Research progress of the mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine in the prevention and treatment of athero-sclerosis based on miRNA regulation of vascular endothelial cell injury / 中国药房

The injury of vascular endothelial cells is not only the initial condition to promote the occurrence of early atherosclerosis （AS） plaques， but also an important link in the pathogenesis of AS. The microRNA （miRNA）， as an important medium of intercellular communication and gene regulatory factor， can affect vascular endothelial function and participate in the development of AS. The molecular mechanism of miRNA’s multi-target intervention in vascular endothelial cell injury has become a hot topic in the research of cardiovascular diseases. Monomers of traditional Chinese medicines such as ginsenoside Rb2 and paeonol， as well as traditional Chinese medicine for resolving phlegm and removing blood stasis could regulate miRNA to improve endothelial cell inflammation； astragaloside Ⅳ， dihydromyricetin and notoginsenoside could target miRNA and inhibit vascular endothelial oxidative stress； Danhong injection， Jianpi qutan and huayu prescription and paeonol could affect endothelial autophagy through miRNA； resveratrol， Bushen huoxue formula and Bushen tongmai formula could inhibit vascular endothelial aging by miRNA； dendrobine played an active role in regulating miRNA and improving endoplasmic reticulum stress. In the future， more in- depth research is needed on the effectiveness， mechanism of action， diagnosis and treatment plans， and safety of targeted regulation of miRNA for AS therapy by traditional Chinese medicine.

Integration-based co-expression network analysis to investigate tumor-associated modules across three cancer types / 生物工程学报

In case/control gene expression data, differential expression (DE) represents changes in gene expression levels across various biological conditions, whereas differential co-expression (DC) represents an alteration of correlation coefficients between gene pairs. Both DC and DE genes have been studied extensively in human diseases. However, effective approaches for integrating DC-DE analyses are lacking. Here, we report a novel analytical framework named DC&DEmodule for integrating DC and DE analyses and combining information from multiple case/control expression datasets to identify disease-related gene co-expression modules. This includes activated modules (gaining co-expression and up-regulated in disease) and dysfunctional modules (losing co-expression and down-regulated in disease). By applying this framework to microarray data associated with liver, gastric and colon cancer, we identified two, five and two activated modules and five, five and one dysfunctional module(s), respectively. Compared with the other methods, pathway enrichment analysis demonstrated the superior sensitivity of our method in detecting both known cancer-related pathways and those not previously reported. Moreover, we identified 17, 69, and 11 module hub genes that were activated in three cancers, which included 53 known and three novel cancer prognostic markers. Random forest classifiers trained by the hub genes showed an average of 93% accuracy in differentiating tumor and adjacent normal samples in the TCGA and GEO database. Comparison of the three cancers provided new insights into common and tissue-specific cancer mechanisms. A series of evaluations demonstrated the framework is capable of integrating the rapidly accumulated expression data and facilitating the discovery of dysregulated processes.

Changes of acquired immune deficiency syndrome related knowledge, attitudes, behaviors and their influencing factors among college students in Beijing / 北京大学学报(医学版)

Objective:To compare acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) related knowledge, attitudes, behaviors and their influencing factors among college students in different years in Beijing, and to provide evidence for targeted health education among college students in future.Methods: College students were selected by the stratified cluster sampling method, and a questionnaire survey was conducted among college students in year 2006 and 2016 in Beijing.The sample sizes were 1 800 and 3 001 college students, respectively.The contents of the questionnaire included: socio-demographic characteristics, AIDS related knowledge, AIDS related attitude, sex intercourse and its related risk behaviors, condom use intension, and AIDS related health education.Results: Compared with the year 2006, the average AIDS knowledge scores of college students in year 2016 dropped from 12.78±1.95 to 11.90±2.56 (t=12.91, P<0.05), and the correct answer rates of questions in the knowledge part were decreased, too.Except for belief on condom use, the college students were more negative on AIDS related attitude and self-efficacy in year 2016 than in year 2006.Among the students who had sex experience, the rates of commercial sex [17.65% (33/187) vs.6.53% (16/245), χ2=13.003, P<0.001] and the rates of homo-sexual intercourse [15.43% (29/188) vs.4.13% (10/242), χ2=16.356, P<0.001] were higher in year 2016 than in year 2006.The main way for the students seeking pornographic information was changed from books to internet (41.15%) in 2016 compared with the year 2016.In 2016, the influencing factors of intention on condom use were male (OR=0.713), self-efficacy of condom purchase (OR=0.876), never received sex education before college (OR=0.752), self-efficacy of condom use (OR=1.135), belief of condom use (OR=1.775), and attitude towards AIDS patients (OR=1.136).Conclusion: AIDS related knowledge, attitudes and behaviors among college students have been changed, AIDS related health education should be designed and improved based on new characteristics of college students.AIDS health education in colleges should pay more attention to sex attitude and sex responsibility and self-protection awareness among college students as well.