Peking Union Medical College Hospital

About: Peking Union Medical College Hospital is a healthcare organization based out in Beijing, China. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Medicine & Population. The organization has 15996 authors who have published 16018 publications receiving 226505 citations.

Long noncoding RNA MALAT-1 is a novel inflammatory regulator in human systemic lupus erythematosus.

Abstract: // Huaxia Yang 1, * , Naixin Liang 2, * , Min Wang 1, * , Yunyun Fei 1 , Jian Sun 3 , Zhiyuan Li 3 , Yuan Xu 2 , Chao Guo 2 , Zhili Cao 2 , Shanqing Li 2 and Yuchen Jiao 4 1 Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Clinical Immunology Center, The Ministry of Education Key Laboratory, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China 2 Department of Thoracic Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China 3 Department of Pathology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China 4 National Key Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Cancer Hospital, Beijing, China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Naixin Liang, email: drliangnw17@yeah.net Keywords: MALAT-1, lncRNA, SLE, PBMC, IL-21 Received: May 24, 2017 Accepted: July 24, 2017 Published: August 24, 2017 ABSTRACT Despite growing evidence that Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) can regulate gene expression and widely take part in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, our knowledge of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)-related lincRNAs remains limited. In this study, we aimed to explore the contribution of the lncRNA metastasis associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) to the pathogenesis of SLE. PBMCs were obtained from SLE patients and healthy donors. The expression levels of MALAT-1 were measured by quantitative PCR. Small interfering RNA (siRNA) was then used to knock down the expression of MALAT1 in order to determine the role of MALAT1 in the expression levels of IL-21 and SIRT1 signaling pathway in primary monocytes of SLE patients. Here, we found MALAT-1 expression was abnormally increased in SLE patients and predominantly expressed in human monocytes. Additionally, silencing MALAT-1 significantly reduced the expression of IL-21 in primary monocytes of SLE patients. Furthermore, MALAT-1 exerts its detrimental effects by regulating SIRT1 signaling. Our results demonstrate that MALAT-1 is the key regulatory factor in the pathogenesis of SLE and provides potentially novel target for therapeutic intervention.

Impact of menopause on quality of life in community-based women in China.

Abstract: Objective: To assess the impact of menopause, age, and other factors on quality of life (QOL). Design: Generally healthy women aged 35 to 64 years were recruited from a general community in Beijing, People's Republic of China. An instrument including the Chinese version of the Menopause-Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire was used to obtain data. Results: A gradual decline of QOL was seen from pre- to peri- and postmenopausal women in the same age group. Statistically impaired QOL was associated with the peri- and postmenopausal women in vasomotor and physical domains but only with the postmenopausal women in psychosocial and sexual domains. Early postmenopausal women presented the worse QOL in vasomotor, psychosocial and physical domains. The gradually declining sexual QOL was related to the advance of menopause. Age had a negative impact on QOL in vasomotor and sexual domains. Women who assessed their own health as common (fair) or weak (poor) reported worse QOL than those who decribed themselves as healthy. Women with a higher body mass index reported more vasomotor symptoms. Conclusions: Menopause might have a negative impact on QOL independent of age in community-based women in China. There seemed to be a potential model of the relationship of menopause status to change in QOL, but this needs supporting evidence from longitudinal studies. The association of QOL with age and other factors also should be considered.

An integrated microfluidic device utilizing dielectrophoresis and multiplex array PCR for point-of-care detection of pathogens

Abstract: The early identification of causative pathogens in clinical specimens that require no cultivation is essential for directing evidence-based antimicrobial treatments in resource limited settings. Here, we describe an integrated microfluidic device for the rapid identification of pathogens in complex physiological matrices such as blood. The device was designed and fabricated using SlipChip technologies, which integrated four channels processing independent samples and identifying up to twenty different pathogens. Briefly, diluted whole human blood samples were directly injected into the device for analysis. The pathogens were extracted from the blood by dielectrophoresis, retained in an array of grooves, and identified by multiplex array PCR in nanoliter volumes with end-point fluorescence detection. The universality of the dielectrophoretic separation of pathogens from physiological fluids was evaluated with a panel of clinical isolates covering predominant bacterial and fungal species. Using this system, we simultaneously identified Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli O157:H7 within 3 h. In addition to the prompt diagnosis of bloodstream infections, this method may also be utilized for differentiating microorganisms in contaminated water and environmental samples.