Abstract Background Previous studies have indicated an association between birth weight (BW) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), but few studies have explored this relationship under different conditions of obesity in adulthood. Methods A total of 4,005 individuals from ten provinces of China were randomly selected to participate in this study. We used a questionnaire to collect age, BW, current weight, height, T2DM history, age at T2DM diagnosis, and other variables. The participants were divided...

Abstract Purpose Radiotherapy is one of the essential treatment modalities for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), however, radioresistance still poses challenges. Three-dimensional (3D) tumor culture models mimic the in vivo growth conditions of cells more accurately than 2D models. This study is to compare the tumor biological behaviors of NPC cells in 2D, On-Surface 3D and Embedded 3D systems, and to investigate the correlation between radioresistance and extracellular matrix (ECM) stiffness. Methods The morphology and radioresistance of...

Abstract Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory disorder caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which had rapidly spread all over the world and caused public health emergencies in the past two years. Although the diagnosis and treatment for COVID-19 have been well defined, the immune cell characteristics and the key lymphocytes subset alterations in COVID-19 patients have not been thoroughly investigated. Methods The levels of immune cells including T cells,...

Abstract Background Although people are more and more aware of the cardiotoxicity caused by immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in the treatment of lung cancer, its incidence rate has not been systematically analyzed. This study aims to evaluate the incidence of cardiotoxicity related to the ICI therapies for lung cancer, so as to enhance clinicians' attention to cardiotoxicity, implement proper prevention and intervention for high-risk patients, and minimize the risk of cardiac dysfunction during and after...

Abstract Background The clinical significance of group B streptococcus (GBS) was different among different clonal complexes (CCs), accurate strain typing of GBS would facilitate clinical prognostic evaluation, epidemiological investigation and infection control. The aim of this study was to construct a practical and facile CCs prediction model for S. agalactiae. Methods A total of 325 non-duplicated GBS strains were collected from clinical samples in Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai, China. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) method was used...

Abstract Background The relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors versus unavoidable stochastic risk factors to the variation in cancer risk among tissues have become a widely-discussed topic. Some claim that the stochastic effects of DNA replication are mainly responsible, others believe that cancer risk is heavily affected by environmental and hereditary factors. Some of these studies made evidence from the correlation analysis between the lifetime number of stem cell divisions within each tissue and...

Abstract Background Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are highly susceptible to infection and cardiovascular events, suggesting that chronic antigenic stimulation may accelerate premature aging in SLE patients. Premature aging in SLE is often accompanied with the expansion of cytotoxic CD4 + CD28−T cells. Damage caused by CD4 + CD28− T cells enhances the progressive aging of the tissue function and loss of organism’s fitness. The high serum level of IL-15 has been implicated in...

Abstract Background Solid pulmonary nodules are different from subsolid nodules and the diagnosis is much more challenging. We intended to evaluate the diagnostic and prognostic value of radiomics and deep learning technologies for solid pulmonary nodules. Methods Retrospectively enroll patients with pathologically-confirmed solid pulmonary nodules and collect clinical data. Obtain pre-treatment high-resolution thoracic CT and manually delineate the nodule in 3D. Then, all patients were randomly divided into training and testing sets at a ratio...

Abstract Background Cryptosporidium species are zoonotic protozoans that are important causes of diarrhoeal disease in both humans and animals. Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) play an important role in the innate immune defense against Cryptosporidium infection, but the underlying molecular mechanisms in the interaction between human ileocecal adenocarcinoma (HCT-8) cells and Cryptosporidium species have not been entirely revealed. Methods The expression profiles of messenger RNAs (mRNAs), long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs) and circular RNAs (circRNAs) in...

BackgroundAccurate preoperative diagnosis of post-hepatectomy liver failure (PHLF) is particularly important to improve the prognosis of patients.PurposeTo evaluate the predictive value of Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for post-hepatectomy liver failure.Material and MethodsA systematic search was performed in the PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases to find relevant original articles published up to December 2021. The included studies were assessed using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 tool. The bivariate...

Abstract Purpose This study aimed to identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that contributed to the different amount of fat loss between subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) among cachectic patients. Methods RNA sequencing was performed and bioinformatic tools were utilized to analyze the biological functions and construct regulation networks of DEGs. We presumed that iroquois homeobox 1 (IRX1) to be a hub gene and analyzed its clinical significance. Mouse model of...

Abstract Purpose This study aimed to identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that contributed to the different amount of fat loss between subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) among cachectic patients. Methods RNA sequencing was performed and bioinformatic tools were utilized to analyze the biological functions and construct regulation networks of DEGs. We presumed that iroquois homeobox 1 (IRX1) to be a hub gene and analyzed its clinical significance. Mouse model of...

Abstract Backgrounds Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory and autoimmune disease. Current studies suggest that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) may be key regulators in pathogenesis. Methods Analyzed lncRNAs and mRNAs using microarrays to find key differentially expressed lncRNAs in RA. GO and KEGG enrichment analysis together with coding non-coding co-expression (CNC) network was used for comprehensive analysis. Verify that their expression levels are consistent with the chip results by qRT-PCR. Results There are 268...

Abstract Background At present, chronic respiratory diseases are a major burden in terms of morbidity and mortality and are of increasing public health concern in China. Meanwhile, the prevalence of diabetes has increased by more than 10 times over the last 40 years. While a few studies have investigated the association between chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes mellitus, the association is not clear. This study aimed to explore this association and provide evidence. Methods In...

