Alien species water hyacinth realizes waste into treasure: The preparation of biomass sorbent to determine benzoylurea insecticides in tea products.

A fast and effective analytical method with biomass solid-phase microextraction sorbent combined with a high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detector was proposed for the determination of benzoylurea (BU) insecticides in tea products. The novel sorbent was prepared by activating and then carbonizing water hyacinth with a fast growth rate and low application value as raw material and showed a high specific surface area and multiple interactions with analytes, such as electrostatic action, hydrogen bonding, and π-π conjugation. After optimizing the three most important extraction parameters (pH [X1], sample loading rate [X2], and solution volume [X3]) by Box-Behnken design, the as-established analytical method showed good extraction performance: excellent recovery (80.13%-106.66%) and wide linear range (1-400 µg/L) with a determination coefficient of 0.9992-0.9999, a low limit of detection of 0.02-0.1 µg/L and the satisfactory practical application results in tea products. All these indicate that the water hyacinth-derived material has the potential as a solid-phase extraction sorbent for the detection and removal of BU insecticides from tea products, and at the same time, it can also achieve the effect of rational use of biological resources, maintaining ecological balance, turning waste into treasure, and achieving industrial production.

Factors Influencing Childhood Influenza Vaccination: A Systematic Review.

Childhood influenza vaccination coverage remains low in lower/middle-income countries. This systematic review aims to identify influencing factors around childhood influenza vaccination. A systematic literature review was conducted and included empirical studies with original data that investigated factors influencing childhood influenza vaccination. We searched MEDLINE, Web of Science, EMBASE, CINAHL Plus, Global Health, PsycINFO, and two Chinese databases, China Knowledge Resource Integrated Database and Chongqing VIP, using a combination of the key terms 'childhood', 'influenza', 'vaccination', and related syntax for all peer-reviewed publications published before December 2019. Thirty studies were included in the analysis. Childhood influenza vaccination was positively associated with caregivers' knowledge of influenza vaccine, positive vaccine attitudes, self-efficacy, perceived susceptibility and severity of influenza, believing in the efficacy of influenza vaccine, the worry of getting sick, healthcare workers' recommendations, and previous influenza vaccination experiences. Barriers included the fear of safety and side effects of the vaccine, as well as poor access to vaccination service. To improve childhood influenza vaccine uptake, health education is necessary to address caregivers' lack of confidence on vaccine safety. Future studies are needed to investigate influencing factors around healthcare workers' vaccination recommendation behaviors and the impact of contextual factors on public vaccination behaviors.

A systematic review on polysaccharides from Morinda officinalis How: Advances in the preparation, structural characterization and pharmacological activities.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Morinda officinalis How is called "Ba-Ji-Tian" in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which belongs to the genus Rubiaceae and is widely used for medicinal purposes in China and other eastern Asian countries. Morinda officinalis How polysaccharides (MOPs) are one of the key bioactive components, and have a variety of biological activities, such as antioxidation, antifatigue, enhanced immunity, antiosteoporosis, ect. AIM OF THE REVIEW: This review is aimed at providing comprehensive information of the latest preparation technologies, structural characterization, and pharmacological effects of MOPs. A more in-depth research on the structure and clinical pharmacology of the MOPs was explored. It could lay a foundation for further investigate the pharmacological activities and guide the safe clinical practice of MOPs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Web of Science, PubMed, Scifinder, Google Scholar, CNKI, Wanfang database, and other online database are used to search and collect the literature on extraction and separation methods, structural characterization, and pharmacological activities of MOPs publisher from 2004 to 2023. The key words are "Morinda officinalis polysaccharides", "extraction", "isolation", "purification" and "pharmacological effects". RESULTS: Morinda officinalis has been widely used in tonifying the kidney yang since ancient times, and is famous for one of the "Four Southern Medicines" in China for the treatment of depression, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, infertility, fatigue and Alzheimer's disease. The active ingredients of Morinda officinalis that have been researched on the treatment of depression and osteoporosis are mostly polysaccharides and oligosaccharides. The content of polysaccharides varies with different methods of extraction, separation and purification. MOPs have a wide range of pharmacological effects, including antioxidant, antifatigue, immunomodulatory, antiosteoporosis, and regulation of spermatogenesis activities. These pharmacological properties lay a foundation for the treatment of oxidative stress, osteoporosis, spermatogenic dysfunction, immunodeficiency, inflammation and other diseases with MOPs. CONCLUSIONS: At present, MOPs have been applied in the treatment of skeletal muscle atrophy, varicocele, osteoporosis, because of its effects of enhancing immunity, improving reproduction and antioxidant. However, the structure-activity relationship of these effects are still not clear. The more deeply study could be conducted on the MOPs in the future. The toxicology and clinical pharmacology, as well as mechanism of action of MOPs were also needed to deeply studied and clarified. This paper could lay the foundation for the application and safety of MOPs in multifunctional foods and drugs.

