Hypothalamic Gene Expression in a Rat Model of Chronic Unpredictable Mild Stress Treated with Electroacupuncture.

Depression is characterized by the loss of pleasure and a depressed mood, and it is a common mental disorder in the twenty-first century. Multiple gene imbalances, which are considered pathological factors in depression, were detected in the brain. Electroacupuncture is an effective therapeutic approach for depression that has minimal side effects. As a crucial structure in the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal, the hypothalamus plays a key role in depression. Our study focused on the transcriptome level in the hypothalamus of depressive rats. After chronic unpredictable mild stress, the rats exhibited depressive-like behaviors, such as decreased sucrose consumption in the SPT, increased time in the central area of the OFT and increased immobility in the FST. Moreover, electroacupuncture alleviated depressive behaviors. Because of the importance of the hypothalamus in depression, we next detected gene expression in the hypothalamus. A total of 510 genes (125 upregulated genes and 385 downregulated genes) were detected in the hypothalamus of depressive rats. 15 of the 125 upregulated genes and 63 of the 385 downregulated genes could be altered by electroacupuncture, which suggests the antidepressant effect of electroacupuncture. Our study also provided the evidence that regulation of transcriptome in the hypothalamus might be a potential mechanism of electroacupuncture treatment.

Vitamin D Supplementation during Intensive Care Unit Stay Is Associated with Improved Outcomes in Critically Ill Patients with Sepsis: A Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: Vitamin D, as a common micronutrient, has been widely used in critically ill patients. However, whether supplementation of vitamin D in adult patients with sepsis can improve their prognosis remains controversial. METHODS: Data from the Mart for Intensive Care IV database was used in this retrospective cohort study, and adult patients with sepsis were enrolled. Critically ill patients, admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) between 2008 and 2019 at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), were divided into the vitamin D supplementation group and non-vitamin D supplementation group. The primary outcomes were defined as all-cause in-hospital, 28-day, and 90-day mortality rates after admission to the ICU. A 1:1 propensity score matching (PSM), inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW), and overlap weighting (OW) analyses were used to minimize selection bias and balance the baseline demographic characteristics. Regression and survival analyses were performed to assess the association between vitamin D supplementation and clinical outcomes in patients with sepsis. RESULTS: In total, 3539 patients with sepsis were enrolled as study participants; of these, 315 were supplemented with vitamin D during their ICU stay. In-hospital, 28-day, and 90-day mortality rates were significantly lower in patients with sepsis supplemented with vitamin D. Multivariate regression analysis showed vitamin D supplementation as a potential protective factor for in-hospital mortality with an odds ratio (OR) = 0.70 (0.51-0.96) after adjusting for all confounders. The hazard ratios (HRs) for 28-day and 90-day mortality were 0.65 (0.50-0.85) and 0.70 (0.55-0.90), respectively. The survival analysis showed that the vitamin D supplementation group had a higher survival probability within 28 and 90 days (p-value < 0.05). These results remained relatively stable post PSM, IPTW, and OW. However, we found no evidence that vitamin D supplementation could shorten the length of stay in the ICU or hospital. CONCLUSIONS: Vitamin D supplementation during an ICU stay was associated with improved prognosis in patients with sepsis, as evidenced by lower in-hospital, 28-day, and 90-day mortality rates and lower disease severity-related scores, but showed no influence on the length of stay in the hospital or ICU.

Metal Nanoparticles as Novel Agents for Lung Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy.

Lung cancer is one of the most common malignancies worldwide and contributes to most cancer-related morbidity and mortality cases. During the past decades, the rapid development of nanotechnology has provided opportunities and challenges for lung cancer diagnosis and therapeutics. As one of the most extensively studied nanostructures, metal nanoparticles obtain higher satisfaction in biomedical applications associated with lung cancer. Metal nanoparticles have enhanced almost all major imaging strategies and proved great potential as sensor for detecting cancer-specific biomarkers. Moreover, metal nanoparticles could also improve therapeutic efficiency via better drug delivery, improved radiotherapy, enhanced gene silencing, and facilitated photo-driven treatment. Herein, the recently advanced metal nanoparticles applied in lung cancer therapy and diagnosis are summarized. Future perspective on the direction of metal-based nanomedicine is also discussed. Stimulating more research interests to promote the development of metal nanoparticles in lung cancer is devoted.

