CIC Rearrangement Sarcoma: A Case Report and Literature Review

Background: CIC-rearranged sarcoma (capicua transcriptional repressor- rearranged sarcoma, CRS) is a rare type of undifferentiated small round-cell sarcoma. There are few reported cases of CRS; in 2017, 115 cases were reported abroad and 10 cases were reported in China. Case summary: The patient is a 41-year-old male who presented with a mass in the left lumbar region for more than 1 month. Tumor excision was performed at another hospital. Pathology results indicated CRS. PET-CT indicated changes in the left lumbar region, and postoperative tissue repair changes were considered. However, combined with the medical history and imaging features, the clinical diagnosis was considered recurrence of tumor in the left lumbar region. Postoperatively, the patient was transferred to the burn department for pedicled skin-flap repair. Conclusion: CRS is rare, and the prognosis of these patients is poor. Surgical resection of the lesion is the first choice for patients without metastasis

Effects of cellular iron deficiency on the formation of vascular endothelial growth factor and angiogenesis. Iron deficiency and angiogenesis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Young women diagnosed with breast cancer are known to have a higher mortality rate from the disease than older patients. Specific risk factors leading to this poorer outcome have not been identified. In the present study, we hypothesized that iron deficiency, a common ailment in young women, contributes to the poor outcome by promoting the hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) formation. This hypothesis was tested in an <it>in vitro </it>cell culture model system.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Human breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells were transfected with transferrin receptor-1 (TfR1) shRNA to constitutively impair iron uptake. Cellular iron status was determined by a set of iron proteins and angiogenesis was evaluated by levels of VEGF in cells as well as by a mouse xenograft model. Significant decreases in ferritin with concomitant increases in VEGF were observed in TfR1 knockdown MDA-MB-231 cells when compared to the parental cells. TfR1 shRNA transfectants also evoked a stronger angiogenic response after the cells were injected subcutaneously into nude mice. The molecular mechanism appears that cellular iron deficiency elevates VEGF formation by stabilizing HIF-1α. This mechanism is also true in human breast cancer MCF-7 and liver cancer HepG2 cells.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Cellular iron deficiency increased HIF-1α, VEGF, and angiogenesis, suggesting that systemic iron deficiency might play an important part in the tumor angiogenesis and recurrence in this young age group of breast cancer patients.</p

Preparation of nano-iron loaded cassava fibre composite material for hexavalent chromium removal

Waste cassava fiber and tea polyphenols were used as carrier materials and reducing agents, respectively, to prepare nano-iron loaded cassava fiber composite (CF-FeNPs). This work investigated the factors affecting the removal of Cr(Ⅵ) by CF-FeNPs under different environmental conditions and the removal mechanism. The SEM characterization results show that as the initial Fe2+ concentration increases, the amount of nano-iron on the surface of the composite material increases. The results show that the increases of the initial Fe2+ content and dosage of CF-FeNPss can enhance the removal rate. Meanwhile, the decrease of the initial concentration of Cr(Ⅵ) solution and pH also beneficial for the removal performance. When pH=2.0 and the initial concentration of Cr(Ⅵ) is 10 mg/L, the removal rate of hexavalent chromium by CF-FeNPs can reach 81.4% within 2 h. The reaction conforms to the pseudo first-order kinetic model. The results of this study can provide technical reference for the remediation and treatment of Cr(VI)-containing wastewater

PI-3K and Akt are mediators of AP-1 induction by 5-MCDE in mouse epidermal Cl41 cells

