NDC80 Kinetochore Complex Serves as a Potential Prognostic Predictor and Correlates with Immune Infiltrates in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer Patients.

Purpose: This study focuses on evaluating the prognostic value of the NDC80 kinetochore complex in ovarian cancer (OC) using the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and reveals the relationship between the NDC80 complex and immune infiltrates in OC. Methods: We collected data on NDC80 complex expression levels in both OC tissues and non-OC ovarian tissues from the University of California Santa Cruz Xena and GEO databases. The clinicopathological characteristics correlated with overall survival were analyzed using Cox regression and the Kaplan-Meier method. Gene Ontology analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis, gene set enrichment analysis and CIBERSORT were performed using data from TCGA database. Immunohistochemical staining was used to verify the higher expression level of NUF2 protein in OC in vitro. Meanwhile, we utilized the Tumor Immune Estimation Resource to analyze the correlation between the NDC80 complex and immunocyte infiltration. Results: The NDC80 complex expression level was prominently higher in OC tissues than in non-OC ovarian tissues and correlated with advanced histologic grade characteristics. Gene expression profiling interactive analysis and the Kaplan-Meier survival curve uncovered a close relationship between high expression of the NDC80 complex and poor overall survival in OC patients. The univariate Cox regression hazard model produced age, pathologic stage, tumor status, primary therapy outcome, SPC24 expression level, and Karnofsky performance score as prognostic factors for OC patients. NDC80 complex expression levels were highly associated with immune cell infiltration, showing NK CD56 bright cells and NK cells with a negative correlation and T helper 2 cells with a positive correlation (P<0.05). Conclusion: These findings provide evidence that an increased expression level of the NDC80 complex is closely associated with the progression of OC and could also serve as a novel target of immunotherapy in OC.

Diagnosis and therapies for patients with cerebral palsy over the past 30 years: a bibliometric analysis.

Background: Currently, the incidence of cerebral palsy is high in newborns. However, the current methods for diagnosing and treating patients with cerebral palsy are complex and poorly targeted. Moreover, these studies lack the support of bibliometric analysis results. Objective: Our study focused on a bibliometric analysis of published papers on the diagnosis and treatment of patients with cerebral palsy. This study identified the primary authors, institutions, and countries involved in analyzing the status and trends of research on the diagnosis and treatment of patients with cerebral palsy. Additionally, the study also involved screening pathways related to cerebral palsy. Methods: The PubMed database was searched for publications on the diagnosis and treatment of patients with cerebral palsy between 1990 and 2023. R v4.2.2 and VOSviewer v1.6.18 software tools were utilized to perform bibliometric analysis and visualization. Results: There were 1,965 publications on cerebral palsy diagnosis and 5,418 articles on the qualified treatment strategies, and the annual number of publications also increased. The United States dominated in this field of research. Gregory Y.H. Lip and Patrizio Lancellotti published the most number of papers. The Cleveland Clinic published the most number of papers in the field. According to the analysis of the co-occurrence of keywords, we found that the main research directions were age, sex, disease diagnosis, and treatment. Newly emerging research has focused mainly on heart failure, which is related to valvular heart disease. Conclusion: The findings presented in this study offer valuable insights into ongoing research and potential future directions pertaining to cerebral palsy. These insights can assist researchers in identifying suitable collaborators and enhancing their investigations aimed at identifying the underlying molecular mechanisms associated with cerebral palsy, encompassing its etiology, preventive measures, and therapeutic interventions.

The outcome and related risk factors of unvaccinated patients with end-stage kidney disease during the Omicron pandemic: a multicentre retrospective study.

