Identification of Plasma Biomarkers in Drug-Naïve Schizophrenia Using Targeted Metabolomics

Qiao Su,Fuyou Bi,Shu Yang,Huiming Yan,Xiaoxiao Sun,Jiayue Wang,Yuying Qiu,Meijuan Li,Shen Li,Jie Li 대한신경정신의학회 2023 PSYCHIATRY INVESTIGATION Vol.20 No.9

Objective Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a severe psychiatric disorder with unknown etiology and lacking specific biomarkers. Herein, we aimed to explore plasma biomarkers relevant to SCZ using targeted metabolomics. Methods Sixty drug-naïve SCZ patients and 36 healthy controls were recruited. Psychotic symptoms were assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. We analyzed the levels of 271 metabolites in plasma samples from all subjects using targeted metabolomics, and identified metabolites that differed significantly between the two groups. Then we evaluated the diagnostic power of the metabolites based on receiver operating characteristic curves, and explored metabolites associated with the psychotic symptoms in SCZ patients. Results Twenty-six metabolites showed significant differences between SCZ patients and healthy controls. Among them, 12 metabolites were phosphatidylcholines and cortisol, ceramide (d18:1/22:0), acetylcarnitine, and γ-aminobutyric acid, which could significantly distinguish SCZ from healthy controls with the area under the curve (AUC) above 0.7. Further, a panel consisting of the above 4 metabolites had an excellent performance with an AUC of 0.867. In SCZ patients, phosphatidylcholines were positively related with positive symptoms, and cholic acid was positively associated with negative symptoms. Conclusion Our study provides insights into the metabolite alterations associated with SCZ and potential biomarkers for its diagnosis and symptom severity assessment.

Colorectal Cancer Concealment Predicts a Poor Survival: A Retrospective Study

Li, Xiao-Pan,Xie, Zhen-Yu,Fu, Yi-Fei,Yang, Chen,Hao, Li-Peng,Yang, Li-Ming,Zhang, Mei-Yu,Li, Xiao-Li,Feng, Li-Li,Yan, Bei,Sun, Qiao Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.14 No.7

Objectives: Understanding the situation of cancer awareness which doctors give to patients might lead to prognostic prediction in cases of of colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods: Subsets of 10,779 CRC patients were used to screen the risk factors from the Cancer Registry in Pudong New Area in cancer awareness, age, TNM stage, and gender. Survival of the patients was calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method and assessed by Cox regression analysis. The views of cancer awareness in doctors and patients were surveyed by telephone or household. Results: After a median observation time of 1,616 days (ranging from 0 to 4,083 days) of 10,779 available patients, 2,596 of the 4,561 patients with cancer awareness survived, whereas 2,258 of the 5,469 patients without cancer awareness and 406 of the 749 patients without information on cancer awareness died of the disease. All-cause and cancer-specific survival were poorer for the patients without cancer awareness than those with (P < 0.001 for each, log-rank test). Cox multivariate regression analysis showed that cancer concealment cases had significantly lower cancer-specific survival (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.299; 95 % confidence interval (CI): 1.200-1.407)and all-cause survival (HR = 1.324; 95 % CI: 1.227-1.428). Furthermore, attitudes of cancer awareness between doctors and patients were significantly different (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Cancer concealment, not only late-stage tumor and age, is associated with a poor survival of CRC patients.

Acute and repeated dose 26-week oral toxicity study of 20(S)-ginsenoside Rg3 in Kunming mice and Sprague-Dawley rats

Li, Chunmei,Wang, Zhezhe,Li, Guisheng,Wang, Zhenhua,Yang, Jianrong,Li, Yanshen,Wang, Hongtao,Jin, Haizhu,Qiao, Junhua,Wang, Hongbo,Tian, Jingwei,Lee, Albert W.,Gao, Yonglin The Korean Society of Ginseng 2020 Journal of Ginseng Research Vol.44 No.2

