Abstract Objective To compare the clinical features, risk factors, distribution of Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) subtypes, and effectiveness of canalith repositioning between geriatric and non-geriatric patients with BPPV. Methods A total of 400 patients with BPPV were enrolled. Canalith repositioning was performed according to the semicircular canals involved. Patients were divided by age into a geriatric group (≥60 years) and a non-geriatric group (20-59 years). Clinical characteristics, potential age-related risk factors, distribution of subtypes, and effectiveness of canalith repositioning were compared between the groups. Results Female sex was significantly more common in all age groups, with a peak female-to-male ratio of 5.1:1 in the group aged 50-59 years. There was a higher proportion of men in the geriatric group. A history of disease associated with atherosclerosis was significantly more common in the geriatric group (p< 0.05). Migraine was significantly more common in the non-geriatric group (p= 0.018), as was posterior canal BPPV. The horizontal canal BPPV (especially horizontal canal BPPV-cupulolithiasis), and multicanal BPPV subtypes were more common in the geriatric group, whereas anterior canal BPPV was more common in the non-geriatric group. Two canalith repositioning sessions were effective in 58.0% of the geriatric cases and in 72.6% of the non-geriatric cases (p= 0.002). There was a tendency for the effectiveness of canalith repositioning to decrease with increasing age. Conclusion BPPV was more common in women. However, the proportion of men with BPPV increased with age. Elderly patients often had a history of diseases associated with atherosclerosis (i.e., hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia). The horizontal canal BPPV (particularly horizontal canal BPPV-cupulolithiasis) and multicanal BPPV subtypes were more common and the anterior canal BPPV subtype was less common in elderly patients. The effectiveness of canalith repositioning may decrease with age. Therefore, older patients should receive more comprehensive medical treatment. Level of evidence: 4.

Abstract This study focused on exploring the neuroprotective role of Dexmedetomidine (DEX) and miR-206 in H2O2-induced SK-N-SH cells. First, we dectected the cell viability, apotosis, oxidative stress and miR-206 expression in H2O2-treated SK-N-SH cells.Next, we examined above content in H2O2-induced SK-N-SH cells though DEX treatment. Besides, the level of cell viability, apotosis, oxidative stress were evaluated in H2O2-treated SK-N-SH cells transfected with miR-206 mimics and miR-206 inhibitor. Moreover, the target gene of miR-206 were predicted and verifed by binformatics tools and luciferase reporter assay. These data indicated that H2O2 evoked the apotosis, oxidative stress and inhibition of miR-206 expression in SK-N-SH cells in a dose manner. Besides, DEX attenuated H2O2-induced oxidative damage, apotosis and promoted miR-206 expression in SK-N-SH cells. Moreover, overexpression of miR-206 augmented the cell viablity as well as suppressed apotosis and oxidative stress in H2O2-induced SK-N-SH cells, while down-expression of miR-206 showed opppsite effects. Further, Annexin A1 (ANXA1) was verified as a directly target of miR-206, and over-expression of ANXA1 could slack the neuroprotective effect of miR-206 in H2O2-induced SK-N-SH cells. DEX exerted neuroprotective effects on H2O2-treated SK-N-SH cells in vitro by negatively reguating ANXA1 expression via activation of miR-206.

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of human esophageal fibroblast-derived exosomal miR-21 on cisplatin sensitivity against esophageal squamous EC9706 cells. EC9706 cells were co-cultured indirectly with human esophageal fibroblasts (HEF) or miR-21 mimics transfected-HEF in the transwell system. The exosomes in HEF-culture conditioned medium were extracted by differential ultracentrifugation. EC9706 cells were co-cultured with HEF-derived exosomes directly. The cisplatin sensitivity against EC9706 cells was revealed via half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values using MTT assay. The expressions of miR-21, programmed cell death 4 (PDCD4) mRNA, and gene of phosphate and tension homology deleted on chromosome ten (PTEN) mRNA were determined by qRT-PCR. The changes of the protein level were detected using western blot assay. IC50 values of cisplatin against EC9706 cells were increased after EC9706 cells were co-cultured with either HEF or exosomes derived from miR-21 mimics-transfected HEF. Following the increased level of miR-21, the mRNA expression and protein levels of PTEN and PDCD4 were decreased in EC9706 cells. The cisplatin sensitivity to EC9706 cells was reduced by HEF-derived exosomal miR-21 through targeting PTEN and PDCD4. This study suggested that non-tumor cells in the tumor micro-environment increased the tumor anti-chemotherapy effects through their exosomes.

Abstract Background: This study aimed to investigate the potential role and molecular mechanism of lncRNA metastasis associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) in cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury. Results: Using an oxygen-glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R) cell model, we determined that the expression of MALAT1 was significantly increased during OGD/R. MALAT1 knockdown reversed OGD/R-induced apoptosis and ER stress. Mechanistically, MALAT1 promoted OGD/R-induced neuronal injury through sponging miR-195a-5p to upregulating high mobility group AT-hook1 (HMGA1). Conclusions: Collectively, these data demonstrate the mechanism underlying the invovlvement of MALAT1 in cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury, thus providing translational evidence that MALAT1 may serve as a novel biomarker and therapeutic target for ischemic stroke.

Abstract SPLs are plant-specific transcription factors that play important regulatory roles in plant growth and development. Systematic analysis of the SPL family has been performed in numerous plants, such as Arabidopsis, rice, and Populus. However, no comparative analysis has been performed across different species to examine evolutionary features. In this study, we present a comparative analysis of SPLs in different species. The results showed that 84 SPLs of the four species can be divided into six groups according to phylogeny. We found that most of the SPL-containing regions in maize showed extensive conservation with duplicated regions of rice and sorghum. A gene duplication analysis in maize indicated that ZmSPLs showed a significant excess of segmental duplication. The Ka/Ks analysis indicated that 9 out of 18 duplicated pairs in maize experienced positive selection, while SPL gene pairs of rice and sorghum mainly evolved under purifying selection, suggesting novel evolutionary features for ZmSPLs. The 31 ZmSPLs were further analyzed by describing their gene structure, phylogenetic relationships, chromosomal location, and expression, Among the ZmSPLs, 13 were predicated to be targeted by miR156s and involved in drought stress response. These results provide the foundation for future functional analyses of ZmSPLs.

ABSTRACT This study aimed to explore the effects of two siderophore-producing bacterial strains on iron absorption and plant growth of peanut in calcareous soil. Two siderophore-producing bacterial strains, namely, YZ29 and DZ13, isolated from the rhizosphere soil of peanut, were identified as Paenibacillus illinoisensis and Bacillus sp., respectively. In potted experiments, YZ29 and DZ13 enhanced root activity, chlorophyll and active iron content in leaves, total nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium accumulation of plants and increased the quality of peanut kernels and plant biomass over control. In the field trial, the inoculated treatments performed better than the controls, and the pod yields of the three treatments inoculated with YZ29, DZ13, and YZ29 + DZ13 (1:1) increased by 37.05%, 13.80% and 13.57%, respectively, compared with the control. Based on terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis, YZ29 and DZ13 improved the bacterial community richness and species diversity of soil surrounding the peanut roots. Therefore, YZ29 and DZ13 can be used as candidate bacterial strains to relieve chlorosis of peanut and promote peanut growth. The present study is the first to explore the effect of siderophores produced by P. illinoisensis on iron absorption.