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Backgrounds: There is little evidence on the safety, efficacy, and survival benefit of restarting immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) in patients with cancer after discontinuation due to immune-related adverse events (irAEs) or progressive disease (PD). Here, we performed a meta-analysis to elucidate the possible benefits of ICI rechallenge in patients with cancer., Methods: Systematic searches were conducted using PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases. The objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and incidence of irAEs were the outcomes of interest., Results: Thirty-six studies involving 2026 patients were analyzed. ICI rechallenge was associated with a lower incidence of all-grade (OR, 0.05; 95%CI, 0.02-0.13, P < .05) and high-grade irAEs (OR, 0.37; 95%CI, 0.21-0.64, P < .05) when compared with initial ICI treatment. Though no significant difference was observed between rechallenge and initial treatment regarding ORR (OR, 0.69; 95%CI, 0.39-1.20, P = .29) and DCR (OR, 0.85; 95%CI, 0.51-1.40, P = 0.52), patients receiving rechallenge had improved PFS (HR, 0.56; 95%CI, 0.43-0.73, P < .05) and OS (HR, 0.55; 95%CI, 0.43-0.72, P < .05) than those who discontinued ICI therapy permanently. Subgroup analysis revealed that for patients who stopped initial ICI treatment because of irAEs, rechallenge showed similar safety and efficacy with initial treatment, while for patients who discontinued ICI treatment due to PD, rechallenge caused a significant increase in the incidence of high-grade irAEs (OR, 4.97; 95%CI, 1.98-12.5, P < .05) and a decrease in ORR (OR, 0.48; 95%CI, 0.24-0.95, P < .05)., Conclusion: ICI rechallenge is generally an active and feasible strategy that is associated with relative safety, similar efficacy, and improved survival outcomes. Rechallenge should be considered individually with circumspection, and randomized controlled trials are required to confirm these findings., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press.)

Background and Aim: The purpose of the current study was to investigate the predictive value of hepatitis B core-related antigen (HBcrAg) on the occurrence and recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB)., Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science from database inception to April 6, 2023. Pooled hazard ratio (HR) or odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated for the occurrence and recurrence of HCC., Results: Of the 464 articles considered, 18 articles recruiting 10 320 patients were included. The pooled results showed that high serum HBcrAg level was an independent risk factor for the occurrence of HCC in CHB patients (adjusted HR = 3.12, 95% CI: 2.40-4.06, P < 0.001, I 2  = 43.2%, P = 0.043; OR = 5.65, 95% CI: 3.44-5.82, P < 0.001, I 2  = 0.00%, P = 0.42). Further subgroup analysis demonstrated that the predictive ability of HBcrAg for the occurrence of HCC is not influenced by the hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) status or the use of nucleoside/nucleotide analogs (NAs). In addition, our meta-analysis also suggests that HBcrAg is a predictor of HCC recurrence (adjusted HR = 1.71, 95% CI: 1.26-2.32, P < 0.001, I 2  = 7.89%, P = 0.031)., Conclusions: For patients with CHB, serum HBcrAg may be a potential predictive factor for the occurrence of HCC, regardless of HBeAg status or NA treatment. It may also serve as a novel prognostic biomarker for the recurrence of HCC. More studies are needed to confirm our conclusions., (© 2024 Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Foundation and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

Background: The effect of age, sex, and eastern cooperative oncology group performance status (ECOG PS) on the efficacy and safety of immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy among hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients remains elusive. Thus, a meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate whether such effects exist., Research Design and Methods: Eligible studies in PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases were retrieved., Results: One-hundred-and-eleven studies involving 14,768 HCC patients were included. The findings indicated that the ECOG PS didn't have a significant effect on the ORR and PFS in ICI-treated HCC patients (higher ECOG PS vs. lower ECOG PS: ORR: OR  = 0.78, 95%CI = 0.55-1.10; PFS: HR  = 1.15, 95%CI = 0.97-1.35), while those patients with a higher ECOG PS may have a worse OS ( HR  = 1.52, 95% CI = 1.26-1.84). There is no significant evidence of the effect of age (older vs. younger) or sex (males vs. females) on the efficacy of ICI therapy in HCC., Conclusion: ICI therapy in HCC should not be restricted strictly to certain patients in age or sex categories, while HCC patients with higher ECOG PS may require closer medication or follow-up strategy during ICI therapy., Prospero Registration: CRD42024518407.

