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Figure S2 shows that down-regulation of SAFB activated NF-κB signaling pathway

Purpose: To investigate the role and the underlying mechanism of scaffold attachment factor B (SAFB) in the progression of colorectal cancer (CRC).Experimental Design: SAFB expression was analyzed in the Cancer Outlier Profile Analysis of Oncomine and in 175 paraffin-embedded archived CRC tissues. Gene Ontology analyses were performed to explore the mechanism of SAFB in CRC progression. Western blot, RT-PCR, luciferase assay, and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) were used to detect the regulation of transforming growth factor-β–activated kinase 1 (TAK1) and NF-κB signaling by SAFB. The role of SAFB in invasion, metastasis, and angiogenesis was investigated using in vitro and in vivo assays. The relationship between SAFB and TAK1 was analyzed in CRC tissues.Results: SAFB was downregulated in CRC tissues, and low expression of SAFB was significantly associated with an aggressive phenotype and poorer survival of CRC patients. The downregulation of SAFB activated NF-κB signaling by targeting the TAK1 promoter. Ectopic expression of SAFB inhibited the development of aggressive features and metastasis of CRC cells both in vitro and in vivo. The overexpression of TAK1 could rescue the aggressive features in SAFB-overexpressed cells. Furthermore, the expression of SAFB in CRC tissues was negatively correlated with the expression of TAK1- and NF-κB–related genes.Conclusions: Our results show that SAFB regulated the activity of NF-κB signaling in CRC by targeting TAK1. This novel mechanism provides a comprehensive understanding of both SAFB and the NF-κB signaling pathway in the progression of CRC and indicates that the SAFB–TAK1–NF-κB axis is a potential target for early therapeutic intervention in CRC progression. Clin Cancer Res; 23(22); 7108–18. ©2017 AACR.

Supplementary materials, methods and tables

In this study, the evidence mapping was employed to systematically analyze the clinical research literature and learn the distribution of evidence on the prevention and treatment of essential hypertension with Chinese patent medicines in recent six years. CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, SinoMed, PubMed, and Cochrane Library were searched for the relevant literature published from January 2016 to December 2021. The distribution characteristics of evidence were analyzed and presented in charts combined with words. A total of 263 studies were selected, including 238 intervention studies, 17 systematic reviews/Meta-analysis, and 8 observation studies. A total of 72 Chinese patent medicines were involved, among which Songling Xuemaikang Capsules had the highest frequency. In China, the attention to the treatment of essential hypertension with Chinese patent medicines was insufficient, as manifested by the declining number of published literature and the low quality of studies. There were cases of off-label use and medication without syndrome differentiation in clinical practice. Some outcome indicators failed to embody the characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine and there were cases ignoring the end-point outcome indicators. The overall quality of systematic reviews/Meta-analysis was low, and a variety of studies failed to draw valid conclusions. In the future, it is necessary to standardize the clinical medication and improve the quality of randomized controlled trial(RCT), so as to produce high-quality evidence-based medical evidence and provide strong support for the efficacy and safety of Chinese patent medicines in the prevention and treatment of essential hypertension.

Spirofluorenexanthanes (SFXs), as burgeoning second-generation spiro compounds beyond spirobifluorenes (SBFs), can serve as versatile scaffolds for low-cost organic semiconductors in various fluore...

Comparison of racemic and homochiral analogues reveals that the racemic compounds appear to crystallize easily upon external thermal annealing and show more stable morphology. These differences will induce the formation of a planar conformation in a racemic crystalline film but not in chiral enantiomers, which confirmed Wallach's rule in controlling condensed structures, associated with dense molecular packing.

Phage therapy is an alternative approach to overcome the problem of multidrug-resistant bacteria. Here, a novel bacteriophage AhyVDH1, which infects Aeromonas hydrophila 4572, was isolated and its morphology, one-step growth curve, lytic activity, stability under various conditions, and genome were investigated. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that AhyVDH1 has an icosahedral head 49 nm in diameter and a contractile tail 127 nm in length, suggesting that it belongs to the family Myoviridae. AhyVDH1 showed strong adsorption to the surface of A. hydrophila 4572 (90% in 10 min). The latent period of AhyVDH1 was shown to be 50 min, and the burst size was 274 plaque-forming unit/infected cell. AhyVDH1 was stable at 30 °C for 1 h and lost infectivity after20 min of heating at 60 °C. Infectivity remained unaffected at pH 6–7 for 1 h, while the bacteriophage was inactivated at pH 11. AhyVDH1 has a 39,175-bp genome, with a 58% G + C content and 59 open reading frames. BLAST analysis indicated that the genome sequence of phage AhyVDH1 was related to that of Aeromonas phage Ahp2. Both time and MOI-dependent in vitro A. hydrophila growth inhibition were observed with AhyVDH1.Re-growth of the host bacteria appeared about 12 h after treatment, suggesting its potential therapeutic value in treating A. hydrophila infections, but phage cocktails should be developed.

A Gram-stain-negative, strictly aerobic, catalase-positive and oxidase-positive bacterium, designated strain YIM MLB12T, was isolated from estuary sediment sampled at Maliao River where it flows into a plateau lake (Dianchi) in Yunnan, south-west PR China. Cells were non-motile and rod-shaped. Growth was observed at 15–35 °C (optimum, 25–30 °C), pH 6.0–10.0 (optimum, pH 7.0–8.0) and in the presence of 0–7 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 0.5–2 %). Results of phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain YIM MLB12T formed a tight phylogenic lineage with members of the genus Lampropedia and was closely related to ‘ Lampropedia puyangensis ’ 2-bin with 98.3 % sequence similarity and had low similarities to the type strains of Lampropediahyalina ATCC 11041T (96 %) and Lampropedia cohaerens CT6T (95.5 %). Average nucleotide identity and in silico DNA–DNA hybridization values between strain YIM MLB12T and ‘ L. puyangensis ’ KCTC 32235 were 76.5 and 22.6 %, respectively. Strain YIM MLB12T contained ubiquinone-8 as the major quinone. The predominant cellular fatty acids were summed feature 3 (C16 : 1 ω7c and/or C16 : 1 ω6c), C16 : 0, C10 : 0 3-OH, summed feature 8 (C18 : 1 ω6c and/or C18 : 1 ω7c), C12 : 0 3-OH and C14 : 0. The polar lipid profile of strain YIM MLB12T was composed predominantly of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylmonomethylethanolamine, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylglycerol. The major polyamine was spermidine. The genomic DNA G+C content of strain YIM MLB12T was 56.8 mol%. Based on its genotypic and chemotaxonomic features and results of phenotypic analyses, strain YIM MLB12T represents a novel species of the genus Lampropedia , for which the name Lampropedia aestuarii sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM MLB12T (=KCTC 42886T=CGMCC 1.17071T).

