Effects of long-term closed and socially isolating spaceflight analog environment on default mode network connectivity as indicated by fMRI.

Long-term manned spaceflight and extraterrestrial planet settlement become the focus of space powers. However, the potential influence of closed and socially isolating spaceflight on the brain function remains unclear. A 180-day controlled ecological life support system integrated experiment was conducted, establishing a spaceflight analog environment to explore the effect of long-term socially isolating living.

Minor hepatectomy combined with cholangioplasty and cholangiojejunostomy for Bismuth II hilar cholangiocarcinoma: A propensity score matching analysis.

Background: The optimal surgical approach for Bismuth II hilar cholangiocarcinoma (HCCA) remains controversial. This study compared perioperative and oncological outcomes between minor and major hepatectomy.

Materials And Methods: One hundred and seventeen patients with Bismuth II HCCA who underwent hepatectomy and cholangiojejunostomy between January 2018 and December 2022 were retrospectively investigated.

LncTUG1 promotes hepatocellular carcinoma immune evasion via upregulating PD-L1 expression.

HCC is one of the most common malignant tumors worldwide. Although traditional treatment methods have been improved in recent years, the survival rate of HCC patients has not been significantly improved. Immunotherapy has shown extremely high clinical value in a variety of tumors.

Pancreatic adenosquamous carcinoma: A population level analysis of epidemiological trends and prognosis.

Background: The incidence and mortality of pancreatic adenosquamous carcinoma (PASC) have received little attention. The goal of our study was to explore the overall epidemiological trend of PASC at the population level.

Methods: The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database was used to collect the incidence, incidence-based (IB) mortality, and patient details for PASC from 2000 to 2017.

Integrating bioinformatic strategies in spatial life science research.

As space exploration programs progress, manned space missions will become more frequent and farther away from Earth, putting a greater emphasis on astronaut health. Through the collaborative efforts of researchers from various countries, the effect of the space environment factors on living systems is gradually being uncovered. Although a large number of interconnected research findings have been produced, their connection seems to be confused, and many unknown effects are left to be discovered.

Effects of 10-Day Complete Fasting on Physiological Homeostasis, Nutrition and Health Markers in Male Adults.

Fasting shows great potential in preventing chronic diseases and has to be surmounted under some extraordinary circumstances. This study aimed to investigate the safety, time effects of metabolic homeostasis and health indexes during prolonged fasting. Thirteen participants were recruited to conduct a 10-day complete fasting (CF) in a controlled health research building under medical supervision including 3-day Baseline (BL), 10-day CF, 4-day calorie restriction (CR) and 5-day full recovery (FR).

Comprehensive analysis of the effects of KIF2C on prognosis, biological functions and immune infiltration in PAAD.

Unlabelled: Kinesin family member 2 C (KIF2C), a modulator of microtubule depolymerization, bipolar spindle formation, and chromosome segregation, has been reported to play roles in cancer biology. Moreover, many articles have reported that KIF2C expression is closely associated with the progression and prognosis of a variety of tumors. However, the role of KIF2C in pancreatic cancer is unclear.

DNA Methylation Markers and Prediction Model for Depression and Their Contribution for Breast Cancer Risk.

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) has become a leading cause of disability worldwide. However, the diagnosis of the disorder is dependent on clinical experience and inventory. At present, there are no reliable biomarkers to help with diagnosis and treatment.

Mining the Selective Remodeling of DNA Methylation in Promoter Regions to Identify Robust Gene-Level Associations With Phenotype.

Epigenetics is an essential biological frontier linking genetics to the environment, where DNA methylation is one of the most studied epigenetic events. In recent years, through the epigenome-wide association study (EWAS), researchers have identified thousands of phenotype-related methylation sites. However, the overlaps of identified phenotype-related DNA methylation sites between various studies are often quite small, and it might be due to the fact that methylation remodeling has a certain degree of randomness within the genome.

Ten days of complete fasting affected subjective sensations but not cognitive abilities in healthy adults.

Purpose: People may be unable to obtain anything edible for days under some circumstances, but they must maintain their calmness and cognition to navigate solutions. Our aim was to study changes in subjective sensations and cognition in healthy adults during a 10-day complete fasting experiment.

Methods: Thirteen healthy male volunteers voluntarily participated in the 22-day experiment comprising 4 phases: 3 days of baseline consumption, 10 days of complete fasting (only water ad libitum), 4 days of calorie restriction, and a 5-day recovery period.

Blood Cell DNA Methylation of Aging-Related Ubiquitination Gene Can Predict the Onset of Early Stage Colorectal Cancer.

There is a body of evidence that the aging immune system is linked to cancer. In this study, with aging- and immune-related DNA methylation data, we investigated the DNA methylation regulation changes in promoters with other regions of genes during aging and their association with the immune-cell proportion in the circulating whole blood of individuals. The analyses for aging- and CD4+ T cell proportion-derived differential genes showed that ubiquitination plays an important role in the aging immune system and tumorigenesis.

Heat Diffusion Kernel Algorithm-Based Interpretation of the Disease Intervention Mechanism for DHA.

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is effective in the prevention and treatment of cancer, congenital disorders, and various chronic diseases. According to the omnigenic hypothesis, these complex diseases are caused by disordered gene regulatory networks comprising dozens to hundreds of core genes and a mass of peripheral genes. However, conventional research on the disease intervention mechanism of DHA only focused on specific types of genes or pathways instead of examining genes at the network level, resulting in conflicting conclusions.