OBJECTIVES: The study aims to identify the outcome and the related factors of unvaccinated patients with end-stage kidney disease during the Omicron pandemic. DESIGN: A multicentre retrospective study of patients with end-stage kidney disease undergone maintenance haemodialysis (HD) in China. SETTING: 6 HD centres in China. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 654 HD patients who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 were ultimately included in the study. OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcomes of interest were adverse outcomes, including hospitalisation due to COVID-19 and all-cause mortality. RESULTS: The average age of the patients was 57 years, with 33.6% of them being over 65 years. Among the patients, 57.5% were male. During the follow-up period, 158 patients (24.2%) experienced adverse outcomes, and 93 patients (14.2%) died. The majority of patients (88/158) developed adverse outcomes within 30 days, and most deaths (77/93) occurred within 1 month. An advanced multivariable Cox regression analysis identified that adverse outcomes were associated with various factors while all-cause mortality was related to advanced age, male gender, high levels of C reactive protein (CRP) and low levels of prealbumin. The Kaplan-Meier curves demonstrated significantly higher all-cause mortality rates in the older, male, high CRP and low prealbumin subgroups. CONCLUSIONS: Among unvaccinated HD patients with confirmed Omicron infections, various factors were found to be linked to adverse outcomes. Notably, age, sex, CRP and prealbumin had a substantial impact on the risk of all-cause mortality.

Long-Term Straw Incorporation under Controlled Irrigation Improves Soil Quality of Paddy Field and Rice Yield in Northeast China.

Soil quality is an indicator of the ability to ensure ecological security and sustainable soil usage. The effects of long-term straw incorporation and different irrigation regimes on the yield and soil quality of paddy fields in cold regions remain unclear. This study established four treatments: controlled irrigation + continuous straw incorporation for 3 years (C3), controlled irrigation + continuous straw incorporation for 7 years (C7), flooded irrigation + continuous straw incorporation for 3 years (F3), and flooded irrigation + continuous straw incorporation for 7 years (F7). Analysis was conducted on the impact of various irrigation regimes and straw incorporation years on the physicochemical characteristics and quality of the soil. The soil quality index (SQI) for rice fields was computed using separate datasets for each treatment. The soil nitrate nitrogen, available phosphorus, soil organic carbon, and soil organic matter contents of the C7 were 93.51%, 5.80%, 8.90%, and 8.26% higher compared to C3, respectively. In addition, the yield of the C7 treatment was 5.18%, 4.89%, and 10.32% higher than those of F3, C3, and F7, respectively. The validity of the minimum data set (MDS) was verified by correlation, Ef and ER, which indicated that the MDS of all treatments were able to provide a valid evaluation of soil quality. The MDS based SQI of C7 was 11.05%, 11.97%, and 27.71% higher than that of F3, C3, and F7, respectively. Overall, long-term straw incorporation combined with controlled irrigation increases yield and soil quality in paddy fields in cold regions. This study provides a thorough assessment of soil quality concerning irrigation regimes and straw incorporation years to preserve food security and the sustainability of agricultural output. Additionally, it offers a basis for soil quality diagnosis of paddy fields in the Northeast China.

CodonBERT: a BERT-based architecture tailored for codon optimization using the cross-attention mechanism.

MOTIVATION: Due to the varying delivery methods of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, codon optimization plays a critical role in vaccine design to improve the stability and expression of proteins in specific tissues. Considering the many-to-one relationship between synonymous codons and amino acids, the number of mRNA sequences encoding the same amino acid sequence could be enormous. Finding stable and highly expressed mRNA sequences from the vast sequence space using in silico methods can generally be viewed as a path-search problem or a machine translation problem. However, current deep learning-based methods inspired by machine translation may have some limitations, such as recurrent neural networks (RNNs), which have a weak ability to capture the long-term dependencies of codon preferences. RESULTS: We develop a BERT-based architecture that uses the cross-attention mechanism for codon optimization. In CodonBERT, the codon sequence is randomly masked with each codon serving as a key and a value. In the meantime, the amino acid sequence is used as the query. CodonBERT was trained on high-expression transcripts from Human Protein Atlas mixed with different proportions of high codon adaptation index (CAI) codon sequences. The result showed that CodonBERT can effectively capture the long-term dependencies between codons and amino acids, suggesting that it can be used as a customized training framework for specific optimization targets. AVAILABILITY: CodonBERT is freely available on https://github.com/FPPGroup/CodonBERT. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Avapritinib Carries the Risk of Drug Interaction via Inhibition of UDP-Glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) 1A1.

