The S-adenosyl-L-homocysteine hydrolase (Sah1) plays a crucial role in methylation and lipid metabolism in yeast and mammals, yet its function remains elusive in filamentous fungi. In this study, we characterized Sah1 in the phytopathogenic fungus F. graminearum by generating knockout and knockout-complemented strains of FgSAH1. We found that the FgSah1-GFP fusion protein was localized to the cytoplasm, and that deletion of FgSAH1 resulted in defects in vegetative growth, asexual and sexual reproduction, stress responses, virulence,...

Drug-resistant pathogenic Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) has severely threatened human health and arouses widespread concern. Sortase A (SrtA) is an essential virulence factor of S. aureus, which is responsible for the covalent anchoring of a variety of virulence-related proteins to the cell wall. SrtA has always been regarded as an ideal pharmacological target against S. aureus infections. In this research, we have determined that orientin, a natural compound isolated from various medicinal plants, can effectively...

Chimeric RNAs are gaining more and more attention as they have broad implications in both cancer and normal physiology. To date, over 40 chimeric RNA prediction methods have been developed to facilitate their identification from RNA sequencing data. However, a limited number of studies have been conducted to compare the performance of these tools; additionally, previous studies have become outdated as more software tools have been developed within the last three years. In this study,...

New SARS-CoV-2 mutants have been continuously indentified with enhanced transmission ever since its outbreak in early 2020. As an RNA virus, SARS-CoV-2 has a high mutation rate due to the low fidelity of RNA polymerase. To study the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) dynamics of SARS-CoV-2, 158 SNPs with high confidence were identified by deep meta-transcriptomic sequencing, and the most common SNP type was C > T. Analyses of intra-host population diversity revealed that intra-host quasispecies’...

Porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) is a potentially emerging zoonotic pathogen that causes severe diarrhea in young pigs, with a risk of fatal dehydration. Its pathogenicity on neonatal piglet has been previously reported, however, it is less known if the coinfection with immunosuppressive pathogens can influence PDCoV disease manifestation. Here, a coinfection model of PDCoV and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), a global-spread immunosuppressive virus, was set to study their interaction. Weaning pigs in the...

Intrauterine adhesion (IUA) is an endometrial fibrotic disease with unclear pathogenesis. Increasing evidence suggested the important role of competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) in diseases. This study aimed to identify and verify the key long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) associated-ceRNAs in IUA. The lncRNA/mRNA expression file was obtained by transcriptome sequencing of IUA and normal samples. The microRNAs expression date was downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. Differential expressions of mRNAs, lncRNAs and miRNAs were analyzed...

Circular RNAs (circRNAs), the new stars of endogenous non-coding RNAs, are dysregulated in various tumors including pancreatic cancer. Here, we aimed to investigate the biological functions of hsa_circ_0071036 in the tumourigenesis and progression of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and its clinical implications. The differential expression profile of circRNAs in 4 pairs of PDAC tissues was analyzed by microarray assay. Quantitative real-time PCR and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) were utilized to determine the expression patterns...

The study aimed to construct a clinical model based on preoperative data for predicting acute kidney injury (AKI) following cardiac surgery in patients with normal renal function. A total of 22,348 consecutive patients with normal renal function undergoing cardiac surgery were enrolled. Among them, 15,701 were randomly selected for the training group and the remaining for the validation group. To develop a model visualized as a nomogram for predicting AKI, logistic regression was performed with...

This study sought to investigate incidence and risk factors for acute kidney injury (AKI) in hospitalized COVID-19. In this retrospective study, we enrolled 823 COVID-19 patients with at least two evaluations of renal function during hospitalization from four hospitals in Wuhan, China between February 2020 and April 2020. Clinical and laboratory parameters at the time of admission and follow-up data were recorded. Systemic renal tubular dysfunction was evaluated via 24-h urine collections in a subgroup...

This study sought to investigate incidence and risk factors for acute kidney injury (AKI) in hospitalized COVID-19. In this retrospective study, we enrolled 823 COVID-19 patients with at least two evaluations of renal function during hospitalization from four hospitals in Wuhan, China between February 2020 and April 2020. Clinical and laboratory parameters at the time of admission and follow-up data were recorded. Systemic renal tubular dysfunction was evaluated via 24-h urine collections in a subgroup...

Spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) are auditory neurons that relay sound signals from the inner ear to the brainstem. The ototoxic drug cisplatin can damage SGNs and thus lead to sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), and there are currently no methods for preventing or treating this. Macroautophagy/autophagy plays a critical role in SGN development, but the effect of autophagy on cisplatin-induced SGN injury is unclear. Here, we first found that autophagic flux was activated in SGNs after...

