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Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer and the top cause of female mortality worldwide. The prognosis for patients with breast cancer liver metastasis (BCLM) remains poor. Emerging studies suggest that circular RNAs (circRNAs) are associated with the progression of BC. Exploration of circRNAs presents a promising avenue for identifying metastasis-targeting agents and improving the prognosis of patients with BCLM. Microarray and bioinformatic analyses were used to analyze differentially expressed circRNAs between three pairs of BCLM and primary BC. The roles of hsa_circ_0060467 (circMYBL2) and its target gene E2F1 in BC cells were explored by multiple functional experiments. And xenograft mouse models and hepatic metastases of BC hemi-spleen models were used to illustrate the function of circMYBL2 in vivo. The intrinsic molecular mechanism involving circMYBL2 was confirmed by bioinformatics analyses, RIP assays, CHIRP assays, luciferase reporter assays, and rescue experiments. CircMYBL2 was overexpressed in BCLM tissues and BC cells. Functionally, circMYBL2 can facilitate the proliferation and liver metastasis of BC. Mechanistically, circMYBL2 upregulated the transcription factor E2F1 by sponging miR-1205 and complexing with eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4A3 (eIF4A3) and then facilitated the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process in BC cells. Our findings showed that circMYBL2 promoted the tumorigenesis and aggressiveness of BC through the circMYBL2/miR-1205/E2F1 and circMYBL2/eIF4A3/E2F1 axes, which may provide a novel targeted therapy for patients with BCLM.

Programmed cell death ligand 1 protein-positive (PD-L1+) exosomes have been found to be a potential biomarker for the diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the development of highly sensitive detection technique for PD-L1+ exosomes is still a challenge in clinical applications. Herein, a sandwich electrochemical aptasensor based on ternary metal-metalloid palladium-copper-boron alloy microporous nanospheres (PdCuB MNs) and Au@CuCl2 nanowires (NWs) was designed for the detection of PD-L1+ exosomes. The excellent peroxidase-like catalytic activity of PdCuB MNs and the high conductivity of Au@CuCl2 NWs endow the fabricated aptasensor with intense electrochemical signal, thus enabling the detection of low abundance exosomes. The analytical results revealed that the aptasensor maintained favorable linearity over a wide concentration range of 6 orders of magnitude and reached a low detection limit of 36 particles/mL. The aptasensor is successfully applied to the analysis of complex serum samples and achieves the accurate identification of clinical NSCLC patients. Overall, the developed electrochemical aptasensor provides a powerful tool for early diagnosis of NSCLC.

A lot of efforts have been devoted to the instrument development of simultaneous precision positioning and vibration control for on-orbit optical payloads. However, only series schemes with two active elements which, in fact, are coarse and fine hybrid mechanisms, are researched in despite of adverse impacts on the whole mass and dimensions, control strategy and energy usage. Thus, a new magnetostrictive integrated actuator with just one single active element is proposed to realize those two functions together. The detailed scheme is introduced, and the selection of some key parameters are explained first. Then, the explicit expressions are derived and the performances are preliminarily studied by numerical simulations. Finally, a prototype is fabricated, and experimental tests are carried out in view of external disturbances with different frequencies. The results indicate that the developed actuator can not only actively control the low-frequency disturbances but also can passively suppress the middle-high frequency micro-vibrations during precision positioning.

In this paper, a facile and efficient approach to robust and durable superhydrophobic cotton fabric was presented via in situ CuO deposition and stearic acid (STA) coating. The combined effects of both rough structure and low surface energy endowed cotton fabric (Cot) with superhydrophobicity, water repellency, and self-cleaning property. Moreover, the as-prepared fabric (Cot–CuO–STA) could keep its robust superhydrophobicity under harsh environmental conditions of acidic, alkaline and salt solutions, high temperature, mechanical abrasion and washing. Importantly, the obtained Cot–CuO–STA with WCA of 156.5° had great potential in oil/water separation with high separation efficiency of up to 98.7% for various oils (dichloromethane, trichloromethane, soybean oil, and n-heptane). Further, fascinating permeate flux (more than 1800 L.m−2.h−1) and remarkable recyclability made Cot–CuO–STA a promising application in oil-contaminated water treatment and marine spilt oil cleanup. Robust and durable superhydrophobic cotton fabric was fabricated for oil/water separation via a facile and efficient route. The resultant fabric exhibited remarkable separation efficiency for different kinds of oils, fascinating permeate flux, and excellent recyclability.

