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1.
Raman spectroscopy coupled with chemometrics for identification of adulteration and fraud in muscle foods: a review.
Ma, H, Guo, J, Liu, G, Xie, D, Zhang, B, Li, X, Zhang, Q, Cao, Q, Li, X, Ma, F, et al
Critical reviews in food science and nutrition. 2024;:1-23
Abstract
Muscle foods, valued for their significant nutrient content such as high-quality protein, vitamins, and minerals, are vulnerable to adulteration and fraud, stemming from dishonest vendor practices and insufficient market oversight. Traditional analytical methods, often limited to laboratory-scale., may not effectively detect adulteration and fraud in complex applications. Raman spectroscopy (RS), encompassing techniques like Surface-enhanced RS (SERS), Dispersive RS (DRS), Fourier transform RS (FTRS), Resonance Raman spectroscopy (RRS), and Spatially offset RS (SORS) combined with chemometrics, presents a potent approach for both qualitative and quantitative analysis of muscle food adulteration. This technology is characterized by its efficiency, rapidity, and noninvasive nature. This paper systematically summarizes and comparatively analyzes RS technology principles, emphasizing its practicality and efficacy in detecting muscle food adulteration and fraud when combined with chemometrics. The paper also discusses the existing challenges and future prospects in this field, providing essential insights for reviews and scientific research in related fields.
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2.
Association between fatty liver index and controlled attenuation parameters as markers of metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease and bone mineral density: observational and two-sample Mendelian randomization studies.
Zeng, L, Li, Y, Hong, C, Wang, J, Zhu, H, Li, Q, Cui, H, Ma, P, Li, R, He, J, et al
Osteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA. 2024;(4):679-689
Abstract
UNLABELLED Previously observational studies did not draw a clear conclusion on the association between fatty liver diseases and bone mineral density (BMD). Our large-scale studies revealed that MAFLD and hepatic steatosis had no causal effect on BMD, while some metabolic factors were correlated with BMD. The findings have important implications for the relationship between fatty liver diseases and BMD, and may help direct the clinical management of MAFLD patients who experience osteoporosis and osteopenia. PURPOSE Liver and bone are active endocrine organs with several metabolic functions. However, the link between metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) and bone mineral density (BMD) is contradictory. METHODS Using the UK Biobank and National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) dataset, we investigated the association between MAFLD, steatosis, and BMD in the observational analysis. We performed genome-wide association analysis to identify single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with MAFLD. Large-scale two-sample Mendelian randomization (TSMR) analyses examined the potential causal relationship between MAFLD, hepatic steatosis, or major comorbid metabolic factors, and BMD. RESULTS After adjusting for demographic factors and body mass index, logistic regression analysis demonstrated a significant association between MAFLD and reduced heel BMD. However, this association disappeared after adjusting for additional metabolic factors. MAFLD was not associated with total body, femur neck, and lumbar BMD in the NHANES dataset. Magnetic resonance imaging-measured steatosis did not show significant associations with reduced total body, femur neck, and lumbar BMD in multivariate analysis. TSMR analyses indicated that MAFLD and hepatic steatosis were not associated with BMD. Among all MAFLD-related comorbid factors, overweight and type 2 diabetes showed a causal relationship with increased BMD, while waist circumference and hyperlipidemia had the opposite effect. CONCLUSION No causal effect of MAFLD and hepatic steatosis on BMD was observed in this study, while some metabolic factors were correlated with BMD. This has important implications for understanding the relationship between fatty liver disease and BMD, which may help direct the clinical management of MAFLD patients with osteoporosis.
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3.
Plant anthraquinones: Classification, distribution, biosynthesis, and regulation.
Wang, P, Wei, J, Hua, X, Dong, G, Dziedzic, K, Wahab, AT, Efferth, T, Sun, W, Ma, P
Journal of cellular physiology. 2023
Abstract
Anthraquinones are polycyclic compounds with an unsaturated diketone structure (quinoid moiety). As important secondary metabolites of plants, anthraquinones play an important role in the response of many biological processes and environmental factors. Anthraquinones are common in the human diet and have a variety of biological activities including anticancer, antibacterial, and antioxidant activities that reduce disease risk. The biological activity of anthraquinones depends on the substitution pattern of their hydroxyl groups on the anthraquinone ring structure. However, there is still a lack of systematic summary on the distribution, classification, and biosynthesis of plant anthraquinones. Therefore, this paper systematically reviews the research progress of the distribution, classification, biosynthesis, and regulation of plant anthraquinones. Additionally, we discuss future opportunities in anthraquinone research, including biotechnology, therapeutic products, and dietary anthraquinones.
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4.
Exosomal circ_HIPK3 reduces apoptosis in H2O2-induced AC16 cardiomyocytes through miR-33a-5p/IRS1 axis.
Fan, M, Liang, T, Xie, F, Ma, P, Li, J
Transplant immunology. 2023;:101862
Abstract
BACKGROUND Exosomal circular RNAs (circRNAs) has been revealed to participate in the processes of cellular angiogenesis, growth and metastasis. Herein, the goal of this work was to investigate the role of exosomal circ_HIPK3 in cardiomyocyte apoptosis. METHODS Exosomes were isolated using ultracentrifugation method and observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Western blot was used to detect exosomes markers. The experimental group AC16 cells were exposed to hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Levels of genes and proteins was detected by qRT-PCR and Western blot. EdU assay, CCK8 assay, flow cytometry, and Western blot were utilized to detect the function of exosomal circ_HIPK3 in proliferation, and apoptosis. The target relationship between miR-33a-5p and circ_HIPK3 or IRS1 (insulin receptor substrate 1). RESULTS Circ_HIPK3 was packaged into exosomes and derived from AC16 cells. The expression of circ_HIPK3 was decreased by H2O2 treatment in AC16 cells, which also led to the decrease of circ_HIPK3 in exosomes. Functional analysis showed exosomal circ_HIPK3 promoted AC16 cell proliferation and reduced cell apoptosis under H2O2 treatment. Mechanistically, circ_HIPK3 acted as a sponge of miR-33a-5p to up-regulate the expression of its target IRS1. Functionally, forced expression of miR-33a-5p reversed the reduction of exosomal circ_HIPK3 in apoptosis of H2O2-stimulated AC16 cells. Moreover, miR-33a-5p inhibition contributed to the proliferation of H2O2-stimulated AC16 cells, which was abolished by IRS1 silencing. CONCLUSION Exosomal circ_HIPK3 reduced H2O2-induced AC16 cardiomyocyte apoptosis through miR-33a-5p/IRS1 axis, suggesting a novel insight into the pathology of myocardial infarction.
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5.
A comparison between children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders and healthy controls in biomedical factors, trace elements, and microbiota biomarkers: a meta-analysis.
Lin, P, Zhang, Q, Sun, J, Li, Q, Li, D, Zhu, M, Fu, X, Zhao, L, Wang, M, Lou, X, et al
Frontiers in psychiatry. 2023;:1318637
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a multifaceted developmental condition that commonly appears during early childhood. The etiology of ASD remains multifactorial and not yet fully understood. The identification of biomarkers may provide insights into the underlying mechanisms and pathophysiology of the disorder. The present study aimed to explore the causes of ASD by investigating the key biomedical markers, trace elements, and microbiota factors between children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and control subjects. METHODS Medline, PubMed, ProQuest, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and EMBSCO databases have been searched for publications from 2012 to 2023 with no language restrictions using the population, intervention, control, and outcome (PICO) approach. Keywords including "autism spectrum disorder," "oxytocin," "GABA," "Serotonin," "CRP," "IL-6," "Fe," "Zn," "Cu," and "gut microbiota" were used for the search. The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) critical appraisal checklist was used to assess the article quality, and a random model was used to assess the mean difference and standardized difference between ASD and the control group in all biomedical markers, trace elements, and microbiota factors. RESULTS From 76,217 records, 43 studies met the inclusion and exclusion criteria and were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled analyses showed that children with ASD had significantly lower levels of oxytocin (mean differences, MD = -45.691, 95% confidence interval, CI: -61.667, -29.717), iron (MD = -3.203, 95% CI: -4.891, -1.514), and zinc (MD = -6.707, 95% CI: -12.691, -0.722), lower relative abundance of Bifidobacterium (MD = -1.321, 95% CI: -2.403, -0.238) and Parabacteroides (MD = -0.081, 95% CI: -0.148, -0.013), higher levels of c-reactive protein, CRP (MD = 0.401, 95% CI: 0.036, 0.772), and GABA (MD = 0.115, 95% CI: 0.045, 0.186), and higher relative abundance of Bacteroides (MD = 1.386, 95% CI: 0.717, 2.055) and Clostridium (MD = 0.281, 95% CI: 0.035, 0.526) when compared with controls. The results of the overall analyses were stable after performing the sensitivity analyses. Additionally, no substantial publication bias was observed among the studies. INTERPRETATION Children with ASD have significantly higher levels of CRP and GABA, lower levels of oxytocin, iron, and zinc, lower relative abundance of Bifidobacterium and Parabacteroides, and higher relative abundance of Faecalibacterium, Bacteroides, and Clostridium when compared with controls. These results suggest that these indicators may be a potential biomarker panel for the diagnosis or determining therapeutic targets of ASD. Furthermore, large, sample-based, and randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm these results.
