bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Investigating the impact of long term exposure to chemical agents on the chromosomal radiosensitivity using human lymphoblastoid GM1899A cells
Authors: Nuta Otilia , Bouffler Simon , Lloyd David , Ainsbury Elizabeth , Sepai Ovnair , Rothkamm Kai 
Published: June 2021

AbstractThis study aimed to investigate the impact of chronic low-level exposure to chemical carcinogens with different modes of action on the cellular response to ionising radiation. Human lymphoblastoid GM1899A cells were cultured in the presence of 4-nitroquinoline N-oxide (4NQO), N-nitroso-N-methylurea (MNU) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) for up to 6 months at the highest non-(geno)toxic concentration identified in pilot experiments. Acute challenge doses of 1 Gy X-rays were given and chromosome damage (dicentrics, acentric fragments, micronuclei, chromatid gaps/breaks) was scored. Chronic exposure to 20 ng/ml 4NQO, 0.25 μg/ml MNU or 10 μM H2O2 hardly induced dicentrics and did not significantly alter the yield of X-ray-induced dicentrics. Significant levels of acentric fragments were induced by all chemicals, which did not change during long-term exposure. Fragment data in combined treatment samples compared to single treatments were consistent with an additive effect of chemical and radiation exposure. Low level exposure to 4NQO induced micronuclei, the yields of which did not change throughout the 6 month exposure period. As for fragments, micronuclei yields for combined treatments were consistent with an additive effect of chemical and radiation. These results suggest that cellular radiation responses are not affected by long-term low-level chemical exposure.
A structural deep network embedding model for predicting associations between miRNA and disease based on molecular association network
Authors: Li Hao-Yuan , Chen Hai-Yan , Wang Lei , Song Shen-Jian , You Zhu-Hong , Yan Xin , Yu Jin-Qian 
Published: June 2021

AbstractPrevious studies indicated that miRNA plays an important role in human biological processes especially in the field of diseases. However, constrained by biotechnology, only a small part of the miRNA-disease associations has been verified by biological experiment. This impel that more and more researchers pay attention to develop efficient and high-precision computational methods for predicting the potential miRNA-disease associations. Based on the assumption that molecules are related to each other in human physiological processes, we developed a novel structural deep network embedding model (SDNE-MDA) for predicting miRNA-disease association using molecular associations network. Specifically, the SDNE-MDA model first integrating miRNA attribute information by Chao Game Representation (CGR) algorithm and disease attribute information by disease semantic similarity. Secondly, we extract feature by structural deep network embedding from the heterogeneous molecular associations network. Then, a comprehensive feature descriptor is constructed by combining attribute information and behavior information. Finally, Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) is adopted to train and classify these feature descriptors. In the five-fold cross validation experiment, SDNE-MDA achieved AUC of 0.9447 with the prediction accuracy of 87.38% on the HMDD v3.0 dataset. To further verify the performance of SDNE-MDA, we contrasted it with different feature extraction models and classifier models. Moreover, the case studies with three important human diseases, including Breast Neoplasms, Kidney Neoplasms, Lymphoma were implemented by the proposed model. As a result, 47, 46 and 46 out of top-50 predicted disease-related miRNAs have been confirmed by independent databases. These results anticipate that SDNE-MDA would be a reliable computational tool for predicting potential miRNA-disease associations.
Helminth derived factors inhibit neutrophil extracellular trap formation and inflammation in bacterial peritonitis
Authors: Chauhan Arun , Sharma Atul , Tripathi Jitendra K. , Sun Yuyang , Sukumran Pramod , Singh Brij B. , Mishra Bibhuti B. , Sharma Jyotika 
Published: June 2021

AbstractDespite their protective antimicrobial function, neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) have been implicated in propagation of inflammatory responses in several disease conditions including sepsis. Highly diffusible exogenous ROS produced under such inflammatory conditions, can induce exuberant NETs, thus making inhibition of NETs desirable in inflammatory diseases. Here we report that helminth parasite excretory/secretory factors termed as parasitic ligands (PL) inhibit ROS-induced NETs by blocking the activation of nonselective calcium permeable channel Transient Receptor Potential Melastatin 2 (TRPM2). Therapeutic implication of PL mediated blockage of NET formation was tested in preclinical model of septic peritonitis, where PL treatment regulated neutrophil cell death modalities including NET formation and mitigated neutrophil mediated inflammatory response. This translated into improved survival and reduced systemic and local bacterial load in infected mice. Overall, our results posit PL as an important biological regulator of neutrophil functions with implications to a variety of inflammatory diseases including peritonitis.
Marker-assisted pyramiding of lycopene-ε-cyclase, β-carotene hydroxylase1 and opaque2 genes for development of biofortified maize hybrids
Authors: Singh Jagveer , Sharma Shikha , Kaur Amandeep , Vikal Yogesh , Cheema Amandeep Kaur , Bains Balraj Kaur , Kaur Noorpreet , Gill Gurjit Kaur , Malhotra Pawan Kumar , Kumar Ashok , Sharma Priti , Muthusamy Vignesh , Kaur Amarjeet , Chawla Jasbir Singh , Hossain Firoz 
Published: June 2021

AbstractMalnutrition affects growth and development in humans and causes socio-economic losses. Normal maize is deficient in essential amino acids, lysine and tryptophan; and vitamin-A. Crop biofortification is a sustainable and economical approach to alleviate micronutrient malnutrition. We combined favorable alleles of crtRB1 and lcyE genes into opaque2 (o2)-based four inbreds viz. QLM11, QLM12, QLM13, and QLM14 using marker-assisted backcross breeding. These are parents of quality protein maize versions of two elite hybrids viz. Buland and PMH1, grown in India. Gene-based SSRs for o2 and InDel markers for crtRB1 and lcyE were successfully employed for foreground selection in BC1F1, BC2F1, and BC2F2 generations. The recurrent parent genome recovery ranged from 88.9 to 96.0% among introgressed progenies. Kernels of pyramided lines possessed a high concentration of proA (7.14–9.63 ppm), compared to 1.05 to 1.41 ppm in the recurrent parents, while lysine and tryptophan ranged from 0.28–0.44% and 0.07–0.09%, respectively. The reconstituted hybrids (RBuland and RPMH1) showed significant enhancement of endosperm proA (6.97–9.82 ppm), tryptophan (0.07–0.09%), and lysine (0.29–0.43%), while grain yield was at par with their original versions. The dissemination of reconstituted hybrids holds significant promise to alleviate vitamin-A deficiency and protein-energy malnutrition in developing countries.
Improvement in aqueous solubility of achiral symmetric cyclofenil by modification to a chiral asymmetric analog
Authors: Morimoto Junki , Miyamoto Kazunori , Ichikawa Yuki , Uchiyama Masanobu , Makishima Makoto , Hashimoto Yuichi , Ishikawa Minoru 
Published: June 2021

AbstractDecreasing the partition coefficient (LogP) by the introduction of a hydrophilic group is the conventional approach for improving the aqueous solubility of drug candidates, but is not always effective. Since melting point is related to aqueous solubility, we and other groups have developed alternative strategies to improve solubility by means of chemical modification to weaken intermolecular interaction in the solid state, thereby lowering the melting point and increasing the solubility. Here, we show that converting the symmetrical molecular structure of the clinically used estrogen receptor (ER) antagonist cyclofenil (1) into asymmetrical form by introducing an alkyl group enhances the aqueous solubility. Among the synthesized analogs, the chiral methylated analog (R)-4c shows the highest solubility, being 3.6-fold more soluble than 1 even though its hydrophobicity is increased by the methylation. Furthermore, (R)-4c also showed higher membrane permeability than 1, while retaining a comparable metabolic rate, and equivalent biological activity of the active forms (R)-13a to 2. Further validation of this strategy using lead compounds having symmetric structures is expected.
Optomechanical switching of adsorption configurations of polar organic molecules by UV radiation pressure
Authors: Arumugam Kowsalya , Goyal Abhishake , Chen Hong-Ming , Dai Jing-Huan , Gao Mau-Fu , Nakayama Yasuo , Pi Tun-Wen , Papadopoulos Theodoros A. , Jeng Horng-Tay , Tang Shu-Jung 
Published: June 2021

AbstractUsing photoemission spectroscopy (PES), we have systematically investigated the behavior of polar organic molecule, chloroaluminum phthalocyanine (ClAlPc), adsorbed in the Cl-down configuration on the Ag(111) substrate at low temperature − 195 °C under UV irradiation with a range of different photon fluxes. Judging from the evolution of photoemission spectral line shapes of molecular energy states, we discovered that the Cl atoms are so robustly anchored at Ag(111) that the impinging photons cannot flip the ClAlPc molecules, but instead they crouch them down due to radiation pressure; we observe that the phthalocyanine (Pc) lobes bend down to interact with Ag atoms on the substrate and induce charge transfer from them. As photon flux is increased, radiation pressure on the Pc plane initiates tunneling of the Cl atom through the molecular plane to turn the adsorption configuration of ClAlPc from Cl-down to an upheld Cl-up configuration, elucidating an optomechanical way of manipulating the dipole direction of polar molecules. Finally, work function measurements provide a distinct signature of the resulting upheld Cl-up configuration as it leads to a large increase in vacuum level (VL), ~ 0.4 eV higher than that of a typical flat-on Cl-up configuration driven by thermal annealing.
The impact of socioeconomic and phenotypic traits on self-perception of ethnicity in Latin America
Authors: Paschetta Carolina , de Azevedo Soledad , Ramallo Virginia , Cintas Celia , Pérez Orlando , Navarro Pablo , Bandieri Lucas , Sánchez Mirsha Quinto , Adhikari Kaustubh , Bortolini M. Catira , Ferrara Giovanni Poletti , Gallo Carla , Bedoya Gabriel , Rothhammer Francisco , Alonzo Victor Acuña , Ruiz-Linares Andrés , González-José Rolando 
Published: June 2021

AbstractSelf-perception of ethnicity is a complex social trait shaped by both, biological and non-biological factors. We developed a comprehensive analysis of ethnic self-perception (ESP) on a large sample of Latin American mestizos from five countries, differing in age, socio-economic and education context, external phenotypic attributes and genetic background. We measured the correlation of ESP against genomic ancestry, and the influence of physical appearance, socio-economic context, and education on the distortion observed between both. Here we show that genomic ancestry is correlated to aspects of physical appearance, which in turn affect the individual ethnic self-perceived ancestry. Also, we observe that, besides the significant correlation among genomic ancestry and ESP, specific physical or socio-economic attributes have a strong impact on self-perception. In addition, the distortion among ESP and genomic ancestry differs across age ranks/countries, probably suggesting the underlying effect of past public policies regarding identity. Our results indicate that individuals’ own ideas about its origins should be taken with caution, especially in aspects of modern life, including access to work, social policies, and public health key decisions such as drug administration, therapy design, and clinical trials, among others.
Simulation-based optimisation to quantify heterogeneity of specific ventilation and perfusion in the lung by the Inspired Sinewave Test
Authors: Tran M. C. , Nguyen V. , Bruce R. , Crockett D. C. , Formenti F. , Phan P. A. , Payne S. J. , Farmery A. D. 
Published: June 2021

AbstractThe degree of specific ventilatory heterogeneity (spatial unevenness of ventilation) of the lung is a useful marker of early structural lung changes which has the potential to detect early-onset disease. The Inspired Sinewave Test (IST) is an established noninvasive ‘gas-distribution’ type of respiratory test capable of measuring the cardiopulmonary parameters. We developed a simulation-based optimisation for the IST, with a simulation of a realistic heterogeneous lung, namely a lognormal distribution of spatial ventilation and perfusion. We tested this method in datasets from 13 anaesthetised pigs (pre and post-lung injury) and 104 human subjects (32 healthy and 72 COPD subjects). The 72 COPD subjects were classified into four COPD phenotypes based on ‘GOLD’ classification. This method allowed IST to identify and quantify heterogeneity of both ventilation and perfusion, permitting diagnostic distinction between health and disease states. In healthy volunteers, we show a linear relationship between the ventilatory heterogeneity versus age ($${R}^{2}=0.42$$

R

2

=
0.42

). In a mechanically ventilated pig, IST ventilatory heterogeneity in noninjured and injured lungs was significantly different (p < 0.0001). Additionally, measured indices could accurately identify patients with COPD (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve is 0.76, p < 0.0001). The IST also could distinguish different phenotypes of COPD with 73% agreement with spirometry.
Oral pre-treatment with thiocyanate (SCN−) protects against myocardial ischaemia–reperfusion injury in rats
Authors: Hall Luke , Guo Chaouri , Tandy Sarah , Broadhouse Kathryn , Dona Anthony C. , Malle Ernst , Bartels Emil D. , Christoffersen Christina , Grieve Stuart M. , Figtree Gemma , Hawkins Clare L. , Davies Michael J. 
Published: June 2021

AbstractDespite improvements in revascularization after a myocardial infarction, coronary disease remains a major contributor to global mortality. Neutrophil infiltration and activation contributes to tissue damage, via the release of myeloperoxidase (MPO) and formation of the damaging oxidant hypochlorous acid. We hypothesized that elevation of thiocyanate ions (SCN−), a competitive MPO substrate, would modulate tissue damage. Oral dosing of rats with SCN−, before acute ischemia–reperfusion injury (30 min occlusion, 24 h or 4 week recovery), significantly reduced the infarct size as a percentage of the total reperfused area (54% versus 74%), and increased the salvageable area (46% versus 26%) as determined by MRI imaging. No difference was observed in fractional shortening, but supplementation resulted in both left-ventricle end diastolic and left-ventricle end systolic areas returning to control levels, as determined by echocardiography. Supplementation also decreased antibody recognition of HOCl-damaged myocardial proteins. SCN− supplementation did not modulate serum markers of damage/inflammation (ANP, BNP, galectin-3, CRP), but returned metabolomic abnormalities (reductions in histidine, creatine and leucine by 0.83-, 0.84- and 0.89-fold, respectively), determined by NMR, to control levels. These data indicate that elevated levels of the MPO substrate SCN−, which can be readily modulated by dietary means, can protect against acute ischemia–reperfusion injury.
Identification of novel DNA hypermethylation of the adenylate kinase 5 promoter in colorectal adenocarcinoma
Authors: Ahn Bokyung , Chae Yang Seok , Lee Soo Kyung , Kim Moa , Kim Hyeon Soo , Moon Ji Wook , Park Sun-Hwa 
Published: June 2021

AbstractAdenylate kinase 5 (AK5) belongs to the adenylate kinase family that catalyses reversible phosphate transfer between adenine nucleotides, and it is related to various energetic signalling mechanisms. However, the role of AK5 in colorectal cancer (CRC) has not been reported. In this study, AK5 was significantly hypermethylated in CRC compared to adjacent normal tissues (P < 0.0001) and normal tissues (P = 0.0015). Although the difference in mRNA expression was not statistically significant in all of them, the selected 49 cases of CRC tissues with AK5 hypermethylation with the cut off value of 40% showed a significant inverse correlation with mRNA expression (P = 0.0003). DNA methylation of AK5 promoter significantly decreased and AK5 expression recovered by 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine, DNA methyltransferase inhibitor in CRC cell lines. In addition, AK5 promoter activity significantly decreased due to DNA methyltransferase, and it increased due to 5-aza. Moreover, AK5 regulated the phosphorylated AMPK and mTOR phosphorylation and inhibited the cell migration and cell invasion in CRC cell lines. Furthermore, low AK5 expression is associated with poor differentiation (P = 0.014). These results demonstrate that the AK5 promoter is frequently hypermethylated and induced methylation-mediated gene down-regulation. AK5 expression regulates AMPK/mTOR signalling and may be closely related to metastasis in colorectal adenocarcinoma.
Radiomics side experiments and DAFIT approach in identifying pulmonary hypertension using Cardiac MRI derived radiomics based machine learning models
Authors: Priya Sarv , Aggarwal Tanya , Ward Caitlin , Bathla Girish , Jacob Mathews , Gerke Alicia , Hoffman Eric A. , Nagpal Prashant 
Published: June 2021

AbstractSide experiments are performed on radiomics models to improve their reproducibility. We measure the impact of myocardial masks, radiomic side experiments and data augmentation for information transfer (DAFIT) approach to differentiate patients with and without pulmonary hypertension (PH) using cardiac MRI (CMRI) derived radiomics. Feature extraction was performed from the left ventricle (LV) and right ventricle (RV) myocardial masks using CMRI in 82 patients (42 PH and 40 controls). Various side study experiments were evaluated: Original data without and with intraclass correlation (ICC) feature-filtering and DAFIT approach (without and with ICC feature-filtering). Multiple machine learning and feature selection strategies were evaluated. Primary analysis included all PH patients with subgroup analysis including PH patients with preserved LVEF (≥ 50%). For both primary and subgroup analysis, DAFIT approach without feature-filtering was the highest performer (AUC 0.957–0.958). ICC approaches showed poor performance compared to DAFIT approach. The performance of combined LV and RV masks was superior to individual masks alone. There was variation in top performing models across all approaches (AUC 0.862–0.958). DAFIT approach with features from combined LV and RV masks provide superior performance with poor performance of feature filtering approaches. Model performance varies based upon the feature selection and model combination.
Epizootic reptilian ferlavirus infection in individual and multiple snake colonies with additional evidence of the virus in the male genital tract
Authors: Piewbang Chutchai , Wardhani Sabrina Wahyu , Poonsin Panida , Yostawonkul Jakarwan , Chai-in Poowadon , Lacharoje Sitthichok , Saengdet Thanyarat , Vasaruchapong Taksa , Boonrungsiman Suwimon , Kongmakee Piyaporn , Banlunara Wijit , Rungsipipat Anudep , Kasantikul Tanit , Techangamsuwan Somporn 
Published: June 2021

AbstractReptilian ferlavirus, a pathogen of serious concern in snakes, has been reported in Western countries, but little is known about its prevalence in Thailand, where many snake breeding farms are located. In this study, we investigated the reptilian ferlavirus via swab samples derived from 49 diseased snakes and 77 healthy snakes as well as tissue samples taken from nine dead snakes from five independent snake farms. Using molecular detection, we found the ferlavirus in 8.16% of diseased snakes, but not in healthy snakes. Out of nine farmed snakes, eight snakes derived from four farms were found to be positive. Four complete genome sequences of the ferlavirus were successfully obtained and phylogenetically clustered to the highly pathogenic ferlavirus. Tissue tropism of the ferlavirus was identified in various epithelial cell types using the in situ hybridization technique. Interestingly, the hybridization signals were strongly labeled in the male genital tract. Transmission electron microscopy was used to support the ferlaviral localization in the male genital tract. This study provides the first evidence of ferlavirus localization in the male genital tract and contributes to the knowledge about ferlavirus epidemiology, indicating that there needs to be further awareness and elucidation regarding vertical transmission of reptilian ferlavirus.
Automated detection of cervical ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament in plain lateral radiographs of the cervical spine using a convolutional neural network
Authors: Miura Masataka , Maki Satoshi , Miura Kousei , Takahashi Hiroshi , Miyagi Masayuki , Inoue Gen , Murata Kazuma , Konishi Takamitsu , Furuya Takeo , Koda Masao , Takaso Masashi , Endo Kenji , Ohtori Seiji , Yamazaki Masashi 
Published: June 2021

AbstractCervical ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) is a contributing factor to spinal cord injury or trauma-induced myelopathy in the elderly. To reduce the incidence of these traumas, it is essential to diagnose OPLL at an early stage and to educate patients how to prevent falls. We thus evaluated the ability of our convolutional neural network (CNN) to differentially diagnose cervical spondylosis and cervical OPLL. We enrolled 250 patients with cervical spondylosis, 250 patients with cervical OPLL, and 180 radiographically normal controls. We evaluated the ability of our CNN model to distinguish cervical spondylosis, cervical OPLL, and controls, and the diagnostic accuracy was compared to that of 5 board-certified spine surgeons. The accuracy, average recall, precision, and F1 score of the CNN for classification of lateral cervical spine radiographs were 0.86, 0.86, 0.87, and 0.87, respectively. The accuracy was higher for CNN compared to any expert spine surgeon, and was statistically equal to 4 of the 5 experts and significantly higher than that of 1 expert. We demonstrated that the performance of the CNN was equal or superior to that of spine surgeons.