A series of poly(ethylene-styrene-hexene) samples with relatively low glass-transition temperatures (Tg = −38 ‒28 °C) were synthesized using Me2Si(Me4Cp)(N-t-Bu)TiCl2/MMAO system. For the first time, nonuniform sampling with 2D-1H/13C HSQC and HMBC experimentsis employed to determine the microstructure of these complicated terpolymers. The signals hiddenin the specta overlaps are clearly discriminated, and the assignments of new peaksfrom novel sequences are successfully achieved with about 50% of conventional experiment time. The distributionsof 11 triads are quantatively presented. The results demonstrate that 2D NMR with nonuniform sampling is superior to the traditional uniform sampling approaches in terms of resolution, experiment time, signal-to-noise ratio and structural information gathered, and this approach represents a fast way for microstructure determination of complicated synthetic polymers.

Gridization become the rising toolbox of cross-scale chemistry that update the organic pi-conjugated polymers into nano-polymers with a nano-scale persistence length that offer the cornerstone to overcome the molecular limitation for the high-performance fourth-generation semiconductors. In this work, spiro-polygridization indeed exhibit the ultralong persistence length of ~41 nm with the extraordinary semiconducting behaviors such as a hole mobility of 3.94 × 10-3 cm2 V-1 s-1 and an ultralow energy disorder (k = 8.43). Gridochemistry open a way to organic intelligent multimedia facing organic intelligence.

To systematically evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of Xinmailong Injection in the treatment of heart failure after acute myocardial infarction. Seven Chinese and English databases, namely CNKI, VIP, Wanfang, SinoMed and PubMed, EMbase, Cochrane Library, were retrieved from the establishment of the database to March 2020. Randomized controlled trials for Xinmailong Injection in the treatment of heart failure after acute myocardial infarction were screened out. Cochrane collaboration network bias risk assessment tool was used to evaluate the literature quality of the studies included, and RevMan 5.3 software was used for Meta-analysis. A total of 926 relevant literatures were retrieved, and 12 studies were finally included, involving 972 patients, including 486 patients in the treatment group and 486 patients in the control group. The quality of the literatures included was generally low. The results of Meta-analysis showed that Xinmailong Injection combined with Western medicine could decrease the levels of BNP(SMD=-5.90, 95%CI[-8.45,-3.36], Plt;0.000 01) and NT-proBNP(SMD=-2.28, 95%CI[-3.13,-1.43], Plt;0.000 01) and decrease the levels of cTnI(SMD=-2.91, 95%CI[-4.21,-1.60], Plt;0.000 1), increase LVEF(MD=4.67, 95%CI[4.19, 5.16], Plt;0.000 01), increased 6 MWT(MD=73.90, 95%CI[67.51, 80.28], Plt;0.000 01], decreased LVEDD(MD=-5.46, 95%CI[-9.66,-1.25], P=0.01), reduce the level of serum inflammatory factor(hs-CRP, CRP, IL-6). In terms of safety, less adverse reactions occurred in the study, with no impact on the treatment. The results showed that clinical use of Xinmailong Injection combined with Western medicine in the treatment of heart failure after acute myocardial infarction can further alleviate clinical symptoms and relevant indexes, with less adverse reactions. However, due to the limitations in quantity and quality of the clinical studies included, the positive results can only be used as a hint and reference for clinical diagnosis and treatment, and more high-quality studies are needed to further confirm its efficacy.

To systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of Yangxue Qingnao Granules combined with conventional Western medicine in the treatment of essential hypertension and its accompanying symptoms. PubMed, EMbase, Cochrane Library, VIP, CNKI, Wanfang, and China biomedical database(CBD) were searched to screen out from the establishment of the database to April 2020 about the clinical randomized controlled trials of Yangxue Qingnao Granules combined with conventional Western medicine in the treatment of essential hypertension and accompanying symptoms. The articles were selected according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. RevMan 5.3 software was used for Meta-analysis. TSA 0.9.5.10 Beta software was used for sequential analysis, and GRADE 3.6 was used for evidence quality evaluation. A total of 4 532 patients were included in 34 randomized controlled trials. Meta-analysis results showed that: Yangxue Qingnao Granules combined with conventional anti-hypertensive agents reduced systolic blood pressure(MD=-10.56, 95%CI[-13.63,-7.50], Plt;0.000 01) and diastolic blood pressure(MD=-8.21, 95%CI[-10.84,-5.59], Plt;0.000 01), improved total effective rate(RR=1.21, 95%CI[1.14, 1.29], Plt;0.000 01), improved patients dizziness(RR=1.29, 95%CI[1.21, 1.37], Plt;0.000 01), insomnia(RR=1.66, 95%CI[1.44, 1.91], Plt;0.000 01), headache(RR=1.32, 95%CI[1.21, 1.43], Plt;0.000 01), chest distress(RR=1.26, 95%CI[1.12, 1.42], P=0.000 1), memory loss(RR=1.24, 95%CI[1.10, 1.40], P=0.000 4), palpitation(RR=1.28, 95%CI[1.17, 1.41], Plt;0.000 01), and improved traditional Chinese medicine symptom scores(MD=-4.24, 95%CI[-5.25,-3.23], Plt;0.000 01) and headache symptom improvement scores(MD=-2.02, 95%CI[-2.51,-1.53], Plt;0.000 01) as compared with Western medicine group alone. Subgroup analysis results showed that Yang-xue Qingnao Granules combined with ACEI drug had more obvious effects in lowering systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure. There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of adverse reactions, and no abnormal liver and kidney function was observed in each study. Trial sequential analysis showed that the total effective rate was cumulative across the traditional and TSA thresholds, further confirming its clinical efficacy. The evidence level was mostly low or extremely low in GRADE evaluation. The clinical application of Yangxue Qingnao Granules combined with conventional Western medicine in the treatment of essential hypertension and its accompanying symptoms is clear and safe, so it is recommended for clinical application.

