Experimental Biology and Medicine

Shwachman Diamond syndrome (SDS) is a rare autosomal recessive genetic disorder and due to its complex and varied clinical manifestations, diagnosis is often delayed. The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical manifestations and genetic characteristics of SDS in Chinese patients, in order to increase pediatricians' awareness of SDS and to allow early diagnosis. We conducted a search to identify patients presenting SBDS gene pathogenic variant in two Chinese academic databases. We analyzed and summarized the epidemiology, clinical features, gene pathogenic variants, and key points in the diagnosis and treatment of SDS...

People living with HIV (PLWH) usually suffer from co-infections and co-morbidities including respiratory tract infections. SARS-CoV-2 has been reported to cause respiratory infections. There are uncertainties in the disease severity and immunological response among PLWH who are co-infected with COVID-19. This review outlines the current knowledge on the clinical outcomes and immunological response to SARS-CoV-2 among PLWH. Literature was searched in Google scholar, Scopus, PubMed, and Science Direct conforming with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines from studies published from January 2020 to June 2023...

The risk factors and causes of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and the degree of functional recovery after ICH are distinct between young and elderly patients. The increasing incidence of ICH in young adults has become a concern; however, research on the molecules and pathways involved ICH in subjects of different ages is lacking. In this study, tandem mass tag (TMT)-based proteomics was utilized to examine the protein expression profiles of perihematomal tissue from young and aged mice 24 h after collagenase-induced ICH...

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) constitute a specialized subset of T cells with dual immunoregulatory and modulatory functions. Recent studies have reported that Tregs mediate immune responses and regulate the development and repair processes in non-lymphoid tissues, including bone and cardiac muscle. Additionally, Tregs facilitate the repair and regeneration of damaged lung tissues. However, limited studies have examined the role of Tregs in pulmonary development. This study aimed to evaluate the role of Tregs in pulmonary development by investigating the dynamic alterations in Tregs and their hallmark cellular factor Forkhead box P3 (Foxp3) at various stages of murine lung development and establishing a murine model of anti-CD25 antibody-induced Treg depletion...

Tinnitus is a disturbing condition defined as the occurrence of acoustic hallucinations with no actual sound. Although the mechanisms underlying tinnitus have been explored extensively, the pathophysiology of the disease is not completely understood. Moreover, genes and potential treatment targets related to auditory hallucinations remain unknown. In this study, we examined transcriptional-profile changes in the medial geniculate body after noise-induced tinnitus in rats by performing RNA sequencing and validated differentially expressed genes via quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis...

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a zoonotic disease caused by the tapeworm Echinococcus granulosus sensu lato (s.l). In the intermediate host, this disease is characterized by the growth of cysts in viscera such as liver and lungs, inside of which the parasite develops to the next infective stage known as protoscoleces. There are records that the infected viscera affect the development and morphology of E. granulosus s.l. protoscolex in hosts such as buffalo or humans. However, the molecular mechanisms that drive these differences remains unknown...

Bunyamwera virus (BUNV) ( Bunyamwera orthobunyavirus ) has been found in Sub-Saharan Africa and demonstrated recently as cocirculating with Rift Valley Fever Virus (RVFV). Little is known regarding the breadth of transmission modalities of Bunyamwera. Given its co-occurence with RVFV, we hypothesized the transmission system of BUNV shared similarities to the RVFV system including transmission by Ae. aegypti mosquitoes and environmentally mediated transmission through fomites and environmental contamination...

MicroRNAs (mRNAs) were believed to play an important role in cancers, and this study aimed to explore the mechanism of miRNA regulating Treg in B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL). Firstly, the differentially expressed miRNAs and target genes significantly associated with Tregs were screened out by high-throughput sequencing, and their enrichment pathways were analyzed. The binding relationship between miRNA and target genes was further verified, and the effects of miRNA on the proliferation and apoptosis of B-ALL Nalm-6 cells and Treg activation were analyzed...

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is one of the most threatening hematological malignances. cGAS-STING pathway plays an important role in tumor immunity and development. However, the prognostic role of cGAS-STING pathway in AML remains unknown. Firstly, The expression of cGAS and STING was analyzed by bioinformatics analysis. Subsequently, Bone marrow samples were collected from 120 AML patients and 15 healthy individuals in an independent cohort. The cGAS and STING expression was significantly elevated in AML patients compared with healthy controls...

High body mass index (BMI) is presumed to signify high amounts of fat (subcutaneous adipose tissue) distributed across the body. High amounts of fat co-occurring with increased BMI has been cited as a potential neuroimaging barrier. Presence of increased fat may result in high electrical impedance and increased light diffusion-resulting in low signal to noise ratios during electroencepholography (EEG), functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) measurements...

