Ligustrazine Inhibits Growth, Migration and Invasion of Medulloblastoma Daoy Cells by Up-Regulation of miR-211

Background/Aims: Ligustrazine (LSZ) has been identified as an antitumor agent against some types of cancers. Nevertheless, its ability to inhibit growth, migration and invasion of medulloblastoma cells is still unclear. This study aimed to explore the effect of LSZ on Daoy cells. Methods: The effects of LSZ on viability, proliferation, apoptosis, migration, and invasion of Daoy cells were analyzed by CCK-8, BrdU, flow cytometry and Transwell assays, respectively. The effect of LSZ on miR-211 expression was analyzed by qRT-PCR. miR-211 inhibitor transfection was performed to suppress miR-211 expression. The effects of LSZ on apoptosis-related factors, MMP-2, MMP-9, and Vimentin (Vim), as well as main factors of PI3K/AKT and mTOR pathways were analyzed by Western blot. Results: LSZ inhibited viability but promoted apoptosis of Daoy cells. Additionally, the proliferative, migratory and invasive abilities of Daoy cells were decreased by LSZ. Meanwhile, LSZ promoted the activations of Caspase-3 and Caspase-9, increased Bax level, decreased Bcl-2 level, as well as inhibited the expressions of MMP-2, MMP-9 and Vim. Additionally, we found that LSZ enhanced miR-211 expression and exerted its anti-medulloblastoma effect by up-regulation of miR-211. Furthermore, LSZ inhibited PI3K/AKT and mTOR signaling pathways by up-regulating miR-211. Conclusion: LSZ suppressed medulloblastoma Daoy cells by up-regulating miR-211 and further modulating the activations of PI3K/AKT and mTOR signaling pathways

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Silencing hsa_circ_PVT1 (circPVT1) suppresses the growth and metastasis of glioblastoma multiforme cells by up-regulation of miR-199a-5p

AbstractWe, the Editors and Publisher of the journal Artificial Cells, Nanomedicine, and Biotechnology, have retracted the following article:Guonan Chi, Fuwei Yang, Donghui Xu & Weiming Liu (2020) Silencing hsa_circ_PVT1 (circPVT1) suppresses the growth and metastasis of glioblastoma multiforme cells by up-regulation of miR-199a-5p. Artificial Cells, Nanomedicine, and Biotechnology, 48:1, 188–196, DOI: 10.1080/21691401.2019.1699825Since publication, concerns have been raised about the integrity of the data in the article. We reached out to the authors requesting that they supply information that would confirm the article’s integrity. The authors provided several files in response to our queries, but they were unable to provide the original data in a format which satisfies our requirements to confirm the authenticity of some types of data. In particular, they were unable to provide full western blots, where the molecular weight markers are indicated. In addition, the authors did not have a record of the full blot, before cutting it into strips. When checking their data the authors also confirmed there are fundamental errors present. Therefore, they have agreed to the retraction of this article.We have been informed in our decision-making by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retractions.The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as ‘Retracted’

Dysfunction of Sister Chromatids Separation Promotes Progression of Hepatocellular Carcinoma According to Analysis of Gene Expression Profiling

Despite studying the various molecular mechanisms of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), effective drugs and biomarkers in HCC therapy are still scarce. The present study was designed to investigate dysregulated pathways, novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets for HCC. The gene expression dataset of GSE14520, which included 362 tumor and their paired non-tumor tissues of HCC, was extracted for processing by the Robust multi-array average (RMA) algorithm in the R environment. SAM methods were leveraged to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Functional analysis of DEGs was performed using DAVID. The GeneMania and Cytohubba were used to construct the PPI network. To avoid individual bias, GSEA and survival analysis were employed to verify the results. The results of these analyses indicated that separation of sister chromatids was the most aberrant phase in the progression of HCC, and the most frequently involved genes, EZH2, GINS1, TPX2, CENPF, and BUB1B, require further study to be used as drug targets or biomarkers in diagnosis and treatment of HCC

Preparation of Protein-like Silver–Cysteine Hybrid Nanowires and Application in Ultrasensitive Immunoassay of Cancer Biomarker

Novel protein-like silver–cysteine hybrid nanowires (<i>p</i>-SCNWs) have been synthesized by a green, simple, nontemplate, seedless, and one-step aqueous-phase approach. AgNO₃ and l-cysteine were dissolved in distilled water, forming Ag–cysteine precipitates and HNO₃. Under vigorous stirring, the pH of the solution was rapidly adjusted to 9.0 by addition of concentrated sodium hydroxide solution, leading to quick dissolution of the Ag-cysteine precipitates and sudden appearance of white precipitates of <i>p</i>-SCNWs. The <i>p</i>-SCNWs are monodispersed nanowires with diameter of 100 nm and length of tens of micrometers, and have abundant carboxyl (−COOH) and amine (−NH₂) groups at their surfaces, large amounts of peptide-linkages and S-bonding silver ions (Ag⁺) inside, making them look and act like Ag-hybrid protein nanostructures. The abundant −COOH and −NH₂ groups at the surfaces of <i>p</i>-SCNWs have been found to facilitate the reactions between the <i>p</i>-SCNWs and proteins including antibodies. Furthermore, the fact that the <i>p</i>-SCNWs contain large amounts of silver ions enables biofunctionalized <i>p</i>-SCNWs to be excellent signal amplifying chemiluminescence labels for ultrasensitive and highly selective detection of important antigens, such as cancer biomarkers. In this work, the immunoassay of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in human serum was taken as an example to demonstrate the immunoassay applications of antibody-functionalized <i>p</i>-SCNWs. By the novel <i>p</i>-SCNW labels, CEA can be detected in the linear range from 5 to 400 fg/mL with a limit of detection (LOD) of 2.2 fg/mL (at signal-to-noise ratio of 3), which is much lower than that obtained by commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Therefore, the synthesized <i>p</i>-SCNWs are envisioned to be an excellent carrier for proteins and related immunoassay strategy would have promising applications in ultrasensitive clinical screening of cancer biomarkers for early diagnostics of cancers