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BACKGROUND Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are important regulators in the pathogenesis of lung cancer. The study aims to explore the function and mechanism of circRNA methyltransferase-like 15 (circ-METTL15) in lung cancer development. METHODS The expression of circ-METTL15, miR-1299 and programmed death-ligand 1 (PDL1) were investigated by qRT-PCR assay. Cell viability, colony formation, cell proliferation and invasion were determined by MTT, colony formation, EDU incorporation and transwell assays, respectively. Cell apoptosis was attested by flow cytometry and TUNEL assays. Interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and Tumour Necrosis Factor-α (TNF-α) production were tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and the survival rate of cancer cells was assessed by cytotoxicity analysis. The protein expression was examined by western blot or immunohistochemistry (IHC) assay. The interaction between miR-1299 and circ-METTL15 or PDL1 was confirmed via dual-luciferase reporter assay. Xenograft models were established in mice to explore the role of circ-METTL15 in tumour growth in vivo. RESULTS Circ-METTL15 was upregulated in lung cancer tissues and cells. Circ-METTL15 silencing suppressed cell proliferation, colony formation, invasion, immune escape and promoted cell apoptosis in lung cancer cells. Circ-METTL15 was a sponge of miR-1299, and it could exert regulatory function in lung cancer via miR-1299. Furthermore, PDL1 was a functional target of miR-1299, and miR-1299 inhibited lung cancer cell development via decreasing PDL1 expression. Moreover, circ-METTL15 controlled PDL1 expression by acting as a sponge of miR-1299. Besides, circ-METTL15 downregulation blocked lung cancer tumour growth in vivo by regulating the miR-1299/PDL1 axis. CONCLUSION Circ-METTL15 promoted lung cancer malignant progression at least partly through modulating PDL1 by sponging miR-1299.

Purpose Recent studies have identified important roles for long intergenic non-protein coding RNA 1426 (LINC01426) in glioma and clear cell renal cell carcinoma. The present study evaluated the expression profile of LINC01426 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissues and cell lines. Furthermore, the function of LINC01426 in NSCLC and the molecular mechanisms involved were extensively studied. Methods The abundance of LINC01426 in NSCLC tissues and cell lines was determined using quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. The cell counting kit-8 assay, flow cytometry, transwell experiments for migration and invasion, and xenograft tumor model were used to assess the function of LINC01426 in NSCLC cells. Mechanistic studies were performed using the luciferase reporter assay and RNA immunoprecipitation. Results Significant LINC01426 upregulation was observed in NSCLC tissues and cell lines. Silencing LINC01426 inhibited proliferation, migration, and invasion of NSCLC cells and facilitated cell apoptosis in vitro. Furthermore, interference of LINC01426 restricted tumor growth of NSCLC cells in vivo. In addition, LINC01426 showed the ability to directly bind to microRNA-519d-5p (miR-519d-5p) and act as a molecular sponge for miR-519d-5p in NSCLC cells. Furthermore, the ETS proto-oncogene 1 (ETS1) was identified as a direct target of miR-519d-5p and LINC01426 could indirectly upregulate ETS1 expression by sponging miR-519d-5p. Moreover, the cancer-inhibiting activities of LINC01426 knockdown in NSCLC cells were partially offset by miR-519d-5p inhibition. Conclusion LINC01426 increases ETS1 expression by sequestering miR-519d-5p, thereby aggravating the malignant progression of NSCLC. The LINC01426/miR-519d-5p/ETS1 competing endogenous RNA pathway may provide a target for designing therapeutic agents for NSCLC treatment.

Dai J, Wang B, Zhao Y, et al. Cancer Manag Res. 2020;12:12697–12708. The Editor and Publisher of Cancer Management and Research wish to publish an Expression of Concern for the published article. Following publication, concerns were raised about the scientific integrity of the articles content. We reached out to the authors requesting they supply information that would confirm the integrity of the data. The authors provided several files in response to our queries but they did not satisfy our requirements to confirm the authenticity of some types of data. In addition, there were unexplained similarities between some of the figures presented in this article, and figures presented in articles by different authors groups. As yet, the authors have not provided a satisfactory explanation for this. Therefore, as we continue to work through the issues raised, we advise readers to interpret the information presented in the article with due caution. The authors have been notified about this Expression of Concern. Read the original article

