DLEC1 is a functional 3p22.3 tumour suppressor silenced by promoter CpG methylation in colon and gastric cancers

Promoter CpG methylation of tumour suppressor genes (TSGs) is an epigenetic biomarker for TSG identification and molecular diagnosis. We screened genome wide for novel methylated genes through methylation subtraction of a genetic demethylation model of colon cancer (double knockout of DNMT1 and DNMT3B in HCT116) and identified DLEC1 (Deleted in lung and oesophageal cancer 1), a major 3p22.3 TSG, as one of the methylated targets. We further found that DLEC1 was downregulated or silenced in most colorectal and gastric cell lines due to promoter methylation, whereas broadly expressed in normal tissues including colon and stomach, and unmethylated in expressing cell lines and immortalised normal colon epithelial cells. DLEC1 expression was reactivated through pharmacologic or genetic demethylation, indicating a DNMT1/DNMT3B-mediated methylation silencing. Aberrant methylation was further detected in primary colorectal (10 out of 34, 29%) and gastric tumours (30 out of 89, 34%), but seldom in paired normal colon (0 out of 17) and gastric (1 out of 20, 5%) samples. No correlation between DLEC1 methylation and clinical parameters of gastric cancers was found. Ectopic expression of DLEC1 in silenced HCT116 and MKN45 cells strongly inhibited their clonogenicity. Thus, DLEC1 is a functional tumour suppressor, being frequently silenced by epigenetic mechanism in gastrointestinal tumours

Study of J/ψ→ppˉJ/\psi\to p\bar{p} and J/ψ→nnˉJ/\psi\to n\bar{n}

The decays $J/\psi\to p\bar{p}$ and $J/\psi\to n\bar{n}$ have been investigated with a sample of 225.2 million $J/\psi$ events collected with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII $e^+e^-$ collider. The branching fractions are determined to be $\mathcal{B}(J/\psi\to p\bar{p})=(2.112\pm0.004\pm0.031)\times10^{-3}$ and $\mathcal{B}(J/\psi\to n\bar{n})=(2.07\pm0.01\pm0.17)\times10^{-3}$. Distributions of the angle $\theta$ between the proton or anti-neutron and the beam direction are well described by the form $1+\alpha\cos^2\theta$, and we find $\alpha=0.595\pm0.012\pm0.015$ for $J/\psi\to p\bar{p}$ and $\alpha=0.50\pm0.04\pm0.21$ for $J/\psi\to n\bar{n}$. Our branching-fraction results suggest a large phase angle between the strong and electromagnetic amplitudes describing the $J/\psi\to N\bar{N}$ decay.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, the 2nd version, submitted to PR

Observation of χc1\chi_{c1} decays into vector meson pairs ϕϕ\phi\phi, ωω\omega\omega, and ωϕ\omega\phi

Decays of $\chi_{c1}$ to vector meson pairs $\phi\phi$, $\omega\omega$ and $\omega\phi$ are observed for the first time using $(106\pm4)\times 10^6$ \psip events accumulated at the BESIII detector at the BEPCII $e^+e^-$ collider. The branching fractions are measured to be $(4.4\pm 0.3\pm 0.5)\times 10^{-4}$, $(6.0\pm 0.3\pm 0.7)\times 10^{-4}$, and $(2.2\pm 0.6\pm 0.2)\times 10^{-5}$, for $\chi_{c1}\to \phi\phi$, $\omega\omega$, and $\omega\phi$, respectively. The observation of $\chi_{c1}$ decays into a pair of vector mesons $\phi\phi$, $\omega\omega$ and $\omega\phi$ indicates that the hadron helicity selection rule is significantly violated in $\chi_{cJ}$ decays. In addition, the measurement of $\chi_{cJ}\to \omega\phi$ gives the rate of doubly OZI-suppressed decay. Branching fractions for $\chi_{c0}$ and $\chi_{c2}$ decays into other vector meson pairs are also measured with improved precision.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Precision measurement of the branching fractions of J/psi -> pi+pi-pi0 and psi' -> pi+pi-pi0

We study the decays of the J/psi and psi' mesons to pi+pi-pi0 using data samples at both resonances collected with the BES III detector in 2009. We measure the corresponding branching fractions with unprecedented precision and provide mass spectra and Dalitz plots. The branching fraction for J/psi -> pi+pi-pi0 is determined to be (2.137 +- 0.004 (stat.) +0.058-0.056 (syst.) +0.027-0.026 (norm.))*10-2, and the branching fraction for psi' -> pi+pi-pi0 is measured as (2.14 +- 0.03 (stat.) +0.08-0.07 (syst.) +0.09-0.08 (norm.))*10-4. The J/psi decay is found to be dominated by an intermediate rho(770) state, whereas the psi' decay is dominated by di-pion masses around 2.2 GeV/c2, leading to strikingly different Dalitz distributions.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figure

First observation of the M1 transition ψ(3686)→γηc(2S)\psi(3686)\to \gamma\eta_c(2S)

