SummaryMicroRNA-1 (miR-1) is preferentially expressed in cardiac muscles, and the expression has been demonstrated to be involved in cardiac development and cardiovascular diseases. Here we report that miR-1 is closely related with ischemia/reperfusion injury in a rat model. The level of miR-1 is inversely correlated with Bcl-2 protein expression in cardiomyocytes of the I/R rat model. In vitro, the level of miR-1 was dramatically increased in response to H2O2. Overexpression of miR-1 facilitated H2O2-induced apoptosis in cardiomyocytes. Inhibition of miR-1 by antisense inhibitory oligonucleotides caused marked resistance to H2O2. Through bioinformatics, we identified the potential target sites for miR-1 on the 3' UTR of Bcl-2. miR-1 significantly reduced the expression of Bcl-2 in the levels of mRNA and protein. The post-transcriptional repression of Bcl-2 was further confirmed by luciferase reporter experiments. These data demonstrated that miR-1 plays an important role in the regulation of cardiomyocyte apoptosis, which is involved in posttranscriptional repression of

No abstract

2.

This study described the prevalence of adverse pregnancy outcomes (APOs) in Chinese HIV-infected pregnant women, and examined the relationship between maternal HIV infection /HIV-related factors and APOs. This prospective cohort study was carried out among 483 HIV-infected pregnant women and 966 HIV-uninfected pregnant women. The HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected women were enrolled from midwifery hospitals in Hunan province between October 2014 and September 2017. All data were extracted in a standard structured form, including maternal characteristics, HIV infection status, HIV-related factors and their pregnancy outcomes. APOs were assessed by maternal HIV infection status and HIV-related factors using logistic regression analysis. The incidences of stillbirth (3.9% vs 1.1%), preterm birth (PTB) (8.9% vs 3.7%), low birth weight (LBW) (12.2% vs 3.1%) and small for gestational age (SGA) (21.3% vs 7.0%) were higher in HIV-infected women than HIV-uninfected women, with adjusted ORs of 2.77 (95%CI: 1.24–6.17), 2.37 (95%CI: 1.44–3.89), 4.20 (95%CI: 2.59–6.82) and 3.26 (95%CI: 3.26–4.64), respectively. No differences were found in neonatal asphyxia or birth defects between HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected groups, with adjusted ORs of 1.12 (95%CI: 0.37–3.43) and 1.10 (95%CI: 0.51–2.39), respectively. Among HIV-infected pregnant women, different antiretroviral (ARV) regimens were significantly associated with stillbirths, but not PTB, LBW or SGA. Compared with untreated HIV infection (10.1%), both mono/dual therapy and HAART were associated with a reduced risk of stillbirths (2.0% and 3.2%, respectively), with an AOR of 0.19 (95%CI: 0.04–0.92) and 0.31 (95%CI: 0.11–0.85), respectively. Initial time of ARV drugs use and HIV infection status of the sexual partner were not associated with maternal APOs. The findings of this study indicated that maternal HIV infection was associated with significantly increased risks of stillbirth, PTB, LBW and SGA, but not neonatal asphyxia or birth defects. On the condition that most HIV-infected pregnant women started ARV therapy in or after the second trimester, both mono/dual therapy and HAART had a protective effect on stillbirth compared with untreated HIV infection. As some important confounders were not effectively controlled and the specific regimens of HAART were not analyzed, the above findings may have certain bias.

Observational studies showed that tooth loss is associated with gastric cancer, but the findings are inconsistent. In this study, a meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the relationship between tooth loss and gastric cancer. Relevant studies were screened in PubMed and Embase databases, and nine observational studies were considered eligible for the analysis. The combined relative risks for the highest versus the lowest categories of tooth loss were 1.86 (95% CI: 1.08–3.21) and 1.31 (95% CI: 1.12–1.53) in case control and cohort studies, respectively. However, unstable results were observed in the stratified and sensitivity analysis. The current evidence, based solely on four case-control studies and five cohort studies, suggested that tooth loss is a potential marker of gastric cancer. However, we can not concluded at this time that tooth loss may be a risk factor for gastric cancer due to significant heterogeneity among studies and mixed results between case-control studies and cohort studies. Additional large-scale and high-quality prospective studies are required to evaluate the association between tooth loss and risk of gastric cancer.

No abstract

IntroductionPatients with severe acute exacerbations of asthma often receive inappropriate antibiotic treatment. We aimed to determine whether serum procalcitonin (PCT) levels can effectively and safely reduce antibiotic exposure in patients experiencing exacerbations of asthma.MethodsIn this randomized controlled trial, a total of 216 patients requiring hospitalization for severe acute exacerbations of asthma were screened for eligibility to participate and 169 completed the 12-month follow-up visit. Patients were randomized to either PCT-guided (PCT group) or standard (control group) antimicrobial therapy. In the control group, patients received antibiotics according to the attending physician’s discretion; in the PCT group, patients received antibiotics according to an algorithm based on serum PCT levels. The primary end point was antibiotic exposure; secondary end points were clinical recovery, length of hospital stay, clinical and laboratory parameters, spirometry, number of asthma exacerbations, emergency room visits, hospitalizations and need for corticosteroid use due to asthma.ResultsPCT guidance reduced antibiotic prescription (48.9% versus 87.8%, respectively; P < 0.001) and antibiotic exposure (relative risk, 0.56; 95% confidence interval, 0.44 to 0.70; P < 0.001) compared to standard therapy. There were no significant differences in clinical recovery, length of hospital stay or clinical, laboratory and spirometry outcomes in both groups. Number of asthma exacerbations, emergency room visits, hospitalizations and need for corticosteroid use due to asthma were similar during the 12-month follow-up period.ConclusionA PCT-guided strategy allows antibiotic exposure to be reduced in patients with severe acute exacerbation of asthma without apparent harm.Trial registrationChinese Clinical Trial Register ChiCTR-TRC-12002534 (registered 26 September 2012)

No abstract