Efficacy of cisplatin and fluorouracil chemotherapy plus Jianpi Yiqi formula in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer

Purpose: To investigate the efficacy of cisplatin and fluorouracil chemotherapy in combination with the Jianpi Yiqi formula in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer.Methods: A total of 64 patients with advanced gastric cancer admitted and treated at Xianyang Central Hospital from April 2019 to October 2021 were recruited and assigned equally to chemotherapy group and combination group according to the time of admission. Chemotherapy group received cisplatin and fluorouracil, while the combination group received the Jianpi Yiqi formula based on the treatment given to the chemotherapy group. Some clinical indices were evaluated in the patients.Results: Intervention in the combination group was associated with a higher total effectiveness when compared with chemotherapy group (p < 0.05). Cisplatin and fluorouracil plus Jianpi Yiqi formula resulted in significantly higher European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30-item (EORTC QLQ-C30) score than cisplatin with fluorouracil (p < 0.05). Furthermore, cisplatin and fluorouracil plus Jianpi Yiqi formula led to considerably higher Karnofsky Performance Scale (KPS) scores versus cisplatin with fluorouracil (p < 0.05).Conclusion: In the treatment of advanced gastric cancer, cisplatin-fluorouracil chemotherapy in conjunction with the Jianpi Yiqi formula produces remarkable efficacy. This strategy increases lesion dissolution rates, improves the quality of life and behavioral status of patients, and reduces adverse reactions, resulting in prolonged patients' progression survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) levels

Correlation of microsynteny conservation and disease gene distribution in mammalian genomes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>With the completion of the whole genome sequence for many organisms, investigations into genomic structure have revealed that gene distribution is variable, and that genes with similar function or expression are located within clusters. This clustering suggests that there are evolutionary constraints that determine genome architecture. However, as most of the evidence for constraints on genome evolution comes from studies on yeast, it is unclear how much of this prior work can be extrapolated to mammalian genomes. Therefore, in this work we wished to examine the constraints on regions of the mammalian genome containing conserved gene clusters.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We first identified regions of the mouse genome with microsynteny conservation by comparing gene arrangement in the mouse genome to the human, rat, and dog genomes. We then asked if any particular gene types were found preferentially in conserved regions. We found a significant correlation between conserved microsynteny and the density of mouse orthologs of human disease genes, suggesting that disease genes are clustered in genomic regions of increased microsynteny conservation.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The correlation between microsynteny conservation and disease gene locations indicates that regions of the mouse genome with microsynteny conservation may contain undiscovered human disease genes. This study not only demonstrates that gene function constrains mammalian genome organization, but also identifies regions of the mouse genome that can be experimentally examined to produce mouse models of human disease.</p

PERK Activation Promotes Medulloblastoma Tumorigenesis by Attenuating Premalignant Granule Cell Precursor Apoptosis.

Evidence suggests that activation of pancreatic endoplasmic reticulum kinase (PERK) signaling in response to endoplasmic reticulum stress negatively or positively influences cell transformation by regulating apoptosis. Patched1 heterozygous deficient (Ptch1(+/-)) mice reproduce human Gorlin's syndrome and are regarded as the best animal model to study tumorigenesis of the sonic hedgehog subgroup of medulloblastomas. It is believed that medulloblastomas in Ptch1(+/-) mice results from the transformation of granule cell precursors (GCPs) in the developing cerebellum. Here, we determined the role of PERK signaling on medulloblastoma tumorigenesis by assessing its effects on premalignant GCPs and tumor cells. We found that PERK signaling was activated in both premalignant GCPs in young Ptch1(+/-) mice and medulloblastoma cells in adult mice. We demonstrated that PERK haploinsufficiency reduced the incidence of medulloblastomas in Ptch1(+/-) mice. Interestingly, PERK haploinsufficiency enhanced apoptosis of premalignant GCPs in young Ptch1(+/-) mice but had no significant effect on medulloblastoma cells in adult mice. Moreover, we showed that the PERK pathway was activated in medulloblastomas in humans. These results suggest that PERK signaling promotes medulloblastoma tumorigenesis by attenuating apoptosis of premalignant GCPs during the course of malignant transformation.Grant numbers and sources of support: National Institutes of Health (NS73132, NS37956, and CA21765), National Multiple Sclerosis Society (RG4813-A-2 and RG5239-A-3), and Wellcome Trust.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Elsevier via https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajpath.2016.03.00

The Effects of Same- and Other-Race Facial Expressions of Pain on Temporal Perception

