Boosting the power conversion efficiency of organic solar cells using weakly luminescent gold(III) corrole with long-lived exciton state

Poster Session: P-69Transition metal complexes have been widely used as light-emitting and photon-absorbing materials in optoelectronic devices with diverse applications. While these complexes have been intensively studied in the field of organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) due to their inherently high phosphorescence quantum yields …postprin

CHD1L protein is overexpressed in human ovarian carcinomas and is a novel predictive biomarker for patients survival

published_or_final_versio

Intensive expression of Bmi-1 is a new independent predictor of poor outcome in patients with ovarian carcinoma

Background: It has been suggested that the B-cell specific moloney leukemia virus insertion site 1 (Bmi-1) gene plays an oncogenic role in several types of human cancer, but the status of Bmi-1 amplification and expression in ovarian cancer and its clinical/prognostic significance are unclear.Methods: The methods of immunohistochemistry and fluorescence in situ hybridization were utilized to examine protein expression and amplification of Bmi-1 in 30 normal ovaries, 30 ovarian cystadenomas, 40 borderline ovarian tumors and 179 ovarian carcinomas.Results: Intensive expression of Bmi-1 was detected in none of the normal ovaries, 3% cystadenomas, 10% borderline tumors, and 37% ovarian carcinomas, respectively. Amplification of Bmi-1 was detected in 8% of ovarian carcinomas. In ovarian carcinomas, significant positive associations were found between intensive expression of Bmi-1 and the tumors ascending histological grade, later pT/pN/pM and FIGO stages (P < 0.05). In univariate survival analysis of the ovarian carcinoma cohorts, a significant association of intensive expression of Bmi-1 with shortened patient survival (mean 49.3 months versus 100.3 months, p < 0.001) was demonstrated. Importantly, Bmi-1 expression provided significant independent prognostic parameters in multivariate analysis (p = 0.005).Conclusions: These findings provide evidence that intensive expression of Bmi-1 might be important in the acquisition of an invasive and/or aggressive phenotype of ovarian carcinoma, and serve as a independent biomarker for shortened survival time of patients. © 2010 Yang et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.published_or_final_versio

Ablation of EIF5A2 induces tumor vasculature remodeling and improves tumor response to chemotherapy via regulation of matrix metalloproteinase 2 expression

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a highly vascularized tumor with poor clinical outcome. Our previous work has shown that eukaryotic initiation factor 5A2 (EIF5A2) over-expression enhances HCC cell metastasis. In this study, EIF5A2 was identified to be an independent risk factor for poor disease-specific survival among HCC patients. Both in vitro and in vivo assays indicated that ablation of endogenous EIF5A2 inhibited tumor angiogenesis by reducing matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2) expression. Given that MMP-2 degrades collagen IV, a main component of the vascular basement membrane (BM), we subsequently investigated the effect of EIF5A2 on tumor vasculature remodeling using complementary approaches, including fluorescent immunostaining, transmission electron microscopy, tumor perfusion assays and tumor hypoxia assays. Taken together, our results indicate that EIF5A2 silencing increases tumor vessel wall continuity, increases blood perfusion and improves tumor oxygenation. Additionally, we found that ablation of EIF5A2 enhanced the chemosensitivity of HCC cells to 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU). Finally, we demonstrated that EIF5A2 might exert these functions by enhancing MMP-2 activity via activation of p38 MAPK and JNK/c-Jun pathways. Conclusion: This study highlights an important role of EIF5A2 in HCC tumor vessel remodeling and indicates that EIF5A2 represents a potential therapeutic target in the treatment of HCC.published_or_final_versio

p21/Cyclin E pathway modulates anticlastogenic function of Bmi-1 in cancer cells.

Apart from regulating stem cell self-renewal, embryonic development and proliferation, Bmi-1 has been recently reported to be critical in the maintenance of genome integrity. In searching for novel mechanisms underlying the anticlastogenic function of Bmi-1, we observed, for the first time, that Bmi-1 positively regulates p21 expression. We extended the finding that Bmi-1 deficiency induced chromosome breaks in multiple cancer cell models. Interestingly, we further demonstrated that knockdown of cyclin E or ectopic overexpression of p21 rescued Bmi-1 deficiency-induced chromosome breaks. We therefore conclude that p21/cyclin E pathway is crucial in modulating the anticlastogenic function of Bmi-1. As it is well established that the overexpression of cyclin E potently induces genome instability and p21 suppresses the function of cyclin E, the novel and important implication from our findings is that Bmi-1 plays an important role in limiting genomic instability in cylin E-overexpressing cancer cells by positive regulation of p21.published_or_final_versio