To evaluate the efficacy and safety of Songling Xuemaikang Capsules combined with conventional Western medicine in the treatment of essential hypertension. PubMed, VIP, CNKI, Wanfang and other databases were retrieved from the establishment of the database to February 2020 for clinical randomized controlled trial(RCT) about Songling Xuemaikang Capsules combined with conventional Western medicine in the treatment of essential hypertension. The literatures were screened out according to the inclusion criteria, and RevMan 5.3 software was used for Meta-analysis. A total of 3 100 patients in 27 RCTs were enrolled. According to Meta-analysis, Songling Xuemaikang Capsules combined with conventional Western medicine could effectively reduce systolic blood pressure(MD=-7.88,95%CI[-9.68,-6.08],Plt;0.000 01) and diastolic blood pressure(MD=-7.85, 95%CI[-9.07,-6.62], Plt;0.000 01), triglyceride(MD=-0.46, 95%CI[-0.66,-0.26], Plt;0.000 01) and total cholesterol(MD=-0.92, 95%CI[-1.49,-0.35], P=0.001), but increase HDL cholesterol(MD=0.51, 95%CI[0.28, 0.73], Plt;0.000 01), with a better effect than the Western medicine group alone. The results of LDL-C analysis showed that there was no significant difference between the two groups(MD=-0.91, 95%CI[-1.82, 0.01], P=0.05). The subgroup analysis suggested that reduced systolic blood pressure may be related to the use of ARB. There was a close correlation between CCB drugs and the decrease of diastolic blood pressure. In addition, there was no significant difference in the compliance and the incidence of adverse reactions. Clinical application of Songling Xuemaikang Capsules combined with Western medicine in the treatment of patients with essential hypertension has clear efficacy and certain safety. More clinical randomized controlled trials are needed for verification in the future.

Thalassemia is a group of genetically heterogeneous diseases characterized by hemolytic anemia. To investigate molecular characteristics of α- and β-thalassemia among young individuals of marriageable age in Guangdong Province, 24,788 subjects with suspected thalassemia were genetically tested for α- and β-thalassemia by Gap-PCR and reverse dot blot during 2018-2019. For suspected rare thalassemia cases, DNA sequencing was performed to identify rare and unknown thalassemia gene mutations. A total of 14,346 thalassemia carriers were detected, including 7,556 cases of α-thalassemia with 25 genotypes and 8 α-gene mutations identified, 5,860 cases of β-thalassemia with 18 genotypes and 18 β-gene mutations identified, and 930 cases of compound α/β-thalassemia. Among them, the frequency of

Shenfuyixin granule (SFYXG, i.e., Xinshuaikang granule) is a prescription, commonly used in the clinical experience, which plays a significant role in the treatment of heart failure. The purpose of this present research was to investigate the protective effect of SFYXG, and the mechanism about anti-H2O2-induced oxidative stress and apoptosis in the neonatal rat cardiomyocytes. Myocardial cells, as is well known, were divided into 4 groups: normal, model, SFYXG, and coenzyme Q10 group, respectively. Cells viability was determined by MTT assay. Flow cytometry and AO/EB staining were implemented to test the apoptosis rate and intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) level. Mitochondrion membrane potential (MMP) was evaluated by JC-1 fluorescence probe method. The myocardial ultrastructure of mitochondrion was measured by electron microscope. The related mRNA expression levels of Bax, Bcl-2, Caspase-3, caspase-8, and caspase-9 were detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Also, the expression levels of Bax and Bcl-2 protein were detected by Western blot, and the expression levels of caspase-3, caspase-8, and caspase-9 protein were tested by caspase-Glo®3 Assay, caspase-Glo®8 Assay, and caspase-Glo®9 Assay, respectively. GAPDH was used as the internal reference gene/protein. The results revealed that SFYXG (0.5 mg/ml) raised the viability of myocardial cell, weakened the apoptosis rate and ROS level, corrected the mitochondrion membrane potential stability, and improved cell morphology and ultrastructure of myocardial mitochondrion. Furthermore, SFYXG upregulated the antiapoptosis gene of Bcl-2, but downregulated the proapoptosis genes of Bax, caspase-3, and caspase-9. In conclusion, SFYXG could appear to attenuate myocardial injury by its antioxidative and antiapoptosis effect.

Beta (β)-thalassemia is one of the most common hemoglobinopathies worldwide, creating major public health problems and social burdens in many regions. Screening for β-thalassemia carriers is crucial for controlling this condition. To investigate the effectiveness of mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) for screening β-thalassemia, retrospective data were analyzed for 6,779 β-thalassemia carriers subjected to genetic testing following thalassemia screening in Guangdong province between January 2018 and December 2019. Prevalent mutations observed included CD41/42 (-TTCT) (38.43%), IVS-II-654 (CT) (25.71%), -28 (AG) (15.78%), CD17 (AAGTAG) (10.03%), and β

Huagaimu (Manglietiastrum sinicum) trees are critically endangered species and classified as a plant species with extremely small populations in China. Rhizospheres and bulk soils prokaryotic communities play an important role to protect and promote plants health and growth. However, the compositions and structures of prokaryotic communities in wild and reintroduced M. sinicum rhizospheres and bulk soils are still poorly understood. In the present study, prokaryotic communities in wild and reintroduced M. sinicum rhizospheres and bulk soils were compared using high-throughput sequencing. Thirty-two phyla, 76 classes, 193 orders, 296 families, and 470 genera of prokaryotes were obtained. Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria were the two most abundant phyla in all soil samples. The compositions and structures of prokaryotic communities were overall similar, and the abundance of some taxa varied significantly among soil samples. Soil prokaryotic communities were significantly affected by soil pH, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and total potassium. Eleven of predicted functions were significantly different among the four soil groups. This study provides for the first insights into the compositions, structures, and potential functions of prokaryotic communities associated with wild and reintroduced M. sinicum rhizospheres and bulk soils, and providing a foundation for future research to help protect this endangered species.