Retinitis after haematopoietic stem cell transplantation with multiple intraocular viral infections (cytomegalovirus, Epstein‒Barr virus and herpes simplex virus)- a case report.

BACKGROUND: To report a case of retinitis with multiple intraocular viral infections after second haematopoietic stem cell transplantation. CASE PRESENTATION: A 39-year-old female patient developed retinitis after a second haematopoietic stem cell transplant. Right eye was tested for three viral infections- cytomegalovirus, Epstein‒Barr virus and herpes simplex virus, while left was infected with cytomegalovirus. The patient was subsequently treated with vitreous cavity ganciclovir injections, and 1 week later both eyes tested negative for aqueous humour viruses. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: CMV, EBV and HSV belong to the herpes virus family. They are all commonly observed in the body and represent opportunity infectious viruses. The retinitis they cause have different characteristics. But simultaneous infection of the eye by multiple viruses is quite rare. In this case, three viruses were detected in the patient's eye, but whether the retina was caused by all three viruses at the same time could not be determined. A satisfactory outcome was achieved after treatment with vitreous cavity ganciclovir injection.

Investigation of tick-borne bacterial microorganisms in Haemaphysalis ticks from Hebei, Shandong, and Qinghai provinces, China.

Tick-borne microorganisms in many tick species and many areas of China are still not thoroughly investigated. In this study, 224 ticks including two species (Haemaphysalis longicornis and Haemaphysalis qinghaiensis) were collected from four cities in Hebei, Shandong, and Qinghai provinces, China. Ticks were screened for the presence of tick-borne bacterial microorganisms including Rickettsia, Anaplasmataceae (Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, Neoehrlichia, etc.), Coxiella, Borrelia, and Bartonella. Two Anaplasma species (Anaplasma ovis and Anaplasma capra) were detected in H. longicornis from Xingtai City of Hebei Province, with a positive rate of 3 % and 8 %, respectively. A Coxiella species was detected in H. longicornis ticks from all three locations in Hebei and Shandong provinces, with the positive rate ranging from 30 to 75 %. All the 16S and rpoB sequences were very similar (99.77-100 % identity) to Coxiella endosymbiont of Haemaphysalis ticks. An Ehrlichia species was detected in H. qinghaiensis (6/66, 9 %) from Xining City, Qinghai Province. The 16S and groEL sequences had 100 % and 97.40-97.85 % nucleotide identities to "Candidatus Ehrlichia pampeana" strains, respectively, suggesting that it may be a variant of "Candidatus Ehrlichia pampeana". All the ticks were negative for Rickettsia, Borrelia, and Bartonella. Because all the ticks were removed from goats or humans and were partially or fully engorged, it is possible that the microorganisms were from the blood meal but not vectored by the ticks. Our results may provide some information on the diversity and distribution of tick-borne pathogens in China.

Investigating the Regulatory Mechanism of the Sesquiterpenol Nerolidol from a Plant on Juvenile Hormone-Related Genes in the Insect Spodoptera exigua.

