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The chicken embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) model has played a crucial role in various aspects of cancer research. The purpose of this study is to help researchers clarify the research direction and prospects of the CAM model. A bibliometric analysis was conducted on the top 100 most cited articles on use of the CAM model in tumour research, retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection database. Tools such as Bibliometrix, VOSviewer, CiteSpace and Excel were utilized for the visualization network analysis. The 100 articles analysed were mainly from the USA, China and European countries such as Germany and France. Tumour research involving CAM model experiments demonstrated reliability and scientific rigor (average citation count = 156.2). The analysis of keywords, topics and subject areas revealed that the applications of this model ranged from the biological characteristics of tumours to molecular mechanisms and signaling pathways, to recent developments in nanotechnology and clinical applications. Additionally, nude mouse experiments have been more frequently performed in recent years. We conclude that the CAM model is efficient, simple and cost-effective, and has irreplaceable value in various aspects of cancer research. In the future, the CAM model can further contribute to nanotechnology research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Influenza A (H7N9) viruses have caused severe human infections and deaths every year in China since 2013. To reduce the risk of human infection and prevent a new influenza pandemic, there is a pressing need to develop safe and effective anti-H7N9 vaccines for poultry. Polyethyleneimine (PEI) is an organic polycation used extensively as a transfection reagent for decades. Although the adjuvant potential of PEI is well studied in mammals, its applicability and immune characteristics to avian species are still very rare. Here, to investigate the adjuvant activity of PEI, we analyzed the immune responses in chicken peripheral blood mononuclear cells in vitro. PEI significantly upregulated the expression of immune-related cytokines (IFN-γ, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-18, and IL-1β) and chemokines (CXCLi1, CXCLi2, MIP-1β, and MCP-3), suggesting that PEI promoted immune responses of avian cells. We also assessed the in vivo immune responses to PEI in a chicken model. After the second and third vaccinations, significantly higher IgG titers were observed in the chickens immunized with HA1-2+PEI than that of HA1-2 alone. The HA1-2+PEI group also increased percentages of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and improved PBMC proliferation. The significantly upregulated IFN-γ and IL-4 levels of splenocytes from HA1-2+PEI vaccinated chickens further indicated that PEI promoted a Th1/Th2 mixed immune responses. This study not only demonstrates the adjuvant potential of PEI when co-administered with influenza H7N9 antigen HA1-2 in chickens, but also supports the use of PEI as a versatile systemic adjuvant platform in poultry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are pattern recognition receptors that are vital for the recognition of pathogen-associated molecular patterns. TLR5 is responsible for the recognition of bacterial flagellin to induce the NF-κB activation and innate immune responses. In this study, we cloned and identified the TLR5 gene from the King pigeon (Columba livia) designated as PiTLR5. Full-length PiTLR5 cDNA (2583 bp) encoded an 860-amino acid protein containing a signal peptide sequence, 10 leucine-rich repeat domains, a leucine-rich repeat C-terminal domain, a transmembrane domain, and an intracellular Toll-interleukin-1 receptor domain. Pigeon TLR5 mRNA expression was quantified by performing quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), which showed that PiTLR5 was broadly expressed in all examined tissues, with the highest expression in the liver, peripheral blood mononuclear cells, and spleen. PiTLR5-mediated innate immune responses were measured by determining its effects on NF-κB activation and cytokine expression. The results showed that HEK293T cells transfected with PiTLR5 robustly activated the NF-κB response to flagellin, but not other TLR stimuli, and induced significant upregulation of IL-1β, IL-8, TNF-α, and IFN-γ, indicating that PiTLR5 is a functional TLR5 homolog. Additionally, following flagellin stimulation of pigeon splenic lymphocytes, the levels of TLR5, NF-κB, IL-6, IL-8, CCL5, and IFN-γ mRNA, assessed using qRT-PCR, were significantly upregulated. Besides, TLR5 knockdown resulted in the significantly downregulated expression of NF-κB and related cytokines/chemokines. Triggering pigeon TLR5 contributes to significant upregulation of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, suggesting that pigeon TLR5 plays an important role in the innate immune responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Right