Systemic delivery of microRNA-101 potently inhibits hepatocellular carcinoma in vivo by repressing multiple targets

Targeted therapy based on adjustment of microRNA (miRNA)s activity takes great promise due to the ability of these small RNAs to modulate cellular behavior. However, the efficacy of miR-101 replacement therapy to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unclear. In the current study, we first observed that plasma levels of miR-101 were significantly lower in distant metastatic HCC patients than in HCCs without distant metastasis, and down-regulation of plasma miR-101 predicted a worse disease-free survival (DFS, P<0.05). In an animal model of HCC, we demonstrated that systemic delivery of lentivirus-mediated miR-101 abrogated HCC growth in the liver, intrahepatic metastasis and distant metastasis to the lung and to the mediastinum, resulting in a dramatic suppression of HCC development and metastasis in mice without toxicity and extending life expectancy. Furthermore, enforced overexpression of miR-101 in HCC cells not only decreased EZH2, COX2 and STMN1, but also directly down-regulated a novel target ROCK2, inhibited Rho/Rac GTPase activation, and blocked HCC cells epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and angiogenesis, inducing a strong abrogation of HCC tumorigenesis and aggressiveness both in vitro and in vivo. These results provide proof-of-concept support for systemic delivery of lentivirus-mediated miR-101 as a powerful anti-HCC therapeutic modality by repressing multiple molecular targets. © 2015 Zheng et al.published_or_final_versio

EZH2 protein: A promising immunomarker for the detection of hepatocellular carcinomas in liver needle biopsies

Background and aims: A previous study of ours indicated that enhancer of zeste homologue 2 (EZH2) plays an important role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumorigenesis. The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential diagnostic utility of EZH2 in HCC. Methods: Immunohistochemistry was performed to examine the expression dynamics of EZH2 in two independent surgical cohorts of HCC and non-malignant liver tissues to develop a diagnostic yield of EZH2, HSP70 and GPC3 for HCC detection. The diagnostic performances of EZH2 and a three-marker panel in HCC were re-evaluated by using an additional biopsy cohort. Results: Immunohistochemistry analysis demonstrated that the sensitivity and specificity of EZH2 for HCC detection was 95.8% and 97.8% in the testing cohort. Similar results were confirmed in the validation cohort. For diagnosis of well-differentiated HCCs, the sensitivity and specificity were 68.9% and 91.5% for EZH2, 62.5% and 98.5% for HSP70, 50.0% and 92.1% for GPC3, and 75.0% and 100% for a three-marker panel. In biopsies, positive cases for at least one marker increased from large regenerative nodule and hepatocellular adenoma (0/12) to focal nodular hyperplasia (2/20), dysplastic nodule (7/25), well-differentiated HCC (16/18) and moderately and poorly differentiated HCC (54/54). When at least two positive markers were considered, regardless of their identity, the positive cases were detected in 0/12 large regenerative nodules and hepatocellular adenomas, 0/20 focal nodular hyperplasias, 0/25 dysplastic nodules, 11/18 well-differentiated HCCs, 32/37 moderately differentiated HCCs and 15/17 poorly differentiated HCCs. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that EZH2 protein, as examined by immunohistochemistry, may serve as a promising diagnostic biomarker of HCCs, and the use of a three-marker panel (EZH2, HSP70 and GPC3) can improve the rate of detection of HCCs in liver biopsy tissues.published_or_final_versio

Isolation and Mechanical Measurements of Myofibrils from Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes.

Summary: Tension production and contractile properties are poorly characterized aspects of excitation-contraction coupling of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs). Previous approaches have been limited due to the small size and structural immaturity of early-stage hiPSC-CMs. We developed a substrate nanopatterning approach to produce hiPSC-CMs in culture with adult-like dimensions, T-tubule-like structures, and aligned myofibrils. We then isolated myofibrils from hiPSC-CMs and measured the tension and kinetics of activation and relaxation using a custom-built apparatus with fast solution switching. The contractile properties and ultrastructure of myofibrils more closely resembled human fetal myofibrils of similar gestational age than adult preparations. We also demonstrated the ability to study the development of contractile dysfunction of myofibrils from a patient-derived hiPSC-CM cell line carrying the familial cardiomyopathy MYH7 mutation (E848G). These methods can bring new insights to understanding cardiomyocyte maturation and developmental mechanical dysfunction of hiPSC-CMs with cardiomyopathic mutations. : In this article, Pioner and colleagues reported contractile properties of isolated myofibrils from hiPSC-CMs with highly mature morphology. This approach permits quantitative assessment of maturation and contractile properties of hiPSC-CMs and can be used to study the development of contractile dysfunction in genetically based cardiac diseases. The authors present a patient-derived cell line carrying a novel familial cardiomyopathy MYH7 mutation (E848G)

