Risk Factors for Cervical Cancer in Rural Areas of Wuhan China: a Matched Case-control Study

Zhang, Bin,Zhou, Ai-Fen,Zhu, Chang-Cai,Zhang, Ling,Xiang, Bing,Chen, Zhong,Hu, Rong-Hua,Zhang, Ya-Qi,Qiu, Lin,Zhang, Yi-Ming,Xiong, Chao-Du,Du, Yu-Kai,Shi, Yu-Qin Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.14 No.12

Cervical cancer is a serious public health problem in developing countries. We investigated possible risk factors for cervical cancer in rural areas of Wuhan China using a matched case-control study with 33 women diagnosed with cervical cancer and 132 healthy women selected from the same area as matched controls. A questionnaire, which included questions about general demography conditions, environmental and genetic factors, the first sexual intercourse, first marriage age, age at first pregnancy, pregnancy first child's age, female personal health history, social psychological factors, dietary habits, smoking and alcohol status and other living habits was presented to all participants. At the same time, HPV infection of every participant was examined in laboratory testing. Results showed HPV infection (P<0.000, OR=23.4) and pregnancy first child's age (P<0.000, OR=13.1) to be risk factors for cervical cancer. Menopause (P=0.003, OR=0.073) was a protective factor against cervical cancer. However, there was no indication of associations of environmental (drinking water, insecticide, disinfectant) genetic (cancer family history), or life-style factors (smoking status, alcohol status, physical training, sleep quality), including dietary habits (intake of fruit and vegetable, meat, fried food, bean products and pickled food) or social psychological factors with cervical cancer. The results suggest that the risk of cervical cancer in Chinese rural women may be associated with HPV infection, menopause and the pregnancy first child's age.

Lentivirus-mediated silencing of the PTC1 and PTC2 genes promotes recovery from spinal cord injury by activating the Hedgehog signaling pathway in a rat model

Ya-Dong Zhang,Zhong-Sheng Zhu,Dong Zhang,Zhen Zhang,Bin Ma,Shi-Chang Zhao,Feng Xue 생화학분자생물학회 2017 Experimental and molecular medicine Vol.49 No.-

This study aimed to investigate the effect of Patched-1 (PTC1) and PTC2 silencing in a rat model, on Hedgehog (Hh) pathwaymediated recovery from spinal cord injury (SCI). An analytical emphasis on the relationship between the sonic hedgehog (Shh) pathway and nerve regeneration was explored. A total of 126 rats were divided into normal, sham, SCI, negative control (NC), PTC1-RNAi, PTC2-RNAi and PTC1/PTC2-RNAi groups. The Basso, Beattie and Bresnahan (BBB) scale was employed to assess hind limb motor function. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and western blotting were performed to examine the mRNA and protein levels of PTC1, PTC2, Shh, glioma-associated oncogene homolog 1 (Gli-1), Smo and Nestin. Tissue morphology was analyzed using immunohistochemistry, and immunofluorescent staining was conducted to detect neurofilament protein 200 (NF-200) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). The PTC1/PTC2-RNAi group displayed higher BBB scores than the SCI and NC groups. Shh, Gli-1, Smo and Nestin expression levels were elevated in the PTC1/PTC2-RNAi group. PTC1 and PTC2 mRNA and protein expression was lower in the PTC1/PTC2-RNAi group than in the normal, sham and SCI groups. Among the seven groups, the PTC1/PTC2-RNAi group had the largest positive area of NF-200 staining, whereas the SCI group exhibited a larger GFAP-positive area than both the normal and the sham groups. The Shh pathway may provide new insights into therapeutic indications and regenerative recovery tools for the treatment of SCI. Activation of the Hh signaling pathway by silencing PTC1 and PTC2 may reduce inflammation and may ultimately promote SCI recovery.

ABO Blood Group, Epstein-Barr virus Infection and Prognosis of Patients with Non-metastatic Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Zhang, Ya-Xiong,Kang, Shi-Yang,Chen, Gang,Fang, Wen-Feng,Wu, Xuan,You, Hua-Jing,He, Da-Cheng,Cao, Ya-Lin,Liang, Wen-Hua,Zhang, Li Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.17

Background: A prior study showed blood type A/AB to be associated with an increased risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) compared to subjects with blood type O. However, the relationship between ABO blood groups and prognosis of NPC patients is still questionable. In addition, whether Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection is associated with prognosis of NPC patients with different ABO blood groups is unclear. Materials and Methods: We conducted univariate and multivariable Cox regression analyses based on a consecutive cohort of 1,601 patients to investigate the above issues. Results: There was no significant difference in overall survival (OS) between different ABO blood groups (p=0.629), neither between A vs. non-A blood groups (p=0.895) nor AB vs. non-AB blood group (p=0.309) in univariate analyses and after adjusting for other factors. Interaction tests revealed that high immunoglobulin A against Epstein-Barr virus viral capsid antigen (VcA-IgA) level was associated with a favorable prognosis in male patients with UICC stage II disease who had an A blood type (p=0.008), compared with those with non-A blood type. In addition, male patients with an A blood group with a high blood lymphocyte level showeda tendency towards better survival in UICC stage III (p=0.096). Conclusions: ABO blood group status is not associated with the prognosis of patients with NPC. Additionally, blood group A male NPC patients with high VcA-IgA level or high blood lymphocyte counts might be correlated with a favorable prognosis in UICC stage II or III, respectively.

