Pregnancy complicated by juxtaglomerular cell tumor of the kidney:A case report

BACKGROUND Juxtaglomerular cell tumor(JGCT)of the kidney,also known as reninoma,is a rare renal tumor that typically clinically manifests as hypertension,hypokalemia,high renin,and high aldosterone.It is a cause of secondary hypertension.Pregnancy with JGCT is rarer and easily misdiagnosed as pregnancy-induced hypertension,thus affecting treatment.CASE SUMMARY A 28-year-old woman presented in early pregnancy with hypertension(blood pressure of 229/159 mmHg),nausea,and occasional dizziness and headache.The patient was diagnosed with pregnancy-induced hypertension,and no relief was found after symptomatic treatment;hence,the pregnancy was terminated by artificial abortion.Her blood pressure remained high following termination of pregnancy.Blood tests suggested hypokalemia(2.997 mmol/L),blood aldo-sterone measured 613 ng/L,and computed tomography urography showed a tumor in the right kidney.Therefore,laparoscopic partial nephrectomy was performed.After surgery,the patient’s blood pressure returned to normal,and blood potassium,aldosterone,and renin normalized.Postoperative pathological examination revealed JGCT.After long-term follow-up,the patient became pregnant again 6 mo after surgery.No hypertension occurred during pregnancy,and the patient delivered a healthy female neonate.CONCLUSION Patients with pregnancy complicated by JGCT are difficult to diagnose.Herein,we advise surgeons on proper handling of such situations.

miR-15b-5p targeting amyloid precursor protein is involved in the anti-amyloid eflect of curcumin in swAPP695-HEK293 cells

Curcumin exerts a neuroprotective effect on Alzheimer’s disease;however,it is not known whether microRNAs are involved in this protective effect.This study was conducted using swAPP695-HEK293 cells as an Alzheimer’s disease cell model.swAPP695-HEK293 cells were treated with 0,0.5,1,2,5,and 10μM curcumin for 24 hours.The changes in miR-15b-5p,miR-19a-3p,miR-195-5p,miR-101-3p,miR-216b-5p,miR-16-5p and miR-185-5p expression were assessed by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction.The mRNA and protein levels of amyloid precursor protein,amyloid-β40 and amyloid-β42 were evaluated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction,western blot assays and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays.swAPP695-HEK293 cells were transfected with miR-15b-5p mimic,or treated with 1μM curcumin 24 hours before miR-15b-5p inhibitor transfection.The effects of curcumin on amyloid precursor protein,amyloid-β40 and amyloid-β42 levels were evaluated by western blot assays and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.Luciferase assays were used to analyze the interaction between miR-15b-5p and the 3′-untranslated region of amyloid precursor protein.The results show that amyloid precursor protein and amyloid-βexpression were enhanced in swAPP695-HEK293 cells compared with HEK293 parental cells.Curcumin suppressed the expression of amyloid precursor protein and amyloid-βand up-regulated the expression of miR-15b-5p in swAPP695-HEK293 cells.In addition,we found a negative association of miR-15b-5p expression with amyloid precursor protein and amyloid-βlevels in the curcumin-treated cells.Luciferase assays revealed that miR-15b-5p impaired the luciferase activity of the plasmid harboring the 3′-untranslated region of amyloid precursor protein.These findings indicate that curcumin down-regulates the expression of amyloid precursor protein and amyloid-βin swAPP695-HEK293 cells,which was partially mediated by miR-15b-5p via targeting of the 3′-untranslated region of amyloid precursor protein.

The construction and optimization of engineered yeast chassis for efficient biosynthesis of 8-hydroxygeraniol

Microbial production of monoterpenoid indole alkaloids(MIAs)provides a sustainable and eco-friendly means to obtain compounds with high pharmaceutical values.However,efficient biosynthesis of MIAs in heterologous microorganisms is hindered due to low supply of key precursors such as geraniol and its derivative 8-hydroxygeraniol catalyzed by geraniol 8-hydroxylase(G8H).In this study,we developed a facile evolution platform to screen strains with improved yield of geraniol by using the SCRaMbLE system embedded in the Sc2.0 synthetic yeast and confirmed the causal role of relevant genomic targets.Through genome mining,we identified several G8H enzymes that perform much better than the commonly used CrG8H for 8-hydroxygeraniol production in vivo.We further showed that the N-terminus of these G8H enzymes plays an important role in cellular activity by swapping experiments.Finally,the combination of the engineered chassis,optimized biosynthesis pathway,and utilization of G8H led to the final strain with more than 30-fold improvement in producing 8-hydroxygeraniol compared with the starting strain.Overall,this study will provide insights into the construction and optimization of yeast cells for efficient biosynthesis of 8-hydroxygeraniol and its derivatives.

凶险性前置胎盘合并胎盘植入"一站式"杂交手术配合

目的探讨"一站式"杂交手术救治凶险性前置胎盘患者的应用价值及重要性。方法对多学科合作行杂交手术救治凶险性前置胎盘合并胎盘植入患者的病例进行回顾性分析,总结"一站式"杂交手术多学科医护合作和护理配合要点。结果经过多学科默契配合下的"一站式"杂交手术以及"L"型护理配合模式,手术顺利完成,术后无并发症发生,产妇于术后第4天出院。结论凶险性前置胎盘患者病情危重、手术难度大,通过多学科讨论会、辐射防护、安全转运、医护默契配合以及根据潜在并发症采取预见性的护理措施是"一站式"杂交手术成功的要点。

Improving the Efficiency and Orthogonality of Genetic Code Expansion

The site-specific incorporation of the noncanonical amino acid(ncAA)into proteins via genetic code expansion(GCE)has enabled the development of new and powerful ways to learn,regulate,and evolve biological functions in vivo.However,cellular biosynthesis of ncAA-containing proteins with high efficiency and fidelity is a formidable challenge.In this review,we summarize up-to-date progress towards improving the efficiency and orthogonality of GCE and enhancing intracellular compatibility of introduced translation machinery in the living cells by creation and optimization of orthogonal translation components,constructing genomically recoded organism(GRO),utilization of unnatural base pairs(UBP)and quadruplet codons(four-base codons),and spatial separation of orthogonal translation.