Although the majority of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients respond to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), significant heterogeneity in clinical response is observed which might be attributed to the distinct sub-molecular characteristics. The present study aims to identify genetic alterations correlated with clinical outcomes and treatment response to different EGFR-TKI inhibitors.We integrated the genomic data and clinical outcomes including progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in 179 patients with advanced EGFR-mutant NSCLC who were treated with EGFR-TKI as 1st line of treatment.We found that EGFR-mutant patients harboring concomitant TP53 mutation (OS: 21 vs. 40 months, P = 0.05), ERBB2 amplification (PFS: 6.1 vs. 12.5 months, P = 0.01) or FGF19 amplification (OS: 11.2 vs. 27.1 months, P = 0.01) were significantly associated with a poorer clinical prognosis after treated with 1st generation EGFR-TKI. In contrast, the presence of TP53 mutation did not affect the PFS nor OS of patients treated with 2nd generation EGFR-TKI. Furthermore, EGFR-mutant and TP53-wild type (WT) patients benefited more from a combinatorial treatment consisting of EGFR-TKI and bevacizumab comparing to EGFR-TKI as a single agent (PFS: 21.7 vs. 9.3 months, P 0.01). Copy number variation (CNV) (PFS: 4.6 vs.9.4 months, p = 0.018) was identified as an unfavorable predictive factor to 3rd-generation TKI. We also revealed distinct resistance mechanisms associated with different EGFR-TKIs.Our study highlights the heterogeneity both in the primary molecular landscape and acquired alterations in EGFR-mutated NSCLCs, which might play a role in determining the clinical efficacy of EGFR-TKIs. We also revealed the differential prognostic role of TP53 mutation in patients treated with the 1st or 2nd generation of EGFR-TKI. Our study also suggests that EGFR-mutant and TP53-WT patients may benefit more from combinatorial treatment consisting of EGFR-TKI and bevacizumab, highlighting the importance of further stratifying EGFR-mutant patients.

Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) GAS6-AS2 serves as an oncogenic lncRNA in various types of human cancer. In this study, we attempted to examine the functions of GAS6-AS2 in breast cancer (BC) and explore the potential mechanisms involved. Reverse-transcription quantitative PCR was carried out to determine GAS6-AS2 expression in BC tissues and cell lines. Multiple functional experiments, including a Cell Counting Kit-8 assay, Transwell migration and invasion assays, and an in vivo nude-mouse xenograft experiment, were conducted to evaluate the effects of GAS6-AS2 in BC cells. GAS6-AS2 expression was high in BC tumors, manifesting a strong correlation with tumor size, lymph node metastasis, TNM stage, and shorter overall survival in patients with BC. A knockdown of GAS6-AS2 restricted BC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro and retarded tumor growth in vivo. With regard to its mechanism, GAS6-AS2 acted as a competing endogenous RNA that sponged microRNA-493 (miR-493), thereby increasing the expression of fucosyltransferase IV (FUT4). Either miR-493 inhibition or FUT4 upregulation abrogated the consequences of GAS6-AS2 knockdown in BC cells. These results revealed that GAS6-AS2 sponges miR-493 to enhance the malignant characteristics of BC in vitro and in vivo by increasing FUT4 expression. Thus, this lncRNA is an effective therapeutic target in BC and a promising diagnostic biomarker of this cancer.

Transmissivity is an important property of material films. In this Letter an inverse transmissivity problem is proposed. Its exact solution formula and a Mobius inversion solution are obtained along with a convergent solution series and some exact solutions. A possible application is suggested and discussed. A related practical solution method is developed and shown to have useful properties for applications.

The black-body radiation inversion (BRI) problem is ill-posed and requires special techniques to achieve stable solutions. In this Letter, the universal function set method (UFS), is developed in BRI. An improved unique existence theorem is proposed. Asymptotic behavior control (ABC) is introduced. A numerical example shows that practical calculations are possible with UFS.

