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Background: Synaptula reciprocans, originally native to the Indo-Pacific region, is widespread in the Red Sea. The species entered the Mediterranean during the 1970s and 1980s and has been reported along the Turkish coastline since 2003, where it has established invasive populations. European Union Regulation No. 1143/2014 encourages the investigation of alternative uses and the assessment of the economic potential of invasive species as part of management and control strategies. This study aims to evaluate the nutritional value and elemental composition of S. reciprocans, an invasive species in the Mediterranean, in order to assess its suitability for human consumption and potential alternative applications.

Methods: S. reciprocans were sampled from two different stations (L1: Gokova Bay and L2: Gulluk Bay) over two seasons, as winter (S1) and summer (S2), and transported to the laboratory under cold chain conditions (+4 °C). Moisture, ash, crude protein, crude fat, fatty acid, amino acid, and elemental content analyses were performed using standardized methods, including gravimetric, Kjeldahl, GC/MS, LC/MS-MS, and ICP-OES techniques.

Results: The findings indicate that both locality and season significantly influence the species' nutritional properties (p < 0.05). Dry matter content exhibited considerable variation across seasons, with the highest concentration observed in L2/S2 and L2/S1. Crude protein levels peaked in winter across both regions (L2S1, L1S1), while fat content was consistently higher in Bodrum samples compared to Gokova (p < 0.05). Ash content was highest in Gokova across both seasonal periods (p < 0.05). The fatty acid profile demonstrated notable seasonal and regional differences (p < 0.05), with linoleic acid (C 18:2) emerging as the predominant polyunsaturated ω-6 fatty acid. Additionally, amino acid analysis revealed significant variation (p < 0.05), identifying alanine, asparagine, glutamine, and proline as the dominant amino acids. Elemental analysis highlighted the absence of copper (Cu) in all sampled tissues, while sodium (Na) was consistently the most abundant mineral.

Corals and dinoflagellate algae form a unique mutualistic symbiosis that provides the energetic and structural foundation for shallow coral reef ecosystems. Despite the long success of this partnership in oligotrophic seas, coral reefs are in decline due to increasing threats from rising seawater temperatures and disease, both of which can lead to bleaching and mortality. In order to better understand the mechanisms that underpin this mutualism, it may be necessary to dismantle the coral-algal symbiosis. Previous studies have experimentally bleached corals using thermal stress, photosynthetic inhibitors (DCMU), and menthol. We compared lab-induced bleaching of staghorn coral Acropora cervicornis by menthol treatment to traditional thermal stress. The larger aim was to adapt existing bleaching protocols for this important coral species, providing a guide for future studies. Bleaching in corals treated with menthol or exposed to elevated temperature stress (31°C) was monitored by measuring photosynthetic activity determined by Fv/Fm using pulse-amplitude modulated (PAM) fluorescence and compared to untreated conspecifics. Corals were also monitored for symbiont density and overall health using the CoralWatch Coral Health Chart card throughout the experiment. We found that A. cervicornis bleached in response to both menthol treatment and thermal stress, but menthol treatment was more effective at reducing algal symbiont photosynthetic capacity (Fv/Fm) without negatively affecting the health of the coral. Our results indicate that menthol treatment at 0.38 mM rendered staghorn coral aposymbiotic within fourteen days without any visual or physiological damage to the coral. This study provides a simple and effective menthol-bleaching treatment protocol for future studies on staghorn coral.