ventricular–pulmonary arterial (RV-PA) coupling is an important determinant in the development of right ventricular dilatation. RV-PA coupling is defined as the ratio of pulmonary arterial elastance (an index of arterial load) and right ventricular end-systolic elastance (an index of contractility). A retrospective study of postoperative 135 TOF patients who underwent for pulmonary valve replacement was conducted. RV-PA coupling was calculated noninvasively using Ea/Emax (cardiac magnetic resonance) = ventricular end-systolic volume/ventricular systolic volume, equation and patients were divided into coupling and uncoupling group and compared the results on the basis of echocardiography and cardiopulmonary exercise test. Lower tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion, percentage predictive peak VO 2 , VE/VCO 2 at anaerobic threshold, (AT), VE/VCO 2 at peak, Minute ventilation, (VE) Volume of Carbondioxide output, (VCO 2) slope, volume of oxygen output (VO 2) work rate (WR) slope, and WR at VO 2 peak were identified as risk factors for uncoupling of RV-PA. In RV-PA coupling combination of echocardiography and cardiopulmonary exercise test revealed the most important modality to identify risk factor and may be useful for therapeutic decision making by identifying patients of especially high risk for inadequate therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autophagy is a crucial innate immune response that clears pathogens intracellularly. Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis (S.E) has emerged as one of the most important food-borne pathogens. Here, we reported that dTDP-4-dehydro-β-ւ-rhamnose reductase (RfbD) was able to enhance bacterial colonization in vivo and in vitro by regulating autophagy. We screened the transposon mutant library of Salmonella Enteritidis strain Z11 by High-Content Analysis System, found that rfbD gene has an effect on autophagy. The Z11Δ rfbD -infected group showed greater expression of LC3-II than the Z11-infected group in HeLa, RAW264.7, and J774A.1 cells. Overall, the survival of Z11Δ rfbD in RAW264.7 cells was reduced after 8 h of infection compared to that of the Z11 wild-type strain. In addition, we observed that inhibition of autophagic flux significantly increased the survival of Z11Δ rfbD in RAW264.7 cells. Mice infection experiments revealed that Z11Δ rfbD virulence was significantly reduced, and bacterial load was reduced in the liver and cecum in mice model, and LC3-II expression was significantly increased. These findings indicate an important role of Salmonella Enteritidis protein as a strategy to suppress autophagy and provides new ideas for manipulating autophagy as a novel strategy to treat infectious diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gastric cancer is a highly lethal malignancy and its 5-year survival rate remains depressed in spite of multiple treatment options. Targeting drug delivery to tumor vasculature may be a promising strategy for gastric cancer therapy, for it can block the nutrition source of tumor and inhibit the metastasis and invasion in a certain extent. In present study, we have prepared the drug-targeting delivery system of peptide GX1-mediated anionic liposomes carrying adenoviral vectors (GX1-Ad5-AL), in which the tumor suppressor gene of PTEN was integrated into DNA of Ad5 and the GX1 peptide could play targeting role to vascular of gastric cancer. The inhibition ability of GX1-Ad5-AL to human gastric cancer cell lines (SGC-7901) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) was evaluated by MTT assay. Further, the cell migration assay was carried out in transwell inserts and the cells uptaking of GX1-Ad5-AL was detected by confocal laser scanning microscopy. The experimental results indicated that the average cell proliferation inhibition rates resulted from the drug delivery system of GX1-Ad5-AL in SGC-7901 and HUVEC were 68.36% and 64.13%, respectively which were higher than that resulted from GX1 or Ad5-AL. Meanwhile, results of cell migration experiment demonstrated that GX1-Ad5-AL could significantly suppress the migration of gastric cancer cell of SGC-7901. Moreover, both the imaging from confocal laser scanning microscopy and the quantitative analysis of fluorescence intensity showed that, GX1-Ad5-AL was more easily uptaken by SGC-7901 cells, as compared to Ad5-AL. Therefore, the formulation of GX1-Ad5-AL was effective for enhancing the inhibition effect and suppressing the migration of gastric cancer vascular endothelial cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Using fluorimetric microplate enzyme assay, the effects of a novel fungicide, boscalid, on the activities of the four soil enzymes related directly to the C-cycling and P-cycling were investigated thoroughly over a period of 60 days. The results suggested that 10–200 mg kg−1 boscalid significantly inhibited phosphatase activity during the whole course of incubation. Apart from stimulating obviously within the first 7 days treatment, β-d-glucosidase activity was also inhibited dramatically from 35 to 60th day of incubation. Moreover, boscalid at 100 and 200 mg kg−1 exhibited inhibitory effect on the activities of phenol oxidase and peroxidase on 7th day, while posed a stimulating or no obvious negative effects on them in the latter incubation time. Among the four enzymes, phosphatase was most sensitive to boscalid, and its lowest activity was 48.3% of the control. Boscalid ranged from 10 to 100 mg kg−1 also inhibited soil respiration at all the experiment time. All the results indicated that the main effects of boscalid on soil phosphatase, β-d-glucosidase and respiration were negative, yet a certain positive effect on soil phenol oxidase and peroxidase in a long term. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The effects of a novel fungicide, pyrimorph, on the soil enzyme activities and respiration in upland soil were studied over a period of 90 days. Pyrimorph ranged from 0.5 to 150 mg kg−1 accelerated the activities of catalase, invertase and dehydrogenase in soil. Urease activities in soil treated with 50–150 mg kg−1 pyrimorph were also stimulated significantly within the first 45 days, but inhibited obviously from 60 to 90th day of incubation. Among the four enzymes, dehydrogenase was most sensitive to pyrimorph, and the highest activities in samples treated by pyrimorph with 100 or 150 mg kg−1 were 5-and 5.3-fold to that of the control, respectively. Soil respiration was stimulated within the first 14 days, and then from the 21th day, there were no distinct difference between the treated samples and the control. All the results demonstrated that pyrimorph at the lowest dose (0.5 mg kg−1) would not exhibited any toxicological threat to soil enzymes and soil respiration. Moreover, higher concentrations in a range 5–150 mg kg−1 displayed an activation effect on soil enzymes and soil respiration, yet a certain potential threat to soil urease in the last stage of incubation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) activate innate immunity via interactions between their Toll/interleukin-1 (IL-1) receptor (TIR) domain and downstream adaptor proteins. Here we report that Salmonella Enteritidis produces a secreted protein (TcpS) that contains both a TIR domain and a coiled-coil domain. TcpS blocks MyD88- and TRIF-mediated TLR signaling, inhibits inflammatory responses, and promotes bacterial survival. Early-stage immune evasion by TcpS results in severe tissue damage in the late stage of infection and contributes to Salmonella virulence. TcpS-derived peptides inhibit nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) activation and reduce lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-elicited systemic inflammation. Therapeutic peptide administration alleviates weight loss of mice infected with H1N1 influenza. Importantly, maximal TcpS-mediated TLR inhibition requires the critical TIR-TcpS residues Y191 and I284, as well as TcpS homodimerization via its N-terminal coiled-coil domain. Our study unveils a mechanism in which TcpS suppresses innate immunity via both its homodimerization and interaction with MyD88. TcpS is also a potential therapeutic agent for inflammation-associated diseases. • Salmonella TcpS blocks TLR-induced innate immunity to promote infection via a TIR domain • Immune evasion by TcpS results in inflammation storm and enhances bacterial virulence • TIR-TcpS-derived bait peptides reduce excessive inflammation and influenza pathologies • TcpS homodimerization via its coiled-coil domain is required for efficient TLR inhibition Xiong et al. show that Salmonella subverts host TLR signaling by delivering a protein containing a TIR domain and a coiled-coil domain, TcpS. Immune evasion by TcpS supports early bacterial infection, which enables late-stage virulence and inflammation storm. TcpS-derived peptides reduce LPS-elicited systemic inflammation and are protective against influenza challenge in mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 3 (TRAF3) plays a key antiviral role by promoting type I interferon production. We cloned the pigeon TRAF3 gene ( PiTRAF3 ) according to its predicted mRNA sequence to investigate its function. The 1704-bp full-length open reading frame encodes a 567-amino acid protein. One Ring finger, two TRAF-type Zinc fingers, one Coiled coil, and one MATH domain were inferred. RT-PCR showed that PiTRAF3 was expressed in all tissues, with relatively weak expression in the heart and liver. In HEK293T cells, over-expression of wild-type, △ Ring, △ Zinc finger, and △ Coiled coil PiTRAF3, but not a △ MATH form, significantly increased IFN-β promoter activity. Zinc finger and Coiled coil domains were essential for NF-κB activation. In chicken HD11 cells, PiTRAF3 increased IFN-β promoter activity and four domains were all contributing. R848 stimulation of pigeon peripheral blood mononuclear cells and splenocytes significantly increased expression of PiTRAF3 and the inflammatory cytokine genes CCL5 , IL-8 , and IL-10 . These data demonstrate TRAF3's innate immune function and improve understanding of its involvement in poultry antiviral defense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