The gut microbiome can vary across differences in host lifestyle, geography, and host species. By comparing closely related host species across varying lifestyles and geography, we can evaluate the relative contributions of these factors in structuring the composition and functions of the microbiome. Here we show that the gut microbial taxa, microbial gene family composition, and resistomes of great apes and humans are more related by host lifestyle than geography. We show that captive chimpanzees and gorillas are enriched for microbial genera commonly found in non-Westernized humans. Captive ape microbiomes also had up to ~34-fold higher abundance and up to ~5-fold higher richness of all antibiotic resistance genes compared with wild apes. Through functional metagenomics, we identified a number of novel antibiotic resistance genes, including a gene conferring resistance to colistin, an antibiotic of last resort. Finally, by comparing our study cohorts to human and ape gut microbiomes from a diverse range of environments and lifestyles, we find that the influence of host lifestyle is robust to various geographic locations.

In this work, a novel and high-efficiency scavenger based on amino-functionalized cellulose was designed for sodium cholate sorption in vitro. To estimate the adsorption performance of the amino-functionalized cellulose for sodium cholate, various factors including sodium cholate concentration, contact time and electrolyte were investigated. The results suggested that amino-functionalization for cellulose regarding to hyperbranched polyethylenimine not only induce positive charge surface of cellulose but also provide abundant and special binding sites for sodium cholate sorption. The amino-functionalized cellulose displayed an excellent performance to sodium cholate sorption with a maximum adsorption capacity of 569.7 mg/g, higher than cholestyramine, a synthetic lipid-lowering drug in clinic. And the adsorption behavior was well fitted into the Langmuir isotherm model and pseudo-second-order kinetic model, suggesting a homogeneous monolayer chemisorption. Furthermore, the amino-functionalized cellulose presented the features of excellent anti-interferences, cytocompatibility and facile preparation process. All these results support amino-functionalized cellulose as a promising prospect for cholesterol elimination.

SB-706375 is a selective receptor antagonist of human urotensin-II (hU-II), which can block the aorta contraction induced by hU-II in rats. The effect of SB-706375 on myocardial ischaemia–reperfusion (I/R) injury is unclear. The major objective of this study was to investigate whether SB-706375 has a protective effect on myocardial I/R injury in rats and explore its possible mechanisms. Isolated hearts of Adult Sprague–Dawley were perfused in a Langendorff apparatus, and haemodynamic parameters, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), creatine phosphokinase-MB (CK-MB), cardiac troponin I (cTnI), RhoA, and the protein expressions of U-II receptor (UTR), receptor-interacting protein 3 (RIP3), Rho-associated coiled-coil-containing protein kinase 1 (ROCK1) and Rho-associated coiled-coil-containing protein kinase 2 (ROCK2) were assessed. We found that SB-706375 (1 × 10−6 and 1 × 10−5 mol/L) significantly inhibited the changes of haemodynamic parameters and reduced LDH and CK-MB activities and also cTnI level in the coronary effluents in the heart subjected to myocardial I/R injury. Further experiments studies showed that SB-706375 obviously prevented myocardial I/R increased RhoA activity and UTR, RIP3, ROCK1, and ROCK2 protein expressions. ROCK inhibition abolished the improving effect of SB-706375 on myocardial I/R-induced haemodynamic change in the isolated perfused rat heart. These findings suggested that SB-706375 provides cardio-protection against I/R injury in isolated rats by blocking UTR-RhoA/ROCK-RIP3 pathway.

The development of high drug loading and sustained release nanoparticles by simple and economical methods is significant for the treatment of diseases. Amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) is an ideal drug delivery system because of its excellent pH responsiveness, biocompatibility and biodegradability. In this work, ACC nanoparticles were successfully precipitated in ethanol–calcium solutions using ammonium carbonate as the internal source of CO2, which exhibited a relatively narrow size distribution in range of 10–200 nm. The microscopic morphology, amorphous characters, porous structure and thermal behavior of resultants were investigated by electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller and thermogravimetric analysis, respectively. In vitro drug release assay showed that ACC nanoparticles had high loading capacity of curcumin (Cur) and favorable drug release properties. Furthermore, ACC-Cur showed excellent abilities to scavenge free radicals, protect Cur stability and damage A549 cells, providing a broadened space for the applications of this material in the fields of biomedical or food.

