MiR-22 alleviates the proliferation and metastasis of melanoma by targeting FASN

Purpose: To determine the role of microRNA-22 (miR-22) in the development of malignant melanoma, and the underlying mechanism. Methods: Potential miRNAs binding fatty acid synthase (FASN) were predicted by bioinformatics analysis, out of which miR-22 was selected. Their binding relationship was confirmed using dual-luciferase reporter assay. MicroRNA-22 and FASN levels in 40 clinical samples of melanoma were determined, and the correlation of the expression between miR-22 and FASN was assessed by Pearson correlation test. To uncover the role of miR-22 in regulating cell phenotypes of malignant melanoma, M21 and A375 cells were transfected with miRNA-NC, miR-22 mimics or miR-22 mimics + FASN-OE (FASN-over expression), respectively. Proliferative and metastatic abilities in each group were determined using cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8), 5-Ethynyl-2’- deoxyuridine (EdU) and Transwell assay, respectively. Results: MiR-22 was the target gene binding the oncogene, FASN. Downregulated miR-22 and upregulated FASN were observed in melanoma tissues, showing a negative correlation between them. An overexpression of miR-22 significantly inhibited proliferative, migratory and invasive capacities in M21 and A375 cells (p < 0.05). Notably, overexpression of FASN abolished the inhibitory effects of miR-22 on proliferative and metastatic abilities in melanoma. Conclusion: The level of expression of miR-22 in the malignant melanoma samples is low. Overexpression of miR-22 inhibits the proliferative and metastatic abilities of melanoma by targeting FASN and negatively regulating its level. Thus, miR-22 may be a promising therapeutic target of melanoma

Effect of intense pulsed-light therapy on hair regrowth in C57BL/6J mice mediated by WNT/β-catenin signaling pathway

Purpose: To evaluate the effect of low-fluence intense pulsed light (IPL) on hair  growth in C57BL/6 mice, and to explore the potential molecular mechanisms of IPL actions on hair growth.Methods: After low-fluence IPL irradiation was applied to depilated dorsal skin of C57BL/6 mice in the telogen, or resting hair cycle phase, tissue samples were obtained and used for histopathological analysis. Hair growth was analyzed by measuring hair length. In addition, protein expression levels of WNT3A and β-catenin were assayed by western blot.Results: Low-fluence IPL irradiation promoted hair growth by inducing the anagen, or growth, phase in telogenic C57BL/6J mice. In particular, hair growth analysis suggested that application of low-fluence IPL induced an earlier transition from telogen to anagen phase and prolonged the duration of anagen phase compared to the control group (p < 0.05). Moreover, western blotting assay revealed that WNT3A and β-catenin protein levels were up-regulated compared to the control group (p < 0.05).Conclusion: These findings suggest that low-fluence IPL irradiation may be effective for promoting hair regrowth via activation of the WNT/β-catenin pathway, and may, therefore, be a potential novel therapeutic treatment to stimulate hair regrowth.Keywords: Intense pulsed light, Hair follicles, Hair growth, WNT3a/β-catenin  pathwa

Cosmological Constraint Precision of the Photometric and Spectroscopic Multi-probe Surveys of China Space Station Telescope (CSST)

As one of Stage IV space-based telescopes, China Space Station Telescope (CSST) can perform photometric and spectroscopic surveys simultaneously to efficiently explore the Universe in extreme precision. In this work, we investigate several powerful CSST cosmological probes, including cosmic shear, galaxy-galaxy lensing, photometric and spectroscopic galaxy clustering, and number counts of galaxy clusters, and study the capability of these probes by forecasting the results of joint constraints on the cosmological parameters. By referring to real observational results, we generate mock data and estimate the measured errors based on CSST observational and instrumental designs. To study the systematical effects on the results, we also consider a number of systematics in CSST photometric and spectroscopic surveys, such as the intrinsic alignment, shear calibration uncertainties, photometric redshift uncertainties, galaxy bias, non-linear effects, instrumental effects, etc. The Fisher matrix method is used to derive the constraint results from individual or joint surveys on the cosmological and systematical parameters. We find that the joint constraints by including all these CSST cosmological probes can significantly improve the results from current observations by one order of magnitude at least, which gives $\Omega_m$ and $\sigma_8$ $<$1% accuracy, and $w_0$ and $w_a$ $<$5% and 20% accuracies, respectively. This indicates that the CSST photometric and spectroscopic multi-probe surveys could provide powerful tools to explore the Universe and greatly improve the studies of relevant cosmological problems.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA

An experimental and computational study of donor–linker–acceptor block copolymers for organic photovoltaics

Block copolymers with donor and acceptor conjugated polymer blocks provide an approach to dictating the donor–accepter interfacial structure and understanding its relationship to charge separation and photovoltaic performance. We report the preparation of a series of donor‐linker‐acceptor block copolymers with poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (P3HT) donor blocks, poly((9,9‐dioctylfluorene)‐2,7‐diyl‐alt‐[4,7‐bis(thiophen‐5‐yl)‐2,1,3‐benzothiadiazole]‐2′,2″‐diyl) (PFTBT) acceptor blocks, and varying lengths of oligo‐ethylene glycol (OEG) chains as the linkers. Morphological analysis shows that the linkers increase polymer crystallinity while a combination of optical and photovoltaic measurements shows that the insertion of a flexible spacer reduces fluorescence quenching and photovoltaic efficiencies of solution processed photovoltaic devices. Density functional theory (DFT) simulations indicate that the linking groups reduce both charge separation and recombination rates, and block copolymers with flexible linkers will likely rotate to assume a nonplanar orientation, resulting in a significant loss of overlap at the donor–linker–acceptor interface. This work provides a systematic study of the role of linker length on the photovoltaic performance of donor–linker–acceptor block copolymers and indicates that linkers should be designed to control both the electronic properties and relative orientations of conjugated polymers at the interface.

Synthetic Datasets for Autonomous Driving: A Survey

Autonomous driving techniques have been flourishing in recent years while thirsting for huge amounts of high-quality data. However, it is difficult for real-world datasets to keep up with the pace of changing requirements due to their expensive and time-consuming experimental and labeling costs. Therefore, more and more researchers are turning to synthetic datasets to easily generate rich and changeable data as an effective complement to the real world and to improve the performance of algorithms. In this paper, we summarize the evolution of synthetic dataset generation methods and review the work to date in synthetic datasets related to single and multi-task categories for to autonomous driving study. We also discuss the role that synthetic dataset plays the evaluation, gap test, and positive effect in autonomous driving related algorithm testing, especially on trustworthiness and safety aspects. Finally, we discuss general trends and possible development directions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first survey focusing on the application of synthetic datasets in autonomous driving. This survey also raises awareness of the problems of real-world deployment of autonomous driving technology and provides researchers with a possible solution.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figure

Single-Cell Transcriptomics of Proliferative Phase Endometrium: Systems Analysis of Cell–Cell Communication Network Using CellChat

The endometrium thickness increases by which endometrial angiogenesis occurs in parallel with the rapid growth of endometrium during the proliferative phase, which is orchestrated by complex cell–cell interactions and cytokine networks. However, the intercellular communication has not been fully delineated. In the present work, we studied the cell–cell interactome among cells of human proliferative phase endometrium using single-cell transcriptomics. The transcriptomes of 33,240 primary endometrial cells were profiled at single-cell resolution. CellChat was used to infer the cell–cell interactome by assessing the gene expression of receptor–ligand pairs across cell types. In total, nine cell types and 88 functionally related signaling pathways were found. Among them, growth factors and angiogenic factor signaling pathways, including EGF, FGF, IGF, PDGF, TGFb, VEGF, ANGPT, and ANGPTL that are highly associated with endometrial growth, were further analyzed and verified. The results showed that stromal cells and proliferating stromal cells represented cell–cell interaction hubs with a large number of EGF, PDGF incoming signals, and FGF outgoing signals. Endothelial cells exhibited cell–cell interaction hubs with a plenty of VEGF, TGFb incoming signals, and ANGPT outgoing signals. Unciliated epithelial cells, ciliated epithelial cells, and macrophages exhibited cell–cell interaction hubs with substantial EGF outgoing signals. Ciliated epithelial cells represented cell–cell interaction hubs with a large number of IGF and TGFb incoming signals. Smooth muscle cells represented lots of PDGF incoming signals and ANGPT and ANGPTL outgoing signals. This study deconvoluted complex intercellular communications at the single-cell level and predicted meaningful biological discoveries, which deepened the understanding of communications among endometrial cells