17α-Ethynylestradiol (EE2) in natural waters may cause adverse effects on organisms due to its high estrogenic potency. Laboratory studies were performed to study the effects of a local humic acid (LHA), fulvic acid (LFA) and Aldrich humic acid (AHA) on the photochemical behavior and estrogenic potency of EE2. Here photolytic experiments demonstrated that pure aqueous EE2 could undergo direct and self-sensitized photodegradation at a global rate of 0.0068 hr − 1 . Photodegradation rate of EE2 in 5.0 mg/L dissolved humic substances (DHS) was determined to be 0.0274, 0.0296 and 0.0254 hr − 1 for LHA, LFA and AHA, respectively. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and triplet dissolved humic substances ( 3 DHS*) scavenging experiments indicated that the promotion effect of DHS on EE2 photodegradation was mainly aroused by the reactions of HO (35%–50%), 1 O 2 (< 10%) and 3 DHS* (22%–34%). However, the photodegradation of EE2 could also be inhibited when DHS exceeded the threshold of 10 mg/L. Three hydroxylation products of EE2 were identified using GC–MS and their formation pathways were also proposed. In vitro estrogenicity tests showed that EE2 was transformed into chemicals without estrogenic potency. These findings could extend our knowledge on the photochemical behaviors of steroid estrogens in sunlit natural waters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we focus on the challenge of robot motion generation, which is critical for improving the ability of robots to perform downstream tasks. To this end, inspired by the idea of variational inference, we propose a novel teacher–student hierarchical approach for learning continuous primitive spaces to generate robot motions. We first learn a variational auto-encoder (VAE) based on Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) from demonstrations, the encoder is used as a teacher model to encode trajectories to primitive information, and the decoder aims to decode latent information to joint trajectories. To learn a primitive action space for the high-level model, we propose a novel learning method to train a student model. We utilize the trained teacher to encode trajectories to labels, and use the Kullback–Leibler (KL) divergence and the reconstruction errors between the label and the predicted primitive information as the loss to train a student model. We then utilize trained student models to guide high-level policy learning. We evaluate our approach on three different robot datasets. Experiments demonstrate that our method obtains the ability to generate new motion and discover common information across tasks, it also can be used to accelerate downstream task learning. • The transfer of information from teacher to student can learn skills prior. • Student models can accelerate the learning of long-horizon downstream tasks. • Experimental results verify the validity of learned primitive information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Gallinarum biovar Gallinarum (S. Gallinarum) and biovar Pullorum (S. Pullorum) are gram-negative bacteria, members of the most important infectious pathogens, and have caused common problems in the poultry industry, especially in the developing countries. O- and H-antigen specific anti-sera are commonly for slide and tube agglutination tests to identify Salmonella serovars. However, it is both labor intensive and time consuming, so there is an urgent need for a new technique for the rapid detection of the major Salmonella serovars. In this study, we developed a 1-step PCR assay to identify the serovar Gallinarum. This PCR-based assay was based on the SPUL_2693 gene, which was located in SPI-19 and found by comparing the genomes of the S. Pullorum and S. Gallinarum in the whole data of NCBI. The specificity of this gene was evaluated by bioinformatics analysis, and the results showed that the SPUL_2693 gene exists in all serovar Gallinarum. The specificity and sensitivity of this PCR assay were evaluated in our study. The developed PCR assay was able to distinguish the serovar Gallinarum from 27 different Salmonella serovars and 5 different non- Salmonella pathogens. The minimum limit of genomic DNA of S. Pullorum for PCR detection was 2.143 pg/μL, and the minimum limit number of cells was 6 CFU. This PCR assay was also applied to analyze Salmonella strains isolated from a chicken farm in this study. The PCR assay properly identified the serovar Gallinarum from other Salmonella serovars, and the results were in agreement with the results of a traditional serotyping assay. In general, the newly developed PCR-based assay can be used to accurately judge the presence of the serovar Gallinarum and can be combined with traditional serotyping assays, especially in the case of large quantities of samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The