Abstract Heat-imposed crop failure is often attributed to reduced thermotolerance of floral tissues; however, the underlying mechanism remains unknown. Here, we demonstrate that m6A RNA methylation increases in Arabidopsis flowers and negatively regulates gene expression variability. Stochastic gene expression provides flexibility to cope with environmental stresses. We find that reduced transcriptional fluctuation is associated with compromised activation of heat-responsive genes. Moreover, disruption of an RNA demethylase AtALKBH10B leads to lower gene expression variability, suppression of...

Vegetation phenology is sensitive to climate change and has been defined as the footprint of ongoing climate change. Previous studies have shown that the spatial difference in China’s vegetation phenology varies substantially in both spring and autumn. Here, we reviewed phenological dynamics at the national and the regional scale of China over the period 1982−2020 using a remote sensing-based dataset and meta-analysis from phenological studies in China. We also explored the underlying mechanisms of both...

Background: Levodopa (or l-DOPA) is the current standard of care for the management of Parkinson's disease (PD), but its chronic administration has been associated with the development of LID (l-DOPA-induced dyskinesia). Fisetin is a dietary flavonoid known for its neuroprotective efficacy. Aim: To determine the neuroprotective potential of fisetin in 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-lesioned LID animals. Methods: 6-OHDA (12 µg and L-ascorbic acid [10 µL]) was injected in a substantial nigra of Sprague-Dawley rat to develop PD...

Abstract Background Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, is one of the most frequent gastrointestinal disorders worldwide. Although the actual etiology of IBD remains unclear, growing evidence suggests that CD4+ T cells-associated cytokines, including interferon (IFN)-γ, interleukin (IL)-10 and IL-17A, are crucial for the occurrence of IBD. It has been reported that there is a positive association between miRNAs and IBD development. In this study, we investigated the roles of hsa-miRNA-374b-5p(miRNA-374b-5p)...

Abstract Background C1q/TNF-related protein 9 (CTRP9) and adiponectin (APN) have beneficial metabolic regulatory and vasoprotective effects. This study explored alteration of CTRP9 and APN multimers during onset of ischemic stroke and development, to provide novel clinical and experimental basis for recognition and prevention of ischemic stroke. Methods There were 269 patients with ischemic stroke and 182 control subjects included in this study. Serum levels of CTRP9 and APN multimers in different disease stages were measured....

Abstract Background Achieving healthy ageing has become the only way for China to alleviate the pressure of ageing, especially in rural areas. However, the factors affecting the health of rural older adults are numerous and complex. It is important to identify the critical factors that affecting the health of older adults in rural areas and provide decision-making support for targeted health interventions. Methods To overcome some limitations of existing works, an extended probabilistic linguistic fuzzy...

Abstract Background Monte Carlo simulation is considered as the most accurate method for dose calculation in radiotherapy. PRIMO is a Monte-Carlo program with a user-friendly graphical interface. Material and method A VitalBeam with 6MV and 6MV flattening filter free (FFF), equipped with the 120 Millennium multileaf collimator was simulated by PRIMO. We adjusted initial energy, energy full width at half maximum (FWHM), focal spot FWHM, and beam divergence to match the measurements. The water tank...

Abstract Background Neuronal- and astrocyte-derived exosomes have been identified as an optimal source for screening biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, few studies focus on the bulk exosome population isolated from plasma of AD. This study investigated whether proteins in bulk exosomes can aid in the diagnosis of AD. Methods The plasma exosomes were collected by ultracentrifuge. Protein samples were extracted from exosomes. Cerebrospinal fluid levels of amyloid β (Aβ)42 and phosphorylated tau (P-tau)181 were...

Abstract Developing multifunctional composites has received widespread attention for cancer treatment. Herein, a metal–phenolic network (MPN)-based composite loading with chemotherapy agents (TAFP) exhibits high anti-tumor therapeutic efficacy via photothermal therapy (PTT), chemo-dynamic therapy (CDT), and chemotherapy. The nanocomposite was formed by mixing the chemotherapeutic drugs (cisplatin, DDP) into the tannic acid (TA) and Fe3+ network (TAFe) to integrate the synergistic effect of PTT, CDT, and chemotherapy. Due to the acidic tumor microenvironment, the active substances...

Abstract Avian influenza virus H9 subtype (AIV H9) has contributed to enormous economic losses. Effective diagnosis is key to controlling the spread of AIV H9. In this study, a nonenzymatic highly electrocatalytic material was prepared using chitosan (Chi)-modified graphene sheet (GS)-functionalized Au/Pt nanoparticles (GS-Chi-Au/Pt), followed by the construction of a novel enzyme-free sandwich electrochemical immunosensor for the detection of AIV H9 using GS-Chi-Au/Pt and graphene–chitosan (GS-Chi) nanocomposites as a nonenzymatic highly electrocatalytic material and a...

Direct epitaxial growth of III-V materials on CMOS-compatible Si substrates has long been a scientific and engineering problem for next-generation light-emitters and non-volatile memories etc. The challenges arise from the lattice mismatch, thermal mismatch, and polarity mismatch between these materials. We report here a detailed study of growing high-quality GaSb epilayers with low defect density on on-axis silicon substrates by interface engineering through all-molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) technology. We also systematically investigated the defect self-annihilation...