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As an indicator of clinical prognosis, lymph node metastasis of breast cancer has drawn great attention. Many reports have revealed the characteristics of metastatic breast cancer cells, however, the effect of breast cancer cells on the microenvironment components of lymph nodes and spatial transcriptome atlas remains unclear. In this study, by integrating single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and spatial transcriptomics, we investigate the transcriptional profiling of six surgically excised lymph node samples and the spatial organization of one positive lymph node. We identify the existence of osteoclast-like giant cells (OGC) which have high expressions of CD68 and CD163, the biomarkers of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). Through a spatially resolved transcriptomic method, we find that OGCs are scattered among metastatic breast cancer cells. In the lymph node microenvironment with breast cancer cell infiltration, TAMs are enriched in protumoral pathways including NF-κB signaling pathways and NOD-like receptor signaling pathways. Further subclustering demonstrates the potential differentiation trajectory in which macrophages develop from a state of active chemokine production to a state of active lymphocyte activation. This study is the first to integrate scRNA-seq and spatial transcriptomics in the tumor microenvironment of axillary lymph nodes, offering a systematic approach to delve into breast cancer lymph node metastasis.

Cancer treatment by inducing tumor cell immunogenic cell death (ICD) is critical for tumor therapy. However, ICD activation by single pathway is often limited in practical application due to its low efficiency. In addition, the low pH and anoxic microenvironments in solid tumors greatly limit the effective activation of ICD. Herein, hollow manganese dioxide (H-MnO2) nanomaterials were selected to load both Mitoxantrone (MTZ) and Chlorin e6 (Ce6) due to its hollow structure and ability to release drugs in the acidic environments. Thus, the synergy of photodynamic therapy (PDT), photothermal therapy (PTT) and chemotherapy can induce the process of immunogenic cell death, stimulate the maturation of dendritic cells (DCs), and activate the immune response to kill tumor cells dramatically. Efficient immunotherapeutic effects were obtained when MnO2-C/M-HA was given intravenously to 4T1 tumor-bearing BALB/c mice with 660 nm near-infrared laser irradiation. This study overcame the limitations of monotherapy and provided a multifunctional platform for tumor immunotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resveratrol in the aqueous extraction of Polygonum cuspidatum was separated and purified by liquid extraction assistance macroporous adsorption resin mixed bed. Firstly, petroleum ether and ethyl acetate were used to replace diethyl ether that was an effective solvent for separate Resveratrol from aqueous extract. Then, Resveratrol was further separated by macroporous adsorption resin-mixed bed. Finally, the experimental conditions were optimized. When the volume ratio of water and organic mixture was 2/3, extraction time interval was 60 min and extraction times was 5 times, the recovery rate of Resveratrol was 81.10% and the purity was 87.12%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, TiO2, which was modified by glutaraldehyde, was adopted as the carrier; the penicillin G acylase (PGA) was immobilized and the influence of immobilized conditions, such as pH of solution, the concentration of PGA, the immobilization temperature, and the reaction time, on the catalytic performance of the immobilized PGA was investigated and optimized. During this process, potassium penicillin G (PG) was chosen as substrate, and the quantity of 6‐aminopenicillanic acid (6‐APA) produced by PG at the temperature of 25 °C for 3 Min in neutral solution was conscripted as the evaluation foundation, indexes, containing the loading capacity (ELC), the activity (EA), and activity retention rate (EAR), were calculated based on quantities of produced 6‐APA and compared with finding out the suitable conditions. Results showed that when the solution pH, PGA concentration, immobilization temperature, and reaction time were 8.0, 2.5% (v/v), 35 °C, and 24 H, respectively, ELC, EA, and EAR presented optimal values of 9,190 U, 14,969 U/g, and 88.5% relatedly. After that, the stability and reusability of immobilized PGA were studied, and the results documented that the pH resistance, thermal stability, and storage stability of immobilized PGA were significantly improved. This work provided technique support for the practical application of immobilized PGA