Fatty acyl-CoA reductase (FAR) is an important NADPH-dependent enzyme that can produce primary alcohol from fatty acyl-CoA or fatty acyl-carrier proteins as substrates. It plays a pivotal role in plant growth, development, and stress resistance. Herein, we performed genome-wide identification and expression analysis of FAR members in rice using bioinformatics methods. A total of eight OsFAR genes were identified, and the OsFARs were comprehensively analyzed in terms of phylogenetic relationships, duplication events, protein motifs, etc. The cis-elements of the OsFARs were predicted to respond to growth and development, light, hormones, and abiotic stresses. Gene ontology annotation analysis revealed that OsFAR proteins participate in biological processes as fatty acyl-CoA reductase during lipid metabolism. Numerous microRNA target sites were present in OsFARs mRNAs. The expression analysis showed that OsFARs were expressed at different levels during different developmental periods and in various tissues. Furthermore, the expression levels of OsFARs were altered under abiotic stresses, suggesting that FARs may be involved in abiotic stress tolerance in rice. The findings presented here serve as a solid basis for further exploring the functions of OsFARs.

Ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury is a key influencing factor in the outcome of stroke. Inflammatory response, oxidative stress, and neuronal apoptosis are among the main factors that affect the progression of I/R injury. Farrerol (FAR) is a natural compound that can effectively inhibit the inflammatory response and oxidative stress. However, the role of FAR in cerebral I/R injury remains unknown. In this study, we found that FAR reduced brain injury and neuronal viability after cerebral I/R injury. Meanwhile, administration of FAR also reduced the inflammatory response of microglia after brain injury. Mechanistically, FAR treatment directly reduced neuronal death after oxygen glucose deprivation/re-oxygenation (OGD/R) through enhancing cAMP-response element binding protein (CREB) activation to increase the expression of downstream neurotrophic factors and anti-apoptotic genes. Moreover, FAR decreased the activation of nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways, inhibited microglia activation, and reduced the production of inflammatory cytokines in microglia after OGD/R treatment or LPS stimulation. The compromised inflammatory response by FAR directly promoted the survival of neurons after OGD/R. In conclusion, FAR exerted a protective effect on cerebral I/R injury by directly decreasing neuronal death through upregulating CREB expression and attenuating neuroinflammation. Therefore, FAR could be a potentially effective drug for the treatment of cerebral I/R injury.

Long and very long chain fatty alcohols are produced from their corresponding acyl-CoAs through the activity of fatty acyl reductases (FARs). Fatty alcohols are important components of the cuticle that protects aerial plant organs, and they are metabolic intermediates in the synthesis of the wax esters in the hull of sunflower (Helianthus annuus) seeds. Genes encoding 4 different FARs (named HaFAR2, HaFAR3, HaFAR4 and HaFAR5) were identified using BLAST, and studies showed that four of the genes were expressed in seed hulls. In this study, the structure and location of sunflower FAR proteins were determined. They were also expressed exogenously in Saccharomyces cerevisiae to evaluate their substrate specificity based on the fatty alcohols synthesized by the transformed yeasts. Three of the four enzymes tested showed activity in yeast. HaFAR3 produced C18, C20 and C22 saturated alcohols, whereas HaFAR4 and HaFAR5 produced C24 and C26 saturated alcohols. The involvement of these genes in the synthesis of sunflower seed wax esters was addressed by considering the results obtained.

OBJECTIVE: The ratio of ferritin to albumin (FAR) has been proposed as a novel prognostic indicator for COVID-19. However, the role of FAR in predicting the all-cause mortality rate in patients with sepsis has not been evaluated. Therefore, the aim of this study is to elucidate the correlation between FAR and the 28-day all-cause mortality rate in patients with sepsis.
METHODS: This study used data from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care IV database (v2.0) for a retrospective cohort analysis. The study focused on adult patients with sepsis who were admitted to the intensive care unit. The primary objective was to assess the predictive capability of FAR in determining the 28-day all-cause mortality rate among patients with sepsis.
RESULTS: The study involved 1553 sepsis patients in total. Based on the survival status of sepsis patients within 28 days, they were divided into two groups: a survival group consisting of 973 patients, and a death group consisting of 580 patients. The results revealed a 28-day mortality rate of 37.35% among sepsis patients. The multivariable Cox regression analysis revealed that FAR was an independent predictor of the 28-day all-cause mortality rate in patients with sepsis (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.17-1.19; 95% confidence interval 1.11-1.26; P < 0.001). The FAR demonstrated a higher area under the curve (AUC) of 61.01% (95% confidence interval 58.07-63.96%), compared to serum ferritin (60.48%), serum albumin (55.56%), and SOFA score (56.97%). Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis determined the optimal cutoff value for FAR as 364.2215. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed a significant difference in the 28-day all-cause mortality rate between patients with FAR ≥ 364.2215 and those with FAR < 364.2215 (P < 0.001). Furthermore, subgroup analysis showed no significant interaction between FAR and each subgroup.
CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed a significant correlation between FAR and the 28-day mortality rate in patients with sepsis. Higher FAR values were strongly associated with increased mortality rates within 28 days.

We aimed to evaluate the association of the fibrinogen-to-albumin ratio (FAR) with the clinical outcomes of coronary artery disease (CAD). All 14,944 patients with CAD evaluated in the present study were from a prospective cohort that recruited 15,250 patients admitted in the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University between December 2016 and October 2021. The all-cause mortality (ACM) and cardiac mortality (CM) were selected as the primary endpoints. The secondary endpoints were major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs), major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCEs), and non-fatal myocardial infarction (NFMI). The optimal FAR cutoff value was determined by using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Using 0.1 as the cutoff value, all the patients were divided into two groups: a low-FAR group (FAR < 0.1, n = 10,076) and a high-FAR group (FAR ≥ 0.1, n = 4918). The incidence of outcomes between the two groups was compared. The high-FAR group exhibited a higher incidence of ACM (5.3% vs. 1.9%), CM (3.9% vs. 1.4%), MACEs (9.8% vs. 6.7%), MACCEs (10.4% vs. 7.6%), and NFMI (2.3% vs. 1.3%) than the low-FAR group. To adjust the confounders, multivariate Cox regression analyses showed that the risk in the high-FAR group was increased 2.182 fold in ACM (HR = 2.182, 95% CI: 1.761 ~ 2.704, P < 0.001), 2.116 fold in CM (HR = 2.116, 95% CI: 1.761 ~ 2.704, P < 0.001), 1.327 fold in MACEs (HR = 1.327, 95% CI: 1.166 ~ 1.510, P < 0.001), 1.280 fold in MACCEs (HR = 1.280, 95% CI: 1.131 ~ 1.448, P < 0.001), and 1.791 fold in NFMI (HR = 1.791, 95% CI:1.331 ~ 2.411, P < 0.001), compared to the low-FAR group. The present study suggested that the high-FAR group was an independent and powerful predictor of adverse outcomes in CAD patients.

BACKGROUND: An early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer (PC) is extremely difficult because of the lack of sensitive liquid biopsy methods and effective biomarkers. We attempted to evaluate whether circulating inflammatory marker could complement CA199 for the detection of early-stage PC.
METHODS: We enrolled 430 patients with early-stage PC, 287 patients with other pancreatic tumors (OPT), and 401 healthy controls (HC). The patients and HC were randomly divided into a training set (n = 872) and two testing sets (n1 = 218, n2 = 28). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were investigated to evaluate the diagnostic performance of circulating inflammatory markers ratios, CA199, and combinations of the markers ratios in the training set, which would then be validated in the two testing sets.
RESULTS: Circulating fibrinogen, neutrophils, and monocytes in patients with PC were significantly higher while circulating albumin, prealbumin, lymphocytes, and platelets of patients with PC were significantly lower compared to those of HC and OPT (all P < 0.05). The fibrinogen-to-albumin (FAR), fibrinogen-to-prealbumin (FPR), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte (PLR), monocyte-to-lymphocyte (MLR), and fibrinogen-to-lymphocyte (FLR) ratios were significantly higher while the prognostic nutrition index values (PNI) were lower in patients with PC than in HC and OPT (all P < 0.05). Combining the FAR, FPR, and FLR with CA199 exhibited the best diagnostic value for distinguishing patients with early-stage PC from HC with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.964, and for distinguishing patients with early-stage PC from OPT with an AUC of 0.924 in the training sets. In the testing set, compared with HC, the combination markers had powerful efficiency for PC with an AUC 0.947 and AUC 0.942 when comparing PC with OPT. The AUC was 0.915 for the combination of CA199, FAR, FPR, and FLR for differentiating between patients with pancreatic head cancer (PHC) and other pancreatic head tumors (OPHT), and 0.894 for differentiating between patients with pancreatic body and tail cancer (PBTC) and other pancreatic body and tail tumors (OPBTT).
CONCLUSIONS: A combination of FAR, FPR, FLR, and CA199 may serve as a potential non-invasive biomarker for differentiating early-stage PC from HC and OPT, especially early-stage PHC.

