MiR-592 Promotes Gastric Cancer Proliferation, Migration, and Invasion Through the PI3K/AKT and MAPK/ERK Signaling Pathways by Targeting Spry2

Background/Aims: Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most prevalent digestive malignancies. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in multiple cellular processes, including oncogenesis, and miR-592 itself participates in many malignancies; however, its role in GC remains unknown. In this study, we investigated the expression and molecular mechanisms of miR-592 in GC. Methods: Quantitative real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry were performed to determine the expression of miR-592 and its putative targets in human tissues and cell lines. Proliferation, migration, and invasion were evaluated by Cell Counting Kit-8, population doubling time, colony formation, Transwell, and wound-healing assays in transfected GC cells in vitro. A dual-luciferase reporter assay was used to determine whether miR-592 could directly bind its target. A tumorigenesis assay was used to study whether miR-592 affected GC growth in vivo. Proteins involved in signaling pathways and the epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) were detected with western blot. Results: The ectopic expression of miR-592 promoted GC proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro and facilitated tumorigenesis in vivo. Spry2 was a direct target of miR-592 and Spry2 overexpression partially counteracted the effects of miR-592. miR-592 induced the EMT and promoted its progression in GC via the PI3K/AKT and MAPK/ERK signaling pathways by inhibiting Spry2. Conclusions: Overexpression of miR-592 promotes GC proliferation, migration, and invasion and induces the EMT via the PI3K/AKT and MAPK/ERK signaling pathways by inhibiting Spry2, suggesting a potential therapeutic target for GC

A novel marker integrating multiple genetic alterations better predicts platinum sensitivity in ovarian cancer than HRD score

Introduction: Platinum-based chemotherapy is the first-line treatment strategy for ovarian cancer patients. The dismal prognosis of ovarian cancer was shown to be stringently associated with the heterogeneity of tumor cells in response to this therapy, therefore understanding platinum sensitivity in ovarian cancer would be helpful for improving patients’ quality of life and clinical outcomes. HRDetect, utilized to characterize patients’ homologous recombination repair deficiency, was used to predict patients’ response to platinum-based chemotherapy. However, whether each of the single features contributing to HRD score is associated with platinum sensitivity remains elusive.Methods: We analyzed the whole-exome sequencing data of 196 patients who received platinum-based chemotherapy from the TCGA database. Genetic features were determined individually to see if they could indicate patients’ response to platinum-based chemotherapy and prognosis, then integrated into a Pt-score employing LASSO regression model to assess its predictive performance.Results and discussion: Multiple genetic features, including bi-allelic inactivation of BRCA1/2 genes and genes involved in HR pathway, multiple somatic mutations in genes involved in DNA damage repair (DDR), and previously reported HRD-related features, were found to be stringently associated with platinum sensitivity and improved prognosis. Higher contributions of mutational signature SBS39 or ID6 predicted improved overall survival. Besides, arm-level loss of heterozygosity (LOH) of either chr4p or chr5q predicted significantly better disease-free survival. Notably, some of these features were found independent of HRD. And SBS3, an HRD-related feature, was found irrelevant to platinum sensitivity. Integrated all candidate markers using the LASSO model to yield a Pt-score, which showed better predictive ability compared to HRDetect in determining platinum sensitivity and predicting patients’ prognosis, and this performance was validated in an independent cohort. The outcomes of our study will be instrumental in devising effective strategies for treating ovarian cancer with platinum-based chemotherapy

The NMR restraints grid at BMRB for 5,266 protein and nucleic acid PDB entries

Several pilot experiments have indicated that improvements in older NMR structures can be expected by applying modern software and new protocols (Nabuurs et al. in Proteins 55:483–186, 2004; Nederveen et al. in Proteins 59:662–672, 2005; Saccenti and Rosato in J Biomol NMR 40:251–261, 2008). A recent large scale X-ray study also has shown that modern software can significantly improve the quality of X-ray structures that were deposited more than a few years ago (Joosten et al. in J. Appl Crystallogr 42:376–384, 2009; Sanderson in Nature 459:1038–1039, 2009). Recalculation of three-dimensional coordinates requires that the original experimental data are available and complete, and are semantically and syntactically correct, or are at least correct enough to be reconstructed. For multiple reasons, including a lack of standards, the heterogeneity of the experimental data and the many NMR experiment types, it has not been practical to parse a large proportion of the originally deposited NMR experimental data files related to protein NMR structures. This has made impractical the automatic recalculation, and thus improvement, of the three dimensional coordinates of these structures. We here describe a large-scale international collaborative effort to make all deposited experimental NMR data semantically and syntactically homogeneous, and thus useful for further research. A total of 4,014 out of 5,266 entries were ‘cleaned’ in this process. For 1,387 entries, human intervention was needed. Continuous efforts in automating the parsing of both old, and newly deposited files is steadily decreasing this fraction. The cleaned data files are available from the NMR restraints grid at http://restraintsgrid.bmrb.wisc.edu