Neuro-immune interactions are critical in cancer, yet their molecular features in bladder cancer remain unclear. We analyzed transcriptomic data from TCGA and UCSC Xena to investigate the expression profiles and molecular subtypes of neuro-immune-related genes, and constructed a neuro-immune-related score (NAS) model. Single-cell transcriptomic data were integrated to explore the immune microenvironmental features, and functional validation was performed by knocking down SERPINE2 with shRNA in T24 cells. The results showed that six core genes (SERPINE2, NXPH4, SERPINB2, C2orf40, SERPINB12, SERPINB10) were identified to stratify patients into high- and low-risk groups, with robust predictive power across clinical subgroups and validation cohorts. Single-cell RNA-seq data revealed significant NAS heterogeneity among cell populations. The NAS-high state was enriched in TGFβ, EGF, and FGF signaling with activation of EZH2 and SMARCA4, while the NAS-low state showed immune-regulatory features. Functional assays confirmed that SERPINE2 knockdown suppressed proliferation, migration, invasion, while increasing apoptosis of T24 cells, highlighting its oncogenic role. Moreover, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) suggested that genetic variants in SERPINE2 and related genes may increase bladder cancer susceptibility. Collectively, our findings provide novel insights into neuro-immune-driven tumor heterogeneity and immune remodeling, establish the NAS model as an innovative prognostic tool, and identify SERPINE2 as a promising therapeutic target for precision management of bladder cancer.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis that poses major global health challenges. The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine provides only limited protection against TB in adults and the current therapeutic regimens for TB are constrained by prolonged treatment cycles and the emergence of drug-resistant strains. Consequently, the role of Vγ9Vδ2 T cells in anti-TB immunity has increasingly garnered attention. These nonconventional T lymphocytes rapidly recognize Mtb-infected cells and exert effector functions through a unique T-cell receptor that directly recognizes phosphorylated antigens independent of the major histocompatibility complex. Vγ9Vδ2 T cells mediate direct cytotoxicity against infected cells and coordinate with other immune components to strengthen the host defense against TB. These distinctive attributes highlight the potential of Vγ9Vδ2 T cells as targets in novel TB vaccine strategies. The current understanding of Vγ9Vδ2 T cell-mediated immunity to Mtb, recent advances in TB vaccine research, and prospective directions for future investigation are synthesized in this review.

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated a close association between diabetic nephropathy (DN) and lactic acid metabolism; however, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate the role of lactic acid metabolism-related biomarkers in the pathogenesis of DN.

Methods: The DN training and validation datasets were obtained from public databases, while lactic acid metabolism-related genes (LRGs) were sourced from the literature. Using a comprehensive bioinformatics approach, we screened for potential biomarkers. Subsequent analyses included nomogram construction, functional enrichment, immune cell infiltration profiling, regulatory network mapping, drug target prediction, and molecular docking to elucidate the biomarkers' roles in DN pathogenesis. Finally, reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was performed to validate biomarker expression levels in clinical samples.

Results: Through a comprehensive analysis of bioinformatics methods, we identified two biomarkers-PTGS2 and NFE2L2-as significant candidates in DN. The nomogram demonstrated robust predictive efficacy, validating their utility. NFE2L2 and PTGS2 were positively correlated with the five signal pathways, such as hypoxia and IL2 STAT5 signaling. Both PTGS2 and NFE2L2 had the highest positive correlation with T follicular helper cells (correlation coefficient (cor) = 0.49, p < 0.01, and cor = 0.54, p < 0.01). Two biomarkers predicted multiple miRNAs and transcription factors (TFs), such as miR-144-3p, GATA2, and GATA3. Drug-target analysis highlighted high-affinity interactions for NFE2L2 -lagascatriol and PTGS2 -cimicoxib, further supported by molecular docking. Finally, RT-qPCR confirmed significantly elevated expression of PTGS2 and NFE2L2 in DN samples compared to controls (p < 0.05), aligning with bioinformatics predictions.

Background: A study indicates that elevated aldosterone levels increase the risk of hypertension by 16%. This retrospective cohort study examines the relationship between blood pressure and renin-aldosterone levels in patients with essential hypertension (EH), aiming to elucidate the clinical features and risk factors of inappropriate hyperaldosteronism in Chinese individuals with essential hypertension.

