Aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 inhibits inflammatory response and regulates atherosclerotic plaque

Background: Sepsis, causing serious organ and tissue damage and even death, has not been fully elucidated. Therefore, understanding the key mechanisms underlying sepsis-associated immune responses would lead to more potential therapeutic strategies.Methods: Single-cell RNA data of 4 sepsis patients and 2 healthy controls in the GSE167363 data set were studied. The pseudotemporal trajectory analyzed neutrophil clusters under sepsis. Using the hdWGCNA method, key gene modules of neutrophils were explored. Multiple machine learning methods were used to screen and validate hub genes for neutrophils. SCENIC was then used to explore transcription factors regulating hub genes. Finally, quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was to validate mRNA expression of hub genes in peripheral blood neutrophils of two mice sepsis models.Results: We discovered two novel neutrophil subtypes with a significant increase under sepsis. These two neutrophil subtypes were enriched in the late state during neutrophils differentiation. The hdWGCNA analysis of neutrophils unveiled that 3 distinct modules (Turquoise, brown, and blue modules) were closely correlated with two neutrophil subtypes. 8 machine learning methods revealed 8 hub genes with high accuracy and robustness (ALPL, ACTB, CD177, GAPDH, SLC25A37, S100A8, S100A9, and STXBP2). The SCENIC analysis revealed that APLP, CD177, GAPDH, S100A9, and STXBP2 were significant associated with various transcriptional factors. Finally, ALPL, CD177, S100A8, S100A9, and STXBP2 significantly up regulated in peripheral blood neutrophils of CLP and LPS-induced sepsis mice models.Conclusions: Our research discovered new clusters of neutrophils in sepsis. These five hub genes provide novel biomarkers targeting neutrophils for the treatment of sepsis.

With the development of modern pig raising technology, the increasing density of animals in pig houses leads to the accumulation of microbial aerosols in pig houses. It is an important prerequisite to grasp the characteristics of bacteria in aerosols in different pig houses to solve the problems of air pollution and disease prevention and control in different pig houses. This work investigated the effects of growth stages on bacterial aerosol concentrations and bacterial communities in pig houses. Three traditional types of closed pig houses were studied: farrowing (FAR) houses, weaning (WEA) houses, and fattening (FAT) houses. The Andersen six-stage sampler and high-volume air sampler were used to assess the concentrations and size distribution of airborne bacteria, and 16S rRNA gene sequencing was used to identify the bacterial communities. We found that the airborne bacterial concentration, community richness, and diversity index increased with pig age. We found that Acinetobacter, Erysipelothrix, Streptococcus, Moraxella, and Aerococcus in the microbial aerosols of pig houses have the potential risk of causing disease. These differences lead us to believe that disinfection strategies for pig houses should involve a situational focus on environmental aerosol composition on a case-by-case basis.

Influenza virus is a serious threat to global human health and public health security. There is an urgent need to develop new anti-influenza drugs. Lentinan (LNT) has attracted increasing attention in recent years. As potential protective agent, LNT has been shown to have anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral properties. However, there has been no further research into the anti-influenza action of lentinan in vivo, and the mechanism is still not fully understood. In this study, the anti-influenza effect and mechanism of Lentinan were studied in the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) mouse model. The results showed that Lentinan had a high degree of protection in mice against infection with influenza A virus, delayed the emergence of clinical manifestations, improved the survival rate of mice, significantly prolonged the middle survival days, attenuated the weight loss, and reduced the lung coefficient of mice. It alleviated the pathological damage of mice infected with the influenza virus and improved blood indices. Lentinan treatment considerably inhibited inflammatory cytokine (TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6) levels in the serum and lung and improved IFN-γ cytokine levels, which reduced cytokine storms caused by influenza virus infection. The underlying mechanisms of action involved Lentinan inhibiting the inflammatory response by regulating the TLR4/MyD88 signaling pathway. This study provides a foundation for the clinical application of Lentinan, and provides new insight into the development of novel immunomodulators.

COVID-19 was officially declared a global pandemic disease on 11 March 2020, with severe implications for healthcare systems, economic activity, and human life worldwide. Fast and sensitive amplification of the severe acute respiratory syndrome virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) nucleic acids is critical for controlling the spread of this disease. Here, a real-time reverse transcription recombinase-aided amplification (RT-RAA) assay, targeting conserved positions in the nucleocapsid protein gene (N gene) of SARS-CoV-2, was successfully established for SARS-CoV-2. The assay was specific to SARS-CoV-2, and there was no cross-reaction with other important viruses. The sensitivity of the real-time RT-RAA assay was 142 copies per reaction at 95% probability. Furthermore, 100% concordance between the real-time RT-RAA and RT-qPCR assays was achieved after testing 72 clinical specimens. Further linear regression analysis indicated a significant correlation between the real-time RT-RAA and RT-qPCR assays with an R2 value of 0.8149 (p < 0.0001). In addition, the amplicons of the real-time RT-RAA assay could be directly visualized by a portable blue light instrument, making it suitable for the rapid amplification of SARS-CoV-2 in resource-limited settings. Therefore, the real-time RT-RAA method allows the specific, sensitive, simple, rapid, and reliable detection of SARS-CoV-2.

The abuse of AGPs in animal husbandry has led to severe problems such as drug resistance and ecological, and environmental destruction, which seriously threaten human health and public health security. In recent years, extracts of oregano oil and macleaya cordata have become a hot spot in the research and application of AGP substitutes for their safety and high efficiency. This study is the first to report the effect of oregano oil combined with macleaya cordata oral solution on broiler growth performance. A total of 960 one-day-old broiler chickens were randomly divided into four treatment groups (240 chickens per group). Each treatment group was divided into six replicate groups (40 birds per replicate group). There were four groups in this study: the solvent control group, the oregano essential oil combined with macleaya cordata extract oral solution group (OS group), the oregano essential oil oral solution group (OEO group), and the macleaya cordata extract oral solution group (MCE group). Two chickens from each replicate group were collected and mixed into a composite sample. Six composite samples were obtained for each treatment group. The results showed that the oregano oil combined with macleaya cordata oral solution significantly improved the growth performance of broiler chickens. At the same time, serum biochemical indices, serum antioxidant indices, serum immune indices, serum cytokines, and intestinal morphology were significantly improved by the OS group. This study shows that oregano oil combined with macleaya cordata oral solution has substantial potential to be an alternative to AGPs for broilers.