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Peipei Gao,1 Ting Peng,1 Shitong Lin,1 Wenhua Zhi,1 Canhui Cao,1 Ping Wu,1 Ling Xi,1,2 Peng Wu,1,2 Qin Yang,3 Wencheng Ding1,2 1Cancer Biology Research Center (Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education), Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, People’s Republic of China; 3Institute of Pathology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Wencheng DingDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail dingwencheng326@163.comQin YangInstitute of Pathology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail 70918404@qq.comBackground: Mitochondrial calcium uniporter regulator 1 (MCUR1, also known as CCDC90A) is a protein-coding gene that plays a key role in mitochondrial calcium uptake. However, knowledge about its clinical significance in breast cancer is still limited.Methods: The expression profile of MCUR1 in various cancers was analyzed via the ONCOMINE and Tumor Immune Estimation Resource databases. The correlation between MCUR1 expression and the clinical features of breast cancer was investigated using UALCAN and MEXPRESS. Immunohistochemical analysis was applied to verify the expression of MCUR1 in breast cancer. The prognostic significance of MCUR1 in breast cancer was evaluated using Kaplan–Meier plotter and the PrognoScan database. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) was performed to explore the possible biological functions of MCUR1. In addition, the function of MCUR1 was examined by gene silencing in vitro. Western blotting was applied to detect the expression of proteins.Results: MCUR1 was overexpressed in breast cancer and significantly related to the clinical characteristics of breast cancer. Results from the public databases and IHC analysis indicated that MCUR1 expression was the highest in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). The high expression of MCUR1 was associated with poor overall survival, distant metastasis-free survival, and recurrence-free survival. GSEA showed that the hypoxia pathway, cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) pathway, epithelial–mesenchymal transition pathway, and notch signaling pathway were differentially enriched in the high MCUR1 expression phenotype. In vitro experiments showed that MCUR1 knockdown in TNBC cell lines led to a decrease in cellular ROS and weakened cell migration and invasion abilities. Moreover, Western blotting showed that MCUR1 knockdown inhibited the epithelial–mesenchymal transition of TNBC cells via the ROS/Nrf2/Notch pathways.Conclusion: Our study suggests that MCUR1 plays a pivotal role in the malignant progression of breast cancer.Keywords: MCUR1, breast cancer, reactive oxygen species, epithelial-mesenchymal transition

Bacteria are the principal component of airborne microbes in atmospheric particles, closely related to human health. However, hitherto, the monthly variation in the composition of microbial communities in the constructed wetlands and the relevance to environmental factors is poorly understood. Here, the bacterial composition monthly variation of the total suspended particle (TSP) in a free surface flow reed constructed wetland in a coastal city of Yellow Sea and associated with its influencing factors were investigated. The cultivable bacteria concentration and bacterial community composition were analyzed through the culture-dependent method and high-throughput sequencing. The results showed that the peak concentration of cultivable bacteria in constructed wetland aerosol was found in the reed harvest season (December). The particle size of the bacteria in the TSP was mainly distributed between 0.65 and 1.1 μm, which was smaller than in other environments. A total of 21 phyla and 687 genera were identified. Among them, the first dominant phyla were all Proteobacteria, especially during heavy pollution, the relative abundance was as high as 94.74%, and only Sphingomonas had a relative abundance >1% in all samples. Bacterial genera in the TSP were mainly driven by temperature, while other factors also contributed, such as humidity, NO2, SO2, and PM10 contents.

Introduction The management of urachal nodules or masses include complete urachus excision with partial cystectomy and umbilectomy, for urachal adenocarcinoma is a highly aggressive disease and prognosis is poor in advanced stages. This video aims to present a novel step-by-step robotic-assisted laparoscopic partial cystectomy (RAPC) technique with total umbilical-tract excision and umbilectomy. Methods A step-by-step RAPC technique: (1) siting of supra-umbilical camera-port (incorporated into subsequent umbilectomy), (2) creation of 3 robotic ports and one 12-mm assistant-port, (3) identification and incision markings of median and medial umbilical ligaments and bladder dome, (4) mobilization of whole urachus from umbilicus caudally to the dome attachment, (5) ‘skeletonization’ of bladder dome to reveal optimal entry site followed by partial cystectomy, (6) 2-layer bladder defect repair using 3–0 barbed sutures, (7) bagging of specimen and excision of urachal attachment at umbilicus en-bloc with umbilectomy. Patient demographics, peri‑and post-operative short-term outcomes were analyzed. Results Nine consecutive cases of RAPC for urachal lesions were performed from August 2015 to December 2019. Four patients (44.4%) had concurrent umbilectomy performed. Demographics, peri‑and post-operative data are as follows: median age: 60 (44–64) years, median operative time: 190 (160–255) minutes, median estimated blood-loss: 50 (50–125) ml, median hospitalization: 2 days, urinary leakage on cystogram (POD-10): 0. There were two patients who had Clavien-Dindo complications (22%) within 90 days of surgery. Final histology showed adenocarcinoma: 3 (33%), benign urachal nodule: 6 (67%). Conclusions RAPC is an intuitive and ergonomic approach for total urachus excision and umbilectomy for urachal mass. It represents a minimally-invasive treatment with excellent oncological and cosmetic outcomes.

In non-high-risk (non-HR) patients, the Malaysia-Singapore Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia 2003 (MS2003) study achieved good outcomes. However, its delayed-intensification (DI) phase, comprising repeated blocks of protocol III (2003-PIII), was toxic and caused significant treatment delays. The successor MS2010 study attempted to lower DI toxicity by replacing myelosuppressive drugs (doxorubicin, cytarabine) with vincristine and asparaginase.We analysed 1748 admissions for fever in 315 Singapore children with non-HR acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) (MS2003, n = 183; MS2010, n = 132), comprising 76% of the total cohort (n = 413), to study the impact of these changes.The new 2010-PVa which has no doxorubicin, was associated with significantly fewer hospitalisations due to fever (0.08 versus 0.30 admissions per block [A/blk], p 0.001), as than 2003-PIIIa. Similarly in 2010-PIIIb and PVb, where one block of cytarabine was replaced by two doses of vincristine, admissions for fever were also fewer (0.47 versus 0.74 A/blk, p 0.001) than in 2003-PIIIb. However, the addition of single doses of vincristine and asparaginase in 2010-PIIIa, even with a mandatory seven-day rest, led to more hospitalisations (0.45 A/blk, p 0.001), increased risk of bacteraemia (relative-risk (RR) = 7.66, p = 0.005) and critical-care admissions (RR = 4.31, p = 0.13). Despite this, overall treatment-related mortality decreased from 2.7% to 0.8%. Taken together, the reduced phase delays allowed earlier completion of the intensive phase of treatment (standard risk: 38.1 versus 49.4 weeks, p 0.001; intermediate risk: 50.9 versus 58.8 weeks, p 0.001), while maintaining excellent 10-year event-free survival of 95.4% and overall survival of 96.2%.In non-HR ALL, replacing doxorubicin/cytarabine with vincristine/asparaginase during some DI blocks is effective in reducing toxicity without compromising outcomes.NCT0289464.