Gut microbiome biomarkers in adolescent obesity: a regional study.

Purpose: This study aimed to characterize the gut microbiota in obese adolescents from Shenzhen (China), and evaluate influence of gender on BMI-related differences in the gut microbiome. Methods: Evaluation of physical examination, blood pressure measurement, serological assay and body composition were conducted in 205 adolescent subjects at Shenzhen. Fecal microbiome composition was profiled via high-throughput sequencing of the V3-V4 regions of the 16S rRNA gene. A Random Forest (RF) classifier model was built to distinguish the BMI categories based on the gut bacterial composition. Results: Fifty-six taxa consisting mainly of Firmicutes were identified that having significant associations with BMI; 2 OTUs belonging to Ruminococcaceae and 1 belonging to Lachnospiraceae had relatively strong positive correlations with body fate rate, waistline and most of serum biochemical properties. Based on the 56 BMI-associated OTUs, the RF model showed a robust classification accuracy (AUC 0.96) for predicting the obese phenotype. Gender-specific differences in the gut microbiome composition was obtained, and a lower relative abundance of Odoribacter genus was particularly found in obese boys. Functional analysis revealed a deficiency in bacterial gene contents related to peroxisome and PPAR signaling pathway in the obese subjects for both genders. Conclusions: This study reveals unique features of gut microbiome in terms of microbial composition and metabolic functions in obese adolescents, and provides a baseline for reference and comparison studies. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13755-023-00236-9.

Competing risks analysis of external versus internal radiation in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma after controlling for immortal time bias.

PURPOSE: In cohort studies on liver cancer, there are often immortal time bias and interference of competing risk events. This study proposes to explore the role of internal and external radiotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma using SEER data, using a competing risk model and controlling immortal time bias. METHODS: Data of SEER from 2004 till 2015 was included. To analyze whether there was a difference in survival between HCC (hepatocellular carcinoma) patients receiving external radiation and internal radiation, we used a competing risk analysis after excluding immortal time bias, and created a nomogram to assess the risk of cancer-specific death (CSD) in hepatocellular carcinoma patients receiving radiotherapy. RESULTS: Potential confounding factors adjusted, there was no significant difference in CSD between external and internal radiation therapy [HR and its 95% CI = 1.098 (0.874-1.380)]. The constructed nomogram performed better than the traditional AJCC model. The AUC and calibration curve results showed that this well-calibrated nomogram could be used to make clinical decisions regarding the prognosis and personalized treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma treated. There was no difference in the cumulative risk of death between patients with liver cancer treated with external radiation therapy and internal radiation therapy. CONCLUSION: There is no difference in the cumulative risk of death between patients with liver cancer treated with external radiation therapy and internal radiation therapy. The nomogram predicts the results more accurately. These results can be used to guide the choice of treatment options for patients with HCC and to predict their survival prognosis.

Mitochondrial-Targeted Therapy for Doxorubicin-Induced Cardiotoxicity.

Anthracyclines, such as doxorubicin, are effective chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment of cancer, but their clinical use is associated with severe and potentially life-threatening cardiotoxicity. Despite decades of research, treatment options remain limited. The mitochondria is commonly considered to be the main target of doxorubicin and mitochondrial dysfunction is the hallmark of doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity. Here, we review the pathogenic mechanisms of doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity and present an update on cardioprotective strategies for this disorder. Specifically, we focus on strategies that can protect the mitochondria and cover different therapeutic modalities encompassing small molecules, post-transcriptional regulators, and mitochondrial transfer. We also discuss the shortcomings of existing models of doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity and explore advances in the use of human pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocytes as a platform to facilitate the identification of novel treatments against this disorder.

Gene expression profiling of sepsis-associated acute kidney injury.

Sepsis accounts for more than 50% of all acute kidney injury (AKI) cases, and the combination of sepsis and AKI increases the risk of mortality from sepsis alone. However, to the best of our knowledge, the specific mechanism by which sepsis causes AKI has not yet been fully elucidated, and there is no targeted therapy for sepsis-associated AKI (SA-AKI). The present study investigated gene expression profiles using RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) and bioinformatics analyses to assess the function of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and the molecular mechanisms relevant to the prognosis of SA-AKI. From the bioinformatics analysis, 2,256 downregulated and 3,146 upregulated genes were identified (false discovery rate <0.1 and fold-change >2). Gene Ontology analysis revealed that the genes were enriched in cellular metabolic processes, cell death and apoptosis. The enriched transcription factors were v-rel reticuloendotheliosis viral oncogene homolog A and signaling transducer and activator of transcription 3. The enriched microRNAs (miRNAs or miRs) among the DEGs were miR-30e, miR-181a, miR-340, miR-466d and miR-466l. Furthermore, the enriched pathways included toll-like receptor signaling, nod-like receptor signaling and the Janus kinase/STAT signaling pathway. In conclusion, the present study identified certain prognosis-related genes, transcription factors, miRNAs and pathways by analyzing gene expression profiles of SA-AKI using RNA-Seq, which provides some basis for future experimental studies.

Preoperative Serum Fibrinogen is Associated With Acute Kidney Injury after Cardiac Valve Replacement Surgery.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) after open cardiac surgery is associated with a longer hospital stay and higher risk of mortality. We aimed to explore the association between preoperative serum fibrinogen level and risk of postoperative AKI in patients with open cardiac surgery. 3459 patients who underwent cardiac valve replacement surgery from January 2011 to September 2015 were recruited. The primary outcome was AKI, defined as AKI stage-1 or higher based on the Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) Guidelines. Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE) was used to subsample minority groups to eliminate classification bias. 510 (14.74%) patients developed postoperative AKI. Serum fibrinogen was independently associated with AKI (OR = 1.211, 95% CI 1.080 to 1.358, p = 0.001) after adjustment of covariates. The receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve for the outcome of AKI, after the addition of serum fibrinogen, had a c-statistic increasing from 0.72 to 0.73 (p < 0.001). This translated to a substantially improved AKI risk classification with a net reclassification index of 0.178 (p < 0.001). After SMOTE subsampling, serum fibrinogen was still independently associated with AKI grade 1 or higher (OR = 1.212, 95% CI 1.1089 to 1.347, p = 0.003). Preoperative serum fibrinogen levels were associated with the risk of postoperative AKI after cardiac valve replacement surgery.

[Degradation characteristics of naphthalene with a Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain isolated from soil contaminated by diesel].

Abstract: A naphthalene-degrading bacterium (referred as HD-5) was isolated from the diesel-contaminated soil and was assigned to Pseudomonas aeruginosa according to 16S rDNA sequences analysis. Gene nah, which encodes naphthalene dioxygenase, was identified from strain HD-5 by PCR amplification. Different bioremediation approaches, including nature attenuation, bioaugmentation with strain Pseudomonas aeruginosa, biostimulation, and an integrated degradation by bioaugmentation and biostimulation, were evaluated for their effectiveness in the remediating soil containing 5% naphthalene. The degradation rates of naphthalene in the soil were compared among the different bioremediation approaches, the FDA and dehydrogenase activity in bioremediation process were measured, and the gene copy number of 16S rRNA and nah in soil were dynamically monitored using real-time PCR. It was shown that the naphthalene removal rate reached 71.94%, 62.22% and 83.14% in approaches of bioaugmentation (B), biostimulation(S) and integrated degradation composed of bioaugmentation and biostimulation (BS), respectively. The highest removal rate of naphthalene was achieved by using BS protocol, which also gives the highest FDA and dehydrogenase activity. The gene copy number of 16S rRNA and nah in soil increased by about 2.67 x 10(11) g(-1) and 8.67 x 10(8) g(-1) after 31 days treatment using BS protocol. Above-mentioned results also demonstrated that the screened bacterium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, could grow well in naphthalene-contaminated soil and effectively degrade naphthalene, which is of fundamental importance for bioremediation of naphthalene-contaminated soil.

Relationship between CIP2A expression, and prognosis and MDR-related proteins in patients with advanced gastric cancer.

CIP2A is highly expressed in a variety of malignancies. We determined the expression and clinical significance of CIP2A in patients with advanced gastric cancer. CIP2A protein was expressed in 25 of 37 cancer tissue specimens. There was no correlation between CIP2A and PGP, GST-π, Topo-II, and LRP expression. Survival analysis showed significant differences between the survival rate of the CIP2A protein-positive and -negative groups (χ(2)=4.509, P=0.034), but the degree of positive expression was unrelated to survival time (χ(2)=4.639, P=0.098). CIP2A expression may have no prospective value for optimizing chemotherapy regimens, but it can be an indicator for patient prognosis.

[Dynamic changes in functional genes for nitrogen bioremediation of petroleum-contaminated soil cycle during].

Microorganisms in nitrogen cycle serve as an important part of the ecological function of soil. The aim of this research was to monitor the abundance of nitrogen-fixing, denitrifying and nitrifying bacteria during bioaugmentation of petroleum-contaminated soil using real-time polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR) of nifH, narG and amoA genes which encode the key enzymes in nitrogen fixation, nitrification and ammoniation respectively. Three different kinds of soils, which are petroleum-contaminated soil, normal soil, and remediated soil, were monitored. It was shown that the amounts of functional microorganisms in petroleum-contaminated soil were far less than those in normal soil, while the amounts in remediated soil and normal soil were comparable. Results of this experiment demonstrate that nitrogen circular functional bacteria are inhibited in petroleum-contaminated soil and can be recovered through bioremediation. Furthermore, copies of the three functional genes as well as total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) for soils with six different treatments were monitored. Among all treatments, the one, into which both E. cloacae as an inoculant and wheat straw as an additive were added, obtained the maximum copies of 2.68 x 10(6), 1.71 x 10(6) and 8.54 x 10(4) per gram dry soil for nifH, narG and amoA genes respectively, companying with the highest degradation rate (48% in 40 days) of TPH. The recovery of functional genes and removal of TPH were better in soil inoculated with E cloacae and C echinulata collectively than soil inoculated with E cloacae only. All above results suggest that the nitrogen circular functional genes could be applied to monitor and assess the bioremediation of petroleum-contaminated soil.