Background: 20(S)-ginsenoside-Rg3 (C₄₂H₇₂O₁₃), a natural triterpenoid saponin, is extracted from red ginseng. The increasing use of 20(S)-ginsenoside Rg3 has raised product safety concerns. Methods: In acute toxicity, 20(S)-ginsenoside Rg3 was singly and orally administrated to Kunming mice and Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats at the maximum doses of 1600 mg/kg and 800 mg/kg, respectively. In the 26-week toxicity study, we used repeated oral administration of 20(S)-ginsenoside Rg3 in SD rats over 26 weeks at doses of 0, 20, 60, or 180 mg/kg. Moreover, a 4-week recovery period was scheduled to observe the persistence, delayed occurrence, and reversibility of toxic effects. Results: The result of acute toxicity shows that oral administration of 20(S)-ginsenoside Rg3 to mice and rats did not induce mortality or toxicity up to 1600 and 800 mg/kg, respectively. During a 26-week administration period and a 4-week withdrawal period (recovery period), there were no significant differences in clinical signs, body weight, food consumption, urinalysis parameters, biochemical and hematological values, or histopathological findings. Conclusion: The mean oral lethal dose (LD₅₀) of 20(S)-ginsenoside Rg3, in acute toxicity, is above 1600 mg/kg and 800 mg/kg in mice and rats, respectively. In a repeated-dose 26-week oral toxicity study, the no-observed-adverse-effect level for female and male SD rats was 180 mg/kg.

Correlation analysis of muscle amino acid deposition and gut microbiota profile of broilers reared at different ambient temperatures

Yang, Yuting,Gao, Huan,Li, Xing,Cao, Zhenhui,Li, Meiquan,Liu, Jianping,Qiao, Yingying,Ma, Li,Zhao, Zhiyong,Pan, Hongbin Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2021 Animal Bioscience Vol.34 No.1

Objective: Temperature could influence protein and amino acid deposition as well as gut microbiota profile and composition. However, the specific effects of ambient temperature on amino acids deposition and gut microbiota composition remain insufficiently understood. Methods: A total of 300 one-day-old Avian broilers were randomly divided into three groups and reared at high, medium, and low temperature (HT, MT, and LT), respectively. Breast muscle and fecal samples were collected for amino acid composition analysis and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. Results: Our data showed that compared to the MT group, there was a decrease of muscle leucine and tyrosine (p<0.05), as well as an increase of methionine in the HT group (p<0.05) and a decrease of serine in the LT group. Examination of microbiota shift revealed that at genus level, the relative abundance of Turicibacter and Parabacteroides was increased in the HT group (p<0.05) and that the relative abundances of Pandoraea, Achromobacter, Prevotella, Brevundimonas, and Stenotrophomonas in the LT group were higher than those in the MT group (p<0.05). In addition, there were substantial correlations between microbes and amino acids. In the HT group. Turicibacter was negatively correlated with aspartic acid and tyrosine, whereas Parabacteroides was positively correlated with methionine (p<0.05). In the LT group, there were multiple positive correlations between Achromobacter and arginine, isoleucine or tyrosine; between Prevotella and cysteine or phenylalanine; between Brevundimonas and cysteine; and between Stenotrophomonas and cysteine as well as a negative correlation between Stenotrophomonas and serine. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrated that amino acid content of breast muscle and intestinal microbiota profile was affected by different ambient temperatures. Under heat exposure, augmented abundance of Parabacteroides was correlated with elevated methionine. Low temperature treatment may affect muscle tyrosine content through the regulation of Achromobacter.

Epigenetic silencing of olfactomedin-4 enhances gastric cancer cell invasion via activation of focal adhesion kinase signaling

( Li Li Guo ),( Zhao Cai He ),( Chang Qing Yang ),( Pei Tang Qiao ),( Guo Ling Yin ) 생화학분자생물학회(구 한국생화학분자생물학회) 2015 BMB Reports Vol.48 No.11

Downregulation of olfactomedin-4 (OLFM4) is associated with tumor progression, lymph node invasion and metastases. However, whether or not downregulation of OLFM4 is associated with epigenetic silencing remains unknown. In this study, we investigate the role of OLFM4 in gastric cancer cell invasion. We confirm the previous result that OLFM4 expression is increased in gastric cancer tissues and decreases with an increasing number of metastatic lymph nodes, which are associated with OLFM4 promoter hypermethylation. Overexpression of OLFM4 in gastric cancer cells had an inhibitory effect on cell invasion. Furthermore, we found that focal adhesion kinase (FAK) was negatively correlated with OLFM4 in regards to lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer tissues. Also, inhibition of FAK induced by OLFM4 knockdown resulted in a decrease in cell invasion. Thus, our study demonstrates that epigenetic silencing of OLFM4 enhances gastric cancer cell invasion via activation of FAK signaling. [BMB Reports 2015; 48(11): 630-635]

Acute and repeated dose 26-week oral toxicity study of 20(S)-ginsenoside Rg3 in Kunming mice and Sprague – Dawley rats

Chunmei Li,ZhezheWang,Guisheng Li,ZhenhuaWang,Jianrong Yang,Yanshen Li,Hongtao Wang,Haizhu Jin,Junhua Qiao,Hongbo Wang,Jingwei Tian,Albert W. Lee,Yonglin Gao 고려인삼학회 2020 Journal of Ginseng Research Vol.44 No.2

Background: 20(S)-ginsenoside-Rg3 (C42H72O13), a natural triterpenoid saponin, is extracted from redginseng. The increasing use of 20(S)-ginsenoside Rg3 has raised product safety concerns. Methods: In acute toxicity, 20(S)-ginsenoside Rg3 was singly and orally administrated to Kunming miceand SpragueeDawley (SD) rats at the maximum doses of 1600 mg/kg and 800 mg/kg, respectively. In the26-week toxicity study, we used repeated oral administration of 20(S)-ginsenoside Rg3 in SD rats over 26weeks at doses of 0, 20, 60, or 180 mg/kg. Moreover, a 4-week recovery period was scheduled to observethe persistence, delayed occurrence, and reversibility of toxic effects. Results: The result of acute toxicity shows that oral administration of 20(S)-ginsenoside Rg3 to mice andrats did not induce mortality or toxicity up to 1600 and 800 mg/kg, respectively. During a 26-weekadministration period and a 4-week withdrawal period (recovery period), there were no significantdifferences in clinical signs, body weight, food consumption, urinalysis parameters, biochemical andhematological values, or histopathological findings. Conclusion: The mean oral lethal dose (LD50) of 20(S)-ginsenoside Rg3, in acute toxicity, is above 1600mg/kg and 800 mg/kg in mice and rats, respectively. In a repeated-dose 26-week oral toxicity study, theno-observed-adverse-effect level for female and male SD rats was 180 mg/kg.

Evaluation of Several Screening Approaches for Detection of Cervical Lesions in Rural Shandong, China

Zong, Li-Ju,Zhang, You-Zhong,Yang, Xing-sheng,Jiang, Jie,Cui, Bao-Xia,Qiao, Yun-Bo,Li, Li,Jiang, Kan,Zhang, Wen-Jing,Kong, Bei-Hua,Shen, Keng Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.5

Purpose: The study was designed to: (1) investigate the prevalence of high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) infection and cervical neoplasia; and (2) evaluate clinical performance of visual inspection with acetic acid/ Lugol's iodine (VIA /VILI), Pap smear, high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) DNA test for detecting cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 or worse (CIN2+) and (3) explore appropriate screening approach in rural areas of Shandong Province. Materials and Methods: A total of 3,763 eligible women from Yiyuan County in Yimeng mountainous areas of rural Shandong, China, were enrolled and underwent Pap smear, HR-HPV DNA testing by Hybrid Capture 2 (HC2), and VIA /VILI tests. Women positive in any test were referred to colposcopy and biopsy as indicated. Results: The prevalence of HR-HPV infection among all enrolled women was 11.1% and that in healthy women was 9.9%. In total 33 cases of CIN1, 16 cases of CIN2, 6 cases of CIN3 but none of cervical cancer were detected and the crude prevalence of CIN2+ was 0.58%. For detecting CIN2+, the sensitivity of HR-HPV DNA testing, VIA/VILI, Pap smear was 90.9%, 77.3%, 81.8%, respectively. Pap smear had the best specificity of 98.2%, followed by HR-HPV DNA testing with specificity of 89.4%, VIA/VILI had the lowest specificity of 81.2%. Colposcopy referral rate of HR-HPV DNA testing, VIA/VILI, Pap smear was 11.1%, 18.5%, 2.3%, respectively. Conclusions: Our results suggest that HR-HPV DNA testing alone might be appropriate for primary cervical cancer screening in rural low-resource areas of Shandong Province, China.

Systemic Inflammatory Biomarkers, Especially Fibrinogen to Albumin Ratio, Predict Prognosis in Patients with Pancreatic Cancer

Lin Fang,Fei-Hu Yan,Chao Liu,Jing Chen,Dan Wang,Chun-Hui Zhang,Chang-Jie Lou,Jie Lian,Yang Yao,Bo-Jun Wang,Rui-Yang Li,Shu-Ling Han,Yi-Bing Bai,Jia-Ni Yang,Zhi-Wei Li,Yan-Qiao Zhang 대한암학회 2021 Cancer Research and Treatment Vol.53 No.1

Purpose Systemic inflammatory response is a critical factor that promotes the initiation and metastasis of malignancies including pancreatic cancer (PC). This study was designed to determine and compare the prognostic value of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), and fibrinogen-to-albumin ratio (FAR) in resectable PC and locally advanced or metastatic PC. Materials and Methods Three hundred fifty-three patients with resectable PC and 807 patients with locally advan-ced or metastatic PC were recruited in this study. These patients were classified into a training set (n=758) and a validation set (n=402). Kaplan-Meier survival plots and Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to analyze prognosis. Results Overall survival (OS) was significantly better for patients with resectable PC with low preoperative PLR (p=0.048) and MLR (p=0.027). Low FAR, MLR, NLR (p < 0.001), and PLR (p=0.003) were significantly associated with decreased risk of death for locally advanced or metastatic PC patients. FAR (hazard ratio [HR], 1.522; 95% confidential interval [CI], 1.261 to 1.837; p < 0.001) and MLR (HR, 1.248; 95% CI, 1.017 to 1.532; p=0.034) were independent prognostic factors for locally advanced or metastatic PC. Conclusion The prognostic roles of FAR, MLR, NLR, and PLR in resectable PC and locally advanced or metastatic PC were different. FAR showed the most prognostic power in locally advanced or metastatic PC. Low FAR was positively correlated with OS in locally advanced or metastatic PC, which could be used to predict the prognosis.

Preparation and Properties of Cellulose Nanocrystals Based Self-healing Polyurethane

Yang Qiao,Qi Xu,Shouxiang Liu,Zhiqiang Li,Yanyan Wei 한국고분자학회 2023 폴리머 Vol.47 No.3

First, cellulose nanocrystals were extracted from microcrystalline cellulose using the sulfuric acid hydrothermal method. Second, imine aromatic diol (Imine) was synthesized from p-hydroxybenzaldehyde and 4,4'-diaminodiphenylmethane as raw materials. Then the imine was introduced into the polyurethane, and the reversible covalent bond between the imine and the C = N group was used to endow the polyurethane with self-healing properties. Finally, cellulose nanocrystalline (CNC) was added into the self-healing polyurethane as the dispersed phase to prepare the composite. The experimental results show that with the increase of the amount of CNC, the properties of the composites increase first and then decrease, which is due to the physical cross-linking effect of proper CNC distribution in the self-healing polyurethane, it is beneficial to the mechanical properties, but the self-healing property is reduced by further increasing the content, which restricts the movement of the molecular chain. The mechanical properties of the composite with 0.049 g CNC are the best, with fracture strength reaching 20.59 MPa, approximately 1.56 times higher than that of pure self-healing polyurethane, and its elongation at break is 979%, and the self-healing efficiency reaches 84.7%, keeping an excellent level.

Enhanced photocatalytic activity on elemental mercury over pink BiOIO3 nanosheets with abundant oxygen vacancies

Yang Ling,Jiachen Li,Jiang Wu,Hailong Liu,Xu Mao,Yongfeng Qi,Qian Ma,Qizhen Liu,Zhanwei Qiao,Weiqun Chu 한국화학공학회 2022 Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering Vol.39 No.2

Elemental mercury removal in coal-fired power plants is the key to global mercury pollution control, and photocatalytic oxidation is an effective and stable method. As a typical bismuth-based photocatalyst, BiOIO3 has a large band gap which is not conducive to the absorption and utilization of visible light, and its specific surface area also limits the diffusion and adsorption of reactants. In this work, pink BiOIO3 (PB) was first prepared successfully via vacuum calcination under absolute pressure of 1*103 Pa. The specific surface area of pink BiOIO3 is significantly increased to 44.52m2/g, which is 1.5-times compared with the traditional BiOIO3 prepared by hydrothermal method (only 29.60 m2/g). Abundant oxygen vacancy defects exist on sample surface, and the formed local BiOI Zero-dimensional (0-D) nanodots provide heterojunction-like effect combined with the BiOIO3, obtaining better photocatalytic property in the oxidation of elemental mercury. The as-prepared pink BiOIO3 and the preparation technology also have strong application potential in the field of energy and environment.