BACKGROUND: Avapritinib is the only drug for adult patients with PDGFRA exon 18 mutated unresectable or metastatic Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor (GIST). Although avapritinib has been approved by the FDA for three years, little is known about the risk of Drug-drug Interac-tions (DDIs) via UDP-glucuronyltransferases (UGTs) inhibition. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to systematically evaluate the inhibitory effects of avapritinib against UGTs and to quantitatively estimate its potential DDIs risk in vivo. METHODS: Recombinant human UGTs were employed to catalyze the glucuronidation of sub-strates in a range of concentrations of avapritinib. The kinetics analysis was performed to evaluate the inhibition types of avapritinib against UGTs. The quantitative prediction of DDIs was done using In vitro-in vivo Extrapolation (IVIVE). RESULTS: Avapritinib had a potent competitive inhibitory effect on UGT1A1. Quantitative predic-tion results showed that avapritinib administered at clinical doses might result in a 14.85% in-crease in the Area Under the Curve (AUC) of drugs primarily cleared by UGT1A1. Moreover, the Rgut value was calculated to be 18.44. CONCLUSION: Avapritinib has the potential to cause intestinal DDIs via the inhibition of UGT1A1. Additional attention should be paid when avapritinib is coadministered with UGT1A1 substrates.

Mutational analysis of pulmonary large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma: APC gene mutations identify a good prognostic factor.

Pulmonary large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC) is a highly aggressive neoplasm with biological heterogeneity. Mutations in multiple genes have been identified in LCNEC. However, associations between gene alterations, histopathological characteristics, and prognosis remain ambiguous. Here, we investigated the clinicopathologic, immunohistochemical, and genomic characteristics of 19 patients with LCNEC and 9 patients with atypical carcinoid (AC). We revealed high mutation frequencies of TP53 (89.5 %), RB1 (42.1 %), APC (31.6 %), and MCL1 (31.6 %) in LCNEC, while genetic alterations were rarely found in AC. APC alterations mainly occurred to the exon 16 and were only identified in LCNEC with wild-type RB1. The 19 LCNEC were further subgrouped into APC wild-type (LCNEC-APCMT, 6/19) and APC-mutated (LCNEC-APCWT, 13/19) subgroups. In comparison with LCNEC-APCWT, LCNEC-APCMT displayed lower TMB (median: 12.64 vs 4.20, P = 0.045), and relatively mild cytologic atypia. In addition, LCNEC-APCMT distinguished itself from AC and LCNEC-APCWT by obviously downregulated expression of neuroendocrine markers (CD56 and Syn, P < 0.01) and significantly altered expression of genes downstream of APC (ß-catenin migrating into the cytoplasm and nucleus, P < 0.001; c-Myc upregulating, P = 0.005). The OS of LCNEC-APCMT was numerically intermediate between AC and LCNEC-APCWT. We first proposed that APC alterations were common in LCNEC with wild-type RB1 and that LCNEC-APCMT was associated with lower TMB and better OS in comparison with LCNEC-APCWT.

Theoretical Analysis of Thermophysical Properties of 3D Carbon/Epoxy Braided Composites with Varying Temperature.

A three-dimensional helix geometry unit cell is established to simulate the complex spatial configuration of 3D braided composites. Initially, different types of yarn factors, such as yarn path, cross-sectional shape, properties, and braid direction, are explained. Then, the multiphase finite element method is used to develop a new theoretical calculation procedure based on the unit cell for predicting the impacts of environmental temperature on the thermophysical properties of 3D four-direction carbon/epoxy braided composites. The changing rule and distribution characteristics of the thermophysical properties for 3D four-direction carbon/epoxy braided composites are obtained at temperatures ranging from room temperature to 200 °C. The influences of environmental temperature on the coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) and the coefficients of thermal conduction (CTC) are evaluated, by which some important conclusions are drawn. A comparison is conducted between theoretical and experimental results, revealing that variations in temperature exert a notable influence on the thermophysical characteristics of 3D four-directional carbon/epoxy braided composites. The theoretical calculation procedure is an effective tool for the mechanical property analysis of composite materials with complex geometries.

Inhibition of human UDP-glucuronosyltransferase enzyme by entrectinib: Implications for drug-drug interactions.