Various plant species contain terpene secondary metabolites, which disrupt insect growth and development by affecting the activity of juvenile hormone-degrading enzymes, and the juvenile hormone (JH) titers maintained in insects. Nerolidol, a natural sesquiterpenol belonging to the terpenoid group, exhibits structural similarities to insect JHs. However, the impact of nerolidol on insect growth and development, as well as its underlying molecular mechanism, remains unclear. Here, the effects of nerolidol on Spodoptera exigua were investigated under treatment at various sub-lethal doses (4.0 mg/mL, 1.0 mg/mL, 0.25 mg/mL). We found that a higher dose (4.0 mg/mL) of nerolidol significantly impaired the normal growth, development, and population reproduction of S. exigua, although a relatively lower dose (0.25 mg/mL) of nerolidol had no significant effect on this growth and development. Combined transcriptome sequencing and gene family analysis further revealed that four juvenile hormone esterase (JHE)-family genes that are involved in juvenile hormone degradation were significantly altered in S. exigua larvae after nerolidol treatment (4.0 mg/mL). Interestingly, the juvenile hormone esterase-like (JHEL) gene Sexi006721, a critical element responsive to nerolidol stress, was closely linked with the significant augmentation of JHE activity and JH titer in S. exigua (R2 = 0.94, p < 0.01). Taken together, we speculate that nerolidol can function as an analog of JH by modulating the expression of the enzyme genes responsible for degrading JH, resulting in JH disorders and ultimately disrupting the development of insect larvae. This study ultimately provides a theoretical basis for the sustainable control of S. exigua in the field whilst proposing a new perspective for the development of novel biological pesticides.

Matrix stiffness-mediated tenogenesis of tendon stem/progenitor cells via integrin-αm for tendon regeneration.

Tendon injuries, commonly associated with sports activities, pose significant challenges in terms of treatment and recovery due to limited tendon regeneration and the formation of proliferative scars. Stem cell-based therapy has shown promising application, but there are still challenges. Physical and biological cues are instrumental in guiding stem cell differentiation and maturation. This study focuses on exploring the effects of matrix biomechanics on tendon stem/progenitor cells (TSPCs) differentiation. We fabricated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates with different elastic modulus to mimic the mechanical characteristics of healthy tendons. A tissue-engineered culture system was developed for tenogenesis, and pre-differentiated tissue-engineered tendons were transplanted in vivo to assess their efficacy in regenerating patella tendon injuries. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the biomechanical stimuli activated the integrin-αm to enhance the tenogenesis capacity of TSPCs. Our findings highlight the importance of biomechanics in tendon tissue engineering and provide a novel perspective for enhancing tendon regeneration.

Stomatal responses of terrestrial plants to global change.

Quantifying the stomatal responses of plants to global change factors is crucial for modeling terrestrial carbon and water cycles. Here we synthesize worldwide experimental data to show that stomatal conductance (gs) decreases with elevated carbon dioxide (CO2), warming, decreased precipitation, and tropospheric ozone pollution, but increases with increased precipitation and nitrogen (N) deposition. These responses vary with treatment magnitude, plant attributes (ambient gs, vegetation biomes, and plant functional types), and climate. All two-factor combinations (except warming + N deposition) significantly reduce gs, and their individual effects are commonly additive but tend to be antagonistic as the effect sizes increased. We further show that rising CO2 and warming would dominate the future change of plant gs across biomes. The results of our meta-analysis provide a foundation for understanding and predicting plant gs across biomes and guiding manipulative experiment designs in a real world where global change factors do not occur in isolation.

In situ visualization of Braun's lipoprotein on E. coli sacculi.

Braun's lipoprotein (Lpp) plays a major role in stabilizing the integrity of the cell envelope in Escherichia coli, as it provides a covalent cross-link between the outer membrane and the peptidoglycan layer. An important challenge in elucidating the physiological role of Lpp lies in attaining a detailed understanding of its distribution on the peptidoglycan layer. Here, using atomic force microscopy, we visualized Lpp directly on peptidoglycan sacculi. Lpp is homogeneously distributed over the outer surface of the sacculus at a high density. However, it is absent at the constriction site during cell division, revealing its role in the cell division process with Pal, another cell envelope-associated protein. Collectively, we have established a framework to elucidate the distribution of Lpp and other peptidoglycan-bound proteins via a direct imaging modality.

Phenotypic, chemical component and molecular assessment of genetic diversity and population structure of Morinda officinalis germplasm.

