Mechanism, prevention and treatment of cognitive impairment caused by high altitude exposure.

Hypobaric hypoxia (HH) characteristics induce impaired cognitive function, reduced concentration, and memory. In recent years, an increasing number of people have migrated to high-altitude areas for work and study. Headache, sleep disturbance, and cognitive impairment from HH, severely challenges the physical and mental health and affects their quality of life and work efficiency. This review summarizes the manifestations, mechanisms, and preventive and therapeutic methods of HH environment affecting cognitive function and provides theoretical references for exploring and treating high altitude-induced cognitive impairment.

Advances in research on the protective mechanisms of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in myocardial ischaemia-reperfusion injury.

CONTEXT: Developing effective drugs to treat myocardial ischaemia-reperfusion (MI/R) injury is imperative. Traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) have had considerable success in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Elucidating the mechanisms by which TCMs improve MI/R injury can supplement the literature on MI/R prevention and treatment. OBJECTIVE: To summarise TCMs and their main protective mechanisms against MI/R injury reported over the past 40 years. METHODS: Relevant literature published between 1980 and 2020 in Chinese and English was retrieved from the Web of Science, PubMed, SpringerLink, PubMed Central, Scopus, and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases. Search terms included 'medicinal plants', 'myocardial ischaemia reperfusion injury', 'Chinese medicine prescriptions', 'mechanisms', 'prevention', 'treatment' and 'protection'. For inclusion in the analysis, medicinal plants had to be searchable in the China Medical Information Platform and Plant Database. RESULTS: We found 71 medicinal species (from 40 families) that have been used to prevent MI/R injury, of which Compositae species (8 species) and Leguminosae species (7 species) made up the majority. Most of the effects associated with these plants are described as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. Furthermore, we summarised 18 kinds of Chinese compound prescriptions, including the compound Danshen tablet and Baoxin pill, which mainly reduce oxidative stress and regulate mitochondrial energy metabolism. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: We summarised TCMs that protect against MI/R injury and their pharmacological mechanisms. This in-depth explanation of the roles of TCMs in MI/R injury protection provides a theoretical basis for the research and development of TCM-based treatment drugs.

RBM10 regulates human TERT gene splicing and inhibits pancreatic cancer progression.

Dysregulation of alternative splicing of hTERT gene to generate full-length Htert (hTERT-FL) that reactivate telomerase has been recognized as a major pathological alteration in pancreatic cancer (PrCa). Mechanism about the factors that regulate hTERT-FL splicing is lacking. Through bioinformatics approach, we focus on a candidate splicing factor RBM10, which leads to a switch in hTERT transcripts to generate a function-less isoform hTERT-s in PrCa, suppressed both telomerase activity and subsequent telomere shortening. RBM10 expression is negatively associated with PrCa progression. Gain or loss of RBM10 also significantly changed PrCa cell proliferation in vitro and in xenografts. RNA-IP and RNA pull-down assays reveal that RBM10 promotes the exclusion of exons7 and 8 which results in the production of TERT-s transcripts. This study may increase knowledge about potentially targetable cancer associated splicing factors and provide novel insights into therapeutic approach in PrCa.

[The morphological changes of SW620 cells induced by over-expression of human sorting nexin 3].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect of human sorting nexin 3 (hSNX3) on the morphology and migration of colorectal cancer cells through over-expression of hSNX3 in SW620 cells. METHODS: A lentiviral vector pEZ-Lv201 (pEZ-SV40-eGFP-IRES-Puro) inserted with hSNX3 gene was transferred into SW620 cells to construct and package recombinant lentiviral expression vector pEZ-hSNX3-Lv201. The cell clones stably over-expressing hSNX3 (SW620hSNX3) were screened to observe cell morphology and migration ability using Transwell(TM) assay and wound scratch assay. E-cadherin was detected by Western blotting. RESULTS: Sequence analysis demonstrated that the lentiviral expression vector pEZ-hSNX3-Lv201 was successfully constructed. The packaging titers of the recombinant lentivirus and control virus were 2.12×10(9) copies/mL and 7.9×10(10) copies/mL, respectively. After SW620 cells were transfected with the lentivirus, we got stable hSNX3-overexpressed SW620hSNX3 cells. Most of SW620hSNX3 cells (88%) became oval instead of the original spindle-like shape. However, cell migration ability and expression of E-cadherin showed no significant differences between SW620hSNX3 cells and SW620 cells. CONCLUSION: Over-expression of hSNX3 alters the morphology of SW620 cells, but hardly affects cell migration.