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CDC20 regulates cell cycle progression by targeting key substrates for destruction, but its role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumorigenesis remains to be explored. Here, by using weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), we identified CDC20 as a hub gene in HCC. We demonstrated that CDC20 expression is correlated with HIF-1 activity and overall survival (OS) of clinic HCC patients. The activity of HIF-1 is regulated by the stability of HIF-1a subunit, which is hydroxylated by oxygen-dependent prolyl hydroxylase enzymes, the PHDs. In addition, we show that genetic ablation or pharmacological inhibition of CDC20 can accelerate the degradation of HIF-1a and impair VEGF secretion in HCC cells. Mechanistically, we found that CDC20 binds to the destruction-box (D-box) motif present in the PHD3 protein to promote its polyubiquitination and degradation. The depletion of endogenous PHD3 in CDC20 knockdown HCC cells greatly attenuated the decline of HIF-1a protein and restored the secretion of VEGF. In contrast, overexpression of a non-degradable PHD3 mutant significantly inhibited the proliferation of HCC cells both in vitro and in vivo. Collectively, our findings indicate that CDC20 plays a crucial role in the development of HCC by governing PHD3 protein.

Hepatocellular adenoma (HCAs) is a rare benign tumor in the liver. Bleeding and malignant transformation are the two severe outcomes of HCAs. Transarterial embolization (TAE) is used to treat HCAs; however, its role in an elective setting is uncertain. Here, we report a case with HCA treated by TAE in an elective setting, followed by resection after 2 months, because of stable disease. Further, we performed a comprehensive review of PubMed database for studies published between January 2000 and June 2018 involving TAE to treat HCA. The review included 22 studies involving 1504 patients with HCA, of whom 89.4% were female. Only 171/1504 (11.4%) patients received TAE, among whom resection was avoided in 80 (46.8%) patients, of whom 31 (38.7%) were bleeding before TAE and 49 (61.3%) were not. Based on data of 115 tumors reviewed, the rate of complete and partial response were 9.6% and 74.8%, respectively, with an overall (complete + partial) response of 84.3%. No mortality or adverse side effects were noted. Therefore, both in elective setting and in the setting of bleeding, TAE can be considered safe in the management of HCAs and may be regarded as reasonable alternative management to hepatic resection.

In this paper, the (2+1)-dimensional Schrodinger-Maxwell-Bloch equation (SMBE) is analytically investigated. Based on the Lax pair, the two-fold Darboux transformation (DT) is constructed for this equation. In addition, the two different kinds of soliton solutions (multi-line soliton and multi-parabola soliton solutions) are derived under the zero background. Also, the dynamic characteristics of solitons are discussed through theoretical analysis and graphical description.

ObjectivesLiver kinase B1 (LKB1) is considered a tumour suppressor that can control cell growth and metabolism. Whether LKB1 expression levels are related to clinicopathology and prognosis is controversial. This review aimed to quantitatively examine the latest evidence on this question.DesignAn updated systematic review and meta-analysis on the association between LKB1 expression and prognosis of patients with solid tumours were performed.Data sourcesEligible studies were identified through literature searches from database establishment until 15 June 2018 in the following databases: Embase, PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Wan Fang databases.Eligibility criteriaThe association between LKB1 expression and clinicopathological characteristics, overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS) and relapse-free survival (RFS) of patients with solid tumours were reported. Sufficient data were available to calculate the OR or HR and 95% CI.Data extraction and synthesisRelevant data were meta-analysed for OS, DFS, RFS and various clinical parameters.ResultsThe systematic review included 25 studies containing 6012 patients with solid tumours. Compared with patients with high LKB1 expression, patients with low expression showed significantly shorter OS in univariate analysis (HR=1.63, 95% CI 1.35 to 1.97, pConclusionLow LKB1 expression predicts shorter OS, worse tumour differentiation, larger tumours, earlier lymph node metastasis and more advanced TNM stage. Low LKB1 expression may be a useful biomarker of poor clinicopathology and prognosis.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether serum prealbumin levels are associated with long-term survival after hepatectomy in patients with primary hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC). METHODS A consecutive sample of 526 patients with HCC who underwent potentially curative hepatectomy from August 2007 to August 2010 was retrospectively analyzed. Patients were classified as having normal or reduced serum prealbumin based on cut-off values of 200 or 182 mg/L. RESULTS Multivariate analysis identified the preoperative level of serum prealbumin as an independent prognostic factor of long-term survival (P

