Search

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of trichostatin A (TSA) on cervical cancer and the related mechanisms. Methods: The HeLa and Caski cervical cancer cell lines were treated with different concentrations of TSA. Cell viability was measured by MTT assays. Cell apoptosis was analysed using flow cytometry. Expression of transient receptor potential cation channel, subfamily V, member 6 (TRPV6), protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5), and stanniocalcin 1 (STC1) was determined by qRT-PCR and Western blotting. Protein levels of LC3 II/I, beclin1, p62, JNK, and p-JNK were detected by Western blotting. Results: Treatment with TSA significantly decreased HeLa and Caski cell viability and enhanced the apoptosis rate in a dose-dependent manner. TSA markedly elevated beclin1 protein levels and the LC3 II/I ratio and significantly reduced p62 levels in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, TSA (1 μM) significantly suppressed PRMT5 and TRPV6 levels and enhanced STC1 and p-JNK levels. The lysosomal inhibitor bafilomycin-A1 synergistically enhanced the TSA-mediated increase in autophagic flux. Either the overexpression of TRPV6 or the inhibition of JNK signalling markedly enhanced cell viability, inhibited apoptosis, and autophagy and reduced p-JNK levels in TSA-treated cells. The inhibition of STC1 significantly increased TRPV6 protein levels and reduced p-JNK levels. Overexpression of PRMT5 dramatically decreased STC1 and p-JNK protein levels and increased TRPV6 levels. Conclusion: TSA suppresses cervical cancer cell proliferation and induces apoptosis and autophagy through regulation of the PRMT5/STC1/TRPV6/JNK axis.

Toward developing an efficient plasma-based technique for CO2 reduction with CH4, warm-plasma catalytic (WPC) reduction of CO2 with CH4 in a reactor using gliding arc discharge and Ni/CeO2/Al2O3 catalyst is reported. In the warm plasma (WP) case, besides dry reforming reaction, reverse water gas shift (RWGS) reaction also comparably contributes for CO2 reduction. Although the contribution of dry reforming reaction is significantly enhanced by the increase of CH4/CO2 ratio, it accounts for only 60% due to the limitation of maximum CH4/CO2 ratio by the serious carbon deposition at CH4/CO2 >1/2. In addition, the low CH4/CO2 ratio also results in the low CO2 conversion, H2/CO ratio and H2 selectivity. In the WPC case, extra CH4 was fed after plasma to increase the CH4/CO2 ratio to 1, dry reforming reaction becomes the major contributor of CO2 reduction. Under the conditions of specific energy input of 86 kJ/mol, total flow rate of 2.67 SLM, catalyst-bed temperature of 850 °C and gas hourly space velocity of 3200 h−1, CO2 conversion of 91% and CH4 conversion of 94% with H2/CO = 1 and nearly 100% H2 selectivity are achieved with a CO2 energy cost of 598 kJ/mol and an energy efficiency of 72%.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a heterogeneous carcinoma whose underlying molecular mechanisms involved in tumor initiation, progression, and migration are largely unclear. The aim of the present study was to identify key biomarkers and small-molecule drugs for screening, diagnosing, and treating NPC via gene expression profile analysis. Raw microarray data was used to identify 430 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. The key modules associated with histological grade and tumor stage were identified using weighted gene co-expression network analysis. qRT-PCR was used to verify the differential expression of hub genes. Gene ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and the connectivity map database were used to identify potential mechanisms and screen small-molecule drugs targeting hub genes. Functional enrichment analysis showed that genes in the green module were enriched in the regulation of cell cycle, p53 signaling pathway, and cell part morphogenesis. Four DEG-related hub genes (CRIP1, KITLG, MARK1, and PGAP1) in the green module, which were considered potential diagnostic biomarkers, were taken as the final hub genes. The expression levels of these four hub genes were verified via qRT-PCR, and the results were consistent with findings from the GEO analysis. Screening was also conducted to identify small-molecule drugs with potential therapeutic effects against NPC. In conclusion, four potential prognostic biomarkers and several candidate small-molecule drugs, which may provide new insights for NPC therapy, were identified., Graphical Abstract

