Explore the vast range of titles available.

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory vascular disease driven by traditional and nontraditional risk factors. Genome-wide association combined with clonal lineage tracing and clinical trials have demonstrated that innate and adaptive immune responses can promote or quell atherosclerosis. Several signaling pathways, that are associated with the inflammatory response, have been implicated within atherosclerosis such as NLRP3 inflammasome, toll-like receptors, proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9, Notch and Wnt signaling pathways, which are of importance for atherosclerosis development and regression. Targeting inflammatory pathways, especially the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway and its regulated inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β, could represent an attractive new route for the treatment of atherosclerotic diseases. Herein, we summarize the knowledge on cellular participants and key inflammatory signaling pathways in atherosclerosis, and discuss the preclinical studies targeting these key pathways for atherosclerosis, the clinical trials that are going to target some of these processes, and the effects of quelling inflammation and atherosclerosis in the clinic.

Objectives Neuroinflammation has been suggested that affects the processing of depression. There is renewed interest in berberine owing to its anti-inflammatory effects. Herein, we investigated whether berberine attenuate depressive-like behaviors via inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome activation in mice model of depression. Methods Adult male C57BL/6N mice were administrated corticosterone (CORT, 20 mg/kg/day) for 35 days. Two doses (100 mg/kg/day and 200 mg/kg/day) of berberine were orally administrated from day 7 until day 35. Behavioral tests were performed to measure the depression-like behaviors alterations. Differentially expressed gene analysis was performed for RNA-sequencing data in the prefrontal cortex. NLRP3 inflammasome was measured by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, western blotting, and immunofluorescence labeling. The neuroplasticity and synaptic function were measured by immunofluorescence labeling, Golgi–Cox staining, transmission electron microscope, and whole-cell patch-clamp recordings. Results The results of behavioral tests demonstrated that berberine attenuated the depression-like behaviors induced by CORT. RNA-sequencing identified that NLRP3 was markedly upregulated after long-term CORT exposure. Berberine reversed the concentrations of peripheral and brain cytokines, NLRP3 inflammasome elicited by CORT in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus were decreased by berberine. In addition, the lower frequency of neuronal excitation as well as the dendritic spine reduction were reversed by berberine treatment. Together, berberine increases hippocampal adult neurogenesis and synaptic plasticity induced by CORT. Conclusion The anti-depressants effects of berberine were accompanied by reduced the neuroinflammatory response via inhibiting the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome and rescued the neuronal deterioration via suppression of impairments in synaptic plasticity and neurogenesis.

Verticillium dahliae isolates are most virulent on the host from which they were originally isolated. Mechanisms underlying these dominant host adaptations are currently unknown. We sequenced the genome of V. dahliae Vd991, which is highly virulent on its original host, cotton, and performed comparisons with the reference genomes of JR2 (from tomato) and VdLs.17 (from lettuce). Pathogenicity-related factor prediction, orthology and multigene family classification, transcriptome analyses, phylogenetic analyses, and pathogenicity experiments were performed. The Vd991 genome harbored several exclusive, lineage-specific (LS) genes within LS regions (LSRs). Deletion mutants of the seven genes within one LSR (G-LSR2) in Vd991 were less virulent only on cotton. Integration of G-LSR2 genes individually into JR2 and VdLs.17 resulted in significantly enhanced virulence on cotton but did not affect virulence on tomato or lettuce. Transcription levels of the seven LS genes in Vd991 were higher during the early stages of cotton infection, as compared with other hosts. Phylogenetic analyses suggested that G-LSR2 was acquired from Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum through horizontal gene transfer. Our results provide evidence that horizontal gene transfer from Fusarium to Vd991 contributed significantly to its adaptation to cotton and may represent a significant mechanism in the evolution of an asexual plant pathogen.

Clinical ophthalmologists consider each retinal disease as a completely unique entity. However, various retinal diseases, such as uveitis, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and primary open-angle glaucoma, share a number of common pathogenetic pathways. Whether a retinal disease initiates from direct injury to the blood-retinal barrier (BRB) or a defect/injury to retinal neurons or glia that impairs the BRB secondarily, the BRB is a pivotal point in determining the prognosis as self-limiting and recovering, or developing and progressing to a clinical phenotype. The present review summarizes our current knowledge on the physiology and cellular and molecular pathology of the BRB, which underlies its pivotal role in the initiation and development of common retinal diseases.

