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Recently, many studies show that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in cancer biology. Although its expression was reported dysregulated during tumorigenesis, the contributions of lncRNAs to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are still largely unknown. In particular, the lncRNA CARLo-5 has a functional role in cell-cycle regulation in colon cancer, while the clinical significance and biological function of CARLo-5 in HCC remain unelucidated. In order to fill those study blanks, the expression level of CARLo-5 in human HCC specimens was tested, and its correlation with clinicopathologic features as well as the prognosis for patients with HCC was analyzed. Additionally, MTT, wound healing and transwell assays were employed to investigate the biological function of CARLo-5. The results showed that CARLo-5 levels were significantly overexpressed in HCC tissues compared to ANLT. Besides, high expression of CARLo-5 was associated with liver cirrhosis ( P = 0.001), tumor number ( P < 0.001), vascular invasion ( P = 0.001), capsular formation ( P = 0.014) and Edmondson-Steiner grade ( P < 0.001), which proved that CARLo-5 was an independent risk factor for overall survival and disease-free survival. In addition, in highly metastatic HCC cell lines (HCCLM3 and MHCC97-L), CARLo-5 was up-regulated, but in lowly metastatic HCC cell lines (HepG2, SNU387), it showed down-regulated. Besides, by using gain and loss of function experiments in HCC cell lines (HCCLM3 and HepG2), the results showed that CARLo-5 overexpression significantly enhanced cell proliferation, migration and invasion in vitro. Our study also revealed that CARLo-5 was prominently up-regulated in HCC specimens and its high expression was associated with poor prognosis of HCC patients. Totally, those findings together indicate that CARLo-5 promotes proliferation and metastasis of HCC and potentially emerged as a novel therapeutic target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses some basic dynamical properties of the chaotic finance system with parameter switching perturbation, and investigates chaos projective synchronization of the chaotic finance system with the time-varying delayed feedback controller, which are not fully considered in the existing research. Different from the previous methods, in this paper, the delayed feedback controller is not only time-varying, but also the time-varying delay is adaptive. Finally, an illustrate example is provided to show the effectiveness of this method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are crucial components of the tumor microenvironment. Fibroblast activation protein (FAP) is overexpressed in CAFs. FAP-targeted molecular imaging agents, including the FAP inhibitors (FAPIs) 04 and 46, have shown promising results in tumor diagnosis. However, these molecules have a relatively short tumor-retention time for peptide-targeted radionuclide therapy applications. We aimed to design a 68 Ga-labeled FAPI dimer, 68 Ga-DOTA-2P(FAPI) 2 , to optimize the pharmacokinetics and evaluate whether this form is more effective than its monomeric analogs. Methods: 68 Ga-DOTA-2P(FAPI) 2 was synthesized on the basis of the quinoline-based FAPI variant (FAPI-46), and its binding properties were assayed in CAFs. Preclinical pharmacokinetics were determined in FAP-positive patient-derived xenografts using small-animal PET and biodistribution experiments. The effective dosimetry of 68 Ga-DOTA-2P(FAPI) 2 was evaluated in 3 healthy volunteers, and PET/CT imaging of 68 Ga-FAPI-46 and 68 Ga-DOTA-2P(FAPI) 2 was performed on 3 cancer patients. Results: 68 Ga-DOTA-2P(FAPI) 2 was stable in phosphate-buffered saline and fetal bovine serum for 4 h. The FAPI dimer showed high affinity and specificity for FAP in vitro and in vivo. The tumor uptake of 68 Ga-DOTA-2P(FAPI) 2 was approximately 2-fold stronger than that of 68 Ga-FAPI-46 in patient-derived xenografts, whereas healthy organs showed low tracer uptake and fast body clearance. The effective dose of 68 Ga-DOTA-2P(FAPI) 2 was 1.19E-02 mSv/MBq, calculated using OLINDA. Finally, the PET/CT scans of the 3 cancer patients revealed higher intratumoral uptake of 68 Ga-DOTA-2P(FAPI) 2 than of 68 Ga-FAPI-46 in all tumor lesions (SUV max , 8.1-39.0 vs. 1.7-24.0, respectively; P < 0.001). Conclusion: 68 Ga-DOTA-2P(FAPI) 2 has increased tumor uptake and retention properties compared with 68 Ga-FAPI-46, and it could be a promising tracer for both diagnostic imaging and targeted therapy of malignant tumors with positive expression of FAP., (© 2022 by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.)

Growing evidence indicates that deubiquitinase ubiquitin-specific protease 11 (USP11) plays an important role in cellular function by regulating the stability of its substrates. USP11 is dysregulated in many types of cancer and involved in tumor development and progression. We previously showed that USP11 was upregulated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and promoted HCC cell invasion and metastasis potency. However, the mechanism underlying the role of USP11 in HCC cell metastasis and its function in cell proliferation remain unknown. Here, CCK-8, soft agar assays and nude mouse models showed that USP11 was essential for HCC cells survival and proliferation in vitro and in vivo . Results form mass spectrometry, co-immunoprecipitation, and ubiquitination assays demonstrated that USP11 interacted with nuclear factor 90 (NF90) and promoted its deubiquitination, thereby stabilizing it in HCC cells. Moreover, the effect of USP11 on promoting HCC cells proliferation and metastasis was dependent on NF90, and USP11 expression was positively correlated with NF90 expression in human HCC tissues, as demonstrated via immunohistochemistry. Collectively, the present findings indicated that USP11 binded to and deubiquitinated NF90, thereby stabilizing the protein expression level and promoting HCC cell proliferation and metastasis. NF90 was identified as an important downstream target of USP11. Dysregulated signaling of this novel USP11/NF90 axis might promote HCC proliferation and metastasis, and the axis could be a potential therapeutic target in HCC., Competing Interests: None., (AJCR Copyright © 2020.)

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the differential diagnostic value of 2-[fluorine-18]-fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose ( 18 F-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) for benign and malignant vertebral compression fractures (VCFs), where the diagnostic accuracy of 18 F-FDG PET/CT was compared with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)., Patients and Methods: Between 2015 and 2017, we retrospectively evaluated 87 patients with 116 VCFs. MRI was performed in all the 87 patients, whereas 18 F-FDG PET/CT was executed in 51 patients. Three malignant features (convex posterior cortex, epidural mass formation, and pedicle enhancement) from MRI and the maximum standardized uptake value (SUV max ) from 18 F-FDG PET/CT were evaluated in benign and malignant VCFs, respectively. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of MRI and 18 F-FDG PET/CT were compared in the differentiation of malignant from benign VCFs., Results: The results of our investigation showed that the sensitivity and specificity for predicting malignant VCFs were 75.6% and 77.3% for convex posterior cortex, 82.9% and 813% for epidural mass formation, and 85.7% and 70.8% for pedicle enhancement. 18 F-FDG PET/CT demonstrated higher sensitivity (100%) but lower specificity (38.9%) as compared to MRI with regard to differentiation between benign and malignant VCFs. A significant difference in the SUV max values was observed between the benign and malignant fractures (2.9 ± 1.0 vs 5.0 ± 1.8, P < 0.01). Besides the value of SUV max , it has been noticed that the FDG uptake pattern differed in malignant and benign fractures., Conclusion: Significant MRI findings such as convex posterior cortex, epidural mass formation, and pedicle enhancement are highly suggestive of malignancy. 18 F-FDG PET/CT reliably differentiated the fractures of malignant from benign based on both SUV max and 18 F-FDG uptake pattern. In a situation where MRI findings are not diagnostic, 18 F-FDG PET/CT provides additional information as it has high sensitivity and is semiquantitative., Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Postoperative recurrence and metastasis are the major problems for the current treatment of hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) in the clinic, including hepatectomy and liver transplantation. Here, we report that arsentic-loaded nanoparticles (ALNPs) are able to reduce the invasion of HCC cells in vitro, and, more importantly, can strongly suppress the invasion and metastasis of HCC in vivo without adverse side effects. Compared to free drug arsenic trioxide , ALNPs can deliver the drug into cancer cells more efficiently, destroy the structure of microtubules and reduce the aggregation of microfilaments in cell membranes more significantly. Furthermore, our results also reveal that tumor cells in murine blood were reduced remarkably after intravenous injection of ALNPs, indicating that this nano-drug may efficiently kill circulating tumor cells in vivo. In conclusion, our nano-drug ALNPs have great potential for the suppression of metastasis of HCC, which may open up a new avenue for the effective treatment of HCC without metastasis and recurrence.