As a new type of oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor, entrectinib can act on multiple targets and exert efficacy and has been approved for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and solid tumors. However, whether entrectinib affects the activities of recombinant human UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs) remains unclear. Herein, we aimed to investigate the inhibitory effects of entrectinib on human UGTs and to assess the potential risk of causing drug-drug interactions (DDIs) based on the inhibition against UGTs. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to evaluate the inhibitory effects of entrectinib on UGTs according to the product formation rate of UGT substrate with or without entrectinib, and the inhibition kinetics experiment was conducted to assess the inhibitory type of entrectinib on UGTs. Our results showed that entrectinib exhibited extensive inhibitory effects on most human UGTs, and especially inhibited the activities of UGT1A7, UGT1A8, and UGT2B15 with Ki (Inhibition constant) of lower than 5 µM (0.95-4.38 µM). Furthermore, the results from quantitative prediction research suggested that the combination of entrectinib at 600 mg/day with substrates primarily metabolized by hepatic UGT2B15 or intestinal UGT1A7 and UGT1A8 might cause clinical DDIs. Thus, special attention should be paid to avoid adverse reactions induced by DDIs when co-administration of entrectinib and drugs metabolized by UGTs.

Mapping theme evolution and identifying hotspots in biomarkers of systemic lupus erythematosus based on global research.

Objective: To perform a bibliometric analysis in the field of biomarkers for systemic lupus erythematosus. Methods: Publications were from Web of Science. Microsoft Excel, VOSviewer, Science Mapping Analysis software Tool, CiteSpace and Tableau were used for analysis. Results: A total of 1112 publications were identified; 1503 institutions from 69 countries contributed, with the highest outputs from China and Karolinska University Hospital. Petri had a tremendous impact. Academic collaborations were localized. Lupus and Arthritis & Rheumatology were the top two journals in terms of publications and citations. Lymphocyte, autoantibody, type I interferon, genetic polymorphisms and urinary biomarkers have been high-frequency themes. Conclusion: Global collaboration needs to be further strengthened. Immune cell, cytokine and gene-level research as a whole and noninvasive tests are the future trends.

Longitudinal study of patients with anti-SAE antibody positive dermatomyositis: a multicenter cohort study in China.

OBJECTIVES: To describe the longitudinal study and long-term prognosis of multicentre large inception cohort of patients with anti-SAE positive DM. METHODS: We retrospectively recruited patients with anti-SAE+DM in four tertiary referral centers from China between March 2005 and December 2022. Long-term survival analysis was performed in the enrolled patients. The Myositis Damage Index (MDI) and Cutaneous Disease Area and Severity Index (CDASI) were used to evaluate the degree of different organ damage and the extent of skin rashes. Longitudinal computed tomographic (CT) patterns were analyzed. Phenotypes were characterized using unsupervised cluster analysis. RESULTS: All-cause death occurred in 10.5% (4/38) of all patients, in which three patients succumbed to malignancies at 13, 18, and 36 months. Most patients had favorable long-term outcomes, 35.3% of them were in drug-free remission. Skin rashes showed significant improvement evaluated by CDASI with time. However, damage to different systems was observed in 70.6% of the surviving patients using the MDI, which mainly consisted in skin damage, accounting for 47.1%. Nine patients with anti-SAE+DM associated interstitial lung disease (ILD) underwent repeat CT showed marked radiological improvement at 6 months or being stable after 12 months. In further, different characteristics and outcomes were also showed in three clusters identified by unsupervised analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Anti-SAE+DM is characterized with lower mortality rate and the development of malignancies being the primary cause of death. Patients who survived showed notable cutaneous damage, while the ILD tends to stabilize. Clusters identified with unsupervised analysis could assist physicians in identifying higher risk of mortality.

Biomimetic Design of a Dynamic M-O-V Pyramid Electron Bridge for Enhanced Nitrogen Electroreduction.

Electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction (eNRR) offers a sustainable route for ammonia synthesis; however, current electrocatalysts are limited in achieving optimal performance within narrow potential windows. Herein, inspired by the heliotropism of sunflowers, we present a biomimetic design of Ru-VOH electrocatalyst, featuring a dynamic Ru-O-V pyramid electron bridge for eNRR within a wide potential range. In situ spectroscopy and theoretical investigations unravel the fact that the electrons are donated from Ru to V at lower overpotentials and retrieved at higher overpotentials, maintaining a delicate balance between N2 activation and proton hydrogenation. Moreover, N2 adsorption and activation were found to be enhanced by the Ru-O-V moiety. The catalyst showcases an outstanding Faradaic efficiency of 51.48% at -0.2 V (vs RHE) with an NH3 yield rate exceeding 115 µg h-1 mg-1 across the range of -0.2 to -0.4 V (vs RHE), along with impressive durability of over 100 cycles. This dynamic M-O-V pyramid electron bridge is also applicable to other metals (M = Pt, Rh, and Pd).