Previous studies suggested that threatening stimuli lengthen subjective duration, while facial expressions of pain were found to produce a shortening effect on temporal perception in a recent study. Moreover, individuals’ responses to others’ pain were influenced by the individuals’ relationship to a racial group. However, the effects of same- and other-race pained facial expressions on temporal perception, remain unknown. The aim of this present study was to identify the effect expressions of pain have on temporal perception and to explore whether this effect was modulated by the relationship to a racial group. In a temporal bisection task, Chinese participants were presented with pain or neutral facial expressions displayed by Caucasian (other-race) or Chinese (same-race) models in a 400–1600 ms or 200–800 ms condition. Expressions of pain were rated as more arousing, negative and disagreeable, than neutral facial expressions. These scores were not significantly different between same- and other-race facial expressions. Based on the results of the temporal bisection task, both same- and other-race pained facial expressions lengthened the perceived duration in the 400–1600 ms condition, but only same-race pained facial expressions produced this effect in the 200–800 ms condition. We postulate that the existence of a short-lived effect of pained facial expressions on lengthening temporal perception caused by arousal and attention, occurs at an earlier time point for same-race pained facial expressions than for other-race pained facial expressions

Genomic Androgen Receptor-Occupied Regions with Different Functions, Defined by Histone Acetylation, Coregulators and Transcriptional Capacity

Background: The androgen receptor (AR) is a steroid-activated transcription factor that binds at specific DNA locations and plays a key role in the etiology of prostate cancer. While numerous studies have identified a clear connection between AR binding and expression of target genes for a limited number of loci, high-throughput elucidation of these sites allows for a deeper understanding of the complexities of this process. Methodology/Principal Findings: We have mapped 189 AR occupied regions (ARORs) and 1,388 histone H3 acetylation (AcH3) loci to a 3 % continuous stretch of human genomic DNA using chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) microarray analysis. Of 62 highly reproducible ARORs, 32 (52%) were also marked by AcH3. While the number of ARORs detected in prostate cancer cells exceeded the number of nearby DHT-responsive genes, the AcH3 mark defined a subclass of ARORs much more highly associated with such genes – 12 % of the genes flanking AcH3+ARORs were DHT-responsive, compared to only 1 % of genes flanking AcH32ARORs. Most ARORs contained enhancer activities as detected in luciferase reporte

The impact of stereotype threat on endogenous poverty-elimination dynamics in generationally poor individuals

IntroductionThe study examines the impact of stereotype threat on generationally poor individuals and its effect on achievement motivation. It also explores the extent to which self-affirmation has an intervention effect on the negative impact of stereotype threat.Methods and resultsIn Study 1, statements that contained negative stereotypes were used to elicit stereotype threat in generationally poor individuals; the results show that stereotype threat reduced the performance of generationally poor individuals in a mental-rotation task. Study 2 used a questionnaire to measure the endogenous dynamics of generationally poor individuals attempting to escape poverty after experiencing stereotype threat; participants in the stereotype-threat group showed lower-level endogenous poverty-elimination dynamics than those in the control group. In Study 3, a self-affirmation intervention was administered to the stereotype-threat group after the stereotype threat was induced. Participants in the self-affirmation group were shown to have higher-level endogenous poverty-elimination dynamics than those in the control group.DiscussionThese findings confirm the negative effect of stereotype threat on endogenous poverty-elimination dynamics and verify the effectiveness of self-affirmation in mitigating the negative effects of stereotype threat

Interactive graph construction for graph-based semi-supervised learning

Semi-supervised learning (SSL) provides a way to improve the performance of prediction models (e.g., classifier) via the usage of unlabeled samples. An effective and widely used method is to construct a graph that describes the relationship between labeled and unlabeled samples. Practical experience indicates that graph quality significantly affects the model performance. In this paper, we present a visual analysis method that interactively constructs a high-quality graph for better model performance. In particular, we propose an interactive graph construction method based on the large margin principle. We have developed a river visualization and a hybrid visualization that combines a scatterplot, a node-link diagram, and a bar chart, to convey the label propagation of graph-based SSL. Based on the understanding of the propagation, a user can select regions of interest to inspect and modify the graph. We conducted two case studies to showcase how our method facilitates the exploitation of labeled and unlabeled samples for improving model performance

Interplay of tRNA-Derived Fragments and T Cell Activation in Breast Cancer Patient Survival

Effector CD8+ T cell activation and its cytotoxic function are positively correlated with improved survival in breast cancer. tRNA-derived fragments (tRFs) have recently been found to be involved in gene regulation in cancer progression. However, it is unclear how interactions between expression of tRFs and T cell activation affect breast cancer patient survival. We used Kaplan–Meier survival and multivariate Cox regression models to evaluate the effect of interactions between expression of tRFs and T cell activation on survival in 1081 breast cancer patients. Spearman correlation analysis and weighted gene co-expression network analysis were conducted to identify genes and pathways that were associated with tRFs. tRFdb-5024a, 5P_tRNA-Leu-CAA-4-1, and ts-49 were positively associated with overall survival, while ts-34 and ts-58 were negatively associated with overall survival. Significant interactions were detected between T cell activation and ts-34 and ts-49. In the T cell exhaustion group, patients with a low level of ts-34 or a high level of ts-49 showed improved survival. In contrast, there was no significant difference in the activation group. Breast cancer related pathways were identified for the five tRFs. In conclusion, the identified five tRFs associated with overall survival may serve as therapeutic targets and improve immunotherapy in breast cancer