Connexin 43 and Pannexin 1 hemichannels as endogenous regulators of innate immunity in sepsis.

Sepsis is a life-threatening organ dysfunction resulting from a dysregulated host response to infections that is initiated by the body's innate immune system. Nearly a decade ago, we discovered that bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and serum amyloid A (SAA) upregulated Connexin 43 (Cx43) and Pannexin 1 (Panx1) hemichannels in macrophages. When overexpressed, these hemichannels contribute to sepsis pathogenesis by promoting ATP efflux, which intensifies the double-stranded RNA-activated protein kinase R (PKR)-dependent inflammasome activation, pyroptosis, and the release of pathogenic damage-associated molecular pattern (DAMP) molecules, such as HMGB1.

Periostin-mediated NOTCH1 activation between tumor cells and HSCs crosstalk promotes liver metastasis of small cell lung cancer.

Background: Metastasis is the primary cause of mortality in small cell lung cancer (SCLC), with the liver being a predominant site for distal metastasis. Despite this clinical significance, mechanisms underlying the interaction between SCLC and liver microenvironment, fostering metastasis, remain unclear.

Methods: SCLC patient tissue array, bioinformatics analysis were performed to demonstrate the role of periostin (POSTN) in SCLC progression, metastasis, and prognosis.

NPC1 controls TGFBR1 stability in a cholesterol transport-independent manner and promotes hepatocellular carcinoma progression.

Niemann-Pick disease type C protein 1 (NPC1), classically associated with cholesterol transport and viral entry, has an emerging role in cancer biology. Here, we demonstrate that knockout of Npc1 in hepatocytes attenuates hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progression in both DEN (diethylnitrosamine)-CCl induced and MYC-driven HCC mouse models. Mechanistically, NPC1 significantly promotes HCC progression by modulating the TGF-β pathway, independent of its traditional role in cholesterol transport.

[Pathological diagnosis of solid pancreatic lesions with endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration: a series study of 311 cases].

To investigate the combined application of cytology, cell block histology and immunohistochemistry to improve the diagnostic accuracy of solid pancreatic lesions in endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) samples. The pathological data of EUS-FNA in 311 cases of solid pancreatic lesions submitted to the Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China from May 2019 to September 2023 were retrospectively analyzed. The cases included pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC, 172 cases), solid pseudopapillary neoplasm (SPN, 12 cases), neuroendocrine tumors (PNET, 14 cases) and chronic pancreatitis (113 cases).

Long non-coding RNA MSC-AS1 confers imatinib resistance of gastrointestinal stromal tumor cells by activating FNDC1 and ANLN-mediated PI3K/AKT pathway.

Imatinib resistance is a major obstacle to the successful treatment of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST). Long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs) have been identified as important regulatory factors in chemotherapy resistance. This study aimed to identify key lncRNAs involved in imatinib resistance of GISTs.