Enterospora epinepheli is an intranuclear microsporidian parasite causing serious emaciative disease in hatchery-bred juvenile groupers (Epinephelus spp.). Rapid and sensitive detection is urgently needed as its chronic infection tends to cause emaciation as well as white faeces syndrome and results in fry mortality. This study established a TaqMan probe-based real-time quantitative PCR assays targeting the small subunit rRNA (SSU) gene of E. epinepheli. The relationship between the standard curve of cycle threshold (Ct) and the logarithmic starting quantity (SQ) was determined as Ct = -3.177 lg (SQ) + 38.397. The correlation coefficient (R 2 ) was 0.999, and the amplification efficiency was 106.4%. The detection limit of the TaqMan probe-based qPCR assay was 1.0 × 10 1 copies/μL and that is 100 times sensitive than the traditional PCR method. There is no cross-reaction with other aquatic microsporidia such as Ecytonucleospora hepatopenaei, Nucleospora hippocampi, Potaspora sp., Ameson portunus. The intra-assay and inter-assay showed great repeatability and reproducibility. In addition, the test of clinical samples showed that this assay effectively detected E. epinepheli in the grouper's intestine tissue. The established TaqMan qPCR assays will be a valuable diagnostic tool for the epidemiological investigation as well as prevention and control of E. epinepheli., (© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: Tandem C2 domains, nuclear (TC2N) is a C2 domain-containing protein that belongs to the carboxyl-terminal type (C-type) tandem C2 protein family, and acts as an oncogenic driver in several cancers. Previously, we preliminarily reported that TC2N mediates the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway to inhibit tumor growth of breast cancer (BC) cells. Beyond that, its precise biological functions and detailed molecular mechanisms in BC development and progression are not fully understood., Methods: Tumor tissues of 212 BC patients were subjected to tissue microarray and further assessed the associations of TC2N expression with pathological parameters and FASN expression. The protein levels of TC2N and FASN in cell lines and tumor specimens were monitored by qRT-PCR, WB, immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry. In vitro cell assays, in vivo nude mice model was used to assess the effect of TC2N ectopic expression on tumor metastasis and stemness of breast cancer cells. The downstream signaling pathway or target molecule of TC2N was mined using a combination of transcriptomics, proteomics and lipidomics, and the underlying mechanism was explored by WB and co-IP assays., Results: Here, we found that the expression of TC2N remarkedly silenced in metastatic and poorly differentiated tumors. Function-wide, TC2N strongly inhibits tumor metastasis and stem-like properties of BC via inhibition of fatty acid synthesis. Mechanism-wise, TC2N blocks neddylated PTEN-mediated FASN stabilization by a dual mechanism. The C2B domain is crucial for nuclear localization of TC2N, further consolidating the TRIM21-mediated ubiquitylation and degradation of FASN by competing with neddylated PTEN for binding to FASN in nucleus. On the other hand, cytoplasmic TC2N interacts with import proteins, thereby restraining nuclear import of PTEN to decrease neddylated PTEN level., Conclusions: Altogether, we demonstrate a previously unidentified role and mechanism of TC2N in regulation of lipid metabolism and PTEN neddylation, providing a potential therapeutic target for anti-cancer., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background and Aim: The presence of microvascular invasion (MVI) will impair the surgical outcome of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Adipose and muscle tissues have been confirmed to be associated with the prognosis of HCC. We aimed to develop and validate a nomogram based on adipose and muscle related-variables for preoperative prediction of MVI in HCC., Methods: One hundred fifty-eight HCC patients from institution A (training cohort) and 53 HCC patients from institution B (validation cohort) were included, all of whom underwent preoperative CT scan and curative resection with confirmed pathological diagnoses. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) logistic regression was applied to data dimensionality reduction and screening. Nomogram was constructed based on the independent variables, and evaluated by external validation, calibration curve, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and decision curve analysis (DCA)., Results: Histopathologically identified MVI was found in 101 of 211 patients (47.9%). The preoperative imaging and clinical variables associated with MVI were visceral adipose tissue (VAT) density, intramuscular adipose tissue index (IMATI), skeletal muscle (SM) area, age, tumor size and cirrhosis. Incorporating these 6 factors, the nomogram achieved good concordance index of 0.79 (95%CI: 0.72-0.86) and 0.75 (95%CI: 0.62-0.89) in training and validation cohorts, respectively. In addition, calibration curve exhibited good consistency between predicted and actual MVI probabilities. ROC curve and DCA of the nomogram showed superior performance than that of models only depended on clinical or imaging variables. Based on the nomogram score, patients were divided into high (> 273.8) and low (< = 273.8) risk of MVI presence groups. For patients with high MVI risk, wide-margin resection or anatomical resection could significantly improve the 2-year recurrence free survival., Conclusion: By combining 6 preoperative independently predictive factors of MVI, a nomogram was constructed. This model provides an optimal preoperative estimation of MVI risk in HCC patients, and may help to stratify high-risk individuals and optimize clinical decision making., (© 2023. Yumed Inc. and BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature.)

Background: The long non-coding RNA metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) has been reported to play a vital role in the occurrence and development of various tumors. However, the underlying mechanism of MALAT1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has not been thoroughly elucidated., Methods: The expression levels of MALAT1 in HCC tissues and different cell lines were detected by qRT-PCR. Antisense oligonucleotides (ASO)-MALAT1 transfected cells were used to explore the biological effects of MALAT1 in HCC cells by cell counting kit 8 (CCK-8), colony formation, transwell, wound healing, and flow cytometry analysis. Western blotting was performed to measure AMPK and apoptosis-related protein levels. Dual-luciferase reporter assay was performed to verify the relationship between MALAT1 and its specific targets., Results: We found that MALAT1 was upregulated in HCC, and MALAT1 knockdown in HCC cells inhibited cell proliferation, migration, and invasion and inhibited apoptosis in vitro. Further studies demonstrated that MALAT1 positively regulated the expression of transcription factor II B‑related factor 2 (BRF2), which was associated with tumor recurrence, large tumor size, and poor prognosis in HCC. Mechanistically, MALAT1 was found to act as a competitive endogenous RNA to sponge has-miR-1-3p, which upregulated BRF2 expression. Knockdown of BRF2 inhibited the progression of HCC by activating the LKB1/AMPK signaling pathway. Overexpression of BRF2 reversed the inhibitory effect of MALAT1 knockdown on HCC cell viability. Moreover, ASO targeting MALAT1 inhibited the growth of xenograft tumors., Conclusions: Our results demonstrate a novel MALAT1/miR-1-3p/BRF2/LKB1/AMPK regulatory axis in HCC, which may provide new molecular therapeutic targets for HCC in the future., (© 2023. BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Breast cancer is the commonest global malignancy and the primary cause of carcinoma death. MCM6 is vital to carcinogenesis, but the pathogenesis of MCM6 remains unclear., Methods: MCM6 expression in patients with breast cancer was examined through The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, immunohistochemistry, Quantitative Real-Time PCR (qRT‒PCR) and Western blotting. The prognostic factors were assessed by the Kaplan‒Meier method and Cox regression. On the basis of the key factors selected by multivariable Cox regression analysis, a nomogram risk prediction model was adopted for clinical risk assessment. The TCGA database was utilized to determine how MCM6 is correlated with chemotherapy sensitivity, immune checkpoint-related genes (ICGs), tumor-infiltrating immune cells, along with tumor mutation burden (TMB) and methylation. The impact of MCM6 on carcinoma cells was investigated in terms of proliferation, cell cycle as well as migrating and invasive behavior through CCK assays, flow cytometry, wound healing assays, Transwell assays and xenotransplantation experiments., Results: MCM6 expression was upregulated, which is closely associated with the size of the tumor ( p = 0.001) and lymph node metastasis ( p = 0.012) in patients with breast cancer. Multivariate analysis revealed MCM6 to be an independent risk factor for prognosis in patients with breast carcinoma. The nomograph prediction model included MCM6, age, ER, M and N stage, which displayed good discrimination with a C index of 0.817 and good calibration. Overexpression of MCM6 correlated with chemotherapy sensitivity, immune checkpoint-related genes (ICGs), tumor-infiltrating immune cells, tumor mutation burden (TMB), and methylation. Silencing MCM6 significantly inhibited proliferation, prolonged the G1 phase of the cell cycle, and restrained the proliferation, migration and invasive behavior of cancerous cells and inhibited tumor growth in vivo ., Conclusions: Our research shows that MCM6 is highly expressed in breast cancer and can be used as an independent prognostic factor, which is expected to become a new target for the treatment of breast cancer in the future., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2023 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.)

