BackgroundBerberine, a natural isoquinoline alkaloid derived from Berberis genus plants, has been reported to have anti-cancer effects. While cell behavior can be modulated by long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), the contributions of lncRNAs in progression and berberine effects on colorectal cancer are largely unknown. Therefore, the present study investigated the involvement and regulatory function of lncRNA cancer susceptibility candidate 2 (CASC2) during the treatment of human colorectal cancer using berberine.Material/MethodsReverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) was performed to detect the expression levels of lncRNA CASC2 and Bcl-2 mRNA in colorectal cancer cells. MTT assay was performed to evaluate cell viability. Flow cytometry and TUNEL assay were used to analyze the apoptosis of cancer cells. RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assay was done to verify the interaction between lncRNA CASC2 and (AU-binding factor 1) AUF1, or AUF1 and B-cell CLL/lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2).ResultsTreatment with berberine suppressed cell viability of colorectal cancer by promoting apoptosis level. LncRNA CASC2 was upregulated in cells treated with berberine, and knockdown of lncRNA CASC2 reversed the berberine-induced apoptosis. In addition, anti-apoptotic gene Bcl-2 was suppressed by berberine treatment and lncRNA CASC2, inducing the pro-apoptotic effects. Moreover, lncRNA CASC2 binds to AUF1, which sequestered AUF1 from binding to Bcl-2 mRNA, thus inducing the inactivation of Bcl-2 translation.ConclusionsOur study reveals that lncRNA CASC2 mediates the berberine-induced pro-apoptotic effect via inhibition of Bcl-2 expression at the post-transcriptional level.

Both CV and VVC can be identified based on the quantity of lactobacilli, the morphology of the epithelial cells, and the absence or presence of Candida species and other pathogens, and the misdiagnosis of CV as VVC can be avoided.

Berberine, a natural isoquinoline alkaloid derived from Berberis species, has been reported to have anticancer effects. However, the mechanisms of action in human colorectal cancer (crc) are not well established to date. in the present study, the cell cytotoxicity effect of berberine on human crc cells, as well as the possible mechanisms involved, was investigated. The results of the cell viability and apoptosis assay revealed that treatment of crc cells with berberine resulted in inhibition of cell viability and activation of cell apoptosis in a concentration-dependent manner. To reveal the underlying mechanism of berberine-induced anti-tumor activity and cell apoptosis, rna-sequencing followed by reverse-transcription quantitative Pcr were performed. in addition, rna immunoprecipitation, chromatin immunoprecipitation and western blot analysis were used to identify the functional regulation of caSc2/eZH2/Bcl2 axis in berberine-induced crc cell apoptosis. The data revealed that lncrna caSc2 was upregulated by berberine treatment. Gain-or loss-of-function assays suggested that lncrna caSc2 was required for the berberine-induced inhibition of cell viability and activation of cell apoptosis. Subsequently, the downstream antiapoptotic gene Bcl2 was identified as a functional target of the berberine/caSc2 mechanism, as Bcl2 reversed the berberine/caSc2-induced cell cytotoxicity. lncrna caSc2 silenced Bcl2 expression by binding to the promoter region of Bcl2 in an eZH2-dependent manner. in summary, berberine may be a novel therapeutic agent for crc and lncrna caSc2 may serve as an important therapeutic target to improve the anticancer effect of berberine.

Background: Growing evidence points out that a disturbance of gut microbiota may also disturb the gut-brain communication. However, it is not clear to what extent the alteration of microbiota composition can modulate brain function, affecting host behaviors. Here, we investigated the effects of gut microbiota depletion on emotional behaviors. Methods: Mice in the experimental group were orally administered ceftriaxone sodium solution (250 mg/ml, 0.2 ml/d) for 11 weeks. The open-field test and tail-suspension test were employed for the neurobehavioral assessment of the mice. Fecal samples were collected for 16s rDNA sequencing. The serum levels of cytokines and corticosterone were quantified using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. The immunohistochemistry method was used for the detection of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and c-Fos protein. Results: The gut microbiota for antibiotic-treated mice showed lower richness and diversity compared with normal controls. This effect was accompanied by increased anxiety-like, depression-like, and aggressive behaviors. We found these changes to be possibly associated with a dysregulation of the immune system, abnormal activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and an alteration of neurochemistry. Conclusions: The findings demonstrate the indispensable role of microbiota in the gut-brain communication and suggest that the absence of conventional gut microbiota could affect the nervous system, influencing brain function.

Redundant design can improve the performance of an inertial navigation system, and the configuration is an important factor in determining the accuracy and reliability of the redundant inertial navigation system. As well as the sensor quantity and the reliability of single sensors, the reliability of the redundant inertial navigation system also depends on the capability of the fault diagnosis, which has been neglected in much of the previous research. This paper verifies that configurations designed using the previous method cannot maintain optimal performance in fault diagnosis. To optimize the performance in fault detection and isolation through the configuration design, an evaluation function for fault detectability and isolability is proposed based on Kullback–Leibler divergence. On this basis, the inherent diagnosability analysis method is proposed, and the configuration design method is developed with the analysis results. Simulation experiments prove that the proposed diagnosability analysis method can find the defects in the fault detection and isolation, and the diagnosability can be assessed correctly. Configurations designed using the proposed methodensure the optimal accuracy and reliability of the system, and effectively improve the fault diagnosis ability, too.

We address the problem of extracting the position and the Euler angles of an underground object from measurements of the magnetic field above that object. The traditional Euler inversion positioning method requires us to make use of the high-order magnetic gradient tensor system and extract the second-order tensor data, but at the same time it will increase the sensitivity to errors and measurement noise, which reduces the positioning accuracy. To solve this problem, we propose a method that uses only first-order magnetic gradient tensor data and supplements the tensor spacial invariant relations to achieve a higher-precision positioning performance for magnetic object. We analyze the tensor invariants and the eigenvalues of the tensor matrix under a magnetic dipole source field, and derive two tensor spacial invariant relations: (1) the angle between magnetic moment and position vector is constant and can be represented by the tensor eigenvalues, and (2) the eigenvector of the absolute minimum eigenvalue is perpendicular to the magnetic moment and position vector, as well as the eigenvectors of remaining eigenvalues are coplanar to the magnetic moment and position vector. Hence, we compute a total four possible solutions of the position vector with respect to the four quadrants of a plane over the measuring center, and finally determine the true one based on the actual detection direction and measured magnetic field data. The results show that the proposed method has significantly higher detection accuracy and larger range under a same level noise condition than the Euler inversion positioning method. When positioning small-scale magnets (e.g. about 5 cm in diameter and 0.5 cm in thickness), we control the tri-axial coordinates accuracy with just the first-order magnetic gradient tensor system within 1 cm root mean square error.

ABSTRACT. We reported a rare case of recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC) in this study. Through dynamic evaluation of the vaginal micro-ecosystem, we found that only depuratory degree, spores, blastospores, and hyphae were specific indicators and the "barometer" of RVVC development. Therefore, an understanding of vaginal microecological changes can help clinicians to improve the treatment of patients with RVVC.