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Biomedical subjects

Hong Liang

Publications and source records attributed to Hong Liang.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

BriGHT: transcriptome-regularized multimodal neuroimaging for brain disorder prediction.

MOTIVATION: Hypergraph-based models for brain disorder prediction mainly adopt imaging-derived hypergraphs as propagation backbones. However, the entanglement of topology construction and feature propagation leaves regional representations weakly constrained by underlying biological organization, making them vulnerable to subject-specific variation and noise, particularly in heterogeneous multimodal settings. RESULTS: We present BriGHT, a Brain transcriptome-reGularized Hypergraph framework for mulTimodal disorder prediction. BriGHT employs a transcriptome-derived structural reference as a soft anchoring prior to regularize neuroimaging ROI embeddings, stabilizing representation geometry while preserving disease-relevant subject-specific variation. BriGHT further incorporates a reliability-aware fusion module to estimate subject-specific modality reliability from prediction confidence, cross-modal consistency, and decision certainty, enabling adaptive integration under heterogeneous modality quality. Experiments on three neuroimaging cohorts (ADNI, ADHD-200, REST-meta-MDD) and four modalities (VBM, fMRI, FDG, AV45) demonstrate that BriGHT consistently outperforms competing graph/hypergraph learning methods across six brain disorder prediction tasks. Perturbation analyses show that BriGHT benefits from the spatial correspondence between transcriptomic modules and imaging ROIs, rather than from arbitrary hypergraph regularization alone. Ablation and meta-analytic interpretability analyses support the contribution of transcriptomic anchoring and adaptive fusion to robust and biologically meaningful brain disorder prediction. AVAILABILITY: The software is publicly available at: https://github.com/Yaolab-fantastic/BriGHT. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Journal Article↗

Protein kinase C-zeta mediates retinal degeneration in response to TNF.

Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF) has been implicated in retinal ganglion cells (RGC) degeneration in glaucoma. Atypical protein kinase C (PKC) zeta is involved in cell protection against various stresses. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential proapoptotic effects of intravitreal injections of TNF with or without PKCzeta specific inhibitor on the rat retina. TNF was injected in the vitreous of rat eyes alone or in combination with specific PKCzeta inhibitor. PKCzeta and NF-kappaB were studied by immunohistochemistry and western-blotting analysis on retina, and apoptosis quantified by the TUNEL assay. While low basal PKCzeta was observed in the control eyes, TNF induced intense expression of PKCzeta mostly in bipolar cells processes. PKCzeta staining became nuclear when TNF was coinjected with PKCzeta inhibitor. TNF alone did not induce apoptosis in the retina. Coinjection of the PKCzeta-specific inhibitor and TNF, however, induced apoptosis in the inner nuclear and ganglion cell layers. The PKCzeta-specific inhibitor unmasks retinal cells to TNF cytotoxicity showing a link between the proapoptotic effects of TNF and the antiapoptotic PKCzeta signaling pathway.

Animals↗

In vivo confocal microscopy and ex vivo flow cytometry: new tools for assessing ocular inflammation applied to rabbit lipopolysaccharide-induced conjunctivitis.

PURPOSE: Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) may act as a key stimulatory agent in ocular surface diseases (OSDs) through TNF-alpha release. We used in vivo confocal microscopy (CM) and ex vivo flow cytometry, two new tools for assessing ocular inflammation induced by LPS. METHODS: We investigated a model of acute inflammation in rabbits by subconjunctival injection of LPS and developed new evaluation techniques for animal models: CM, to observe inflammatory infiltrates, and conjunctival impression cytology (IC) specimens processed with in vitro CM and flow cytometry for assessing TNF-alpha and TNF receptor-1 (TNFR-1) expression. A neutralizing anti-TNF-alpha antibody was used to assess the role of TNF-alpha. RESULTS: In vivo CM provided high-resolution images of inflammatory infiltrates and leukocyte rolling in blood vessels. It showed that the LPS group presented strong conjunctival inflammation, reaching its maximum level 4 h after injection. Flow cytometry and immunostaining in IC specimens showed an increased expression of TNF-alpha and TNFR-1 in the epithelium. Immunohistology confirmed these results and showed infiltration of vimentin+, CD4(+), and CD8(+) cells in the conjunctiva. TUNEL-positive cells were found 4 h after injection. Neutralizing anti-TNF-alpha significantly inhibited LPS-induced inflammation and apoptosis evaluated by in vivo CM; and inhibited LPS-induced TNF-alpha and TNFR-1 expression by ex vivo conjunctival IC specimens evaluated by flow cytometry. CONCLUSIONS: IC specimens and new-generation in vivo CM were thus in good agreement with immunohistology and appeared to be reliable, effective, and nonharmful methods to investigate experimental models of OSDs. The two new tools applied here evaluate the animal models in vivo on the cellular lever. This study is consistent with the experimental research's strategy by reducing the number of experimental animals used.

