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Phomopsis vexans, which causes Phomopsis blight of eggplant, has been reported worldwide. To study the biocontrol of this disease, 162 leaf and fruit samples of eggplant Phomopsis blight were collected from Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and Anhui Provinces from 2017 to 2019. Eighty-seven pathogenic fungus isolates were identified as P. vexans. The following studies were conducted: screening of sporulation medium, spore morphology analysis, mycovirus detection and identification of novel mycoviruses in these isolates. The results showed that eggplant tissue medium was the most suitable medium for rapid sporulation, and all isolates had mycoviruses consisting of mainly mixed infections. The genome of these mycoviruses varied from 1-15 kb. Five novel mycoviruses infecting P. vexans were obtained, including “Phomopsis vexans fusarivirus 1” (PvFV1), “Phomopsis vexans ourmia-like virus 1” (PvOLV1), “Phomopsis vexans endornavirus 2” (PvEV2), “Phomopsis vexans partitivirus 1” (PvPV1) and “Phomopsis vexans victorivirus L1” (PvVVL1). Thus, PvVVL1 displays a unique genome structure, and this is the first report of a victorivirus consisting of two segments and of a deltapartitivirus infecting the fungus host.

Epilepsy-associated cognitive disorder (ECD), a prevalent comorbidity in epilepsy patients, has so far uncharacterized etiological origins. Our prior work revealed that lysyl oxidase (Lox) acted as a novel contributor of ferroptosis, a recently discovered cell death mode in the regulation of brain function. However, the role of Lox-mediated ferroptosis in ECD remains unknown. ECD mouse model was established 2 months later following a single injection of kainic acid (KA) for. After chronic treatment with KA, mice were treated with different doses (30 mg/kg, 100 mg/kg and 300 mg/kg) of Lox inhibitor BAPN. Additionally, hippocampal-specific Lox knockout mice was also constructed and employed to validate the role of Lox in ECD. Cognitive functions were assessed using novel object recognition test (NOR) and Morris water maze test (MWM). Protein expression of phosphorylated cAMP-response element binding (CREB), a well-known molecular marker for evaluation of cognitive performance, was also detected by Western blot. The protein distribution of Lox was analyzed by immunofluorescence. In KA-induced ECD mouse model, ferroptosis process was activated according to upregulation of 4-HNE protein and a previously discovered ferroptosis in our group, namely, Lox was remarkably increased. Pharmacological inhibition of Lox by BAPN at the dose of 100 mg/kg significantly increased the discrimination index following NOR test and decreased escape latency as well as augmented passing times within 60 s following MWM test in ECD mouse model. Additionally, deficiency of Lox in hippocampus also led to pronounced improvement of deficits in ECD model. These findings indicate that the ferroptosis regulatory factor, Lox, is activated in ECD. Ablation of Lox by either pharmacological intervention or genetic manipulation ameliorates the impairment in ECD mouse model, which suggest that Lox serves as a promising therapeutic target for treating ECD in clinic.

Depression is a common and disabling mental disorder characterized by high disability and mortality, but its physiopathology remains unclear. In this study, we combined a non-targeted gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)-based metabolomic approach and isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ)-based proteomic analysis to elucidate metabolite and protein alterations in the hippocampus of rat after chronic social defeat stress (CSDS), an extensively used animal model of depression. Ingenuity pathway analysis (IPA) was conducted to integrate underlying relationships among differentially expressed metabolites and proteins. Twenty-five significantly different expressed metabolites and 234 differentially expressed proteins were identified between CSDS and control groups. IPA canonical pathways and network analyses revealed that intracellular second messenger/signal transduction cascades were most significantly altered in the hippocampus of CSDS rats, including cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), phosphoinositol, tyrosine kinase, and arachidonic acid systems. These results provide a better understanding of biological mechanisms underlying depression, and may help identify potential targets for novel antidepressants.

A digital watermark method based on the bar-block-margin characteristics of PDF417 two-dimension code was presented.The proposed method prejudges the watermark information to choose the suitable embedding positions.According to the watermark,the information of the original PDF417 image was modified for embedding and extracting.The experimental results showed that,in comparison with the other methods in the spatial domain,the proposed method has a higher capacity and better watermarked image quality,as well as better robustness against JPEG compression,Gaussian noise and printing and scanning.

Major depressive disorder is a serious mental disorder with high morbidity and mortality. The role of social stress in the development of depression remains unclear. Here, we used the social defeat stress paradigm to induce depression-like behavior in rats, then evaluated the behavior of the rats and measured metabolic changes in the prefrontal cortex using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Within the first week after the social defeat procedure, the sucrose preference test (SPT), open field test (OFT), elevated plus maze (EPM) and forced swim test (FST) were conducted to examine the depressive-like and anxiety-like behaviors. For our metabolite analysis, multivariate statistics were applied to observe the distribution of all samples and to differentiate the socially defeated group from the control group. Ingenuity pathway analysis was used to find the potential relationships among the differential metabolites. In the OFT and EPM, there were no significant differences between the two experimental groups. In the SPT and FST, socially defeated rats showed less sucrose intake and longer immobility time compared with control rats. Metabolic profiling identified 25 significant variables with good predictability. Ingenuity pathways analysis revealed that "Hereditary Disorder, Neurological Disease, Lipid Metabolism" was the most significantly altered network. Stress-induced alterations of low molecular weight metabolites were observed in the prefrontal cortex of rats. Particularly, lipid metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and energy metabolism were significantly perturbed. The results of this study suggest that repeated social defeat can lead to metabolic changes and depression-like behavior in rats.