Wireless sensor network (WSN) in the Internet of Things consists of a large number of nodes. The proposal of compressive sensing technology provides a novel way for data aggregation in WSN. Based on the clustering structure of WSN, a kind of effective data aggregating method based on compressive sensing is proposed in this paper. The aggregating process is divided into two parts: in the cluster, the sink node sets the corresponding seed vector based on the distribution of network and then sends it to each cluster head. Cluster head can generate corresponding own random spacing sparse matrix based on its received seed vector and collect data through compressive sensing technology. Among clusters, clusters forward measurement values to the sink node along multi-hop routing tree. Performance analysis and comparison with the relative methods show that our method is effective and superior to other methods regardless of intra-cluster or inter-cluster on the total energy consumption of network.

Members of microRNA-200 (miRNA-200) family have a regulatory role in epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) by suppressing Zeb1 and Zeb2 expression. Consistent with its role in suppressing EMT, Hsa-miR-200c-3p (miR-200c), a member of miR-200 family is poorly expressed in mesenchymal-like triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells and ectopic miR-200c expression suppresses cell migration. In this study, we demonstrated that miR-200c potently inhibited TNBC cell growth and tumor development in a mechanism distinct from its ability to downregulate Zeb1 and Zeb2 expression, because silencing them only marginally affected TNBC cell growth. We identified phosphodiesterase 7B (PDE7B) as a bona fide miR-200c target. Importantly, miR-200c-led inhibition in cell growth and tumor development was prevented by forcing PDE7B transgene expression, while knockdown of PDE7B effectively inhibited cell growth. These results suggest that miR-200c inhibits cell growth by targeting PDE7B mRNA. To elucidate mechanism underlying miR-200c/PDE7B regulation of TNBC cell growth, we showed that cAMP concentration was lower in TNBC cells compared with estrogen receptor-positive (ER + ) cells, and that both miR-200c and PDE7B siRNAs were able to increase cAMP concentration in TNBC cells. High level of cellular cAMP has been shown to induce cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in TNBC cells. Our observation that ectopic expression of miR-200c triggered apoptosis indicates that it does so by elevating level of cellular cAMP. Analysis of breast tumor gene expression datasets revealed an inverse association between miR-200c and PDE7B expression. Especially, both low miR-200c and high PDE7B expression were correlated with poor survival of breast cancer patients. Our study supports a critical role of miR-200c/PDE7B relationship in TNBC tumorigenesis.

Mare volcanics on the Moon are the key record of thermo-chemical evolution throughout most of lunar history 1 – 3 . Young mare basalts—mainly distributed in a region rich in potassium, rare-earth elements and phosphorus (KREEP) in Oceanus Procellarum, called the Procellarum KREEP Terrane (PKT) 4 —were thought to be formed from KREEP-rich sources at depth 5 – 7 . However, this hypothesis has not been tested with young basalts from the PKT. Here we present a petrological and geochemical study of the basalt clasts from the PKT returned by the Chang’e-5 mission 8 . These two-billion-year-old basalts are the youngest lunar samples reported so far 9 . Bulk rock compositions have moderate titanium and high iron contents  with KREEP-like rare-earth-element and high thorium concentrations. However, strontium–neodymium isotopes indicate that these basalts were derived from a non-KREEP mantle source. To produce the high abundances of rare-earth elements and thorium, low-degree partial melting and extensive fractional crystallization are required. Our results indicate that the KREEP association may not be a prerequisite for young mare volcanism. Absolving the need to invoke heat-producing elements in their source implies a more sustained cooling history of the lunar interior to generate the Moon’s youngest melts. Isotopic analysis of basalt clasts returned from the Moon by the Chang’e-5 mission indicates that the rocks were derived from a mantle source that lacked potassium, rare-earth elements and phosphorus.

Andrenidae is a major pollinator lineage with considerable ecological importance, yet limited molecular resources have impeded comprehensive understanding of its evolutionary history. This study sequenced and assembled five mitogenomes of Andrenidae, which were collected from Xizang, Tibet. Analyses included sequence size, nucleotide composition, Ka/Ks ratios, and gene rearrangements. The assembled mitogenomes ranged from 15,631 to 18,506 bp in length. AT content (%) varied between 74.46 and 79.85. Relative synonymous codon usage analysis revealed that AUU, UUA, UUU, and UUA were the most frequently preferred codons. All 13 protein-coding genes displayed Ka/Ks values below one, with ATP8 showing the highest ratio and COX1 the lowest. Gene rearrangements occurred in all mitogenomes, and three distinct tRNA rearrangement patterns were detected. This study provided more available molecular data for future evolutionary biology studies of Andrenidae. Additionally, 24 previously published Apoidea mitogenomes (three outgroups and 26 ingroups) were incorporated to infer phylogenetic relationships using Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference methods. The results supported Melittidae as the basal lineage of bees, while Andrenidae was recovered as the sister clade to Halictidae + Colletidae.