photochemical conversion and microbial transformation of pollutants mediated by dissolved organic matter (DOM), including 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2), are often accompanied in natural water. However, there are few studies to explore the connection and mechanism between the two processes. This research aims to investigate the mechanism of DOM after electrochemically modification mediated EE2 combining photodegradation and biodegradation in the environment and it want to explain the natural phenomena of DOM after electrochemical advanced treatment entering the water environment mediated EE2 natural degradation. The results showed that combining photodegradation with biodegradation rates of EE2 mediated by DOM and electrochemically modified DOM (E-DOM) were promoted obviously. The efficiency of EE2 biodegradation was shown to be strongly correlated with electron accepting capacity (EAC) of DOM. Electrochemical modification can increase the EAC of DOM leading to EE2 biodegradation accelerated, and it also can form more triplet-state DOM moieties to promote the EE2 photodegradation in irradiation conditions, due to the increasing of quinone-type structures in DOM. Moreover, cell polymeric secretion (CPS) secreted from the microorganism could be stimulated to an excited state by irradiation, and that also accelerated EE2 degradation. Photolysis combined with biochemical degradation yielded less toxic degradation products. This study shows that the emission of DOM in wastewater after electrochemical treatment could accelerate estrogen degradation and play a positive role on the pollutant transformation in the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High aerobic glycolysis not only provides energy to breast cancer cells, but also supports their anabolic growth. The redox sensitive transcription factor NRF2 is over-expressed in multiple cancers, including breast cancer. It is unclear whether NRF2 could promote breast cancer cell growth through enhancing glycolysis. In this study, we found that NRF2 and HIF1α mRNA and protein levels were significantly increased in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells as compared to MCF-10A benign breast epithelial cells. Down-regulation of NRF2 decreased MCF7 and MBA-DA-231 breast cell proliferation, while it reversed by hypoxia inducible factor 1α (HIF1α). Knockdown of NRF2 inhibited glycolysis by decreasing the expression of genes participated in glucose metabolism, including HK2, PFKFB3, PKM2 and LDHA. Our results further indicated that the AKT activation and AMPK inhibition were required for NRF2-mediated up-regulation of glycolytic enzymes. Consistent with these results, a positive correlation existed between NRF2 or HIF1α and several key glycolytic genes in human breast cancer cell samples and breast cancer patients with high NRF2 or HIF1α expression had poorer overall survival. In conclusion, our study demonstrates that NRF2 promotes breast cancer progression by enhancing glycolysis through coactivation of HIF1α, implicating that NRF2 is a potential molecular target for breast cancer treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting the spatial separation of photoexcited charge carriers is of paramount significance for photocatalysis. In this work, binary g-C 3 N 4 /CeO 2 nanosheets are first prepared by pyrolysis and subsequent exfoliation method, then decorated with ZnO nanoparticles to construct g-C 3 N 4 /CeO 2 /ZnO ternary nanocomposites with multi-heterointerfaces. Notably, the type-II staggered band alignments existing between any two of the constituents, as well as the efficient three-level transfer of electron-holes in unique g-C 3 N 4 /CeO 2 /ZnO ternary composites, leads to the robust separation of photoexcited charge carriers, as verified by its photocurrent increased by 8 times under visible light irradiation. The resulting g-C 3 N 4 /CeO 2 /ZnO ternary nanocomposites unveil appreciably increased photocatalytic activity, faster than that of pure g-C 3 N 4 , ZnO and g-C 3 N 4 /CeO 2 by a factor of 11, 4.6 and 3.7, respectively, and good stability toward methylene blue (MB) degradation. The remarkably enhanced photocatalytic activity of g-C 3 N 4 /CeO 2 /ZnO ternary heterostructures can be interpreted in terms of lots of active sites of nanosheet shapes and the efficient charge separation owing to the resulting type-II band alignment with more than one heterointerface and the efficient three-level electron-hole transfer. A plausible mechanism is also elucidated via active species trapping experiments with various scavengers, which indicating that the photogenerated holes and •OH radicals play a crucial role in photodegradation reaction under visible light irradiation. This work suggest that the rational design and construction of type II multi-heterostructures is powerful for developing highly efficient and reusable visible-light photocatalysts for environmental purification and energy conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bone