Bladder cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors worldwide. Accordingly, its incidence and mortality are high. One of the characteristics of cancer is genomic instability. New studies suggest that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play an important role in maintaining genomic instability. This study aimed to identify a genomic instability-associated lncRNA signature to predict the outcome of patients with bladder cancer. We downloaded data for bladder cancer patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas database...

In clinical practice, we found that microRNA (miR)-146a-5p is significantly up-regulated in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of primary sjögren’s syndrome (pSS) patients. In vitro experiments confirmed that miR-146a-5p promotes T helper 17 (Th17) cell differentiation, but the specific mechanism is still unknown. To solve this problem, 20 pSS patients and 20 healthy subjects were enrolled in this study and PBMCs were isolated from their blood. The expression of the membrane IL-23 R (mIL-23 R)...

Cancer stem cell (CSC) has been confirmed to trigger tumor occurrence and progression and CSC can develop strategies to maintain a lower reactive oxygen species (ROS) level compared to cancer cells. However, the mechanisms contributing to ROS homeostasis in CSC are still lacking key elements. In the current study, we found that reductive redox states and ROS levels were suppressed in non-adherent spheres formed by non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells, which were confirmed to...

The present study was aimed to evaluate the expression profile of Zinc finger C3H1 domain-containing protein (ZFC3H1) using bioinformatic analysis of public datasets from The Cancer Genome Atlas database (TCGA). The results showed that the expression levels of ZFC3H1 were notably lower than the corresponding non-cancerous tissues in prostate adenocarcinoma (PRAD), and patients in the high ZFC3H1-expression group showed poor survival. We hypothesized that the low expression of ZFC3H1 in tumor tissue might have be...

The main characteristics of panic disorder (PD) include recurrent panic attacks and persistent worry, accompanied by other physical and cognitive symptoms. While recent studies have revealed that gut bacteria play an important role in anxiety and depression, little is known about the relationship between oral microbiota and PD. Therefore, the objective of this study was to explore a possible correlation between oral microbiota and PD. We conducted 16S rRNA sequencing to compare differences in the...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that are closely associated with cancer progression and drug resistance, however, up until now, the involvement of miR-556-5p in regulating cisplatin-sensitivity in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has not been studied. In the present study, we found that miR-556-5p was significantly upregulated in the cisplatin-resistant NSCLC (CR-NSCLC) patients’ tissues and cells, instead of the corresponding cisplatin-sensitive NSCLC (CS-NSCLC) tissues and cells. Further experiments validated that knock-down of miR-556-5p suppressed...

EMT-related gene expression reportedly exhibits correlation with the anti-tumor immunity of T cells. In the present study, we explored the factors that might affect the efficacy of immunotherapy in colon cancer with treatment. In this regard, RNA-seq and clinical data of 469 colon cancer samples derived from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database were used to calculate infiltrating T-cell abundance (ITA), to illustrate a pathway enrichment analysis, and to construct Cox proportional hazards (CPH) regression...

Preeclampsia (PE) is a huge threat to pregnant women. Our previous study demonstrated that long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) NR_002794 was highly expressed in placentas of PE patients and could regulate the phenotypes of trophoblast cells. However, the downstream regulatory mechanisms of NR_002794 remain unknown. In this text, some potential downstream targets or signaling pathways of NR_002794 were identified through RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and bioinformatics analysis in SWAN71 trophoblast cells. Western blot assay demonstrated that NR_002794...

Kindlin-2 is a member of the FERM-containing cytoskeletal protein family that regulates cell–matrix interactions. Previous studies have shown that Kindlin-2 recruits focal adhesion proteins and regulates integration by binding to the focal adhesion region of the integrin β-segment. Although Kindlin-2 has been reported to be involved in various skin diseases and many kinds of tumors, its role in the skin wound healing process remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to investigate the...

Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is a differentiated type of thyroid malignancy with a high incidence. Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) DUXAP8 has been reported to participate in the proliferation, migration, and invasion of several cancer types. However, its association with PTC has not yet been reported. The current study aimed to investigate the role of DUXAP8 in PTC and revealed the underlying mechanisms. The expression of DUXAP8 was knocked down in two PTC cell lines and...

Although our previous research shows an ameliorated high-fat diet (HFD)-induced hepatic steatosis and insulin resistance in global SND1 transgenic mice, the involvement of SND1 loss-of-function in hepatic metabolism remains elusive. Herein, we aim to explore the potential impact of hepatocyte-specific SND1 deletion on insulin-resistant mice. As SND1 is reported to be linked to inflammatory response, the pathobiological feature of acute liver failure (ALF) is also investigated. Hence, we construct the conditional liver knockout (LKO) mice...

Previous studies have detected the association of polymorphisms in oxidative stress-related genes EPHX1 and MnSOD with pre-eclampsia (PE) risk, but the results are inconsistent among studies. Thus, a meta-analysis was performed to obtain more conclusive results. Eligible studies were retrieved in PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, Scopus, and CNKI. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were utilized to evaluate the relationship between EPHX1 rs1051740, EPHX1 rs2234922, MnSOD rs4880 polymorphisms, and PE susceptibility in...

To determine whether abnormal cardiac shape and ventricular global, transverse, and longitudinal contractility are present in fetuses of women with well-controlled GDM. A prospective observational study was performed on 80 fetuses of women with well-controlled GDM and 90 control fetuses. Using Fetal HQ, a new speckle-tracking technique, cardiac shape, global contractility, transverse contractility, and longitudinal contractility were calculated. The number and percentage of fetuses with z score values below 5th or above 95th were computed....

