Thomas Jefferson University, Department of Pathology, Anatomy and Cell Biology, Oral Administration of Apigenin Inhibits Metastasis through AKT/P70S6K1/MMP-9 Pathway in Orthotopic Ovarian Tumor Model.

Apigenin, a flavonoid commonly present in the daily diet, is known for its potential anti-tumor properties. However, the effect of apigenin via oral administration on tumor growth and metastasis remains unknown. In this study we developed an orthotopic ovarian tumor model in nude mice to test the effect of apigenin oral administration, and showed that apigenin inhibited the micrometastasis of cancer cells in the animal tumor model. To understand the mechanism of apigenin in inhibiting metastasis, we found that apigenin greatly inhibited MMP-9 expression and p-AKT and p-p70S6K1 levels in the tumor tissues compared to the control group. We further demonstrated that the downregulation of MMP-9 by apigenin was mediated by the AKT/p70S6K1 pathway. These findings help to address the question with common interests to the public of whether oral uptake of flavonoids is effective in preventing cancer. Our results demonstrate for the first time that oral uptake of apigenin can inhibit tumor metastasis through MMP-9 expression using the orthotopic ovarian tumor model

GSK-3β regulates tumor growth and angiogenesis in human glioma cells.

BACKGROUND: Glioma accounts for the majority of primary malignant brain tumors in adults. METHODS: Glioma specimens and normal brain tissues were analyzed for the expression levels of GSK-3β and p-GSK-3β (Ser9) by tissue microarray analysis (TMA) and Western blotting. Glioma cells over-expressing GSK-3β were used to analyze biological functions both in vitro and in vivo. RESULTS: The levels of p-GSK-3β (Ser9), but not total GSK-3β, are significantly up-regulated in glioma tissues compared to normal tissues, and are significantly correlated with the glioma grades. Ectopic expression of GSK-3β decreased the phosphorylation levels of mTOR and p70S6K1; and inhibited β-catenin, HIF-1α and VEGF expression. Forced expression of GSK-3β in glioma cells significantly inhibited both tumor growth and angiogenesis in vivo. CONCLUSIONS: These results reveal that GSK-3β regulates mTOR/p70S6K1 signaling pathway and inhibits glioma progression in vivo; its inactivation via p-GSK-3β (Ser9) is associated with glioma development, which is new mechanism that may be helpful in developing GSK-3β-based treatment of glioma in the future

Hepatitis B surface antigen positivity is associated with poor short- and long-term outcomes in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma who received CHOP or R-CHOP

ObjectiveThe development of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is closely related to the host infection status. China is a highly endemic area for hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. It is not clear whether HBV infection has a consistent effect on the prognostic implications of patients with DLBCL in different treatment settings.Materials and methodsWe conducted a cohort study of 692 patients with DLBCL receiving three or more cycles of treatment with a CHOP or R-CHOP regimen from the First Hospital of Jilin University between July 2011 and July 2022. The patients were divided into two groups based on their hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) status: HBsAg-positive (n = 84, 12.1%) and HBsAg-negative (n = 608, 87.9%) groups. Tumor specimens from 180 patients with primary DLBCL were collected for next-generation sequencing (NGS).ResultsThe HBsAg-positive group had more frequent abnormal liver function (P = 0.003), hypoalbuminemia (P < 0.001), incidence of > 2 extranodal organs (P = 0.011), and spleen involvement (P < 0.001) than the HBsAg-negative group. HBsAg-positive patients had lower complete response (CR) and overall response rates (ORR) rates (all the p values < 0.05), in either the CHOP group or R-CHOP group. Among patients receiving R-CHOP, the rates of disease progression within 12 and 24 months were higher in the HBsAg-positive group than in the HBsAg-negative group (P=0.018, P=0.029). However, no significant difference in disease progression was observed between HBsAg-positive and HBsAg-negative patients in the CHOP group(P > 0.05). HBsAg positivity (OS: HR [95% CI] = 2.511 [1.214-5.192], P = 0.013) was only associated with poorer OS in the CHOP group. Whereas in the R-CHOP group, HBsAg positivity was associated with both poorer OS and PFS (OS: HR [95% CI] = 1.672 [1.050-2.665], P = 0.030; PFS: HR [95% CI] = 1.536 [1.013-2.331], P = 0.043). Additionally, HBsAg-positive patients with DLBCL also had a higher prevalence of mutations in MYC, ATM, PTPN6, and epigenetically regulated genes.ConclusionThese findings suggest that HBsAg-positive DLBCL patients may represent a distinct subgroup with a poorer prognosis. The standard therapies may be insufficient and new therapeutic strategies should be developed based on a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of chemoresistance

Highly-stable P2-Na 0.67 MnO 2 electrode enabled by lattice tailoring and surface engineering