Introduction: The incidence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is increasing globally. We aimed to assess the performance of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), AFP-L3, des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin (DCP), and GALAD score in detecting NAFLD-related HCC., Methods: We searched the relevant literature in PubMed, Embase and Cochrane. Conventional and network meta-analyses were performed for sensitivity, specificity, Youden index (YI), and the area under the summary receiver operator characteristic curve (AUC)., Results: Fifteen studies involving 2031 NAFLD participants were included in this meta-analysis. When detecting early-stage NAFLD-related HCC, GALAD score and DCP process excellent performance. The sensitivity and AUC of DCP (0.60, 0.74, respectively) were higher than AFP (0.34, 0.59, respectively). The network meta-analysis showed that DCP and GALAD score had similar performance. In detecting all-stage NAFLD-related HCC, GALAD score (sensitivity = 0.87; YI = 0.77) performed better than AFP (sensitivity = 0.56; YI = 0.50), AFP-L3 (sensitivity = 0.39; YI = 0.36) and DCP (sensitivity = 0.73; YI = 0.62). Network meta-analysis obtained consistent results with conventional meta-analysis., Conclusions: Due to the lower cost-effectiveness, DCP was more suitable for detecting early NAFLD-related HCC. AFP could be used in detecting all-stage NAFLD-related HCC.

Background: Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) is the second most common primary liver cancer. While multiple risk factors for iCCA have been established, metabolic diseases (obesity, diabetes, NAFLD, dyslipidemia, and hypertension) and other risk factors, including smoking and drinking, are still controversial due to their potential confounders. Here, Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was performed to identify the causal relationship between them., Method: In this study, we obtained GWAS data related to exposures from corresponding large genome-wide association studies. Summary-level statistical data for iCCA were obtained from the UK Biobank (UKB). We performed a univariable MR analysis to identify whether genetic evidence of exposure was significantly associated with iCCA risk. A multivariable MR analysis was conducted to estimate the independent effects of exposures on iCCA., Results: Univariable and multivariable MR analysis based on the large GWAS data indicated that there is little evidence to support the genetic role of metabolic factors, smoking, drinking, and NAFLD in iCCA development (P >0.05). In contrast to most current studies, their impact on iCCA development, if any, might be smaller than we thought. The previous positive results might be due to the comorbidities between diseases and potentially unavoidable confounding factors., Conclusion: In this MR study, we found no strong evidence to support causal associations between metabolic factors, NAFLD, smoking, drinking, and iCCA risk., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Qin, Pan, Meng, Liu, Tian and Luan.)

Background: Although several studies have found that the serum lipid profile may be correlated with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the causal relationships between the serum lipid profile and HCC have not been determined due to potential confounder. Here, Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was performed to identify the relationship between the serum lipid profile and HCC in the East Asian population., Method: Our study made a MR analysis with the validation of two data sets. We obtained genome-wide association study (GWAS) data related to the serum lipid profile from Asian Genetic Epidemiology Network (AGEN). Then, the data from a recent large GWAS of the East Asian ancestry in Japan (BioBank Japan, BBJ) were extracted. Summary-level statistical data for HCC were obtained from a large GWAS of the East Asian ancestry in Japan. Univariable MR analysis were performed to identify whether the genetic evidence of serum lipid profile was significantly associated with HCC risk. Multivariable MR analysis was conducted to estimate the independent effects of exposures on HCC., Results: Univariable and multivariable MR analyses indicated that the serum lipid profile was not a risk factor for HCC incidence in either data set based on the East Asian population. Multivariable MR analysis revealed that the hazard ratios of the probability of HCC in AGEN were 1.134 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.903-1.424) for TG, 1.010 (95% CI: 0.824-1.237) for HDL-C, 0.974 (95% CI: 0.746-1.271) for TC, 0.918 (95% CI: 0.734-1.147) for LDL-C, while the results in BBJ were also non-significant: 1.111 (95% CI: 0.869-1.419) for TG, 0.957 (95% CI: 0.790-1.158) for HDL-C, 0.917 (95% CI: 0.643-1.308) for TC, 0.932 (95% CI: 0.699-1.243) for LDL-C., Conclusion: Our MR study with the validation of two data sets found no strong evidence to support causal associations between the serum lipid profile and HCC risk., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper, (© 2023 The Authors.)

Okadaic acid (OA), a lipophilic phycotoxin distributed worldwide, causes diarrheic shellfish poisoning and even leads to tumor formation. Currently, the consumption of contaminated seafood is the most likely cause of chronic OA exposure, but there is a serious lack of relevant data. Here, the Sprague-Dawley rats were exposure to OA by oral administration at 100 µg/kg body weight, and the tissues were collected and analyzed to assess the effect of subchronic OA exposure. The results showed that subchronic OA administration disturbed colonic mucosal integrity and induced colitis. The colonic tight junction proteins were disrupted and the cell cycle of colonic epithelial cells was accelerated. It is inferred that disruption of the colonic tight junction proteins might be related to the development of chronic diarrhea by affecting water and ion transport. Moreover, the accelerated proliferation of colonic epithelial cells indicated that subchronic OA exposure might promote the restitution process of gut barrier or induce tumor promoter activity in rat colon., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Most of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) arises on the background of chronic inflammation. The presence of infiltrating inflammatory cells is associated with tumour initiation, progression and clinical response to treatment. The influence of white blood cell (WBC) subtype counts on HCC progression remains unclear., Methods: In this study, we performed a Mendelian randomization (MR) study with the validation of two datasets. The summary data for WBC counts were extracted from a recent large GWAS of individuals of European ancestry. The GWAS data related to HCC were obtained from the UK Biobank (UKB). Univariable and multivariable MR analyses were used to identify risk factors genetically associated with HCC risks., Results: In the discovery dataset, multivariable MR analysis revealed that sum basophil neutrophil counts had an independent causal effect on the occurrence of HCC, with the sum basophil neutrophil counts as follows: (OR = 0.437, P = 0.003, CI 0.252-0.757). Similarly, in the validation dataset, total basophil neutrophil counts were also been identified as an independent risk factor for HCC. The sum basophil neutrophil counts were as follows: (OR = 0.574, P = 0.021, CI 0.358-0.920)., Conclusion: In the European population, genetically predicted lower total basophil neutrophil counts might be an independent risk factor for HCC., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

The 3D printed porous titanium alloy scaffolds are beneficial to enhance angiogenesis, osteoblast adhesion, and promote osseointegration. However, titanium alloys are biologically inert, which makes the bond between the implant and bone tissue weak and prone to loosening. Inspired by the natural biological marine mussels, we designed four-claw-shaped mussel-derived bioactive peptides for the decoration of porous titanium alloy scaffolds: adhesion peptide-DOPA, anchoring peptide-RGD and osteogenic-inducing peptide-BMP-2. And the bifunctionalization of 3D-printed porous titanium alloy scaffolds was evaluated in vivo in a rabbit model of bone defect with excellent promotion of osseointegration and mechanical stability. Our results show that the in vivo osseointegration ability of the modified 3D printed porous titanium alloy test piece is significantly improved, and the bifunctional polypeptide coating group E has the strongest osseointegration ability. In conclusion, our experimental design partially solves the problems of stress shielding effect and biological inertness, and provides a convenient and feasible method for the clinical application of titanium alloy implants in biomedical implant materials.