Background The extracellular space between the cell wall and plasma membrane is a battlefield in plant-pathogen interactions. Within this space, the pathogen employs its secretome to attack the host in a variety of ways, including immunity manipulation. However, the role of the plant secretome is rarely studied for its role in disease resistance. Results Here, we examined the secretome of Verticillium wilt-resistant Gossypium hirsutum cultivar Zhongzhimian No.2 (ZZM2, encoding 95,327 predicted coding sequences) to determine its role in disease resistance against the wilt causal agent, Verticillium dahliae . Bioinformatics-driven analyses showed that the ZZM2 genome encodes 2085 secreted proteins and that these display disequilibrium in their distribution among the chromosomes. The cotton secretome displayed differences in the abundance of certain amino acid residues as compared to the remaining encoded proteins due to the localization of these putative proteins in the extracellular space. The secretome analysis revealed conservation for an allotetraploid genome, which nevertheless exhibited variation among orthologs and comparable unique genes between the two sub-genomes. Secretome annotation strongly suggested its involvement in extracellular stress responses (hydrolase activity, oxidoreductase activity, and extracellular region, etc.), thus contributing to resistance against the V. dahliae infection. Furthermore, the defense response genes (immunity marker NbHIN1 , salicylic acid marker NbPR1 , and jasmonic acid marker NbLOX4 ) were activated to varying degrees when Nicotina benthamiana leaves were agro-infiltrated with 28 randomly selected members, suggesting that the secretome plays an important role in the immunity response. Finally, gene silencing assays of 11 members from 13 selected candidates in ZZM2 displayed higher susceptibility to V. dahliae , suggesting that the secretome members confer the Verticillium wilt resistance in cotton. Conclusions Our data demonstrate that the cotton secretome plays an important role in Verticillium wilt resistance, facilitating the development of the resistance gene markers and increasing the understanding of the mechanisms regulating disease resistance.

Lepidopteran pheromone receptors (PRs), for which orthologies are evident among closely related species, provide an intriguing example of gene family evolution in terms of how new functions may arise. However, only a limited number of PRs have been functionally characterized so far and thus evolutionary scenarios suffer from elements of speculation. In this study we investigated the turnip moth Agrotis segetum, in which female moths produce a mixture of chemically related pheromone components that elicit specific responses from receptor cells on male antennae. We cloned nine A. segetum PR genes and the Orco gene by degenerate primer based RT-PCR. The nine PR genes, named as AsegOR1 and AsegOR3-10, fall into four distinct orthologous clusters of known lepidopteran PRs, of which one contains six paralogues. The paralogues are under relaxed selective pressure, contrasting with the purifying selection on other clusters. We identified the receptors AsegOR9, AsegOR4 and AsegOR5, specific for the respective homologous pheromone components (Z)-5-decenyl, (Z)-7-dodecenyl and (Z)-9-tetradecenyl acetates, by two-electrode voltage clamp recording from Xenopus laevis oocytes co-expressing Orco and each PR candidate. These receptors occur in three different orthologous clusters. We also found that the six paralogues with high sequence similarity vary dramatically in ligand selectivity and sensitivity. Different from AsegOR9, AsegOR6 showed a relatively large response to the behavioural antagonist (Z)-5-decenol, and a small response to (Z)-5-decenyl acetate. AsegOR1 was broadly tuned, but most responsive to (Z)-5-decenyl acetate, (Z)-7-dodecenyl acetate and the behavioural antagonist (Z)-8-dodecenyl acetate. AsegOR8 and AsegOR7, which differ from AsegOR6 and AsegOR1 by 7 and 10 aa respectively, showed much lower sensitivities. AsegOR10 showed only small responses to all the tested compounds. These results suggest that new receptors arise through gene duplication, and relaxed evolutionary constraints or positive selection among paralogues allow functional divergence to occur in spite of purifying selection being the norm.