Background Identifying molecular subtypes of ovarian cancer is important. Compared to identify subtypes using single omics data, the multi-omics data analysis can utilize more information. Autoencoder has been widely used to construct lower dimensional representation for multi-omics feature integration. However, learning in the deep architectures in Autoencoder is difficult for achieving satisfied generalization performance. To solve this problem, we proposed a novel deep learning-based framework to robustly identify ovarian cancer subtypes by using denoising Autoencoder. Results In proposed method, the composite features of multi-omics data in the Cancer Genome Atlas were produced by denoising Autoencoder, and then the generated low-dimensional features were input into k-means for clustering. At last based on the clustering results, we built the light-weighted classification model with L1-penalized logistic regression method. Furthermore, we applied the differential expression analysis and WGCNA analysis to select target genes related to molecular subtypes. We identified 34 biomarkers and 19 KEGG pathways associated with ovarian cancer. Conclusions The independent test results in three GEO datasets proved the robustness of our model. The literature reviewing show 19 (56%) biomarkers and 8(42.1%) KEGG pathways identified based on the classification subtypes have been proved to be associated with ovarian cancer. The outcomes indicate that our proposed method is feasible and can provide reliable results.

Magnolia sinica is a critically endangered species and considered a &ldquo, plant species with extremely small populations&rdquo, (PSESP). It is an endemic species in southeastern Yunnan Province, China, with reproductive barriers. Rhizosphere fungi play a crucial role in plant growth and health. However, the composition, diversity, and function of fungal communities in wild and reintroduced M. sinica rhizospheres remain unknown. In this study, Illumina sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) region was used to analyze rhizospheric soil samples from wild and reintroduced M. sinica. Thirteen phyla, 45 classes, 105 orders, 232 families, and 433 genera of fungi were detected. Basidiomycota and Ascomycota were dominant across all samples. The fungal community composition was similar between the wild and reintroduced rhizospheres, but the fungal taxa relative abundances differed. The fungal community richness was higher in the reintroduced rhizosphere than in the wild rhizosphere, but the diversity showed the opposite pattern. Soil nutrients and leaf litter significantly affected the fungal community composition and functional diversity. Here, the composition, structure, diversity, and ecological functions of the fungal communities in the rhizospheres of wild and reintroduced M. sinica were elucidated for the first time, laying a foundation for future research and endangered species protection.

Background: Explaining microbial consortia in sediments from the perspective of taxon, co-occurrence and function is the key to recover and maintain aquatic ecosystems. Trophic status was widely considered to be an important determinant of the lake sediment microbial community. However, little is known about the effect of a special eutrophic factor gradient on the prokaryotic community structure in situ. Within this context, we explored prokaryotic communities using an intensive field sampling from sediments in the Dianchi Lake, one of the most eutrophic lakes in China. Results: Microbial assemblages was strongly correlated with total organic carbon (TOC). Moreover, relatively high and low TOC shaped taxonomic and functional differences in microbial assemblages. The results identified the most abundant bacteria across all samples as Proteobacteria , Nitrospirae , Chloroflexi , Firmicutes , Ignavibacteriae , Actinobacteria , Bacteroidetes , Acidobacteria , Spiprochaetae and Latescibacteria . The dominant groups of archaea were Euryarchaeota , Woesearchaeota DHVEG-6 , Bathyarchaeota and WSA2 . Low TOC (LT) microbial assemblages displayed a major proportion of functional profiles related to some metabolisms such as carbohydrate metabolism, amino acid metabolism, energy metabolism, nucleotide metabolism and metabolism of cofactors and vitamins, membrane transport. These results illustrated that TOC concentration had obvious influence on the relative abundances of KEGG orthologs . Finally, the meta-analysis results highlight that most of network parameters of the LT community were significantly greater than those of other communities, which suggesting that the LT community was larger and more complex. Conclusion: TOC level might be a key determinant to shape taxonomic and functional construction of communities in Dianchi Lake sediment. LT community tended to establish a larger and more complex co-occurrence, which suggested that they may interact with each other strongly and exchange essential metabolites. Overall, this study could enhance our knowledge of microbial assemblages in eutrophic lake sediment and provide clues for the restoration and maintenance of sediment ecosystems.

Exiguobacterium is a versatile genus with potential in industry and agriculture. No bacteriophage that infects Exiguobacterium has been reported, despite its potential impacts on the utilization of Exiguobacterium. E. indicum EI9 was isolated from Dianchi Lake, a plateau eutrophic lake in China, which can significantly inhibit the growth of Microcystis aeruginosa. To isolate and characterize Exiguobacterium-infecting bacteriophage, a virulent bacteriophage, DCEIV-9 that specifically infects E. indicum EI9 was isolated from Dianchi lake water sample. DCEIV-9 produced tiny, round, and clear plaques with 0.5-1 mm in diameter. Electron microscopy showed that DCEIV-9 is a typical representative of the Siphoviridae, with an icosahedral head (56 nm in diameter) and a non-contractile tail (163 nm in length). Based on a one-step growth curve, latent period of 20 min and burst size of 51 PFU/infected cell were determined. DCEIV-9 was sensitive to temperature over 50 °C and prefers acid environment. DCEIV-9 was extremely sensitive to proteinase K, chloroform, ethanol, Triton X-100 but not sensitive to SDS. Restriction endonucleases analysis indicated that DCEIV-9 is a dsDNA virus. DCEIV-9 can only infect E. indicum, indicates that it has a narrow host range. DCEIV-9 is a potential new species.