In this study, a novel intelligent nanoplatform to integrate multiple imaging and therapeutic functions for targeted cancer theranostics. The nanoplatform, DOX@Gd-MFe3O4 NPs, was constructed Gd-doped mesoporous Fe3O4 nanoparticles following with the doxorubicin (DOX) loading in the mesopores of the NPs. The DOX@Gd-MFe3O4 NPs exhibited good properties in colloidal dispersity, photothermal conversion, NIR triggered drug release, and high T1/T2 relaxicity rate (r1=9.64 mM−1s−1, r2= 177.71 mM−1s−1). Benefiting from the high MR contrast, DOX@Gd-MFe3O4 NPs enabled simultaneous...

Malignant melanoma is a life-threatening form of skin cancer with a low response rate to single-agent chemotherapy. Although combined therapies of metformin (MET) and doxorubicin (DOX) are effective in treating a variety of cancers, including breast cancer, their different physicochemical properties and administration routines reduce the effective co-accumulation of both drugs in tumors. Nanoparticles (NPs) have been demonstrated to potentially improve drug delivery efficiency in cancer therapy of, for example, liver and lung cancers. Hence,...

Luteolin (Lut) is a natural flavonoid polyphenolic compound with multiple pharmacological activities, such as anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-tumor effects. However, the poor aqueous solubility and low bioactivity of Lut restrict its clinical translation. Herein, we developed a reactive oxygen species (ROS)-responsive nanoplatforms to improve the bioactivity of Lut. Folic acid (FA) was employed to decorate the nanoparticles (NPs) to enhance its targeting ability. The size of Lut-loaded ROS-responsive nanoparticles (Lut/Oxi-αCD NPs) and FA-modified Lut/Oxi-αCD NPs...

Cisplatin (DDP) is a first-line chemotherapeutic drug applied for the treatment of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). The anticancer activity of DDP is tightly linked to its intracellular uptake. It is unwise to increase the DDP intake by increasing the dose or shortening the dosing interval because of the severe systemic toxicity (nephrotoxicity, ototoxicity and neurotoxicity) in DDP application. The main uptake pathways of DDP include passive diffusion and active transporter transport. Therefore, finding additional...

Exposure to environmental factors can affect DNA methylation at a 5'-cytosine-phosphate-guanine-3' (CpG) site or a genomic region, which can then affect an outcome. In other words, environmental effects on an outcome could be mediated by DNA methylation. To date, single CpG-site-based mediation analysis has been employed extensively. More recently, however, there has been considerable interest in studying differentially methylated regions (DMRs), both because DMRs are more likely to have functional effects than single CpG sites...

Circular RNAs (circRNAs), the new stars of endogenous non-coding RNAs, are dysregulated in various tumors including pancreatic cancer. Here, we aimed to investigate the biological functions of hsa_circ_0071036 in the tumourigenesis and progression of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and its clinical implications. The differential expression profile of circRNAs in 4 pairs of PDAC tissues was analyzed by microarray assay. Quantitative real-time PCR and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) were utilized to determine the expression patterns...

Yunnan, the region hardest hit by HIV/AIDS in China, is also an area with the most abundant HIV-1 genetic diversity. A large number of novel HIV-1 circulating recombinant forms (CRFs) and unique recombinants were identified among injection drug users in Yunnan; however, few were found among sexual contacts. Here, we obtained 15 near full-length genome sequences (NFLGs) from HIV-1 seropositive heterosexual contacts in Yunnan who received antiretroviral therapy during the period from 2014 to 2016....

Yunnan, the region hardest hit by HIV/AIDS in China, is also an area with the most abundant HIV-1 genetic diversity. A large number of novel HIV-1 circulating recombinant forms (CRFs) and unique recombinants were identified among injection drug users in Yunnan; however, few were found among sexual contacts. Here, we obtained 15 near full-length genome sequences (NFLGs) from HIV-1 seropositive heterosexual contacts in Yunnan who received antiretroviral therapy during the period from 2014 to 2016....

Supplemental Material, sj-docx-1-gsj-10.1177_2192568221996310 for Subaxial Cervical Pedicular Screw Insertion via the Nonanatomic Axis: Identification of Entry Point and Trajectory Based on a Radiographic Study and Workshop by Yingbo Wang, Bo Hu, Jian Wu, Wei Chen, Zhong Wang, Jun Zhu, Weili Fan, Mingyong Liu, Jianhua Zhao and Peng Liu in Global Spine Journal

Chemotherapy is one of the main ways to treat breast cancer clinically. However, the multidrug resistance to anti-tumor drugs limits their clinical use. To overcome these drawbacks, the development of drug delivery systems (DDSs) has attracted more and more attention in cancer therapy. At present, the preparation and purification process are complicated for many reported DDSs, while the clinic calls for new DDSs that are more convenient for preparation. Here a new pH-responsive supramolecular organic...

Vascular calcification is a major complication of chronic renal failure, which has been identified as an active process partly driven by osteogenic transition of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). Aspirin could prevent cardiomyocyte damage by inducing heat shock response. This study investigates the effect of aspirin on alleviating VSMC calcification. An in vitro VSMC calcification model was established by 10-day calcification induction in osteogenic medium. VSMCs were grouped as following: control group (normal medium), calcified...

The West Kunlun orogenic belt (WKOB) is a complex orogenic belt that preserves the evidence of Early Palaeozoic and Late Palaeozoic orogenic events, with the former resulting from the closure of the Proto-Tethys Ocean. To better reveal the relationships between Early Palaeozoic granitoids in the WKOB and the tectonic evolution of the Proto-Tethys Ocean, we analysed the rocks of Akedala pluton, which is exposed within the Qiaerlong basin, and compared the results with contemporaneous magmatic...