Be Our Guest: The Development of the Interpersonal Hospitality Scale.

Despite the ubiquity of hosting others in one's home, no validated measure of domestic hospitality currently exists. To address this gap, the current paper presents a set of four studies that develop and validate the Interpersonal Hospitality Scale, which seeks to capture the affective, motivational, and behavioral components of this person-place construct. The 12-item scale assesses three core dimensions: responsibility for guests, welcomingness, and a lack of perceived imposition. The analyses reported here provide support for the psychometric adequacy of this new scale, demonstrating strong internal reliability and a consistent factor structure. Moreover, this trait was found to be a unique predictor of several theoretically related constructs, including one's desired home ambiance, attitudes toward immigration, and willingness/likelihood of hosting others in need. This scale offers a much-needed means of measuring one important aspect of how people conceptualize their home environment relative to others.

Effects of ondansetron exposure during ICU stay on outcomes of critically ill patients with sepsis: a cohort study.

Background: Sepsis is a life-threatening disease with high morbidity and mortality, characterized by an inadequate systemic immune response to an initial stimulus. Whether the use of ondansetron (OND) during intensive care unit (ICU) stay is associated with the prognosis of sepsis patients remains unclear. Methods: Critically ill patients with sepsis were extracted from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care IV (MIMIC-IV) database. Multivariate logistic regression and Cox regression analyses were used to explore the association between OND use and clinical outcomes after adjusting for confounders. Kaplan-Meier survival curve was used for survival analysis. Propensity score matching (PSM) and subgroup analysis were performed to further confirm the results. Results: The OND-medication group showed reduced in-hospital mortality, 28-day and 90-day mortalities. The OR for in-hospital mortality was 0.80 (0.64-0.99) and HRs for 28-day mortality and 90-day mortality were 0.77 (0.64-0.92) and 0.83 (0.70-0.98), respectively. After PSM, the clinical outcomes remained consistent. In-hospital mortality was lower in the OND-medication group (28.1% vs. 35.8%, P= 0.044), as well as 28-day mortality (23.4% vs. 32.1%, P=0.022) and 90-day mortality (27.4% vs. 35.8%, P=0.035). The protective effect of OND in sepsis patients was relatively robust, independent of age, septic shock, vasopressin and mechanical ventilation. Additionally, the OND users had longer lengths of stay in ICU (6.9(3.1-13.2) vs. 5.1(2.5-11.0), P = 0.026) while no statistical differences were found in lengths of stay in hospital (P = 0.333). Conclusion: OND exposure might be associated with lower in-hospital, 28-day, and 90-day mortality rates in critically ill patients with sepsis. This study indicated that OND might help improve the prognosis of patients with sepsis.

Identification of a Four-Gene Signature Associated with the Prognosis Prediction of Lung Adenocarcinoma Based on Integrated Bioinformatics Analysis.

Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is often diagnosed at an advanced stage, so it is necessary to identify potential biomarkers for the early diagnosis and prognosis of LUAD. In our study, a gene co-expression network was constructed using weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) in order to obtain the key modules and genes correlated with LUAD prognosis. Four hub genes (HLF, CHRDL1, SELENBP1, and TMEM163) were screened out using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO)-Cox regression analysis; then, a prognostic model was established for predicting overall survival (OS) based on these four hub genes..Furthermore, the prognostic values of this four-gene signature were verified in four validation sets (GSE26939, GSE31210, GSE72094, and TCGA-LUAD) as well as in the GEPIA database. To assess the prognostic values of hub genes, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed and a nomogram was created. We found that a higher expression of four hub genes was associated with a lower risk of patient death. In a training set, it was demonstrated that this four-gene signature was a better prognostic factor than clinical factors such as age and stage of disease. Moreover, our results revealed that these four genes were suppressor factors of LUAD and that their high expression was associated with a lower risk of death. In summary, we demonstrated that this four-gene signature could be a potential prognostic factor for LUAD patients. These findings provide a theoretical basis for exploring potential biomarkers for LUAD prognosis prediction in the future.

Identification and Validation of a Novel Six-lncRNA-Based Prognostic Model for Lung Adenocarcinoma.

