Intestinal Virome Signature Associated With Severity of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.

Background & Aims: Alterations in the gut microbiome have been associated with the severity of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Previous studies focused exclusively on the bacteria in the microbiome; we investigated changes in the viral microbiome (virome) in patients with NAFLD.

Methods: In a prospective, cross-sectional, observational study, we extracted RNA and DNA virus-like particles from fecal samples from 73 patients with NAFLD: 29 patients had an NAFLD Activity Score (NAS) of 0-4, 44 patients had an NAS of 5-8 or liver cirrhosis (LCI), 37 patients had F0-F1 fibrosis, and 36 patients had F2-F4 fibrosis.

Deficiency of Intestinal α1-2-Fucosylation Exacerbates Ethanol-Induced Liver Disease in Mice.

Background: Fucosyltransferase 2 (Fut2)-mediated intestinal α1-2-fucosylation is important in maintaining a symbiotic host-microbiota relationship and can protect against several pathogens. Intestinal dysbiosis is an important factor for the progression of experimental ethanol (EtOH)-induced liver disease, but the role of Fut2 in modulating the intestinal glycocalyx during alcohol-associated liver disease is unknown. We investigated the role of Fut2-mediated intestinal α1-2-fucosylation for the development of alcohol-associated liver disease.

Management of burning mouth Syndrome: A position paper of the Chinese Society of Oral Medicine.

Background: Burning mouth syndrome is a syndrome with tongue as the main affected site and burning pain as the main complaint. Although a variety of therapies have been reported to treat BMS, there is a lack of widely recognized therapies and it is still a dilemma for clinicians to treat BMS.

Objective: To develop the position paper and provide the references for clinical practice of BMS in China.

Effect of hypothermic perfusion on phacoemulsification in cataract patients complicated with uveitis: a randomised trial.

Background: To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of hypothermic perfusion in the phacoemulsification of cataract caused by uveitis.

Methods: This was a prospective, single-masked, randomised, controlled clinical trial. One hundred and six patients with uveitis-associated cataract underwent phacoemulsification with perfusion fluid temperature at 4 °C (treatment group) or 24 °C (control group).

Identifying Plasmopara viticola resistance Loci in grapevine (Vitis amurensis) via genotyping-by-sequencing-based QTL mapping.

Downy mildew, caused by Plasmopara viticola, is a major disease that affects grapevines, and a few resistance (R) genes have been identified thus far. In order to identify R genes, we investigated F progeny from a cross between the downy mildew-resistant Vitis amurensis 'Shuang Hong' and the susceptible Vitis vinifera 'Cabernet Sauvignon'. The P.

Effect of supplementing Qi and promoting blood circulation therapy on left ventricular remodeling: a systematic review and Meta-analysis.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of an adjuvant therapy from Traditional Chinese Medicine for supplementing Qi and promoting blood circulation (CMSQPBC) on left ventricular remodeling in patients after myocardial infarction (MI).

Methods: Randomized controlled trials were identified in the Cochrane Library, Embase, Web of Science, PubMed, China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, China Science and Technology Journal Database, Wanfang databases, reviews, and reference lists of relevant articles. The weighted mean difference (WMD) was calculated for changes in the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), LV end-diastolic volume (LVEDV) and LV end-systolic volume (LVESV) from baseline to follow-up (> 3 months) by using random-effects Meta-analysis.

Gut Microbiota in Liver Disease: What Do We Know and What Do We Not Know?

The gut and the liver have a bidirectional communication via the biliary system and the portal vein. The intestinal microbiota and microbial products play an important role for modulating liver diseases such as alcohol-associated liver disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and steatohepatitis, and cholestatic liver diseases. Here, we review the role of the gut microbiota and its products for the pathogenesis and therapy of chronic liver diseases.

STIM1 is a metabolic checkpoint regulating the invasion and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma.