Neuroinflammation is considered a balanced inflammatory response important in the intrinsic repair process after injury or infection. Under chronic states of disease, injury, or infection, persistent neuroinflammation results in a heightened presence of cytokines, chemokines, and reactive oxygen species that result in tissue damage. In the CNS, the surrounding microglia normally contain macrophages and other innate immune cells that perform active immune surveillance. The resulting cytokines produced by these macrophages affect the growth, development, and responsiveness of the microglia present in both white and gray matter regions of the CNS...

The presence of inhibitory immune cells and difficulty in generating activated effector T cells remain obstacles to development of effective cancer vaccines. We designed a vaccine regimen combining human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) peptides with concomitant therapies targeting regulatory T cells (Tregs) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX2)-mediated immunosuppression. This Phase 1 trial combined an hTERT-derived 7-peptide library, selected to ensure presentation by both HLA class-I and class-II in 90% of patients, with oral low-dose cyclophosphamide (to modulate Tregs) and the COX2 inhibitor celecoxib...

This research aims to investigate the potential of using intrinsic optical signal (IOS) optoretinography (ORG) to objectively detect dark adaptation (DA) abnormalities related to rod photoreceptor degeneration. Functional optical coherence tomography (OCT) was employed in both wild-type (WT) and retinal degeneration 10 (rd10) mice to conduct this assessment. Dynamic OCT measurements captured the changes in retinal thickness and reflectance from light-to-dark transition. Comparative analysis revealed significant IOS alterations within the outer retina...

Ultrasonographic characteristics of skeletal muscles are related to their health status and functional capacity, but they still provide limited information on muscle composition during the inflammatory process. It has been demonstrated that an alteration in muscle composition or structure can have disparate effects on different ranges of ultrasonogram pixel intensities. Therefore, monitoring specific clusters or bands of pixel intensity values could help detect echotextural changes in skeletal muscles associated with neurogenic inflammation...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is a serious complication in neonates requiring mechanical ventilation. This study aimed to determine the risk factors associated with the development of VAP in neonates admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of the Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University. In a retrospective observational study, neonates admitted to the NICU from 1 January 2019, to 31 December 2021, requiring ventilation for more than 48 h were included. Neonates who died within 48 h of NICU admission, those without obtainable consent, or identified with a genetic syndrome were excluded...

Palmitoylation, which is mediated by protein acyltransferase (PAT) and performs important biological functions, is the only reversible lipid modification in organism. To study the effect of protein palmitoylation on hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HPSCC), the expression levels of 23 PATs in tumor tissues of 8 HPSCC patients were determined, and high mRNA and protein levels of DHHC9 and DHHC15 were found. Subsequently, we investigated the effect of 2-bromopalmitate (2BP), a small-molecular inhibitor of protein palmitoylation, on the behavior of Fadu cells in vitro (50 μM) and in nude mouse xenograft models (50 μmol/kg), and found that 2BP suppressed the proliferation, invasion, and migration of Fadu cells without increasing cell apoptosis...

Acute lung injury (ALI) caused by endotoxin represents one of the common clinical emergencies. Mitochondria-associated endoplasmic reticulum membranes (MAM) serve as a critical link between mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum (ER), which has an essential effect on maintaining intracellular homeostasis. As an important component of MAM, type-1 inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor (IP3R-1) mediates the ER-to-mitochondrial transport of Ca2+ . This study explored the role of IP3R-1 and MAM in ALI. Besides the levels of inflammasome-associated components interleukin (IL)-6, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and malonyldialdehyde (MDA) were increased in both bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and serum, increased cross-sectional area of mitochondria, elevated MAM formation, and decreased respiratory control ratio (RCR) were observed within lung tissues collected in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-treated mice, accompanied by upregulation of IP3R-1 in total lung lysates and MAM...

Chemokines critically orchestrate the tumorigenesis, metastasis, and stemness features of cancer cells that lead to poor outcomes. High plasma levels of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGFβ1) correlate with poor prognostic features in advanced lung cancer patients, thus suggesting the importance of TGFβ1 in the lung tumor microenvironment. However, the role of chemokines in TGFβ1-induced tumor stemness features remains unclear. Here, we clarify the previously undocumented role of CXCL1 in TGFβ1-induced lung cancer stemness features...

Human cardiac fibroblasts (HCFs) have mRNA transcripts that encode different mechanosensitive ion channels and channel regulatory proteins whose functions are not known yet. The primary goal of this work was to define the mechanosensitive ion channelome of HCFs. The most common type of cationic channel is the transient receptor potential (TRP) family, which is followed by the TWIK-related K+ channel (TREK), transmembrane protein 63 (TMEM63), and PIEZO channel (PIEZO) families. In the sodium-dependent NON-voltage-gated channel (SCNN) subfamily, only SCNN1D was shown to be highly expressed...