There is growing evidence that circular RNAs (circRNAs) play a vital role in many kinds of diseases, including erectile dysfunction (ED). Nevertheless, the role of circRNAs in cavernous nerve-damaging ED (CNI-ED) is unknown. Here, we aimed to discover novel circRNAs, probed their potential role in the CNI-ED, and construct a ceRNA network of circRNAs. Twelve male Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into 2 groups by us: bilateral cavernous nerve crush (BCNC) and control groups....

Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) may be exploited as potential therapeutic targets in gliomas. However, the prognostic value of EMT-related lncRNAs in gliomas is unclear. We obtained lncRNAs from The Cancer Genome Atlas and constructed EMT-related lncRNA co-expression networks to identify EMT-related lncRNAs. The Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA) was used for validation. Gene set enrichment and principal component analyses were used for functional annotation. The EMT–lncRNA co-expression networks were constructed. A real-time...

Soft tissue sarcomas (STSs) are rare, heterogeneous mesenchymal neoplasias. Understanding the tumor microenvironment (TME) and identifying potential biomarkers for prognosis associated with the TME of STS might provide effective clues for immune therapy. We evaluated the immune scores and stromal scores of STS patients by using the RNA sequencing dataset from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and the ESTIMATE algorithm. Then, the differentially expressed mRNAs (DEGs), miRNAs (DEMs) and lncRNAs (DELs) were identified after...

The role of autophagic mechanisms in the protective effect of berberine (BBR) on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced injury in the endothelial cells human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (HPMECs) was investigated. Cell viability, proliferation, and apoptosis were detected by the CCK-8 assay, the EdU kit, and flow cytometry, respectively, and autophagy-related protein expression, the number of autophagic vacuoles, and LC3 double-fluorescence were examined using western blot analysis, transmission electron microscopy, and...

Increasingly attention is being given to immune molecules in pancreatic cancer. The purpose of this study was to understand the potential clinical application of immune-regulated genes (IRGs) in the stratification of prognosis and to facilitate the development of personalized prognostic information for pancreatic cancer patients. We systematically used public data to comprehensively analyze immune-regulated gene pair (IRGP) expression profiles and clinical data. In our study, IRGP signature was identified to predict the overall survival (OS)...

Immune cell infiltration (ICI) plays a pivotal role in the development of diabetic nephropathy (DN). Evidence suggests that immune-related genes play an important role in the initiation of inflammation and the recruitment of immune cells. However, the underlying mechanisms and immune-related biomarkers in DN have not been elucidated. Therefore, this study aimed to explore immune-related biomarkers in DN and the underlying mechanisms using bioinformatic approaches. In this study, four DN glomerular datasets were downloaded, merged,...

Early 2 factor (E2F) genes encoding a family of transcription factors are significantly associated with apoptosis, metabolism, and angiogenesis in several tumor types. However, the biological functions of E2F transcription factors (E2Fs) and their potential involvement in the malignancy of lower-grade glioma (LGG) remain unclear. We explored the effects of the expression of eight E2F family members on the clinical characteristics of LGG based on the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA), The Cancer Genome Atlas...

Existing guidelines and studies on the benefits of cerclage in twin pregnancies with a dilated cervix have low reliability and inconsistent conclusions. New randomized control trials and cohort studies focusing on twin pregnancies with cervical insufficiency were published recently. Therefore, this meta-analysis aimed to compare outcomes of cerclage placement and expectant treatment in twin pregnancies with a dilated cervix using recent data. We screened the PubMed, Web of Science, ClinicalTrials.gov, and Cochrane Library databases to...

To establish the Z-score equation of right pulmonary artery (RPA) segments for some valuable pulse-wave Doppler parameters (PWD) and estimate their reference ranges in normal fetuses. Two hundred and seventy-three normal singleton fetuses at 18–38 weeks were enrolled in this fetal echocardiography of a prospective cross-sectional study. The proximal, middle, and distal segments of RPA of pulsed-wave Doppler parameters, such as peak systolic velocity (PSV) and pulsation index (PI) were obtained by using fetal Doppler...

Discerning between indolent and aggressive types is a big challenge of prostate cancer clinically to guide the adequate therapeutic regimen. We aimed to examine the relationship between miR-1255b-p expression and prostate cancer and elucidate the function of miR-1255b-5p in prostate cancer. miR-1255b-5p were measured using Quantitative Real-Time PCR from the blood 103 benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) and 153 prostate cancer patients (117 indolent cases and 36 upgrading cases). Using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis,...