The High Expressed Serum Soluble Neural Cell Adhesion Molecule, a High Risk Factor Indicating Hepatic Encephalopathy in Hepatocelular Carcinoma Patients

Liu, Tian-Hua,Guo, Kun,Liu, Ri-Qiang,Zhang, Shu,Huang, Zhuo-Hui,Liu, Yin-Kun Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.8

Objective: To investigate whether the expression of serum soluble neural cell adhesion molecule (sNCAM) is associated with hepatic encephalopathy (HE) in hepatocelular carcinoma (HCC) patients. Materials and Methods: The Oncomine Cancer Microarray database was used to determine the clinical relevance of NCAM expression in different kinds of human cancers. Sera from 75 HCC cases enrolled in this study were assessed for expression of sNCAM by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: Dependent on the Oncomine Cancer Microarray database analysis, NCAM was down regulated in 10 different kinds of cancer, like bladder cancer, brain and central nervous system cancer, while up-regulated in lung cancer, uterine corpus leiomyoma and sarcoma, compared to normal groups. Puzzlingly, NCAM expression demonstrated no significant difference between normal and HCC groups. However, we found by quantitative ELISA that the level of sNCAM in sera from HCC patients with HE ($347.4{\pm}151.9ng/ml$) was significantly more up-regulated than that in HCC patients without HE ($260.3{\pm}104.2ng/ml$), the p-value being 0.008. sNCAM may be an important risk factor of HE in HCC patients, the correlation coefficients was 0.278 (P<0.05) on rank correlation analysis. Conclusions: This study highlights that up-regulated level of serum sNCAM is associated with HE in HCC patients and suggests that the high expression can be used as an indicator.

The white gene in Nilaparvata lugens and its expression pattern under two different survival stresses

Shu Hua Liu,Bao Jun Yang,Ai YingWang,Ju Luo,Jian Tang 한국응용곤충학회 2018 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.21 No.2

The brown planthopper (BPH), Nilaparvata lugens (Stål), is a serious pest of rice. Chemical control and pestresistant rice breeding are always two major management strategies of BPH. In order to keep effective control, understanding the detoxification mechanism of this insect pest appears to be high important. In addition to be an eye pigment transporter, White protein is also important for its non-eye roles, such as a potential target for insecticides and Bt toxin. In this study, we characterized the full-length white orthologues gene in N. lugens (Nlwhite). NlWhite, the deduced protein of Nlwhite, has feature motifs of the eye pigment transporter. Knocking down Nlwhite transcript, the compound eye color partially changed to white. Nlwhite can be detected in all developmental stages and body parts, indicating that it is not a developmental or tissue-specific expression gene. The expression levels of Nlwhite were all significantly upregulated in both pymetrozine-selection and Mudgoselection BPH strains, which were selected for several generations. These results indicated that NlWhite participated in the detoxification not only for the exogenous insecticides but also for the endogenous toxic substance.

Knockdown of an ABC transporter leads to bright red eyes in the brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) (Hemiptera: Delphacidae)

Shu Hua Liu,Ai YingWang,Bao Jun Yang,Ju Luo,Jian Tang 한국응용곤충학회 2017 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.20 No.2

Compound eye color is an important biological character of insects,which is determined by the nature of eye pigments. Ommochrome is the solely source of eye color for some insects, while pteridines is also needed for the other insect species. However, little is known about the eye pigment composition for any planthopper. Scarlet is an ABC (ATP-binding cassette) transporter protein, which functions as the transmembrane transporter for ommochrome precursor. The failure of Scarlet function can cause bright red or white eyes in different species, which depending on the nature of eye pigments. Here, we identified a scarlet ortholog gene (Nlst) from the brown planthopper (BPH), Nilaparvata lugens, which is a destructive insect pest of rice. Nlst is the first characterized eye pigment transporter gene from Hemipteran. NlSt, the protein deduced from Nlst, has an open reading frame (ORF) of 629 amino acidswith the two sequence logos for eye pigment transporters. Expression profile revealed that Nlst expressed at all development stages and had the highest transcript level in head. Knockdown the Nlst transcript, the wild-type eye color partially changed to bright red, while not to white. Meantime, the ommochrome level in heads reduced to 73.4%. These results suggested that the eye coloration of BPH needs both ommochrome and pteridines pigments. Because nymphal RNAi with Nlst leading to a clearly distinguished phenotype from the control individuals, Nlst maybe a suitable genetic marker to exploit embryonic RNAi technique in this insect pest.