The serum heparanase level of 92 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) measured by enzymelinked immunosorbent assay (median, 91.4 U/mL) was higher than that of 19 healthy control subjects. Serum heparanase levels were higher in patients with HCC characterized by large tumors (>5 cm), advanced pTNM stage (III and IV), tumor capsule absence, and portal vein invasion. Positive correlations between serum heparanase and tumor heparanase expression were observed in 92 patients with HCC, 53 among them treated with tumor resection. In these 53 patients, the rate of microscopic venous invasion was significantly higher in 18 cases with high serum heparanase levels (>91.4 U/mL) than in the other 35 cases with low heparanase levels (14/18 vs 10/35; P = .001). Serum heparanase and vascular endothelial growth factor were identified as independent predictive factors for HCC microscopic venous invasion. The postoperative recurrence-free time (median, 8.7 months; range, 4.1-22.9 months), recurrence rate (72% [13/18]), 1.5-year disease-free survival rate (29.7%) were significantly worse in these 18 patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractAim:To explore the protective role and mechanism of endogenous neuroglobin (Ngb) in neuronal cells under oxidative stress.Methods:A stable N2a neuroblastoma cell line expressing the Ngb-siRNA plasmid (N2a/Ngb-siRNA) was established by neomycin screening. Reverse transcription (RT)-PCR and Western blot analysis were used to detect Ngb gene and protein levels. Hydrogen peroxide was used to induce oxidative stress in N2a cells. Cytotoxicity and cell viability were measured by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and WST-8 assays. Apoptotic cells were detected by Hoechst staining.Results:Cotransfection of Ngb-siRNA with Ngb-GFP plasmids suppressed the expression of Ngb-GFP in N2a cells. RT-PCR and Western blot analysis showed that the expression of endogenous Ngb was successfully knocked down to about 20% in N2a/Ngb-siRNA cells compared with control cells. A WST-8 assay demonstrated that viability was significantly decreased in N2a/Ngb-siRNA cells and N2a cells transiently transfected with Ngb-siRNA plasmids compared with controls following hydrogen peroxide treatment. An LDH assay demonstrated a time-dependent increase in the death of Ngb-siRNA-transfected N2a cells following hydrogen peroxide treatment. Hoechst staining demonstrated that the quantity of apoptotic cells among N2a/Ngb-siRNA cells following hydrogen peroxide treatment significantly increased compared with controls. In N2a/Ngb-siRNA cells, the expression level of activated caspase-3 significantly increased, whereas the expression of 14-3-3γ decreased compared with that of N2a/vec cells. Transfection of 14-3-3γ plasmids significantly enhanced the viability of N2a/Ngb-siRNA cells following hydrogen peroxide treatment compared with vector controls.Conclusion:Ngb contributes to neuronal defensive machinery against oxidative injuries by regulating 14-3-3γ expression.Acta Pharmacologica Sinica (2009) 30: 913–918; doi: 10.1038/aps.2009.70 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A wideband patch directional coupler is proposed. The coupler is designed based on the non-uniform mushroom structure with unique characteristics. The current distribution within the patch can be controlled by the mushroom cells underneath for wideband property. An 8 dB directional coupler has been designed, fabricated and measured for verification. It exhibits good return loss, small coupling coefficient variation and quadrature phase difference among the output ports over a wide bandwidth of 74.6% centred at 8.45 GHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ObjectiveThis study aims to explore the application value of computed tomography (CT) three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) 3D reconstruction, and conventional digital subtraction angiography (DSA) fluoroscopy in percutaneous transhepatic cholangial drainage (PTCD).MethodsThe clinical data of 180 patients with obstructive jaundice requiring PTCD from December 2017 to December 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. Following PTCD, CT 3D reconstruction, MRI 3D reconstruction, and conventional DSA fluoroscopy were conducted, after which the surgical success rates, liver function results, and postsurgical complications were compared.ResultsThe puncture accuracies under CT 3D reconstruction, MRI 3D reconstruction, and conventional DSA fluoroscopy were 90.0% (54/60), 96.7% (58/60), and 80% (48/60), respectively. The degree of jaundice and epigastric discomfort was relieved in all three groups after surgery, while a significant reduction in the levels of total bilirubin and direct bilirubin was observed relative to the levels before surgery (P

Previous studies have shown that octamer-binding transcription factor 4 (Oct4) plays a significant role in early embryonic development of mammalian animals, and different Oct4 expression levels induce multi-lineage differentiation which are regulated by DNA methylation. To explore the relationship between the methylation pattern of Oct4 gene exon 1 and embryonic development, in this work, five different tissues (heart, liver, lung, cerebrum and cerebellum) from three germ layers were chosen from low age (50–60 d) and advanced age (60–70 d) of fetal cattle and the differences between tissues or ages were analyzed, respectively. The result showed that the DNA methylation level of Oct4 gene exon 1 was significant different (P0.05) (>60 d), suggesting that 60-d post coital was an important boundary for embryonic development. In addition, in ectoderm (cerebrum and cerebellum), there was no significant methylation difference of Oct4 gene exon 1 between low age and advanced age (P>0.05), but the result of endoderm (liver and lung) and mesoderm (heart) were on the contrary (P