Objective: Low serum prealbumin levels are associated with poor prognoses in some type of cancers. However, the role of prealbumin in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is unknown. The present study aimed to investigate the role of serum prealbumin levels in long-term survival for HCC patients after hepatic resection. Methods: HCC patients who underwent hepatic resection from June 2007 to December 2015 were retrospectively analyzed in a tertiary liver center. Patients were classified as having normal or reduced serum prealbumin based on a cut-off value of 200 mg/L. Overall survival and recurrence rate were analyzed between groups. Propensity score analysis was used to reduce bias due to other patient differences at baseline. Results: A total of 1349 HCC patients who underwent hepatic resection were enrolled on this study, including 1168 (86.6%) male and 181 (13.4%) female. Patients with normal serum prealbumin had significantly higher overall survival than those with reduced serum prealbumin (P < 0.001). Similar findings were observed after propensity analysis and subgroup analysis based on liver cirrhosis. Moreover, patients with normal serum prealbumin had a significantly lower recurrence rate than those with reduced serum prealbumin (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Low preoperative level of serum prealbumin is associated with poor long-term survival in patients with HCC after hepatic resection. Low serum prealbumin may be a marker to identify patients at high risk of poor prognosis after hepatic resection.

In this paper, we will focus on the (2+1)-dimensional complex modified Korteweg-de Vries and Maxwell-Bloch (cmKdVMB) equations. According to the correlative Lax pair, the N-fold Darboux Transformations(DT) will be constructed. By virtue of the DT obtained, two different kinds of breather solutions and breather-to-soliton conversions will be derived from the nonvanishing continuous wave (cw) solutions. Meanwhile, the dynamic features of those solutions will be graphically analyzed.

There is no consensus about factors that increase risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) among patients with chronic hepatitis B who have achieved seroclearance of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). To assess the available evidence about risk factors for HCC after HBsAg seroclearance, Scopus, EMBASE, PubMed and Cochrane Library databases were systematically searched for relevant studies published through 15 September 2017. A total of 28 studies involving more than 105 411 patients with chronic hepatitis B were included. HBsAg seroclearance occurred spontaneously in 7656, while it occurred after interferon or nucleos(t)ide analogue therapy in 1248. The rate of HBsAg seroclearance was 6.77%. Incidence of HCC was significantly lower among patients who experienced HBsAg seroclearance than among those who remained HBsAg-positive (1.86% vs 6.56%, P < .001). Risk factors of HCC occurrence included cirrhosis (incidence with vs without: 9.51% vs 1.66%), male gender (2.34% vs 0.64%) and age ≥ 50 year at HBsAg seroclearance (2.34% vs 0.63%) (all P < .001). The available evidence suggests that HCC can develop at a low rate after HBsAg seroclearance, so periodic surveillance is recommended, especially for male patients, patients with cirrhosis and patients who experience HBsAg seroclearance when at least 50 years old.

Nanoparticles of the bioinorganic complex of bismuth and serine can be prepared very easily by a room temperature solid-solid reaction with the raw materials of bismuth triiodide and serine. The complex is characterized by elemental analysis, X-ray powder diffraction and transmission electron micrograph. The characterizations indicate that the composition of the complex is Bi[I(HOCH2CHNH2COO)]1.5. The crystal structure of the complex belongs to orthorhombic system with the lattice parameters: a = 0.8355 nm, b = 1.8688 nm and c = 2.2511 nm. The average diameter of the bioinorganic complex nanoparticles is about 40 nm.

PeckCrysthas been developed for the solution of molecular crystal structures from powder diffraction data using a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. In order to speed up the calculation process, a modified BraggRfactor is used as the evaluation function for the PSO algorithm. The effectiveness of the program has been tested by solving four known structures from powder diffraction data. A Python script is also provided for convenient repetitive running ofPeckCryst. The distributedPeckCrystprogram is freely available from the authors upon request, and runs on Linux and Windows (32- and 64-bit) platforms.

It is important to identify the severity of acute pancreatitis (AP) in the early course of the disease. Clinical scoring systems may be helpful to predict the prognosis of patients with early AP; however, few analysts have forecast the accuracy of scoring systems for the prognosis in hyperli

A close-contact penalty factor has been added to theGESTstructure solution from powder diffraction data software to differentiate chemically unreasonable structure models from potentially correct models. In order to eliminate the chemically unreasonable structures, the penalty factor is added to the BraggRfactor. This has proved to be an effective approach.