Animals↗

Poly[[diaquacadmium(II)]-mu4-[N-(phosphonatomethyl)ammonio]acetato].

The title compound, [Cd(C3H6NO5P)(H2O)2]n, is a three-dimensional polymeric complex. The asymmetric unit contains one Cd atom, one N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine zwitterion [(O-)2OPCH2NH2+CH2COO-] and two water molecules. The coordination geometry is a distorted CdO6 octahedron. Each N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine ligand bridges four adjacent water-coordinated Cd cations through three phosphonate O atoms and one carboxylate O atom, like a regular PO(4)3- group in zeolite-type frameworks. One-dimensional zigzag (-O-P-C-N-C-C-O-Cd-)n chains along the [101] direction are linked to one another via Cd-O-P bridges and form a three-dimensional network motif with three types of channel systems. The variety of O-H...O and N-H...O hydrogen bonds is likely to be responsible for stabilizing the three-dimensional network structure and preventing guest molecules from entering into the channels.

Journal Article↗

Catena-poly[[aqua(2,2'-bipyridine-kappa2N,N')cadmium(II)]-mu-4-carboxylatophenoxyacetato-kappa3O:O4,O4'].

In the title compound, [Cd(C9H6O5)(C10H8N2)(H2O)]n, the CdII atom is coordinated in a distorted octahedral fashion by two carboxylate groups (one in a monodentate and one in a bidentate fashion) from two 4-carboxylatophenoxyacetate anions, two N atoms from a 2,2'-bipyridine ligand and one aqua ligand. The structure is a helix with a long pitch of 16.441 (5) A. A three-dimensional supramolecular network is further constructed through pi-pi stacking and hydrogen-bonding interactions between the helices.

Journal Article↗

A three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationship study of the inhibition of the ATPase activity and the strand passing catalytic activity of topoisomerase IIalpha by substituted purine analogs.

Based on the topoisomerase IIalpha catalytic inhibitory activity of a previous hit compound, NSC35866, we screened 40 substituted purines or purine-like compounds from the National Cancer Institute repository for their ability to inhibit the ATPase activity of human topoisomerase IIalpha. Several compounds, including NSC348400, NSC348401 and NSC348402, were inhibitory at submicromolar concentrations. Three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationship models using comparative molecular field and comparative molecular similarity indices analyses were constructed using 24 of these compounds. The ability of 10 selected compounds to inhibit the complete DNA strand passage reaction of topoisomerase IIalpha correlated well with their potency as ATPase inhibitors. None of the 40 compounds significantly increased levels of the topoisomerase IIalpha-DNA covalent complex, suggesting that they functioned as catalytic topoisomerase II inhibitors and not as topoisomerase II poisons. Although some of these compounds could antagonize the effect of etoposide on the level of topoisomerase IIalpha-DNA covalent complex formation in vitro, in contrast to NSC35866, they were not capable of antagonizing etoposide-induced cytotoxicity and DNA strand breaks in cells. Two independently selected human SCLC cell lines with reduced topoisomerase IIalpha expression displayed cross-resistance to NSC348400, NBSC348401, and NSC348402, whereas an MDR1 line was fully sensitive. These results suggest that topoisomerase IIalpha is a functional cellular target for most of these substituted purine compounds and that these compounds do not display MDR1 liability.