We report a study of Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) in a system of bosons with a negative scattering length subjected to a harmonic-oscillator confining potential. The spatial and momentum distributions for dilute Bose gases are obtained exactly in the forward-scattering-dominated (FSD) model by the functional integral approach. We demonstrate the possibility of BEC for a Bose system with an attractive interaction before its collapse. Numerical calculations are also presented

Since the discovery of MgB2, fundamental studies of the electronphonon mechanism have received intense interest. In this paper, starting from an electron–phonon model Hamiltonian, the third formalism of quantum statistics, and a diagonalization theorem, a unified and asymptotically exact theory of superconductivity is developed. The results are compared with those of McMillan, Allen and Dynes and experimental data. It is shown that the new results are in very good agreement with the experimental data. The unified theory has no extra assumptions and also supplies an exactly soluble example of the third formalism of quantum statistics. The Tc of MgB2 is at a unified Tc line, the reason for the vacuum fluctuation mechanism are also discussed.

By studying the critical properties of a 2D Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) in traps, we obtain the accurate analytic expressions of transition temperature, condensed fraction, and specific heat. The analytic results fit in fairly well with numerical results. We find that an isotropical potential favors most for condensation to occur. With the aid of Bloch summation, we study the distributions of coordinates and momenta of the system. Some clear physical pictures are presented.

The vibrational mode coupling in the protonated water dimer is investigated by performing two types of quantum calculations of the vibrational levels of H5O2+ and D5O2+, utilizing the OSS3(p) potential energy surface by Ojamae et al. [L. Ojamae, I. Shavitt, and S. J. Singer, J. Chem. Phys. 109, 5547 (1998)]. One is four-dimensional (4D), treating only the central O⋯H(D)+⋯O moiety. Three of the four modes considered, the asymmetric stretch and the two bends, are largely the vibrations of the central proton, while the fourth mode is essentially the O⋯O stretching vibration. The vibrational levels of O⋯H(D)+⋯O are calculated rigorously, as fully coupled (FC), and also in an adiabatic (3+1)D approximation, where the proton asymmetric stretch is treated as adiabatically separated from the other three degrees of freedom. The second set of calculations, designated VCI, is full-dimensional, 15D; it is performed by the code MULTIMODE, which does configuration interaction (CI) calculations using a basis determined ...

In this paper some expressions of the distributions of coordinates and momenta of Bose system in external field with clear physical picture are presented with aid of Bloch summation. The process, signature and physical implication of Bose–Einstein condensation and phase transition in finite systems are discussed.

A careful study is made of the definitions of the transition temperature T c of an ideal Bose system in traps. We review several physical quantities that are used to define the transition temperature, which corresponds to different kinds of T c. The different definitions give different values for T c and the differences are quite large for finite systems. This makes the comparisons of theoretical predictions of the transition temperature shift with experimental results quite difficult. We also find that the derivative of chemical potential with respect to temperature is nearly discontinuous. This implies that in the thermodynamic limit the system might undergo a first-order phase transition.

This paper presents a unified theoretical model for the measurement of anisotropic resistivity. Firstly, a dual integral equation system is proposed for crystal or film of high Tc superconductor (HTS). Then the integral equation system is decoupled by a suitable integral transformation and the dimension is reduced by using the Schlomilch theorem of 1857, so that the 3D partial differential equation is transformed into a 1D integral–differential equation. It is shown that the singular part of the kernel can be separated analytically. The universality and scaling law are discussed and some useful universal correction curves are presented. It is expected that this work will be helpful in the analysis for the measurement of anisotropic resistivity.

A new possible mechanism is suggested based on the Wigner crystal and Bose–Einstein condensation. Our previous studies on the singular states that Loudon's singular ground state is rejected by the orthogonality criteria. It is shown that 2D Wigner crystal can exist and to be a possible mechanism for HTS.

In this Letter, a phonon spectrum of YBCO is obtained from its experimental specific heat data by an exact inversion formula with eliminating divergence parameter [Dai Xianxi, Xu Xinwen and Dai Jiqiong, Proceedings of Beijing International Conference on High T c Superconductivity, Sept. 4–8 Beijing, China, (1989) 521], [Dai Xianxi, Xu Xinwen and Dai Jiqiong, Phys. Lett. A 147 (1990) 445]. The results are comparable to that from neutron inelastic scattering. Some key points of specific heat-phonon spectrum inversion (SPI) theory as well as a method of asymptotic behavior control are discussed. An improved unique existence theorem is presented. A universal function set for the numerical calculation in SPI is obtained, which will make the inversion method applicable and convenient in practice. This is the first time to realize the specific heat-phonon spectrum inversion in a concrete system.