carrier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Broadband parametric acoustic arrays appear to offer advantages for shallow water sub-bottom profiling. In this paper, the performance of a broadband parametric acoustic array system was experimentally evaluated. In tank experiments using the nonlinear parabolic wave (KZK) equation, the directivity, source level, parametric acoustic array length, and penetration depth were evaluated. Based on Berktay's far-field solution, the system's emission signal was designed. According to sea trials of the broadband parametric acoustic array system as designed, a clear sub-bottom profile was obtained. Moreover, buried pipelines in the seabed were effectively detected, verifying the system's effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water solution polymerization was adopted to prepare perrhenate ion imprinted polymers in this work, and preparation conditions, such as molar ratio of acrylic acid, N,N - methylene double acrylamide, hydrogen peroxide and ascorbic acid to N-vinyl pyrrolidone, polymerization time and temperature on adsorption separation property were investigated and optimized using adsorption quantities and separation degree as indexes. To enhance the adsorption selectivity, adsorption properties of samples prepared under different conditions were conducted in a mixture aqueous solution of ammonium perrhenate and potassium permanganate with the molar ratio of 1:1. Results showed that as the molar ratio of N,N - methylene double acrylamide, acrylic acid, hydrogen peroxide, ascorbic acid to N-vinyl pyrrolidone were 2.0, 1.9, 0.03, and 0.003 respectively, the reaction temperature and time were 35 °C and 24 h, adsorption quantities and separation degree arrived at 0.037 mmol/g and 2.31, respectively, while the adsorption capacities and separation degree of non-imprinted polymers were only 0.009 mmol/g and 0.22. Besides, study was also discovered that the prepared samples presented an exciting reusable stability. Based on samples prepared under optimal conditions, the structure was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, BET surface area and thermogravimetric analysis using non-imprinted polymer prepared under the same conditions as a control. Finally, the adsorption thermodynamics and kinetics were studied, and the kinetics documented that the adsorption of perrhenate ion imprinted polymers was a zero-order model process. The thermodynamics presented the adsorption was more suitable to be expressed by Langmuir model, and Scatchard analysis revealed that heterogeneous binding sites were formed in IIP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Sediment load series show significant decreasing trend and abrupt downward change. [•] Inter-annual change of sediment load was influenced by climate change. [•] Long-term decreasing trend was mainly caused by human activities. [•] Seasonal distribution of sediment load was altered by human activities. [•] The effects of human activities on sediment load have become greater with time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Lung cancer is a disease with remarkable heterogeneity. A deep understanding of the tumor microenvironment (TME) offers potential therapeutic strategies against this malignant disease. More and more attention has been paid to the roles of macrophages in the TME. This article briefly summarizes the origin of macrophages, the mutual regulation between anti-tumoral immunity and pro-tumoral statuses derived from macrophage polarization, and the therapeutic opportunities targeting alternately activated macrophages (AAM)-type macrophage polarization. Among them, cellular components including T cells, as well as acellular components represented by IL-4 and IL-13 are key regulators driving the polarization of AAM macrophages. Novel treatments targeting macrophage-associated mechanisms are mainly divided into small molecule inhibitors, monoclonal antibodies, and other therapies to re-acclimate AMM macrophages. Finally, we paid special attention to an immunosuppressive subgroup of macrophages with T cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain-3 (TIM-3) expression. Based on cellular interactions with cancer cells, TIM3+ macrophages facilitate the proliferation and progression of cancer cells, yet this process exposes targets blocking the ligand-receptor recognition. To sum up, this is a systematic review on the mechanism of tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) polarization, therapeutic strategies and the biological functions of Tim-3 positive macrophages that aims to provide new insights into the pathogenesis and treatment of lung cancer., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Hu, Wu, Wang, Ma, Zhang and Xue.)