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6.
Efficacy and Safety of a Simplified Lamivudine Plus Dolutegravir Dual Therapy in HIV-1-Infected Patients: A Multicenter Cohort Study in China.
Zhong, M, Chen, C, Hu, Y, Zou, M, Yan, L, Huang, J, Lv, R, Su, Y, Qi, M, Ye, Z, et al
Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999). 2022;(S1):S42-S50
Abstract
BACKGROUND Results from both clinical trials and real-world observational studies suggest that lamivudine plus dolutegravir (3TC + DTG) dual therapy has excellent virological efficacy and safety in HIV-1-infected patients. However, there is still no relevant study related to this dual therapy reported in China. METHODS In this multicenter, retrospective, observational study that included HIV-1-infected patients in China, baseline and follow-up data were collected to analyze the virological suppression rate, immune restoration, and adverse events during follow-up in HIV-1-infected patients who switched to the 3TC + DTG dual therapy. RESULTS This study recruited 112 HIV-1-infected patients, including 101 men (90.2%), with a median age of 44.0 years (IQR: 33.00-57.75) and median CD4+ T-cell count of 432.13 cells/μL (IQR: 237.75-578.50). The overall virological suppression rate was 94.5% at the 24-week follow-up. However, the virological suppression rates of men who have sex with men patients and patients with CD4+ T-cell count of <350 cells/μL were higher than the baseline value (P < 0.05) at week 24. The results of Cox regression analysis showed that the baseline CD4+ T-cell count was an independent determinant of immune restoration in patients, and patients with baseline CD4+ T-cell count of 350-500 cells/μL outperformed patients with baseline CD4+ T-cell count of <350 cells/μL in immune restoration (hazard ratio: 4.469, 95% confidence interval: 1.801 to 11.091, P = 0.001). Adverse events were reported in 5 patients (incidence rate of 4.5%); among them, 3 patients developed neuropsychiatric symptoms. Results from the laboratory data analysis showed that patients with grade 1 and 2 adverse events had elevated levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and total bilirubin. Furthermore, grade 3 and 4 adverse events were associated with the elevation of blood glucose level in 4 patients. CONCLUSIONS Thus, the 3TC + DTG dual therapy displayed an excellent virological efficacy against HIV-1 infections and had an acceptable safety profile, with predominantly mild adverse events in HIV-1-infected patients in China.
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7.
The potential applications of traditional Chinese medicine in Parkinson's disease: A new opportunity.
Chen, J, Xu, J, Huang, P, Luo, Y, Shi, Y, Ma, P
Biomedicine & pharmacotherapy = Biomedecine & pharmacotherapie. 2022;:112866
Abstract
Parkinson's disease (PD) presents a common challenge for people all over the world and has become a major research hotspot due to the large population affected by the illness and the difficulty of clinical treatment. The prevalence of PD is increasing every year, the pathogenesis is complex, and the current treatment is ineffective. Therefore, it has become imperative to find effective drugs for PD. With the advantages of low cost, high safety and high biological activity, Chinese medicine has great advantages in the prevention and treatment of PD. This review systematically summarizes the potential of Chinese medicine for the treatment of PD, showing that Chinese medicine can exert anti-PD effects through various pathways, such as anti-inflammatory and antioxidant pathways, reducing mitochondrial dysfunction, inhibiting endoplasmic reticulum stress and iron death, and regulating intestinal flora. These mainly involve HMGB1/TLR4, PI3K/Akt, NLRP3/ caspase-1/IL-1β, Nrf2/HO-1, SIRT1/Akt1, PINK1/parkin, Bcl-2/Bax, BDNF-TrkB and other signaling pathways. In sum, based on modern phytochemistry, pharmacology and genomic proteomics, Chinese medicine is likely to be a potential candidate for PD treatment, which requires more clinical trials to further elucidate its importance in the treatment of PD.