Semantic Segmentation of Remote Sensing Images Depicting Environmental Hazards in High-Speed Rail Network Based on Large-Model Pre-Classification.

With the rapid development of China's railways, ensuring the safety of the operating environment of high-speed railways faces daunting challenges. In response to safety hazards posed by light and heavy floating objects during the operation of trains, we propose a dual-branch semantic segmentation network with the fusion of large models (SAMUnet). The encoder part of this network uses a dual-branch structure, in which the backbone branch uses a residual network for feature extraction and the large-model branch leverages the results of feature extraction generated by the segment anything model (SAM). Moreover, a decoding attention module is fused with the results of prediction of the SAM in the decoder part to enhance the performance of the network. We conducted experiments on the Inria Aerial Image Labeling (IAIL), Massachusetts, and high-speed railway hazards datasets to verify the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed SAMUnet network in comparison with commonly used semantic segmentation networks. The results demonstrated its superiority in terms of both the accuracies of segmentation and feature extraction. It was able to precisely extract hazards in the environment of high-speed railways to significantly improve the accuracy of semantic segmentation.

Secretion of IFN-γ by specific T cells in HCMV infection.

One major risk for recipients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplants (allo-HSCTs) is infection with the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV). For HCMV treatment, it is especially crucial to be able to differentiate between recipients who are at high risk of reactivation and those who are not. In this study, HCMV-DNA was collected from 60 HLA-A*02 allo-HSCT recipients before and after transplantation. After transplantation, the release of interferon (IFN)-γ by T cells specific to HCMV was assessed using the enzyme-linked immunospot assay (ELISPOT). The results show that the median viral load (VL) was significantly higher in the HCMV persistent-infection group compared to the non-persistent-infection group (p = 0.002), and that the late-infection rate was considerably higher in the high-VL group compared to the low-VL group (p = 0.014). The uninfected group had a considerably higher median IFN-γ spot-forming cell (SFC) count than the persistent-infection group (p = 0.001), and IFN-γ SFC counts correlated negatively and linearly with VLs (r = -0.397, p = 0.002). The immune-response groups showed significantly difference in median VL (p = 0.018), and the high immune response group had a reduced late-infection rate than the no/low immune response groups (p = 0.049). Our study showed that allo-HSCT recipients with a high VL at an early transplantation stage were at high risk for late HCMV infection. Further HCMV reactivation can be prevented by HCMV-specific T cells secreting enough IFN-γ.

Knocking out FAM20C in pre-osteoblasts leads to up-regulation of osteoclast differentiation to affect long bone development.

Family with sequence similarity 20 member C (FAM20C) is a Golgi casein kinase that phosphorylates extracellularly-secreted regulatory proteins involved in bone development and mineralization, but its specific role in bone development is still largely unknown. In this study, to examine the specific mechanisms that FAM20C influences bone development, we cross-bred Osx-Cre with FAM20Cflox/flox mice to establish a Osx-Cre; FAM20Cflox/flox knockout (oKO) mouse model; FAM20C was KO in pre-osteoblasts. oKO development was examined at 1-10 weeks, in which compared to control FAM20Cflox/flox, they had lower body weights and bone tissue mineralization. Furthermore, oKO had lower bone volume fractions, thickness, and trabecular numbers, along with higher degrees of trabecular separation. These mice also had decreased femoral metaphyseal cartilage proliferation layer, along with thickened hypertrophic layer and increased apoptotic cell counts. Transcriptomic analysis found that differentially-expressed genes in oKO were concentrated in the osteoclast differentiation pathway, in line with increased osteoclast presence. Additionally, up-regulation of osteoclast-related, and down-regulation of osteogenesis-related genes, were identified, in which the most up-regulated genes were signal regulatory protein ß-1 family (Sirpb1a-c) and mitogen-activated protein kinase 13. Overall, FAM20C KO in pre-osteoblasts leads to abnormal long bone development, likely due to subsequent up-regulation of osteoclast differentiation-associated genes.