Adenosine Triphosphatases↗

Study of the interaction of artemisinin with bovine serum albumin.

The study on the interaction of artemisinin with bovine serum albumin (BSA) has been undertaken at three temperatures, 289, 296 and 303 K and investigated the effect of common ions and UV C (253.7 nm) irradiation on the binding of artemisinin with BSA. The binding mode, the binding constant and the protein structure changes in the presence of artemisinin in aqueous solution at pH 7.40 have been evaluated using fluorescence, UV-vis and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The quenching constant K(q), K(sv) and the association constant K were calculated according to Stern-Volmer equation based on the quenching of the fluorescence of BSA. The thermodynamic parameters, the enthalpy (DeltaH) and the entropy change (DeltaS) were estimated to be -3.625 kJ mol(-1) and 107.419 J mol(-1)K(-1) using the van't Hoff equation. The displacement experiment shows that artemisinin can bind to the subdomain IIA. The distance between the tryptophan residues in BSA and artemisinin bound to site I was estimated to be 2.22 nm using Föster's equation on the basis of fluorescence energy transfer. The decreased binding constant in the presence of enough common ions and UV C exposure, indicates that common ions and UV C irradiation have effect on artemisinin binding to BSA.

Animals↗

Evidence-informed obstetric practice during normal birth in China: trends and influences in four hospitals.

BACKGROUND: A variety of international organizations, professional groups and individuals are promoting evidence-informed obstetric care in China. We measured change in obstetric practice during vaginal delivery that could be attributed to the diffusion of evidence-based messages, and explored influences on practice change. METHODS: Sample surveys of women at postnatal discharge in three government hospitals in Shanghai and one in neighbouring Jiangsu province carried out in 1999, repeated in 2003, and compared. Main outcome measures were changes in obstetric practice and influences on provider behaviour. "Routine practice" was defined as more than 65% of vaginal births. Semi-structured interviews with doctors explored influences on practice. RESULTS: In 1999, episiotomy was routine at all four hospitals; pubic shaving, rectal examination (to monitor labour) and electronic fetal heart monitoring were routine at three hospitals; and enema on admission was common at one hospital. In 2003, episiotomy rates remained high at all hospitals, and actually significantly increased at one; pubic shaving was less common at one hospital; one hospital stopped rectal examination for monitoring labour, and the one hospital where enemas were common stopped this practice. Mobility during labour increased in three hospitals. Continuous support was variable between hospitals at baseline and showed no change with the 2003 survey. Provider behaviour was mainly influenced by international best practice standards promoted by hospital directors, and national legislation about clinical practice. CONCLUSION: Obstetric practice became more evidence-informed in this selected group of hospitals in China. Change was not directly related to the promotion of evidence-based practice in the region. Hospital directors and national legislation seem to be particularly important influences on provider behaviour at the hospital level.

Adult↗

Three anti-tumor saponins from Albizia julibrissin.

Three new triterpenoid saponins, julibroside J(29) (1), julibroside J(30) (2), and julibroside J(31) (3), were isolated from the stem bark of Albizia julibrissin Durazz. (Leguminosae) by using chromatographic method. Their structures were established by spectroscopic methods. Compounds 1, 2, and 3 displayed significant anti-tumor activities in vitro against PC-3M-1E8, HeLa, and MDA-MB-435 cancer cell lines at 10microM assayed by SRB and MTT methods.

Albizzia↗

Food restriction affects reproduction and survival of F1 and F2 offspring of Rat-like hamster (Cricetulus triton).

