Discovery and identification of potential biomarkers of papillary thyroid carcinoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Thyroid carcinoma is the most common endocrine malignancy and a common cancer among the malignancies of head and neck. Noninvasive and convenient biomarkers for diagnosis of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) as early as possible remain an urgent need. The aim of this study was to discover and identify potential protein biomarkers for PTC specifically.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Two hundred and twenty four (224) serum samples with 108 PTC and 116 controls were randomly divided into a training set and a blind testing set. Serum proteomic profiles were analyzed using SELDI-TOF-MS. Candidate biomarkers were purified by HPLC, identified by LC-MS/MS and validated using ProteinChip immunoassays.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 3 peaks (<it>m/z </it>with 9190, 6631 and 8697 Da) were screened out by support vector machine (SVM) to construct the classification model with high discriminatory power in the training set. The sensitivity and specificity of the model were 95.15% and 93.97% respectively in the blind testing set. The candidate biomarker with <it>m/z </it>of 9190 Da was found to be up-regulated in PTC patients, and was identified as haptoglobin alpha-1 chain. Another two candidate biomarkers (6631, 8697 Da) were found down-regulated in PTC and identified as apolipoprotein C-I and apolipoprotein C-III, respectively. In addition, the level of haptoglobin alpha-1 chain (9190 Da) progressively increased with the clinical stage I, II, III and IV, and the expression of apolipoprotein C-I and apolipoprotein C-III (6631, 8697 Da) gradually decreased in higher stages.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We have identified a set of biomarkers that could discriminate PTC from non-cancer controls. An efficient strategy, including SELDI-TOF-MS analysis, HPLC purification, MALDI-TOF-MS trace and LC-MS/MS identification, has been proved successful.</p

Tetraphenylethene-Embedded Pillar[5]arene and [15]Paracyclophane: Distorted Cavities and Host–Guest Binding Properties

Two aggregation-induced emission (AIE) macrocycles (DMP[5]-TPE and PCP[5]-TPE) were prepared by embedding Tetraphenylethene (TPE) unit into the skeletons of Dimethoxypillar[5]arene (DMP[5]) and [15]Paracyclophane ([15]PCP) at meso position, respectively. In crystal, the PCP[5]-TPE showed a distorted cavity, and the incubation of hexane inside the DMP[5]-TPE cavity caused a distinct change in the molecular conformation compared to PCP[5]-TPE. There was no complexation between PCP[5]-TPE and 1,4-dicyanobutane (DCB). UV absorption experiments showed the distorted cavity of DMP[5]-TPE hindered association with DCB

Numerical simulation of air–foam flooding in Wuliwan District 1 of Jing’an Oilfield

Abstract Air–foam flooding is an important mean to reduce water cut, improve oil production rate, enhance oil displacement efficiency and oil recovery in old oilfield. Because of high cost of core displacement experiment, numerical simulation is an important method to get optimal injection-production parameters of air–foam flooding, which can improve displacement effect and direct field test in Wuliwan District 1 of Jing’an oilfield. Based on laboratory experiment of air–foam flooding, parameters including model component, low temperature oxidation reaction, physical/chemical phenomena, foam interpolation function were set, and then numerical simulation concept model of air–foam flooding was established, which realized accurate fitting for 1-D core flooding experiment. According to numerical simulation concept model of air–foam flooding, the injection-production parameters including injection volume, gas–liquid ratio, and injection time are optimized. Results indicated that optimum surfactant concentration was 0.5%, optimum injection volume of air–foam was 0.25PV, optimum gas–liquid ratio was 1.5:1, optimum injection time was 65% water cut when air–foam flooding began. The researches were applied in Wellbock ZJ53, Wuliwan District 1 of Jing’an Oilfield. There were 15 well groups with air–foam injection and 63 producers, with annual oil production rate scale of 50000 tons. The oil increase effect was very obvious and the application in Jing’an Oilfield was successful

DataSheet1_Inflammation-related pathways involved in damaged articular cartilage of rats exposed to T-2 toxin based on RNA-sequencing analysis.xlsx

Many studies have shown that ingestion of the T-2 toxin is harmful to articular cartilage. However, the mechanisms underlying damaged articular cartilage induced by T-2 toxin have not been elucidated. Twenty-four SD rats were randomly divided into T-2 toxin and control groups. In the control group, the 12 rats were administered 4% absolute ethanol by gavage, and in the T-2 toxin group, the 12 rats were administered T-2 toxin (100 ng/g, BW/day) by gavage. After the rats were sacrificed, the knee joints were collected, and RNA was extracted using TRIzol reagent for RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). Differentially expressed mRNA was identified based on p 2 (fold change) | > 1. The T-2 toxin-related genes were obtained from the GeneCards database. An online tool (https://www.bioinformatics.com.cn) was used for enrichment analysis. Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining was used to observe damaged articular cartilage, and immunohistochemical (IHC) staining was used to validate differentially expressed proteins. The H&E staining shows the number of cells decreased significantly, and the arrangement of chondrocytes became disordered in the T-2 toxin group. RNA-seq analysis identified 195 upregulated and 89 downregulated mRNAs in the T-2 toxin group. The top immune-related biological processes (Gene Ontology) were regulation of hormone secretion, regulation of peptide hormone secretion, and regulation of transcription involved in cell fate commitment. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis revealed that the IL-17 and tumor necrosis factor signaling pathways were significantly expressed, and the IL-17 signaling pathway was also identified in the enrichment analysis of T-2 toxin-related genes. Also, Mmp3, Tnf, Mapk10, Ccl11, Creb5, Cxcl2, and Cebpb were significantly enriched in the two pathways. The immunohistochemical staining showed that the levels of Mmp3 and Tnf proteins were significantly increased in the T-2 toxin group, which was consistent with the RNA-seq results. This study revealed the critical roles of IL-17 and TNF signaling pathways in damaged cartilage induced by T-2 toxin.</p

Detection of Sudan Dyes Based on Inner-Filter Effect with Reusable Conjugated Polymer Fibrous Membranes

Developing effective methods for detecting illegal additives in food or seasoning is of great significance. In this study, a sensing strategy for selective detection of Sudan dyes was designed based on the fluorescence inner-filter effect (IFE) by using poly­(phenylenevinylene) (PPV) solid materials in combination with an optimized experimental protocol. Two types of fluorescent solid materials, electrospun fibrous membranes and drop-cast films, were fabricated with PPV as the fluorophore and poly­(vinyl alcohol) as the matrix, respectively. Sudan dyes greatly quenched the fluorescence of the membrane and film, whereas other food colorings or possible food ingredients displayed a much smaller or negligible quenching effect. The sensing mechanism was studied, and the selectivity was ascribed to IFE, which requires the overlap between the absorption of the analyte and absorption/emission of the sensing material. The form of materials (membrane or film), the content of PPV, and the cross-linking process did not have much influence on the selectivity and sensitivity, which is consistent with the IFE mechanism and demonstrates the advantage of not requiring strict control of the preparative process. All the cross-linked materials were found to be stable against water/humidity and displayed good reversibility in sensing and can be reused at least for 10 cycles with negligible influence on the sensing performance. A cross-linked membrane was selected for detecting Sudan dyes in chili powder because folding did not affect the mechanical stability of the membrane. Two different protocols were used to pretreat the chili samples, which allowed the detection of Sudan dyes in chili powder as well as the discrimination of Sudan dyes from synthetic food coloring such as allura red. This study provides a facile and cost-effective method for preparing reusable sensing materials for detecting some dyes in commercial foods or food seasonings