Background Coronary heart disease (CHD) has become a common cardiovascular disease that seriously threatens the health of people. As reperfusion in the early phase and drug therapy, especially percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), have become widely used in the clinic, the mortality of acute myocardial infarction in the short term has been reduced significantly. In addition, in 40%–56% of patients who experience myocardial infarction, cardiac dysfunction occurs and about 25%–33% develop heart failure. Methods This study was designed as a multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, superiority trial. Participants were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio through a centrally controlled, computer-generated, simple randomization schedule. The primary outcome was left ventricular end-diastolic volume index = left ventricular end-diastolic volume/body surface area. The combined secondary outcomes include traditional Chinese medicine syndrome score, echocardiogram results, 6-minute walk test results, Seattle Angina Questionnaire score, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging results, biological indicators, dynamic electrocardiogram results, and experiment event rate. Assessments will be performed at baseline and at 4, 8, and 12 weeks after randomization. Discussion This trial will demonstrate that the addition of a Tongmai Yangxin pill (TMYX) to conventional treatment will intervene in the development of cardiac remodeling and cardiac dysfunction. Trial registration This study was registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry on 7 May 2019. The registration number is ChiCRT1900023023 (http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=12370).

In this study, changes in the microbial communities and the metabolic pathway involved in anaerobic digestion were examined as the temperature was changed from 9 to 55 °C. The results from six batch biogas reactors, which were designed to ferment at 9, 15, 21, 35, 45 and 55 °C, showed that: 1) The components of the microbial communities and metabolic pathways were found to be very similar but the metabolic activities increased significantly when the temperature grew from 15 to 35 °C. 2) Hydrogenotrophic metabolism was almost exclusively observed when the temperature was lowered to 9 °C, whereas greater bacterial diversity involving hydrolisis, acidogenesis, and acetogenesis was observed when the temperature was raised to 45 °C. Finally, these dominant bacteria involved in hydrolisis, acidogenesis, and acetogenesis decreased in number when the temperature was raised to 55 °C and acetotrophic-type metabolism became the major metabolic pathway. That means the turning point for microbial community composition and metabolic pathway from mesophilic to thermophilic was at 45 °C and the metabolic pathway at 9 °C was somewhat different to those observed at 15–35 °C.

To further extend temperature range of application and low temperature performance of the ethylene-styrene copolymers, a series of poly(ethylene-styrene-propylene) samples with varying monomer compositions and relatively low glass-transition temperatures (Tg = −28 – 22 °C) were synthesized by Me2Si(Me4Cp)(N-t-Bu)TiCl2/MMAO system. Since the 13C NMR spectra of the terpolymers were complex and some new resonances were present, 2D-1H/13C heteronuclear single quantum coherence and heteronuclear multiple bond correlation experiments were conducted. A complete 13C NMR characterization of these terpolymers was performed qualitatively and quantitatively, including chemical shifts, triad sequence distributions, and monomer average sequence lengths. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2018, 56, 340–350

Purpose: To investigate the role and the underlying mechanism of scaffold attachment factor B (SAFB) in the progression of colorectal cancer (CRC). Experimental Design: SAFB expression was analyzed in the Cancer Outlier Profile Analysis of Oncomine and in 175 paraffin-embedded archived CRC tissues. Gene Ontology analyses were performed to explore the mechanism of SAFB in CRC progression. Western blot, RT-PCR, luciferase assay, and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) were used to detect the regulation of transforming growth factor-β–activated kinase 1 (TAK1) and NF-κB signaling by SAFB. The role of SAFB in invasion, metastasis, and angiogenesis was investigated using in vitro and in vivo assays. The relationship between SAFB and TAK1 was analyzed in CRC tissues. Results: SAFB was downregulated in CRC tissues, and low expression of SAFB was significantly associated with an aggressive phenotype and poorer survival of CRC patients. The downregulation of SAFB activated NF-κB signaling by targeting the TAK1 promoter. Ectopic expression of SAFB inhibited the development of aggressive features and metastasis of CRC cells both in vitro and in vivo. The overexpression of TAK1 could rescue the aggressive features in SAFB-overexpressed cells. Furthermore, the expression of SAFB in CRC tissues was negatively correlated with the expression of TAK1- and NF-κB–related genes. Conclusions: Our results show that SAFB regulated the activity of NF-κB signaling in CRC by targeting TAK1. This novel mechanism provides a comprehensive understanding of both SAFB and the NF-κB signaling pathway in the progression of CRC and indicates that the SAFB–TAK1–NF-κB axis is a potential target for early therapeutic intervention in CRC progression. Clin Cancer Res; 23(22); 7108–18. ©2017 AACR.

Using high-throughput sequencing technology based on 16S rRNA genes and the determination of abiotic factors, the metabolic pathways and microbial community dynamics were analyzed in a batch biogas fermentation process with pig manure as the feedstock at 15 °C. The results showed the followings. 1) The decomposition rate of cellulose and semi-cellulose were close to maximal level at day 40.2) At the phylum level, the most dominant bacteria and archaea were Firmicutes and Euryarchaeota respectively. 3) Most dominant species maintained predominant positions even though the microbial community structure changed throughout the fermentation; in particular, the abundance of dominant bacteria increased when the biogas fermentation peak appeared. 4) The four most dominant bacterial species were involved in hydrolysis of cellulose and semi-cellulose. 5) The metabolic pathway and microbial composition in hydrolysis and acidogenesis are very similar, but those in acetogenesis and methanogenesis are different to some extent. The acetogenesis pathway almost disappeared between days 24 and 72.6) Even though the overall microbial communities consisted of >400 species, the key bacteria and archaea for hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis, and methanogenesis comprised 13–15 species, and most of these species had high similarity (≥97%) to culturable strains.