Using a sample of 106 million \psi(3686) events collected with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII storage ring, we have made the first measurement of the M1 transition between the radially excited charmonium S-wave spin-triplet and the radially excited S-wave spin-singlet states: \psi(3686)\to\gamma\eta_c(2S). Analyses of the processes \psi(2S)\to \gamma\eta_c(2S) with \eta_c(2S)\to \K_S^0 K\pi and K^+K^-\pi^0 gave an \eta_c(2S) signal with a statistical significance of greater than 10 standard deviations under a wide range of assumptions about the signal and background properties. The data are used to obtain measurements of the \eta_c(2S) mass (M(\eta_c(2S))=3637.6\pm 2.9_\mathrm{stat}\pm 1.6_\mathrm{sys} MeV/c^2), width (\Gamma(\eta_c(2S))=16.9\pm 6.4_\mathrm{stat}\pm 4.8_\mathrm{sys} MeV), and the product branching fraction (\BR(\psi(3686)\to \gamma\eta_c(2S))\times \BR(\eta_c(2S)\to K\bar K\pi) = (1.30\pm 0.20_\mathrm{stat}\pm 0.30_\mathrm{sys})\times 10^{-5}). Combining our result with a BaBar measurement of \BR(\eta_c(2S)\to K\bar K \pi), we find the branching fraction of the M1 transition to be \BR(\psi(3686)\to\gamma\eta_c(2S)) = (6.8\pm 1.1_\mathrm{stat}\pm 4.5_\mathrm{sys})\times 10^{-4}.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, 1 tabl

First Observation of the Decays chi_{cJ} -> pi^0 pi^0 pi^0 pi^0

We present a study of the P-wave spin -triplet charmonium chi_{cJ} decays (J=0,1,2) into pi^0 pi^0 pi^0 pi^0. The analysis is based on 106 million \psiprime decays recorded with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII electron positron collider. The decay into the pi^0 pi^0 pi^0 pi^0 hadronic final state is observed for the first time. We measure the branching fractions B(chi_{c0} -> pi^0 pi^0 pi^0 pi^0)=(3.34 +- 0.06 +- 0.44)*10^{-3}, B(chi_{c1} -> pi^0 pi^0 pi^0 pi^0)=(0.57 +- 0.03 +- 0.08)*10^{-3}, and B(chi_{c2} -> pi^0 pi^0 pi^0 pi^0)=(1.21 +- 0.05 +- 0.16)*10^{-3}, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematical, respectively.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

An amplitude analysis of the π0π0\pi^{0}\pi^{0} system produced in radiative J/ψJ/\psi decays

An amplitude analysis of the $\pi^{0}\pi^{0}$ system produced in radiative $J/\psi$ decays is presented. In particular, a piecewise function that describes the dynamics of the $\pi^{0}\pi^{0}$ system is determined as a function of $M_{\pi^{0}\pi^{0}}$ from an analysis of the $(1.311\pm0.011)\times10^{9}$ $J/\psi$ decays collected by the BESIII detector. The goal of this analysis is to provide a description of the scalar and tensor components of the $\pi^0\pi^0$ system while making minimal assumptions about the properties or number of poles in the amplitude. Such a model-independent description allows one to integrate these results with other related results from complementary reactions in the development of phenomenological models, which can then be used to directly fit experimental data to obtain parameters of interest. The branching fraction of $J/\psi \to \gamma \pi^{0}\pi^{0}$ is determined to be $(1.15\pm0.05)\times10^{-3}$, where the uncertainty is systematic only and the statistical uncertainty is negligible.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. D 19 pages, 4 figure

Measurement of the proton form factor by studying e+e−→ppˉe^{+} e^{-}\rightarrow p\bar{p}

Using data samples collected with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII collider, we measure the Born cross section of $e^{+}e^{-}\rightarrow p\bar{p}$ at 12 center-of-mass energies from 2232.4 to 3671.0 MeV. The corresponding effective electromagnetic form factor of the proton is deduced under the assumption that the electric and magnetic form factors are equal $(|G_{E}|= |G_{M}|)$. In addition, the ratio of electric to magnetic form factors, $|G_{E}/G_{M}|$, and $|G_{M}|$ are extracted by fitting the polar angle distribution of the proton for the data samples with larger statistics, namely at $\sqrt{s}=$ 2232.4 and 2400.0 MeV and a combined sample at $\sqrt{s}$ = 3050.0, 3060.0 and 3080.0 MeV, respectively. The measured cross sections are in agreement with recent results from BaBar, improving the overall uncertainty by about 30\%. The $|G_{E}/G_{M}|$ ratios are close to unity and consistent with BaBar results in the same $q^{2}$ region, which indicates the data are consistent with the assumption that $|G_{E}|=|G_{M}|$ within uncertainties.Comment: 13 pages, 24 figure

Search for Baryonic Decays of \psi(3770) and \psi(4040)

By analyzing data samples of 2.9 fb^{-1} collected at \sqrt s=3.773 GeV, 482 pb^{-1} collected at \sqrt s=4.009 GeV and 67 pb^{-1} collected at \sqrt s=3.542, 3.554, 3.561, 3.600 and 3.650 GeV with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII storage ring, we search for \psi(3770) and \psi(4040) decay to baryonic final states, including \Lambda\bar\Lambda\pi^+\pi^-, \Lambda \bar\Lambda\pi^0, \Lambda\bar\Lambda\eta, \Sigma^+ \bar\Sigma^-, \Sigma^0 \bar\Sigma^0, \Xi^-\bar\Xi^+ and \Xi^0\bar\Xi^0 decays. None are observed, and upper limits are set at the 90% confidence level.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure