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AbstractAccumulating evidence has shown that inflammation, the gut microbiota, and neurotransmitters are closely associated with the pathophysiology of depression. However, the links between the gut microbiota and neurotransmitter metabolism remain poorly understood. The present study aimed to investigate the neuroinflammatory reactions in chronic restraint stress (CRS)-induced depression and to delineate the potential links between the gut microbiota and neurotransmitter metabolism. C57BL/6 mice were subjected to chronic restraint stress for 5 weeks, followed by behavioural tests (the sucrose preference test, forced swim test, open field test, and elevated plus maze) and analysis. The results showed that CRS significantly increased interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β), interleukin-2 (IL-2), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumour necrosis factor α (TNFα) levels and decreased brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression, accompanied by the activation of IkappaB-alpha-phosphorylation-nuclear factor kappa-B (IκBα-p-NF-κB) signalling in the mouse hippocampus. In addition, the neurotransmitter metabolomics results showed that CRS resulted in decreased levels of plasma 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), dopamine (DA), and noradrenaline (NE) and their corresponding metabolites, and gut microbiota faecal metabolites with the 16S rRNA gene sequencing indicated that CRS caused marked microbiota dysbiosis in mice, with a significant increase in Helicobacter, Lactobacillus, and Oscillibacter and a decrease in Parabacteroides, Ruminococcus, and Prevotella. Notably, CRS-induced depressive behaviours and the disturbance of neurotransmitter metabolism and microbiota dysbiosis can be substantially restored by dexamethasone (DXMS) administration. Furthermore, a Pearson heatmap focusing on correlations between the microbiota, behaviours, and neurotransmitters showed that Helicobacter, Lactobacillus, and Oscillibacter were positively correlated with depressive behaviours but were negatively correlated with neurotransmitter metabolism, and Parabacteroides and Ruminococcus were negatively correlated with depressive behaviours but were positively correlated with neurotransmitter metabolism. Taken together, the results suggest that inflammation is involved in microbiota dysbiosis and the disturbance of neurotransmitter metabolism in CRS-induced depressive changes, and the delineation of the potential links between the microbiota and neurotransmitter metabolism will provide novel strategies for depression treatment.

The development of fungal fruiting bodies from a hyphal thallus is inducible under low temperature (cold stress). The molecular mechanism has been subject to surprisingly few studies. Analysis of gene expression level has become an important means to study gene function and its regulation mechanism. But identification of reference genes (RGs) stability under cold stress have not been reported in famous medicinal mushroom-forming fungi Cordyceps militaris. Herein, 12 candidate RGs had been systematically validated under cold stress in C. militaris. Three different algorithms, geNorm, NormFinder and BestKeeper were applied to evaluate the expression stability of the RGs. Our results showed that UBC and UBQ were the most stable RGs for cold treatments in short and long periods, respectively. 2 RGs (UBC and PP2A) and 3 RGs (UBQ, TUB and CYP) were the suitable RGs for cold treatments in short and long periods, respectively. Moreover, target genes, two-component-system histidine kinase genes, were selected to validate the most and least stable RGs under cold treatment, which indicated that use of unstable expressed genes as RGs leads to biased results. Our results provide a good starting point for accurate reverse transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction normalization by using UBC and UBQ in C. militaris under cold stress and better support for understanding the mechanism of response to cold stress and fruiting body formation in C. militaris and other mushroom-forming fungi in future research.

Herein, a novel Ag NP substrate doped with Au nanobipyramids was designed and fabricated via a convenient procedure of galvanic reaction for the identification and classification of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) in oral fluids in combination with surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). The substrate was shown to have a three-dimensional nanostructure, high SERS activity, and good stability. In combination with SERS, the Ag NP substrate doped with Au nanobipyramids was able to detect ultra-low traces of ATS, including amphetamine, methylamphetamine (MA), 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA), and 3,4-methylenedioxymethylamphetamine (MDMA) in oral fluid with limit of detection (LOD) and limit of determination quantitation (LOQ) as low as 10 –9  mg/mL, which is much better than the current spectroscopic techniques. The equations between concentration and peaks intensity for quantitative analysis displied good doublelogarithmic linear relations and reliability figures of merit at nanogram concentration level in compartion with GC–MS method. The approach can be broadly applied to the ultra-low trace detection of ATS in oral fluid and would be particularly useful for the analyses of nitrogenous organic compounds.

A low-profile broadband circularly polarized (CP) crossed-dipole antenna is proposed. In this antenna, the dipole uses a fractal-based structure with multiple similar patches for obtaining broadband CP radiation and impedance matching. The incorporation of the crossed-dipole antenna with four triangular parasitic patches improves both the impedance and axial ratio (AR) bandwidths. Four parasitic coupled inverted-L metal plates are loaded on the ground plane to significantly enhance the AR bandwidth and reduce the antenna profile. The measured results are in agreement with the simulations, which demonstrates that the proposed antenna has a low profile of 0.18 λ 0 , a − 10 dB impedance bandwidth of 91% (2.78–7.42 GHz), a 3 dB AR bandwidth of 81.5% (2.99–7.1 GHz), and a good right hand circular polarization (RHCP) radiation pattern with an average gain of 7.9 dBi over the whole operating band.

