Search

• AGNH displayed an obvious neuroprotection in rats with traumatic brain injury (TBI). • AGNH inhibited inflammation, cell apoptosis and pyroptosis. • Integrating transcriptome and metabolome revealed that AGNH inhibited NF-κB/NLRP3 axis and regulated glycerophospholipid metabolism to decrease TBI. Traumatic brain injury (TBI), especially neuroinflammation after TBI persists for a long time and causes significant neurodegenerative pathologies and neuropsychiatric problems. In this study, the neuroprotective effect of AnGong NiuHuang (AGNH) on TBI was investigated and the mechanism was revealed by integrating multiple omics. The rats with TBI were administrated with AGNH for 5 consecutive days and the effect was evaluated by using modified neurologic severity score (mNSS), brain edema, H&E staining, Nissl staining and TUNEL staining. The mechanism was revealed by using RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and metabolomic analysis. The inflammatory factors, apoptosis-related proteins and identified vital targets were validated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, western blotting and immunofluorescence staining. Administration of AGNH decreased mNSS, brain edema, brain structure damage, but increased Nissl body density in the rats with TBI. Additionally, AGNH reduced IL-1β, IL-17A, TNF-α, MMP9, MCP-1, IL-6, Bax and TUNEL staining,but elevated Bcl2 level. Integrating transcriptomic analysis and metabolomic analysis identified vital targets and critical metabolic pathways. Importantly, AGNH treatment reduced the expression of TLR4, MYD88, NLRP3, BTK, IL-18 and Caspase 1 as well as glycerophospholipid metabolism-related protein AGPAT2 and PLA2G2D, and decreased the nuclear translocation of NF-κB p65 in the brain of TBI rats. Additionally, AGNH increased phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylglycerol (PG), phosphatidylserine (PS), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), but decreased 1-acyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (LysoPC) in the metabolic pathway of glycerophospholipid metabolism. Taken together, AGNH inhibited NF-κB/NLRP3 axis to suppress neuroinflammation, cell apoptosis and pyroptosis, and improved metabolic pathways of glycerophospholipid metabolism after TBI. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dopaminergic pathways from the midbrain to striatum as well as cortex are involved in addiction. However, the alternations of these pathways and whether the recoveries of aberrant circuits would be detected after prolonged abstinence in heroin users are rarely known. The resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) patterns of midbrain (i.e., the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and substantia nigra (SN)) were compared between 40 abstinent heroin users with opioid use disorder (HUs) and 35 healthy controls (HCs). Then, we tested the functional recovery hypothesis by both cross-sectional and longitudinal design. For cross-sectional design, HUs were separated into short-term abstainers (STs) (3–15 days) and long-term abstainers (LTs) (>15 days). With regard to longitudinal design, 22 subjects among HUs were followed up for 10 months. A sandwich estimator method was used to analyze the differences between baseline HUs and follow-up HUs. HUs showed lower RSFC between midbrain and several cortical areas (medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) and anterior cingulate cortex) compared with HCs. Besides, lower RSFC of VTA-right nucleus accumbens circuit as well as right SN- caudate circuit was also found in HUs. The enhanced RSFC value of VTA-left mOFC circuit was observed in LTs, compared with STs. Additionally, longitudinal design also revealed the increased RSFC values of the midbrain with frontal cortex after 10 months prolonged abstinence. We revealed abnormal functional organizations of midbrain-striato and midbrain-cortical circuits in HUs. More importantly, partially recovery of these dysfunctions can be found after long-term abstinence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract A gas tank is an important storage facility in chemical enterprises. When an explosion occurs, it can easily cause mass injury and death. This paper takes a 50,000 m3 gas tank as an example to analyze the consequences of an accident. First, a TNT-equivalent explosion model, quantitative risk analysis and FLACS software are used to quantitatively analyze the explosion consequences. The range of casualties caused by the vapor cloud explosion is obtained. The simulation results are then compared with the actual damage range of a gas tank explosion, and the accuracy of the simulation results is verified. Next, the personal and social risks of a gas tank are identified according to China's national standards, and it is concluded that the individual risk can be tolerated, the social risk is within the tolerable range and its area has been reduced as far as possible, and it is necessary to minimize the overall risk as much as possible. Finally, a qualitative analysis of the gas tank explosion accident is carried out and the causes of the accident are analyzed. These analyses can be used to guide practices and effectively prevent the occurrence of similar accidents. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • Obtain the range of casualties caused by the vapor cloud explosion. • The actual damage range is verified by simulation results for the first time. • Personal and social risks of a gas tank explosion are identified. • Guide practices and effectively prevent the occurrence of similar accidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid) plays a multifaceted role in plant growth, fruit quality, and tolerance to abiotic stresses. However, its physiological roles and mechanisms in the fruit quality and response to long-term drought stress in apple remain unelucidated. To investigate the effect of GABA on apple fruit quality and drought tolerance, we sprayed exogenous GABA on apple cultivar "Cripps Pink" and irrigated rootstock M.9-T337 with GABA, respectively. Results showed that exogenous GABA could effectively improve the fruit quality of "Cripps Pink", including increased sugar-to-acid ratio, flesh firmness, pericarp malleability, and GABA content, as well as reduced fruit acidity. In addition, pretreatment of M.9-T337 plants with GABA improved their tolerance to both long- and short-term drought stress. Specifically, 1 mM exogenous GABA increased the net photosynthetic rate, relative leaf water content, root-to-shoot ratio, and water use efficiency under long-term drought stress, and delayed the increased of the relative electrolyte leakage under short-term drought stress. RNA-seq analysis identified 1271 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between nontreated and GABA-pretreated plants under short-term drought stress. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis of these DEGs revealed that GABA may enhance plant drought resistance by upregulating the expression of genes related to "Biosynthesis of secondary metabolites", "MAPK signaling pathway", "Glutathione metabolism", and "Carbon fixation in photosynthetic organisms". In conclusion, these results revealed that exogenous GABA can improve fruit quality and enhance drought tolerance in apple. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetic foot ulcer is one of the most serious complications of diabetes. Effective medical treatment regarding improvement of ulcer healing in patients is essential. Pien Tze Huang (PZH), a valuable Chinese traditional medicine, has been found significant efficacy on the curing of diabetic wound in clinic recently. This work was conducted to confirm the efficacy, and compare the therapeutic effect through the oral administration and local delivery route, providing a rationale for the new PZH form development; besides, the mechanisms through which PZH promoted the wound healing was also discussed. First, the chemical composition of PZH was characterized by 1H-NMR and HPLC. The anti-apoptosis effects of PZH on high concentration glucose injured epidermal fibroblast (HFF-1) was investigated in a dose dependent way. Then, the effects of the systematical administration of PZH, and the topical used route on excisional wounds of Streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic mice were compared. The results illustrated that PZH decreased the reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels in cells, preventing cell damage/apoptosis through an ROS/Bcl-2/Bax/Caspase-3 pathway. The in vivo study proved that topical use of PZH exceeded the systematical route both in accelerating the wound closure and improving the healing quality. Meanwhile, PZH promoted wound closure through stimulating the secretion of Col-I, decreasing fibroblast apoptosis, and enhancing myo-fibroblast differentiation, in consistent with the mechanism study in vitro. Local used PZH improves wound healing by inhibiting the abnormal HFF-1 apoptosis and senescence. The study held a great promise for development of a topical dosage form of PZH for diabetic wound healing. Image 1 • Impaired wound healing of the ulcers is the most common complications of diabetic patients. • Pien Tze Huang (PZH) effectively prevented the abnormal apoptosis and senescence of fibroblast, which is generally regarded as one of the key reasons contribute to a very poor efficacy of pharmaceutical treatment. • PZH decreased ROS generation in cell, preventing apoptosis through a ROS/Bcl-2/Bax/Caspase-3 pathway. • Topical administration of PZH promoted the chronic wound closure on diabetic mice. • The study proved PZH as a promising drug for diabetic wound healing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Wind-dust diffusion law under the action of the dust collector was simulated. • The characteristics of atomization parameters were tested systematically. • Negatively-pressured collector used for dust source control was developed. • Effect of dust removal before and after application of dust collector was analyzed. Combining experimental measurements and field tests, a negatively-pressured spraying collector was developed for the dust source of advancing support in fully mechanized coal mining environments based on the results obtained from the numerical simulation of wind-dust diffusion law under the action of dust collector using discrete particle model of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in order to reduce dust from advancing support. Simulation results showed that advancing support produced a dust band with high concentrations of up to 1,000 mg/m3 near the sidewalk around 0–9 m away from the wind leeward side of the advancing support which gradually diffused to 0–36 m. After the use of negatively-pressured spraying collector, the concentration of dust band at the leeward side of the advancing support was decreased to below 300 mg/m3 and diffusion extent shrank to 0–5 m from the leeward side of shearer; the form of dust mass near sidewalk also changed to low concentration dust band. After laboratory tests, ultrasonic atomizing nozzle was selected as the final nozzle and negatively-pressured spraying collector equipped with this nozzle was applied under the same water and air pressures of 0.4 MPa which gave effective range of 5.03 m and atomization angle of 71°. The developed negatively-pressured spraying collector was applied to 73 down 23 fully mechanized coal mining environment in Nantun mine and it was found that it effectively decreased dust concentration from advancing support in the operation zone near sidewalk. Average total and respiration dust-decreasing rates were up to 81.5% and 79.1%, respectively, which confirmed excellent dust reduction efficiency of the proposed device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]