Forest leaf litter beetles of Taiwan: first DNA barcodes and first insight into the fauna

We report the publication of 953 DNA barcodes of forest leaf litter beetles from central Taiwan, in total representing 334 spe- cies of 36 beetle families. This is the first bulk of data from the Taiwanese Leaf Litter beetles project focused on uncovering the under-explored diversity of leaf litter beetles across Taiwan. Based on these data, we provide the first records of the following taxa for Taiwan: family Sphindidae (genus Aspidiphorus Ziegler, 1821); tribes Trichonychini, Ctenistini, and Bythinoplectini (all Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae); genera Gyrelon Hinton, 1942, Thyroderus Sharp, 1885, Cautomus Sharp, 1885 (all Cerylonidae), Dermatohomoeus Hlisnikovský, 1963 (Leiodidae), Paraploderus Herman, 1970 (Staphylinidae: Oxytelinae), Thinocharis Kraatz, 1859 (Staphylinidae: Paederinae), Cephennodes Reitter, 1884, Napoconnus Franz, 1957 (both Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae), Bicava Belon, 1884 (Latridiidae), Otibazo Morimoto, 1961, Seleuca Pascoe, 1871 and Acallinus Morimoto, 1962 (all Curculioni- dae); species Oodes (Lachnocrepis) japonicus (Bates, 1873) (Carabidae: Licininae), Drusilla obliqua (Bernhauer, 1916) (Staphylin- idae: Aleocharinae) and Coccotrypes advena Blandford, 1894 (Curculionidae: Scolytinae). The records of Anapleus Horn, 1873 (Histeridae) and Batraxis Reitter, 1882 (Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae) have been confirmed. The male of Sivacrypticus taiwanicus Kaszab, 1964 (Archeocrypticidae) is described for the first time. Gyrelon jenpani Hu, Fikáček &amp; Matsumoto, sp. nov. (Cerylon- idae) is described, illustrated, and compared with related species. DNA barcodes associated larvae of 42 species with adults, we are concisely illustrating some of these: Oodes japonicus, Perigona cf. nigriceps Dejean, 1831 (both Carabidae), Ptilodactyla sp. (Ptilodactylidae), Maltypus ryukyuanus Wittmer, 1970 (Cantharidae), Drusilla obliqua, Myrmecocephalus brevisulcus (Pace, 2008), Diochus sp., Mimopinophilus sp. (all Staphylinidae), Stelidota multiguttata Reitter, 1877, Lasiodites inaequalis (Grouvelle, 1914) (both Nitidulidae), Lagria scutellaris Pic, 1910, and Anaedus spinicornis Kaszab, 1973 (both Tenebrionidae). We also report the first cases of Rickettsia infections in Scydmaeninae and Pselaphinae. All data (sequences, metadata, and voucher photos) are made public in BOLD database and in a Zenodo Archive

International consensus on natural orifice specimen extraction surgery (NOSES) for colorectal cancer

In recent years, natural orifice specimen extraction surgery (NOSES) in the treatment of colorectal cancer has attracted widespread attention. The potential benefits of NOSES including reduction in postoperative pain and wound complications, less use of postoperative analgesic, faster recovery of bowel function, shorter length of hospital stay, better cosmetic and psychological effect have been described in colorectal surgery. Despite significant decrease in surgical trauma of NOSES have been observed, the potential pitfalls of this technique have been demonstrated. Particularly, several issues including bacteriological concerns, oncological outcomes and patient selection are raised with this new technique. Therefore, it is urgent and necessary to reach a consensus as an industry guideline to standardize the implementation of NOSES in colorectal surgery. After three rounds of discussion by all members of the International Alliance of NOSES, the consensus is finally completed, which is also of great significance to the long-term progress of NOSES worldwide.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio