Newly Excavated Confucian Bamboo Manuscripts and Related Research

The primary purpose of this article is to comprehensively survey the research on excavated Confucian texts from the past 30 years. Newly excavated Confucian manuscripts are seen in such collections as those from Guodian 郭店, Shangbo 上博, Tsinghua 清華, Anda 安大, and Haihun 海昏. In terms of their content, they each have their own focus and characteristics. Among these bamboo manuscripts there is a large number dedicated to the Shijing 詩經, the Shujing 書經, the Liji 禮記, the Yijing 易經, and to Kongzi 孔子 making them of great importance. At present, research on the Guodian and the Shangbo manuscripts is mostly completed and that into the Tsinghua collection is making large strides while research into the Anda collection is just beginning to develop. Among all this research, one of the weakest areas revolves around the explanation and discussion of Confucian thought and related problems. This includes textual evidence in the form of excavated Confucian texts that provide a foundation for “leaving behind the age of doubting antiquity” (zouchu yigu shidai 走出疑古時代) and the related debates carried out by scholars are beneficial to transmitting and revising this theory

Tumor-Infiltrating Podoplanin+ Fibroblasts Predict Worse Outcome in Solid Tumors

Background/Aims: Tumor-infiltrating fibroblasts are a heterogeneous population, and different subpopulations play differential roles in tumor microenvironment. However, the prognostic role of podoplanin+ fibroblasts in human solid tumors still remains controversial. Therefore, we performed the meta-analysis to better understand the role of this subpopulation in prognosis prediction for patients with solid tumor. Methods: We searched PubMed and EBSCO to identify the studies evaluating the association of intratumoral podoplanin+ fibroblast density detected by immunohistochemical method and overall survival (OS) and/or disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with solid tumor, then computed extracted data into hazard ratios for OS, DFS and clinicopathological features with STATA 12.0. Results: A total of 4883 patients from 29 published studies were incorporated into this meta-analysis. We found that podoplanin+ fibroblast infiltration significantly decreased OS and DFS in all types of solid tumors. In stratified analyses, podoplanin+ fibroblast infiltration was significantly associated with worse OS in cholangiocarcinoma, breast, lung and pancreatic cancer. And these cells were inversely associated with DFS in breast, lung and pancreatic cancer. In addition, high density of these cells significantly correlated with unfavorable clinicopathological features such as lymph node metastasis, TNM stage, lymphatic and vascular invasion of solid tumor. Conclusion: Podoplanin+ fibroblast infiltration leads to worse clinical outcome in solid tumors, implicating that it is a valuable prognostic biomarker and targeting it may have a potential for effective treatment

Expression profile analysis of microRNAs in prostate cancer by next-generation sequencing

Purpose: Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second leading cause of tumor mortality among males in western societies. In China, the diagnostic and fatality rate of PCa is increasing yearly. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small single stranded non-coding RNA molecules (~22 nucleotides) which impede protein production by directly interacting with 3’-untranslated regions of the target mRNAs. miRNAs are crucial regulators in malignant tumors. Recent profiling research suggests that miRNAs are aberrantly expressed in PCa, and these have been implicated in the regulation of apoptosis, cell cycle, epithelial to mesenchymal transition, PCa stem cells, and androgen receptor pathway.Methods: To find miRNAs differentially expressed in PCa and their relation to prognostic factors and therapeutic potentials, we studied 24 surgical specimens from men who underwent radical prostatectomy, through high-throughput Illumina sequencing and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) methods. Moreover, a variety of biological information softwares and databases were applied to predict the target genes of miRNA, molecular functions, and signal pathways. We also discuss the functional significance of the differentially expressed miRNAs and the molecular pathways/targets regulated by these miRNAs.Results: Many miRNAs were differentially expressed (fold change 2, P&lt;0.05) by sequencing. This was confirmed by qRT-PCR in more clinical tissue samples. In the tumors, miRNAs (miR-125b-5p, miR-126-5p, miR-141, miR-151a-5p, miR-221-3p and miR-222-3p) were significantly upregulated with downregulation of miR-486-5p and miR-488. In addition, 13 novel miRNAs were identified from three prostate tissue libraries, with 12 of them assayed in 21 human normal tissues by qRT-PCR. Multiple databases indicated target genes for these differentially expressed miRNAs. Function annotation of target genes indicated that most of them tend to target genes involved in signal transduction and cell communication, especially cancer-related PI3K-Akt and p53 signaling pathway. Moreover, miR-141 and miR-488 post-transcriptionally regulated androgen receptor (AR) expression, and inhibited the growth and metastasis of prostate gland epithelial cells.Conclusion: The small RNA transcriptomes obtained in this study uncovers the differentially expressed miRNAs, and provides a better understanding of the expression and function of miRNAs in the development of PCa and reveals several miRNAs in PCa that may have biomarker and therapeutic potentials.-----------------------------------------Cite this article as:  Song C, Chen H, Ru G, Ding Q, Yang W. Expression profile analysis of microRNAs in prostate cancer by next-generation sequencing. Int J Cancer Ther Oncol 2015; 3(4):3405.[This abstract was presented at the BIT’s 8th Annual World Cancer Congress, which was held from May 15-17, 2015 in Beijing, China.]</p

