Role of noncoding RNAs in liver fibrosis.

Liver fibrosis is a wound-healing response following chronic liver injury caused by hepatitis virus infection, obesity, or excessive alcohol. It is a dynamic and reversible process characterized by the activation of hepatic stellate cells and excess accumulation of extracellular matrix. Advanced fibrosis could lead to cirrhosis and even liver cancer, which has become a significant health burden worldwide. Many studies have revealed that noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs), including microRNAs, long noncoding RNAs and circular RNAs, are involved in the pathogenesis and development of liver fibrosis by regulating signaling pathways including transforming growth factor-ß pathway, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B pathway, and Wnt/ß-catenin pathway. NcRNAs in serum or exosomes have been reported to tentatively applied in the diagnosis and staging of liver fibrosis and combined with elastography to improve the accuracy of diagnosis. NcRNAs mimics, ncRNAs in mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes, and lipid nanoparticles-encapsulated ncRNAs have become promising therapeutic approaches for the treatment of liver fibrosis. In this review, we update the latest knowledge on ncRNAs in the pathogenesis and progression of liver fibrosis, and discuss the potentials and challenges to use these ncRNAs for diagnosis, staging and treatment of liver fibrosis. All these will help us to develop a comprehensive understanding of the role of ncRNAs in liver fibrosis.

Dysregulated liver function in SARS-CoV-2 infection: Current understanding and perspectives.

Since it was first reported in December 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has spread rapidly around the world to cause the ongoing pandemic. Although the clinical manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 infection are predominantly in the respiratory system, liver enzyme abnormalities exist in around half of the cases, which indicate liver injury, and raise clinical concern. At present, there is no consensus whether the liver injury is directly caused by viral replication in the liver tissue or indirectly by the systemic inflammatory response. This review aims to summarize the clinical manifestations and to explore the underlying mechanisms of liver dysfunction in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Preparation of restricted access molecularly imprinted polymers based fiber for selective solid-phase microextraction of hesperetin and its metabolites in vivo.

A novel restricted access molecularly imprinted polymers (RAMIPs) fiber was developed for solid-phase microextraction (SPME) of hesperetin and its metabolites in livers of live rats in vivo. Hesperetin as the template, N-isopropylacrylamide as the functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethyl acrylate as the crosslinker, 2,2-azobisisobutyonnitrile as initiator and bovine serum albumin as the restricted access material were applied in the preparation process. Scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were applied to characterize the polymers. The adsorption experiments indicated that RAMIPs-SPME fibers performed high selective recognition property to hesperetin. The selectivity experiment indicated that the adsorption capacity and selectivity of RAMIPs-SPME fibers to hesperetin was higher than that of quercetin, luteolin and baicalein. Macromolecules elimination test showed RAMIPs-SPME fibers could eliminate 94.80%-98.96% of macromolecules, which indicated that RAMIPs-SPME fibers can be used to extract analytes directly from complex biological samples. Furthermore, RAMIPs-SPME sampling combined to ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) was applied to capture and identify hesperetin and its metabolites in rat livers in vivo. Finally, hesperetin-7-O-glucuronide, hesperetin-3'-O-glucuronide, eriodictyol and homoeriodictyol were identified as the metabolites of hesperetin. In comparison with the MIPs fibers, commercial PDMS and DVB fibers, RAMIPs-SPME fibers possessed better exclusion effect to macromolecules and higher selectivity to hesperetin and its metabolites. The results demonstrated that the prepared RAMIPs-SPME fiber were proven to be effective tool for the selective adsorption and enrichment of hesperetin and its metabolites from the complex biological fluids.

[Detection Rate of Central Nervous System Leukemia Can Be Improved by Cell Preservation Solution].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether cell preservation solution can prolong the survival time of leukemia cells and increase the survival rate, so as to improve the detection rate of central nervous system leukemia. METHODS: Kasumi cells were added into cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) supernatant with or without cell preservation solution to compare cell viability and biological characteristics at different time point. Wright Giemsa staining was used to compare cell morphology; cell counting, CCK-8 method, and trypan blue staining were used to compare the cell number, and flow cytometry was used to compare the cell viability. The expression of AML-ETO tumor fusion gene was detected by fluorescence quantitative RT-PCR. RESULTS: At different time points (8 h and 24 h), the survival, molecular biological characteristics and RT-PCR result of the cells in CSF with cell preservation solution were significantly better than those in normal cerebrospinal fluid. CONCLUSION: Cell preservation solution can effectively improve the survival time and survival rate of leukemic cells, thereby increase the detection rate of CNS leukemia.