Search

Background: Eupatilin, a flavone isolated from Artemisia species, exerts anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative, and anti-neoplastic activities. However, the effects of eupatilin on H. pylori-associated gastritis remain unclear. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the anti-inflammatory effects of eupatilin on gastric epithelial cells infected with cytotoxin-associated gene A (CagA)-positive Helicobacter pylori. Materials and methods: AGS human gastric carcinoma cells were infected with a CagA-positive H. pylori strain and then treated with 10, 50, or 100 ng of eupatilin. After 24 h, the expression levels of CagA, phosphoinositide 3-kinase 1 (PI3K), nuclear factor (NF)-κB, interleukin (IL)-1β, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α in the cell lysates were measured using western blotting, and the mRNA levels of IL-6, IL-8, and monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1 were measured using real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results: CagA translocation into AGS cells resulted in an elongated cell morphology, which was significantly suppressed by eupatilin treatment in a dose-dependent manner. Immunofluorescence staining for anti-CagA showed that eupatilin treatment dose-dependently inhibited CagA expression in the H. pylori-infected AGS cells. H. pylori infection increased the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines including IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-8, and MCP-1, and eupatilin treatment significantly reduced the levels of these cytokines in a dose-dependent manner. Additionally, eupatilin treatment dose-dependently suppressed the expression of PI3K and NF-κB. Conclusions: Eupatilin treatment demonstrated anti-inflammatory effects on CagA-positive H. pylori-infected gastric epithelial cells by inhibiting CagA translocation, thereby suppressing the NF-κB signaling pathway. These results suggest that eupatilin plays a protective role against CagA-positive H. pylori-induced gastritis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated health-related quality of life and identified factors affecting it among people with the HIV in South Korea. A total of 243 people living with HIV participated in this cross-sectional survey. Data were collected from five hospitals between November 2021 and August 2022 using structured online questionnaires. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Spearman's rho analysis, and Tobit regression analysis because a significant ceiling effect was observed for the dependent variable. The mean score for the health-related quality of life was 75.74 ± 16.48. The significant factors that positively influence the health-related quality of life were "employment" (B = 4.57, p =.035), "not participating in the self-help group" (B = 6.10, p =.004), "higher self-efficacy for managing symptoms" (B = 1.32, p =.036), "higher self-efficacy for getting support/help" (B = 0.95, p =.035), and "higher self-efficacy for managing fatigue" (B = 2.80, p <.001) in the Tobit regression analysis. The results suggest that interventions to increase self-efficacy should involve developing programs and policies for people living with HIV. There is a need for efforts to provide healthcare services linked to employment support, as well as to establish a social environment in which they can work without stigma. Further, self-help groups could be utilized as intervention channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to prove the ElGamal CCA(Chosen Ciphertext Attack) security in the random oracle model, it is necessary to use the group where ICDH(Interactive Computational Diffie Hellman) assumption holds. Until now, only bilinear group with complex algebraic structure has been known as the ICDH group. In this paper, we introduce the ICDH group with simple algebraic structure. In other words, we prove that ICDH assumption holds in the integer group with composite modulus. On the basis of this, we propose the CCA secure hashed ElGamal and its fast variant to speed up decryption by parallel processing. Our parallel scheme has the fastest decryption among all CCA secure PKE(Public Key Encryption) schemes implemented in integer group and gives the possibility that ElGamal protocol could be practical when the big modulus numbers are used to resist the quantum attack. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The loss of photosynthetic function should lead to the cessation of expression and finally loss of photosynthetic genes in the new heterotroph. Dinoflagellates are known to have lost their photosynthetic ability several times. Dinoflagellates have also acquired photosynthesis from other organisms, either on a long-term basis or as “kleptoplastids” multiple times. The fate of photosynthetic gene expression in heterotrophs can be informative into evolution of gene expression patterns after functional loss, and the dinoflagellates ability to acquire new photosynthetic function through additional endosymbiosis. To explore this we analyzed a large-scale EST database consisting of 151,091 unique sequences (29,170 contigs, 120,921 singletons) obtained from 454 pyrosequencing of the heterotrophic dinoflagellate Pfiesteria piscicida. About 597 contigs from P. piscicida showed significant homology (E-value

The loss of photosynthetic function should lead to the cessation of expression and finally loss of photosynthetic genes in the new heterotroph. Dinoflagellates are known to have lost their photosynthetic ability several times. Dinoflagellates have also acquired photosynthesis from other organisms, either on a long-term basis or as “kleptoplastids” multiple times. The fate of photosynthetic gene expression in heterotrophs can be informative into evolution of gene expression patterns after functional loss, and the dinoflagellates ability to acquire new photosynthetic function through additional endosymbiosis. To explore this we analyzed a large-scale EST database consisting of 151,091 unique sequences (29,170 contigs, 120,921 singletons) obtained from 454 pyrosequencing of the heterotrophic dinoflagellate Pfiesteria piscicida. About 597 contigs from P. piscicida showed significant homology (E-value −30) with proteins associated with plastid and photosynthetic function. Most of the genes involved in the Calvin-Benson cycle were found, genes of the light-dependent reaction were also identified. Also genes of associated pathways including the chorismate pathway and genes involved in starch metabolism were discovered. BLAST searches and phylogenetic analysis suggest that these plastid-associated genes originated from several different photosynthetic ancestors. The Calvin-Benson cycle genes are mostly associated with genes derived from the secondary plastids of peridinin-containing dinoflagellates, while the light-harvesting genes are derived from diatoms, or diatoms that are tertiary plastids in other dinoflagellates. The continued expression of many genes involved in photosynthetic pathways indicates that the loss of transcriptional regulation may occur well after plastid loss and could explain the organism's ability to “capture” new plastids (i.e. different secondary endosymbiosis or tertiary symbioses) to renew photosynthetic function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]