Translation and Validation of the Chinese Language Version of the Control of Allergic Rhinitis and Asthma Test in Patients with Allergic Rhinitis.

Objective: Due to the escalating global prevalence of allergic rhinitis (AR) and its status as an independent risk factor for asthma, timely and effective control of AR is crucial. Achieving this often involves the accurate assessment of AR. Currently, the Control of Allergic Rhinitis and Asthma Test (CARAT) is widely used as an assessment tool, but its measurement effectiveness in Chinese AR patients remains unclear. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the CARAT10 scale (CARAT10-C) and analyze its application value in the assessment of allergic rhinitis and asthma control trials. Methods: The study enrolled 130 patients with AR from the Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) outpatient department of a comprehensive teaching hospital from March to May 2022 as participants. The reliability and validity of the CARAT10-C scale were assessed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient (CAC), Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO), and Bartlett's sphericity test. Additionally, the study analyzed the effectiveness of the CARAT10-C scale in its application within the Control of Allergic Rhinitis and Asthma Test (CARAT). Results: The Cronbach's alpha coefficient ranges between 0 and 1, with higher values indicating better reliability. Significant differences in exploratory factor analysis suggest good validity. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the CARAT10-C scale was 0.806. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that the eigenvalues of Component 1 (3.851) and Component 2 (2.193) were both greater than 1, with a cumulative variance contribution rate (CVCR) of 60.436%. Items 6-10 were primarily loaded on Component 1 (Asthma), while items 1-4 were mainly influenced by Component 2 (AR), with loading ranges of 0.508-0.874, all significant at P < .001. The composite reliability (CAC) of the CARAT10-C scale was 0.806, exceeding 0.8, indicating high reliability. Component 1 had a CAC of 0.834, and Component 2 had a CACs of 0.807, both exceeding 0.8, indicating high reliability for both components. Conclusion: The CARAT10-C scale demonstrates good reliability and validity in the preliminary assessment of AR. It holds potential value in the evaluation and management of AR in China, although the specific application effects still require further investigation.

Subphenotypes of self-reported symptoms and outcomes in long COVID: a prospective cohort study with latent class analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To characterise subphenotypes of self-reported symptoms and outcomes (SRSOs) in postacute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC). DESIGN: Prospective, observational cohort study of subjects with PASC. SETTING: Academic tertiary centre from five clinical referral sources. PARTICIPANTS: Adults with COVID-19 ≥20 days before enrolment and presence of any new self-reported symptoms following COVID-19. EXPOSURES: We collected data on clinical variables and SRSOs via structured telephone interviews and performed standardised assessments with validated clinical numerical scales to capture psychological symptoms, neurocognitive functioning and cardiopulmonary function. We collected saliva and stool samples for quantification of SARS-CoV-2 RNA via quantitative PCR. OUTCOMES MEASURES: Description of PASC SRSOs burden and duration, derivation of distinct PASC subphenotypes via latent class analysis (LCA) and relationship with viral load. RESULTS: We analysed baseline data for 214 individuals with a study visit at a median of 197.5 days after COVID-19 diagnosis. Participants reported ever having a median of 9/16 symptoms (IQR 6-11) after acute COVID-19, with muscle-aches, dyspnoea and headache being the most common. Fatigue, cognitive impairment and dyspnoea were experienced for a longer time. Participants had a lower burden of active symptoms (median 3 (1-6)) than those ever experienced (p<0.001). Unsupervised LCA of symptoms revealed three clinically active PASC subphenotypes: a high burden constitutional symptoms (21.9%), a persistent loss/change of smell and taste (20.6%) and a minimal residual symptoms subphenotype (57.5%). Subphenotype assignments were strongly associated with self-assessments of global health, recovery and PASC impact on employment (p<0.001) as well as referral source for enrolment. Viral persistence (5.6% saliva and 1% stool samples positive) did not explain SRSOs or subphenotypes. CONCLUSIONS: We identified three distinct PASC subphenotypes. We highlight that although most symptoms progressively resolve, specific PASC subpopulations are impacted by either high burden of constitutional symptoms or persistent olfactory/gustatory dysfunction, requiring prospective identification and targeted preventive or therapeutic interventions.