Analysis and determinants of Chinese navy personnel health status: a cross-sectional study

Abstract Background There have been very few studies analyzing the relationship of physical and mental health status with health behaviors and deployment status in Chinese navy personnel. Thus, we undertook this survey to assess this relationship and identify specific factors affecting the physical and mental health status. Methods The subjects enrolled in this study were selected from four units of the active-duty navy personnel in China, based on a cluster random sampling design. A total of 1200 Chinese navy personnel participated and completed the questionnaire survey that included veteran SF-36 form and a self-designed questionnaire regarding their sociodemographic characteristics, deployment status, self-rated health status and health behaviors. Totally 1200 questionnaires were distributed to different participants, while 1083 valid questionnaires were included in the final analysis. All data were analyzed using SPSS18.0 software. Results Based on the information provided by navy personnel, 17.82, 35.09 and 23.08% rated their health as excellent, very good and good, respectively. The mean score of physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS) was 50.53 and 41.39, respectively. Length of service, binge drinking, regular drinking and BMI appeared to be associated with PCS score, while household income, binge drinking and BMI affected MCS score. Deployment status and smoking exhibited no significant association with PCS and MCS scores. Conclusions Our study suggested that the sociodemographic factors like length of service and household income, along with behavioral risk factors like binge drinking, regular drinking and body mass index (BMI), seem to affect the physical and mental health status of Chinese navy personnel. However, additional data collection and more detailed analysis would still be required to develop a systematic, comprehensive and corresponding health education program to promote overall health status

Detecting Community Structures in Networks by Label Propagation with Prediction of Percolation Transition

Though label propagation algorithm (LPA) is one of the fastest algorithms for community detection in complex networks, the problem of trivial solutions frequently occurring in the algorithm affects its performance. We propose a label propagation algorithm with prediction of percolation transition (LPAp). After analyzing the reason for multiple solutions of LPA, by transforming the process of community detection into network construction process, a trivial solution in label propagation is considered as a giant component in the percolation transition. We add a prediction process of percolation transition in label propagation to delay the occurrence of trivial solutions, which makes small communities easier to be found. We also give an incomplete update condition which considers both neighbor purity and the contribution of small degree vertices to community detection to reduce the computation time of LPAp. Numerical tests are conducted. Experimental results on synthetic networks and real-world networks show that the LPAp is more accurate, more sensitive to small community, and has the ability to identify a single community structure. Moreover, LPAp with the incomplete update process can use less computation time than LPA, nearly without modularity loss

Pterostilbene Attenuates High-Intensity Swimming Exercise-Induced Glucose Absorption Dysfunction Associated with the Inhibition of NLRP3 Inflammasome-Induced IECs Pyroptosis

The study investigated the effect of pterostilbene (PTE) on intestinal glucose absorption and its underlying mechanisms in high-intensity swimming exercise (HISE)-treated mice. Male C57BL/6 mice were treated with PTE for 4 weeks and performed high-intensity swimming training in the last week. Intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) were pretreated with 0.5 and 1.0 μM PTE for 24 h before being incubated in hypoxia/reoxygenation condition. Intestinal glucose absorption was detected by using an oral glucose tolerance test and d-xylose absorption assay, and the levels of factors related to mitochondrial function and pyroptosis were measured via western blot analyses, cell mito stress test, and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. In vivo and in vitro, the results showed that PTE attenuated HISE-induced intestinal glucose absorption dysfunction and pyroptosis in mice intestine. Moreover, PTE inhibited NLRP3 inflammasome and the mitochondrial homeostasis as well as the ROS accumulation in IEC in vitro. Additionally, knockdown of SIRT3, a major regulator of mitochondria function, by siRNA or inhibiting its activity by 3-TYP abolished the effects of PTE on pyroptosis, mitochondrial homeostasis, and ROS generation of IEC in vitro. Our results revealed that PTE could alleviate HISE-induced intestinal glucose absorption dysfunction associated with the inhibition of NLRP3 inflammasome-induced IECs pyroptosis

Why Is the Invasive Plant <i>Sphagneticola trilobata</i> More Resistant to High Temperature Than Its Native Congener?

