MiR-21 induced angiogenesis through AKT and ERK activation and HIF-1α expression.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous, small noncoding RNAs that play important roles in various cellular functions and tumor development. Recent studies have indicated that miR-21 is one of the important miRNAs associated with tumor growth and metastasis, but the role and molecular mechanism of miR-21 in regulating tumor angiogenesis remain to be elucidated. In this study, miR-21 was overexpressed by transfecting pre-miR-21 into human prostate cancer cells and tumor angiogenesis was assayed using chicken chorioallantoic membrane (CAM). We found that overexpression of miR-21 in DU145 cells increased the expression of HIF-1α and VEGF, and induced tumor angiogenesis. AKT and extracellular regulated kinases (ERK) 1/2 are activated by miR-21. Inhibition of miR-21 by the antigomir blocked this process. Overexpression of the miR-21 target, PTEN, also inhibited tumor angiogenesis by partially inactivating AKT and ERK and decreasing the expression of HIF-1 and VEGF. The AKT and ERK inhibitors, LY294002 and U0126, suppressed HIF-1α and VEGF expression and angiogenesis. Moreover, inhibition of HIF-1α expression alone abolished miR-21-inducing tumor angiogenesis, indicating that HIF-1α is required for miR-21-upregulated angiogenesis. Therefore, we demonstrate that miR-21 induces tumor angiogenesis through targeting PTEN, leading to activate AKT and ERK1/2 signaling pathways, and thereby enhancing HIF-1α and VEGF expression; HIF-1α is a key downstream target of miR-21 in regulating tumor angiogenesis

Study of andrographolide bioactivity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa based on computational methodology and biochemical analysis

Andrographolide is one of the main biologically active molecules isolated from Andrographis paniculata (A. paniculata), which is a traditional Chinese herb used extensively throughout Eastern Asia, India, and China. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, often known as P. aeruginosa, is a common clinical opportunistic pathogen with remarkable adaptability to harsh settings and resistance to antibiotics. P. aeruginosa possesses a wide array of virulence traits, one of which is biofilm formation, which contributes to its pathogenicity. One of the main modulators of the P. aeruginosa-controlled intramembrane proteolysis pathway is AlgW, a membrane-bound periplasmic serine protease. In this work, we have used a set of density functional theory (DFT) calculations to understand the variety of chemical parameters in detail between andrographolide and levofloxacin, which show strong bactericidal activity against P. aeruginosa. Additionally, the stability and interaction of andrographolide and levofloxacin with the protein AlgW have been investigated by molecular docking and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations . Moreover, the growth and inhibition of biofilm production by P. aeruginosa experiments were also investigated, providing insight that andrographolide could be a potential natural product to inhibit P. aeruginosa

Preparation and biomedical application of a non-polymer coated superparamagnetic nanoparticle

We report the preparation of a non-polymer coated superparamagnetic nanoparticle that is stable and biocompatible both in vitro and in vivo. The non-polymer, betaine, is a natural methylating agent in mammalian liver with active surface property. Upon systemic administration, the nanoparticle has preferential biodistribution in mammalian liver and exhibits good reduction of relaxivity time and negative enhancement for the detection of hepatoma nodules in rats using MRI. Our data demonstrate that the non-polymer coated superparamagnetic nanoparticle should have potential applications in biomedicine

MiR-145 directly targets p70S6K1 in cancer cells to inhibit tumor growth and angiogenesis

MiR-145 can regulate cell apoptosis, proliferation, neural development and stem cell differentiation. Previous studies indicate that miR-145 is downregulated in human colon cancer cells. However, the molecular mechanisms of miR-145 used to regulate colon carcinogenesis and angiogenesis remain to be clarified. Here, we show that the expression of miR-145 is downregulated in colon and ovarian cancer tissues and cell lines. MiR-145 inhibits p70S6K1 post-transcriptional expression by binding to its 3′-UTR. The angiogenic factors hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which are downstream molecules of p70S6K1, are decreased by miR-145 overexpression. P70S6K1 rescues miR-145-suppressed HIF-1 and VEGF levels, tumorigenesis and tumor angiogenesis. Furthermore, the miR-145 level is inversely correlated with the amount of p70S6K1 protein in colon cancer tissues. Taken together, these studies suggest that miR-145 serves as a tumor suppressor which downregulates HIF-1 and VEGF expression by targeting p70S6K1, leading to the inhibition of tumor growth and angiogenesis. The miR-145 rescue could be a rationale for therapeutic applications in colon cancer in the future

Prostate cryoablation: A mini review

In recent years, cryotherapy has gained increasing acceptance as a treatment for prostate cancer, offering complementary therapeutic benefits when combined with radical surgery and radiotherapy. Despite the potential for surgical complications, it stands as a safe and viable therapeutic modality. Cryotherapy provides an efficient approach for elderly patients, especially those with compromised physical conditions and individuals experiencing recurrence after initial treatment. It has shown promise in extending survival periods and improving the overall quality of life for these patients. This article aims to comprehensively examine the developmental trajectory, surgical techniques, indications, therapeutic outcomes, and potential complications associated within prostate cancer treatment

