Hydroxychavicol, a polyphenol from / 浙江大学学报（英文版）（B辑：生物医学和生物技术）

This study aims to elucidate the antiproliferative mechanism of hydroxychavicol (HC). Its effects on cell cycle, apoptosis, and the expression of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and P38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) in HT-29 colon cancer cells were investigated. HC was isolated from

Characterization of the transcriptional profiles in common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) under PEG-mediated drought stress

BACKGROUND: Common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is an important staple food crop in southwest China, where drought stress is one of the largest limiting factors that lead to decreased crop production. To reveal the molecular mechanism of common buckwheat in response to drought stress, we performed a comprehensive transcriptomics study to evaluate gene expression profiles of common buckwheat during PEG-mediated drought treatment. RESULTS: In total, 45 million clean reads were assembled into 53,404 unigenes with an average length of 749 bp and N50 length of 1296 bp. A total of 1329 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified by comparing wellwatered and drought-treated plants, out of which 666 were upregulated and 663 were downregulated. Furthermore, we defined the functional characteristics of DEGs using GO and KEGG classifications. GO enrichment analysis showed that the DEGs were significantly overrepresented in four categories, namely, "oxidoreductase activity," "oxidation­reduction process," "xyloglucan:xyloglucosyl transferase activity," and "apoplast." Using KEGG pathway analysis, a large number of annotated genes were overrepresented in terms such as "plant hormone signal transduction," "phenylpropanoid biosynthesis," "photosynthesis," and "carbon metabolism." Conclusions: These results can be further exploited to investigate the molecular mechanism of common buckwheat in response to drought treatment and could supply with valuable molecular sources for abiotic-tolerant elite breeding programs in the future.

Clinical features and prognosis of malignancy-associated hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis in children: a clinical analysis of 24 cases / 中国当代儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the clinical features and prognosis of malignancy-associated hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (MAHS) in children.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A retrospective analysis was performed for the primary diseases, clinical features, and prognosis of 24 children with MAHS.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Among the 24 children, 11 (46%) had MAHS induced by tumor and 13 (54%) had chemotherapy-associated MAHS. As for primary diseases, 17 children had acute leukemia, 6 had lymphoma, and 1 had neuroblastoma. The most common clinical manifestations were pyrexia, respiratory symptoms, and hepatosplenomegaly. The most common laboratory abnormalities were hemocytopenia, elevated serum ferritin, and elevated lactate dehydrogenase. Of the 24 children, 22 were treated according to the HLH-2004 protocol and 2 gave up treatment; 18 children died, 1 was lost to follow-up, and 5 survived. The survival time ranged from 3 days to 2 years and 4 months (median 28 days).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Children with MAHS have various clinical features and extremely poor treatment outcomes.</p>

Screening and bioinformatics analysis of differentially expressed miRNAs induced by hypoxia preconditioning in rat cardiomyocytes / 中国药理学通报

Aim To screen the differentially expressed microRNAs ( miRNAs ) induced by hypoxia precondi-tioning ( HPC ) in adult rat cardiomyocytes, and pre-dict miRNAs-regulated target genes and their func-tions. Methods Cardiomyocytes were isolated from a-dult rat ventricular myocardium and cultured ( in vitro) . The cells were divided into 2 groups: control group ( CON ) and hypoxia preconditioning group ( HPC) . The cardiomyocytes in HPC group were sub-jected to 10 min hypoxia followed by 30 min reoxygen-ation, while the cells in CON group were cultured un-der normal condition. After that, total RNA was ex-tracted and then subjected to miRNA microarray to screen differentially expressed miRNAs. The microar-ray results were further validated by quantitative RT-PCR ( qRT-PCR ) . Bioinformatics analysis was per-formed to predict the miRNAs-regulated target genes and analyze the enriched gene ontology ( GO) and sig-naling pathway ( Pathway) . Results HPC caused sig-nificant changes in miRNAs expression in cardiomyo-cytes as compared to CON group. A total of 12 miR-NAs were up-regulated and 14 miRNAs were down-reg-ulated ( P 500 were selected for further bioinformatics analysis. The expression of miR-133b-5p, miR-664-1-5p and miR-6216 detected by qRT-PCR exhibited the similar patterns of up or down regulation to those shown in mi-croarray results. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that miRNAs-regulated target genes were significantly en-riched in 27 GOs and 6 signal pathways. Conclusion The expression profile of miRNAs in rat cardiomyo-cytes is significantly affected by HPC. These differenti-ally expressed miRNAs might participate in HPC-in-duced cardioprotection by regulating their target genes in rat cardiomyocytes.

Regulatory mechanism underlying pathogen biofilm formation and potential drug targets / 药学学报

Bacterial communities usually develop biofilms abound in nature niche. The development of biofilm is a highly dynamic and complex process coordinated by multiple mechanisms, of which two-component system and quorum sensing are two well-defined systems. Biofilm is involved in the virulence of many pathogens. Therefore, targeting the key factors involved in the biofilm formation represents a novel and promising avenue for developing better antibiotics.

Origin of new Brassica types from a single intergeneric hybrid between B. rapa and Orychophragmus violaceus by rapid chromosome evolution and introgression.

Many novel lines were established from an intergeneric mixoploid between Brassica rapa (2n = 20) and Orychophragmus violaceus (2n = 24) through successive selections for fertility and viability. Pedigrees of individual F(2) plants were advanced to the 10th generation by selfing. Their breeding habit was self-compatible and different from the self-incompatibility of their female parent B. rapa, and these lines were reproductively isolated to different degrees from B. rapa and B. napus. The lines with high productivity showed not only a wide spectrum of phenotypes but also obvious variations in fatty acid profiles of seed oil and glucosinolate contents in seed meal. These lines had 2n = 36, 37, 38, 39 and 40, with 2n = 38 being most frequent (64.56%), and no intact O. violaceus chromosomes were detected by genomic in situ hybridization (GISH) analysis. Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analyses revealed a high extent of variation in genomic compositions across all the lines. O. violaceus-specific bands, deleted bands in B. rapa and novel bands for two parents were detected in these lines, with novel bands being the most frequent. The morphological and genetic divergence of these novel types derived from a single hybrid is probably due to rapid chromosomal evolution and introgression, and provides new genetic resources for rapeseed breeding.