Motivation: Interaction between transcription factor (TF) and its target genes establishes the knowledge foundation for biological researches in transcriptional regulation, the number of which is, however, still limited by biological techniques. Existing computational methods relevant to the prediction of TF-target interactions are mostly proposed for predicting binding sites, rather than directly predicting the interactions. To this end, we propose here a graph attention-based autoencoder model to predict TF-target gene interactions using the information of the known TF-target gene interaction network combined with two sequential and chemical gene characters, considering that the unobserved interactions between transcription factors and target genes can be predicted by learning the pattern of the known ones. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed model is the first attempt to solve this problem by learning patterns from the known TF-target gene interaction network., Results: In this paper, we formulate the prediction task of TF-target gene interactions as a link prediction problem on a complex knowledge graph and propose a deep learning model called GraphTGI, which is composed of a graph attention-based encoder and a bilinear decoder. We evaluated the prediction performance of the proposed method on a real dataset, and the experimental results show that the proposed model yields outstanding performance with an average AUC value of 0.8864 +/- 0.0057 in the 5-fold cross-validation. It is anticipated that the GraphTGI model can effectively and efficiently predict TF-target gene interactions on a large scale., Availability: Python code and the datasets used in our studies are made available at https://github.com/YanghanWu/GraphTGI., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Motivation: Identifying the target genes of transcription factors (TFs) is of great significance for biomedical researches. However, using biological experiments to identify TF-target gene interactions is still time consuming, expensive and limited to small scale. Existing computational methods for predicting underlying genes for TF to target is mainly proposed for their binding sites rather than the direct interaction. To bridge this gap, we in this work proposed a deep learning prediction model, named HGETGI, to identify the new TF-target gene interaction. Specifically, the proposed HGETGI model learns the patterns of the known interaction between TF and target gene complemented with their involvement in different human disease mechanisms. It performs prediction based on random walk for meta-path sampling and node embedding in a skip-gram manner., Results: We evaluated the prediction performance of the proposed method on a real dataset and the experimental results show that it can achieve the average area under the curve of 0.8519 ± 0.0731 in fivefold cross validation. Besides, we conducted case studies on the prediction of two important kinds of TF, NFKB1 and TP53. As a result, 33 and 32 in the top-40 ranking lists of NFKB1 and TP53 were successfully confirmed by looking up another public database (hTftarget). It is envisioned that the proposed HGETGI method is feasible and effective for predicting TF-target gene interactions on a large scale., Availability and Implementation: The source code and dataset are available at https://github.com/PGTSING/HGETGI., Supplementary Information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Objectives: To study the application value of metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) in children with severe infectious diseases., Methods: An analysis was performed on the clinical data and laboratory test results of 29 children with severe infection who were admitted to the Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University from June 2018 to December 2020. Conventional pathogen culture was performed for the 29 specimens (27 peripheral blood specimens and 2 pleural effusion specimens) from the 29 children, and mNGS pathogen detection was performed at the same time., Results: Among the 29 children, 2 tested positive by conventional pathogen culture with 2 strains of pathogen, and the detection rate was 7% (2/29); however, 20 children tested positive by mNGS with 38 strains of pathogen, and the detection rate was 69% (20/29). The pathogen detection rate of mNGS was significantly higher than that of conventional pathogen culture ( P <0.05), and mNGS could detect the viruses, fungi, and other special pathogens that conventional pathogen culture failed to detect, such as Orientia tsutsugamushi . The univariate analysis showed that gender, routine blood test results, C-reactive protein, procalcitonin, D-dimer, radiological findings, and whether antibiotics were used before admission did not affect the results of mNGS ( P >0.05)., Conclusions: Compared with conventional pathogen culture, mNGS is more sensitive for pathogen detection, with fewer interference factors. Therefore, it is a better pathogenic diagnosis method for severe infectious diseases in children.

Microsporidia are a group of obligate intracellular parasites which lack mitochondria and have highly reduced genomes. Therefore, they are unable to produce ATP via the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle and oxidative phosphorylation. Instead, they have evolved strategies to obtain and manipulate host metabolism to acquire nutrients. However, little is known about how microsporidia modulate host energy metabolisms. Here, we present the first targeted metabolomics study to investigate changes in host energy metabolism as a result of infection by a microsporidian. Metabolites of silkworm embryo cell (BmE) were measured 48 h post infection by Nosema bombycis. Thirty metabolites were detected, nine of which were upregulated and mainly involved in glycolysis (glucose 6-phosphate, fructose 1,6-bisphosphate) and the TCA cycle (succinate, α-ketoglutarate, cis-aconitate, isocitrate, citrate, fumarate). Pathway enrichment analysis suggested that the upregulated metabolites could promote the synthesization of nucleotides, fatty acids, and amino acids by the host. ATP concentration in host cells, however, was not significantly changed by the infection. This ATP homeostasis was also found in Encephalitozoon hellem infected mouse macrophage RAW264.7, human monocytic leukemia THP-1, human embryonic kidney 293, and human foreskin fibroblast cells. These findings suggest that microsporidia have evolved strategies to maintain levels of ATP in the host while stimulating metabolic pathways to provide additional nutrients for the parasite., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Microsporidia are obligate intracellular parasites and cannot be cultured in vitro, which limits the use of current genetic engineering technologies on this pathogen. We isolated sporoplasms of Nosema bombycis to attempt to culture the pathogen in vitro. Cell-free medium was designed and successfully maintained the sporoplasms for 5 days. The sporoplasms were able to absorb ATP from the medium and DNA replicated during cultivation, although there was not a significant change in morphology and number of sporoplasms. Our study provides a strategy for in vitro cultivation and genetic manipulation of microsporidia. ., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70), a highly conserved protein family, is widely distributed in organisms and plays fundamental roles in biotic and abiotic stress responses. However, reports on Hsp70 genes are scarce in microsporidia, a very large group of obligate intracellular parasites that can infect nearly all animals, including humans. In this study, we identified 37 Hsp70 proteins from eight microsporidian genomes and classified them into four subfamilies (A-D). The number of Hsp70 genes in these microsporidia was significantly fewer than in Rozella allomycis and yeast. All microsporidian species contained genes from each subfamily and similar subcellular locations (mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, cytosol, and cytosol and/or nucleus), indicating that each Hsp70 member may fulfil distinct functions. The conserved structures and motifs of the Hsp70 proteins in the same subfamily were highly similar. Expression analysis indicated that the subfamily C cytosol (cyto)-associated Hsp70s is functional during microsporidia development. Immunofluorescence assays revealed that Cyto-NbHsp70 was cytoplasmically located in the proliferation-stage of Nosema bombycis. Cyto-NbHsp70 antiserum also labeled Encephalitozoon hellem within infected cells, suggesting that this antiserum is a potential molecular marker for labeling the proliferative phases of different microsporidian species. The propagation of N. bombycis was significantly inhibited following RNAi of Cyto-NbHsp70, indicating that Cyto-NbHsp70 is important for pathogen proliferation. Our phylogenetic data suggest that Hsp70 proteins evolved during microsporidia adaption to intracellular parasitism, and they play important roles in pathogen development., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To investigate the pathological characteristics and the clinical significance of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)-infected pneumonia (termed by WHO as coronavirus disease 2019, COVID-19). Methods: Minimally invasive autopsies from lung, heart, kidney, spleen, bone marrow, liver, pancreas, stomach, intestine, thyroid and skin were performed on three patients died of novel coronavirus pneumonia in Chongqing, China. Hematoxylin and eosin staining (HE), transmission electron microcopy, and histochemical staining were performed to investigate the pathological changes of indicated organs or tissues. Immunohistochemical staining was conducted to evaluate the infiltration of immune cells as well as the expression of 2019-nCoV proteins. Real time PCR was carried out to detect the RNA of 2019-nCoV. Results: Various damages were observed in the alveolar structure, with minor serous exudation and fibrin exudation. Hyaline membrane formation was observed in some alveoli. The infiltrated immune cells in alveoli were majorly macrophages and monocytes. Moderate multinucleated giant cells, minimal lymphocytes, eosinophils and neutrophils were also observed. Most of infiltrated lymphocytes were CD4-positive T cells. Significant proliferation of type Ⅱ alveolar epithelia and focal desquamation of alveolar epithelia were also indicated. The blood vessels of alveolar septum were congested, edematous and widened, with modest infiltration of monocytes and lymphocytes. Hyaline thrombi were found in a minority of microvessels. Focal hemorrhage in lung tissue, organization of exudates in some alveolar cavities, and pulmonary interstitial fibrosis were observed. Part of the bronchial epithelia were exfoliated. Coronavirus particles in bronchial mucosal epithelia and type Ⅱ alveolar epithelia were observed under electron microscope. Immunohistochemical staining showed that part of the alveolar epithelia and macrophages were positive for 2019-nCoV antigen. Real time PCR analyses identified positive signals for 2019-nCoV nucleic acid. Decreased numbers of lymphocyte, cell degeneration and necrosis were observed in spleen. Furthermore, degeneration and necrosis of parenchymal cells, formation of hyaline thrombus in small vessels, and pathological changes of chronic diseases were observed in other organs and tissues, while no evidence of coronavirus infection was observed in these organs. Conclusions: The lungs from novel coronavirus pneumonia patients manifest significant pathological lesions, including the alveolar exudative inflammation and interstitial inflammation, alveolar epithelium proliferation and hyaline membrane formation. While the 2019-nCoV is mainly distributed in lung, the infection also involves in the damages of heart, vessels, liver, kidney and other organs. Further studies are warranted to investigate the mechanism underlying pathological changes of this disease.

Microsporidia are obligate intracellular parasites that infect a wide variety of host organisms, including humans. The sporoplasm is the initial stage of microsporidian infection and proliferation, but its morphological and molecular characteristics are poorly understood. In this study, the sporoplasm of Nosema bombycis was successfully isolated and characterized after the induction of spore germination in vitro The sporoplasm was spherical, 3.64 ± 0.41 μm in diameter, had the typical two nuclei, and was nonrefractive. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy analyses revealed that the sporoplasm was surrounded by a single membrane, and the cytoplasm was usually filled with relatively homogeneous granules, possibly ribosomes, and contained a vesicular structure comprising a concentric ring and coiled tubules. Propidium iodide staining revealed that the sporoplasm membrane showed stronger membrane permeability than did the cell plasma membrane. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed that the sporoplasm can gain entry to the host cell by phagocytosis. Transcriptome analysis of mature spores and sporoplasms showed that 541 significantly differentially expressed genes were screened (adjusted P value [ P adj ] < 0.05), of which 302 genes were upregulated and 239 genes were downregulated in the sporoplasm. The majority of the genes involved in trehalose synthesis metabolism, glycolysis, and the pentose phosphate pathway were downregulated, whereas 10 transporter genes were upregulated, suggesting that the sporoplasm may inhibit its own carbon metabolic activity and obtain the substances required for proliferation through transporter proteins. This study represents the first comprehensive and in-depth investigation of the sporoplasm at the morphological and molecular levels and provides novel insights into the biology of microsporidia and their infection mechanism. IMPORTANCE Once awoken from dormancy, the cellular matter of microsporidia is delivered directly into the host cell cytoplasm through the polar tube. This means that the microsporidia are difficult to study biologically in their active state without a contaminating signal from the host cell. Sporoplasm is a cell type of microsporidia in vitro , but relatively little attention has been paid to the sporoplasm in the past 150 years due to a lack of an effective separation method. Nosema bombycis , the first reported microsporidium, is a type of obligate intracellular parasite that infects silkworms and can be induced to germinate in alkaline solution in vitro We successfully separated the N. bombycis sporoplasm in vitro , and the morphological and structural characteristics were investigated. These results provide important insight into the biology and pathogenesis of microsporidia and potentially provide a possible strategy for genetic manipulation of microsporidia targeting the sporoplasm., (Copyright © 2020 He et al.)

ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters comprise the largest family of transmembrane proteins and are found in all domains of life. The ABCs are involved in a variety of biological processes and as exporters play important roles in multidrug resistance. However, the ABC transporters have not been addressed in microsporidia, which are a very large group of obligate intracellular parasites that can infect nearly all animals, including humans. Here, a total of 234 ABC transporters were identified from 18 microsporidian genomes and classified into five subfamilies, including 74 ABCBs, 2 ABCCs, 18 ABCEs, 15 ABCFs, 102 ABCGs and 23 uncategorized members. Two subfamilies, ABCA and ABCD, are found in most organisms, but lost in microsporidia. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that microsporidian ABCB and ABCG subfamilies expanded by recent gene duplications, which resulted in the two largest subfamilies in microsporidia. Functional analysis via qRT-PCR and Western blotting revealed that NoboABCG1.1, an ABCG member of Nosema bombycis, is expressed in mature spores and up-regulated from 1 dpi to 6 dpi in infected silkworm midgut. IFA and IEM analysis showed that NoboABCG1.1 is localized on the plasma membrane of the sporoplasm, meront and mature spore. The propagation of N. bombycis was significantly inhibited after the RNAi of NoboABCG1.1 expression, indicating that NoboABCG1.1 is important to the pathogen proliferation. In conclusion, our study uncovered that the ABCs evolved during microsporidia adaption to intracellular parasitism and play important roles in the pathogen development., (Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

To address the significance of enhancing myelination for functional recovery after white matter injury (WMI) in preterm infants, we characterized hypomyelination associated with chronic hypoxia and identified structural and functional deficits of excitatory cortical synapses with a prolonged motor deficit. We demonstrate that genetically delaying myelination phenocopies the synaptic and functional deficits observed in mice after hypoxia, suggesting that myelination may possibly facilitate excitatory presynaptic innervation. As a gain-of-function experiment, we specifically ablated the muscarinic receptor 1 (M1R), a negative regulator of oligodendrocyte differentiation in oligodendrocyte precursor cells. Genetically enhancing oligodendrocyte differentiation and myelination rescued the synaptic loss after chronic hypoxia and promoted functional recovery. As a proof of concept, drug-based myelination therapies also resulted in accelerated differentiation and myelination with functional recovery after chronic hypoxia. Together, our data indicate that myelination-enhancing strategies in preterm infants may represent a promising therapeutic approach for structural/functional recovery after hypoxic WMI., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To investigate the epidemiological and clinicopathological characteristics of salivary gland tumors in southwest China in order to provide data for clinical diagnosis and other similar research., Methods: Between March 2007 and December 2017, 2736 patients with salivary gland tumors were recruited, the clinical and pathological data were retrospectively analyzed., Results: A total of 2736 patients had a ratio of males to females of about 1.02:1. The ratio of benign to malignant tumors was 3.46:1. Pleomorphic adenoma and adenoid cystic carcinoma had 50.8% and 7.2%, respectively. About 65.4% tumors occurred in the parotid gland. There was no significant difference between the tumor in the left or right parotid and the use of cell phones. There were significant differences between gender and both the characteristics and locations of salivary gland tumors (p < .05). There were also significant differences between the pathological characteristics and location of the salivary gland (p < .05)., Conclusions: The salivary gland benign and malignant tumors were more common in pleomorphic adenoma and adenoid cystic carcinoma, most occurred in the parotid gland. The minor gland tumors are lower than other parts of China. The incidence of parotid gland tumors is not related to the use of cell phones.

Objective: To study the clinical features and prognosis of benign infantile convulsions associated with mild gastroenteritis (BICE)., Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed for the clinical data of 436 children with BICE, and among these children, 206 were followed up for 1.5 to 7 years. Some parents were invited to complete the Weiss Functional Defect Scale to evaluate the long-term social function., Results: The peak age of onset of BICE was 13-24 months, and BICE had a higher prevalence rate in September to February of the following year. Convulsions mainly manifested as generalized tonic-clonic seizures, which often occurred within 24 hours after disease onset and lasted for less than 5 minutes each time. Sometimes they occurred in clusters. During the follow-up of 206 children, only one had epileptiform discharge, and the other children had normal electroencephalographic results. The parents of all the 206 children thought their children had normal intelligence and had no marked changes in character. Based on the Weiss Functional Defect Scale completed by the parents of some BICE children, there was no significant difference in the long-term social function between BICE children and healthy children matched by age and sex., Conclusions: BICE mainly occurs in children aged 1-2 years, with the manifestation of transient generalized seizures in most children and cluster seizures in some children. BICE seldom progresses to epilepsy and has good prognosis.

Objective: Chronic lead (Pb) exposure affects the developing central nervous system, whereas Tanshinone IIA (TSA) improves cognitive deficits., Methods: In this study, we investigated the effects of TSA against lead-induced neurotoxicity in a rat pup model. A total of thirty two healthy male Wistar rats were randomly divided into four groups: lead-treated group, lead plus TSA-treated 1 group, lead plus TSA-treated 2 group, and controls. After a 4-week lead exposure, memory function was determined using Morris water maze and the concentration of lead was measured in blood. Total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD), glutathione (GSH), malonaldehyde (MDA) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) activities were determined in hippocampus samples., Results: Lead exposure causes decrease of body weight; increase of the blood lead concentration; decrease of antioxidant activities and BDNF content. However, co-administration of TSA with lead ameliorated the weight loss. Furthermore, TSA inhibited neurotoxicity as evidenced by decreased latency period and increase in percentage of time spent in the target quadrant. Administration of TSA also improved antioxidant activities by increased T-SOD, GSH, and decreased MDA activities compared to lead-treated group., Conclusion: This study provides evidence of that TSA has a neuroprotective effect against lead-induced cognitive deficit by enhancing antioxidant activities in the brain (Tab. 2, Fig. 3, Ref. 27).

Silkworm pathogens have been heavily impeding the development of sericultural industry and play important roles in lepidopteran ecology, and some of which are used as biological insecticides. Rapid advances in studies on the omics of silkworm pathogens have produced a large amount of data, which need to be brought together centrally in a coherent and systematic manner. This will facilitate the reuse of these data for further analysis. We have collected genomic data for 86 silkworm pathogens from 4 taxa (fungi, microsporidia, bacteria and viruses) and from 4 lepidopteran hosts, and developed the open-access Silkworm Pathogen Database (SilkPathDB) to make this information readily available. The implementation of SilkPathDB involves integrating Drupal and GBrowse as a graphic interface for a Chado relational database which houses all of the datasets involved. The genomes have been assembled and annotated for comparative purposes and allow the search and analysis of homologous sequences, transposable elements, protein subcellular locations, including secreted proteins, and gene ontology. We believe that the SilkPathDB will aid researchers in the identification of silkworm parasites, understanding the mechanisms of silkworm infections, and the developmental ecology of silkworm parasites (gene expression) and their hosts., Database Url: http://silkpathdb.swu.edu.cn., (© The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press.)

