Inhibition of mTORC1 through ATF4-induced REDD1 and Sestrin2 expression by Metformin.

Background: Although the major anticancer effect of metformin involves AMPK-dependent or AMPK-independent mTORC1 inhibition, the mechanisms of action are still not fully understood.

Methods: To investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying the effect of metformin on the mTORC1 inhibition, MTT assay, RT-PCR, and western blot analysis were performed.

Results: Metformin induced the expression of ATF4, REDD1, and Sestrin2 concomitant with its inhibition of mTORC1 activity.

Inhibition of AKT Enhances the Sensitivity of NSCLC Cells to Metformin.

Background/aim: Metformin is an antidiabetic drug that has been reported to have antitumor activity in many cancer types. This study investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying the antitumor effect of metformin.

Materials And Methods: We investigated the molecular mechanism of the antitumor effect of metformin alone and in combination with AKT serine/threonine kinase (AKT) inhibition via cell viability and western blot analyses.

Lysine is required for growth factor-induced mTORC1 activation.

Mechanistic target of rapamycincomplex 1 (mTORC1) integrates various environmental signals to regulate cell growth and metabolism. mTORC1 activity is sensitive to changes in amino acid levels. Here, we investigated the effect of lysine on mTORC1 activity in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells.

What was visualized? A method for describing content of performance summary displays in feedback interventions.

Background: Visual displays such as charts and tables may significantly moderate the effects of audit and feedback interventions, but the systematic study of these intervention components will likely remain limited without a method for isolating the information content of a visual display from its form elements. The objective of this study is to introduce such a method based on an application of visualization frameworks to enable a systematic approach to answer the question, "What was visualized?" in studies of audit and feedback.

Methods: The proposed method uses 3 steps to systematically identify and describe the content of visual displays in feedback interventions: 1) identify displays, 2) classify content, and 3) identify elements.

Designing Tailored Displays for Clinical Practice Feedback: Developing Requirements with User Stories.

Improving visualizations in clinical quality reports and dashboards may improve the visualization influence on clinical practice. Tailored displays could accommodate individual and situational differences, but these diplays introduce complex requirements across healthcare professionals and teams. We applied user stories, a method for managing complex software requirements, to a user-centered design process for tailored visual displays about postpartum contraception care.

Synthesis of monodisperse starch microparticles through molecular rearrangement of short-chain glucans from natural waxy maize starch.

Here, we report a sustainable approach for the synthesis of starch-based microparticles with well-defined shape and size through molecular self-assembly of short-chain glucan (SCG) obtained enzymatically from waxy maize starch. We employed chitosan as a steric stabilizer to modulate the nucleation process, which significantly reduced undesirable aggregations during the nucleation and growth phases, resulting in the production of highly monodisperse microparticles. The size of chitosan-assisted starch microparticles (CS-SMPs) was effectively controlled by the concentration of debranching enzyme as well as by debranching time, of which the factors influencing the final size were investigated.

Hybrid bag of approaches to characterize selection criteria for cohort identification.

Objective: The 2018 National NLP Clinical Challenge (2018 n2c2) focused on the task of cohort selection for clinical trials, where participating systems were tasked with analyzing longitudinal patient records to determine if the patients met or did not meet any of the 13 selection criteria. This article describes our participation in this shared task.

Materials And Methods: We followed a hybrid approach combining pattern-based, knowledge-intensive, and feature weighting techniques.

Self-assembly kinetics of debranched short-chain glucans from waxy maize starch to form spherical microparticles and its applications.

Starch microparticles (SMPs) of well-defined size and morphology were synthesized through pullulanase-mediated debranching of waxy maize starch followed by spontaneous re-assembly of the resulting short-chain glucan molecules in aqueous solution. Enzymatic debranching of amylopectins from native starch generated two major fractions corresponding to a smaller glucan and partially digested larger amylopectin molecules. The ratio of short-chain glucan (SCG) over partially digested amylopectin (PDAp) turned out to be the deterministic factors for the size and crystallinity of SMPs, of which the ratio could be controlled by the concentration of debranching enzyme.

Molecular Rearrangement of Glucans from Natural Starch To Form Size-Controlled Functional Magnetic Polymer Beads.