Signal processing within the retina is generally mediated by graded potentials, whereas output is conveyed by action potentials transmitted along optic nerve axons. Among retinal neurons, amacrine cells seem to be an exception to this general rule, as several types generate voltage-gated Na+ (Nav ) channel-dependent action potentials. The AII, a narrow-field, bistratified axon-less amacrine cell found in mammalian retinas, displays a unique process that resembles an axon initial segment (AIS), with expression of Nav channels colocalized with the cytoskeletal protein ankyrin-G, and generates action potentials. As the role of spiking in AIIs is uncertain, we hypothesized that the morphological properties of the AIS-like process could provide information relevant for its functional importance, including potential pre- and/or postsynaptic connectivity. For morphological analysis, we injected AII amacrine cells in slices with fluorescent dye and immunolabeled the slices for ankyrin-G. Subsequently, this enabled us to reliably identify AII-type processes among ankyrin-G labeled processes in wholemount retina. We systematically analyzed the laminar localization, spatial orientation, and distribution of the AIS-like processes as a function of retinal eccentricity. In the horizontal plane, the processes displayed no preferred orientation and terminal endings were randomly distributed. In the vertical plane, the processes displayed a horizontal preference, but also ascended and descended into the inner nuclear layer and proximal inner plexiform layer, respectively. These results suggest that the AII amacrine AIS-like process is unlikely to take part in conventional synaptic connections, but may instead be adapted to respond to volume neurotransmission by means of extrasynaptic receptors. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Background: Many patients with advanced cervical cancer (CC) have a poor prognosis and their mortality rank the first among women with malignant tumors. It's essential to explore the molecular mech...

// Xi Pan 1, 2, 3 , Binyuan Jiang 1, 2 , Jianhao Liu 4 , Juan Ding 3 , Yuehui Li 1, 2 , Ruili Sun 1, 2 , Li Peng 1, 2 , Changfei Qin 1, 2 , Shujuan Fang 1, 2 and Guancheng Li 1, 2 1 The Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis of The Chinese Ministry of Health and The Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of The Chinese Ministry of Education, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410008, China 2 Cancer Research Institute, Central South University, Changsha 410078, China 3 Xiangya Third Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410078, China 4 School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Central South University, Changsha 410078, China Correspondence to: Guancheng Li, email: ligc61@csu.edu.cn Keywords: stanniocalin-1 (STC1), cell apoptosis, cervical cancer, NF-κB, phospho-P65 (Ser536) Received: November 22, 2016 Accepted: March 11, 2017 Published: May 05, 2017 ABSTRACT Stanniocalin-1 (STC1) is a secreted glycoprotein hormone and involved in various types of human malignancies. Our previous studies revealed that STC1 inhibited cell proliferation and invasion of cervical cancer cells through NF-κB P65 activation, but the mechanism is poorly understood. In our studies, we found overexpression of STC1 promoted cell apoptosis while silencing of STC1 promoted cell growth of cervical cancer. Phospho-protein profiling and Western blotting results showed the expression of NF-κB related phosphorylation sites including NF-κB P65 (Ser536), IκBα, IKKβ, PI3K, and AKT was altered in STC1-overexpressed cervical cancer cells. Moreover, PI3K inhibitor LY294002, AKT-shRNA and IκBα-shRNA could decrease the protein content of phospho-P65 (Ser536), phospho-IκBα, phospho-AKT and phospho-IKKβ while increasing the level of P65 compared to STC1 overexpression groups in cervical cancer cells. Also, PI3K inhibitor LY294002, AKT-shRNA and IκBα-shRNA elevated the percentage of apoptosis and suppressed the G1/S transition in those cells. Additionally, STC1 level was decreased in cervical cancer, especial in stage II and III. The results of immunohistochemistry for the cervical cancer microarray showed that a lower level of STC1, phospho-PI3K and P65 protein expression in tumor tissues than that in normal tissues, and a higher level of phospho-P65 protein expression in tumor tissues, which is consistent with the results of the Western blotting. These data demonstrated that STC1 can promote cell apoptosis via NF-κB phospho-P65 (Ser536) by PI3K/AKT, IκBα and IKK signaling in cervical cancer cells. Our results offer the first mechanism that explains the link between STC1 and cell apoptosis in cervical cancer.

