Metabolism Characteristics of Mycoplasma pneumoniae Infection in Asthmatic Children

Luo Jiaying,Chen Huian,Zhang Qiyong,Huang Xinyun,Qin Xu,Li Jing,Chen Siyi,Xiao Yongxin,Sun Lihong,Sun Baoqing 대한천식알레르기학회 2022 Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Research Vol.14 No.6

Purpose: Studies have shown that Mycoplasma pneumoniae (Mp) infection can aggravate symptoms in asthmatics. However, the mechanism by which Mp infection exacerbates asthma remains unclear. Metabolomics can help identify the mechanism of Mp aggravating asthma in children, thereby providing more a potential target for improving clinical treatment programs. In this article, we analyzed the metabolic level of patients to explain how Mp aggravates asthma in children. Methods: We divided the subjects into the asthma, Mp infection, asthma combined with Mp infection and healthy groups. Patients’ peripheral blood was collected for metabolic and interaction analysis. Cytokine levels were measured via serum and exhaled breath condensate (EBC). Results: A total of 150 participating subjects were divided into four groups after exclusion. We found out that there were different metabolic pathways between the healthy and disease groups. The major pathways of both asthma and asthma combined with Mp infection were valine, leucine and isoleucine biosynthesis; malate-aspartate shuttle was the main differential pathway for Mp infection. Moreover, even though three disease groups involved 81 metabolites at the same time, compared with asthma combined with Mp infection, 2 single disease groups still involved different amino acid pathways (phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan biosynthesis; valine, leucine and isoleucine biosynthesis). Interaction analysis showed that Mp infection in asthmatic patients not only activated cytokines, but also activated Toll-like receptors (TLRs) 2 and 6. Finally, the levels of interleukin (IL)-4, IL-8, IL-13 and tumor necrosis factor-α in EBC with asthma combined with Mp infection were significantly higher than the 2 single disease groups. Conclusions: Mp infection in asthmatic children can cause changes in the levels of various amino acids in the body, which were enriched in the pathways such as valine, leucine and isoleucine biosynthesis. Palmitic acid can activate TLR2, and iloprost reduces IL-10 levels, ultimately leading to the increased airway inflammation.

Virtual Network Embedding through Security Risk Awareness and Optimization

( Shuiqing Gong ),( Jing Chen ),( Conghui Huang ),( Qingchao Zhu ),( Siyi Zhao ) 한국인터넷정보학회 2016 KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Syst Vol.10 No.7

Network virtualization promises to play a dominant role in shaping the future Internet by overcoming the Internet ossification problem. However, due to the injecting of additional virtualization layers into the network architecture, several new security risks are introduced by the network virtualization. Although traditional protection mechanisms can help in virtualized environment, they are not guaranteed to be successful and may incur high security overheads. By performing the virtual network (VN) embedding in a security-aware way, the risks exposed to both the virtual and substrate networks can be minimized, and the additional techniques adopted to enhance the security of the networks can be reduced. Unfortunately, existing embedding algorithms largely ignore the widespread security risks, making their applicability in a realistic environment rather doubtful. In this paper, we attempt to address the security risks by integrating the security factors into the VN embedding. We first abstract the security requirements and the protection mechanisms as numerical concept of security demands and security levels, and the corresponding security constraints are introduced into the VN embedding. Based on the abstraction, we develop three security-risky modes to model various levels of risky conditions in the virtualized environment, aiming at enabling a more flexible VN embedding. Then, we present a mixed integer linear programming formulation for the VN embedding problem in different security-risky modes. Moreover, we design three heuristic embedding algorithms to solve this problem, which are all based on the same proposed node-ranking approach to quantify the embedding potential of each substrate node and adopt the k-shortest path algorithm to map virtual links. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our algorithms.

Virtual Network Embedding with Multi-attribute Node Ranking Based on TOPSIS

( Shuiqing Gong ),( Jing Chen ),( Siyi Zhao ),( Qingchao Zhu ) 한국인터넷정보학회 2016 KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Syst Vol.10 No.2

Network virtualization provides an effective way to overcome the Internet ossification problem. As one of the main challenges in network virtualization, virtual network embedding refers to mapping multiple virtual networks onto a shared substrate network. However, existing heuristic embedding algorithms evaluate the embedding potential of the nodes simply by the product of different resource attributes, which would result in an unbalanced embedding. Furthermore, ignoring the hops of substrate paths that the virtual links would be mapped onto may restrict the ability of the substrate network to accept additional virtual network requests, and lead to low utilization rate of resource. In this paper, we introduce and extend five node attributes that quantify the embedding potential of the nodes from both the local and global views, and adopt the technique for order preference by similarity ideal solution (TOPSIS) to rank the nodes, aiming at balancing different node attributes to increase the utilization rate of resource. Moreover, we propose a novel two-stage virtual network embedding algorithm, which maps the virtual nodes onto the substrate nodes according to the node ranks, and adopts a shortest path-based algorithm to map the virtual links. Simulation results show that the new algorithm significantly increases the long-term average revenue, the long-term revenue to cost ratio and the acceptance ratio.

Low serum total testosterone level as a predictor of upgrading in low-risk prostate cancer patients after radical prostatectomy: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Shu Gan,Jian Liu,Zhiqiang Chen,Songtao Xiang,Chiming Gu,Siyi Li,Shusheng Wang 대한비뇨의학회 2022 Investigative and Clinical Urology Vol.63 No.4

Purpose: To investigated the association between serum total testosterone and Gleason score upgrading of low-risk prostate cancer after radical prostatectomy (RP). Materials and Methods: Medline, Web of Science, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases were searched to identify eligible studies published before October 2021. Multivariate adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and associated 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using random or fixed effects models. Results: Five studies comprising 1,203 low-risk prostate cancer patients were included. The results showed that low serum total testosterone (<300 ng/dL) is associated with a high rate of Gleason score upgrading after RP (OR, 2.3; 95% CI, 1.38–3.83; p<0.001; I2, 92.2%). Notably, sensitivity and meta-regression analyses further strengthen the reliability of our results. Conclusions: Our results support the idea that low serum total testosterone is associated with a high rate of Gleason score upgrading in prostate cancer patients after RP. It is beneficial for urologist to ensure close monitoring of prostate-specific antigen levels and imaging examination when choosing non-RP treatment for low-risk prostate cancer patients.

Control of Citrus Green and Blue Molds by Chinese Propolis

Shuzhen Yang,Litao Peng,Yunjiang Cheng,Siyi Pan,Feng Chen 한국식품과학회 2010 Food Science and Biotechnology Vol.19 No.5

Green and blue molds, caused by Penicillium digitatum and Penicillium italicum, respectively, are economically important postharvest diseases of citrus fruits. In this study, Chinese propolis ethyl acetate extract (PEAE) was evaluated to control P. digitatum and P. italicum on postharvest citrus fruits. The results indicated PEAE strongly inhibited mycelia growth and induced hyphae prominent abnormal morphological alterations. Also, PEAE had strong detrimental effect on spore germination of the tested pathogens in a concentrationdependent manner. For in vivo tests, PEAE could both reduce decay caused by P. digitatum and P. italicum respectively in wound-inoculated fruit and naturally infected fruit; meanwhile, no negative influences on the overall quality of the citrus fruits were observed with PEAE treatment. Therefore, PEAE could be used as a natural antifungal agent to control citrus blue and green mold.

Antifungal Activity and Action Mode of Pinocembrin from Propolis against Penicillium italicum

Litao Peng,Shuzhen Yang,Yunjiang Cheng,Feng Chen,Siyi Pan,Gang Fan 한국식품과학회 2012 Food Science and Biotechnology Vol.21 No.6

The antifungal activity and possible mode of action of pinocembrin isolated from propolis against Penicillium italicum were investigated. Pinocembrin exhibited strong antifungal activity against P. italicum in a dosedependent manner. Respiration rates of P. italicum during spore germination and mycelial growth were significantly inhibited when exposure to pinocembrin. The respirations of mitochondria in state 2 and state 3 from mycelia were significantly inhibited in the presence of this compound. The phosphorylated adenosine nucleotides levels in hyphae of P. italicum treated with pinocembrin were significantly low and energy charge value became unstable. Unltrastructure of hyphae was seriously damaged with pinocembrin incubation for 24 h, which was further confirmed by the increase of relative ionic leakage and soluble protein loss of P. italicum mycelia treated with pinocembrin. It was concluded that pinocembrin inhibited the mycelial growth of P. italicum by interfering energy homeostasis and cell membrane damage of the pathogen. Pinocembrin would be a promising bioactive compound for treatment of P. italicum infections on postharvest citrus fruit.

Detection of Spinal Muscular Atrophy Using a Duplexed Real-Time PCR Approach With Locked Nucleic Acid-Modified Primers

Pan Jianyan,Zhang Chunhua,Teng Yanling,Zeng Sijing,Chen Siyi,Liang Desheng,Li Zhuo,Wu Lingqian 대한진단검사의학회 2021 Annals of Laboratory Medicine Vol.41 No.1

Background: Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal recessive neuromuscular disorder mainly caused by homozygous deletions that include exon 7 of the survival motor neuron 1 (SMN1) gene. A nearby paralog gene, SMN2, obstructs the specific detection of SMN1. We optimized a duplexed real-time PCR approach using locked nucleic acid (LNA)-modified primers to specifically detect SMN1. Methods: An LNA-modified primer pair with 3´ ends targeting SMN1 specific sites c.835-44g and c.840C was designed, and its specificity was examined by real-time PCR and Sanger Sequencing. A duplexed real-time PCR approach for amplifying SMN1 and control gene albumin (ALB) was developed. A randomized double-blind trial with 97 fresh peripheral blood samples and 25 dried blood spots (DBS) was conducted to evaluate the clinical efficacy of the duplexed approach. This new approach was then used to screen 753 newborn DBS. Results: The LNA-modified primers exhibited enhanced specificity and 6.8% increased efficiency for SMN1 amplification, compared with conventional primers. After stabilizing the SMN1 test by optimizing the duplexed real-time PCR approach, a clinical trial validated that the sensitivity and specificity of our new approach for detecting SMA patients and carriers was 100%. Using this new approach, 15 of the screened 753 newborns were identified as carriers via DBS, while the rest were identified as normal individuals. These data reveal a carrier rate of 1.99% in Hunan province, South Central China. Conclusions: We have developed a novel, specific SMN1 detection approach utilizing real-time PCR with LNA-modified primers, which could be applied to both prenatal carrier and newborn screening.