miR-146a is an NF-κB-dependent miRNA that acts as an anti-inflammatory miRNA via the Toll-like receptor (TLR) pathway. miR-146a targets multiple genes and has been identified to directly or indirectly regulate processes other than inflammation, including intracellular Ca changes, apoptosis, oxidative stress, and neurodegeneration. miR-146a is an important regulator of gene expression in epilepsy development and progression. Furthermore, miR-146a-related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and single nucleotide variants (SNVs) contribute to the genetic susceptibility to drug resistance and seizure severity in epilepsy patients. This study summarizes the abnormal expression patterns of miR-146a in different types and stages of epilepsy and its potential molecular regulation mechanism, indicating that miR-146a can be used as a novel biomarker for epilepsy diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment.

Salinity is an important environmental factor of osmotic pressure which is closely related to growth and development of aquatic organisms. Some physiological studies regarding to challenge of salinity have been reported in marine shellfish. However, information about the effects of acute low-salinity stress on the enzyme activities in ark shell, Scapharca broughtonii, is still limited now. In this study, the enzyme activities of catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathiones-transferase (GST) in five tested tissues of S. broughtonii under different salinity (10, 15, 20, 25 and 30‰) for different challenged time (24, 48, 72 and 96h) were investigated. The dynamic change of the three enzyme activities after challenged were further analyzed according to the detected data. Results revealed that low-salinity stress generated great change of CAT, SOD and GST activities in organism, but the change peculiarity in different tissues was different in some degree. Especially, two of the five tissues, hepatopancreas and foot, showed special characteristics responding to the low-salinity stress. It also showed that the variations of the three enzymes activities have tissue specificity and time sequentiality in S. broughtonii.