Leaf Wilting Movement Can Protect Water-Stressed Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) Plants Against Photoinhibition of Photosynthesis and Maintain Carbon Assimilation in the Field

Ya-Li Zhang,Hong-Zhi Zhang,Ming-Wei Du,Wei Li,Hong-Hai Luo,Wah-Soon Chow,Wang-Feng Zhang 한국식물학회 2010 Journal of Plant Biology Vol.53 No.1

Under severe water stress, leaf wilting is quite general in higher plants. This passive movement can reduce the energy load on a leaf. This paper reports an experimental test of the hypothesis that leaf wilting movement has a protective function that mitigates against photoinhibition of photosynthesis in the field. The experiments exposed cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) to two water regimes: waterstressed and well-watered. Leaf wilting movement occurred in water-stressed plants as the water potential decreased to −4.1 MPa, reducing light interception but maintaining comparable quantum yields of photosystem II (PS II; Yield for short) and the proportion of total PS II centers that were open (qP). Predrawn Fv/Fm (potential quantum yield of PS II) as an indicator of overnight recovery of PS II from photoinhibition was higher than or similar to that in wellwatered plants. Compared with water-stressed cotton leaves for which wilting movement was permitted, water-stressed cotton leaves restrained from such movement had significantly increased leaf temperature and instantaneous CO2assimilation rates in the short term, but reduced Yield, qP,and Fv/Fm. In the long term, predrawn Fv/Fm and CO2assimilation capacity were reduced in water-stressed leaves restrained from wilting movement. These results suggest that, under water stress, leaf wilting movement could reduce the incident light on leaves and their heat load, alleviate damage to the photosynthetic apparatus due to photoinhibition,and maintain considerable carbon assimilation capacity in the long term despite a partial loss of instantaneous carbon assimilation in the short term.

The Impact of Public Pension on Chinese Household Consumption

Ya-Hao LI(Ya-Hao LI),Fan YANG(Fan YANG),Shuang ZHANG(Shuang ZHANG) 한국웰빙융합학회 2024 웰빙융합연구 Vol.7 No.1

Purpose: The improvement of the social security system can greatly affect residents' future uncertainty, and it is important to study the relationship between public pensions and household consumption. Research design, data and methodology: Using the 2018 China Household Panel Survey (CFPS) data, the instrumental variable method is used to analyze the impact of pension insurance on urban residents' consumption. Results: The results of the study show that there are differences in the impact of three different pension insurance systems on household consumption. The pension insurance for public sector significantly boosts household consumption, and having a pension insurance for public sector can increase household consumption by 7.7%. The pension insurance for enterprise employee will reduce household consumption, but this is only significant for urban households. The pension insurance for urban and rural residents has a negative impact on household consumption. For the 16- to 39-year-old group, having a pension insurance for urban and rural residents will reduce household consumption by 5.7%. At the same time, household income, assets, scale, and education level will positively stimulate household consumption. Conclusions: The study reveals varying impacts among different pension types, highlighting the need for optimizing social security schemes to incentivize higher consumption rates.

Effects of Culture Mechanism of Cinnamomum kanehirae and C. camphora on the Expression of Genes Related to Terpene Biosynthesis in Antrodia cinnamomea

Zhang Zhang,Wang Yi,Yuan Xiao-Long,Luo Ya-Na,Luo Ma-Niya,Zheng Yuan 한국균학회 2022 Mycobiology Vol.50 No.2

The rare edible and medicinal fungus Antrodia cinnamomea has a substantial potential for development. In this study, Illumina HiSeq 2000 was used to sequence its transcriptome. The results were assembled de novo, and 66,589 unigenes with an N50 of 4413 bp were obtained. Compared with public databases, 6,061, 3,257, and 2,807 unigenes were annotated to the Non-Redundant, Gene Ontology, and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes databases, respectively. The genes related to terpene biosynthesis in the mycelia of A. cinnamomea were analyzed, and acetyl CoA synthase (ACS2 and ACS4), hydroxymethylglutaryl CoA reductase (HMGR), farnesyl transferase (FTase), and squalene synthase (SQS) were found to be upregulated in XZJ (twig of C. camphora) and NZJ (twig of C. kanehirae). Moreover, ACS5 and 2,3-oxidized squalene cyclase (OCS) were highly expressed in NZJ, while heme IX farnesyl transferase (IX-FIT) and ACS3 were significantly expressed in XZJ. The differential expression of ACS1, ACS2, HMGR, IX-FIT, SQS, and OCS was confirmed by real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR. This study provides a new concept for the additional exploration of the molecular regulatory mechanism of terpenoid biosynthesis and data for the biotechnology of terpenoid production.

Comprehensive Expression Analysis Suggests Functional Overlapping of Human FOX Transcription Factors in Cancer

Zhang, Ya-Li,Sun, Feng-Ting,Zhang, Ze,Chen, Xiao-Xu,Liu, Ai-Xiang,Pan, Jing-Jing,Peng, Fei,Zhou, Shuai,Sun, Li-Jun Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.23

Forkhead-box (FOX) transcription factors comprise a large gene family that contains more than 50 members in man. Extensive studies have revealed that they not only have functions in control of growth and development, but also play important roles in different diseases, especially in cancer. However, biological functions for most of the members in the FOX family remain unknown. In the present study, the expression of 39 FOX genes in 48 kinds of cancer was mined from the Gene Expression Atlas database of European Bioinformatics Institute. The analysis results showed that some FOX genes demonstrate overlapping expression in various cancers, which suggests particular biological functions. The pleiotropic features of the FOX genes make them excellent candidates in efforts aimed to give medical treatment for cancers at the genetic level. The results also indicated that different FOX genes may have the synergy or antagonistics effects in the same cancers. The study provides clues for further functional analysis of FOX genes, especially for the pleiotropic biological functions and crosstalk of FOX genes in human cancers.

Structure and Biological Activity of K(H2O)L (L = 5,7-Dihydroxy-6,4'-dimethoxyisoflavone-3'-sulfonate)

Ya-Ning Guo,Xue-Ling Zhang,Zun-Ting Zhang* 대한화학회 2006 Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society Vol.27 No.9

Potassium(I) with 5,7-dihydroxy-6,4'-dimethoxyisoflavone-3'-sulfonate (L) assembles to K(H2O)L (L = 5,7-dihydroxy-6,4'-dimethoxyisoflavone-3'-sulfonate). It was characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, element analysis, IR and 1H NMR spectroscopy. It crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P21/n and reveals a seven-coordinate complex. Polyhedra potassium chains, C-H遜p and C-H遜O and O-H遜O hydrogen bonds lead K(H2O)L to a three-dimensional network structure. The biological activity of resistance to hypoxia was tested, and the results showed that the biological activity of resistance to hypoxia of K(H2O)L is as good as that of its precursor, irisolidone.

Insecticidal activities and biochemical properties of Pinellia ternata extracts against the beet armyworm Spodoptera exigua

Ya-Nan Zhang,Peng He,Jian-Ping Xue,Qing Guo,Xiu-Yun Zhu,Li-Ping Fang,Jin-Bu Li 한국응용곤충학회 2017 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.20 No.2

The beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua Hübner (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), is a key pest of various agricultural crops in many countries throughout the world. The pest requires extensive use of pesticides and field-evolved resistances to conventional insecticides in China and other countries. Pinellia ternata Breit is native to the eastern part of Asia and foundmainly in China,which has been used in traditional Chinese medicines for N1000 years, but few studies have focused on the insecticidal activity of the P. ternate. In order to find natural products that could be used to control the pest in an safe, efficient and ecofriendlymanner,we first time analyzed the components of the anhydrous ethanolic extracts fromthe tubers of Pinellia ternate by using GC–MS method, and then investigated the insecticidal activities and biochemical mechanisms of the extracts against S. exigua. The result of GC–MS showed that 2-Methoxy-4-vinylphenolmay be an insecticidal active component, and we also found the extracts had notable insecticidal activity and disturbed the regular metabolismof S. exiguamainly through altering the activities of detoxification enzymes, digestive enzymes and protective enzymes. These properties suggest that the anhydrous ethanolic extracts from P. ternate can serve as a potential, efficient and ecofriendly S. exigua-control biopesticide.

Identification and expression patterns of UDP-glycosyltransferase (UGT) genes from insect pest Athetis lepigone (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

Ya-Nan Zhang,Ji-FangMa,Lu Xu,Zhi-PingDong,Ji-Wei Xu,Meng-Ya Li,Xiu-Yun Zhu 한국응용곤충학회 2017 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.20 No.1

UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) genes,which belong to an ancient gene family and play very important roles in all organisms, encode extracellularly secreted proteins that are involved in the transfer of glycosyl residues fromactivated nucleotide sugars to acceptor hydrophobicmolecules (aglycones). Athetis lepigone is an important polyphagous pest worldwide, and since 2011 it has become one of the major maize pests in North China. However, there have been no studies on pesticides for the effective control of this pest. In this study,we identified 23 putative UGT genes in A. lepigone by analysing previous antennal transcriptomic data. Phylogenetic analysis showed that all of the AlUGTs are distributed within 11 of 14 insect UGT sub-families. Tissue expression analysis revealed that N70% of AlUGTs were primarily expressed in adult antennae, of which three (AlUGT33AD1, AlUGT40F6 and AlUGT40L4) and four (AlUGT33B18, AlUGT33F10, AlUGT40Q3 and AlUGT41D3) displayed male-biased and female-biased expression, respectively. SomeAlUGTs, however, had higher expression levels in non-antennal tissues. Our study is the first to identify UGT genes in A. lepigone,which will help us to elucidate the diverse functions of these genes, and ultimately provide potential targets that will facilitate the development of efficient and environmentally friendly pesticides against A. lepigone.