LDBAS: Location-aware Data Block Allocation Strategy for HDFS-based Applications in the Cloud

( Hua Xu ),( Weiqing Liu ),( Guansheng Shu ),( Jing Li ) 한국인터넷정보학회 2018 KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Syst Vol.12 No.1

Big data processing applications have been migrated into cloud gradually, due to the advantages of cloud computing. Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) is one of the fundamental support systems for big data processing on MapReduce-like frameworks, such as Hadoop and Spark. Since HDFS is not aware of the co-location of virtual machines in the cloud, the default scheme of block allocation in HDFS does not fit well in the cloud environments behaving in two aspects: data reliability loss and performance degradation. In this paper, we present a novel location-aware data block allocation strategy (LDBAS). LDBAS jointly optimizes data reliability and performance for upper-layer applications by allocating data blocks according to the locations and different processing capacities of virtual nodes in the cloud. We apply LDBAS to two stages of data allocation of HDFS in the cloud (the initial data allocation and data recovery), and design the corresponding algorithms. Finally, we implement LDBAS into an actual Hadoop cluster and evaluate the performance with the benchmark suite BigDataBench. The experimental results show that LDBAS can guarantee the designed data reliability while reducing the job execution time of the I/O-intensive applications in Hadoop by 8.9% on average and up to 11.2% compared with the original Hadoop in the cloud.

Dipeptidyl peptidase IV inhibitor attenuates kidney injury in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.

Liu, Wei Jing,Xie, Shu Hua,Liu, Yu Ning,Kim, Won,Jin, Heung Yong,Park, Sung Kwang,Shao, Yi Ming,Park, Tae Sun Williams Wilkins 2012 The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Thera Vol.340 No.2

<P>Dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP) IV inhibitors are probably beneficial for preventing diabetic complication and modulating glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) expression. The aim of this study was to determine whether the DPP IV inhibitor LAF237 (vildagliptin) has renoprotective qualities in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Diabetic and nondiabetic rats were treated with an oral dose of 4 or 8 mg/kg/day LAF237 or placebo for 24 weeks, and renal injury was observed by light and electron microscopy. We also assessed DPP IV activity, active GLP-1 level, cAMP and 8-hydroxy-deoxyguanosine excretion, and GLP-1R, cleaved caspase 3, and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) expression. LAF237 significantly decreased proteinuria, albuminuria, and urinary albumin/creatinine ratio, improved creatinine clearance, and dose-dependently inhibited interstitial expansion, glomerulosclerosis, and the thickening of the glomerular basement membrane in diabetic rats. It is noteworthy that LAF237 markedly down-regulated DPP IV activity and increased active GLP-1 levels, which probably prevented oxidative DNA damage and renal cell apoptosis by activating the GLP-1R and modulating cAMP. Renoprotection was also associated with a reduction in TGF-β1 overexpression. Our study suggests that DPP IV inhibitors may ameliorate diabetic nephropathy as well as reduce the overproduction of TGF-β1. The observed renoprotection is probably attributable to inhibition of DPP IV activity, mimicking of incretin action, and activation of the GLP-1R.</P>

Zebrafish Dnd protein binds to 3`UTR of geminin mRNA and regulates its expression

( Shu Chen ),( Mei Zeng ),( Hua Qin Sun ),( Wen Qian Deng ),( Yi Lu Lu ),( Da Chang Tao ),( Yun Qiang Liu ),( Si Zhong Zhang ),( Yong Xin Ma ) 생화학분자생물학회 (구 한국생화학분자생물학회) 2010 BMB Reports Vol.43 No.6