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8.
MAPKK2/4/5/7-MAPK3-JAZs modulate phenolic acid biosynthesis in Salvia miltiorrhiza.
Xie, Y, Ding, M, Yin, X, Wang, G, Zhang, B, Chen, L, Ma, P, Dong, J
Phytochemistry. 2022;:113177
Abstract
Phenolic acids are the major bioactive metabolites produced in Salvia miltiorrhiza, a traditional Chinese medicine called Danshen. Many phytohormone elicitor treatments induce phenolic acid biosynthesis, even though the underlying mechanism remains obscure. Expression pattern analysis showed that SmMAPK3 was highly expressed in leaves, and SmMAPK3 was significantly induced by salicylic acid (SA) and methyl jasmonate (JA). Bioinformatics analysis revealed that SmMAPK3 belongs to group A and contains a TEY motif in the activation loop together with three conserved regions (P-loop, C-loop and CD-domain). A previous study speculated that SmMAPK3 is likely a positive regulator in the biosynthesis of phenolic acids in S. miltiorrhiza. In this study, overexpression of SmMAPK3 increased phenolic acid biosynthetic gene expression and enhanced the accumulation of phenolic acids in S. miltiorrhiza plantlets. Yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) analysis and firefly luciferase complementation imaging (LCI) assays revealed that SmMAPKK2/4/5/7-SmMAPK3-SmJAZs form a cascade that regulates the accumulation of phenolic acids. In summary, this work deepens our understanding of the posttranscriptional regulatory mechanisms of phenolic acid biosynthesis and sheds new light on metabolic engineering in S. miltiorrhiza.
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9.
Enhanced Mechanical Properties and Isotropy of Mg-2Al-0.8Sn Alloy through Ca Addition.
Miao, Y, Wang, C, Wang, M, Deng, H, Ma, P, Li, Z
Materials (Basel, Switzerland). 2021;(24)
Abstract
Calcium (Ca), with abundant and cheap reserves, is a potential element to facilitate the further application of Mg-Al-Sn based alloys. Here, effects of Ca content on the microstructure and tensile properties of Mg-2.0Al-0.8Sn (wt.%) alloys were systematically studied. The experimental results illustrated that the strength, ductility and isotropy of the alloys improved simultaneously with the increase of Ca content. The better ductility and isotropy could be contributed to the weakened texture via particle stimulation nucleation mechanism. The higher strength benefited from the combination of finer grains, more precipitates and residual dislocation density. Eventually, the Mg-2.0Al-0.8Sn-0.5Ca (wt.%) alloy showed the best room-temperature balance of strength and ductility with a yield strength of ∼226.0 MPa, an ultimate tensile strength of ∼282.4 MPa and a fracture elongation of ∼20.2%, which has huge potential as an applicable low-cost high-performance magnesium alloy.
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10.
Manganese oxide nanomaterials boost cancer immunotherapy.
Ding, B, Yue, J, Zheng, P, Ma, P, Lin, J
Journal of materials chemistry. B. 2021;(35):7117-7131
Abstract
Immunotherapy, a strategy that leverages the host immune function to fight against cancer, plays an increasingly important role in clinical tumor therapy. In spite of the great success achieved in not only clinical treatment but also basic research, cancer immunotherapy still faces many huge challenges. Manganese oxide nanomaterials (MONs), as ideal tumor microenvironment (TME)-responsive biomaterials, are able to dramatically elicit anti-tumor immune responses in multiple ways, indicating great prospects for immunotherapy. In this review, on the basis of different mechanisms to boost immunotherapy, major highlighted topics are presented, covering adjusting an immunosuppressive TME by generating O2 (like O2-sensitized photodynamic therapy (PDT), programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1) expression downregulation, reprogramming tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), and restraining tumor angiogenesis and lactic acid exhaustion), inducing immunogenic cell death (ICD), photothermal therapy (PTT) induction, activating the stimulator of interferon gene (STING) pathway and immunoadjuvants for nanovaccines. We hope that this review will provide holistic understanding about MONs and their application in cancer immunotherapy, and thus pave the way to the translation from bench to bedside in the future.