Several novel mono(β-enaminoketonato) vanadium complexes bearing constrained cyclic skeleton, including [(C6H5)C6H3C(O)=C(CH2) n CH=N-Ar]VCl2(THF)2 (V3a: n = 1, Ar = C6H5; V4a: n = 2, Ar = C6H5; V4b: n = 2, Ar = C6F5; V4c: n = 2, Ar = (C3H7)2C6H3; V5a: n = 3, Ar = C6H5), were synthesized and their structure and properties were characterized. The structures of V4c and V5a in solid-state were further confirmed by X-ray crystallographic analysis. Density functional theory (DFT) results indicated that these complexes showed enhanced steric hindrance around the metal center as compared with the acyclic analogues. Upon activation with Et2AlCl and in the presence of ethyl trichloroacetate as a reactivator, all of the complexes exhibited high catalytic activities (107 gPE/(molV·h)) toward ethylene polymerization, and the obtained polymers exhibited unimodal distributions (M w/M n = 2.0–2.3) even produced at elevated temperatures (70–100 °C) and prolonged reaction time. When MAO was employed as a cocatalyst, they only showed moderate catalytic activities (105 gPE/(molV•h)), but the resulting polymers had higher molecular weights (168–241 kg/mol). These vanadium complexes with cyclic skeleton also showed high catalytic activities toward ethylene/norbornene copolymerization. The produced copolymers displayed approximate alternating structure at high in-feed concentration of norbornene. The catalytic capabilities of these complexes could be tuned conveniently by varying ligand structure. Furthermore, the cyclic voltammetry results also proved that these complexes exhibited better redox stabilities than the complexes bearing linear skeleton.

A series of heteroligated (salicylaldiminato)(β-enaminoketonato)titanium complexes [3-But-2-OC6H3CH = N(C6F5)] [PhN = C(R1)CHC(R2)O]TiCl2 [3a: R1 = CF3, R2 = tBu; 3b: R1 = Me, R2 = CF3; 3c: R1 = CF3, R2 = Ph; 3d: R1 = CF3, R2 = C6H4Ph(p); 3e: R1 = CF3, R2 = C6H4Ph(o); 3f: R = CF3, R2 = C6H4Cl(p); 3g: R1 = CF3; R2 = C6H3Cl2(2,5); 3h: R1 = CF3, R2 = C6H4Me(p)] were investigated as catalysts for ethylene (co)polymerization. In the presence of modified methylaluminoxane as a cocatalyst, these complexes showed activities about 50%–1000% and 10%–100% higher than their corresponding bis(β-enaminoketonato) titanium complexes for ethylene homo- and ethylene/1-hexene copolymerization, respectively. They produced high or moderate molecular weight copolymers with 1-hexene incorporations about 10%–200% higher than their homoligated counterpart pentafluorinated FI-Ti complex. Among them, complex 3b displayed the highest activity [2.06 × 106 g/molTi•h], affording copolymers with the highest 1-hexene incorporations of 34.8 mol% under mild conditions. Moreover, catalyst 3h with electron-donating group not only exhibited much higher 1-hexene incorporations (9.0 mol% vs. 3.2 mol%) than pentafluorinated FI-Ti complex but also generated copolymers with similar narrow molecular weight distributions (Mw/Mn = 1.20–1.26). When the 1-hexene concentration in the feed was about 2.0 mol/L and the hexene incorporation of resultant polymer was about 9.0 mol%, a quasi-living copolymerization behavior could be achieved. 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopic analysis of their resulting copolymers demonstrated the possible copolymerization mechanism, which was related with the chain initiation, monomer insertion style, chain transfer and termination during the polymerization process. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017, 55, 2787–2797

One rare dichlorinated aromatic lactone was isolated from the tin mine tailings-derived fungus Torula sp. YIM DT 10072. Its structure was determined by detailed analysis of spectroscopic data including 1H NMR, 13C NMR, 2D NMR, and HR-FAB-MS. The compound showed antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus with MIC value of 64 μg/mL.

Background Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. Studies have demonstrated that epigenetic modifications play essential roles in the development of CRC. ADHFE1 is a differentially expressed gene that has been reported to be hypermethylated in CRC. However, the role and mechanism of ADHFE1 in the proliferation of CRC remain unclear. Materials and methods ADHFE1 expression was analyzed in CRC tissues by IHC and qRT-PCR, and the relationship between ADHFE1 expression and the clinicopathological parameters was analyzed. Cell proliferation were assessed by the in vitro and in vivo experimental models. GSEA assay was performed to explore the mechanism of ADHFE1 in the proliferation of CRC. Flow cytometry and Western blot were used to detect the activation of the cell cycle signaling. Bisulfite genomic sequence (BSP) assay was used to test the methylation degree of ADHFE1 gene promoter in CRC tissues. Results Here, we verified that ADHFE1 was down-regulated and hypermethylated in CRC tissues. The down-regulation of ADHFE1 was correlated with poor differentiation and advanced TNM stage of CRC patients. And ADHFE1 expression restored when the CRC cell line SW620 was treated with the demethylating agent 5-Aza-CdR. Overexpression of ADHFE1 inhibited the proliferation of CRC, while ADHFE1 knockdown promoted the proliferation of CRC cells in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, ADHFE1 overexpression could induce a significant G1-S cell cycle arrest in CRC cells and vice versa. Conclusion Hypermethylation of ADHFE1 might promote cell proliferation by modulating cell cycle progression in CRC, potentially providing a new therapeutic target for CRC patients.

The Bi2WO6 was prepared by the hydrothermal method and its sonocatalytic activity was studied in the degradation of methyl orange (MO) solutions. The effects of catalytic activity of Bi2WO6 on dye were inspected by the change in absorbance of dye with UV-vis spectrometer. The influences of operational parameters such as the addition amount of Bi2WO6, pH, the initial concentration of dyes, ultrasonic power and irradiation time on the degradation ratio were investigated. In addition, the obtained results indicated that the kinetics of sonochemical reactions of MO were consistent with the pseudo first-order kinetics and Bi2WO6 had excellent reusability and stability during the sonochemical degradation processes. The generation and kinds of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and their influence on the sonochemical degradation of MO were determined by the methods of oxidation-extraction spectrophotometry and ROS scavengers. The results indicate that the degradation of MO in the presence of Bi2WO6 under ultrasonic irradiation is related to the generation of ROS, in which both singlet molecular oxygen ((1)O2) and hydroxyl radical (OH) play important roles in the sonochemical degradation of MO. These experimental results provide a sound foundation for the further development of Bi2WO6 as a sonocatalyst in wastewater treatment.

