloid (BIA), bis-19β-hydroxyvenalstonidine (1), together with three known BIAs (2–4). The structures were established by extensive analysis of their HRESIMS, NMR data, and comparing with the reported data. BIA 1 is an almost symmetrical structure, linked by C3–C14’ bond, while BIAs 2–4 are reported for the first time from the plant. The cytotoxic, immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory activities of BIAs 1–4 were evaluated in vitro....

Phytochemical investigation of Melodinus fusiformis led to a new aspidosperma-aspidosperma bisindole alkaloid (BIA), bis-19β-hydroxyvenalstonidine (1), together with three known BIAs (2–4). The structures were established by extensive analysis of their HRESIMS, NMR data, and comparing with the reported data. BIA 1 is an almost symmetrical structure, linked by C3–C14’ bond, while BIAs 2–4 are reported for the first time from the plant. The cytotoxic, immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory activities of BIAs 1–4 were evaluated in vitro....

The leaf of Nelumbo nucifera (Family Nelumbonaceae) has been widely included in the diet of Chinese people from the time of the Min Dynasty. In this study, a randomized double-blind trial (n = 60) was performed to determine the effects of extract from sun dried Nelumbo nucifera leaves (NnEx), which included quercetin-3-glucuronide (Q3GA) as the main components, in overweight patients (24 kg/m22) during 12 weeks. For both men and women, compared with those in the...

The leaf of Nelumbo nucifera (Family Nelumbonaceae) has been widely included in the diet of Chinese people from the time of the Min Dynasty. In this study, a randomized double-blind trial (n = 60) was performed to determine the effects of extract from sun dried Nelumbo nucifera leaves (NnEx), which included quercetin-3-glucuronide (Q3GA) as the main components, in overweight patients (24 kg/m22) during 12 weeks. For both men and women, compared with those in the...

To compare cesarean delivery (CD) rates in referral and non-referral hospitals in Maternal Safety Collaboration in Jiangsu province, China. Sixteen participants (4 referral hospitals, 12 non-referral hospitals) from Drum Tower Hospital Collaboration for Maternal Safety reported CD rates in 2019 using ten-group classification system and maternal/neonatal morbidity and mortality. A total of 22,676 CDs were performed among 52,499 deliveries and the average CD rate was 43.2% (range 34.8–69.6%). CD rate in non-referral hospitals (44.7%) was...

The principal goal of the present investigation was to enterprise new and effective drug delivery vesicle for the sustained delivery of local anesthetic lidocaine hydrochloride (LDC), using a novel combination of copolymeric hydrogel with tetrahydroxyborate (COP–THB) to improve bioactivity and therapeutic potential. To support this contention, the physical and mechanical properties, rheological characteristics, and component release of candidate formulations were investigated. An optimized formulation of COP–THB containing LDC to an upper maximum concentration of 1.5%...

Chronic exposure to high concentrations of circulating palmitic acid and stearic acid leads to impaired β cell function, which accelerates the development of type 2 diabetes. However, differences in the mechanisms underlying this process between these two saturated fatty acids remain largely unknown. In this study, we screened for potential circular RNAs (circRNAs) and their associated regulatory pathways in palmitic acid- and stearic acid-induced mouse β-TC6 cell dysfunction. CircRNA high-throughput sequencing, gene ontology enrichment and...

Bladder cancer (BC) is one of the most aggressive tumors worldwide. OTX1 (orthodenticle homeobox 1) is an important transcription factor involved in various diseases, such as cancers. The aim of this study was to further investigate the role of OTX1 in BC. In this study, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened from tumor tissues and para-cancerous tissues by bioinformatics. The expression of protein and RNA was separately detected by western blotting and immunohistochemistry (IHC), and...

Invasion is a critical pathway leading to tumor metastasis. This study constructed an invasion-related polygenic signature to predict osteosarcoma prognosis. We initially determined two molecular subtypes of osteosarcoma, Cluster1 (C1) and Cluster2 (C2).. A 3 invasive-gene signature was established by univariate Cox analysis and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression analysis of the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the two subtypes, and was validated in internal and two external data sets (GSE21257...

Chronic exposure to high concentrations of circulating palmitic acid and stearic acid leads to impaired β cell function, which accelerates the development of type 2 diabetes. However, differences in the mechanisms underlying this process between these two saturated fatty acids remain largely unknown. In this study, we screened for potential circular RNAs (circRNAs) and their associated regulatory pathways in palmitic acid- and stearic acid-induced mouse β-TC6 cell dysfunction. CircRNA high-throughput sequencing, gene ontology enrichment and...

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common tumors, ranking second in the global cause of death from cancer. The prognosis of advanced patients is still very poor. In this study, hub modules with the highest association with tumor-infiltrating immune cells were identified by weighted gene co-expression network analysis based on CRC expression data from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. Next, three hub genes (ADAM8, IL-1A, VAV3) related to infiltrating immune cells were identified...

Preterm birth (PTB) is an immune-inflammatory disease that needs to be resolved. This study aimed to identify the role of interleukin-27 (IL-27), an immunomodulatory factor, in PTB and its associated mechanisms. Here, we analyzed the high-throughput of samples data from the maternal-fetal interface to the peripheral circulation obtained from public databases and reported that the elevated IL-27 was involved with the onset of PTB. Further bioinformatics analyses (e.g. GeneMANIA and GSEA) revealed that IL-27 overexpression...

Currently, no articles have explored the roles of RRAGB gene in the occurrence and development of cancer. By means of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data mining, we found that this gene might be a novel prognostic predictor for colon adenocarcinoma (COAD). Hence, this article was carried out to explore its roles in COAD and associations with immunity. RRAGB single-gene expression matrix and corresponding clinical information were extracted from TCGA database. Univariate/multivariate cox regression analyses...

MicroRNA-451a (miR-451a) has been implicated in the initiation and progression of multiple cancers. However, the regulatory mechanisms underlying its function in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) are poorly understood. Thus, we investigated in detail the role of the microRNA-451a/chromosome segregation 1-like (miR-45a/CSE1L) axis and its regulatory mechanism in NPC. We examined the levels of miR-451a and CSE1L in NPC, and assessed the effects of miR-451a and CSE1L on NPC by cell functional experiments. Furthermore, we elucidated the...

Cells of the tumor microenvironment exert a vital influence on sarcoma prognosis. This study aimed to analyze and identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) related to immunity and their significance as immune biomarkers for the accurate prediction of overall survival of patients with sarcoma. The Cancer Genome Atlas was adopted for obtaining sarcoma gene microarray and corresponding clinical information. ESTIMATE algorithm was used to calculate tumor immune microenvironment indices. Immune-associated DEGs were identified using the limma...

Preeclampsia (PE) is a disorder that occurs during the pregnancy and could affect the maternal and perinatal mortality as well as morbidity. The aim of our study is to investigate the associations between the hypertension susceptibility genes ITGA9, MOV10 and CACNB2 with PE in Chinese Han population. A case–control study including 178 PE patients and 202 healthy controls was conducted to assess the associations between three loci (ITGA9 rs155524, MOV10 rs2932538 and CACNB2 rs4373814) and...

Our previous studies indicated that Yiguanjian decoction (YGJ) has an anti-hepatic-fibrosis effect and could regulate macrophage status. To elucidate the mechanism of YGJ in regulating macrophages. Liver cirrhosis was induced by CCl4 for 12 weeks combined with 2-acetylaminofluorene (2-AAF) for the last 4 weeks in male Wistar rats. YGJ (3.56 mg/kg) orally administered in the last 4 weeks, and SORA (1 mg/kg) as control. In vitro, RAW264.7 cells were treated with lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) to induce...

Rhodiola crenulata (Hook. f. et Thoms.) H. Ohba (Crassulaceae) is used to prevent and treat acute mountain sickness. However, the mechanisms underlying its effects on the central nervous system remain unclear. To investigate the effect of Rhodiola crenulata on cellular metabolism in the central nervous system. The viability and Hif-1α levels of microglia and neurons at 5% O2 for 1, 3, 5 and 24 h were examined. We performed the binding of salidroside (Sal), rhodiosin,...