Preparation of a novel type I feline coronavirus virus-like particle vaccine and its immunogenicity in mice and cats.

Feline coronavirus (FCoV) infection is a leading cause of death in cats. In this study, we produced FCoV-I virus-like particles (VLPs) containing E, M, N, and S proteins using a baculovirus expression system and mixed VLPs with the adjuvants MF59 and CpG 55.2 to prepare an VLP/MF59/CpG vaccine. After immunization of mice with the vaccine, IgG specific antibodies titers against S and N proteins increased to 1:12,800, and IFN-γ+ and IL-4+ splenocytes were significantly increased. Following immunization of FCoV-negative cats, the S protein antibodies in immunized cats (5/5) increased significantly, with a peak of 1:12,800. Notably, after booster vaccination in FCoV-positive cats, a significant reduction in viral load was observed in the feces of partial cats (4/5), and the FCoV-I negative conversion was found in two immunized cats (2/5). Therefore, the VLP/MF59/CpG vaccine is a promising candidate vaccine to prevent the FCoV infection.

The impacts of dietary sphingomyelin supplementation on metabolic parameters of healthy adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Background: Studies have shown that sphingomyelin (SM) and its metabolites play signaling roles in the regulation of human health. Endogenous SM is involved in metabolic syndrome (MetS), while dietary SM supplementation may maintain lipid metabolism and prevent or alleviate MetS. Therefore, we hypothesized that dietary SM supplementation is beneficial for human health. Aims: In order to examine the impacts of dietary SM on metabolic indexes in adults without MetS, we performed a meta-analysis to test our hypothesis. Methods: A comprehensive search was performed to retrieve randomized controlled trials that were conducted between 2003 and 2023 to examine the effects of dietary SM supplementation on metabolic parameters in the Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and ClinicalTrials.gov databases. RevMan 5.4 and Stata 14.0 software were used for meta-analysis, a sensitivity analysis, the risk of bias, and the overall quality of the resulted evidence. Results: Eventually, 10 articles were included in this meta-analysis. Dietary SM supplementation did not affect the endline blood SM level. When compared to the control, SM supplementation reduced the blood total cholesterol level [MD: -12.97, 95% CI: (-14.57, -11.38), p < 0.00001], low-density lipoprotein cholesterol level [MD: -6.62, 95% CI: (-10.74, -2.49), p = 0.002], and diastolic blood pressure [MD: -3.31; 95% CI (-4.03, -2.58), p < 0.00001] in adults without MetS. The supplementation also increased high-density lipoprotein level [MD:1.41, 95% CI: (0.94, 1.88), p < 0.00001] and muscle fiber conduction velocity [MD: 95% 1.21 CI (0.53, 1.88), p = 0.0005]. The intake of SM had no effect on the blood phospholipids and lyso-phosphatidylcholine, but slightly decreased phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, and phosphatidylinositol concentrations. Dietary SM supplementation reduced insulin level [MD: -0.63; 95% CI (-0.96, -0.31), p = 0.0001] and HOMA-IR [MD: -0.23; 95% CI (-0.31, -0.16), p < 0.00001] without affecting blood levels of glucose and inflammatory cytokines. Conclusion: Overall, dietary SM supplementation had a protective effect on blood lipid profiles and insulin level, but had limited impacts on other metabolic parameters in adults without MetS. More clinical trials and basic research are required. Systematic review registration: PROSPERO, identifier CRD42023438460.

A 1.25-GHz multi-amplitude modulator driver in 0.18 µm SiGe BiCOMOS technology for high speed quantum key distribution.

Quantum key distribution (QKD) research has yielded highly fruitful results and is currently undergoing an industrialization transformation. In QKD systems, electro-optic modulators are typically employed to prepare the required quantum states. While various QKD systems operating at GHz repetition frequency have demonstrated exceptional performance, they predominantly rely on instruments or printed circuit boards to fulfill the driving circuit function of the electro-optic modulator. Consequently, these systems tend to be complex with low integration levels. To address this challenge, we have introduced a modulator driver integrated circuit in 0.18 µm SiGe BiCMOS technology. The circuit can generate multiple-level driving signals with a clock frequency of 1.25 GHz and a rising edge of ∼50 ps. Each voltage amplitude can be independently adjusted, ensuring the precise preparation of quantum states. The measured signal-to-noise ratio was more than 17 dB, resulting in a low quantum bit error rate of 0.24% in our polarization-encoding system. This work will contribute to the advancement of QKD system integration and promote the industrialization process in this field.

3,4-benzo[a]pyrene aggravates myocardial infarction injury by activating NLRP3-related pyroptosis through PINK1/Parkin-mitophagy-mPTP opening axis.

BACKGROUND: Air pollution is an important and interventionable risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Air pollution exposure, even for a short-term exposure, is conspicuously relevant to increased risk of myocardial infarction (MI) mortality and clinical evidence has shown that air pollution particulate matter (PM) induces the aggravation of AMI. 3,4-benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), an extremely toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and a common component of PM, is listed as one of the main objects of environmental pollution monitoring. Both epidemiological and toxicological studies suggest that BaP exposure may be associated with cardiovascular disease. Since PM is significantly associated with the increased risk of MI mortality, and BaP is an important component of PM associated with cardiovascular disease, we intend to investigate the effect of BaP on MI models. METHODS: The MI mouse model and the oxygen and glucose deprivation (OGD) H9C2 cell model were used to investigate the effect of BaP in MI injury. The involvement of mitophagy and pyroptosis in regulating deterioration of cardiac function and aggravation of MI injury induced by BaP was comprehensively evaluated. RESULTS: Our study shows that BaP exacerbates MI injury in vivo and in vitro, a result based on BaP-induced NLRP3-related pyroptosis. In addition, BaP can inhibit PINK1/Parkin dependent mitophagy through the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), thus the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) was induced to open. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest a role for the BaP from air pollution in MI injury aggravation and reveal that BaP aggravates MI injury by activating NLRP3-related pyroptosis via the PINK1/Parkin-mitophagy-mPTP opening axis.

3,4-benzopyrene aggravates myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury-induced pyroptosis through inhibition of autophagy-dependent NLRP3 degradation.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are produced during combustion of organic matter, such as during cigarette smoking, and they exist widely in the environment. Exposure to 3,4-benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), as the most widely studied PAHs, relates to many cardiovascular diseases. However, the underlying mechanism of its involvement remains largely unclear. In this study, we developed a myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury mouse model and an oxygen and glucose deprivation-reoxygenation H9C2 cell model to evaluate the effect of BaP in I/R injury. After BaP exposure, the expression of autophagy-related proteins, the abundance of NLRP3 inflammasomes, and the degree of pyroptosis were measured. Our results show that BaP aggravates myocardial pyroptosis in a autophagy-dependent manner. In addition, we found that BaP activates the p53-BNIP3 pathway via the aryl hydrocarbon receptor to decrease autophagosome clearance. Our findings present new insights into the mechanisms underlying cardiotoxicity and reveal that the p53-BNIP3 pathway, which is involved in autophagy regulation, is a potential therapeutic target for BaP-induced myocardial I/R injury. Because PAHs are omnipresent in daily life, the toxic effects of these harmful substances should not be underestimated.

Effects of berberine hydrochloride on immune response in the crab Charybdis japonica.

Berberine hydrochloride is the main effective component of Coptis spp. used in Chinese herbal medicine and its underlying molecular mechanisms, responsible for inducing effects in crustacean species, are not fully understood. In this study, the molecular response of the crab Charybdis japonica to berberine hydrochloride exposure was studied using transcriptome sequencing. The survival rate, gene expression and activities of several immune enzymes were measured after berberine hydrochloride treatments, with or without injection of the pathogenic bacterium Aeromonas hydrophila. A total of 962 differentially expressed genes (464 up-regulated and 498 down-regulated) were observed during exposure to 100 mg/L of berberine hydrochloride and in the control group after 48 h. Enrichment analysis revealed that these genes are involved in metabolism, cellular processes, signal transduction and immune functions, indicating that exposure to berberine hydrochloride activated the immune complement system. This bioactive compound simultaneously activated fibrinogen beta (FGB), fibrinogen alpha (FGA), alpha-2-macroglobulin (A2M), kininogen (KNG), fibrinogen gamma chain (FGB), alpha-2-HS-glycoprotein (AHSG), caspase-8 (CASP8), cathepsin L (CTSL), adenylate cyclase 3 (Adcy3) and MMP1. Its action could significantly increase the survival rate of the crabs injected with A. hydrophila and promote the activity of LZM, Caspas8, FGA, ACP and AKP in the hepatopancreas. When A. hydrophila was added, the neutralization of 300 mg/L berberine hydrochloride maximized the activities of Caspas8, LZM, ACP and AKP. Our results provide a new understanding of the potential effects of berberine hydrochloride on the immune system mechanisms in crustaceans.

Shexiang Baoxin Pill attenuates myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury by activating autophagy via modulating the ceRNA-Map3k8 pathway.

BACKGROUND: The pathogenesis of myocardial ischemia/reperfusion is complex, involving multiple regulatory genes and environmental factors, and requiring the simultaneous regulation of multiple targets. Meanwhile, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has certain advantages in the comprehensive treatment of multi-site, multi-target conditions and overall regulation of this condition. This study explores the effect of the well-known TCM, the Shexiang Baoxin Pill (SBP) on myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury in mice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In vivo, 20 mg/kg/day SBP was administered by gavage for 28 days. In vitro, cardiomyocytes were pretreated with 25 µg/ml SBP for 24 h. Evans blue/TTC double-staining was employed to determine the infarct size. Markers of myocardial injury were detected in the serum and cell supernatants. The changes of pyroptosis and autophagy proteins were detected by western blot. Immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry and PCR were performed to further illustrate the results. RESULTS: SBP significantly reduced the myocardial infarct size, decreased the myocardial injury markers, inhibited cardiomyocyte pyroptosis and oxidative stress, and promoted autophagy in vivo. In vitro, SBP alleviated cardiomyocyte pyroptosis, inhibited oxidative stress, reduced IL-1ß and IL-18 secretion, and unblocked autophagy flux. Myocardial injury is mitigated by SBP via the rapid degradation of autophagosomes, and SBP promotes the accumulation of autophagosomes by downregulating mmu_circ_0005874, Map3k8 and upregulating mmu-miR-543-3p. CONCLUSION: We found for the first time that SBP can inhibit pyroptosis and oxidative stress, and protect from myocardial I/R injury. In addition, it inhibits pyroptosis and improves H/R injury by promoting autophagosome generation and accelerating autophagic flux. SBP interferes with autophagy through the interaction between mmu_circ_0005874/mmu-miR-543-3p/Map3k8.

Simulating electrical fields in the orbital angular momentum space of light.

We study a system of coupled degenerate cavities with a switchable beam rotator embedded in the optical path of the main cavity. By exploiting the phase shift of the beam rotator dependent on the orbital angular momentum of the optical modes, and modulating the phase imbalance in the auxiliary cavity, it is shown that the system dynamics is equivalent to that of a charged particle in a 1D lattice subject to both static and time-dependent electrical fields. We investigate interesting physics and phenomena such as Bloch oscillations that arise due to the simulated electrical fields, and discuss how they can be used for practical purposes such as storing optical signals in a quantum memory. We also present a powerful measurement scheme to detect the system dynamics that is non-intrusive and technically easy to perform.

Gradient-Descent-like Ghost Imaging.

Ghost imaging is an indirect optical imaging technique, which retrieves object information by calculating the intensity correlation between reference and bucket signals. However, in existing correlation functions, a high number of measurements is required to acquire a satisfied performance, and the increase in measurement number only leads to limited improvement in image quality. Here, inspired by the gradient descent idea that is widely used in artificial intelligence, we propose a gradient-descent-like ghost imaging method to recursively move towards the optimal solution of the preset objective function, which can efficiently reconstruct high-quality images. The feasibility of this technique has been demonstrated in both numerical simulation and optical experiments, where the image quality is greatly improved within finite steps. Since the correlation function in the iterative formula is replaceable, this technique offers more possibilities for image reconstruction of ghost imaging.

[Effects of Chinese fir litter cover on its seedling emergence and early growth]. / 杉木凋落物覆盖对自身幼苗出土和早期生长的影响.

Litter accumulation can strongly affect seedling emergence and early growth through both physical and chemical mechanisms, and can further influence natural regeneration. Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata) is one of the most important afforestation tree species. Its natural regeneration is poor, possibly due to the thick leaf accumulation inhibiting seedling emergence and growth. We used natural and plastic litter to study the effects of Chinese fir litter on its own seedling emergence and early growth, as well as to assess whether the effect was physical or chemical. In this experiment, two litter types (natural and plastic litter) and four different litter amounts (control, 0 g·m-2; low, 200 g·m-2; medium, 400 g·m-2; high, 800 g·m-2) were used. The results showed that compared to the control (0 g·m-2), low litter amount (200 g·m-2) exerted a slight positive effect on seedling emergence, whereas high litter amount (800 g·m-2) significantly reduced the seedling emergence and survival rate in the case of both natural and plastic litter. With increasing litter amount, root length of seedlings decreased and stem length increased. The highest and lowest root mass, leaf mass, and total mass of seedlings were observed for the low and high litter amount, respectively, in the case of both natural and plastic litter. The root:shoot ratio of seedlings decreased with the increasing litter amount for both natural and plastic litter. The photosynthesis:non-photosynthesis biomass ratio of the seedlings was higher under all litter cover treatments, compared to that in the control. Because the effect of the same amounts of the natural and plastic litter on seedling emergence and early growth did not differ, the litter layer's short-term influence was primarily physical. As the litter cover increased, the initial slight positive effects on seedling emergence and early growth could shift to inhibitory effects. Moreover, to penetrate the thick litter layer, Chinese fir seedlings allocated more resources toward stems and aboveground growth. This study provided evidence for litter amount being a key ecological factor that affects the seedling development and subsequent natural regeneration of Chinese fir.

[Composition and seasonal dynamics of seed rain in Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata) plantation.] / 杉木人工林种子雨组成和季节动态.

Chinese fir plantation is an important part of the subtropical forests in southern China. It has a sustainable natural regeneration ability, which is the foundation of determining community succession direction and maintaining their large area. The main objective of this study was to investigate whether the seed pool was the main restricting factor for the natural regeneration of Chinese fir plantation. Mixed broad leaf-conifer forest and pure plantation of Chinese fir were selected to study the species composition, quantity and seasonal dynamics of all species and dominant species. The results showed that seeds from 21 species belonged to 13 families and 18 genera were collected in the mixed forest, while seeds from 19 species belonged to 12 families and 16 genera were collected from pure forest. Seed rain intensities of all species were 3797 and 3300 seeds·m-2 in mixed forest and pure plantation, respectively. The number of seeds from tree species was absolutely dominant in seed rain (mixed forest 89.1%, pure plantation 86.2%). The number of Chinese fir seeds was the largest, the intact seeds intensities were 825 and 345 seeds·m-2, respectively. The proportion of all types of seeds in both stands followed the order: the intact seeds > empty or rotten seeds > feeding seeds. The seed rain of both stands had significant seasonal dynamics, both reaching the peak in autumn. The seed rain mainly was intact seeds at the peak of seed-falling. Both mixed forest and pure plantation of Chinese fir had plenty of seeds. The results indicated that the seed rain is not the main factor that restricts natural regeneration in Chinese fir plantations.

Depression, anxiety, and quality of life in paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia patients.

BACKGROUND: Paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia (PKD) is a rare movement disorder characterized by recurrent dystonic or choreoathetoid attacks triggered by sudden voluntary movements. Under the condition of psychological burden, some patients' attacks may get worsened with longer duration and higher frequency. This study aimed to assess nonmotor symptoms and quality of life of patients with PKD in a large population. METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional survey in 165 primary PKD patients from August 2008 to October 2016 in Rui Jin Hospital, using Symptom Check List-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), World Health Organization Quality of Life-100 (WHOQoL-100), Self-Rating Depression Scale, and Self-Rating Anxiety Scale. We evaluated the differences of SCL-90-R and WHOQOL-100 scores in patients and Chinese normative data (taken from literature) by using the unpaired Student's t-test. We applied multivariate linear regression to analyze the relationships between motor manifestations, mental health, and quality of life among PKD patients. RESULTS: Compared with Chinese normative data taken from literature, patients with PKD exhibited significantly higher (worse) scores across all SCL-90-R subscales (somatization, obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism; P= 0.000 for all) and significantly lower (worse) scores of five domains in WHOQoL-100 (physical domain, psychological domain, independence domain, social relationship domain, and general quality of life; P= 0.000 for all). Nonremission of dyskinesia episodes (P = 0.011) and higher depression score (P = 0.000) were significantly associated with lower levels of quality of life. The rates of depression and anxiety in patients with PKD were 41.2% (68/165) and 26.7% (44/165), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Depression, anxiety, and low levels of quality of life were prevalent in patients with PKD. Co-occurrence of depression and anxiety was common among these patients. Regular mental health interventions could set depression and anxiety as intervention targets. Considering that the motor episodes could be elicited by voluntary movements and sometimes also by emotional stress, and that symptoms may get worsened with longer duration and higher frequency when patients are stressed out, intervention or treatment of depression and anxiety might improve the motor symptoms and overall quality of life in PKD patients.