Selective repression of retinoic acid target genes by RIP140 during induced tumor cell differentiation of pluripotent human embryonal carcinoma cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The use of retinoids as anti-cancer agents has been limited due to resistance and low efficacy. The dynamics of nuclear receptor coregulation are incompletely understood. Cell-and context-specific activities of nuclear receptors may be in part due to distinct coregulator complexes recruited to distinct subsets of target genes. RIP140 (also called NRIP1) is a ligand-dependent corepressor that is inducible with retinoic acid (RA). We had previously shown that RIP140 limits RA induced tumor cell differentiation of embryonal carcinoma; the pluriopotent stem cells of testicular germ cell tumors. This implies that RIP140 represses key genes required for RA-mediated tumor cell differentiation. Identification of these genes would be of considerable interest.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To begin to address this issue, microarray technology was employed to elucidate in a <it>de novo </it>fashion the global role of RIP140 in RA target gene regulation of embryonal carcinoma. Subclasses of genes were affected by RIP140 in distinct manners.</p> <p>Interestingly, approximately half of the RA-dependent genes were unaffected by RIP140. Hence, RIP140 appears to discriminate between different classes of RA target genes. In general, RIP140-dependent gene expression was consistent with RIP140 functioning to limit RA signaling and tumor cell differentiation. Few if any genes were regulated in a manner to support a role for RIP140 in "active repression". We also demonstrated that RIP140 silencing sensitizes embryonal carcinoma cells to low doses of RA.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Together the data demonstrates that RIP140 has profound effects on RA-mediated gene expression in this cancer stem cell model. The RIP140-dependent RA target genes identified here may be particularly important in mediating RA-induced tumor cell differentiation and the findings suggest that RIP140 may be an attractive target to sensitize tumor cells to retinoid-based differentiation therapy. We discuss these data in the context of proposed models of RIP140-mediated repression.</p

The Role of Long Non-Coding RNAs in Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition-Related Signaling Pathways in Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common male malignancies with frequent remote invasion and metastasis, leading to high mortality. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a fundamental process in embryonic development and plays a key role in tumor proliferation, invasion and metastasis. Numerous long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) could regulate the occurrence and development of EMT through various complex molecular mechanisms involving multiple signaling pathways in PCa. Given the importance of EMT and lncRNAs in the progression of tumor metastasis, we recapitulate the research progress of EMT-related signaling pathways regulated by lncRNAs in PCa, including AR signaling, STAT3 signaling, Wnt/β-catenin signaling, PTEN/PI3K/AKT signaling, TGF-β/Smad and NF-κB signaling pathways. Furthermore, we summarize four modes of how lncRNAs participate in the EMT process of PCa via regulating relevant signaling pathways

CMR left ventricular strains beyond global longitudinal strain in differentiating light-chain cardiac amyloidosis from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

BackgroundThe clinical value of left ventricular (LV) global longitudinal strain (GLS) in the differential diagnosis of light-chain cardiac amyloidosis (AL-CA) and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) has been previously reported. In this study, we analyzed the potential clinical value of the LV long-axis strain (LAS) to discriminate AL-CA from HCM. Furthermore, we analyzed the association between all the LV global strain parameters derived from cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) feature tracking and LAS in both the AL-CA and HCM patients to assess the differential diagnostic efficacies of these global peak systolic strains.Materials and methodsThus, this study enrolled 89 participants who underwent cardiac MRI (CMRI), consisting of 30 AL-CA patients, 30 HCM patients, and 29 healthy controls. The intra- and inter-observer reproducibility of the LV strain parameters including GLS, global circumferential strain (GCS), global radial strain (GRS), and LAS were assessed in all the groups and compared. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to determine the diagnostic performances of the CMR strain parameters in discriminating AL-CA from HCM.ResultsThe intra- and inter-observer reproducibility of the LV global strains and LAS were excellent (range of interclass correlation coefficients: 0.907–0.965). ROC curve analyses showed that the differential diagnostic performances of the global strains in discriminating AL-CA from HCM were good to excellent (GRS, AUC = 0.921; GCS, AUC = 0.914; GLS, AUC = 0.832). Furthermore, among all the strain parameters analyzed, LAS showed the highest diagnostic efficacy in differentiating between AL-CA and HCM (AUC = 0.962).ConclusionCMRI-derived strain parameters such as GLS, LAS, GRS, and GCS are promising diagnostic indicators that distinguish AL-CA from HCM with high accuracy. LAS showed the highest diagnostic accuracy among all the strain parameters

The complete chloroplast genome of a medicinal plant Viscum articulatum Burm.f. (Loranthaceae)