Food restriction in parent may have long-term consequence on the reproductive capabilities of the offspring, and these consequences may, in turn, play an important role in population regulation. In this paper, we systematically examined the effect of maternal food restriction on reproduction and survival of maternal individuals, and F1 and F2 offspring of Rat-like hamsters (Cricetulus triton). Food restriction to 75% of that eaten by ad libitum-fed hamsters (75% FR) did not affect the reproductive organs and hormone concentration of maternal females, but 50% FR significantly reduced the size of ovarian organ and estradiol concentration of maternal females. 75% FR significantly reduced the testosterone concentration of maternal males; 50% FR significantly reduced both the size of epididymides and concentration of testosterone of maternal males. 70% FR in maternal females significantly reduced the sizes of reproductive organs and hormone concentrations of both their male and female F1 offspring. FR maternal females also produced significantly more male than female F1 offspring. The sizes of reproductive organs or hormone concentration of F2 males of maternal FR continued to significantly decline, but no such effect was observed in F2 females. However, the number of F2 offspring per F1 female of FR maternal females at birth became significantly smaller and with significantly more males than females. Survival to weaning of F1 and F2 offspring of FR maternal females became significantly smaller during the period from birth to weaning. Thus, the effects of maternal food restriction could be an important mechanism to explain the prolonged low population density that is commonly observed after the population crash of this species.

Animals↗

Solvent effect in 1H NMR spectra of 3'-hydroxy-4'-methoxy isoflavonoids from Astragalus membranaceus var. mongholicus.

Four 3'-hydroxy-4'-methoxy-isoflavonoids: calycosin-7-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (1), calycosin (2), pratensein-7-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (3), and pratensein (4) were isolated from Astragalus membranaceus var. mongholicus, among which compound 4 was obtained from this plant for the first time. The solvent effect obscuring (1)H signal patterns of B ring of compounds 1-4 was reported to avoid mis-assignments. Previously reported NMR data of compounds 1 and 2 were corrected based on 1D and 2D NMR experiments.

Astragalus propinquus↗

Coumestans from Hedysarum multijugum.

Ten coumestans were isolated from the roots of Hedysarum multijugum. Their structures were elucidated as the new hedysarimcoumestans A-H (1-8), 1,3,9-trimethoxycoumestan (9), and aureol (10), on the basis of spectroscopic analyses.

Coumarins↗

Comparative anatomy of laboratory animal corneas with a new-generation high-resolution in vivo confocal microscope.

PURPOSE: The aim of the current study was to compare the corneas of three commonly used laboratory animals with a new in vivo confocal microscope. METHODS: Six eyes of three adult male New Zealand albino rabbits, six eyes of three adult male Lewis rats, and six eyes of three adult male Swiss mice were used in this study. Corneas were analyzed in vivo using the Rostock Cornea Module of the Heidelberg Retina Tomograph (HRT)-II. For all eyes, 20 confocal microscopic images of each layer, that is, the superficial and basal corneal epithelia, the Bowman layer, the anterior and posterior stroma, and the endothelium, were recorded. The images were then analyzed qualitatively and compared among animals. Cellular densities of anterior and posterior stroma keratocytes of rabbits and endothelium density of the three different animals were also measured and compared. RESULTS: The Rostock Cornea Module of the HRT II was successfully used to analyze all corneal layers of these three commonly used laboratory animals. Although the cellular patterns of the corneal layers of these three animals, as observed with in vivo confocal microscopy, were quite similar, some differences were seen in terms of endothelial cell density and stroma appearance. Superficial cells were seen as hyper- and hyporeflective polygonal cells. Basal cells had dark cytoplasm without visible nuclei and were closely organized. A Bowman layer was observed in all three animals as an amorphous tissue containing fine subepithelial nerve plexus. In rabbits, the stroma consisted of an amorphous ground substance with hyper-reflective structures corresponding with keratocyte nuclei. In rats and mice, numerous reflective stellate structures with no clearly visible nuclei were observed within the stroma. Besides endothelial cell density, the endothelium was similar among the three animals and was seen as hyper-reflective cells with dark limits organized in a honeycomb pattern. CONCLUSIONS: The Rostock Cornea Module of the HRT II can provide high-resolution images of all corneal layers of rabbits, rats, and mice without sacrificing animals or preparing tissue. This new device may be useful for evaluating the cornea during experimental animal studies.