Lasting Controversy on Ranibizumab and Bevacizumab

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), an important angiogenic factor that is able to stimulate the proliferation and migration of endothelial cells, is the best-studied hallmark of angiogenesis. Neovascularization is a major cause of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) which is a leading cause of blindness in the elderly population. Specific molecular inhibitors of VEGF have been proved to be useful in the treatment of AMD. Ranibizumab and Bevacizumab are structurally similar to anti-VEGF drugs in the treatment of AMD. Many studies have indicated that Ranibizumab and Bevacizumab are of roughly equal short-term efficacy and safety, Bevacizumab is an attractive alternative to Ranibizumab due to its lower cost. However, only Ranibizumab has received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the treatment of macular degeneration. More multicenter clinical trials are required to compare the relative efficacy and safety of these two drugs and some progress has been achieved. This review discusses the clinical effectiveness, safety, cost and other practical implications of Ranibizumab and Bevacizumab.</p

$500 credit card : a win-win situation for Singaporean undergraduates & banks? : an experimental study

It has been almost two years since the first credit card that targets at tertiary students has been launched in Singapore. With a credit limit of $500, these credit cards serve as a soft ground for tertiary students to learn how to manage their credit and increase the convenience in their payment modes. However, existing literature from the United States and Hong Kong show that such credit cards have increased students' debt and increased compulsive buying behavior. At the same time, banks are targeting this group of the population, especially the university undergraduates, for the long-term profit they can tap onto since these undergraduates will most likely pursue high paying jobs in the future. However, profitability is only possible if these undergraduates remain loyal to the issuing bank after they have graduated. In this study, we would like find out if there can be a win-win situation in this market for both the Singaporean undergraduates and the banks. We conducted surveys on 100 Singaporean undergraduates who possess the$500 credit cards. The results gave us insights to the possibilities of potential problems that might arise in the future for the undergraduates and whether increasing the financial literacy of the undergraduates can help alleviate these problems. We also gained insights to whether these undergraduates have the inclination towards being loyal to their first credit card and thus make this business profitable for the issuing banks. The spending habits of the undergraduates also allow us to suggest the industries in which banks should focus on when tying up benefits for cardholders, thus further increasing the appeal and profit of the cards.BUSINES

ArbRPN: A Bidirectional Recurrent Pansharpening Network for Multispectral Images With Arbitrary Numbers of Bands

International audienceAlthough the performance of pansharpening hasbeen significantly improved by advanced deep-learning (DL)technologies in recent years, most DL-based methods fail toprocess multispectral (MS) images with arbitrary numbers ofbands by a single model. Consequently, it is inevitable to trainseparate models for MS images with different numbers of bands,which is time- and storage-consuming as well as inefficient inpractice. To tackle the above problem, we propose a bidirectionalrecurrent pansharpening network (named ArbRPN) for MSimages with arbitrary numbers of bands. Our ArbRPN candynamically reconstruct high-resolution (HR) MS images withdifferent numbers of bands by adaptively changing the numberof recurrence to the number of bands of the low-resolution (LR)MS images. Leveraging on the ability of the ArbRPN to processMS images with any number of bands, one can even customizethe bands to be pansharpened. Moreover, to achieve superiorperformance, spectral discrepancy and dependence are consid-ered in the ArbRPN. Details from the panchromatic (PAN) imageare adaptively injected into the fused product according to thecaptured spectral dependence. Furthermore, training strategiesof existing DL-based pansharpening methods can only groupMS images with a constant number of bands into mini-batches.Therefore, we present a mask-based training method (calledmask-training) to solve this problem. Benefiting from the mask-training, our ArbRPN can achieve superior performance androbustness during pansharpening. Extensive experiments showthe superior performance of our ArbRPN with respect to thestate-of-the-art (SOTA) methods applied to MS images withdifferent numbers of bands. The code of our ArbRPN is availableon https://github.com/Lihui-Chen/ArbRPN.git

ArbRPN: A Bidirectional Recurrent Pansharpening Network for Multispectral Images With Arbitrary Numbers of Bands

International audienceAlthough the performance of pansharpening has been significantly improved by advanced deep-learning (DL) technologies in recent years, most DL-based methods fail to process multispectral (MS) images with arbitrary numbers of bands by a single model. Consequently, it is inevitable to train separate models for MS images with different numbers of bands, which is time- and storage-consuming as well as inefficient in practice. To tackle the above problem, we propose a bidirectional recurrent pansharpening network (named ArbRPN) for MS images with arbitrary numbers of bands. Our ArbRPN can dynamically reconstruct high-resolution (HR) MS images with different numbers of bands by adaptively changing the number of recurrence to the number of bands of the low-resolution (LR) MS images. Leveraging on the ability of the ArbRPN to process MS images with any number of bands, one can even customize the bands to be pansharpened. Moreover, to achieve superior performance, spectral discrepancy and dependence are considered in the ArbRPN. Details from the panchromatic (PAN) image are adaptively injected into the fused product according to the captured spectral dependence. Furthermore, training strategies of existing DL-based pansharpening methods can only group MS images with a constant number of bands into mini-batches. Therefore, we present a mask-based training method (called mask-training) to solve this problem. Benefiting from the mask-training, our ArbRPN can achieve superior performance and robustness during pansharpening. Extensive experiments show the superior performance of our ArbRPN with respect to the state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods applied to MS images with different numbers of bands. The code of our ArbRPN is available on https://github.com/Lihui-Chen/ArbRPN.git