With COVID-19 still hovering around and threatening the lives of many at-risk patients, an effective, quick, and inexpensive prognostic method is required. Few studies have shown fibrinogen to albumin ratio (FAR) and C-reactive protein to albumin ratio (CAR) to be promising as prognostic markers for COVID-19 disease. However, their implications remain unclear. This meta-analysis aimed to elucidate the prognostic role of FAR and CAR in COVID-19 disease. A systematic literature search was undertaken using PubMed and Embase till April 2022. Inverse variance standardised mean difference (SMD) was calculated to report the overall effect size using random effect models. The generic inverse variance random-effects method was used to pool the area under the curve (AUC) values. All statistical analyses were performed on Revman and MedCalc Software. A total of 23 studies were included. COVID-19 non-survivors had a higher CAR on admission compared with survivors (SMD = 1.79 [1.04, 2.55]; p < 0.00001; I2  = 97%) and patients with a severe COVID-19 infection had a higher CAR on admission than non-severe patients (SMD = 1.21 [0.54, 1.89]; p = 0.0004; I2  = 97%). Similarly, higher mean FAR values on admission were significantly associated with COVID-19 mortality (SMD = 0.55 [0.32, 0.78]; p < 0.00001; I2  = 82%). However, no significant association was found between mean FAR on admission and COVID-19 severity (SMD = 0.54 [-0.09, 1.18]; p = 0.09; I2  = 91%). The pooled AUC values found that CAR had a good discriminatory-power to predict COVID-19 severity (AUC = 0.81 [0.75, 0.86]; p < 0.00001; I2  = 80%) and mortality (AUC = 0.81 [0.74, 0.87]; p < 0.00001; I2  = 86%). FAR had a fair discriminatory-power to predict COVID-19 severity (AUC = 0.73 [0.64, 0.82]; p < 0.00001; I2  = 89%). Overall, CAR was a good predictor of both severity and mortality associated with COVID-19 infection. Similarly, FAR was a satisfactory predictor of COVID-19 mortality but not severity.

Biometrics is the term for measuring human characteristics. If the term is divided into two parts, bio means life, and metric means measurement. The measurement of humans through different computational methods is performed to authorize a person. This measurement can be performed via a single biometric or by using a combination of different biometric traits. The combination of multiple biometrics is termed biometric fusion. It provides a reliable and secure authentication of a person at a higher accuracy. It has been introduced in the UIDIA framework in India (AADHAR: Association for Development and Health Action in Rural) and in different nations to figure out which biometric characteristics are suitable enough to authenticate the human identity. Fusion in biometric frameworks, especially FKP (finger-knuckle print) and iris, demonstrated to be a solid multimodal as a secure framework. The proposed approach demonstrates a proficient and strong multimodal biometric framework that utilizes FKP and iris as biometric modalities for authentication, utilizing scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) and speeded up robust features (SURF). Log Gabor wavelet is utilized to extricate the iris feature set. From the extracted region, features are computed using principal component analysis (PCA). Both biometric modalities, FKP and iris, are combined at the match score level. The matching is performed using a neuro-fuzzy neural network classifier. The execution and accuracy of the proposed framework are tested on the open database Poly-U, CASIA, and an accuracy of 99.68% is achieved. The accuracy is higher compared to a single biometric. The neuro-fuzzy approach is also tested in comparison to other classifiers, and the accuracy is 98%. Therefore, the fusion mechanism implemented using a neuro-fuzzy classifier provides the best accuracy compared to other classifiers. The framework is implemented in MATLAB 7.10.

Infections with parasitic helminths cause severe debilitating and sometimes lethal diseases in humans and domestic animals on a global scale. Unable to synthesize de novo their own fatty acids and sterols, helminth parasites (nematodes, trematodes, cestodes) rely on their hosts for their supply. These organisms produce and secrete a wide range of lipid binding proteins that are, in most cases, structurally different from the ones found in their hosts, placing them as possible novel therapeutic targets. In this sense, a lot of effort has been made towards the structure determination of these proteins, but their precise function is still unknown. In this review, we aim to present the current knowledge on the functions of LBPs present in parasitic helminths as well as novel members of this highly heterogeneous group of proteins.

Aim: This study aims to determine the prognostic value of the Glasgow Prognostic Score (GPS) and fibrinogen to albumin ratio (FAR) in patients with COVID-19.Methods: Electronic database records of 400 patients with COVID-19 were retrospectively analyzed and the initial levels of CRP, albumin, fibrinogen values were recorded. The ground-glass opacities (GGO) and consolidations were evaluated on thorax CT. Hospital mortality and the need for intensive care unit (ICU) transfer were determined as adverse outcomes.Results: It was determined that 345 patients (86.25%) were discharged while 31 patients (7.75%) were transferred to ICU in addition to 24 patients who died (6%). The rates of deaths and transfers to ICU were significantly increased in GPS 2 group compared to both GPS 0 and 1 groups. Additionally, increased FAR was observed in patients who died and transferred to ICU compared to the discharged patients. The FAR was significantly increased in patients with diffuse GGO. Logistic regression analysis indicated that FAR ≥144.59 and the presence of GPS 2 were independent predictors of the adverse outcomes in COVID-19 patients.Conclusion: Our results demonstrated that the GPS and FAR could possess a predictive value for adverse outcomes in patients with COVID-19.