Methods: Clinical data of 309 EH patients were analyzed. The participants were divided into three groups with a high (H)/medium (M)/low (L) blood pressure level: Group H (BP≥160 / (or) 100 mmHg, n = 151), Group M (BP 140-160/90-100 mmHg, n = 101), Group L (BP < 140/90 mmHg, n = 57). Since the data were all non-normal distributions, they were represented by the median and extreme values, and the Wilcoxon rank sum test was used. Categorical data were analyzed using the χ2 test. In the one-factor variance analysis, those with P < 0.05 were included in the multivariate analysis, and the multiple linear regression analysis method was used for the multivariate analysis. The study assessed the relationship between the plasma renin activity (PRA), plasma aldosterone concentration (PAC), and the aldosterone/renin activity ratio (ARR) in patients with EH and their blood pressure levels.

Results: Among the 309 EH patients, 65 cases (21.04%) had elevated aldosterone levels, and 94 cases (30.42%) had increased renin activity. The diastolic blood pressure of patients with elevated aldosterone levels was higher than that of patients with normal or decreased aldosterone levels (100 vs. 95, 87, p < 0.05), while there was no significant difference in systolic blood pressure between patients with elevated aldosterone levels and those with normal or decreased aldosterone levels (152 vs. 151.5, 142, p > 0.05). The proportion of patients with heightened aldosterone levels was greater in Group H compared to the others (23.8% vs. 20.8% and 14.0%, p < 0.05). Multiple linear stepwise regression indicated that higher aldosterone levels correlated with increased diastolic blood pressure. PAC increased by 3.66 ng/dL for every 10 mmHg of DBP.

Conclusion: The increase in aldosterone levels is relatively common among EH patients in China. The increase in aldosterone levels is correlated with the elevation of diastolic blood pressure. The elevated aldosterone levels are an independent risk factor for the increase in diastolic blood pressure in EH patients.

Identifying generalizable patterns of extinction selectivity is crucial for understanding the mechanisms driving extinction processes. Differences in the trait composition of extinct surviving species may represent evidence of processes of extinction selectivity during the past. Here, we leverage the information from the late Cenozoic molluscan fossil record and extant biota from the western Atlantic coast of North America, to test for differences in the trait composition of extinct and surviving species of bivalves and gastropods. We found basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the trait most closely associated with the extinction patterns observed in our data. On average across all studied molluscan species, odds of survival decrease by ∼11% for every 1-milliwatt (mW) increase in BMR, but this pattern was consistent only for bivalves. BMR thus represents an organismal trait that scales up to predict species survival in bivalves. By contrast, a variety of other functional traits shown to be important in other taxonomic and temporal contexts, including shell composition in bivalves and shell structures such as varices and the callus in gastropods, were not found to be associated with survival. This could suggest some of these traits, sometimes posited to represent important organismic adaptations, may not have played a prominent role in long term species survival in Cenozoic bivalves and gastropods. A variety of biotic and abiotic factors may likely determine the extent to which particular organismal traits influence patterns of species survival.

Background: Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection has adverse effects on very low-birth-weight infants (VLBW) and is complicated with liver dysfunction, thrombocytopenia, and hearing impairment. Therefore, we explored new potential intervention targets in VLBW infants with HCMV infection.

Methods: Enrichment analysis of adult HCMV infection and control groups was performed in the GSE81246 dataset. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from VLBW infants with HCMV and those without HCMV (n = 3 per group) (collection: 9-10 a.m.) were sent for RNA-seq to enrich the transcriptome of the obtained GSE290897 dataset. Gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways with the same enrichment results and significant changes in the two datasets were selected and analyzed. Then the screened genes were verified using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and quantitative PCR (qPCR).

Results: The key circadian rhythm genes PER1 and CRY1 were screened. RT-qPCR was used to detect PER1 and CRY1 mRNA levels in the PBMCs of VLBW infants with HCMV (n = 12) and the controls (n = 6) (collection: 9-10 a.m.). And results showed that PER1 and CRY1 mRNA was significantly decreased in HCMV infection than in the controls (P < 0.0001; P < 0.0001).

Conclusion: PER1 and CRY1 mRNA was significantly decreased in PBMCs from HCMV infected VLBW infants, providing new ideas for studying potential effective therapeutic targets for HCMV infection in VLBW infants.

