Search

Osteosarcoma (OS), which is a common and aggressive primary bone malignancy, occurs mainly in children and adolescent. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are reported to play a pivotal role in various cancers. Here, we found that the lncRNA HOTAIRM1 is upregulated in OS cells and tissues. A set of functional experiments suggested that HOTAIRM1 knockdown attenuated the proliferation and stimulated the apoptosis of OS cells. A subsequent mechanistic study revealed that HOTAIRM1 functions as a competing endogenous RNA to elevate ras homologue enriched in brain (Rheb) expression by sponging miR‐664b‐3p. Immediately afterward, upregulated Rheb facilitates proliferation and suppresses apoptosis by promoting the mTOR pathway‐mediated Warburg effect in OS. In summary, our findings demonstrated that HOTAIRM1 promotes the proliferation and suppresses the apoptosis of OS cells by enhancing the Warburg effect via the miR‐664b‐3p/Rheb/mTOR axis. Understanding the underlying mechanisms and targeting the HOTAIRM1/miR‐664b‐3p/Rheb/mTOR axis are essential for OS clinical treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most common primary malignant neoplasm of the bone. Recent studies have indicated that the inhibitory effects of microRNA (miR)‐324‐3p could affect the development of numerous cancers. However, its biological roles and underlying mechanisms in OS progression remain unexplored. In this study, miR‐324‐3p expression was markedly reduced in OS cell lines and tissues. Functionally, miR‐324‐3p overexpression suppressed OS progression and was involved in the Warburg effect. Mechanistically, miR‐324‐3p negatively regulated phosphoglycerate mutase 1 (PGAM1) expression by targeting its 3′‐UTR. Moreover, high expression of PGAM1 promoted OS progression and aerobic glycolysis, which were associated with inferior overall survival in patients with OS. Notably, the tumor suppressor functions of miR‐324‐3p were partially recovered by PGAM1 overexpression. In summary, the miR‐324‐3p/PGAM1 axis plays an important role in regulating OS progression by controlling the Warburg effect. Our results provide mechanistic insights into the function of miR‐324‐3p in glucose metabolism and subsequently on the progression of OS. Targeting the miR‐324‐3p/PGAM1 axis could be a promising molecular strategy for the treatment of OS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of respiratory tract microbes and the relationship between respiratory tract and gut microbiomes in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) remain uncertain. Here, the metagenomes of sputum and fecal samples from 66 patients with COVID‐19 at three stages of disease progression are sequenced. Respiratory tract, gut microbiome, and peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) samples are analyzed to compare the gut and respiratory tract microbiota of intensive care unit (ICU) and non‐ICU (nICU) patients and determine relationships between respiratory tract microbiome and immune response. In the respiratory tract, significantly fewer Streptococcus, Actinomyces, Atopobium, and Bacteroides are found in ICU than in nICU patients, while Enterococcus and Candida increase. In the gut, significantly fewer Bacteroides are found in ICU patients, while Enterococcus increases. Significant positive correlations exist between relative microbiota abundances in the respiratory tract and gut. Defensin‐related pathways in PBMCs are enhanced, and respiratory tract Streptococcus is reduced in patients with COVID‐19. A respiratory tract–gut microbiota model identifies respiratory tract Streptococcus and Atopobium as the most prominent biomarkers distinguishing between ICU and nICU patients. The findings provide insight into the respiratory tract and gut microbial dynamics during COVID‐19 progression, considering disease severity, potentially contributing to diagnosis, and treatment strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemical prelithiation is considered to be a facile and efficient strategy to compensate the initial irreversible capacity loss of anode materials for achieving full capacity utilization of Li‐ion batteries (LIBs). However, most of the prelithiation reagents reported so far are difficult to apply for commercially used graphite (Gr) anode due to their higher redox potentials than the formation potential of graphite–lithium compounds and the co‐intercalation behavior in the interlayers of Gr anode, causing the exfoliation and destruction of Gr structure during prelithiation process. Herein, a new prelithiation solution for Gr anode by using lithium naphthalenide as a lithiation reagent and 2‐methyl tetrahydrofuran as a reduction‐tolerant solvent is demonstrated. This prelithiation solution has a very low redox potential of 0.19 V and can controllably and efficiently prelithiate Gr anode to a required degree in a few minutes without the solvent co‐intercalation. Benefiting from these advantages, the Gr anode prelithiated for 3 min exhibits a high initial Coulombic efficiency of 100%, a better rate capability, and higher cycling capacity retention than conventional pristine Gr anode. Particularly, this prelithiation solution is low cost, easily synthesized, and recycled for industrial production, thus offering a practical convenience for LIBs manufacture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemical prelithiation is an effective approach to elevate the initial Coulombic efficiency (ICE) and energy utilization of Li‐ion battery electrodes. However, this approach fails to operate for the most commonly used graphite (Gr) anode, because all the prelithiation reagents reported so far have a much higher redox potential than Gr (≈0.2 V). Based on ionic solvation and coordination chemistry, for the first time, a new design strategy is proposed for prelithiation solution by selecting a strong electron‐donating, sterically hindered, and chemically stable solvent to tune the redox potential of prelithiation reagent and also to prevent the solvent co‐intercalation during prelithiation process, thus enabling a successful prelithiation of Gr anodes. By theoretical prediction and experimental evaluation, a chemical prelithiation solution, lithium biphenylide/2‐methyl tetrahydrofuran, is successfully developed, which can prelithiate Gr anodes accurately to a desired state in few minutes without destroying the lattice structure of Gr. When the prelithiated Gr anodes (pGr) are paired with the conventional cathodes, the full cells demonstrate significantly improved ICEs and higher energy densities than their counterparts using pristine Gr anodes, showing a great prospect for wide Li‐ion battery applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lncRNA LINC01123 has been reported to act as an oncogene in many human cancers. Nevertheless, the function and underlying mechanism of LINC01123 in osteosarcoma (OS) remain unclear. This study aimed to explore the roles and mechanisms of LINC01123 in OS progression. In this study, the expression of LINC01123 was significantly upregulated in OS cell lines than in a human osteoblast cell line. Furthermore, in vitro and in vivo experiments confirmed that knockdown of LINC01123 suppressed cell progression. Mechanistically, LINC01123 acted as a competing endogenous RNA by sponging miR‐516b‐5p, thus, increasing Gli1 expression by directly targeting its 3ʹUTR. Taken together, LINC01123 enhances OS proliferation and metastasis via the miR‐516b‐5p/Gli1 axis. Therefore, LINC01123 may be a potential therapeutic target for OS treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Brassica napus (AACC, 2n = 38) is an important oilseed crop grown worldwide. However, little is known about the population evolution of this species, the genomic difference between its major genetic groups, such as European and Asian rapeseed, and the impacts of historical large‐scale introgression events on this young tetraploid. In this study, we reported the de novo assembly of the genome sequences of an Asian rapeseed (B. napus), Ningyou 7, and its four progenitors and compared these genomes with other available genomic data from diverse European and Asian cultivars. Our results showed that Asian rapeseed originally derived from European rapeseed but subsequently significantly diverged, with rapid genome differentiation after hybridization and intensive local selective breeding. The first historical introgression of B. rapa dramatically broadened the allelic pool but decreased the deleterious variations of Asian rapeseed. The second historical introgression of the double‐low traits of European rapeseed (canola) has reshaped Asian rapeseed into two groups (double‐low and double‐high), accompanied by an increase in genetic load in the double‐low group. This study demonstrates distinctive genomic footprints and deleterious SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) variants for local adaptation by recent intra‐ and interspecies introgression events and provides novel insights for understanding the rapid genome evolution of a young allopolyploid crop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synchronous multifocal tumors are common in the hepatobiliary and pancreatic system but because of similarities in their histological features, oncologists have difficulty in identifying their precise tissue clonal origin through routine histopathological methods. To address this problem and assist in more precise diagnosis, we developed a computational approach for tissue origin diagnosis based on naive Bayes algorithm (TOD-Bayes) using ubiquitous RNA-Seq data. Massive tissue-specific RNA-Seq data sets were first obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and ∼1,000 feature genes were used to train and validate the TOD-Bayes algorithm. The accuracy of the model was >95% based on tenfold cross validation by the data from TCGA. A total of 18 clinical cancer samples (including six negative controls) with definitive tissue origin were subsequently used for external validation and 17 of the 18 samples were classified correctly in our study (94.4%). Furthermore, we included as cases studies seven tumor samples, taken from two individuals who suffered from synchronous multifocal tumors across tissues, where the efforts to make a definitive primary cancer diagnosis by traditional diagnostic methods had failed. Using our TOD-Bayes analysis, the two clinical test cases were successfully diagnosed as pancreatic cancer (PC) and cholangiocarcinoma (CC), respectively, in agreement with their clinical outcomes. Based on our findings, we believe that the TOD-Bayes algorithm is a powerful novel methodology to accurately identify the tissue origin of synchronous multifocal tumors of unknown primary cancers using RNA-Seq data and an important step toward more precision-based medicine in cancer diagnosis and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heterosis is a fundamental biological phenomenon characterized by the superior performance of a hybrid compared with its parents. The underlying molecular basis for heterosis, particularly for allopolyploids, remains elusive. In this study we analyzed the transcriptomes of Brassica napus parental lines and their F1 hybrids at three stages of early flower development. Phenotypically, the F1 hybrids show remarkable heterosis in silique number and grain yield. Transcriptome analysis revealed that various phytohormone (auxin and salicylic acid) response genes are significantly altered in the F1 hybrids relative to the parental lines. We also found evidence for decreased expression divergence of the homoeologous gene pairs in the allopolyploid F1 hybrids and suggest that high-parental expression-level dominance plays an important role in heterosis. Small RNA and methylation studies aimed at examining the epigenetic effect of the changes in gene expression level in the F1 hybrids showed that the majority of the small interfering RNA (si RNA) clusters had a higher expression level in the F1 hybrids than in the parents, and that there was an increase in genome-wide DNA methylation in the F1 hybrid. Transposable elements associated with si RNA clusters had a higher level of methylation and a lower expression level in the F1 hybrid, implying that the non-additively expressed si RNA clusters resulted in lower activity of the transposable elements through DNA methylation in the hybrid. Our data provide insights into the role that changes in gene expression pattern and epigenetic mechanisms contribute to heterosis during early flower development in allopolyploid B. napus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevalence of information communication technology (ICT) enables employees to conveniently communicate with coworkers and clients regardless of time and place. However, recent studies have revealed a negative side of ICT use, especially its capacity to invade the family domain. This study was developed based on the spillover–crossover model (SCM) to test how ICT availability demand shapes employees' family experiences and how this demand crosses over to spouses. A total of 961 cases nested in 101 dual‐earner couples were collected using a 10‐week experience sampling method. Multilevel structural equation modelling revealed that (1) employees' work interference with family (WIF) mediated the indirect impact of employees' ICT availability demand on their family satisfaction and family undermining; (2) employees' WIF mediated the indirect impact of employees' ICT availability demand on their spouses' family satisfaction and family undermining; and (3) employees' ICT control buffered these two indirect relationships by which employees' ICT availability demand impacted their own and their spouses' family satisfaction and family undermining. This research elaborates on the spillover and crossover process through which ICT availability demand shapes family experience, thus contributing to the literature on ICT availability demand and the SCM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]