Family and Individual Risk and Protective Factors of Depression among Chinese Migrant Children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder Symptoms

Migrant children reached 35.81 million in China and were vulnerable to serious emotional problems including depression. The present study aimed to identify the family and individual risk and protective factors for depression in an at-risk sample of Chinese migrant children. Participants were 368 children (9.47 ± 1.46 years old, 73.4% boys) who had at least one symptom of Oppositional Defiant Disorder symptoms (ODD) and their parents in Mainland China. Risk and protective factors within both family (i.e., family maltreatment and family functioning) and individual (i.e., automatic thoughts and resilience) perspectives. Family maltreatment and negative automatic thoughts served as risk factors in relation to children's depression. Further, automatic thoughts mediated the relationship between family maltreatment and children's depression. Family functioning (cohesion, but bot adaptability) and individual resilience could buffer the effects of risk factors in the Structure Emotion Model such that both cohesion and resilience moderated the relationship between family maltreatment and children's automatic thoughts only. Our findings highlighted the urgent need to decrease risk factors and increase protective factors of both family and child individual characteristics in prevention and intervention depression among migrant children with ODD symptoms in China

Social Preference Deficits in Juvenile Zebrafish Induced by Early Chronic Exposure to Sodium Valproate

Prenatal exposure to sodium valproate (VPA), a widely used anti-epileptic drug, is related to a series of dysfunctions, such as deficits in language and communication. Clinical and animal studies have indicated that the effects of VPA are related to the concentration and to the exposure window, while the neurobehavioral effects of VPA have received limited research attention. In the current study, to analyze the neurobehavioral effects of VPA, zebrafish at 24 hours post-fertilization (hpf) were treated with early chronic exposure to 20 μM VPA for 7 hours per day for 6 days or with early acute exposure to 100 μM VPA for 7 hours. A battery of behavioral screenings was conducted at 1 month of age to investigate social preference, locomotor activity, anxiety and behavioral response to light change. A social preference deficit was only observed in animals with chronic VPA exposure. Acute VPA exposure induced a change in the locomotor activity, while chronic VPA exposure did not affect locomotor activity. Neither exposure procedure influenced anxiety or the behavioral response to light change. These results suggested that VPA has the potential to affect some behaviors in zebrafish, such as social behavior and the locomotor activity, and that the effects were closely related to the concentration and the exposure window. Additionally, social preference seemed to be independent from other simple behaviors

Psoriasin promotes invasion, aggregation and survival of pancreatic cancer cells; association with disease progression

Psoriasin (S100A7) is an 11-kDa small calcium binding protein initially isolated from psoriatic skin lesions. It belongs to the S100 family of proteins which play an important role in a range of cell functions including proliferation, differentiation, migration and apoptosis. Aberrant Psoriasin expression has been implicated in a range of cancers and is often associated with poor prognosis. This study examined the role of Psoriasin on pancreatic cancer cell functions and the implication in progression of the disease. Expression of Psoriasin was determined in a cohort of pancreatic tissues comprised of 126 pancreatic tumours and 114 adjacent non-tumour pancreatic tissues. Knockdown and overexpression of Psoriasin in pancreatic cancer cells was performed using specifically constructed plasmids, which either had anti-Psoriasin ribozyme transgene or the full length human Psoriasin coding sequence. Psoriasin knockdown and overexpression was verified using conventional RT-PCR and qPCR. The effect of manipulating Psoriasin expression on pancreatic cancer cell functions was assessed using several in vitro cell function assays. Local invasive pancreatic cancers extended beyond the pancreas expressed higher levels of Psoriasin transcripts compared with the cancers confined to the pancreas. Primary tumours with distant metastases exhibited a reduced expression of Psoriasin. Psoriasin overexpression cell lines exhibited significantly increased growth and migration compared to control cells. In addition, Psoriasin overexpression resulted in increased pancreatic cancer cell invasion which was associated with upregulation of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and MMP-9. Overexpression of Psoriasin also promoted aggregation and survival of pancreatic cancer cells when they lost anchorage. Taken together, higher expression of Psoriasin was associated with local invasion in pancreatic cancers. Psoriasin expression is associated with pancreatic cancer cell growth, migration, cell-matrix adhesion, and invasion via regulation of MMPs. As such, the proposed implications of Psoriasin in invasion, disease progression and as a potential therapeutic target warrant further investigation