Caffeoylquinic acids, coumarins and dicaffeoyl derivatives are considered to be three kinds of the most abundant bioactive components in Sarcandra glabra , an anti-inflammatory herb mainly found in Southern Asia. The combined anti-inflammatory effect of three typical constituents C + R + I (chlorogenic acid + rosmarinic acid + isofraxidin) from this plant has been investigated. The result implies that targeting the MAPK-NF-κB pathway would be one of the major mechanisms involved, using LPS stimulated RAW 264.7 cells as in vitro model and LPS-induced acute lung injury in mice as in vivo model. C + R + I can significantly suppress the levels of nitric oxide (NO), pro-inflammatory cytokines, and inhibit iNOS and COX-2 expression in LPS-treated RAW264.7 macrophage cells. Western blot analysis showed that C + R + I suppressed phosphorylation of NF-κB and MAPK, including phosphorylation of p65-NF-κB, IKB, ERK, JNK and P38. Besides, C + R + I suppressed MPO protein expression, but promoted SOD and HO-1 expression, and the related targets for C, R, and I were also predicted by molecular docking. This indicated that C + R + I could alleviate oxidative stress induced by LPS, which were further verified in the in vivo model of mice with acute lung injury through the measurement of corresponding inflammatory mediators and the analysis of immunehistochemistry.

The exploration and understanding of self‐assembly and stimuli‐responsive mechanisms of supramolecular systems are of fundamental importance for researchers to plan syntheses reasonably. Herein, the self‐assembly and ions responsive mechanisms of a tripodal quinolinamido‐based supramolecular organogel (TBT‐gel) were investigated through experiments and theoretical calculations including independent gradient model (IGM), localized orbitals locator (LOL) and hole‐electron theory. According to these studies, the self‐assembly mechanism of TBT‐gel was based on strong threefold H‐bonding and π–π interactions, which induced the TBT forming helical, one‐dimensional supramolecular polymer. After addition of Fe3+ into the TBT‐gel, the one‐dimensional supramolecular polymer had been crosslinked by the Fe3+ through coordination interaction and formed a metallogel (TBT‐Fe‐gel). Interestingly, the TBT‐gel showed selective fluorescent response for Fe3+ and F− based on a competitive coordination mechanism. Moreover, the study on fluorescence responsive mechanism of TBT‐gel for Fe3+ and F− implied the ICT mode governs both the electron excitation and de‐excitation processes. The calculated results were in agreement with the corresponding experimental results. Notably, the quantum chemical calculations provided a deep understanding and visualized presentation of the assembly and stimuli‐responsive mechanisms. Tripodal gelator in action: The assembly and stimuli‐responsive mechanisms of the tripodal quinolinamido‐based supramolecular organogel (TBT‐gel) were studied by using experiments and theoretical calculations. The calculated results agreed with the corresponding experimental results. It is worth mentioning that the quantum chemical calculations provided a deep visualized presentation of the assembly and stimuli‐responsive mechanisms.

Airway epithelium plays critical roles in regulating airway surface liquid (ASL), the alteration of which causes mucus stasis symptoms. Allicin is a compound released from garlic and harbors the capacity of lung-protection. However, the potential regulatory effects of allicin on airway epithelium remain elusive. This study aimed to investigate the effects of allicin on ion transport across airway epithelium and evaluate its potential as an expectorant. Application of allicin induced Cl − secretion across airway epithelium in a concentration-dependent manner. Blockade of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) or inhibition of adenylate cyclase-cAMP signaling pathway attenuated allicin-induced Cl − secretion in airway epithelial cells. The in vivo study showed that inhaled allicin significantly increased the ASL secretion in mice. These results suggest that allicin induces Cl − and fluid secretion across airway epithelium via activation of CFTR, which might provide therapeutic strategies for the treatment of chronic pulmonary diseases associated with ASL dehydration.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2020.580064.].

Global warming has accelerated lake salinization, driving changes in microbial community structure and function. However, the dynamics of viral communities in response to salinity remain unclear. Here, we apply metagenomic sequencing to a lake on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, spanning a broad salinity gradient, to investigate viral community dynamics. Our findings reveal that salinity strongly influences viral composition and modulates viral lifestyles. Temperate viruses increase in relative abundance along the salinity gradient, whereas virulent viruses show a corresponding decline. These shifts are mirrored in the prokaryotic communities, with Alphaproteobacteria and their infecting temperate viruses, notably Casadabanvirus , becoming more prevalent in higher salinity zones. Viral genomes encode genes associated with osmotic stress adaptation, DNA recombination, and nutrient transport, which may facilitate host adaptation to saline stress. This study provides valuable insights into the interplay between viral and prokaryotic communities in response to lake salinization. Composition of viral communities, lifestyle of viruses, and virus–host interactions change dynamically in response to increasing lake salinity as the climate warms, according to metagenomic sequencing in a lake on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau.

With the development and progress of technology, information becomes increasingly diverse, which poses higher demands on decision-making methods. Probabilistic linguistic term set (PLTS) is a tool that can more intuitively express the evaluations of decision makers (DMs). As a specialized form of PLTS with ignored probabilities, weak probabilistic linguistic term set (WPLTS) can describe incomplete or inaccurate evaluation information. Three-way decision (3WD) is an efficient decision-making method that reduces decision cost by adopting delayed decisions on the boundary domain. In this paper, we propose a novel 3WD method by combining 3WD with the complex proportional assessment (COPRAS) method under the WPLTS environment, named the WPLTS-3WD method. Firstly, we introduce the notion of the WPLTS information system. For a WPLTS information system, we propose a method of complementing the ignored probabilities and a new score function. Secondly, the objects are ranked by the COPRAS method. According to the ranking result, we define the dominance relation and dominance sets. Based on the dominance sets, the conditional probabilities can be estimated. By combining the conditional probabilities with relative loss functions, the expected losses will be obtained and the objects can be classified. Moreover, we propose two conversion functions that can convert real-valued and linguistic term evaluation information into PLTS evaluation information. Finally, we use the proposed WPLTS-3WD method to analyze the air quality of four cities. The rationality and advantages of our method are verified through experimental comparisons with other methods and parameter analysis.