Mitochondria-Localized Glutamic Acid-Rich Protein (MGARP) Gene Transcription Is Regulated by Sp1

Background: Mitochondria-localized glutamic acid-rich protein (MGARP) is a novel mitochondrial transmembrane protein expressed mainly in steroidogenic tissues and in the visual system. Previous studies showed that MGARP functions in hormone biosynthesis and its expression is modulated by the HPG axis. Methodology/principal findings: By bioinformatics, we identified two characteristic GC-rich motifs that are located proximal to the transcription start site (TSS) of MGARP, and each contains two Specificity protein 1 (Sp1) binding elements. We then determined that the −3 kb proximal MGARP promoter is activated in a Sp1-dependent manner using reporter assays and knockdown of Sp1 led to decreased expression of endogenous MGARP messages. We also demonstrated that one of the two GC-rich motifs, GC-Box1, harbors prominent promoter activity mediated by Sp1, and that it requires both GC boxes for full transcriptional activation. These findings suggest a dominant role for these GC boxes and Sp1 in activating the MGARP promoter through a synergistic mechanism. Consistently, the results of an Electrophoretic Mobility Gel Shift Assay (EMSA) and Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP) confirmed that Sp1 specifically interacts with the GC-rich region. We further found that estrogen receptor α (ERα), a known Sp1 co-activator, could potentiate GC-boxes containing MGARP promoter activity and this effect is mediated by Sp1. Knockdown of Sp1 significantly diminished the MGARP promoter transactivation and the expression of endogenous MGARP mediated by both Sp1 and ERα. Conclusions/significance: The present study identified a proximal core sequence in the MGARP promoter that is composed of two enriched Sp1 binding motifs and established Sp1 as one major MGARP transactivator whose functions are synergistic with ERα, providing a novel understanding of the mechanisms of MGARP gene transcriptional regulation

Quantum Attacks on Lai-Massey Structure

Aaram Yun et al. considered that Lai-Massey structure has the same security as Feistel structure. However, Luo et al. showed that 3-round Lai-Massey structure can resist quantum attacks of Simon\u27s algorithm, which is different from Feistel structure. We give quantum attacks against a typical Lai-Massey structure. The result shows that there exists a quantum CPA distinguisher against 3-round Lai-Massey structure and a quantum CCA distinguisher against 4-round Lai-Massey Structure, which is the same as Feistel structure. We extend the attack on Lai-Massey structure to quasi-Feistel structure. We show that if the combiner of quasi-Feistel structure is linear, there exists a quantum CPA distinguisher against 3-round balanced quasi-Feistel structure and a quantum CCA distinguisher against 4-round balanced quasi-Feistel Structure

Prognostic significance of circulating tumor cell measurement in the peripheral blood of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Objective: Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (NPC) is lethal cancer. Typically, relapse and metastasis are the outcomes of most patients. Against this backdrop, this study aimed to investigate the correlation between Circulating Tumor Cell (CTC) profiles and clinicopathological features in patients with NPC. Patients and methods: A total of 119 blood samples from 79 patients were collected from patients with NPC during treatment. CanPatrolTM CTC enrichment and RNA In Situ Hybridization (RNA-ISH) were used to characterize CTCs, including epithelial, Mesenchymal (MCTCs), and epithelial/mesenchymal mixed types according to their surface markers. Results: The number of CTCs and MCTCs in the pre-treatment group was significantly higher than that in the post-treatment group (p < 0.05). The total number of CTCs and MCTCs cell numbers was significant correlation with Tumor-Node-Metastasis (TNM) staging (p < 0.05), Progression-Free Survival (PFS), and Overall Survival (OS). The PFS of patients with > 7 CTCs or > 5 MCTCs per 5 mL blood was significantly shorter PFS than those patients with ≤ 7 CTCs or ≤ 5 MCTCs (p < 0.05). Patients treated with targeted therapy combined with chemoradiotherapy had poorer PFS and OS rates than those treated with chemoradiotherapy (p < 0.05). The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis also demonstrated that patients with changes in CTC > 4 were strongly associated with PFS and OS rates (p < 0.05). Conclusion: CTC and MCTC number detection in patients with NPC is a useful biomarker for predicting patient progress. Patients with more than 7 CTCs or 5 MCTCs in 5 mL of blood had shorter PFS and OS rates. CTC and MCTC count changes were also significantly associated with the patient's therapy