How dispositional optimism–pessimism relates to early adolescents’ emotional maladjustment during COVID-19? Moderating roles of knowledge about the disease and parent-child conflicts

IntroductionThe COVID-19 pandemic and associated containment measures changed the daily lives of children and adolescents around the world. To investigate the individual differences in emotional maladjustment under the COVID-19 pandemic, this study focused on the roles of dispositional optimism-pessimism, knowledge about the COVID-19 disease, and conflicts with parents among Chinese early adolescents.Methodedge about the COVID-19 disease, and conflicts with parents among Chinese early adolescents. The participants were 2,958 early adolescents aged 10 to 14 years old who completed online questionnaires during the pandemic.ResultsWhile higher pessimism and lower optimism both led to increased emotional maladjustment, pessimism made a greater contribution. Knowledge about the disease and parent-child conflicts were both risk factors for adolescents’ emotional maladjustment, yet optimism and pessimism interacted with different factors. More knowledge about the disease intensified the effect of pessimism, and more parent-conflict undermined the effect of optimism.DiscussionOur findings provide directions for future aid in adolescence during hard periods depending on one’s personality

Soy Isoflavone Reduces Lps-Induced Acute Lung Injury via Increasing Aquaporin 1 and Aquaporin 5 in Rats

Acute lung injury (ALI) followed with severe inflammation and oxidative stress. Anti-inflammatory and antioxidant are the properties of aquaporin 1 (AQP1) and aquaporin 5 (AQP5). The goal of this study was to see if soy isoflavone can diminish lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced ALI and the underling mechanism. LPS-induced ALI was given to Sprague-Dawley rats 14 days following oophorectomy. One hour before the LPS challenge, estradiol (1 mg/kg) was administered subcutaneously as positive control and soy isoflavone was intragastric administration for 14 days prior to LPS challenge with different doses. Six hours after LPS challenge, the pulmonary edema, pathophysiology, inflammation, and the oxidative stress in lung tissues of rats were discovered. We found that soy isoflavone can reduce pulmonary edema and the lung pathology in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-1β, and interleukin-6 were decreased in rats treated with soy isoflavone. Meanwhile, soy isoflavone reduced pulmonary oxidative stress by decreasing malondialdehyde levels, while increasing superoxide dismutase levels in lung tissues in a dose-dependent manner. Mechanically, we found that the mRNA and protein level of AQP1 and AOP5 were increased in lung tissues of rats treated with soy isoflavone compared the LPS-treated rats. Thus, soy isoflavone alleviates LPS-induced ALI through inducing AQP1 and AQP5

Contributions of Multilevel Family Factors to Emotional and Behavioral Problems among Children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder in China.

Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) is one of the most prevalent childhood mental health disorders and is extremely affected by family factors. However, limited studies have addressed the issue from the perspective of family systems. The current study examines the associations between multilevel family factors (i.e., family cohesion/ adaptability at system level, mother-child and father-child attachment at a dyadic level, and child self-esteem at an individual level) and emotional and behavioral problems among children with ODD in China. The participants were 256 Chinese children with ODD and their parents and class master teachers. A multiple-informant approach and structural equation model were used. The results revealed that system level factors (family cohesion/adaptability) were associated with child emotional and behavior problems indirectly through factors at the dyadic level (mother-child attachment) and the individual level (child self-esteem) in sequence. Mother-child, but not father-child, attachment, mediated the linkage between family cohesion/adaptability and the emotional problems of children with ODD. Moreover, child self-esteem mediated the association between mother-child attachment and child emotional and behavioral problems. The findings of the present study underscored that multilevel family factors are uniquely related to emotional and behavioral problems in children with ODD

Fungal adhesion protein guides community behaviors and autoinduction in a paracrine manner