Copper is an essential microelement for the body and a necessary coregulator for enzymatic reactions, yet an unbalanced copper level promotes reactive oxidation and cytotoxicity, which ultimately induces cell death. Several small molecules targeting copper-induced cell death have been investigated, yet few showed promising therapeutic effects in clinical trials. In March 2022, Science first introduced the concept and mechanisms of cuproptosis, suggesting that copper-induced cell death targets the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle via protein lipoylation. Does this novel form of cell death take part in tumorigenesis or tumor progression? Is cuproptosis related to clinical outcomes of diseases? Is there a cuproptosis-related panel for clinical practice in cancer treatment? Herein, based on 942 samples of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), we analyzed on gene set level the existence and predictive value of cuproptosis in disease diagnosis and treatment. We screened out and identified the "cupLA" panel which indicates the risk of LUAD occurrence, clinicopathological features of LUAD patients, and could guide clinicians to refine LUAD subtypes and make treatment choices., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Hu, Wang, Ma, Zhang and Xue.)

Background: Breast cancer (BC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide and patients with lymph node metastasis always suffer from a worse prognosis. Tumor mutation burden (TMB) has been reported as a potential predictor for tumor behaviors. However, the correlation between TMB and lymph node metastasis of BC remains unclear. This study aimed to explore TMB-related biomarkers to predict the lymph node metastasis in BC patients., Methods: A total of 949 BC patients with RNA-seq data, mutation data and clinical data were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. We visualized mutation data by "maftools" package. We calculated TMB of each patient and investigated its association with lymph node metastasis. BC patients were divided into lymph node positive and negative groups and we respectively identified TMB-related and lymph node-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs) to figure out intersected genes. Functional enrichment analysis and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network were performed to observe relevant biological functions. We constructed a TMB-related signature for predicting lymph node metastasis through Logistic regression analysis. A validation database (GSE102484) from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database was downloaded to verify the accuracy., Results: Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) occupied the highest proportion in variant types while C>T appeared most frequently in single nucleotide variant (SNV). TMB was regarded as negatively correlated with lymph node metastasis in BC (P=0.003). We identified 125 common DEGs through venn diagram, which were enriched in vesicle localization, calcium signaling pathway and salmonella infection. A TMB-related signature based on six genes (BAHD1, PPM1A, PQLC3, SMPD3, EEF1A1 and S100B) had reliable efficacy for predicting lymph node metastasis in BC and was proven as an independent predictive factor. The accuracy of this signature was further validated by GSE102484 database., Conclusions: Our results indicated that TMB was associated with lymph node metastasis of BC. We built a TMB-related signature consisting of six genes which might function as a novel biomarker for predicting lymph node metastasis in BC., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/tcr-20-3471). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (2021 Translational Cancer Research. All rights reserved.)

The potentially different genetics and epigenetics in the primary tumors and metastases affect the efficacy of treatment in breast cancer patients. Nevertheless, the cellular and molecular mechanisms of breast cancer lymph node metastasis still remain elusive. Here, we employed single-cell RNA sequencing to acquire the transcriptomic profiles of individual cells from primary tumors, negative lymph nodes (NLs) and positive lymph nodes (PLs). We also performed a single-cell assay for transposase-accessible chromatin (ATAC) sequencing (scATAC-seq) of the positive and NL samples to get the chromatin accessibility profile. We identified a novel cell subpopulation with an abnormally high expression level of CXCL14 in the PL of breast cancer patients. Cell trajectory analysis also revealed that CXCL14 was increased expressed in the late pseudo-time. Moreover, based on a tissue microarray of 55 patients and the Oncomine database, we validated that CXCL14 expression was significantly higher in breast cancer patients with lymph node metastasis. Furthermore, scATAC-seq identified several transcription factors that may be potential regulation factors for the lymph node metastasis of breast cancer. Thus, our findings will improve our current understanding of the mechanism for lymph node metastasis, and they are potentially valuable in providing novel prognosis markers for the lymphatic metastasis of breast cancer., (© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Objective: To investigate the dynamic changes in angiogenesis within the tumor tissue of mice bearing S180 tumor at different day-points of oral administration with a Chinese medicine compound "Yiliuyin" (YLY) and to explore the anti-tumor mechanisms of YLY in vivo., Method: Fifty-six BALB/c mice were divided into YLY group and control group (28 mice/group) and each group was divided into four subgroups (7 mice/subgroup), randomly. After 24 hrs of inoculation with S180 tumor cells subcutaneously in the right axilla, YLY in the mice of YLY group and equal volume of cold boiled-water in the mice of control group were administered orally twice every day, 0.5 mL each time. The mice of one subgroup from the two groups apiece were killed at 10, 20, 30 th and 40 th day-point of oral administration, respectively. The tumors were isolated and were made into paraffin embedded sections. The dynamic changes of the angiogenesis (CD34 staining), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (VEGFR-2) and endostatin (ES) in tumor tissue were detected by immunohistochemistry staining, and the results were shown as PED (positive enzyme dot)., Result: YLY could remarkably decrease the angiogenesis within tumor tissues. The PED of CD34 in control group at 10, 20, 30 th and 40 th day-point was 392.86+/-42.01, 481.49+/-58.34, 386.31+/-54.91 and 376.69+/-28.71, and that in YLY group was 334.46+/-33.38, 289.34+/-39.63, 257.09+/-40.00 and 246.57+/-36.78, respectively. The PED of CD34 in YLY group at each day-point was lower than that in control group (P<0.05, P<0.01, P<0.01 and P<0.01, respectively). The PED of VEGF in control group at 10, 20, 30 th and 40 th day-point was 852.63+/-81.65, 1168.40+/-96.69, 1292.60+/-147.54 and 1124.74+/-139.64, and that inYLY group was 718.40+/-94.94, 866.54+/-72.40, 859.31+/-74.02 and 753.34+/-72.95, respectively. The PED of VEGF in YLY group at each day-point was lower than that in control group (P <0.05, P <0.01, P <0.01 and P <0.01, respectively). The PED of VEGFR-2 in control group at 10th, 20th, 30th and 40th day-point was 618.63+/-59.08, 750.09+/-56.72, 684.91+/-72.86 and 644.06+/-60.25, and that in YLY group was 523.91+/-64.66, 449.03+/-46.85, 400.06+/-60.12 and 339.89+/-45.39, respectively. The PED of VEGFR-2 in YLY group at each day-point was lower than that in control group (P <0.05, P <0.01, P <0.01 and P <0.01, respectively). The PED of ES in control group at 10th, 20th, 30th and 40th day-point was 250.26+/-36.27, 298.60+/-44.41, 450.86+/-38.95 and 398.43+/-34.19, and that in YLY group was 249.57+/-40.23, 350.03+/-40.92, 499.40+/-40.29 and 497.94+/-42.76, respectively. There was no difference between the two groups at 10th day-point.The PED of ES in YLY group was higher than that in control group at 20, 30, 40 th day-point (P <0.05, P <0.01 and P <0.01, respectively) ., Conclusion: YLY could exert the anti- tumor role by down-regulating the expression of VEGF and VEGFR-2, up-regulating the expression of ES and inhibiting the angiogenesis within tumor tissue.