Expression profile analysis of microRNAs in prostate cancer by next-generation sequencing

Purpose: Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second leading cause of tumor mortality among males in western societies. In China, the diagnostic and fatality rate of PCa is increasing yearly. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small single stranded non-coding RNA molecules (~22 nucleotides) which impede protein production by directly interacting with 3’-untranslated regions of the target mRNAs. miRNAs are crucial regulators in malignant tumors. Recent profiling research suggests that miRNAs are aberrantly expressed in PCa, and these have been implicated in the regulation of apoptosis, cell cycle, epithelial to mesenchymal transition, PCa stem cells, and androgen receptor pathway.Methods: To find miRNAs differentially expressed in PCa and their relation to prognostic factors and therapeutic potentials, we studied 24 surgical specimens from men who underwent radical prostatectomy, through high-throughput Illumina sequencing and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) methods. Moreover, a variety of biological information softwares and databases were applied to predict the target genes of miRNA, molecular functions, and signal pathways. We also discuss the functional significance of the differentially expressed miRNAs and the molecular pathways/targets regulated by these miRNAs.Results: Many miRNAs were differentially expressed (fold change 2, P&lt;0.05) by sequencing. This was confirmed by qRT-PCR in more clinical tissue samples. In the tumors, miRNAs (miR-125b-5p, miR-126-5p, miR-141, miR-151a-5p, miR-221-3p and miR-222-3p) were significantly upregulated with downregulation of miR-486-5p and miR-488. In addition, 13 novel miRNAs were identified from three prostate tissue libraries, with 12 of them assayed in 21 human normal tissues by qRT-PCR. Multiple databases indicated target genes for these differentially expressed miRNAs. Function annotation of target genes indicated that most of them tend to target genes involved in signal transduction and cell communication, especially cancer-related PI3K-Akt and p53 signaling pathway. Moreover, miR-141 and miR-488 post-transcriptionally regulated androgen receptor (AR) expression, and inhibited the growth and metastasis of prostate gland epithelial cells.Conclusion: The small RNA transcriptomes obtained in this study uncovers the differentially expressed miRNAs, and provides a better understanding of the expression and function of miRNAs in the development of PCa and reveals several miRNAs in PCa that may have biomarker and therapeutic potentials.-----------------------------------------Cite this article as:  Song C, Chen H, Ru G, Ding Q, Yang W. Expression profile analysis of microRNAs in prostate cancer by next-generation sequencing. Int J Cancer Ther Oncol 2015; 3(4):3405.[This abstract was presented at the BIT’s 8th Annual World Cancer Congress, which was held from May 15-17, 2015 in Beijing, China.

Low pretreatment prognostic nutritional index predicts poor survival in breast cancer patients: A meta-analysis.

BackgroundPrognostic nutritional index (PNI), as an indicator of nutritional immune status, has been shown to be associated with therapeutic effects and survival of solid tumors. However, the prognostic role of PNI before treatment in human breast cancer (BC) is still not conclusive. Hence, we performed this meta-analysis to assess the value of it in prognosis prediction for BC patients.Materials and methodsWe searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and EBSCO to identify the studies evaluating the association between PNI and survival such as overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS) of BC, and computed extracted data into hazard ratios (HRs) for OS, DFS and clinicopathological features with STATA 12.0.ResultsA total of 2322 patients with BC from 8 published studies were incorporated into this meta-analysis. We discovered that low pretreatment PNI was significantly associated with worse OS, but not with DFS in BC patients. In stratified analyses, the result showed that decreased PNI before treatment was remarkably related with lower 3-year, 5-year, 8-year and 10-year OS, but not with 1-year survival rate in BC. In addition, although reduced PNI could not impact 1-year, 3-year or 5-year DFS, it considerably deteriorated 8-year and 10-year DFS in patients.ConclusionLow pretreatment PNI deteriorated OS, 8-year and 10-year DFS in BC patients, implicating that it is a valuable prognostic index and improving the nutritional immune status may offer a therapeutic strategy for these patients

Influencing factors and the clinical significance of tumorigenesis rate in PDX model of colorectal cancer

