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【Objective】The loess hilly region in southern Ningxia is ecologically fragile and naturalising farmland is a way to restore its ecological functions. While soil water is a key factor regulating ecosystem functions and stability, its response to rainfall in naturalised farmlands is not well understood. This paper investigates the spatiotemporal soil water dynamics and its response to rainfall in such ecosystems.【Method】Based on rainfall and soil moisture data measured from April to October 2023 in the vadose zone of a typical grassland (CD) and farmland (NT) in the southern Ningxia, we analysed the characteristics of soil water movement and their response to rainfall in the two ecosystems.【Result】① Light rainfall events only replenished the top 10 cm soil layer, while moderate rainfall events replenished the 0-30 cm soil layer. Under moderate rainfalls, noticeable soil moisture changes were observed mainly in the 10 cm and 30 cm layers in both ecosystems. ② There were significant differences in the response ti

Furthermore, biopsies taken after sacrifice did not reveal any tumors, indicating that HCC1937 cells did not form solid tumors. Besides imaging, a human-specific PCR primer set was designed, validated, and utilized in this study to evaluate ctDNA (Suppl. [See PDF for image] Fig. 1 Detection of ctDNA in xenograft mouse models. (a-g) NCG mice engrafted with HCC1937 cells (named m1 to m6, respectively). (a) Study design and experiment timepoints. (b) In vivo imaging results at various timepoints. (c) Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging results at week 12 post engraftment. [...]due to its high sensitivity, ctDNA has been effectively utilized for monitoring minimal residual disease and predicting early cancer relapses [4, 5]. [...]our study highlights the persistence of ctDNA in xenograft mice lacking recognizable tumors, underscoring the limitations of current in vivo imaging methods.

The central mechanisms underlying pain chronicity remain elusive. Here, we identify a reciprocal neuronal circuit in mice between the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the ventral tegmental area (VTA) that mediates mutual exacerbation between hyperalgesia and allodynia and their emotional consequences and, thereby, the chronicity of neuropathic pain. ACC glutamatergic neurons (ACC Glu ) projecting to the VTA indirectly inhibit dopaminergic neurons (VTA DA ) by activating local GABAergic interneurons (VTA GABA ), and this effect is reinforced after nerve injury. VTA DA neurons in turn project to the ACC and synapse to the initial ACC Glu neurons to convey feedback information from emotional changes. Thus, an ACC Glu –VTA GABA –VTA DA –ACC Glu positive-feedback loop mediates the progression to and maintenance of persistent pain and comorbid anxiodepressive-like behavior. Disruption of this feedback loop relieves hyperalgesia and anxiodepressive-like behavior in a mouse model of neuropathic pain, both acutely and in the long term. This study identifies a positive-feedback loop between the ACC and the VTA that mediates the mutual exacerbation between hyperalgesia and comorbid anxiodepressive-like behaviors and, thereby, the chronicity of neuropathic pain.

Cell‐free DNA (cfDNA) in plasma consists of short DNA fragments resulting from a non‐random fragmentation process, with distinct fragmentomic characteristics that are related with their cellular origins. Here, we report that somatic variant signatures in cfDNA markedly differ between non‐cancerous controls and cancer patients, indicating that tumor‐associated signals are retained in these variants. Surprisingly, even in controls, cfDNA molecules harboring somatic variants exhibit cancer‐like fragmentomic characteristics, such as reduced size, decreased DNA methylation, and altered end motif usages and distributions in the nucleosome structure. Further investigations suggest that such cancer‐like traits are associated with somatic variants derived from clonal hematopoiesis. Importantly, these somatic variants‐associated fragmentomic aberrations are more pronounced in cancer patients, enabling cancer diagnosis. In a large pan‐cancer cohort, we utilize AI to integrate genomic, fragmentomic, and epigenomic features to develop diagnostic models named FreeSV and FreeSV+. Leveraging somatic variant‐associated features alone, the FreeSV model achieved area under the ROC curves (AUCs) between 0.81–0.92 across cancer types; however, when genomewide features are also included, the AUCs of FreeSV+ model substantially increased to 0.93–0.99 across cancer types, highlighting the significance of integrative genomic and fragmentomic analyses in cfDNA for cancer liquid biopsy. We report that in non‐cancerous subjects, cell‐free (cfDNA) molecules harboring somatic variants exhibit cancer‐like fragmentomic characteristics associated with clonal hematopoiesis. Importantly, these somatic variant‐associated fragmentomic aberrations are more pronounced in cancer patients. Leveraging such somatic variant‐associated signals in cfDNA, we develop FreeSV and FreeSV+ models and validate them in a large‐scale cohort, which demonstrates high performance for pan‐cancer diagnosis.