Herein, we report a fairly simple and environmentally friendly approach for the fabrication of starch-based magnetic polymer beads (SMPBs) with uniform shape and size through spontaneous rearrangement of short-chain glucan (SCG) produced by enzymatic debranching of waxy maize starch. The paramagnetic materials, dextran-coated iron oxide nanoparticles (Dex@IONPs), were readily incorporated into the starch microstructure and rendered a superparamagnetic property to the SMPBs. The morphology and size of resulting SMPBs turned out to be modulated by Dex@IONPs in a concentration-dependent manner, of which Dex@IONPs was assumed to be acting as a seed inducing the epitaxial crystallization of SCG and further transforming it into homogeneous microparticles.

A curcumin-loaded polymeric micelle as a carrier of a microRNA-21 antisense-oligonucleotide for enhanced anti-tumor effects in a glioblastoma animal model.

A glioblastoma is a common primary brain tumor that expresses microRNA-21 (miR-21), which inhibits the expression of pro-apoptotic genes such as phosphatase and tensin homologue (PTEN) and programmed cell death 4 (PDCD4). Therefore, an antisense-oligonucleotide against miR-21 (miR21ASO) could have therapeutic effects for glioblastomas. In this study, curcumin was loaded into deoxycholic acid-conjugated polyethylenimine (DP) micelles.

Thermoelectric Properties of Bi₂Te₃: CuI and the Effect of Its Doping with Pb Atoms.

In order to understand the effect of Pb-CuI co-doping on the thermoelectric performance of Bi₂Te₃, -type Bi₂Te₃ co-doped with at % CuI and 1/2 at % Pb ( = 0, 0.01, 0.03, 0.

Enriching plausible new hypothesis generation in PubMed.

Background: Most of earlier studies in the field of literature-based discovery have adopted Swanson's ABC model that links pieces of knowledge entailed in disjoint literatures. However, the issue concerning their practicability remains to be solved since most of them did not deal with the context surrounding the discovered associations and usually not accompanied with clinical confirmation. In this study, we aim to propose a method that expands and elaborates the existing hypothesis by advanced text mining techniques for capturing contexts.

Effect of short-chain fatty acids on the formation of amylose microparticles by amylosucrase.

Amylose microparticles can be produced by self-assembly of amylose molecules through an amylosucrase-mediated synthesis. Here we investigated the role of short-chain fatty acids in the formation of amylose microparticles and the fate of these fatty acids at the end of the reaction. The rate of self-assembly and production yields of amylose microparticles were significantly enhanced in the presence of fatty acids.

Combined delivery of temozolomide and the thymidine kinase gene for treatment of glioblastoma.

Glioblastoma is the most malignant form of brain tumor. In this study, combination therapy with temozolomide (TMZ) and the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSVtk) gene was evaluated in glioblastoma models. The R7L10 peptide was used as a carrier of TMZ and the HSVtk gene.

Anti-cancer effect of R3V6 peptide-mediated delivery of an anti-microRNA-21 antisense-oligodeoxynucleotide in a glioblastoma animal model.

MicroRNA-21 (miR-21) expression in glioblastoma inhibits the expression of pro-apoptotic genes, thereby promoting tumor growth. A previous study showed that the amphiphilic R3V6 peptide is an efficient carrier of the anti-miR-21 antisense oligodeoxynucleotide (antisense-ODN) into cells in vitro. In the current study, in vivo delivery of antisense-ODN using the R3V6 peptide was evaluated in a glioblastoma animal model.

PKDE4J: Entity and relation extraction for public knowledge discovery.

Due to an enormous number of scientific publications that cannot be handled manually, there is a rising interest in text-mining techniques for automated information extraction, especially in the biomedical field. Such techniques provide effective means of information search, knowledge discovery, and hypothesis generation. Most previous studies have primarily focused on the design and performance improvement of either named entity recognition or relation extraction.

A Bird's-Eye View of Alzheimer's Disease Research: Reflecting Different Perspectives of Indexers, Authors, or Citers in Mapping the Field.

During the last 30 years, Alzheimer's disease (AD) research, aiming to understand the pathophysiology and to improve the diagnosis, management, and, ultimately, treatment of the disease, has grown rapidly. Recently, some studies have used simple bibliometric approaches to investigate research trends and advances in the field. In our study, we map the AD research field by applying entitymetrics, an extended concept of bibliometrics, to capture viewpoints of indexers, authors, or citers.