Expression and prognostic relevance of Cyclophilin A and matrix metalloproteinase 9 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

AIMS: To guide clinicians in selecting treatment options for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients, reliable markers predictive of clinical outcome are desirable. This study analyzed the correlation of cyclophilin A (CypA) and matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9) in ESCC and their relationships to clinicopathological features and survival. METHODS: We immunohistochemically investigated 70 specimens of ESCC tissues using CypA and MMP9 antibodies. Then, the correlations between CypA and MMP9 expression and clinicopathological features and its prognostic relevance were determined. RESULTS: Significant correlations were only found in high level of CypA and MMP9 expression with tumor differentiation and lymph node status. Significant positive correlations were found between the expression status of CypA and that of MMP9. Overexpression of CypA and metastasis were significantly associated with shorter progression free survival times in univariate analysis. Multivariate analysis confirmed that CypA expression was an independent prognostic factor. CONCLUSIONS: CypA might be correlated with the differentiation, and its elevated expression may be an adverse prognostic indicator for the patients of ESCC. CypA/MMP9 signal pathway may be attributed to the malignant transformation of ESCC, and attention should be paid to a possible target for therapy. VIRTUAL SLIDES: The virtual slide(s) for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/1166551968105508

Pressurizing Field-Effect Transistors of Few-Layer MoS2 in a Diamond Anvil Cell

Hydrostatic pressure applied using diamond anvil cells (DAC) has been widely explored to modulate physical properties of materials by tuning their lattice degree of freedom. Independently, electrical field is able to tune the electronic degree of freedom of functional materials via, for example, the field-effect transistor (FET) configuration. Combining these two orthogonal approaches would allow discovery of new physical properties and phases going beyond the known phase space. Such experiments are, however, technically challenging and have not been demonstrated. Herein, we report a feasible strategy to prepare and measure FETs in a DAC by lithographically patterning the nanodevices onto the diamond culet. Multiple-terminal FETs were fabricated in the DAC using few-layer MoS2 and BN as the channel semiconductor and dielectric layer, respectively. It is found that the mobility, conductance, carrier concentration, and contact conductance of MoS2 can all be significantly enhanced with pressure. We expect that the approach could enable unprecedented ways to explore new phases and properties of materials under coupled mechano-electrostatic modulation.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure

Identification of Apo-A1 as a biomarker for early diagnosis of bladder transitional cell carcinoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Bladder transitional cell carcinoma (BTCC) is the fourth most frequent neoplasia in men, clinically characterized by high recurrent rates and poor prognosis. Availability of urinary tumor biomarkers represents a convenient alternative for early detection and disease surveillance because of its direct contact with the tumor and sample accessibility.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We tested urine samples from healthy volunteers and patients with low malignant or aggressive BTCC to identify potential biomarkers for early detection of BTCC by two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) coupled with mass spectrometry (MS) and bioinformatics analysis. We observed increased expression of five proteins, including fibrinogen (Fb), lactate dehydrogenase B (LDHB), apolipoprotein-A1 (Apo-A1), clusterin (CLU) and haptoglobin (Hp), which were increased in urine samples of patients with low malignant or aggressive bladder cancer. Further analysis of urine samples of aggressive BTCC showed significant increase in Apo-A1 expression compared to low malignant BTCC. Apo-A1 level was measured quantitatively using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and was suggested to provide diagnostic utility to distinguish patients with bladder cancer from controls at 18.22 ng/ml, and distinguish patients with low malignant BTCC from patients with aggressive BTCC in two-tie grading system at 29.86 ng/ml respectively. Further validation assay showed that Apo-A1 could be used as a biomarker to diagnosis BTCC with a sensitivity and specificity of 91.6% and 85.7% respectively, and classify BTCC in two-tie grading system with a sensitivity and specificity of 83.7% and 89.7% respectively.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Taken together, our findings suggest Apo-A1 could be a potential biomarker related with early diagnosis and classification in two-tie grading system for bladder cancer.</p

Topological Hall Effect Driven by Short-Range Magnetic Orders in EuZn2_2As2_2

Short-range (SR) magnetic orders such as magnetic glass orders or fluctuations in a quantum system usually host exotic states or critical behaviors. As the long-range (LR) magnetic orders, SR magnetic orders can also break time-reversal symmetry and drive the non-zero Berry curvature leading to novel transport properties. In this work, we report that in EuZn$_2$As$_2$ compound, besides the LR A-type antiferromagnetic (AF) order, the SR magnetic order is observed in a wide temperature region. The magnetization measurements and electron spin resonance (ESR) measurements reveal the ferromagnetic (FM) correlations for this SR magnetic order which results in an obvious anomalous Hall effect above the AF transition. Moreover the ESR results reveal that this FM SR order coexists with LR AF order exhibiting anisotropic magnetic correlations below the AF transition. The interactions of LR and SR magnetism evolving with temperature and field can host non-zero spin charility and berry curvature leading the additional topological Hall contribution even in a centrosymmetric simple AF system. Our results indicate that EuZn$_2$As$_2$ is a fertile platform to investigate exotic magnetic and electronic states.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Effects of Lactobacillus plantarum on the Fermentation Profile and Microbiological Composition of Wheat Fermented Silage Under the Freezing and Thawing Low Temperatures

The corruption and/or poor quality of silages caused by low temperature and freeze-thaw conditions makes it imperative to identify effective starters and low temperature silage fermentation technology that can assist the animal feed industry and improve livestock productivity. The effect of L. plantarum QZ227 on the wheat silage quality was evaluated under conditions at constant low temperatures followed by repeated freezing and thawing at low temperatures. QZ227 became the predominant strain in 10 days and underwent a more intensive lactic acid bacteria fermentation than CK. QZ227 accumulated more lactic acid, but lower pH and ammonia nitrogen in the fermentation. During the repeated freezing and thawing process, the accumulated lactic acid in the silage fermented by QZ227 remained relatively stable. Relative to CK, QZ227 reduced the abundance of fungal pathogens in silage at a constant 5°C, including Aspergillus, Sporidiobolaceae, Hypocreaceae, Pleosporales, Cutaneotrichosporon, Alternaria, and Cystobasidiomycetes. Under varying low temperature conditions from days 40 to days 60, QZ227 reduced the pathogenic abundance of fungi such as Pichia, Aspergillus, Agaricales, and Plectosphaerella. QZ227 also reduced the pathogenic abundance of Mucoromycota after the silage had been exposed to oxygen. In conclusion, QZ227 can be used as a silage additive in the fermentation process at both constant and variable low temperatures to ensure fast and vigorous fermentation because it promotes the rapid accumulation of lactic acid, and reduces pH values and aerobic corruption compared to the CK

Design and synthesis of cabotegravir derivatives bearing 1,2,3-triazole and evaluation of anti-liver cancer activity

Based on the structure of the anti-HIV drug cabotegravir, we introduced 1,2,3-triazole groups with different substituents to obtain 19 cabotegravir derivatives and tested their activity against HepG2 cells. The proliferation of HepG2 cells was examined following treatment with derivatives. Most of the compounds demonstrated significant inhibitory effects, particularly compounds KJ-5 and KJ-12 with IC50 values of 4.29 ± 0.10 and 4.07 ± 0.09 μM, respectively. Furthermore, both compounds 5 and 12 significantly caused cell apoptosis, G2/M arrest, and DNA damage, and suppressed invasion and migration in a concentration-dependent manner. In addition, KJ-5 and KJ-12 could trigger apoptosis via the mitochondrial pathway by increasing the ratio of Bax/Bcl-2 and activating cleaved caspase-9, cleaved caspase-3, and cleaved PARP