Microbes live mostly in a social community rather than in a planktonic state. Such communities have complex spatiotemporal patterns that require intercellular communication to coordinate gene expression. Here, we demonstrate that Cryptococcus neoformans, a model eukaryotic pathogen, responds to an extracellular signal in constructing its colony morphology. The signal that directs this community behavior is not a molecule of low molecular weight like pheromones or quorum-sensing molecules but a secreted protein. Znf2, a master regulator of morphogenesis in Cryptococcus, is necessary and sufficient for the production of this signal protein. Cfl1, a prominent Znf2-downstream adhesion protein (adhesin), was identified to be responsible for the paracrine communication. Consistent with its role in communication, Cfl1 is highly induced during mating colony differentiation, and some of the Cfl1 proteins undergo shedding and are released from the cell wall. The released Cfl1 is enriched in the extracellular matrix and acts as an autoinduction signal to stimulate neighboring cells to phenocopy Cfl1-expressing cells via the filamentation-signaling pathway. We further demonstrate the importance of an unannotated and yet conserved domain in Cfl1’s signaling activity. Although adhesion proteins have long been considered to be mediators of microbial pathogenicity and the structural components of biofilms, our work presented here provides the direct evidence supporting the signaling activation by microbial adhesion/matrix proteins

Enhancive effects of Lewis y antigen on CD44-mediated adhesion and spreading of human ovarian cancer cell line RMG-I

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study aimed to investigate the molecular structural relationship between cell adhesive molecule CD44 and Lewis y antigen, and determine the effects of Lewis y antigen on CD44-mediated adhesion and spreading of ovarian cancer cell line RMG-I and the Lewis y antigen-overexpressed cell line RMG-I-H.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The expression of CD44 in RMG-I and RMG-I-H cells before and after treatment of Lewis y monoclonal antibody was detected by immunocytochemistry; the expression of Lewis y antigen and CD44 was detected by Western Blot. The structural relationship between Lewis y antigen and CD44 was determined by immunoprecipitation and confocal laser scanning microscopy. The adhesion and spreading of RMG-I and RMG-I-H cells on hyaluronic acid (HA) were observed. The expression of CD44 mRNA in RMG-I and RMG-I-H cells was detected by real-time RT-PCR.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Immunocytochemistry revealed that the expression of CD44 was significantly higher in RMG-I-H cells than in RMG-I cells (<it>P </it>< 0.01), and its expression in both cell lines was significantly decreased after treatment of Lewis y monoclonal antibody (both <it>P </it>< 0.01). Western Blot confirmed that the content of CD44 in RMG-I-H cells was 1.46 times of that in RMG-I cells. The co-location of Lewis y antigen and CD44 was confirmed by co-immunoprecipitation. The co-expression of CD44 and Lewis y antigen in RMG-I-H cells was 2.24 times of that in RMG-I cells. The adhesion and spreading of RMG-I-H cells on HA were significantly enhanced as compared to those of RMG-I cells (<it>P </it>< 0.01), and this enhancement was inhibited by Lewis y monoclonal antibody (<it>P </it>< 0.01). The mRNA level of CD44 in both cell lines was similar (<it>P </it>> 0.05).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Lewis y antigen strengthens CD44-mediated adhesion and spreading of ovarian cancer cells.</p

Parental psychological control and children’s self-esteem: A longitudinal investigation in children with and without oppositional defiant problems

Oppositional defiant problems are among the most prevalent psychological problems among children and adolescents from China and across the world. Still little is understood about how self-esteem, in conjunction with parenting experiences, develops in children with oppositional defiant problems. We addressed this gap of knowledge in a two-year longitudinal study. Specifically, we explored how parental psychological control predicts children’s self-esteem levels over time, and in turn, how children’s self-esteem levels predict parental psychological control. We collected data in Chinese children (ages 8 to 13 at T1) with (N = 224) and without (N = 217) oppositional defiant problems, and tested three-wave cross-lagged panel models. Multigroup analyses showed that the associations between parental psychological control and children’s self-esteem were the same for children with and without oppositional defiant problems. Results for the total sample revealed bi-directional associations between maternal psychological control and children’s self-esteem. Children who perceived more psychological control from their mothers were likely to exhibit lower self-esteem over time, and vice versa, children with lower self-esteem were likely to perceive more maternal psychological control over time. Conversely, a unidirectional paternal effect was observed in father-child dyads. Our findings help understand the parent–child dynamics that shape the psychological development of children with oppositional defiant problems