Climate change and invasive alien species threaten biodiversity. High temperature is a worrying ecological factor. Most responses of invasive plants aimed at coping with adversity are focused on the physiological level. To explore the molecular mechanisms underlying the response of an invasive plant (Sphagneticola trilobata L.) to high temperature, using a native species (Sphagneticola calendulacea L.) as the control, relevant indicators, including photosynthetic pigments, gas exchange, chlorophyll fluorescence, the antioxidant system, and related enzyme-coding genes were measured. The results showed that the leaves of S. calendulacea turned yellow, photosynthetic pigment content (Chl a, Chl b, Car, Chl) decreased, gas exchange (Pn) and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters (Fv/Fm, ΦPSII) decreased under high temperature. It was also found that high temperature caused photoinhibition and a large amount of ROS accumulated, resulting in an increase in MDA and relative conductivity. Antioxidant enzymes (including SOD, POD, CAT, and APX) and antioxidants (including flavonoids, total phenols, and carotenoids) were decreased. The qPCR results further showed that the expression of the PsbP, PsbA, and RubiscoL, SOD, POD, CAT, and APX genes was downregulated, which was consistent with the results of physiological data. Otherwise, the resistance of S. trilobata to high temperature was better than that of S. calendulacea, which made it a superior plant in the invasion area. These results further indicated that the gradual warming of global temperature will greatly accelerate the invasion area of S. trilobata

Why Is the Invasive Plant Sphagneticola trilobata More Resistant to High Temperature Than Its Native Congener?

Climate change and invasive alien species threaten biodiversity. High temperature is a worrying ecological factor. Most responses of invasive plants aimed at coping with adversity are focused on the physiological level. To explore the molecular mechanisms underlying the response of an invasive plant (Sphagneticola trilobata L.) to high temperature, using a native species (Sphagneticola calendulacea L.) as the control, relevant indicators, including photosynthetic pigments, gas exchange, chlorophyll fluorescence, the antioxidant system, and related enzyme-coding genes were measured. The results showed that the leaves of S. calendulacea turned yellow, photosynthetic pigment content (Chl a, Chl b, Car, Chl) decreased, gas exchange (Pn) and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters (Fv/Fm, &Phi;PSII) decreased under high temperature. It was also found that high temperature caused photoinhibition and a large amount of ROS accumulated, resulting in an increase in MDA and relative conductivity. Antioxidant enzymes (including SOD, POD, CAT, and APX) and antioxidants (including flavonoids, total phenols, and carotenoids) were decreased. The qPCR results further showed that the expression of the PsbP, PsbA, and RubiscoL, SOD, POD, CAT, and APX genes was downregulated, which was consistent with the results of physiological data. Otherwise, the resistance of S. trilobata to high temperature was better than that of S. calendulacea, which made it a superior plant in the invasion area. These results further indicated that the gradual warming of global temperature will greatly accelerate the invasion area of S. trilobata

InSitu Integrated Fabrication for Multi‐Interface Stabilized and Highly Durable Polyaniline@Graphene Oxide/Polyether Ether Ketone Special Separation Membranes

Abstract Special separation membranes are widely employed for separation and purification purposes under challenging operating conditions due to their low energy consumption, excellent solvent, and corrosion resistance. However, the development of membranes is limited by corrosion‐resistant polymer substrates and precise interfacial separation layers. Herein, polyaniline (PANI) is employed to achieve insitu anchoring of multiple interfaces, resulting in the fabrication of polyaniline@graphene oxide/polyether ether ketone (PANI@GO/PEEK) membranes. Insitu growth of PANI achieves the adequate bonding of the PEEK substrate and GO separation interface, which solves the problem of solution processing of PEEK and the instability of GO layers. By bottom‐up confined polymerization of aniline, it could control the pore size of the separation layer, correct defects, and anchor among polymer, nano‐separation layer, and nano‐sheet. The mechanism of membrane construction within the confined domain and micro‐nano structure modulation is further explored. The membranes demonstrate exceptional stability realizing over 90% rejection in 2 m HCl, NaOH, and high temperatures. Additionally, –membranes exhibit remarkable durability after 240 days immersion and 100 h long‐term operation, which display the methanol flux of 50.2 L m−2 h−1 and 92% rejection of AF (585 g mol−1). This method substantially contributes to special separation membranes by offering a novel strategy