: Cancer cells undergoing invasion and metastasis possess a phenotype with attenuated glycolysis, but enhanced fatty acid oxidation (FAO). Calcium (Ca)-mediated signaling pathways are implicated in tumor metastasis and metabolism regulation. Stromal-interaction molecule 1 (STIM1) triggered store-operated Ca entry (SOCE) is the major route of Ca influx for non-excitable cells including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells.

Tuning the interfacial spin-orbit coupling with ferroelectricity.

Detection and manipulation of spin current lie in the core of spintronics. Here we report an active control of a net spin Hall angle, θ(net), in Pt at an interface with a ferroelectric material PZT (PbZrTiO), using its ferroelectric polarization. The spin Hall angle in the ultra-thin Pt layer is measured using the inverse spin Hall effect with a pulsed tunneling current from a ferromagnetic LaSrMnO electrode.

Next-generation sequencing-based mutation analysis of genes associated with enlarged vestibular aqueduct in Chinese families.

Objectives: The identification of gene mutations enables more appropriate genetic counseling and proper medical management for EVA patients. The purpose of this study was to validate the accuracy and sensitivity of our method for comprehensive mutation detection in EVA, and summarize these data to explore a more accurate and convenient genetic diagnosis method.

Methods: A multiplex PCR sequencing panel was designed to capture the exons of three known EVA-associated genes (SLC26A4, KCNJ10, and FOXI1), and NGS was conducted in 17 Chinese families with EVA.

Viral and host factors related to the clinical outcome of COVID-19.

In December 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by the new coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was identified in Wuhan (Hubei province, China); it soon spread across the world. In this ongoing pandemic, public health concerns and the urgent need for effective therapeutic measures require a deep understanding of the epidemiology, transmissibility and pathogenesis of COVID-19. Here we analysed clinical, molecular and immunological data from 326 patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in Shanghai.

Linking aerosol characteristics of size distributions, core potential pathogens and toxic metal(loid)s to wastewater treatment process.

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) play important roles in water purification but are also important source of aerosols. However, the relationship between aerosol characteristics and wastewater treatment process remains poorly understood. In this study, aerosols were collected over a 24-month period from a WWTP using a modified anaerobic-anoxic-oxic process.

Functional Microbial Responses to Alcohol Abstinence in Patients With Alcohol Use Disorder.

Excessive alcohol consumption is associated with hepatic steatosis and dysregulation of the gut microbiota in patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD). However, how gut microbiota responds when patients stop drinking has not been well studied. In this study, we use shotgun metagenomic sequencing to elucidate the alterations in the functional capacity of gut microbiota in patients with AUD when they stop drinking for 2-weeks.

Adhesion of Sphingomonas sp. GY2B onto montmorillonite: A combination study by thermodynamics and the extended DLVO theory.

Bacterial adhesion on mineral surface are of fundamental importance in geochemical processes and biogeochemical cycling, such as mineral transformation and clay-mediated biodegradation. In this study, thermodynamics analysis combined with classical Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory as well as the extended DLVO (XDLVO) theory were employed to investigate the adhesion of the Gram-negative PAH-degrading bacteria Sphingomonas sp. GY2B on montmorillonite (Mt).

Robust Few-Shot Learning for User-Provided Data.

Few-shot learning (FSL) focuses on distilling transferrable knowledge from existing experience to cope with novel concepts for which the labeled data are scarce. A typical assumption in FSL is that the training examples of novel classes are all clean with no outlier interference. In many realistic applications where examples are provided by users, however, data are potentially noisy or unreadable.

Microbiota-derived SSL6 enhances the sensitivity of hepatocellular carcinoma to sorafenib by down-regulating glycolysis.

Enhancing the sensitivity of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells to sorafenib (SFN) is an essential clinical bottleneck to be solved. Here we report that the expression of CD47 negatively correlated with HCC sensitivity to SFN. The microbiota-derived Staphylococcal superantigen-like protein 6 (SSL6) inhibited CD47 and promoted SFN-induced apoptosis of HCC cells Huh-7 and MHCC97H.