The Homeobox B9 (HOXB9) is a homeodomain-containing transcription factor that participates in the progression of various malignancies. Nevertheless, the functional role of HOXB9 in prostate cancer cells is largely unknown. Hence, we aimed to address the effect of HOXB9 on the progression of prostate cancer cells. Small interfering RNA (siRNA) against HOXB9 was used to downregulate HOXB9 expression in PC3 and DU145 cells. Western blotting was performed to detect the expression levels of HOXB9 and other related proteins. Cell proliferation was tested by the Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) and cell cycle and apoptosis were investigated by flow cytometry. Angiogenesis was examined using tube formation assays The Transwell assays were carried out to assess the migratory and invasive capacities of cells. Here, we found that HOXB9 knockdown significantly reduced cell proliferation via inducing cell cycle arrest at G1 phase. This treatment also reduced angiogenesis, migration and invasion abilities of PC3 and DU145 cells in vitro. We also found that HOXB9 knockdown inhibits the activation of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway in prostate cancer cells. In conclusion, our findings revealed that HOXB9 promotes prostate cancer progression and might be a novel and effective therapeutic target for human prostate cancer.

These linear actuators with large displacement, high resolution and compact structure have played an important role in ultra-precision engineering and still attracted a lot of attentions for various applications. Thus, a new integrated linear actuator with above capacities, based on the principle of coarse-fine composite, is proposed and discussed in this paper. Owing to the integration of a new electromagnetic rotor drive (ERD) and a smart giant magnetostrictive drive (GMD), a larger displacement can be initially achieved and maintained by the driving of the ERD, whereafter a smaller displacement can be adjusted and refined by the GMD. The mechanism structure and working principle are presented and described detailedly. As the key part, mechanical analysis and dynamic modeling of the ERD are carried out and established, and structure optimization is also conducted for obtaining a better working environment. A prototype was manufactured and its main performance was tested through a series of experiments. The results confirm that with a compact size of $$\phi43 \times 95\, {\text{mm}}\, (L)$$ the maximum output displacement is 503 μm, and the movement resolution is up to 70 nm, proving the feasibility of precise positioning in ultra-precision engineering.

High-mobility group nucleosome-binding domain 5 (HMGN5) is a new member of the high-mobility group N (HMGN) protein family that is involved in nucleosomal binding and transcriptional activation. It was first discovered in mouse, and recent studies found that the expressions of HMGN5 in many human cancers were also highly regulated, such as prostate, bladder, breast, and lung and clear cell renal cell carcinoma. Numerous reports have demonstrated that HMGN5 plays significant roles in many biological and pathological conditions, such as in developmental defects, hypersensitivity to stress, embryonic stem cell differentiation, and tumor progression. Importantly, deficiency of HMGN5 has been shown to be linked to cancer cell growth, cell cycle regulation, migration, invasion, and clinical outcomes, and it represents a promising therapeutic target for many malignant tumors. In the present review, we provide an overview of the current knowledge concerning the role of HMGN5 in cancer development and progression.

The high-mobility group protein A2 (HMGA2) is an architectural transcription factor that plays a crucial role in the development and progression of various malignant cancers. However, the function of HMGA2 in bladder cancer remains largely unknown. Therefore, we aim to investigate the effect of HMGA2 on the proliferation, migration, invasion, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of bladder cancer cells. The expression of HMGA2 in human bladder cancer cells was downregulated by small interfering RNA (siRNA). The protein levels of HMGA2 and other related proteins were detected by Western blotting. The cell proliferation and apoptosis were examined by Cell Counting Kit-8 and flow cytometry, respectively. Transwell migration and invasion assays were performed to assess the effect of HMGA2 on the migration and invasion ability of cells. In conclusion, we found that HMGA2 knockdown markedly inhibited cell proliferation; this reduced cell growth was due to the high apoptosis rate of cells, as Bcl-xl was diminished, whereas Bax was upregulated. Moreover, our results showed that silencing of HMGA2 in cancer cells greatly inhibited the cell migration and invasion, decreased the expression of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), and affected the occurrence of EMT. We further found that decreased HMGA2 expression suppressed the transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β)/Smad and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in bladder cancer cells. These results revealed that HMGA2 played an important role in the progression of bladder cancer and might be a novel target for therapy in human bladder cancer.