Dual-Tuning Azole-Based Ionic Liquids for Reversible CO2 Capture from Ambient Air.

A strategy of tuning azole-based ionic liquids for reversible CO2 capture from ambient air was reported. Through tuning the basicity of anion as well as the type of cation, an ideal azole-based ionic liquid with both high CO2 capacity and excellent stability was synthesized, which exhibited a highest single-component isotherm uptake of 2.17 mmol/g at the atmospheric CO2 concentration of 0.4 mbar at 30 °C, even in the presence of water. The bound CO2 can be released by relatively mild heating of the IL-CO2 at 80 °C, which makes it promising for energy-efficient CO2 desorption and sorbent regeneration, leading to excellent reversibility. To the best of our knowledge, these azole-based ionic liquids are superior to other adsorbent materials for direct air capture due to their dual-tunable properties and high CO2 capture efficiency, offering a new prospect for efficient and reversible direct air capture technologies.

Abnormal expression of PRKAG2-AS1 in endothelial cells induced inflammation and apoptosis by reducing PRKAG2 expression.

PRKAG2 is required for the maintenance of cellular energy balance. PRKAG2-AS1, a long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), was found within the promoter region of PRKAG2. Despite the extensive expression of PRKAG2-AS1 in endothelial cells, the precise function and mechanism of this gene in endothelial cells have yet to be elucidated. The localization of PRKAG2-AS1 was predominantly observed in the nucleus, as revealed using nuclear and cytoplasmic fractionation and fluorescence in situ hybridization. The manipulation of PRKAG2-AS1 by knockdown and overexpression within the nucleus significantly altered PRKAG2 expression in a cis-regulatory manner. The expression of PRKAG2-AS1 and its target genes, PRKAG2b and PRKAG2d, was down-regulated in endothelial cells subjected to oxLDL and Hcy-induced injury. This finding suggests that PRKAG2-AS1 may be involved in the mechanism behind endothelial injury. The suppression of PRKAG2-AS1 specifically in the nucleus led to an upregulation of inflammatory molecules such as cytokines, adhesion molecules, and chemokines in endothelial cells. Additionally, this nuclear suppression of PRKAG2-AS1 facilitated the adherence of THP1 cells to endothelial cells. We confirmed the role of nuclear knockdown PRKAG2-AS1 in the induction of apoptosis and inhibition of cell proliferation, migration, and lumen formation through flow cytometry, TUNEL test, CCK8 assay, and cell scratching. Finally, it was determined that PRKAG2-AS1 exerts direct control over the transcription of PRKAG2 by its binding to their promoters. In conclusion, downregulation of PRKAG2-AS1 suppressed the proliferation and migration, promoted inflammation and apoptosis of endothelial cells, and thus contributed to the development of atherosclerosis resulting from endothelial cell injury.

Circular RNA hsa_circ_0005519 contributes to acute kidney injury via sponging microRNA-98-5p.

BACKGROUND: This study intends to explore the role and molecular mechanism of hsa_circ_0005519 in acute kidney injury (AKI). METHODS: We conducted reverse transcription-qPCR for human serum to determine levels of hsa_circ_0005519 in AKI patients and healthy controls. Hsa_circ_0005519 was inhibited for expression in HK-2 cells using specific siRNAs. A number of techniques, MTT and ELISA assays, were used to analyze the potential role of hsa_circ_0005519 in cell viability, oxidative stress, and inflammation of LPS-induced HK-2 cells. RESULTS: The serum of patients with AKI exhibited a significant increase in hsa_circ_0005519 expression, compared with healthy controls. Hsa_circ_0005519 was knockdown by siRNA, and its knockdown led to cell viability increase in LPS-induced HK-2 cells. Inhibition of hsa_circ_0005519 can reverse the TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1ß increase in LPS-induced HK-2 cells. Inhibiting hsa_circ_0005519 led to downregulation of MPO and MDA levels. MiR-98-5p was a downstream miRNA for hsa_circ_0005519. MiR-98-5p can offset the effects of hsa_circ_0005519 on LPS-induced HK-2 cells. IFG1R was a target gene for miR-98-5p. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that the highly expressed hsa_circ_0005519 plays a promoting role in AKI.