Dnd (dead end) gene encodes an RNA binding protein and is specifically expressed in primordial germ cells (PGCs) as a vertebrate-specific component of the germ plasma throughout embryogenesis. By utilizing a technique of specific nucleic acids associated with proteins (SNAAP), 13 potential target mRNAs of zebrafish Dnd (ZDnd) protein were identified from 8-cell embryo, and 8 target mRNAs have been confirmed using an RT-PCR analysis. Of the target mRNAs, the present study is focused on the regulation of geminin, which is an inhibitor of DNA replication. Using electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA), we demonstrated that ZDND protein bound the 67-nucleotide region from 864 to 931 in the 3`UTR of geminin mRNA, a sequence containing 60.29% of uridine. Results from a dual-luciferase assay in HEK293 cells showed that ZDND increases the translation of geminin. Taken together, the identification of target mRNA for ZDnd will be helpful to further explore the biological function of Dnd in zebrafish germ-line development as well as in cancer cells. [BMB reports 2010; 43(6): 438-444]

Auricular acupressure promotes uterine involution after cesarean section: A randomized controlled trial

Shu-xin Wang,Jing-chun Zeng,Ting Li,Wan-lan Zhang,Yan-fang Li,Run-jin Zhou,Zi-jun Liu,Yu-ling Liu,Xun Zhuang,Rui Zhang,Li-ming Lu,Guo-hua Lin 한국한의학연구원 2021 Integrative Medicine Research Vol.10 No.3

Background: Postpartum subinvolution of the uterus is a more common condition after cesarean section. Auricular acupressure (AA) is widely used for the treatment of postpartum diseases. However, few studies have explored the effects of AA as a treatment of uterine involution following cesarean section to date. This study aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of AA for uterine involution after cesarean section. Methods: A total of 109 women who underwent cesarean section participated in this study. They were randomly allocated to either real AA or sham AA in a 1:1 ratio by a computer program. For 3 days, the real AA and sham AA groups received treatment 3 times daily. A series of assessments at 42 days after cesarean section, namely on the uterine size, the incidence of hydrometra, the first anal exsufflation time, bleeding volume at 6 hours, bleeding volume at 6–24 hours along with other general assessments were carried out. Results: A total of 89 women completed the study. The uterine size at 42 days after a cesarean section was 6.3 cm smaller in the real AA group than in the sham AA group (P < 0.01). The incidence of hydrometra on day 42 postpartum was lower in the real AA group than in the sham AA group (P < 0.01). The lochia duration and the first anal exsufflation time after cesarean section were shorter in the real AA group than in the sham AA group (P < 0.05). Conclusion: AA improves uterine involution after cesarean section. Trial registration: ChiCTR1800015569.

Conversion of incinerator bottom ash into mesoporous silica materials

Zhen-Shu Liu,Chun-Yi Huang,Sheng-Hua Chen 대한환경공학회 2015 대한환경공학회 학술발표논문집 Vol.2015 No.10

Longitudinal Study of Cancer-Related Fatigue in Patients with Colorectal Cancer

Li, Shu-Xia,Liu, Bei-Bei,Lu, Jian-Hua Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.7

Background: Dynamic changes of cancer-related fatigue (CRF) among hospitalized patients with colorectal cancer were determined. Materials and Methods: This longitudinal, descriptive study involved 96 hospitalized patients with colorectal cancer, all recruited from a tertiary general hospital in Guangzhou, China. Patients completed questionnaires three times to assess the degree of fatigue, and measurement points were within one week of admission, at 2 to 3 days after surgery and 3 weeks after surgery. Results: Significant differences among the three measurement points (p<0.01) were observed. The scores of fatigue in the second survey were the highest, followed by the third and first surveys. Colon cancer patient scores were higher than those of rectal cancer patients with a significant difference (p<0.05). Colorectal patients experienced different degrees of fatigue at different periods during hospitalization. Conclusions: This study highlights the importance of interventions that are carefully tailored to patients based on the characteristics at different periods to alleviate fatigue.

A Novel Role of Classical Swine Fever Virus E(rns) Glycoprotein in Counteracting the Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV)-mediated IFN-β Induction

( Yan Hua Xia ),( Liu Chen ),( Zi Shu Pan ),( Chu Yu Zhang ) 생화학분자생물학회 2007 BMB Reports Vol.40 No.5