The flux relaxation is one of important topics in the studies of high Tc superconductivity, because it is related to the energy loss in practical applications. There are many mechanisms, theories and relaxation laws suggested in the literatures. It is very interesting to test them according to the characters and compare them with the experiments. Some people think that the characters of the famous theories are their negative curvature. According our inversion solution, the relaxation ArcG law and experimental data analysis, the relaxation law has both positive and negative signs. This prediction is hopeful to be checked by experiments in future. The current densities of many high Tc superconductors decrease very rapidly in the early time in the relaxation. People do not know what their maximums are. In this work, a theory to determine these maximums of the current densities is presented. The theory is concretely realized by inversion for some real data of the YBCO and their maximum current densities are obtained.

Starting from an electron-phonon interacting model, by means of the third formalism of quantum statistics, and with the aid of a diagonalization theorem, the Tc of superconductors from weak coupling to strong coupling cases are studied in a unified way. Our results are comparable with those of McMillan's theory, (which is valid up to the electron-phonon (e-ph) coupling parameter λ~1, a good agreement is shown for λ

Two topics are reviewed or studied in this paper: 1. The specific heat-photon spectrum inversion problem; 2. The inverse relaxation problem in high Tc superconductors and finding its maximum current density problem.

Inverse problems have recently drawn considerable attention from the physics community due to of potential widespread applications [K. Chadan and P. C. Sabatier, Inverse Problems in Quantum Scattering Theory, 2nd ed. (Springer Verlag, Berlin, 1989)]. An inverse emissivity problem that determines the emissivity $g(\ensuremath{\nu})$ from measurements of only the total radiated power $J(T)$ has recently been studied [Tao Wen, DengMing Ming, Xianxi Dai, Jixin Dai, and William E. Evenson, Phys. Rev. E 63, 045601(R) (2001)]. In this paper, a new type of generalized emissivity and transmissivity inverse (GETI) problem is proposed. The present problem differs from our previous work on inverse problems by allowing the unknown (emissivity) function $g(\ensuremath{\nu})$ to be temperature dependent as well as frequency dependent. Based on published experimental information, we have developed an exact solution formula for this GETI problem. A universal function set suggested for numerical calculation is shown to be robust, making this inversion method practical and convenient for realistic calculations.

Inversion problems have recently drawn vast amounts of attention from the physics community due to their potential widespread applications. In this Rapid Communication, a different type of inversion problem in physics is proposed: an inverse emissivity problem, which aims to determine the emissivity g(nu) by measuring only the total radiated power J(T). Like other inverse problems, this one has potential for important practical applications. An exact solution is obtained for the proposed inverse problem. A unique existence theorem and techniques for eliminating divergences are also presented. A universal function set (UFS) suggested for numerical calculations is shown to be very useful in a numerical example. The UFS makes this inversion method practical and convenient for realistic calculations.

The application of the Mobius inversion formula to the specific-heat-phonon spectrum inversion problem (SPI) initially appeared promising [N.X. Chen, Phys. Rev. Lett. 64, 1193 (1990); J. Maddox, Nature (London) 344, 377 (1990)]. However, no one has previously been able to obtain the exact Debye spectrum with the correct cut-off factor and frequency dependence from the Mobius formula. The main difficulty arises from the fact that the Mobius functionmgr;(n) is not completely known for large n in practice. In this paper, some exact solutions of SPI are obtained by using the Mobius inversion formula, most importantly the Debye spectrum as a special case, and the problem of the unknown Mobius functionmgr;(n) for large n is avoided. It is shown that the Mobius inversion formula can be useful for exact solutions to spectral inversion problems.

A kind of dual integral equation set was suggested for measuring the anisotropic resistivity of high Tc superconductors. Its solution, the useful universal correction function, curve and their universality were obtained.

A new exact solution for specific heat-phonon spectrum inversion using real functions is presented. This solution contains all the merits of the Debye scheme, and, in addition, the solution set is complete. The phonon spectrum of YBCO obtained by this new formula is consistent with that from neuron scattering.