Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease and although many studies have been done on this disease, the underlying mechanisms are still poorly understood and further studies are warranted. Therefore, this study identified circRNA expression profiles in the cerebral cortex (CC), hippocampus (HP), striatum (ST), and cerebellum (CB) regions of the 1-methyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-induced PD mouse model using RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), and differentially expressed circRNA were validated using reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Gene ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway, and competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network analyses were also performed to explore the potential function of circRNAs. The results show that, compared with the control group, 24, 66, 71, and 121 differentially expressed circRNAs (DE-circRNAs) were found in the CC, HP, ST, and CB, respectively. PDST vs. PDCB, PDST vs. PDHP, and PDCB vs. PDHP groups have 578, 110, and 749 DE-circRNAs, respectively. Then, seven DE-cirRNAs were selected for qRT-PCR verification, where the expressions were consistent with the sequencing analysis. The GO and KEGG pathway analyses revealed that these DE-circRNAs participate in several biological functions and signaling pathways, including glutamic synapse, neuron to neuron synapse, cell morphogenesis involved in neuron differentiation, Parkinson’s disease, axon guidance, cGMP-PKG signaling pathway, and PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. Furthermore, the KEGG analysis of the target genes predicted by DE-circRNAs indicated that the target genes predicted by mmu_circRNA_0003292, mmu_circRNA_0001320, mmu_circRNA_0005976, and mmu_circRNA_0005388 were involved in the PD-related pathway. Overall, this is the first study on the expression profile of circRNAs in the different brain regions of PD mouse model. These results might facilitate our understanding of the potential roles of circRNAs in the pathogenesis of PD. Moreover, the results also indicate that the mmu_circRNA_0003292-miRNA-132-Nr4a2 pathway might be involved in the regulation of the molecular mechanism of Parkinson’s disease.

Over the past decade, there has been increasing attention on the interaction between microbiota and bile acid metabolism. Bile acids are not only involved in the metabolism of nutrients, but are also important in signal transduction for the regulation of host physiological activities. Microbial-regulated bile acid metabolism has been proven to affect many diseases, but there have not been many studies of disease regulation by microbial receptor signaling pathways. This review considers findings of recent research on the core roles of farnesoid X receptor (FXR), G protein-coupled bile acid receptor (TGR5), and vitamin D receptor (VDR) signaling pathways in microbial-host interactions in health and disease. Studying the relationship between these pathways can help us understand the pathogenesis of human diseases, and lead to new solutions for their treatments.

Although RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) has become the most advanced technology for transcriptome analysis, it also confronts various challenges. As we all know, the workflow of RNA-seq is extremely complicated and it is easy to produce bias. This may damage the quality of RNA-seq dataset and lead to an incorrect interpretation for sequencing result. Thus, our detailed understanding of the source and nature of these biases is essential for the interpretation of RNA-seq data, finding methods to improve the quality of RNA-seq experimental, or development bioinformatics tools to compensate for these biases. Here, we discuss the sources of experimental bias in RNA-seq. And for each type of bias, we discussed the method for improvement, in order to provide some useful suggestions for researcher in RNA-seq experimental.

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We aimed to investigate the effect of xylooligosaccharides (XOS) on the growth performances and lipid metabolism of common carp fed high‐fat diets. 192 fish were randomly distributed into 24 tanks into six groups (four replicates) and were fed with control diet, high‐fat diet (HFD) and HFD supplemented with 5, 10, 20 and 30 g/kgXOS respectively for 8 weeks. Fish fed HFD supplemented with 10 g/kg XOS obtained higher final body weight, weight gain, specific growth rate and protein efficiency ratio compared to those fed control diet and HFD, while feed conversion ratio showed the opposite trend. Fish fed HFD obtained higher hepatosomatic index, abdominal fat, energy intake compared to other groups, whereas the opposite was true for nitrogen retention. High plasma levels of cholesterol, triglycerides, low‐density lipoprotein and low high‐density lipoprotein were observed in fish fed HFD; opposite was true for fish fed HFD supplemented with 10–20 g/kg XOS. The transcription of lipoprotein lipase was up‐regulated, whereas that of carnitine palmitoyltransferase I, peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptors alpha, acyl‐CoA oxidase and CD36 were down‐regulated in fish fed HFD. Opposite trend was observed in fish fed HFD supplemented with 10–20 g/kg XOS as well as the control group. In conclusion, XOS inclusion can benefit the growth performance and lipid metabolism of common carp fed HFD.