In terms of the reaction of CO2 reduction to CO with hydrogen, CO2 conversion is very low at low temperature due to the limitation of thermodynamic equilibrium (TE). To overcome this limitation, plasma catalytic reduction of CO2 to CO in a catalyst-filled dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor is studied. An enhanced effect of plasma on the reaction over Au/CeO2 catalysts is observed. For both the conventionally catalytic (CC) and plasma catalytic (PC, Pin = 15 W) reactions under conditions of 400 °C, H2/CO2 = 1, 200 SCCM, GHSV = 12,000 mL•g−1cat•h−1, CO2 conversions over Au/CeO2 reach 15.4% and 25.5% due to the presence of Au, respectively, however, those over CeO2 are extremely low and negligible. Moreover, CO2 conversion over Au/CeO2 in the PC reaction exceeds 22.4% of the TE conversion. Surface intermediate species formed on the catalyst samples during the reactions are determined by in-situ temperature-programmed decomposition (TPD) technique. Interestingly, it disclosed that in the PC reaction, the formation of formate intermediate is enhanced by plasma, and the acceleration by plasma in the decomposition of formate species is much greater than that in the formation of formate species on Au/CeO2. Enhancement factor is introduced to quantify the enhanced effect of plasma. Lower reactor temperature, higher gas hourly space velocity (GHSV), and lower molar ratio of H2/CO2 would be associated with larger enhancement factor.

CO 2 selective reduction to CO with H 2 over a CeO 2 -supported nano-Au catalyst at atmospheric pressure was investigated. A high CO 2 conversion, approaching the thermodynamic equilibrium value, and nearly 100% CO selectivity were obtained. The surface formate intermediates generated during the reverse water-gas shift reaction at 400℃ were identified using in situ diffuse-reflectance infrared Fourier-transform spectroscopy. The formate consumption to give CO and H 2 O, determined using mass spectrometry, indicated that the reaction proceeded via an associative formate mechanism; this contributes to the high Au/CeO 2 catalytic activity at low temperatures.

SVC is a dynamic reactive compensator based on switching type HV electrical and electronic devices, well recognized as an effective means of resolving power quality problems. SVC is complex in structure, consisting of TCR valve sets, FC filter channel, etc. In particular, TCR valve set adopts thyristor serial connecting technology, and over 100 thyristors are adopted, which requires real-time status of devices in SVC to be monitored and uploaded, and even failures to be recorded. Therefore, the monitoring software becomes an important part in ensuring SVC safe operation. Combined with actual cases, this paper introduces a technology of using C++ Builder and Inter Base to design the static reactive compensator monitoring software. The user interface is elegant, with short development period, highly transplantable, and easily modified.

In software testing, test oracles do not always exist or are too hard to generate, which is called "test oracle problem". Metamorphic testing (MT) provide an effective way to alleviate the problem based on metamorphic relations (MR). As a MR is satisfied by a set of test cases, it does not mean that the test cases are success. Therefore, more MRs are needed to improve the effectiveness of MT. For different programs, great deals of valuable MRs have been generated. But not all of them are effective in fault detection. Then, the next issue is how to select the better MRs which could detect the failed test cases as soon as possible. To resolve this problem, several qualitative guidelines were proposed for MR priority recently. For the MRs described with different forms, these guidelines could be used to select the effective MRs and improve the performance of MT observably. In our previous research, we constructed a formal model for MR, with which a MR could be decomposed into three sub relations. In this paper, based on the sub relations of MR, we provide three measurable metrics for MR selection: in-degree of MR, algebra complexity of MR, and distance between test inputs of MR. To evaluate the effectiveness of these metrics, we also conducted experiments on four programs with different numbers of MRs. The empirical results show that the metrics are correlated with the effectiveness of MRs and the previous MR selection guidelines.

Three representative schools of scalp acupuncture for the stroke hemiplegia such as Jiao's scalp acupuncture, Yu's scalp acupuncture and temporal three-needle are introduced and analyzed. Since the schools of scalp acupuncture are numerous and the bases of selection acupoints are complicated, it demands to determine the optimal needling acupoints by means of scientific research. Therefore, the selection acupoints would be adhering to scientific principles. The theoretical basis needs to be explored and studied further.