Objective: The present study is aimed to explore the correlation between PAI-1 gene mediated by NF-κB signaling pathway and human sepsis., Patients and Methods: In this study, we used 74 cases of sepsis patients preserved by the laboratory as the observation group, and 68 cases of healthy people served the control group. Further methods like fluorescence quantitative PCR, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, Western-blotting were used to determine NF-B expression, NF-κB gene mRNA analyses and protein expression on different research subjects. Further, the positive expression rates of PAI-1 gene in the observation group and the control group were determined by immunohistochemistry., Results: The expression levels of NF-κB and PAI-1 gene mRNA in the blood of the observation group significantly increased in comparison to control group (X2 = 3.24, p < 0.05; X2 = 2.81, p < 0.05). Also, NF-κF and PAI-1 gene protein expressions (0.14 ug/l, 0.32 ug/l) were significantly higher in the observation group in comparison to control group (p < 0.05). The results of blood glucose measurement showed that the fasting blood glucose (14.3 mmol/l) in the observation group was significantly higher than that in the control group (4.6 mmol/l). Immunohistochemical were also in sync with above results., Conclusions: The present study concludes that PAI-1 gene expression gets significantly increased via NF-κF signaling pathway during sepsis.

Human/simian immunodeficiency virus (HIV/SIV) infection can cause severe depletion of CD4(+) T cells in both plasma and mucosa; it also results in damage to the gut mucosa barrier, which makes the condition more conducive to microbial translocation. In this study, we used SIV-infected Chinese rhesus macaques to quantify the extent of microbial translocation and the function of immune cells in the entire gastrointestinal tract and to compare their differences between rapid and slow progressors. The results showed that in the slow progressors, microbial products translocated considerably and deeply into the lamina propria of the gut; the tissue macrophages had no significant differences compared with the rapid progressors, but there was a slightly higher percentage of mucosal CD8(+) T cells and a large amount of extracellular microbial products in the lamina propria of the intestinal mucosa of the slow progressors. The data suggested that although microbial translocation increased markedly, the mucosal macrophages and CD8(+) T cells were insufficient to clear the infiltrated microbes in the slow progressors. Also, therapies aimed at suppressing the translocation of microbial products in the mucosa could help to delay the progression of SIV disease., (© 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

A kinase anchoring proteins (AKAPs) assemble cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) into signaling complexes with a wide range of ion channels, including N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA)-subtype glutamate receptor (NMDAR) that is critical for the central sensitization of nociceptive behaviors. Although PKA has been widely described in the regulation of NMDAR-dependent nociceptive transmission and plasticity, the roles of AKAPs in these processes are largely unknown as yet. The present study interfered with AKAPs/PKA interaction by introducing stearated Ht31 peptide (St-Ht31) into spinal dorsal horn neurons, and investigated the possible changes of primary afferent-evoked, NMDAR-mediated excitatory postsynaptic currents (NMDAR-EPSCs). Whole-cell patch clamp recordings demonstrated that intracellular loading of St-Ht31 through the glass pipettes didn't affect NMDAR-mediated synaptic responses in the spinal cord slices from intact mice. When inflammatory pain was established by intraplantar injection of Complete Freund's Adjuvant (CFA), however, St-Ht31 significantly repressed the amplitudes of NMDAR-EPSCs by selectively removing GluN2B subunit-containing NMDAR out of synapses. With the inhibition of NMDAR-mediated nociceptive transmission, St-Ht31 effectively ameliorated CFA-induced inflammatory pain. Pharmacological manipulation of microtubule-based NMDAR transport, dynamin-dependent NMDAR endocytosis or actin depolymerization abolished the inhibitory effects of St-Ht31 peptide on NMDAR-EPSCs, suggesting that disruption of AKAPs/PKA interaction by St-Ht31 might disturb multiple NMDAR trafficking steps to reduce the receptor synaptic expression and spinal sensitization., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This paper reports a study of the extraction efficiency for the multiresidue pesticides and chemical pollutants in tea with three methods over three stages. Method 1 adopts the Pang et al. approach: the targets were extracted with 1% acetic acid in acetonitrile and cleaned up with a Cleanert TPT SPE cartridge; Method 2 adopts the QuEChERS approach: the targets were cleaned up dispersively with graphitized carbon and primary-secondary amine (PSA) sorbent; Method 3 adopts the relatively commonly used approach of hydration for solid samples, with tea hydrated before being extracted through salting out with acetonitrile and the cleanup procedures identical to those of Method 1. The three stages comprised two phases of comparative tests on spike recoveries of 201 pesticides and chemical pollutants from different teas and a third phase on determination of the content of the 201 pesticides and chemical pollutants from aged tea samples. In stages I and II, test results of the spike recoveries of 201 pesticides and chemical pollutants demonstrated that 91.4% of the pesticide and chemical pollutant recoveries fell within the range of 70-110%, and 93.2% of the pesticides and chemical pollutants had RSD < 15%, with no marked difference obtained by Method 1 and Method 2 regardless of whether it was green tea or woolong tea, or GC/MS or GC/MS/MS was used for analysis. For pigment removal, Method 1 was superior to Method 2; in terms of easy operation, Method 2 outweighed Method 1. However, Method 3 obtained relatively low recoveries, with 94% of pesticide and chemical pollutant recoveries less than 70%, which proved that Method 3 was not applicable to the determination of multiresidue pesticides and chemical pollutants in tea. Stage III made a comparison of Method 1 and Method 2 for the extraction efficiency of pesticides and chemical pollutants in 165-day-aged samples of green and woolong tea. Test results showed that 94% of the pesticide and chemical pollutant content in the aged tea samples was recovered with Method 1, more than 10% higher than with Method 2 (30-50% higher on average). For green tea, 193 (GC/MS/MS) and 197 (GC/MS) pesticides and chemical pollutants accounted for 96.5% (GC/MS/MS) and 98.0% (GC/MS) with Method 1 higher than with Method 2. For woolong tea, 191 (GC/MS/MS) and 194 (GC/MS) pesticides and chemical pollutants accounted for 95% (GC/MS/MS) and 96% (GC/MS/MS) with Method 1, higher than with Method 2, respectively. In other words, there were definite differences in the test results for aged tea samples between Method 1 and Method 2, which suggests that Method 1 was capable of extracting more residual pesticides and chemical pollutants from the precipitated 165-day-aged tea samples. The reason can be traced to the possibility that Method 1 (high-speed homogenizing) has better extraction efficiency than Method 2 (vortex and oscillation). Therefore, Method 1 was chosen as the sample preparation technique for multiresidue pesticide and chemical pollutant analysis in tea.

Prohibitin, a potential tumor suppressor, has been shown to be an anti- proliferative protein, a regulator of cell-cycle progression and in apoptosis. Recently, it was found to be over-expressed in breast cancer and gastric cancer, and it has been suggested as a biomarker in those diseases. To clarify the role and the prognostic significance of prohibitin expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), we analyzed the expression in ESCC and their corresponding nonneoplastic epithelia tissues by immunohistochemistry(IHC), Western blotting and real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction(QRT-PCR).The relationship between prohibitin expression and clinicopathological variables was examined by statistical analysis. The findings suggested the up-regulation of prohibitin play an important role in the carcinogenesis of ESCC. The over-expression of prihibitin was significantly correlated with the depth of tumor, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, lymphatic invasion and vascular invasion of ESCC. These results suggested that prohibitin(+), lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis could be the independent risk factors for worse prognosis in ESCC patients.

