The prognostic nutritional index represents a novel inflammation-nutrition-based prognostic factor for nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Purpose: This study explored the relationship between the prognostic nutritional index (PNI) and overall survival rate (OS) in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), and established and validated an effective nomogram to predict clinical outcomes.

Methods: This study included 618 patients newly diagnosed with locoregionally advanced NPC. They were divided into training and validation cohorts at a ratio of 2:1 based on random numbers.

Efficacy of Chemotherapy in Survival of Stage I Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma.

Purpose: To identify whether chemoradiotherapy improves survival of stage I nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).

Materials And Methods: NPC patients were extracted from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database between 2010 and 2015. Pathologically confirmed stage T1N0M0 (the 7 edition AJCC) were investigated.

Characterization of the complete chloroplast genome of Rehd.

Rehd. is a tree species with high economic value, whose resource has been declining due to unreasonable exploitation. In this study, we sequenced, assembled, and annotated the complete chloroplast genome of .

Trifluoromethyl Boron Dipyrromethene Derivatives as Potential Photosensitizers for Photodynamic Therapy.

In this study, two novel boron dipyrromethene-based photosensitizers ( and ) substituted with three or six trifluoromethyl groups have been synthesized and characterized with various spectroscopic methods, and their photo-physical, photo-chemical, and photo-biological properties have also been explored. The two photosensitizers are highly soluble and remain nonaggregated in N,N-dimethylformamide as shown by the intense and sharp Q-band absorption. Under red light irradiation (λ = 660 nm, 1.

Comparison of the efficacy between intensity-modulated radiotherapy and two-dimensional conventional radiotherapy in stage II nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

We compared treatment outcomes in patients with stage II nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) treated with intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) or two-dimensional conventional radiotherapy (2D-CRT). Stage II (2010 UICC/AJCC staging system) NPC patients treated with IMRT (n = 178) or 2D-CRT (n = 73) between January 2007 and December 2014 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were matched using the propensity score-matching method.

Intensity-modulated radiotherapy provides better quality of life than two-dimensional conventional radiotherapy for patients with stage II nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Two-dimensional conventional radiotherapy (2D-CRT) and intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) are effective for control of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). The purpose of this study was to compare the quality of life (QoL) of stage II NPC patients treated with 2D-CRT versus IMRT. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 106 patients with stage II NPC treated with 2D-CRT (n = 47) versus IMRT (n = 59) between June 2008 and June 2013.

Concurrent chemoradiotherapy degrades the quality of life of patients with stage II nasopharyngeal carcinoma as compared to radiotherapy.

The purpose of this study was to compare the quality of life (QoL) of stage II nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients treated with radiotherapy (RT) versus concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). In a cross-sectional study, these patients were treated with RT (n = 55) or CCRT (n = 51) between June 2008 and June 2013. For all subjects, disease-free survival was more than 3 years.

Secondary malignancies after partial versus whole breast irradiation: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Secondary malignancies are a common complication for patients receiving radiotherapy. Here, we compared rates of secondary malignancies after partial breast irradiation (PBI) and whole breast irradiation (WBI). The MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library databases were systematically searched to identify relevant randomized clinical trials comparing PBI with WBI in breast cancer patients treated with breast-conserving therapy.

[Biosorption of Radionuclide Uranium by Deinococcus radiodurans].

As a biological adsorbent, Living Deinococcus radiodurans was used for removing radionuclide uranium in the aqueous solution. The effect factors on biosorption of radionuclide uranium were researched in the present paper, including solution pH values and initial uranium concentration. Meanwhile, the biosorption mechanism was researched by the method of FTIR and SEM/EDS.

Deciphering protein kinase specificity through large-scale analysis of yeast phosphorylation site motifs.

Phosphorylation is a universal mechanism for regulating cell behavior in eukaryotes. Although protein kinases target short linear sequence motifs on their substrates, the rules for kinase substrate recognition are not completely understood. We used a rapid peptide screening approach to determine consensus phosphorylation site motifs targeted by 61 of the 122 kinases in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Regulation of the Rad53 protein kinase in signal amplification by oligomer assembly and disassembly.

Rad53, the ortholog of mammalian Chk2, is a major DNA damage checkpoint effector kinase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Despite extensive studies on the genetic requirements for Rad53 activation and its linkage downstream to checkpoint responses, the mechanism of Rad53 activation is not completely understood. Rad53-dependent signal amplification is thought to be a primary force that accelerates checkpoint signal transduction processes in response to DNA damage.

Activation of the checkpoint kinase Rad53 by the phosphatidyl inositol kinase-like kinase Mec1.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae Rad53, the ortholog of mammalian Chk2, is an essential protein kinase in DNA damage and DNA replication checkpoint pathways. Consecutive phosphatidyl inositol kinase-like kinase (PIKK)-dependent and PIKK-independent steps in activation of Rad53 are key steps for controlling and transmitting diverse downstream responses to DNA damage. However, these activities have not been demonstrated in vitro in defined systems.

The yeast chromatin remodeler RSC complex facilitates end joining repair of DNA double-strand breaks.

Repair of chromosome double-strand breaks (DSBs) is central to cell survival and genome integrity. Nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ) is the major cellular repair pathway that eliminates chromosome DSBs. Here we report our genetic screen that identified Rsc8 and Rsc30, subunits of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromatin remodeling complex RSC, as novel NHEJ factors.

Yeast Mre11 and Rad1 proteins define a Ku-independent mechanism to repair double-strand breaks lacking overlapping end sequences.

End joining of double-strand breaks (DSBs) requires Ku proteins and frequently involves base pairing between complementary terminal sequences. To define the role of terminal base pairing in end joining, two oppositely oriented HO endonuclease cleavage sites separated by 2.0 kb were integrated into yeast chromosome III, where constitutive expression of HO endonuclease creates two simultaneous DSBs with no complementary end sequence.