miRNA-30 family members inhibit breast cancer invasion, osteomimicry, and bone destruction by directly targeting multiple bone metastasis–associated genes

miRNAs are master regulators of gene expression that play key roles in cancer metastasis. During bone metastasis, metastatic tumor cells must rewire their biology and express genes that are normally expressed by bone cells (a process called osteomimicry), which endow tumor cells with full competence for outgrowth in the bone marrow. Here, we establish miR-30 family members miR-30a, miR-30b, miR-30c, miR-30d, and miR-30e as suppressors of breast cancer bone metastasis that regulate multiple pathways, including osteomimicry. Low expression of miR-30 in primary tumors from patients with breast cancer were associated with poor relapse-free survival. In addition, estrogen receptor (ER)-negative/progesterone receptor (PR)-negative breast cancer cells expressed lower miR-30 levels than their ER/PR-positive counterparts. Overexpression of miR-30 in ER/PR-negative breast cancer cells resulted in the reduction of bone metastasis burden in vivo. In vitro, miR-30 did not affect tumor cell proliferation, but did inhibit tumor cell invasion. Furthermore, overexpression of miR-30 restored bone homeostasis by reversing the effects of tumor cell–conditioned medium on osteoclastogenesis and osteoblastogenesis. A number of genes associated with osteoclastogenesis stimulation (IL8, IL11), osteoblastogenesis inhibition (DKK-1), tumor cell osteomimicry (RUNX2, CDH11), and invasiveness (CTGF, ITGA5, ITGB3) were identified as targets for repression by miR-30. Among these genes, silencing CDH11 or ITGA5 in ER-/PR-negative breast cancer cells recapitulated inhibitory effects of miR-30 on skeletal tumor burden in vivo. Overall, our findings provide evidence that miR-30 family members employ multiple mechanisms to impede breast cancer bone metastasis and may represent attractive targets for therapeutic intervention. Significance: These findings suggest miR-30 family members may serve as an effective means to therapeutically attenuate metastasis in triple-negative breast cancer

Human fetal dendritic cells promote prenatal T-cell immune suppression through arginase-2.

During gestation the developing human fetus is exposed to a diverse range of potentially immune-stimulatory molecules including semi-allogeneic antigens from maternal cells, substances from ingested amniotic fluid, food antigens, and microbes. Yet the capacity of the fetal immune system, including antigen-presenting cells, to detect and respond to such stimuli remains unclear. In particular, dendritic cells, which are crucial for effective immunity and tolerance, remain poorly characterized in the developing fetus. Here we show that subsets of antigen-presenting cells can be identified in fetal tissues and are related to adult populations of antigen-presenting cells. Similar to adult dendritic cells, fetal dendritic cells migrate to lymph nodes and respond to toll-like receptor ligation; however, they differ markedly in their response to allogeneic antigens, strongly promoting regulatory T-cell induction and inhibiting T-cell tumour-necrosis factor-α production through arginase-2 activity. Our results reveal a previously unappreciated role of dendritic cells within the developing fetus and indicate that they mediate homeostatic immune-suppressive responses during gestation

Gender comparison of mathematics anxiety and cognitive reflection

The aim of this research is to examine differences in dependent variables which are mathematics anxiety and cognitive reflection based on gender. This research also investigated the association between mathematics anxiety and cognitive reflection. A total of 150 Cognitive Sciences undergraduate students from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS)participated in this correlational and comparative survey research. In data collection, a set of questionnaire in which adapted from Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale-Short Version (MARS-SV) and Cognitive Reflection Test-Long (CRT-L) was used. Moreover, independent t-test analyses were used to identify the differences in mathematics anxiety and cognitive reflection between male and female students. Additionally, Pearson Correlation was used to determine the relationship between mathematics anxiety and cognitive reflection. This research finding indicated that cognitive reflection was significantly different between male and female students. Male students performed better in CRT than female students. However, mathematics anxiety was not significantly different between male and female students. This research finding also demonstrated that mathematics anxiety was negatively correlated to cognitive reflection. Yet, the relationship was not significant

Effects of semantic information on segmental and tonal perception of Cantonese sine-wave speech

"A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, May 10, 2002."Also available in print.Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2002published_or_final_versionSpeech and Hearing SciencesBachelorBachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Science