Objective: To explore the antiviral activity on HSV-1 of the extracellular polysaccharides (EPS) purification of Paecilomyces lilacinus (P. lilacinus) isolated from mangrove in Hainan province. Methods: The toxicity of the EPS purification on Vero cells and its anti-HSV-1 activity were assessed by cytopathic effect(CPE) and MTT assay. The Vero cells survival rates, HSV-1 inhibition rates by the purification and virus titer were calculated. Results: The purification showed little cytotoxic effect on Vero with a CC50 value of 735.49 µg/mL. It could inhibit HSV-1 absorption on Vero cells, and there was a significant difference (P

// Ya-Ping Ye 1, 2, 3, * , Ping Wu 1, 2, 3, * , Chun-cai Gu 1, 2, 3, * , Dan-ling Deng 1, 2, 3 , Hong-Li Jiao 1, 2, 3, Ting-Ting Li 1, 2, 3 , Shu-Yang Wang 1, 2, 3 , Yong-Xia Wang 1, 2, 3 , Zhi-Yuan Xiao 1, 2, 3 , Wen-ting Wei 1, 2, 3 , Yan-Ru Chen 1, 2, 3 , Jun-Feng Qiu 1, 2, 3 , Run-Wei Yang 1, 2, 3 , Jie Lin 1, 2, 3 , Li Liang 1, 2, 3 , Wen-Ting Liao 1, 2, 3 , Yan-Qing Ding 1, 2, 3 1 Department of Pathology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China 2 Department of Pathology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China 3 Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Molecular Tumor Pathology, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Wen-Ting Liao, email: liaowt2002@gmail.com Yan-Qing Ding, email: dyq@fimmu.com Keywords: miR-450b-5p, Wnt/β-Catenin pathway, colorectal cancer, progression, KRAS Received: May 13, 2016 Accepted: July 14, 2016 Published: August 2, 2016 ABSTRACT The development and progression of CRC are regarded as a complicated network and progressive event including genetic and/or epigenetic alterations. Recent researches revealed that MicroRNAs are biomarkers and regulators of CRC progression. Analyses of published microarray datasets revealed that miR-450b-5p was highly up-regulated in CRC tissues. In addition, high expression of miR-450b-5p was significantly associated with KRAS mutation. However, the role of miR-450b-5p in the progression of CRC remains unknown. Here, we sought to validate the expression of miR-450b-5p in CRC tissues and investigate the role and underlying mechanism of miR-450b-5p in the progression of CRC. The results revealed that miR-450b-5p was up-regulated in CRC tissues, high expression level of miR-450b-5p was positively associated with poor differentiation, advanced TNM classification and poor prognosis. Moreover, miR-450b-5p was especially high in KRAS-mutated cell lines and could be up-regulated by KRAS/AP-1 signaling. Functional validation revealed that overexpression of miR-450b-5p promoted cell proliferation and tumor growth while inhibited apoptosis of CRC cells. Furthermore, we demonstrated that miR-450b-5p directly bound the 3’-UTRs of SFRP2 and SIAH1, and activated Wnt/β-Catenin signaling. In conclusion, miR-450b-5p induced by oncogenic KRAS is required for colorectal cancer progression. Collectively, our work helped to understand the precise role of miR-450b-5p in the progression of CRC, and might promote the development of new therapeutic strategies against CRC.

A novel haloalkalitolerant, rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain YIM 4-4T, was isolated from the surface water of the Dugerno lake, a haloalkaline lake in Inner Mongolia. The taxonomy of strain YIM 4-4T was investigated by a polyphasic approach. Strain YIM 4-4T was Gram-stain-negative, strictly aerobic, non-motile and formed red colonies. Optimal growth conditions were 28 °C, pH 8.0–11.0 and 0.5–2 % NaCl. The major respiratory quinone was menaquinone-7 (MK-7). The polar lipid profile was composed predominantly of phosphatidylethanolamine, six unidentified polar lipids, one phospholipid and one aminolipid. The predominant cellular fatty acids (>5 %) were iso-C15 : 0, iso-C17 : 1I/anteiso-C17 : 1B, iso-C16 : 1G, iso-C17 : 0 3-OH, C16 : 1ω7c/C16 : 1ω6c and iso-C16 : 1. The genomic DNA G+C content was 43.0 mol%. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that the members of the genera Cecembia, Fontibacter, Aquiflexum and Indibacter of the family Cyclobacteriaceae (phylum Bacteroidetes) were the most closely related, with 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities ranging from 93.6 to 94.2 %. Other members of the family Cyclobacteriaceae showed sequence similarities

Although Halomonas phages belonging to the families Myoviridae and Siphoviridae have been reported, no virulent Halomonas siphoviruses are known. In this study, a virulent bacteriophage, QHHSV-1, of the family Siphoviridae that specifically infects H. ventosae QH52-2 was isolated from the Qiaohou salt mine. Restriction analysis indicated that QHHSV-1 is a dsDNA virus with a genome size of 33.5-39.5 kb. Transmission electron microscopy showed that QHHSV-1 is a typical representative of the Siphoviridae, with an icosahedral head (47 nm in diameter) and a non-contractile tail (75 nm in length). We also assessed the adsorption rate of QHHSV-1 for the host bacterium and found significant inhibition after the addition of 10 mM CaCl2. Based on a one-step growth curve, we determined a latent period of 30 min and a burst size of 73 PFU/infected cell. At the optimal pH of 8.0, 25.9 and 15.2 % of the phages survived after a 60-min incubation at 50 and 60 °C, respectively. Phage replication was possible at a wide range of salt concentrations, from 2.0 to 20 % (w/v), with an optimum concentration of 5 %. The survival of QHHSV-1 at different salt concentrations decreased with time and 25 % survival after 25 days at 30 % salt concentration.