BACKGROUND: Morinda officinalis How (MO) is a perennial herb distributed in tropical and subtropical regions, which known as one of the "Four Southern Herbal Medicines". The extent of genetic variability and the population structure of MO are presently little understood. Here, nine morphological traits, six chemical components and Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers were used in integrative research of MO germplasm variation among 88 individuals collected from ten populations across four geographical provinces of China. RESULTS: Both phenotype and chemical composition have significant genetic variation, and there is a certain correlation between them such as root diameter and the nystose content, as well as geographical distribution. The principal component analysis (PCA) showed the leaf length, leaf width, nystose, 1F-furanosaccharide nystose, and the section color were the major contributors to diversity. The cluster analysis based on phenotypic and oligosaccharide data distinguished three significant groups, which was consistent with the result of a corresponding analysis with 228,615 SNP markers, and importantly, they all showed a significant correlation with geographical origin. However, there was little similarity between two cluster results. The Shannon's information index (I) varied from 0.17 to 0.53 with a mean of 0.37, suggesting a high level of genetic diversity in MO populations, which mainly existed among individuals within populations, accounting for 99.66% of the total according to the analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) results. Each population also maintains the connection because of certain gene communication, so that the genetic differentiation between populations was not very significant. The STRUCTURE software was used to analyse the population structure and the result showed that 88 accessions were clustered into three groups, and 67% of them were pure type, which was also confirmed through PCA. CONCLUSIONS: The comprehensive study of phenotypic, chemical and molecular markers will provide valuable information for future breeding plans and understanding the phylogenetic relationship of MO population.

CMV retinitis and subsequent acute cystoid macular oedema after treatment with vitreous ganciclovir injection: a case report.

BACKGROUND: To report a very rare acute cystoid macular oedema following ganciclovir injection in patients receiving allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation. CASE PRESENTATION: A 44-year-old male patient experienced vision loss in his left eye eight months after allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Ophthalmologic examination showed posterior retinopathy with retinal haemorrhage, a yellow necrotic border, and a vascular white sheath involved in the superior temporal retina but not the posterior pole. Cytomegalovirus DNA results in both plasma and ocular fluid were positive. All tests combined with the patient's medical history suggested that his ocular disease was cytomegalovirus retinitis. Consequently, he received a weekly ganciclovir vitreous injection. The disease was visibly controlled, and the fundus condition improved after the first three treatments. However, the patient had severe vision loss in his left eye and acute cystic oedema in the macula, while the original lesion was stable two hours after the fourth treatment. The macular oedema subsided significantly on the first day. Over the next week, daily OCT findings indicated that the patient's macular oedema gradually subsided and resolved completely by the second week, and his left eye vision partially improved. CONCLUSION: Macular oedema may occur in patients with cytomegalovirus retinitis, but it rarely occurs during treatment. In this case, the patient's macular oedema appeared and resolved quickly. Macular oedema in patients with cytomegalovirus retinitis receiving vitreous cavity injections of ganciclovir needs to be further studied and discussed.

Involvement of CircRNA Expression Profile in Diabetic Retinopathy and Its Potential Diagnostic Value.

Background: Circular RNAs (circRNAs), a class of non-coding and undegradable RNAs, play many pathological functions by acting as miRNA sponges, interacting with RNA-binding proteins, and others. The recent literature indicates that circRNAs possess the advanced superiority for the early screening of diabetic retinopathy (DR). Methods: CircRNA sources of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy controls (n = 4), diabetes mellitus patients (DM) (n = 4), and DR patients (n = 4) were extracted for circular RNA microarray analysis. Enriched biological modules and signaling pathways were analyzed by Gene Ontology Enrichment and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis, respectively. Real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) was performed to validate differentiated levels of several circRNAs (fold change ≥2, p < .05) in different groups of healthy control subjects (n = 20), DM patients (n = 60), and DR patients (n = 42). Based on our clinical data from DR, the diagnostic performance of candidate circRNAs was measured by operating characteristic curves (ROCs). Subsequently, their circRNA-miRNA networks were constructed by bioinformatics analysis. Results: Circular RNA microarray analysis was performed, and 2,452 and 289 circRNAs were screened with differential expression in DR patients compared to healthy controls and DM patients, respectively. Enrichment analyses showed that circRNAs in DR patients were enriched in extracellular matrix (ECM)-receptor interaction and focal adhesion pathways. The top 5 differential circRNAs in circRNA microarray analysis were subsequently quantified and verified by RT-qPCR. Consistently, a significant 2.2-fold reduction of hsa_circ_0095008 and 1.7-fold increase in hsa_circ_0001883 were identified in DR patients compared to DM patients. Meanwhile, the area under curves of hsa_circ_0095008 and hsa_circ_0001883 were 0.6710 (95% CI, 0.5646-0.7775) (p = 0.003399) and 0.6071 (95% CI, 0.4953-0.7189) (p = 0.06644), respectively, indicating a good diagnostic value. Conclusion: Our study provided a new sight for the pathological mechanism of DR and revealed the potential value of hsa_circ_0095008 and hsa_circ_0001883 as diagnostic biomarkers for the early diagnosis of DR patients.

