Candidate genes of hypertension with defective environmental expression

Previous studies in our laboratory have demonstrated that the thermosensitivity locus cosegregates with blood pressure and that the elevated expression and restriction fragment length polymorphism of HSP70 gene are associ-ated with hypertension. Cell protection against environ-mental stressors such as heat and chemicals is often accom-panied by up-regulated expression of a wide spectrum of heat sliock genes(HSP). To further investigate the interre-lation between HSP expression and blood pressure regulation, we employed an effective method of cloning 2 poten-tial hypertension-related HSPs. Synthetic oligonucleotides corresponding either to a higbly-conserved region of the known HSP family or a repetitive sequence in the protein- encoding gene were used as target primers for polymerase chain reaction (PCR). cDNA prepared from heat-stressed and non-stressed vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) of Brown Norway rats (BN.1x) and spontaneously hyperten-sive rats (SHRp) respectively served as template in the reaction. The PCR products were subsequently analyzed in a single-stranded conformational polymorphism (SSCP) electrophoresing system. Differential gene expression in BN.1x and SHRp was seen on autoradiographs of SSCP gel by comparing the migration patterns of PCR-amplified DNA fragments. Using this technique, we also found that HSP27 and a new member of the large HSP gene family were differentially expressed in BN.1x and SHRp VSMC.

Author correction to‘Protective effects of VMY-2-95 on corticosterone-induced injuries in mice and cellular models’[Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B 11(2021)1903-1913]

The authors regret that there was a picture error in Fig.5F owing to the inappropriate data statistics—forgetting gating when data collecting and a picture error in Fig.6F owing to the data copy mistake when drawing the column chart.The revisions cause some changes with the data value.

Author correction to ‘Protective effects of VMY-2-95 on corticosterone-induced injuries in mice and cellular models’ [Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B 11 (2021) 1903e1913]

The authors regret that there was a picture error in the Fig.6D1 owing to the image copy mistake of group-CORT when combining the images of different groups.The revision will cause no change with the data value in Fig.6D2,and also do not affect any conclusions of the current work and the description of the whole article.The authors have provided the original data of this figure to Editorial Office,and the corresponding authors or the Editorial Office can be contacted for original data access.

Protective effects of VMY-2-95 on corticosterone-induced injuries in mice and cellular models

Nicotinicα4β2 receptor antagonists have drawn increasing attention in the development of new antidepressants.In this study,we aimed to investigate the protective effect of VMY-2-95,the new selective antagonist ofα4β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor(nAChR)on corticosterone(CORT)injured mice and cellular models.Fluoxetine was applied as a positive control,and the effects of VMY-2-95 were investigated with three different doses or concentrations(1,3,10 mg/kg in mice,and 0.003,0.03,0.1μmol/L in cells).As a result,VMY-2-95 showed significant antidepressant-like effects in the CORT injured mice by improving neuromorphic function,promoting hippocampal nerve proliferation,and regulating the contents of monoamine transmitters.Meanwhile,VMY-2-95 exhibited protective effects on cell viability,cell oxidant,cell apoptosis,and mitochondrial energy metabolism on corticosterone-impaired SH-SY5 Y cells.Also,the PKA-CREB-BDNF signaling pathway was up-regulated by VMY-2-95 both in vitro and in vivo,and pathway blockers were also combined with VMY-2-95 to verify the effects furtherly.Therefore,we preliminarily proved that VMY-2-95 had protective effects in depressed mice and SH-SY5 Y cells against injuries induced by corticosterone.This work indicated that the application of VMY-2-95 is a potential pharmacological solution for depression.This study also supported the development ofα4β2 nAChR antagonists towards neuropsychiatric dysfunctions.

Experimental and Numerical Investigation on Strain Rate-Dependent Tensile Behavior of ZrB2–SiC Ceramic Composite

In this study,the strain rate-dependent dynamic tensile behavior of ZrB2-20%SiC ceramic composite was investigated using experimental and numerical approaches.The split Hopkinson pressure bar apparatus was used to measure the dynamic splitting tensile response at strain rates of 17-67 s^(−1).The experiment results demonstrate a significant strain rate dependence of the dynamic tensile behavior of the ZrB2-SiC ceramic composite.The dynamic tensile strength increased linearly with the strain rate,from 288 MPa at 17 s^(−1)to 654 MPa at 67 s^(−1).Moreover,a strain rate-dependent tensile strength was introduced into a modified JH-2 model to describe the dynamic tensile behavior and fracture process of ZrB2-SiC ceramics.The numerical results of dynamic tensile strength agree well with the experimental result.Moreover,the fracture process of ZrB2-SiC ceramics under dynamic tension was further studied by combining high-speed images and numerical results.The effect of strain rate on the fracture process and failure patterns of the ZrB2-SiC ceramic composite could be verified by the modified JH-2 model.