The effect of total organic carbon (TOC) on the prokaryotic community structure in situ has been rarely known. This study aimed to determine the effect of TOC level on the composition and networks of archaeal and bacterial communities in the sediments of Dianchi Lake, one of the most eutrophic lakes in China. Microbial assemblages showed significantly associations with TOC. Moreover, relatively high and low TOC formed taxonomic differences in prokaryotic assemblages. According to the results, the most abundant bacteria across all samples were identified as members of the phyla Proteobacteria, Nitrospirae, Chloroflexi, Firmicutes and Ignavibacteriae. The dominant groups of archaea consisted of Euryarchaeota, Woesearchaeota DHVEG-6, Bathyarchaeota and WSA2. Lastly, the meta-analysis results highlighted that the low TOC (LT) prokaryotic community structure is larger and more complex compared to moderate TOC (MT). On the whole, the prokaryotic community structure is obviously distinct among groups with different TOC levels, and LT communities may interact with each other strongly in the Dianchi Lake sediment. This study can provide more insights into prokaryotic assemblages in eutrophic lake sediment and provide suggestions for the restoration and maintenance of sediment ecosystems.

Growth and productivity of rice is negatively affected by soil salinity. However, some salt-tolerant bacteria improve the health of plants under saline stress. In this study, 305 bacteria were isolated from paddy soil in Taoyuan, China. Among these, 162 strains were tested for salt-tolerance; 67.3%, 28.4%, and 9.3% of the strains could grow in media with NaCl concentrations of 50, 100, and 150 g/L, respectively. The phylogenic analysis of 74 of these 162 strains indicates that these bacteria belong to Bacillales (72%), Actinomycetales (22%), Rhizobiales (1%), and Oceanospirillales (4%). Among 162 strains, 30 salt-tolerant strains were screened for their plant-growth-promoting activities under axenic conditions at 3, 6, 9, and 12 g/L NaCl; 43%–97% of the strains could improve rice germination energy or germination capacity, while 63%–87% of the strains could increase shoot and root lengths. Among various plant-growth-promoting bacteria, TY0307 was the most effective strain for promoting the growth of rice, even at high salt stress. Its promotor effects were associated with its production of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxycarboxylate deaminase, indole acetic acid, and siderophores; induction of proline accumulation; and reduction of the salt-induced malondialdehyde content. These results suggest that several strains isolated from paddy soil could improve rice salt tolerance and may be used in the development of biofertilizer.

Metastatic progression is the main contributor to the poor prognosis of colorectal cancer (CRC). Thus, identifying the determinants of CRC metastasis will be of great significance. Based on our previous bioinformatics analysis, Syntaxin2 (STX2) may be upregulated and correlated with the poor prognosis of CRC patients. In this study, we found that STX2 expression was associated with CRC invasion and metastasis and poor patient survival. Gain- and loss-of-function analyses demonstrated that STX2 functioned as a key oncogene by promoting CRC invasion and metastasis. Mechanistically, STX2 selectively interacted with tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 6 (TRAF6) and activated the nuclear transcription factor-κB (NF-κB) signaling pathway. Furthermore, chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) analysis revealed that NF-κB directly bound to the STX2 promoter and drove STX2 transcription. Therefore, STX2 activated the NF-κB pathway, and in turn, NF-κB increased STX2 expression, forming a positive signaling loop that eventually promoted CRC metastasis. Collectively, our results reveal STX2 as a crucial modulator of the aggressive CRC phenotype and highlight STX2 as a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for combating CRC metastasis.

Breast cancer remains the leading cause of mortality worldwide. Human papilloma virus 16 (HPV16) may serve a function in the pathogenesis and development of breast cancer. However, the detection rate of HPV16 in breast carcinoma may vary by region. In the present study, the expression of HPV16 E7 in paraffin-embedded tissues from patients with breast cancer from North China was detected. Additionally, the molecular mechanisms underlying the function of HPV16 E7 in the proliferation of breast cancer cells were examined. The results demonstrated that the DNA of HPV16 E7 was detected in 30.5% of the samples, and that HPV16 E7 promoted the proliferation of breast cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. Additionally, HPV16 E7-mediated proliferation of breast cancer cells was suppressed in response to treatment with cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2)-specific small interfering RNA and celecoxib. The results of the present study revealed that HPV16 E7 may promote the proliferation of breast cancer cells by upregulating COX-2, suggesting that COX-2 may be a potential therapeutic target for HPV16 E7-mediated progression of breast cancer.

Background L-2-Hydroxyglutaric aciduria (L-2-HGA) is a rare organic aciduria neurometabolic disease that is inherited as an autosomal recessive mode and have a variety of symptoms, such as psychomotor developmental retardation, epilepsy, cerebral symptoms as well as increased concentrations of 2-hydroxyglutarate (2-HG) in the plasma, urine and cerebrospinal fluid. The causative gene of L-2-HGA is L-2-hydroxyglutarate dehydrogenase gene (L2HGDH), which consists of 10 exons. Case presentation We presented a rare patient primary diagnosis of L-2-HGA based on the clinical symptoms, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) results. Mutational analysis of the L2HGDH gene was performed on the L-2-HGA patient and his parents, which revealed two novel mutations in exon 3: a homozygous missense mutation (c.407 A > G, p.K136R) in both the maternal and paternal allele, and a heterozygous frameshift mutation [c.407 A > G, c.408 del G], (p.K136SfsX3) in the paternal allele. The mutation site p.K136R of the protein was located in the pocket of the FAD/NAD(P)-binding domain and predicted to be pathogenic. Conclusion We predicted the homozygous missense mutation (c.407 A > G, p.K136R) was considered as the pathogenic mutation of the patient. The study highlights the power of pedigree analysis in order to interpret novel mutations.