Small molecule inhibitors for cancer metabolism: promising prospects to be explored.

Background: Abnormal metabolism is the main hallmark of cancer, and cancer metabolism plays an important role in tumorigenesis, metastasis, and drug resistance. Therefore, studying the changes of tumor metabolic pathways is beneficial to find targets for the treatment of cancer diseases. The success of metabolism-targeted chemotherapy suggests that cancer metabolism research will provide potential new targets for the treatment of malignant tumors.

Multifunctional microfluidic chip for cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Microfluidic chip is not a chip in the traditional sense. It is technologies that control fluids at the micro level. As a burgeoning biochip, microfluidic chips integrate multiple disciplines, including physiology, pathology, cell biology, biophysics, engineering mechanics, mechanical design, materials science, and so on.

CHD1L contributes to cisplatin resistance by upregulating the ABCB1-NF-κB axis in human non-small-cell lung cancer.

Chromodomain helicase/ATPase DNA binding protein 1-like gene (CHD1L) is a recently identified gene associated with malignant tumor progression and patient chemotherapy resistance in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Previously, we found an association between CHD1L overexpression and poor patient survival in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, little is known about the relationship between CHD1L expression and chemotherapy resistance of NSCLC.

[miR-216b suppresses cell proliferation and invasion by targeting PKCα in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells].

Objective: To elucidate whether miR-216b suppresses cell proliferation and invasion by targeting PKCα, thus to reveal the molecular mechanism that miR-216b functions as a tumor suppressor in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).

Methods: PKCα 3'UTR-luciferase vector was constructed and dual-luciferase reporter gene assay was employed to examine the effect of miR-216b on luciferase activity. Nasopharyngeal cancer CNE2 cells were transfected with miR-216b mimics, and then qRT-PCR and Western blotting were performed to detect the expressions of PKCa mRNA and protein.

[Effects of aging time on the form transformation and eco-toxicity threshold (ECx) of added Zn in typical China soils].

Six typical China soils with different properties were selected and added with seven concentrations of ZnCl2 to study the effects of different aging time (14, 90, 180, 360, and 540 days) on the form transformation and eco-toxicity threshold (ECx) of added Zn in the soils, with the main affecting factors analyzed. The results indicated that with the increase of aging time, the fraction of 0.01 mol x L(-1) CaCl2-extracted Zn in the soils decreased sharply initially, then slowed down, and reached the dynamic balance after 540 d incubation.

miR-26a suppresses tumor growth and metastasis by targeting FGF9 in gastric cancer.

The role of miR-26a in cancer cells seemed controversial in previous studies. Until now, the role of miR-26a in gastric cancer remains undefined. In this study, we found that miR-26a was strongly downregulated in gastric cancer (GC) tissues and cell lines, and its expression levels were associated with lymph node metastasis and clinical stage, as well as overall survival and replase-free survival of GC.

RNAi knockdown of PIK3CA preferentially inhibits invasion of mutant PIK3CA cells.

Aim: To explore the effects of siRNA silencing of PIK3CA on proliferation, migration and invasion of gastric cancer cells and to investigate the underlying mechanisms.

Methods: The mutation of PIK3CA in exons 9 and 20 of gastric cancer cell lines HGC-27, SGC-7901, BGC-823, MGC-803 and MKN-45 was screened by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by sequencing. BGC-823 cells harboring no mutations in either of the exons, and HGC-27 cells containing PIK3CA mutations were employed in the current study.

Up-regulation of PIK3CA promotes metastasis in gastric carcinoma.

Aim: To explore expressions of PIK3CA in the progression of gastric cancer from primary to metastasis and its effects on activation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway.

Methods: mRNA and protein levels of PIK3CA were assessed, respectively, by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry in specimens of normal gastric mucosa, primary foci and lymph node and distant metastasis of gastric cancer. Akt and phosphorylated Akt protein were also examined by Western blotting in these tissues, in order to analyze the effect of PIK3CA expression level changes on the activation of PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.

[Studies on IFN-gamma-mediated reversion of CIK killing sensitivity to edited human lung cancer A549 cells].

Aim: To explore IFN-gamma-mediated reversion of CIK killing sensitivity to immunoedited lung cancer A549 cells.

Methods: RT-PCR and MTT methods were used to detect the effect on MICA mRNA expression induced by IFN-gamma in the edited A549 cells and the change of CIK killing sensitivity to A549 cells, respectively.

Results: Low expression of cell surface MICA and low killing sensitivity of CIKs were observed in edited A549 cells.

Aromatase (P450arom) and 11beta-hydroxylase (P45011beta) genes are differentially expressed during the sex change process of the protogynous rice field eel, Monopterus albus.

Steroids are known to play a crucial role in gonadal sex differentiation in many non-mammalian vertebrates, but also in the gonadal sex change of hermaphroditic teleosts. We investigated the expression of two genes encoding key steroidogenic enzymes, i.e.

The cloning of Dmc1 cDNAs and a comparative study of its expression in different ploidy cyprinid fishes.

Dmc1 (disrupted meiotic cDNA) is a functionally specific gene, which was firstly discovered in yeast and then found to encode a protein required for homologous chromosome synapsis during the process of meiosis. In this investigation, we cloned the partial cDNAs of Dmc1 of diploid red crucian carp, Japanese crucian carp, common carp, triploid crucian carp and allotetraploid hybrids by using a pair of degenerate primers based on the conservative sequence of amino acids of the DMC1 protein in yeast, mouse and human. The full length cDNAs were then obtained by rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE).