In a retrospective study of 39 COVID-19 patients and 32 control participants in China, we collected clinical data and examined the expression of endothelial cell adhesion molecules by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Serum levels of fractalkine, vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1), intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1), and vascular adhesion protein-1 (VAP-1) elevated in mild patients, dramatically in severe cases, while decreased in the convalescence phase. In conclusion, the increased expression of endothelial cell adhesion molecules is related to COVID-19 and disease severity and may contribute to coagulation dysfunction.

High-throughput technologies have been used to generate a large amount of omics data. In the past, single-level analysis has been extensively conducted where the omics measurements at different levels, including mRNA, microRNA, CNV and DNA methylation, are analyzed separately. As the molecular complexity of disease etiology exists at all different levels, integrative analysis offers an effective way to borrow strength across multi-level omics data and can be more powerful than single level analysis. In this article, we focus on reviewing existing multi-omics integration studies by paying special attention to variable selection methods. We first summarize published reviews on integrating multi-level omics data. Next, after a brief overview on variable selection methods, we review existing supervised, semi-supervised and unsupervised integrative analyses within parallel and hierarchical integration studies, respectively. The strength and limitations of the methods are discussed in detail. No existing integration method can dominate the rest. The computation aspects are also investigated. The review concludes with possible limitations and future directions for multi-level omics data integration.

Hyperglycemia-linked oxidative stress and/or consequent endoplasmic reticulum stress are the causative factors of pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy. Dietary bioactive components which mitigate oxidative stress may serve as potential chemopreventative agents to prevent or slow down the disease progression. Wolfberry is a traditional Asian fruit consumed for years to prevent aging eye diseases in Asian countries. Here we report that dietary wolfberry ameliorated mouse retinal abnormality at the early stage of type 2 diabetes in db/db mice. Male mice at 6 weeks of age were fed the control diet with or without 1 % (kCal) wolfberry for 8 weeks. Dietary wolfberry restored the thickness of the whole retina, in particular the inner nuclear layer and photoreceptor layer, and the integrity of retinal pigment epithelia (RPE), and the ganglion cell number in db/db mice. Western blotting of whole retinal cell lysates revealed that addition of wolfberry lowered expression of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress biomarkers BiP, PERK, ATF6, and caspase-12; and restored AMPK, thioredoxin, Mn SOD, and FOXO3α activities. To determine if our observations were due to the high contents of zeaxanthin and lutein in wolfberry additional studies using these carotenoids were conducted. Using the human adult diploid RPE cell line ARPE-19 we demonstrated that both zeaxanthin and lutein could mimic wolfberry preventive effect on activation of AMPK, thioredoxin, Mn SOD, FOXO3α activities, normalize cellular reactive oxygen species, and attenuate ER stress in ARPE-19 cells exposed to a high glucose challenge. The zeaxanthin preventive effect was abolished by siRNA knockdown of AMPKα. These results suggested that AMPK activation appeared to play a key role in upregulated expression of thioredoxin and Mn SOD, and mitigation of cellular oxidative stress and/or ER stress by wolfberry and zeaxanthin and/or lutein. Taken together, dietary wolfberry on retinal protection in diabetic mice is, at least partially, due to zeaxanthin and/or lutein.

AbstractIn this paper, we propose a novel dynamical system with time delay to describe the outbreak of 2019-nCoV in China. One typical feature of this epidemic is that it can spread in the latent period, which can therefore be described by time delay process in the differential equations. The accumulated numbers of classified populations are employed as variables, which is consistent with the official data and facilitates the parameter identification. The numerical methods for the prediction of the outbreak of 2019-nCoV and parameter identification are provided, and the numerical results show that the novel dynamic system can well predict the outbreak trend so far. Based on the numerical simulations, we suggest that the transmission of individuals should be greatly controlled with high isolation rate by the government.

Weight control by exercise and dietary calorie restriction (DCR) has been associated with reduced cancer risk, but the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. This study was designed to compare the effects of weight loss by increasing physical activity or decreasing calorie intake on tumor promoter-induced Ras-MAPK and PI3K-Akt pathways. SENCAR mice were randomly assigned to one of the following five groups: ad libitum-fed sedentary control, ad libitum-fed exercise (AL؉Exe), exercise but pair-fed at the amount as controls (PF؉Exe), 20% DCR, and 20% DCR plus exercise (DCR؉Exe). After 10 weeks, body weight and body fat significantly decreased in the groups of DCR, DCR؉Exe, and PF؉Exe when compared with the controls. AL؉Exe did not induce weight loss due to, at least in part, increased food intake. Plasma IGF-1 levels reduced significantly in DCR and DCR؉Exe but not PF؉Exe. The protein H-Ras and activated Ras-GTP significantly decreased in TPA-induced skin tissues of DCR-fed mice but not exercised mice. PI3K protein, phosphoserine Akt, and p42/p44-MAPK were reduced, however, in both DCR and PF؉Exe groups. Immunohistochemistry demonstrated that the significantly reduced H-Ras occurred in subcutaneous fat cells, while the reduced PI3K and PCNA took place only in the epidermis. Plasma leptin decreased in PF؉Exe, DCR, and DCR؉Exe, while the caspase-3 activity increased in DCR؉Exe only. Genomic microarray analysis further indicated that the expression of 34 genes relevant to PI3K and 31 genes to the MAPK pathway were significantly regulated by either DCR or PF؉Exe treatments. The reduced PI3K in PF؉Exe mice was partially reversed by IGF-1 treatment. The overall results of this study demonstrated that DCR abrogated both Ras and PI3K signaling, which might inhibit TPA-induced proliferation and anti-apoptosis. Selective inhibition of PI3K by PF؉Exe but not AL؉Exe seems more attributable to the magnitude of the caloric deficit and/or body fat loss than diet versus exercise comparison.The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey indicates growing rates of obesity in American adults and overweight children over the past 20 years (1). Numerous prospective and case-control studies associated with weight control and physical activity estimate that excess body weight and sedentary life style account for about 39% endometrial, 25% kidney, 11% colon, 9% postmenopausal breast cancer, and 5% total cancer incidence (2-3). It has been suggested that those 25% over normal weight have a 33% greater cancer risk than those who maintain ideal body weight (4). Therefore, for many individuals, it would be advisable to maintain weight within the normal range to reduce their risk of cancer.Overweight/obesity is recognized as a reflection of a positive energy state that results from either over-consumption of energy or low energy expenditure. There is ample evidence that weight control via decreasing calorie intake and/or increasing physical activity reduces cancer risk in animal models. For almost a century, dietary calorie restr...

How to model the 2019 CoronaVirus (2019-nCov) spread in China is one of the most urgent and interesting problems in applied mathematics. In this paper, we propose a novel time delay dynamic system with external source to describe the trend of local outbreak for the 2019-nCoV. The external source is introduced in the newly proposed dynamic system, which can be considered as the suspected people travel to different areas. The numerical simulations exhibit the dynamic system with the external source is more reliable than the one without it, and the rate of isolation is extremely important for controlling the increase of cumulative confirmed people of 2019-nCoV. Based on our numerical simulation results with the public data, we suggest that the local government should have some more strict measures to maintain the rate of isolation. Otherwise the local cumulative confirmed people of 2019-nCoV might be out of control.

Previous reports link differential DNA methylation (DNAme) to environmental exposures that are associated with lung function. Direct evidence on lung function DNAme is, however, limited. We undertook an agnostic epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) on pre-bronchodilation lung function and its change in adults.In a discovery–replication EWAS design, DNAme in blood and spirometry were measured twice, 6–15 years apart, in the same participants of three adult population-based discovery cohorts (n=2043). Associated DNAme markers (p<5×10−7) were tested in seven replication cohorts (adult: n=3327; childhood: n=420). Technical bias-adjusted residuals of a regression of the normalised absolute β-values on control probe-derived principle components were regressed on level and change of forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC) and their ratio (FEV1/FVC) in the covariate-adjusted discovery EWAS. Inverse-variance-weighted meta-analyses were performed on results from discovery and replication samples in all participants and never-smokers.EWAS signals were enriched for smoking-related DNAme. We replicated 57 lung function DNAme markers in adult, but not childhood samples, all previously associated with smoking. Markers not previously associated with smoking failed replication. cg05575921 (AHRR (aryl hydrocarbon receptor repressor)) showed the statistically most significant association with cross-sectional lung function (FEV1/FVC: pdiscovery=3.96×10−21 and pcombined=7.22×10−50). A score combining 10 DNAme markers previously reported to mediate the effect of smoking on lung function was associated with lung function (FEV1/FVC: p=2.65×10−20).Our results reveal that lung function-associated methylation signals in adults are predominantly smoking related, and possibly of clinical utility in identifying poor lung function and accelerated decline. Larger studies with more repeat time-points are needed to identify lung function DNAme in never-smokers and in children.

Severity or extent of CAD does not impact post-LT survival, if appropriately revascularized. Early postoperative cardiac events are associated with inferior survival in LT recipients, irrespective of underlying CAD.