Physiological Acclimatization of the Liver to 180-Day Isolation and the Mars Solar Day.

Physiological changes in humans are evident under environmental conditions similar to those on a Mars mission involving both a space factor (long-term isolation) and a time factor (the Mars solar day). However, very few studies have investigated the response of the liver to those conditions. Serum protein levels, bilirubin levels, aminotransferase activities, blood alkaline phosphatase, gamma-glutamyltransferase, lipid levels, and serum cytokines interleukin-6 and interferon- levels were analyzed 30 days before the mock mission; on days 2, 30, 60, 75, 90, 105, 120, 150, and 175 of the mission; and 30 days after the mission, in four subjects in 4-person 180-day Controlled Ecological Life Support System Experiment.

Insulin-resistance and depression cohort data mining to identify nutraceutical related DNA methylation biomarker for type 2 diabetes.

Insulin-resistance (IR) is one of the most important precursors of type 2 diabetes (T2D). Recent evidence suggests an association of depression with the onset of T2D. Accumulating evidence shows that depression and T2D share common biological origins, and DNA methylation examination might reveal the link between lifestyle, disease risk, and potential therapeutic targets for T2D.

DNA Methylation Biomarkers Predict Objective Responses to PD-1/PD-L1 Inhibition Blockade.

Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) treatment could bring long-lasting clinical benefits to patients with metastatic cancer. However, only a small proportion of patients respond to PD-1/PD-L1 blockade, so predictive biomarkers are needed. Here, based on DNA methylation profiles and the objective response rates (ORRs) of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibition therapy, we identified 269 CpG sites and developed an initial CpG-based model by Lasso to predict ORRs.

Personalized Epigenome Remodeling Under Biochemical and Psychological Changes During Long-Term Isolation Environment.

It has been reported that several aspects of human health could be disturbed during a long-term isolated environment (for instance, the Mars-500 mission), including psychiatric disorders, circadian disruption, temporal dynamics of gut microbiota, immune responses, and physical-activity-related neuromuscular performance. Nevertheless, the mechanisms underlying these disturbances and the interactions among different aspects of human adaptation to extreme environments remain to be elucidated. Epigenetic features, like DNA methylation, might be a linking mechanism that explains the involvement of environmental factors between the human genome and the outcome of health.

Integrated Analysis of DNA Methylation and Biochemical/Metabolic Parameter During the Long-Term Isolation Environment.

Numerous studies have shown that changes in the epigenome are an important cause of human biochemical or metabolic parameter changes. Biochemical/metabolic parameter disorders of the human body are usually closely related to the occurrence of disease. Therefore, constructing credible DNA methylation site-biochemical/metabolic parameter associations are key in interpreting the pathogenesis of diseases.

Identifying cancer prognostic modules by module network analysis.

Background: The identification of prognostic genes that can distinguish the prognostic risks of cancer patients remains a significant challenge. Previous works have proven that functional gene sets were more reliable for this task than the gene signature. However, few works have considered the cross-talk among functional gene sets, which may result in neglecting important prognostic gene sets for cancer.

Circulating microRNAs Correlated with Bone Loss Induced by 45 Days of Bed Rest.

The purpose of this study was to find the circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) co-related with bone loss induced by bed rest, and testify whether the selected miRNAs could reflect the bone mineral status of human after bed-rest. We analyzed plasma miRNA levels of 16 subjects after 45 days of -6° head-down tilt bed rest, which is a reliable model for the simulation of microgravity. We characterize the circulating miRNA profile in individuals after bed rest and identify circulating miRNAs which can best reflect the level of bone loss induced by bed rest.

Activation of HIF-1α and its downstream targets in rat hippocampus after long-term simulated microgravity exposure.

Microgravity has many detrimental impact on brain functions, however the underlying mechanism remain unclear. In present study, 28 days of tail-suspension (30°) was used to simulate microgravity in rats. We showed that oxidative stress in hippocampus was increased after 28 days of simulated microgravity in consideration of the decreased expression of NF-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and the declined activities of total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD), CuZn-SOD, glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX) and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC).

Comparison of the Prognostic Utility of the Diverse Molecular Data among lncRNA, DNA Methylation, microRNA, and mRNA across Five Human Cancers.

Introduction: Advances in high-throughput technologies have generated diverse informative molecular markers for cancer outcome prediction. Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) and DNA methylation as new classes of promising markers are emerging as key molecules in human cancers; however, the prognostic utility of such diverse molecular data remains to be explored.

Materials And Methods: We proposed a computational pipeline (IDFO) to predict patient survival by identifying prognosis-related biomarkers using multi-type molecular data (mRNA, microRNA, DNA methylation, and lncRNA) from 3198 samples of five cancer types.

The effects of secretion factors from umbilical cord derived mesenchymal stem cells on osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells.

Factors synthesized by mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) contain various growth factors, cytokines, exosomes and microRNAs, which may affect the differentiation abilities of MSCs. In the present study, we investigated the effects of secretion factors of human umbilical cord derived mesenchymal stem cells (hUCMSCs) on osteogenesis of human bone marrow derived MSCs (hBMSCs). The results showed that 20 μg/ml hUCMSCs secretion factors could initiate osteogenic differentiation of hBMSCs without osteogenic induction medium (OIM), and the amount of calcium deposit (stained by Alizarin Red) was significantly increased after the hUCMSCs secretion factors treatment.