Objective: To study the relationship between polymorphism of inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase (iNOS) gene and the susceptibility of intestinal type stomach cancer and stomach cardia cancer in Chinese people., Methods: A community-based case-control study was designed. Ninety-three intestinal type of stomach cancer and 50 stomach cardia cancer patients with endoscopy and pathology diagnosis were identified as cases. Two hundred and forty-six controls served as controls., Results: C-->T polymorphism was found in exon 16 of iNOS gene, which changed the coding amino acid from serine to leucine, and formed a recognition site identified by Tsp 509 I restriction enzyme (we called it C-->T polymorphism). The T allele gene frequency in the control group was 13.21%. No statistically significant difference was found between C-->T polymorphism alone and the increased susceptibility to intestinal stomach cancer or stomach cardia cancer. A significant type 2 multiplicative interaction was found in increasing both the risk of intestinal stomach cancer and stomach cardia cancer when both C-->T polymorphism and tobacco smoking exposure existed. An additive interaction model, which showed statistically significant difference, was found to increase only the risk of stomach cardia cancer when CagA antibody shared negative but C-->T polymorphism occurred., Conclusion: C-->T polymorphism of iNOS gene was considered as one of the possible susceptible genes, which specifically increased the risk of tobacco-related but CagA negative types of intestinal stomach cancer and stomach cardia cancer.

Objective: To find out the distributive features of some metabolic genes polymorphisms in Han population of south area of China., Methods: Study population was obtained from the controls of a community based case-control study, which included 290 blood relatives (inner control) and 404 non-blood relatives (outer control)., Results: Frequencies of CYP1A1, GSTM1 and GSTT1 polymorphisms had no significant difference among confounding factors, such as sex, living areas, stomach cancer family history and history of tobacco smoking etc. Some controls showed significant difference in age group and alcohol drinking which would be adjusted in analysis of the relationship between polymorphisms and cancers. CYP1A1 Ile/Val and Val/Val genotypes were 33.43% and 5.62% respectively, which were similar to other results from Chinese and Japanese, but higher than those from Caucasians in American, Europe and African-Americans. GSTM1 null allele frequency was 53.48% in our population, which showed difference even among Chinese in different areas. GSTT1 null allele frequency was 45.78%, which was significantly higher than that in Caucasians and African-American., Conclusion: The frequencies of CYP1A1 Ile/Val, Val/Val and GSTT1 null in Han population in south area of China are significantly higher than those in other races, while the ethnic difference of frequency of GSTM1 null is less.

Objective: To explore the effect of shenmai injection (SI) on expression of TNF-alpha mRNA in peritoneal macrophages (pMPhis) of scald mice., Methods: BALB/c mice were inflicted with 11% of body surface area III degree scald and injected intraperitoneally (ip) with SI daily for 5 days, and expression of TNF-alpha mRNA in pMPhis was determined by semi-quantitative RT-PCR., Results: In scald mice, the expression of TNF-alpha mRNA in pMPhis increased significantly, but it was reduced obviously (P < 0.01) after SI administration, while the livability was increased markedly (P < 0.05)., Conclusions: For scald mice, the cause of death at early stage might be related to the high expression of TNF-alpha mRNA in pMPhis and the use of SI can decrease the death rate.