Abstract(#br)One of the key challenges of sodium ion batteries is to develop sustainable, low-cost and high capacity cathodes, and this is the reason that layered sodium manganese oxides have attracted so much attention. However, the undesired phase transitions and poor electrolyte-electrode interfacial stability facilitate their capacity decay and limit their practical applications. Herein, we design a novel Al 2 O 3 @Na 0.67 Zn 0.1 Mn 0.9 O 2 electrode to mitigate these problems, by taking the advantages of both structural stabilization and surface passivation via Zn 2+ substitution and Al 2 O 3 atomic layered deposition (ALD), respectively. Long-range and local structural analyses during charging/discharging processes indicate that P2-P2’ phase transformation can be suppressed by substituting proper amount of Mn 3+ Jahn-Teller centers with Zn 2+ , whereas excessive Zn 2+ leads to P2-OP4 structure transition at low sodium contents and facilitates the electrode degradations. Furthermore, the homogeneous and robust cathode electrolyte interphase (CEI) layers formed on the Al 2 O 3 -coated electrodes effectively hinder the organic electrolytes from further decomposition. Therefore, our synergetic strategy of Zn 2+ substitution and ALD surface engineering remarkably boosts the cycling performance of P2-Na 0.67 MnO 2 and provides some new insights into the designing of highly stable cathode electrodes for sustainable sodium ion batteries

P2-Na0.67 Alx Mn1-x O2 : Cost-Effective, Stable and High-Rate Sodium Electrodes by Suppressing Phase Transitions and Enhancing Sodium Cation Mobility.

Sodium layered P2-stacking Na0.67 MnO2 materials have shown great promise for sodium-ion batteries. However, the undesired Jahn-Teller effect of the Mn4+ /Mn3+ redox couple and multiple biphasic structural transitions during charge/discharge of the materials lead to anisotropic structure expansion and rapid capacity decay. Herein, by introducing abundant Al into the transition-metal layers to decrease the number of Mn3+ , we obtain the low cost pure P2-type Na0.67 Alx Mn1-x O2 (x=0.05, 0.1 and 0.2) materials with high structural stability and promising performance. The Al-doping effect on the long/short range structural evolutions and electrochemical performances is further investigated by combining in situ synchrotron XRD and solid-state NMR techniques. Our results reveal that Al-doping alleviates the phase transformations thus giving rise to better cycling life, and leads to a larger spacing of Na+ layer thus producing a remarkable rate capability of 96 mAh g-1 at 1200 mA g-1

Complete chloroplast genome sequence of Holoparasite Cistanche Deserticola (Orobanchaceae) reveals gene loss and horizontal gene transfer from Its host Haloxylon Ammodendron (Chenopodiaceae)

The central function of chloroplasts is to carry out photosynthesis, and its gene content and structure are highly conserved across land plants. Parasitic plants, which have reduced photosynthetic ability, suffer gene losses from the chloroplast (cp) genome accompanied by the relaxation of selective constraints. Compared with the rapid rise in the number of cp genome sequences of photosynthetic organisms, there are limited data sets from parasitic plants. The authors report the complete sequence of the cp genome of Cistanche deserticola, a holoparasitic desert species belonging to the family Orobanchaceae

An automatic method for road centerline extraction from post-earthquake aerial images

Road vector database plays an important role in post-earthquake relief, rescue and reconstruction. However, due to data privacy policy, it is difficult for general users to obtain high-precision and complete vector data of road network. The OpenStreetMap (OSM) project provides an open-source, global free road dataset, but there are inevitable geo-localization/projection errors, which will lead to large errors in hazard survey analysis. In this paper, we proposed a road centerline correction method using post-earthquake aerial images. Under the constraint of the vector road map (OpenStreetMap), we rectified the centerline by the context feature and spectral gradient feature of post-event images automatically. The experiment implemented on 0.5 m/pixel post-event aerial images of Haiti, 2010, showed that the completeness and extraction quality of proposed method were over 90% and 80% without any manual intervention. Keywords: OpenStreetMap, Morphological gradient, Road centerline extraction, Aerial imag

Evaluation of earthquake disaster recovery patterns and influencing factors: a case study of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake

ABSTRACTEarthquakes will significantly impact the economic development of earthquake-affected areas and the regional post-earthquake economic recovery trajectory. We presented an explorative analysis of disaster resilience and introduced a quantitative framework to model recovery patterns of earthquake disasters. Four resilience metrics, namely instant disturbance, recovery rate, recovery time, and accumulated loss, were calculated to measure resilience as a dynamic process. Furthermore, we applied random forests to explore the potential factors influencing recovery patterns. The selected factors fell into three categories: 1) disaster factors, 2) environmental factors, and 3) socioeconomic factors. The framework’s utility was demonstrated in a retrospective study of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, which uncovered the differences in the long-term recovery trajectory of earthquake-affected areas and their influencing factors. The county-level analyses indicated a substantial spatial and temporal variation in the recovery patterns. Earthquake disaster resilience was related to socioeconomic factors and had an association with environmental and disaster factors. Our study not only helped to enrich the understanding of earthquake disaster resilience but also provided a basis for disaster mitigation strategies

Location correction technique based on mobile communication base station for earthquake population heat map

China has mobile phone penetration rate of over 96.2%. Mobile phone has become the largest Internet terminal for Chinese Internet users. Population geographic distribution in earthquake zones can be got based on mobile phone positioning and map matching. For reducing earthquake black-box stage, we propose a real-time collection, correction and schedule algorithm of population position data by four stream processing environments (Redis, Hbase, Kafka, and Spark Streaming) in this paper. For labeling precisely population geographic distribution on the network map, matching of population geographic coordinates and map coordinates are optimized by sample comparison based on location data of mobile communication base stations and prefecture level cities. The test result shows the proposed system is high efficient and can rapidly respond to any emerging parallel tasks during the earthquake. A high-precision heat map of affected population can be produced and published on-line within 2 min after the devastating earthquake happened. Keywords: Earthquake emergency, Location-based service, Mobile communication base station, Big data technolog