To observe the clinical effects of scalp penetration acupuncture and conventional scalp acupuncture for treatment of acute apoplexy, to seek the effective location and mechanism of scalp acupuncture treatment for acute apoplexy.Sixty cases of the apoplexy were randomly divided into an observation group and a control group, 30 cases in each group. Basis on the neurological treatment, the observation group was treated with penetration needling through Baihui (GV 20) to Taiyang (EX-HN 5) on the affected side, with four needles relay; the control group was treated with penetration needling at anterior oblique line of parietotemporal region, with four needles relay. After 14 days of treatment, the neurological deficit scores (NDS) and the therapeutic effects were compared before and after treatment, and the contents of plasma endothelins (ET) and the calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) were tested respectively on the 2nd and 14th day after treatment.The effective rate of 86.7% (26/30) in the observation group was superior to that of 80.0% (24/30) in the control group; the NDS of both groups were obviously decreased after treatment (both P0.01), the improvement degree in the observation group was better than that of the control group (P0.01); the ET level was obviously decreased and the CGRP level was obviously increased in both groups after treatment (all P0.01), and the range of change was more significant in the observation group (P0.01).Penetration needling through Baihui (GV 20) to Taiyang (EX-HN 5) is an effective treatment for acute apoplexy, which is better than conventional scalp acupuncture.

Anatomical knowledge of the structures to be targeted and of the circuitry involved is crucial in stereotactic functional neurosurgery. The present study was undertaken in the context of surgical treatment of motor disorders such as essential tremor (ET) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) to precisely determine the course and three-dimensional stereotactic localisation of the cerebellothalamic and pallidothalamic tracts in the human brain. The course of the fibre tracts to the thalamus was traced in the subthalamic region using multiple staining procedures and their entrance into the thalamus determined according to our atlas of the human thalamus and basal ganglia [Morel (2007) Stereotactic atlas of the human thalamus and basal ganglia. Informa Healthcare Inc., New York]. Stereotactic three-dimensional coordinates were determined by sectioning thalamic and basal ganglia blocks parallel to stereotactic planes and, in two cases, by correlation with magnetic resonance images (MRI) from the same brains prior to sectioning. The major contributions of this study are to provide: (1) evidence that the bulks of the cerebellothalamic and pallidothalamic tracts are clearly separated up to their thalamic entrance, (2) stereotactic maps of the two tracts in the subthalamic region, (3) the possibility to discriminate between different subthalamic fibre tracts on the basis of immunohistochemical stainings, (4) correlations of histologically identified fibre tracts with high-resolution MRI, and (5) evaluation of the interindividual variability of the fibre systems in the subthalamic region. This study should provide an important basis for accurate stereotactic neurosurgical targeting of the subthalamic region in motor disorders such as PD and ET.

AII amacrine cells have been found in all mammalian retinas examined and play an important role for visual processing under both scotopic and photopic conditions. Whereas ultrastructural investigations have provided a detailed understanding of synaptic connectivity, there is little information available with respect to quantitative properties and variation of cellular morphology. Here, we performed whole-cell recordings from AII amacrine cells in rat retinal slices and filled the cells with fluorescent dyes. Multi-photon excitation microscopy was used to acquire image stacks and after deconvolution, we performed quantitative morphological reconstruction by computer-aided manual tracing. We reconstructed and performed morphometric analysis on 43 AII amacrine cells, with a focus on branching pattern, dendritic lengths and diameters, surface area, and number and distribution of dendritic varicosities. Compared to previous descriptions, the most surprising result was the considerable extent of branching, with the maximum branch order ranging from approximately 10–40. We found that AII amacrine cells conform to a recently described general structural design principle for neural arbors, where arbor density decreases proportionally to increasing territory size. We confirmed and quantified the bi-stratified morphology of AII amacrine cells by analyzing the arborizations as a function of retinal localization or with Sholl spheres. Principal component and cluster analysis revealed no evidence for morphological subtypes of AII amacrines. These results establish a database of morphometric properties important for studies of development, regeneration, degeneration, and disease processes, as well as a workflow compatible with compartmental modeling. publishedVersion