Chloranthus serratus is a traditional Chinese medicine for treating arthritis and bruises. The aim of the present study was to investigate the anti-arthritic activities and possible associated mechanisms of different isolated sites of Chloranthus serratus (DISC) in adjuvant-induced arthritis (AA) rats. The therapeutic effects of the extracts were assessed through changes in body weights, swelling rates, arthritis indexes (AI) and organ indexes. The levels of nitric oxide (NO), malondialdehyde and superoxide dismutase were determined using one-step method, TBA method and hydroxylamine method, respectively; the levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, prostaglandin E2, macrophage inhibitor factor-1, VEGF, immunoglobulin (Ig) G, IgM and IFN-γ in serum were determined using ELISA. Pathological changes and positive expression of VEGF in the ankle joints were investigated using hematoxylin-eosin staining and immunohistochemical staining, respectively. DISC treatment increased the weight gains and thymus indexes, and decreased the swelling rates, spleen indexes and AI in AA rats. The water isolated site (WA) and ethyl acetate isolated site (EA) significantly reversed complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA)-induced changes in the levels of NO, IL-6, TNF-α, IgG and IFN-γ, while the n-butanol isolated site (NB) only reversed the changes in IL-6 and IgG contents. Some changes in the chloroform isolated site group showed the same trend as those in the model group. The extracts relieved synovial hyperplasia, inflammatory cell infiltration and articular surface defects, and reduced the positive expression rate of VEGF in the synovial tissues of the AA rats to varying degrees. The WA exhibited the most marked effects, followed by the EA and NB, indicating that WA had optimal therapeutic effects on CFA-induced arthritic rats, which may be mediated by the oxidative stress and inhibition of inflammatory factors. C. serratus may serve as a potential candidate for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

4-Acetoxy-2-propyltetrahydrothiophene was synthesised from 1-hepten-4-ol by a three-step route involving epoxidation and mesylation to 1,2-epoxy-4-heptyl mesylate and then reaction with thioacetate. An acetoxylated cyclic product was formed instead of the expected thioacetate, and a mechanism for its formation using an intramolecular transesterification is proposed.

Fragmentomics of plasma cell-free DNA (cfDNA) are emerging diagnostic biomarkers in cancer liquid biopsy, while the molecular regulations of cfDNA fragmentation remain elusive. In this study, we investigated the cfDNA fragmentomics in transposon elements (TEs), a special category of sequences accounting for around half of human genome. We discovered dynamics in fragmentomic features across various types of TEs in human cfDNA, including size, ending patterns and coverage, which were validated in mice and dogs. These dynamics highly correlate with epigenomic features associated with chromatin states, including DNA methylation and histone modification signals, demonstrating fundamental regulatory roles of chromatin state in cfDNA production. Furthermore, fragmentomic features within TEs were significantly altered in cancer samples, offering improved diagnostic performance compared to genome-wide fragmentomic measurements. Additionally, cfDNA coverage in TEs showed frequent imbalances between cancer and control samples in a TE- and cancer type-dependent manner, presenting a promising biomarker for cancer diagnosis. Leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) on cfDNA fragmentomic features within TEs, we developed high-performance models, named TEANA (TE Analysis in cell-free DNA), for cancer diagnosis and tumor-origin prediction. The models were validated across two pan-cancer datasets with more than 1600 samples. Hence, dynamics of cfDNA fragmentomics within TEs, which is highly correlated with cfDNA epigenomics, shed light on the regulatory mechanism of cfDNA biology and highlight translational potential in cancer liquid biopsy.