Colobines are a unique group of Old World monkeys that principally eat leaves and seeds rather than fruits and insects. We report the sequencing at 146× coverage, de novo assembly and analyses of the genome of a male golden snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellana) and resequencing at 30× coverage of three related species (Rhinopithecus bieti, Rhinopithecus brelichi and Rhinopithecus strykeri). Comparative analyses showed that Asian colobines have an enhanced ability to derive energy from fatty acids and to degrade xenobiotics. We found evidence for functional evolution in the colobine RNASE1 gene, encoding a key secretory RNase that digests the high concentrations of bacterial RNA derived from symbiotic microflora. Demographic reconstructions indicated that the profile of ancient effective population sizes for R. roxellana more closely resembles that of giant panda rather than its congeners. These findings offer new insights into the dietary adaptations and evolutionary history of colobine primates.

We report the sequencing at 131× coverage, de novo assembly and analyses of the genome of a female Tibetan wild boar. We also resequenced the whole genomes of 30 Tibetan wild boars from six major distributed locations and 18 geographically related pigs in China. We characterized genetic diversity, population structure and patterns of evolution. We searched for genomic regions under selection, which includes genes that are involved in hypoxia, olfaction, energy metabolism and drug response. Comparing the genome of Tibetan wild boar with those of neighboring Chinese domestic pigs further showed the impact of thousands of years of artificial selection and different signatures of selection in wild boar and domestic pig. We also report genetic adaptations in Tibetan wild boar that are associated with high altitudes and characterize the genetic basis of increased salivation in domestic pig.

Some relations for quasiunit regular rings and QB-rings, as well as for pseudounit regular rings and QB ∞-rings, are obtained. In the first part of the paper, we prove that (an exchange ring R is a QB-ring) ⟺ (whenever x ∈ R is regular, there exists a quasiunit regular element w ∈ R such that x = xyx = xyw for some y ∈ R) ⟺ (whenever aR + bR = dR in R; there exists a quasiunit regular element w ∈ R such that a + bz = dw for some z ∈ R). Similarly, we also give necessary and sufficient conditions for QB ∞-rings in the second part of the paper.

A new ice gene (designated as Cbice53, an inducer of CBF expression) was cloned from Capsella bursa-pastoris by rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE). The full-length cDNA of Cbice53 was 1811 bp long, with a 1476-bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding a Myc-like protein of 492 amino acids. The predicted CbICE53 protein contained a potential basic helix-loop-helix domain, a nuclear localization signal (NLS), an RNA-binding region (RGG box), and N-glycosylation and kinase phosphorylation sites. Bioinformatic analysis showed that CbICE53 was highly homologous to ICE1 from Arabidopsis thaliana. Transcription of Cbice53 gene was induced transiently during salt and cold treatments, suggesting that it was somehow involved in cold acclimation. The results of our study indicate that the Cbice53 gene is a new member of the ice gene family and may have a role in cold and salt responsiveness in C. bursa-pastoris.

Objective To investigate the potential of125I-labeled anti-sense peptide nucleic acids (125I-AS-PNAs) to inhibit the expression of the Ki-67 gene and growth of implanted human renal carcinoma cells in nude mice.

A mutant library of subtilisin E containing random combinations of various mutagenized sites was constructed by one-round mutagenesis with 15 mutagenic oligonucleotides. Mutants were screened through dot blot hybridization and DNA sequencing. A single-point mutant (Met 222Ala) and a three-point (Asn 76Asp/Asn109Ser/ I le 205/Cys) mutant gene from the library were expressed. The mutant proteins exhibited conspicuously improved resistance to oxidation and heat treatment, as reported before. The results show that the library is reliable and very useful for protease subtilisin E engineering.