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted in order to establish a long non-coding RNA (lncRNA)-based model for predicting overall survival (OS) in patients with lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). METHODS: Original RNA-seq data of LUAD samples were extracted from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Univariate Cox survival analysis was performed to select lncRNAs associated with OS. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression analysis and multivariate Cox analysis were performed for building an OS-associated lncRNA prognostic model. Moreover, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were generated to assess predictive values of the hub lncRNAs. Consequently, qRT-PCR was conducted to validate its prognostic value. The potential roles of these lncRNAs in immunotherapy and anti-angiogenic therapy were also investigated. RESULTS: The lncRNA-associated risk score of OS (LARSO) was established based on the LASSO coefficient of six individual lncRNAs, including CTD-2124B20.2, CTD-2168K21.1, DEPDC1-AS1, RP1-290I10.3, RP11-454K7.3, and RP11-95M5.1. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that LUAD patients with higher LARSO values had a shorter OS. Furthermore, a new risk score (NRS), including LARSO, stage, and N stage, could better predict the prognosis of LUAD patients compared with LARSO alone. Evaluation of the prognostic model in our cohort demonstrated that patients with higher scores had a worse prognosis. In addition, correlation analysis between these six lncRNAs and immune checkpoints or anti-angiogenic targets suggested that LUAD patients with high LARSO might not be sensitive to immunotherapy or anti-angiogenic therapy. CONCLUSIONS: This robust six-lncRNA prognostic signature may be used as a novel and powerful prognostic biomarker for lung adenocarcinoma.

Resveratrol-induced brown fat-like phenotype in 3T3-L1 adipocytes partly via mTOR pathway.

BACKGROUND: Browning of white adipose tissues (WAT) is recognized as a novel way to combat obesity and its related comorbidities. Thus, a lot of dietary agents contributing to browning of WAT have been identified. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we try to explore the mechanism of the browning of WAT induced by resveratrol (Res) in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. METHODS: The levels of cell viability and lipid accumulation were evaluated under different concentrations of Res. Cell signaling pathway analysis was performed to investigate the possible mechanisms of the WAT browning effect of Res in 3T3-L1 cells. RESULTS: We found that Res induced the brown fat-like phenotype by activating protein expressions of brown adipocyte-specific markers, such as peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-γ), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator-1 alpha (PGC-1α), and uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1). Besides, Res reduced lipid accumulation, as shown by Oil Red O staining. The increased small lipid droplets implied that Res-treated 3T3-L1 adipocytes had some features of brown adipocytes. The brown fat-like phenotype in 3T3-L1 adipocytes induced by Res was possibly mediated by activation of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), as brown adipocyte-specific markers were decreased by rapamycin, an inhibitor of mTOR and the MHY1485 treatment, an activator of mTOR, showed the similar effect of Res on browning markers. CONCLUSIONS: Res induced brown-like adipocyte phenotype in 3T3-L1 adipocytes partly via mTOR pathway, which provided new insights into the utilization of Res to prevent obesity and related comorbidities.

Resveratrol-Induced White Adipose Tissue Browning in Obese Mice by Remodeling Fecal Microbiota.

Promoting the browning of white fat may be a potential means of combating obesity. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the effect of resveratrol (RES) on the body weight and browning of white fat in high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese mice and the potential associated mechanism in vivo. Eight-week-old male mice were randomized to receive different treatments: (1), chow without any additional treatment (chow); (2), chow plus 0.4% resveratrol (chow-RES); (3), HFD without any additional treatment (HFD); and (4), HFD plus 0.4% resveratrol (HFD-RES). After 4 weeks of feeding, additional 8-week-old male recipient mice were randomly allocated to the following 4 treatments: (5), HFD and received feces from chow-fed mice; (6), HFD and received feces from chow-RES-fed mice; (7), HFD and received feces from HFD-fed mice; and (8), HFD and received feces from HFD-RES-fed mice. RES treatment significantly inhibited increases in fat accumulation, promoted the browning of white adipose tissue (WAT) and alleviated gut microbiota dysbiosis in HFD-fed mice. Subsequent analyses showed that the gut microbiota remodeling induced by resveratrol had a positive role in WAT browning, and sirtuin-1 (Sirt1) signaling appears to be a key component of this process. Overall, the results show that RES may serve as a potential intervention to reduce obesity by alleviating dysbiosis of the gut microbiota.