Objective To establish a patient derived xenograft (PDX) model of tumor tissue from patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) and to identify the factors affecting the tumorigenesis rate of PDX model, as well as to conduct a preliminary chemotherapy. Methods From November 2019 to October 2020, CRC patients undergoing elective surgery in Shaoxing People's Hospital were selected. The tumor tissue obtained from surgical operation was inoculated to the right lumbar back of NSG mice to establish a PDX model, which was subcultured to F3 generation, and the influencing factors of the tumor formation rate of PDX model were analyzed. Chemotherapy drugs include 5-fluorouracil, oxaliplatin and anesthetic propofol. Results A total of 60 patients with CRC were included in this study and 37 samples from patients had PDX tumor formation in mice with a tumorigenesis rate of 62%; The average tumorigenesis time was (34±12)d; Primary tumor malignant degree (tumor stage and degree of cell differentiation), preoperative carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) level and tumor location of CRC patients affected the tumorigenesis rate of PDX model (P＜0.01). The biology of CRC-PDX transplanted tumor tissue was highly consistent with that of the patient's tumor tissue. All four chemotherapy regimens could inhibit tumor growth and cause tumor tissue damage. Propofol could inhibit diarrhea in mice and protect intestinal mucosa. Conclusions The CRC-PDX model established in this study may better keep biological characteristics of primary tumors and be used as a reference model for individualized treatment of CRC patients. The malignant degree of the primary tumor is the main factor affecting the tumorigenesis rate of PDX model

ClC-3 chloride channel mediates the role of parathyroid hormone [1-34] on osteogenic differentiation of osteoblasts.

INTRODUCTION:Different concentrations of parathyroid hormone [1-34] (PTH [1-34]) can have totally opposite effects on osteoblasts. Intermittent stimulation with PTH can significantly increase bone mineral density in vitro, mainly through the protein kinase A (PKA) signaling pathway, which phosphorylates runt-related transcription factor 2 (Runx2). The ClC-3 chloride channel, an important anion channel, can also promote osteogenesis via the Runx2 pathway based on recent studies. The purpose of our study, therefore, is to research whether the ClC-3 chloride channel has an effect on PTH osteodifferentiation in MC3T3-E1 cells. METHODS AND RESULTS:A cell counting kit (CCK-8) and real-time PCR were used to investigate the impact of different PTH stimulation modes on MC3T3-E1 cell proliferation and osteogenesis-related gene expression, respectively. We found that the minimum inhibitory concentration of PTH was 10-9 M, and the expression of alkaline phosphatase (Alpl) and Runx2 were at the highest levels when treated with 10-9 M PTH. Next, we used real-time PCR and immunofluorescence technique to detect changes in ClC-3 in MC3T3-E1 cells under PTH treatment. The results showed higher expression of the ClC-3 chloride channel at 10-9 M intermittent PTH administration than in the other groups. Finally, we used the ClC-3 siRNA technique to examine the role of the ClC-3 chloride channel in the effect of PTH on the osteogenesis of osteoblasts, and we found an obvious decrease in the expression of bone sialoprotein (Ibsp), osteocalcin (Bglap), osterix (Sp7), Alpl and Runx2, the formation of mineralization nodules as well. CONCLUSIONS:From the above data, we conclude that the expression of ClC-3 chloride channels in osteoblasts helps them respond to PTH stimulation, which mediates osteogenic differentiation

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The Relative Contributions of Climate and Grazing on the Dynamics of Grassland NPP and PUE on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Net primary productivity (NPP) and precipitation-use efficiency (PUE) are crucial indicators in understanding the responses of vegetation to global change. However, the relative contributions of climate change and human interference to the dynamics of NPP and PUE remain unclear. During the past few decades, the impacts of climate change and human activities on alpine grasslands on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) have been intensifying. The aims of the study were to investigate the spatiotemporal patterns of grassland NPP and PUE on the QTP during 2000–2017 and quantify how much of the variance in NPP and PUE can be attributed to the climatic factors (precipitation and temperature) and grazing intensity. The results showed that: (1) grassland NPP significantly increased with a rate of 0.6 g C m−2 year−1 over the past 18 years, mainly induced by the increased temperature and the enhanced precipitation. The temperature was the dominant factor for NPP interannual variation in mid-eastern QTP, and precipitation restrained vegetation growth most in the southwest and northeast. (2) The PUE was higher on the eastern and western parts of the plateau, but lower at the center. Regarding grassland types, the PUE of alpine steppe (0.19 g C m−2 mm−1) was significantly lower than those of alpine meadow (0.31 g C m−2 mm−1) and desert steppe (0.32 g C m−2 mm−1). (3) Precipitation was significantly and negatively correlated with PUE and contributed the most to the temporal variation of grassland PUE on the QTP (52.7%). (4) Furthermore, we found that the grazing activities had the lowest contributions to both NPP and PUE interannual variation, compared to temperature and precipitation. Thus, it is suggested that climate variability rather than grazing activities dominated vegetation changes on the QTP