regeneration is a promising avenue for osteoporosis (OP) treatment. It consists of several procedures, such as the osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells as well as the proliferation and maturation of osteoblasts. Many epigenetic mechanisms are involved in the modulation of bone regeneration, including DNA methylation, histone modifications, and microRNA regulation. These processes functionally modify the genome without changing the nucleotide sequence, leading to changes in gene expression. Past studies have identified the importance of epigenetic mechanisms in bone metabolism. In this review, we will summarize the recent studies in this field to obtain a better understanding of how epigenetic mechanisms participate in bone regeneration and homeostasis. This will provide us a new target for investigating clinical perspectives of osteoporosis treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer worldwide. However, the expression and potential mechanism of miR-375 in BC are still controversial. We first collected microRNA chips and microRNA sequencing data from multiple databases for analyzing the expression level of miR-375, and further exploring the target genes and underlying molecular mechanism in BC. miR-375 in BC was predominantly overexpressed compared with that in normal breast tissues (pooled standard mean difference [SMD] = 0.49; 95 % confidence interval [CI]: 0.24–0.73, p < 0.0001). Meanwhile, the overall pooled area under the curve (AUC) in the summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) of miR-375 was 0.83 (95 % CI = 0.79–0.86) based on 2928 cases of BC patients and 816 cases of controls, while the diagnostic positive likelihood ratio (DLR) positive and the DLR negative value were 3.90 (95 % CI = 2.46–6.19) and 0.39 (95 % CI = 0.28–0.54), respectively. The hazard ratios (HRs) were 1.29 (95 % CI = 1.04–1.6, P = 0.02) and 1.23 (95 % CI = 0.89–1.7, P = 0.22) for the cohorts of METABRIC and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). In vitro study demonstrated that miR-375 inhibitor could suppress the cell growth and induce apoptosis of BC cells. A total of 107 overlapping genes from microarrays after miR-375 transfection, the TCGA RNA sequencing, the microarrays of Affymetrix platform, and online predicting software were selected as the prospective targets of miR-375 in BC. Based on Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis, the potential targets of miR-375 were notable for their somatic stem cell division, plasma membrane, and proline-rich region binding. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway examination demonstrated that the targets were associated with the pathways of prion diseases, proteoglycans in cancer, and focal adhesion. Then, 107 targets of miR-375 in BC were used to construct a protein–protein interaction (PPI) network. Finally, EGFR, PRKCA, PPARA, ADIPOQ, and ITSN1 were found to be the hub genes of miR-375. These targets showed negative correlations with miR-375 level. The upregulated miR-375 might play an essential part in the tumorigenesis and progression of BC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TNF receptor-associated factor 6 (TRAF6) is an adaptor protein and an E3 ubiquitin ligase mediating multiple cell signaling pathway activation in a context-dependent manner. TRAF6 plays critical roles in innate immune response and regulates function of antigen-presenting cells. Here, we cloned the goose TRAF6 (goTRAF6) gene from a healthy Yangzhou great white goose (Anser anser), which had a typical TRAF structure and shared a high-sequence identity with TRAF6 of other birds. Quantitative real-time PCR revealed that goTRAF6 mRNA was broadly expressed in all the studied tissues, with highest expression in the heart and pectoral muscle. Overexpression of goTRAF6 caused NF-κB activation in a dose-dependent manner and substantially upregulated IFN-β expression in HEK293T cells. Following Toll-like receptor (TLR) ligand stimulation of goose peripheral blood mononuclear cells, goTRAF6 and downstream inflammatory cytokine mRNA levels considerably up-regulated, especially at early stages. Salmonella Enteritidis challenge caused overexpression of goTRAF6 and cytokine mRNA in all the examined organs. These findings demonstrated that goTRAF6 played a substantial role in TLR-TRAF6 signaling cascade, and further contributed to the antibacterial-responses in host. • The structural and functional characteristics of the goTRAF6 gene were conserved and resembled those of other birds. • GoTRAF6 mRNA was broadly expressed in all goose tissues examined, especially in heart and muscle. • Triggering goTRAF6 led to robust up-regulation of NF-κB activation and IFN-β expression. • The expression of goTRAF6 and cytokines were significantly up-regulated in goose PBMCs after TLR ligands stimulation. • The mRNA levels of goTRAF6 and cytokines were increased in all examined organs after Salmonella Enteritidis challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]