Anatomy, Comparative↗

Comparison of toxicological profiles of benzalkonium chloride and polyquaternium-1: an experimental study.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to compare, in vivo on a rat model, two different preservatives- benzalkonium chloride (BAC) and polyquaternium-1 (PQ-1)-using new experimental approaches. METHODS: Thirty (30) eyes of 15 male Lewis rats were used in this study. Rats were randomly divided into five groups instilled twice a day for 11 days with eye drops containing different concentrations of preservatives, 0.1% BAC, 0.5% BAC, 0.1% PQ-1, 0.5% PQ-1, and balanced salt solution (BSS) as a control. The ocular surface toxicity of these two preservatives was investigated using new in vivo experimental approaches. Slit-lamp examination, the fluorescein test, the red phenol test, impression cytology, and in vivo corneal confocal microscopy were used to evaluate the rat ocular surface after preservative instillation. Histology sections and immunohistochemistry were also examined to confirm these results. RESULTS: Compared to PQ-1, BAC consistently and dramatically altered the corneoconjunctival surface as evaluated by slit-lamp examination, the fluorescein test, impression cytology, in vivo confocal microscopy, and histology. The 0.5% BAC solution also significantly decreased tear production compared to the control. Although 0.5% PQ-1 significantly decreased goblet cell density in comparison to the control, and some abnormalities were observed with in vivo confocal microscopy, no statistically significant differences were observed between these two groups using the tear production test, slit-lamp and fluorescein evaluation, or histology. CONCLUSION: Using an acute rat model of ocular toxicity by comparing preservatives at high concentrations, we demonstrated in vivo that high doses of PQ-1 were much less toxic than BAC. In vivo confocal microscopy and impression cytology are new promising experimental approaches to studying the rat corneoconjunctival surface, particularly in the field of ocular surface toxicity.

Animals↗

Study of the interaction of indirubin with bovine serum albumin.

This study examined the interaction of indirubin with bovine serum albumin (BSA) at three temperatures (286, 297, 308 K) at pH 7.40. In the presence of indirubin, the drug-BSA binding mode, binding constant and the protein structure changes in aqueous solution were determined by fluorescence quenching methods including Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The FT-IR change indicates that indirubin binds to BSA. The change in protein secondary structure accompanying ligand binding has been proved by fluorescence spectra data. The thermodynamic parameters, the enthalpy change (DeltaH), and the entropy change (DeltaS) calculated by the van't Hoff equation possess small negative (-2.744 kJ.mol(-1)) and positive values (112.756 J.mol(-1).K(-1)), respectively, which indicated that hydrophobic interactions play the main role in the binding of indirubin to BSA. Furthermore, the displacement experiment shows that indirubin can bind to the subdomain IIA and the distance between the tryptophan residues in BSA and indirubin bound to site I was estimated to be 2.24 nm according to Föster's equation on the basis of fluorescence energy transfer.

Animals↗

[Studies on chemical constituents in flower of Abelmoschus manihot].

OBJECTIVE: To study the chemical constituents of Abelmoschus manihot. METHOD: Chromatographic methods were used to isolate compounds from A. manihot, and spectroscopic methods were used to identify the structures. RESULT: Thirteen compounds, myricetin (1), cannabiscitrin (2), myricetin-3-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (3), glycerolmonopalmitate (4), 2, 4-dihydroxy benzoic acid (5), guanosine (6), adenosine (7), maleic acid (8), heptatriacontanoic acid (9), 1-triacontanol (10) , tetracosane (11), beta-sitosterol (12), beta-sitosterol-3-O-beta-D-glucoside (13) were obtained. CONCLUSION: 2-11 were obtained from the genus for the first time.

Abelmoschus↗

[A new natural product from the roots of Hedysarum multijugum].

OBJECTIVE: To study the chemical constituents of the roots of Hedysarum multijugum Maxim. METHODS: Compounds were isolated and purified by solvent and column chromatographic methods, and their structures were determined on the basis of physico-chemical properties and spectroscopic data. RESULTS: Seven compounds warangalone-4'-methyl ether (1), afrormosin (2), sissotrin (3) and ononin (4), naringenin-5, 7-di-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (5), apigenin (6) and narcissin (7) were obtained from the roots of Hedysarum multijugum. CONCLUSION: Compound 1 is a new natural product, and other compounds; are obtained from the plant for the first time.

Apigenin↗