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Systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (sJIA) is a severe autoinflammatory disorder with a still not clearly defined molecular mechanism. To better understand the disease, we used scattered datasets from public domains and performed a weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) to identify key modules and hub genes underlying sJIA pathogenesis. Two gene expression datasets, GSE7753 and GSE13501, were used to construct the WGCNA. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses were applied to the genes and hub genes in the sJIA modules. Cytoscape was used to screen and visualize the hub genes. We further compared the hub genes with the genome-wide association study (GWAS) genes and used a consensus WGCNA to verify that our conclusions were conservative and reproducible across multiple independent datasets. A total of 5,414 genes were obtained for WGCNA, from which highly correlated genes were divided into 17 modules. The red module demonstrated the highest correlation with the sJIA module ( r = 0.8 , p = 3 e − 29 ), whereas the green-yellow module was found to be closely related to the non-sJIA module ( r = 0.62 , p = 1 e − 14 ). Functional enrichment analysis demonstrated that the red module was mostly enriched in the activation of immune responses, infection, nucleosomes, and erythrocytes, and the green-yellow module was mostly enriched in immune responses and inflammation. Additionally, the hub genes in the red module were highly enriched in erythrocyte differentiation, including ALAS2, AHSP, TRIM10, TRIM58, and KLF1. The hub genes from the green-yellow module were mainly associated with immune responses, as exemplified by the genes KLRB1, KLRF1, CD160, and KIRs. We identified sJIA-related modules and several hub genes that might be associated with the development of sJIA. Particularly, the modules may help understand the mechanisms of sJIA, and the hub genes may become biomarkers and therapeutic targets of sJIA in the future.

Sanjin Tablets are completely natural preparation with significant efficacy in treating urinary tract infection. To identify the bioactive compounds from Sanjin Tablets, we separated components capable of binding to the soluble proteins of uropathogenicEscherichia coli(UPEC) by affinity binding and characterized their identities using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis. Our study discovered eight compounds withE. coliprotein-binding capabilities, and all these compounds were tracked back to the original natural ingredients of Sanjin Tablets. These compounds presented essentially no antibacteria activity, indicating that they affect UPEC by means other than directly killing the cells. Further molecular modeling analysis predicted molecular targets for these compounds and mapped the residues potentially involved in compound-target interactions. All the predicted targets turned out to be critical proteins regulating the metabolisms ofE. coli, suggesting that these compounds may affect metabolic pathways in UPEC and inhibit pathogenesis. These data will benefit future design of drugs with higher efficacy and specificity on targeting pathogenic bacteria.

Rice straw hydrolysate was used as lignocellulose-based carbon source forChlorella pyrenoidosacultivation and the feasibility ofin situbiodiesel production was investigated. 13.7 g/L sugar was obtained by enzymatic hydrolyzation of rice straw.Chlorella pyrenoidosashowed a rapid growth in the rice straw hydrolysate medium, the maximum biomass concentration of 2.83 g/L was obtained in only 48 hours. The lipid content of the cells reached as high as 56.3%.In situtransesterification was performed for biodiesel production. The optimized condition was 1 g algal powder, 6 mLn-hexane, and 4 mL methanol with 0.5 M sulfuric acid at the temperature of 90°C in 2-hour reaction time, under which over 99% methyl ester content and about 95% biodiesel yield were obtained. The results suggested that the method has great potential in the production of biofuels with lignocellulose as an alternative carbon source for microalgae cultivation.