Viscum articulatum is usually used as famous ethno-medicinal plant and popular drink in many provinces of China. In this study, the characterization of the complete chloroplast genome of V. articulatum was analyzed using the Illumina NovaSeq platform. The whole chloroplast genome sequence of V. articulatum is 131,825 including a large single-copy region (LSC, 76,069 bp), a small single-copy region (SSC, 8990 bp), and a pair of repeated regions (IRs, 23,383 bp, each). Further gene annotation in our study revealed the chloroplast genome contains 114 genes, including 36 tRNA genes, 8 rRNA genes and 70 protein-coding genes. A total of 118 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were identified in the chloroplast genome. Phylogenetic development was analyzed based on V. articulatum with other species of Loranthaceae, the phylogenetic tree in our study revealed that V. articulatum is a lineage independent of other species in genus Viscum

Summer Outdoor Thermal Perception for the Elderly in a Comprehensive Park of Changsha, China

Thermal perception is an important factor affecting the usage of outdoor spaces (e.g., urban parks). The elderly are the main visitors of urban parks; however, few studies investigated the thermal perception of the elderly in urban parks in summer. Taking a comprehensive urban park in Changsha, China, as an example, this study examined the thermal perception of the elderly and investigated the impacts of age, gender, and health status on the thermal perception through field observation, questionnaires, and field measurement of meteorological variables. The results showed that: (1) The neutral physiological equivalent temperature (PET) was 24.48 °C, with a range of 21.99−26.97 °C. The comfortable PET was 25.41 °C, and the 90% acceptable PET was 25.84−33.19 °C. (2) The neutral PET increased with the elderly’s age (e.g., 23.19 °C, 25.33 °C, and 25.36 °C, respectively, for people aged 60–69, 70–79, and ≥80 years old). The thermal sensitivity of the elderly increased with the increase in age. (3) Moving to the shade provided by trees or buildings is the main thermal adaptation behavior of the elderly in the park in summer. This study extended the understanding of the outdoor thermal perception of the elderly in summer and can help better urban park planning and design to improve the thermal perception of elderly visitors in summer in Changsha (China)

Micro surface texturing of alumina ceramic with nanosecond laser

In order to fabricate micro surface textures on alumina ceramic, the effects of single pulse intervals processing and ring cutting processing on the laser surface textures were discussed. The advantages and disadvantages between the two kinds of processing method were compared. The crater diameter and depth increase with the increase of laser pulse energy, and the increasing number of pulses significantly affects the crater depth for the single pulse intervals processing. As for the ring cutting processing method, micro-pit depth changes with the average power, whereas the micro-pit diameter mainly changes with scan radium. By optimizing laser processing parameters the micro-pit dimensions could be independently controlled. These two methods could process micro-pits with different diameters and depth on alumina ceramic. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd

Comparative analysis of medical glue and positioning hooks for preoperative localization of pulmonary nodules

BackgroundThrough preoperative localization, surgeons can easily locate ground glass nodules (GGNs) and effectively control the extent of resection. Therefore, it is necessary to choose an appropriate puncture positioning method. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of medical glue and positioning hooks in the preoperative positioning of GGNs and to provide a reference for clinical selection.MethodsFrom March 30, 2020 to June 13, 2022, a total of 859 patients with a CT diagnosis of GGNs requiring surgical resection were included in our study at the hospital. Among them, 21 patients who either opted out or could not undergo preoperative localization for various reasons were excluded. Additionally, 475 patients who underwent preoperative localization using medical glue and 363 patients who underwent preoperative localization through positioning hooks were also excluded. We conducted statistical analyses on the baseline data, success rates, complications, and pathological results of the remaining patients. The success rates, complication rates, and pathological results were compared between the two groups—those who received medical glue localization and those who received positioning hook localization.ResultsThere was no statistically significant difference between the two groups of patients in terms of age, body mass index, smoking history, location of the nodule, distance of the nodule from the pleura, or postoperative pathological results (P &gt; 0.05). The success rate of medical glue and positioning hooks was 100%. The complication rates of medical glue and positioning hooks during single nodule positioning were 39.18% and 23.18%, respectively, which were significantly different (p &lt; 0.001); the complication rates during multiple nodule positioning were 49.15% and 49.18%, respectively, with no statistically significant differences (p &gt; 0.05). In addition, the method of positioning and the clinical characteristics of the patients were not found to be independent risk factors for the occurrence of complications. The detection rate of pulmonary nodules also showed some positive correlation with the spread of COVID-19 during the 2020–2022 period when COVID-19 was prevalent.ConclusionWhen positioning a single node, the safety of positioning hooks is greater than when positioning multiple nodes, the safety of medical glue and positioning hooks is comparable, and the appropriate positioning method should be chosen according to the individual situation of the patient