Puerarin is a major isoflavone glycoside from the root of It has been reported that puerarin can protect neurons from oxidative stress-induced apoptosis. Emerging evidence suggests that oxidative damage is associated with A-induced neuronal death. In the current study, we evaluated the effect of puerarin on Alzheimer's disease induced by A and explored the potential mechanisms underlying this effect. We found that the escape latency of the Morris water maze was decreased in groups treated with puerarin compared to the model group (p < 0.01). In addition, there were significant differences between treated groups and the model group mice in a Y-maze test (p < 0.01). Furthermore, puerarin recovered the levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, phosphorylated tau, malondialdehyde, acetylcholine esterase, glycogen synthase kinase-3beta, and the activity of superoxide dismutase to some extent in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex. Shrinkage of nuclei and swollen and eccentrically dispersed neuronal bodies were observed in the hippocampus of A-treated mice. These data demonstrate that puerarin might protect against cognitive deficits, oxidative stress, and neurodegeneration induced by A.

In this study, we aimed to assess the possible impacts of essential oil (SEO) from Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baill. (S. chinensis) on mice with cognition impairment.

Background: Early childhood growth and development is critical for long term health. Emerging science spotlights the significance of optimal gut microbiome and bone development during this period. The aim of the Bone And MicroBiOme Onset (BAMBOO) study is to determine age-appropriate trajectories for microbiome maturation and bone development, and to identify the influence of dietary factors in the process. This paper is to describe the rationale and study design, and reports study progress. Methods: BAMBOO is an ongoing prospective observational cohort study conducted in Tianjin, China. Children who meet the following requirements are invited to participate in this study: 1) full-term gestational birth (≥ 37 and ≤ 42 weeks); 2) singleton; and 3) signed informed consent by infant’s parents (or his/her legally accepted representative) and agree to fulfill the requirements of the study protocol. The exclusion criteria include pregnancy complication (such as pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes), bowel disease, or currently participating or having participated in another clinical trial within 4 weeks prior to the start of this cohort. The study is composed of two groups of children: Group 1 includes children from birth to 12 months of age; group 2 includes children from 6 to 36 months of age. Questionnaires are used at different timepoints to collect information on infant feeding practice, medical history, concomitant medication, adverse events/serious adverse events and development benchmarks. Concurrent anthropometric measurements include length/height, weight, and bone measurements. Children’s dietary intake data are collected using 3-day-food diaries. Biological samples (stool, urine, and breastmilk) are also collected at different timepoints. Discussion: Recruitment of Bamboo started in September 2021 and is still ongoing. Data quality assessment and method validation have been conducted using early available samples. This study will provide unprecedented insights on early life microbiome maturation and bone development in Chinese infants and toddlers, and the impact of diet. The results may contribute to evidence-based policy making and inform nutrition healthcare programs for infants and toddlers aiming to benefit long-term health. Trial registration No.: ChiCTR2100049972 (August 16th, 2021)

Precision medicine relies on high-accuracy individual-level genotype data. However, the whole-genome sequencing (WGS) is currently not suitable for studies with very large sample sizes due to budget constraints. It is particularly important to construct highly accurate haplotype reference panel for genotype imputation. In this study, we selected 9,950 individuals from the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) cohort and 50 Chinese samples from the 1000 Genome Project (1KGP) for medium-depth WGS to construct a CKB reference panel. The results of imputing microarray datasets showed that the CKB panel outperformed the extended high coverage 1KGP, TOPMed, ChinaMAP, and NuyWa panels in terms of both the number of well-imputed variants and imputation accuracy. In addition, we have completed the imputation of over 100,000 CKB microarray data with the CKB panel, and the after-imputed genotype data is the hitherto largest whole genome data of the Chinese population. Finally, we developed an online server for offering free genotype imputation service based on the CKB reference panel (https://db.cngb.org/imputation/). We believe that the constructed CKB reference panel is of great value for imputing microarray or low-depth genotype data of Chinese population. The imputation-completed 100,000 microarray data are fundamental resources of population genetic studies for complex traits and diseases in the Chinese population.

No abstract