Unlabelled: Stratifin plays an important role in cancer biology by interfering with intracellular signalling pathways and cell-cycle checkpoints. Decreased expression of stratifin gene has been reported to be a poor prognostic indicator in a variety of human malignant tumors., Aim: To clarify the role and prognostic significance of stratifin in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC)., Methods: The alteration of stratifin messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein was analyzed by reverse-transcription and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (QRT-PCR) and Western blotting in 20 paired ESCC and nonneoplastic esophageal mucosa tissues, respectively. Then, immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to evaluate expression of stratifin in tissues of 148 ESCC patients (including the former 20 pairs of tissues) and correlate it with clinicopathological parameters and prognosis of ESCC patients., Results: The stratifin level of mRNA and protein was markedly downregulated in ESCC tissue compared with in corresponding nonneoplastic esophageal epithelium (P<0.05). Similarly, the positive rate of stratifin protein expression was lower in the esophageal cancer than in paired nonneoplastic esophageal epithelium as detected by IHC (P=0.007). Statistically, the downregulation of stratifin expression was correlated with tumor infiltration depth (P=0.003), lymph node metastasis (P=0.008), distant metastasis (P=0.013), and lymphovascular invasion (P=0.007) of ESCC. Furthermore, the reduced stratifin expression was associated with shorter 5-year survival rate of ESCC patients after curative surgery (P<0.0001). On the basis of univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis, we found that reduced stratifin expression, T4 stage, lymph node metastasis, and distant metastasis were independent risk factors for worse prognosis in ESCC patients., Conclusion: The present report indicates that stratifin could be a useful indicator for prognosis of this disease, as well as a potential target for more effective therapy.

beta-catenin has emerged as a key regulator of Wnt signaling pathway, which plays an important role in the development and progression of various cancers. Its accumulation in nucleus of the esophagus squamous epithelium might be the crucial step for the carcinogenesis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). To detect the proteins correlated with beta-catenin function, we used the established cell lines of pGen-3-con (Eca109 cells transfected by control vector) and pGen-3-CTNNB1 (Eca109 cells transfected by beta-catenin siRNA) as cell models for further analysis. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis technology was performed to separate the proteins of pGen-3-con and pGen-3-CTNNB1 cell lines, respectively. The differential protein spots were analyzed by software analysis, subjected to in-gel digestion, and identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Consequently, 13 differentially expressed proteins between the two cell lines were identified, of which 14-3-3sigma, prohibitin, and nm23-H1 were further verified by western blotting and quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. Then, the tissue microarray and immunohistochemical analysis were employed to research their relationship in ESCC and their corresponding normal mucosa tissues. The upregulation of prohibitin or the downregulation of 14-3-3sigma and nm23-H1 proteins was significantly associated with the proliferation, invasion depth, and lymph node metastasis of ESCC. There were statistically significant correlations between the expression of beta-catenin and the three proteins. The results presented here might provide potential protein markers to elucidate the mechanism of beta-catenin-mediated biologic characteristics for ESCC.

Aim: To investigate the protein and mRNA expression of semaphorin 5A and its receptor plexin B3 in gastric carcinoma and explore its role in the invasion and metastasis of gastric carcinoma., Methods: Expression of semaphorin 5A and its receptor plexin B3 in 48 samples of primary gastric carcinoma, its corresponding non-neoplastic mucosa, and matched regional lymph node metastasis was assayed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), real-time RT-PCR and Western blotting., Results: The protein and mRNA expression of semaphorin 5A and its receptor plexin B3 increased gradually in non-neoplastic mucosa, primary gastric carcinoma and lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05). Moreover, the expression of semaphorin 5A was closely correlated with that of plexin B3., Conclusion: Semaphorin 5A and its receptor plexin B3 play an important role in the invasion and metastasis of gastric carcinoma.

The small-sized Co(n)O (n = 1-5) clusters with different spin states have been systematically investigated by using the density-functional approach. The total energies, equilibrium geometries, and magnetic properties are discussed. Equilibrium geometries and the relative stabilities in terms of the calculated fragmentation energies are discussed, manifesting that the remarkable stable small-sized cluster corresponds to the Co(2)O isomer, and that the O atom prefers the surface-capped pattern on Co(n) (n > 2) clusters and bonds with three Co atoms simultaneously. Furthermore, the calculated averaged atomic magnetic moments of Co(n)O (n = 1-5) clusters exhibit that the septet Co(2)O structure has the biggest averaged atomic magnetic moment of 2.0 mu(B)/atom, it is interesting that the oxygen capped Co(n) (n = 1-5) clusters retain the magnetic properties of bare transition metal (TM) Co(n) clusters. In addition, the distribution of electron density of the HOMO states for the most stable Co(n)O clusters mainly localizes around Co(n) atoms while the distribution around O atom is very low, and their shapes of the HOMO and bonding properties between bare Co(n) clusters and Co(n)O clusters are obviously different. The calculated electron affinities and experimental results (J. Phys. Chem. A 2002, 106, 4891) show that the incoming oxygen atom causes a minor influence on the electronic properties of Co(n) clusters. Comparisons of the calculated ionization potentials (IPs) for CoO and Co(2)O clusters with available experimental measurements are made.

BmNPV GD isolate from China was plaque-purified and four bro genes were cloned termed as bro-a,b,c,d. The obtained sequences were aligned to the related sequences in GenBank and the BmNPV CQ1 isolate preserved in our laboratory. Compared with genome sequences of BmNPV T3 isolate, bro genes of GD isolate housed insertion and deletion, and the changes of amino acid mainly occured at the N terminal of corresponding protein. The phylogenetic analysis of bro genes indicated that GD bro-d gene belongs to subgroup A together with T3, CQ1 bro-d and SC7 bro- III; GD bro-a, c genes belong to subgroup B together with T3, CQ1 bro-a, c and SC7 bro-II; GD bro-b gene belongs to subgroup C together with T3, CQ1 bro-b, e and SC7 bro-I. The evolutionary relationship of bro genes showed vague relevance to their geographical location. The distribution character of bro genes in four BmNPV isolates is coincidence with the KANG's theory that the bro-d plays an irreplaceable functional role(s) during viral replication, while bro-a and bro-c functionally complement each other. Meanwhile, we postulate that 3 bro genes in SC7 isolate is probable the most simple form of bro genes.