5-Methylchrysene has been found to be a complete carcinogen in laboratory animals. However, the tumor promotion effects of (±)-anti-5-methylchrysene-1,2-diol-3,4-epoxide (5-MCDE) remain unclear. In the present work, we found that 5-MCDE induced marked activator protein-1 (AP-1) activation in Cl41 cells. 5-MCDE also induced a marked activation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI-3K). Inhibition of PI-3K impaired 5-MCDE–induced AP-1 transactivation, suggesting that PI-3K is an upstream kinase involved in AP-1 activation by 5-MCDE. Furthermore, we found that Akt is a PI-3K downstream mediator for 5-MCDE–induced AP-1 transactivation, whereas another PI-3K downstream kinase, p70S6K, was not involved in AP-1 activation by 5-MCDE. Moreover, inhibition of Akt activation blocked 5-MCDE–induced activation of extracellular signal–regulated protein kinases (ERKs) and c-Jun NH2-terminal kinases (JNKs), whereas it did not affect p38K activation. Consistently, overexpression of a dominant-negative mutant of ERK2 or JNK1 blocked the AP-1 activation by 5-MCDE. These results demonstrate that 5-MCDE is able to induce AP-1 activation, and the AP-1 induction is specifically through a PI-3K/Akt–dependent and p70S6K-independent pathway

Improved stacking ensemble learning based on feature selection to accurately predict warfarin dose

BackgroundWith the rapid development of artificial intelligence, prediction of warfarin dose via machine learning has received more and more attention. Since the dose prediction involve both linear and nonlinear problems, traditional machine learning algorithms are ineffective to solve such problems at one time.ObjectiveBased on the characteristics of clinical data of Chinese warfarin patients, an improved stacking ensemble learning can achieve higher prediction accuracy.MethodsInformation of 641 patients from southern China who had reached a steady state on warfarin was collected, including demographic information, medical history, genotype, and co-medication status. The dataset was randomly divided into a training set (90%) and a test set (10%). The predictive capability is evaluated on a new test set generated by stacking ensemble learning. Additional factors associated with warfarin dose were discovered by feature selection methods.ResultsA newly proposed heuristic-stacking ensemble learning performs better than traditional-stacking ensemble learning in key metrics such as accuracy of ideal dose (73.44%, 71.88%), mean absolute errors (0.11 mg/day, 0.13 mg/day), root mean square errors (0.18 mg/day, 0.20 mg/day) and R2 (0.87, 0.82).ConclusionsThe developed heuristic-stacking ensemble learning can satisfactorily predict warfarin dose with high accuracy. A relationship between hypertension, a history of severe preoperative embolism, and warfarin dose is found, which provides a useful reference for the warfarin dose administration in the future

Effect of the supplementation of exogenous complex non-starch polysaccharidases on the growth performance, rumen fermentation and microflora of fattening sheep

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of exogenous non-starch polysaccharidases (a mixture of cellulase, xylanase, β-glucanase and mannanase) on the growth performance and nutrient digestibility, rumen fermentation, and rumen microflora of sheep. The animal trial was conducted using 36 5-month-old female fattening hybrid sheep (Duolang♂ × Hu♀) who were randomly assigned into four groups comprising nine sheep per treatment: CON, T1, T2, and T3, with 0, 0.1, 0.3, and 0.5% NSPases/kg DM of TMR, respectively. This complex enzyme product was screened for optimal ratios based on previous in vitro tests and responded positively to the in vitro fermentation of the TMR. When treated with NSPases, there was a non-linear effect of average daily gain and feed conversion rate, with the greatest improvement observed in the T2 group. There were no significant differences (p &gt; 0.05) in nutrient intake or apparent digestibility among the NSPase-supplemented groups. In addition, T2 group had a significantly higher acetate to propionate ratio and pH (p &lt; 0.05) than the other groups, and NH3-N and microbial protein concentrations showed a quadratic curve. The results revealed that both immunoglobulins and serum hormones increased linearly with addition (p &lt; 0.05). As the T2 group showed the best growth performance, the CON and T2 groups were subjected to rumen metagenomic analysis. The results showed higher abundance of bacteria and lower abundance of Viruses in the rumen microbiota of the T2 group compared to the CON group. In addition, Uroviricota and Proteobacteria abundance was significantly lower in the T2 group than in the CON group at the phylum level (p &lt; 0.05). These results suggest that the supplementation of high-concentrate rations with NSPases enhance immunity, reduces virus abundance in the rumen, improves rumen health, and promotes rumen fermentation. Our findings provide novel insights for improving growth performance and alleviating inflammatory responses arising from high concentrate feeding patterns in ruminants. However, the biological mechanisms cannot be elucidated by exploring the composition of rumen microbe alone, and further studies are required