Correlation of common inflammatory cytokines with cognition impairment, anxiety, and depression in acute ischemic stroke patients

Abstract Inflammatory cytokines are related to cognitive function and psychiatric disorders in patients with several diseases. However, few relevant studies have been performed on acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients. Hence, this study aimed to investigate the correlation of common inflammatory cytokines with cognition impairment, anxiety, and depression in AIS patients. Common inflammatory cytokines of 176 AIS patients (including tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, and IL-17) were measured using Human Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay Kits. Cognition impairment (Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE)), anxiety (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale for anxiety (HADS-A)), and depression (HADS-D) were evaluated. The incidence of cognition impairment, anxiety, and depression was 43.2, 39.2, and 31.2%, respectively. TNF-α and IL-6 were negatively associated with MMSE score, and high TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 were correlated with cognition impairment occurrence. In addition, TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-17 were positively associated with HADS-A score, while only high TNF-α was associated with anxiety occurrence. Furthermore, TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-17 were positively associated with HADS-D score, while high IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-17 correlated with depression occurrence. Multivariate logistic regression revealed that TNF-α and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score ≥5 were associated with high risk of cognition impairment; TNF-α, IL-17, unemployed before surgery, hypertension, and chronic kidney disease (CKD) correlated with high anxiety occurrence. Furthermore, IL-17, divorced/widowed/single status, diabetes, and NIHSS score ≥5 were associated with high risk of depression. In conclusion, common inflammatory cytokines including TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-17 were related to cognition impairment, anxiety, or depression in AIS patients.

Internet behaviors and associated factor among Chinese primary school students / 中国学校卫生

Objective@#To analyze Internet behaviors of children and adolescents and their influencing factors, and to provide scientific basis for health education guidance and prevention measures.@*Methods@#A stratified cluster sampling method was used. From January to June 2019, 30 955 primary school students in 16 provinces (municipalities), from eastern, central, and western economic zones of China were selected to conduct a questionnaire survey, regarding general demographics, diet and exercise, tobacco, alcohol and sleep, Internet and electronics usage, etc.@*Results@#Among them, 43.1% of students had never been online with girls (44.7%) higher than boys (41.8%)(χ2=21.04, P<0.01); 1.3% of students reported online time for more than 4 hours a day, boys were significantly higher than girls(χ2=15.87, P<0.01); Internet addiction was detected in 2.4% of elementary school students, with boys (3.0%) higher than girls(1.7%)(χ2=331.77, P<0.01), and the trend increases with grade. With sixth grade (3.3%) were significantly higher than children from the first grade (0.8%) and other grades(χ2=163.96, P<0.01). Children’s tendency to Internet addiction was 11.9%, of which boys were 13.0% and girls were 10.6%, boys were significantly higher than girls(χ2=117.66, P<0.01). Pearson correlation analysis revealed that, after controlling gender age, boarding school, family relationship, single parents and regrouped families, smoking, drinking sugary drinks, eating fried foods, and left-behind were positively related to Intenet addiction(r=0.06, 0.07, 0.27, 0.44, 0.07, 0.11, 0.09, P<0.01), while medium and high intensity sports, effective physical education, health education in school, AIDS education and parental restrictions on TV and computer games, were negatively associated with internet addiction(r=-0.74, -0.65, -0.04, -0.05, -0.63, P<0.01).@*Conclusion@#The internet addiction of Chinese primary school students is common and increases by year. High-intensity, high-density sports, effective physical education, and health education could help prevent Internet addiction among children.

Methylation in the promoter regions of WT1, NKX6-1 and DBC1 genes in cervical cancer tissues of Uygur women in Xinjiang

Abstract This study aimed to explore: 1) DNA methylation in the promoter regions of Wilms tumor gene 1 (WT1), NK6 transcription factor related locus 1 gene (NKX6-1) and Deleted in bladder cancer 1 (DBC1) gene in cervical cancer tissues of Uygur women in Xinjiang, and 2) the correlation of gene methylation with the infection of HPV16/18 viruses. We detected HPV16/18 infection in 43 normal cervical tissues, 30 cervical intraepithelial neoplasia lesions (CIN) and 48 cervical cancer tissues with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. Methylation in the promoter regions of the WT1, NKX6-1 and DBC1 genes in the above-mentioned tissues was measured by methylation-specific PCR (MSP) and cloning sequencing. The expression level of these three genes was measured by real-time PCR (qPCR) in 10 methylation-positive cervical cancer tissues and 10 methylation-negative normal cervical tissues. We found that the infection of HPV16 in normal cervical tissues, CIN and cervical cancer tissues was 14.0, 36.7 and 66.7%, respectively. The infection of HPV18 was 0, 6.7 and 10.4%, respectively. The methylation rates of WT1, NKX6-1 and DBC1 genes were 7.0, 11.6 and 23.3% in normal cervical tissues, 36.7, 46.7 and 30.0% in CIN tissues, and 89.6, 77.1 and 85.4% in cervical cancer tissues. Furthermore, WT1, NKX6-1 and DBC1 genes were hypermethylated in the high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (CIN2, CIN3) and in the cervical cancer tissues with infection of HPV16/18 (both P< 0.05). The expression of WT1, NKX6-1 and DBC1 was significantly lower in the methylation-positive cervical cancer tissues than in methylation-negative normal cervical tissues. Our findings indicated that methylation in the promoter regions of WT1, NKX6-1 and DBC1 is correlated with cervical cancer tumorigenesis in Uygur women. The infection of HPV16/18 might be correlated with methylation in these genes. Gene inactivation caused by methylation might be related to the incidence and development of cervical cancer.

Isolation and characterization of a novel (S)-canadine synthase gene from Coptis chinensis

Background Berberine acts primarily as an important active ingredient in Coptis chinensis and has been traditionally applied in clinical treatment. Nevertheless, little information has been released about C. chinensis, as far as functional genes and biosynthetic pathway of berberine are concerned. Here, we isolated a novel (S)-canadine synthase gene (designated as CAS-1) from C. chinensis by using RT-PCR and RACE techniques. Results Bioinformatics analysis showed that the cDNA is 1942 bp in length with a complete open reading frame (ORF) of 1476 bp, and the ORF encodes a polypeptide of 491 amino acids with a calculated molecular mass of 55.29 kDa and a pI value of 8.92. Real-time quantitative PCR analysis showed that CcCAS-1 was constitutively expressed in leaf, petiole and rhizome tissues, especially in the leaves of C. chinensis. However, the results of berberine content in different tissues by high-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection (HPLC-DAD) method showed that the leaves and the petiole tissues have similar content of berberine. Conclusions We found that the berberine content in the rhizome was seven times (more or less) than that in the leaves and the petioles. In addition, the full length coding sequence of CcCAS-1 was inserted into pET-32a and was successfully expressed in Escherichia coli, laying a solid foundation for protein purification, activity assay and multi-clonal antibody preparation. Together, our data suggest that CcCAS-1 is a novel heme-thiolate enzyme essential for berberine biosynthesis in C. chinensis.