Quantum Security of TNT

Many classical secure structures are broken by quantum attacks. Evaluating the quantum security of a structure and providing a tight security bound is a challenging research area. As a tweakable block cipher structure based on block ciphers, $\mathsf{TNT}$ was proven to have $O(2^{3n/4})$ CPA and $O(2^{n/2})$ CCA security in the classical setting. We prove that $\mathsf{TNT}$ is a quantum-secure tweakable block cipher with a bound of $O(2^{n/6})$. In addition, we show the tight quantum PRF security bound of $O(2^{n/3})$ when $\mathsf{TNT}$ is based on random functions, which is better than $O(2^{n/4})$ given by Bhaumik et al. and solves their open problem. Our proof uses the recording standard oracle with errors technique of Hosoyamada and Iwata based on Zhandry’s compressed oracle technique

Hybrid films loaded with 5-fluorouracil and Reglan for synergistic treatment of colon cancer via asynchronous dual-drug delivery

Combination therapy with oral administration of several active ingredients is a popular clinical treatment for cancer. However, the traditional method has poor convenience, less safety, and low efficiency for patients. The combination of traditional pharmaceutical techniques and advanced material conversion methods can provide new solutions to this issue. In this research, a new kind of hybrid film was created via coaxial electrospraying, followed by a casting process. The films were composed of Reglan and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-loaded cellulose acetate (CA) core-shell particles in a polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) film matrix. Microscopic observations of these films demonstrated a solid cross section loaded with core-shell particles. X-ray diffraction and Fourier-transform infrared tests verified that the Reglan and 5-FU loaded in the films showed amorphous states and fine compatibilities with the polymeric matrices, i.e., PVP and CA, respectively. In vitro dissolution tests indicated that the films were able to provide the desired asynchronous dual-drug delivery, fast release of Reglan, and sustained release of 5-FU. The controlled release mechanisms were shown to be an erosion mechanism for Reglan and a typical Fickian diffusion mechanism for 5-FU. The protocols reported herein pioneer a new approach for fabricating biomaterials loaded with multiple drugs, each with its own controlled release behavior, for synergistic cancer treatment

Small Stretch Problem of the DCT Scheme and How to Fix It

DCT is a beyond-birthday-bound (BBB) deterministic authenticated encryption (DAE) mode proposed by Forler et al. in ACISP 2016, ensuring integrity by redundancy. The instantiation of DCT employs the BRW polynomial, which is more efficient than the usual polynomial in GCM by reducing half of the multiplication operations. However, we show that DCT suffers from a small stretch problem similar to GCM. When the stretch length τ is small, choosing a special m-block message, we can reduce the number of queries required by a successful forgery to O(2τ/m). We emphasize that this attack efficiently balances space and time complexity but does not contradict the security bounds of DCT. Finally, we propose an improved scheme named Robust DCT (RDCT) with a minor change to DCT, which improves the security when τ is small and makes it resist the above attack

Small Stretch Problem of the DCT Scheme and How to Fix it

DCT is a beyond-birthday-bound~(BBB) deterministic authenticated encryption~(DAE) mode proposed by Forler et al. in ACISP 2016, ensuring integrity by redundancy. The instantiation scheme of DCT employs the BRW polynomial, which is more efficient than the usual polynomial function in GCM by reducing half of the multiplication operations. However, we show that DCT suffers from a small stretch problem similar to GCM. When the stretch length $\tau$ is small, choosing a special $m$-block message, we can reduce the number of queries required by a successful forgery to $\mathcal{O}(2^{\tau}/m)$. We emphasize that this attack efficiently balances space and time complexity, but does not contradict the security bounds of DCT. Finally, we propose an improved scheme named Robust DCT~(RDCT) with a minor change to DCT, which improves the security when $\tau$ is small and makes it resist the above attack

Iterative Frequency Domain Equalization for MIMO-GFDM Systems

This paper proposes a new iterative frequency domain equalization (FDE) algorithm for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO)-frequency division multiplexing (GFDM) systems. This new FDE scheme is capable of enhancing the system fidelity by considering the complete frequency-domain second order description of the received signal. In addition, a new nulling filter design is also proposed for MIMO-GFDM systems to remove the residual interference, which further improves the system fidelity compared with the traditional scheme. Simulation results are presented to verify the effiectiveness and efficiency of the proposed FDE algorithm