Association between red blood cell distribution width-to-albumin ratio and diabetic retinopathy.

BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus (DM) has shown a trend of reaching pandemic levels in the world. Chronic inflammation is a key factor in the development of diabetic retinopathy (DR). Red blood cell distribution width-to-albumin ratio (RA) is used to assess immune status and the immune response. Our study was conducted to assess the association between DR and RA levels to determine the value of RA in predicting DR. METHODS: The data came from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1999 and 2006, The RA was calculated as the Red Blood Cell Distribution Width/Albumin Ratio. Multivariable logistic regression and propensity score-matched analysis were used to examine the association between RA and DR levels. RESULTS: The clinical and demographic features of the 1,751 patients with DM. The eligible participants included 874 females and 870 males with mean age 62.2 ± 14.0 years, and mean RA 3.2 ± 0.5. RA ≥ 2.9659 was a risk factor for DR (OR = 1.66 95% CI: 1.31-2.11, p < 0.0001). After adjusting for age, sex, race, education, marital status, ratio of family income to poverty, body mass index, fasting glucose, hypertension, and coronary heart disease, RA ≥ 2.9659 was an independent risk factor for DR (OR = 1.64, 95% CI: 1.23-2.19, p = 0.0008). The propensity score-matched analysis also showed that high RA was an independent risk factor for DR. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that RA is a risk factor for patients with DR. The findings of this study should be validated the role of RA in DR in diabetic patients.

The battle for autophagy between host and influenza A virus.

Influenza A virus (IAV) is an infectious pathogen, threatening the population and public safety with its epidemics. Therefore, it is essential to better understand influenza virus biology to develop efficient strategies against its pathogenicity. Autophagy is an important cellular process to maintain cellular homeostasis by cleaning up the hazardous substrates in lysosome. Accumulating research has also suggested that autophagy is a critical mechanism in host defense responses against IAV infection by degrading viral particles and activating innate or acquired immunity to induce viral clearance. However, IAV has conversely hijacked autophagy to strengthen virus infection by blocking autophagy maturation and further interfering host antiviral signalling to promote viral replication. Therefore, how the battle for autophagy between host and IAV is carried out need to be known. In this review, we describe the role of autophagy in host defence and IAV survival, and summarize the role of influenza proteins in subverting the autophagic process as well as then concentrate on how host utilize antiviral function of autophagy to prevent IAV infection.

SOX2 maintains the stemness of retinoblastoma stem-like cells through Hippo/YAP signaling pathway.

PURPOSE: To explore the mechanisms underlying stemness maintenance of retinoblastoma (RB) stem cells (RSCs). METHODS: The retinoblastoma stem-like cells (RSLCs) were isolated by single cell cloning in combination of examination of sphere-forming capacities. The stemness of the cells were characterized by the sphere-forming capacity and the expression levels of RSCs markers. Gene manipulation was performed by lentivirus system. Transcriptional regulation was identified by qRT-PCR, luciferase reporter, nuclear run-on and DNA pull-down assay. Spearman analysis was employed for correlation analysis of genes in tumor tissues of RB patients. RESULTS: The isolated RSLCs exhibited enhanced sphere-forming capacity and constantly higher levels of CD44, ABCG2, SOX2 and PAX6, but not CD133. SOX2 positively regulated the stemness of RSLCs. SOX2 directly binds to the promoters of WWTR1 and YAP and transcriptionally activates WWTR1 and YAP. Knockdown of WWTR1 or YAP partially abolished the effect of SOX2 on the stemness of RSLCs. CONCLUSIONS: SOX2, as a key deriver, maintains RB stemness by activating Hippo/YAP signaling. Inhibition of Hippo/YAP signaling would be an effective strategy for human RB caused by SOX2 upregulation.

Foliar application of zinc oxide nanoparticles: An effective strategy to mitigate drought stress in cucumber seedling by modulating antioxidant defense system and osmolytes accumulation.

Drought is a major environmental threat that affects plant growth and productivity. Strategies to mitigate the detrimental impacts of drought stress on plants are under scrutiny. Nanotechnology is considered an effective tool in resolving a wide range of environmental issues by offering novel and pragmatic solutions. A pot experiment was performed to determine the efficacy of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) as a foliar application (25 mg L-1 and 100 mg L-1) on the growth performance of cucumber subjected to drought stress. Applied ZnO NPs under normal conditions resulted in significant growth and biomass enhancement while reducing drought-induced decline. Photosynthetic pigments, photosynthesis, and PSII activity enhanced due to ZnO NPs application, attaining maximal values at 100 mg L-1 of ZnO NPs. Drought stress restricted growth and biomass buildup in cucumber seedlings by stimulating oxidative stress, which was manifested to excessive buildup of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and peroxidation, thereby decreasing membrane functioning. Plants exposed to ZnO NPs exhibited a reduction in ROS accumulation and lipid peroxidation. The substantial reduction in oxidative damage was manifested with the enhancement of enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant components. The phenol and mineral contents were reduced due to drought stress. In addition, the content of proline, glycine betaine, free amino acids, and sugars increased due to ZnO NPs under normal and drought conditions. Furthermore, the drought-induced decline in the content of phenol and mineral nutrients was mitigated by ZnO NPs foliar application. These findings reveal that exogenous ZnO NPs application may be a pragmatic option in dealing with the drought stress of cucumber seedlings.

Quality markers for processed products of Morinda officinalis how based on the "oligosaccharides-spectrum-effect".

Morinda officinalis How (MO) possesses prominent tonifying kidney yang and strengthening bone and muscle effects in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Due to the complexity of MO components, the chemical mechanism leading to efficacy changes of MO caused by processing remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate and discover quality markers (Q-markers) related to the clinical efficacy of processed MO. The different processed products of MO have different clinical applications, although they originate from the same medicinal herb. The active chemical components from raw and processed MO that protect against reproductive oxidative stress damage were evaluated. The processed products of MO were prepared by different processing methods. The changes in oligosaccharides during processing were characterized by high-performance liquid chromatography with an evaporative light scattering detector (HPLC-ELSD), and the differential components in raw and processed MO were analyzed using SA, HCA, PCA, and OPLS-DA methods. The protective effects of raw and processed MO oligosaccharides (MOOs) against reproductive oxidative stress damage were evaluated based on the spermatic number, spermatic survival rate, abnormal sperm ratio and serum biochemical indicators in cyclophosphamide-induced (CTX-induced) male mice. The results revealed that processed MOOs had better pharmacological effects than raw MOOs. Therefore, gray correlation analysis (GRA) and the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) methods were used to investigate the spectrum-effect relationships of MOOs. Spectrum-effect relationship analysis revealed that all of the characteristic peaks contributed to the treatment of reproductive oxidative stress damage, and the relative correlation degrees were greater than 0.6. Among them, the peaks 1 F-fructofuranosylnystose, nystose, and 1-kestose and the peaks X2-X5, which were most closely correlated to the treatment of reproductive oxidative stress damage, were identified as inulin-oligosaccharides and inulo-oligosaccharides, respectively. It was proposed that these constituents could be considered Q-markers for processed products of MO. Thus, this study aimed to explore chemical markers that correlate with the clinical efficacy of processed MO.

Transcriptome analysis reveals important candidate gene families related to oligosaccharides biosynthesis in Morindaofficinalis.

Morinda officinalis How (MO) is one of the best-known traditional herbs and is widely cultivated in subtropical and tropical areas for many years, especially in southern China. Oligosaccharides are the major constituents in the roots of MO, which is well known for its therapeutic effects with anti-depression, anti-osteoporosis, memory-enhancing, ect. To date, the main gene families that regulate the biosynthetic pathway of MO oligosaccharides metabolism yet have been published. In our study, six cDNA libraries generated from six plants of MO were sequenced utilizing an Illumina HiSeq 4000 platform. Corresponding totals of more than 132.60 million clean reads were obtained from the six libraries and assembled into 25,812 unigenes with an average length of 1288 bp. Moreover, 6036 unigenes were found to be allocated to 26 pathways maps using several public databases, and 2538 differential expression genes (DEGs) were screened. Among them, 25 genes from three families were selected as the mainly candidate genes related to MO oligosaccharides biosynthesis. Then, the expression patterns of six DEGs closely related to MO oligosaccharides biosynthesis were verified by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Besides, the MO was clustered more closely to Coffea arabica of Rubiaceae. In summary, the transcriptomic analysis was used to investigate the differences in expression genes of oligosaccharides biosynthesis, with the notable outcome that several key gene families were closely linked to oligosaccharides biosynthesis.

Comprehensive Transcriptomic Analysis Identifies Novel Antiviral Factors Against Influenza A Virus Infection.

Influenza A virus (IAV) has a higher genetic variation, leading to the poor efficiency of traditional vaccine and antiviral strategies targeting viral proteins. Therefore, developing broad-spectrum antiviral treatments is particularly important. Host responses to IAV infection provide a promising approach to identify antiviral factors involved in virus infection as potential molecular drug targets. In this study, in order to better illustrate the molecular mechanism of host responses to IAV and develop broad-spectrum antiviral drugs, we systematically analyzed mRNA expression profiles of host genes in a variety of human cells, including transformed and primary epithelial cells infected with different subtypes of IAV by mining 35 microarray datasets from the GEO database. The transcriptomic results showed that IAV infection resulted in the difference in expression of amounts of host genes in all cell types, especially those genes participating in immune defense and antiviral response. In addition, following the criteria of P<0.05 and |logFC|≥1.5, we found that some difference expression genes were overlapped in different cell types under IAV infection via integrative gene network analysis. IFI6, IFIT2, ISG15, HERC5, RSAD2, GBP1, IFIT3, IFITM1, LAMP3, USP18, and CXCL10 might act as key antiviral factors in alveolar basal epithelial cells against IAV infection, while BATF2, CXCL10, IFI44L, IL6, and OAS2 played important roles in airway epithelial cells in response to different subtypes of IAV infection. Additionally, we also revealed that some overlaps (BATF2, IFI44L, IFI44, HERC5, CXCL10, OAS2, IFIT3, USP18, OAS1, IFIT2) were commonly upregulated in human primary epithelial cells infected with high or low pathogenicity IAV. Moreover, there were similar defense responses activated by IAV infection, including the interferon-regulated signaling pathway in different phagocyte types, although the differentially expressed genes in different phagocyte types showed a great difference. Taken together, our findings will help better understand the fundamental patterns of molecular responses induced by highly or lowly pathogenic IAV, and the overlapped genes upregulated by IAV in different cell types may act as early detection markers or broad-spectrum antiviral targets.

Iridoids with anti-inflammatory effect from the aerial parts of Morinda officinalis How.

Morinda officinalis How was widely applied to alleviate symptom like impotence, menstrual disorders, osteoporosis, and rheumatoid arthritis. To expand resources usage, phytochemistry of the aerial parts was studied and the structures of compounds were elucidated based on NMR, HRESIMS, IR and UV. Moreover, the anti-inflammatory effect and possible mechanism were investigated by Griess kit, RT-qPCR, ELISA, western blot and molecular docking on LPS-induced inflammation in RAW 264.7 cells. Herein, we isolated and identified 16 iridoid derivatives, including seven new iridoids officinaloside A-G (1-7) and nine known iridoids. All the compounds were safe to RAW 264.7 cells. Luckily, compounds 5 and 6 showed inhibitory effect on production of NO, and decreased the expression of inflammatory cytokines at mRNA and protein levels in a dose-dependent way. The possible mechanism of their anti-inflammation may be the affinity interaction between 5 with COX-2 protein, and 6 with iNOS protein. Overall, compounds 5 and 6 exert promising effects in inhibiting inflammatory cytokines, indicating that they could be used as lead compounds for developing health products or clinical practice for inflammation, which provides a scientific basis for further sustainable development and usage of the aerial parts of Morinda officinalis How.