Neurofilament Protein as a Potential Biomarker of Axonal Degeneration in Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis.

Background: Neurofilament proteins as biomarkers of axonal degeneration have the potential to improve our capacity to predict and monitor neurological outcome in experimental autoimmune encephalitis (EAE), a model of multiple sclerosis (MS). We urgently need more accurate early predictive markers to direct the clinician when to provide neuroprotective therapy.

Aims: To highlight the possible roles of neurofilament proteins in physiological and pathophysiological processes in the MS.

Identification of a t(X;17)(q28;q21) generating a KANSL1-MTCP1 gene fusion leading to dysregulated expression of MTCP1 in acute myeloid leukemia.

Chromosomal translocations and generating fusion genes are closely associated with disease initiation and progression in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In this study, we identified a novel t(X;17)(q28;q21) chromosomal rearrangement in a patient with acute monocytic leukemia. Using RNA-sequencing, we identified a KANSL1-MTCP1 and a KANSL1-CMC4 fusion gene.

RIPK3 Orchestrates Fatty Acid Metabolism in Tumor-Associated Macrophages and Hepatocarcinogenesis.

Metabolic reprogramming is critical for the polarization and function of tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) and hepatocarcinogenesis, but how this reprogramming occurs is unknown. Here, we showed that receptor-interacting protein kinase 3 (RIPK3), a central factor in necroptosis, is downregulated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)-associated macrophages, which correlated with tumorigenesis and enhanced the accumulation and polarization of M2 TAMs. Mechanistically, RIPK3 deficiency in TAMs reduced reactive oxygen species and significantly inhibited caspase1-mediated cleavage of PPAR.

The urokinase-type plasminogen activator and inhibitors in resectable lung adenocarcinoma.

Background: The urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) system is closely related to the occurrence and progression of cancer in many aspects. Previous studies demonstrated that the conclusions about the prognosis value of uPA, plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1) and plasminogen activator inhibitor 2 (PAI-2) in lung cancer are controversial, so this study was performed for the exploration of the predictive effect of uPA, PAI-1 and PAI-2 on the overall survival (OS) of resectable pulmonary adenocarcinoma patients.

Methods: UPA, PAI-1 and PAI-2 expression levels were assayed by immunohistochemical staining based on tissue microarray (TMA) that is composed of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded specimens from 84 resectable lung adenocarcinoma patients from July 2004 to June 2009.

Possible Mechanisms Involved in the Cooccurrence of Oral Lichen Planus and Hashimoto's Thyroiditis.

Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a chronic inflammatory oral mucosal disorder mediated by T cells, with a multifactorial etiology. Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) is a common autoimmune disease characterized by hypothyroidism. Although many clinical studies conducted over the past several decades have reported the cooccurrence of OLP and HT, the underlying mechanism remains unclear.

Temporal variations of six ambient criteria air pollutants from 2015 to 2018, their spatial distributions, health risks and relationships with socioeconomic factors during 2018 in China.

Air pollution events occurred frequently in China, and tremendous efforts were devoted to the reduction of air pollution in recent years. Here, analysis of ambient monitoring data of six criteria air pollutants from 367 Chinese cities during 2015-2018, showed that PM, PM, SO and CO were reduced significantly by 22.1%, 13.

Multifunctional β-Cyclodextrin Polymer for Simultaneous Removal of Natural Organic Matter and Organic Micropollutants and Detrimental Microorganisms from Water.

Natural organic matter (NOM), organic micropollutants (OMPs), and detrimental microorganisms are three major pollutants that affect water quality. To remove these pollutants, a quaternary ammonium-functionalized β-cyclodextrin polymer (β-CDP) is successfully synthesized in the aqueous phase. The N and CO adsorption/desorption analysis showed that the polymer mainly contains ultra-micropores (<1 nm), with a Langmuir surface area of 89 m g.