Background: Wheat is a globally important polyploid crop, with hexaploid bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and tetraploid durum wheat (T. turgidum subsp. durum (Desf.) Husn.) as its main cultivated forms. Despite distinct end-use properties, these species are morphologically similar, making their identification difficult. Traditional phenotypic approaches often fail to resolve closely related polyploid wheats, emphasizing the need for a reliable molecular diagnostic and wheat barcoding strategy.

Method: This study developed and validated a multilocus molecular diagnostic framework for the discrimination of polyploid wheat species. The approach integrates plastid (rbcL, matK), nuclear ribosomal (ITS2, IGS), and nuclear-coding markers (Glu-1 and XDuPw167), all amplified using the Polymerase Chain Reaction. Validation was performed using ten experimental samples and 203 reference sequences retrieved from the NCBI GenBank database. We developed and validated a multilocus molecular diagnostic method for the reliable discrimination of wheat species.

Results: Plastid loci showed limited variation, whereas the IGS region contained a diagnostic 71 bp insertion linked to the D genome, clearly distinguishing hexaploids from tetraploids. The Glu-1 and XDuPw167 loci exhibited genome-specific polymorphisms that further differentiated the two species. The multilocus diagnostic method achieved over 95% amplification success and consistent sequence profiles across replicates, confirming its accuracy and reproducibility.

Conclusions: The proposed molecular diagnostic method provides a reproducible, cost-effective, and high-resolution molecular diagnostic tool for reliable wheat species identification. By combining genome-specific nuclear and expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR) markers, this approach establishes a robust and scalable system applicable to species authentication, seed purity testing, germplasm characterization, and genetic resource management.

Background: Most studies on breast cancer susceptibility gene (BRCA) mutations have focused on Caucasian populations in Europe and North America. Currently, there is a lack of literature and data research in related fields in Shenzhen, China, and even in Guangdong Province. This study aims to establish a registry of BRCA mutation carriers by analyzing and comparing the pathological features of breast cancer patients carrying and not carrying BRCA mutations in the Shenzhen area.

Methods: Blood samples were collected from 406 breast cancer patients who met the inclusion criteria (from July 2016 to November 2024) and genetic testing was performed using next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology. Patients were divided into two groups: BRCA mutation group with 54 cases and BRCA non-mutation group with 352 cases. A retrospective analysis was conducted on patient data collected from the health information system of Shenzhen People's Hospital, including demographic data, clinical pathological characteristics, and variables related to molecular typing. We used SPSS software for statistical analysis of the data.

Results: In 406 breast cancer patients, the average age of the BRCA mutation group was 39.3 ± 9.2 years, while the average age of the BRCA non-mutation group was 41.8 ± 8.8 years. The proportion of tumors ≤ 2 cm in the mutation group is 72.2%, higher than the 53.1% in the non-mutation group (P = 0.009, 95% confidence interval [1.220-4.313]). The proportion of grade III pathologic grading in the mutation group is 59.3%, higher than the 36.1% in the non-mutation group (P = 0.001, 95% confidence interval [1.436-4.625]). In the mutation group, there are seven cases of Luminal A (13.0%), zero cases of Luminal B (Her-2 positive) (0%), and 23 cases of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) (42.6%). In the non-mutation group, there are 93 cases of Luminal A (26.4%), 54 cases of Luminal B (Her-2 positive) (15.3%), and 67 cases of TNBC (19.0%). (Luminal A: P = 0.033, 95% confidence interval [0.181-0.950]; Luminal B (Her-2 positive): P = 0.002; TNBC: P < 0.001, 95% confidence interval [1.730-5.759]). The expression levels of estrogen receptor (ER) (P = 0.009), progesterone receptor (PR) (P < 0.001), and Ki-67 (P < 0.001) show significant differences between the BRCA mutation group and the BRCA non-mutation group.

Conclusions: Compared to BRCA non-mutated patients, BRCA mutated patients in Shenzhen have smaller tumor volumes, with pathological grades mainly at grade 3, and molecular subtypes predominantly being triple-negative breast cancer.