Publications by authors named "MeiHua Qu"

The forkhead box O1 (FOXO1), the first discovered member of the FoxO family, is a critical transcription factor predominantly found in insulin-secreting and insulin-sensitive tissues. In the pancreas of adults, FoxO1 expression is restricted to islet β cells. We determined that in human islet microarray datasets, FoxO1 expression is higher than other FoxO transcription factors.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates how intestinal sweet taste receptors and glucose transporters influence glycemic control in rats with Type 2 diabetes after undergoing duodenal-jejunal bypass (DJB) surgery.
  • Researchers evaluated changes in gut peptide levels, glucose transporters, and sweet taste receptors in different parts of the intestines following surgery.
  • Results indicate that DJB surgery improved glucose tolerance and stimulated gut peptide secretion, but this effect was negated when sweet taste receptor activity was inhibited, suggesting a link between taste sensing and glucose regulation.
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Immunotherapy is a potent tool used in cancer treatment, but the occurrence of immune-related adverse events induced by immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) cannot be overlooked. This is particularly true for rare but potentially fatal cardiovascular complications, such as myocarditis; heart muscle inflammation may lead to heart dysfunction and arrhythmia. The present case is a 68-year-old female breast cancer patient who developed palpitations and elevated cardiac enzyme levels after 1 day of ICI therapy, and the patient was eventually diagnosed with immune myocarditis.

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Globally, non‑small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a significant threat to human health, and constitutes >80% of lung cancer cases. Cisplatin (CDDP), a commonly used drug in clinical treatment, has been the focus of research aiming to mitigate its potent toxicity through encapsulation within liposomes. However, challenges, such as a reduced drug loading efficiency and nonspecific release, have emerged as obstacles.

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V-domain Ig suppressor of T cell activation (VISTA) is a recently identified member of the B7 family of immunoregulatory proteins. It is pivotal for maintaining T cell quiescence and exerts a significant regulatory influence on the immune response to tumors. Accumulating clinical evidence suggests that the influence of VISTA on tumor immunity is more nuanced than initially postulated.

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Lung cancer is the most common cancer in the world due to its high incidence and recurrence. Genetic instability is one of the main factors leading to its occurrence, development and poor prognosis. Decreased xeroderma pigmentosum group C (XPC) expression notably enhances the stem cell properties of lung cancer cells and increases their proliferation and migration.

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Diffuse cystic lung diseases (DCLDs) are a group of heterogeneous lung diseases that are characterized by inflated spaces or cysts within the lung parenchyma. They also exhibit similar imaging characteristics and clinical manifestations compared with those of cystic lesions, such as pulmonary cavities, emphysema, bronchiectasis and honeycomb lung. The most common DCLDs encountered in the clinic include lymphangioleiomyomatosis, Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome, Langerhans cell histiocytosis and lymphocytic interstitial pneumonia.

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Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is often accompanied by impaired glucose utilization in the brain, leading to oxidative stress, neuronal cell injury and infla-mmation. Previous studies have shown that duodenal jejunal bypass (DJB) surgery significantly improves brain glucose metabolism in T2DM rats, the role and the metabolism of DJB in improving brain oxidative stress and inflammation condition in T2DM rats remain unclear.

Aim: To investigate the role and metabolism of DJB in improving hypothalamic oxidative stress and inflammation condition in T2DM rats.

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As a clinical emergency with a high mortality rate, the treatment of acute liver failure has been paid attention to by society. At present, liver transplantation is the most effective treatment for acute liver failure, but there is still an insufficient supply of liver sources and a poor prognosis. In view of the current therapeutic development of this disease, more researchers have turned their attention to the research of drugs related to the NF-κB pathway.

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A reducing sugar reacts with the protein, resulting in advanced glycation end-products (AGEs), which have been implicated in diabetes-related complications. Recently, it has been found that both type 1 and type 2 diabetic patients suffer from not only glucose but also ribose dysmetabolism. Here, we compared the effects of ribose and glucose glycation on epigenetics, such as histone methylation and demethylation.

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Tumor-associated antigen mucin 1 (MUC1) is highly expressed in colorectal cancer and is positively correlated with advanced stage at diagnosis and poor patient outcomes. The combination of irinotecan and capecitabine is standard chemotherapy for metastatic colorectal cancer and is known as XELIRI or CAPIRI, which significantly prolongs the progression-free survival and overall survival of colorectal cancer patients compared to a single drug alone. We previously reported that peanut agglutinin (PNA)-conjugated liposomes showed enhanced drug delivery efficiency to MUC1-positive liver cancer cells.

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Besides the two main histologic types of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), the classical PTC (CL-PTC) and the follicular variant PTC (FV-PTC), several other variants are described. The encapsulated FV-PTC variant was recently reclassified as noninvasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary-like nuclear features (NIFTP) due to its similarities to benign lesions. Specific molecular signatures, however, are still unavailable.

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Background: Although gastric surgery can significantly improve blood glucose homeostasis in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), its mechanism remains unclear. This study evaluated the role of intestinal glucose sensing, glucose transport, and metabolism in the alimentary limb (A limb) of T2DM rats after duodenal jejunal bypass (DJB) surgery.

Methods: A T2DM rat model was induced via a high-glucose high-fat diet and low-dose streptozotocin injection.

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Xeroderma Pigmentosum Complementation Group C (XPC) is a protein involving in nucleotide excision repair (NER). XPC also plays an important role in the lung cancer occurrence with the mechanism remian unclear up to date. Studies showed that the increased stemness of lung cancer cells is related to the recurrence and metastasis of lung cancer.

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Liver cancer is one of the most common malignancies worldwide and poses a serious threat to human health. The most important treatment method, liver cancer chemotherapy, is limited due to its high toxicity and poor specificity. Targeted drug delivery systems have emerged as novel therapeutic strategies that deliver precise, substantial drug doses to target sites via targeting vectors and enhance the therapeutic efficacy.

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Formaldehyde (FA) is a highly reactive substance that is ubiquitous in the environment and is usually considered as a pollutant. In the human body, FA is a product of various metabolic pathways and participates in one-carbon cycle, which provides carbon for the synthesis and modification of bio-compounds, such as DNA, RNA, and amino acids. Endogenous FA plays a role in epigenetic regulation, especially in the methylation and demethylation of DNA, histones, and RNA.

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Psychological stress is closely related to the occurrence and prognosis of various malignant tumors, but the underlying mechanisms are not well studied. CD147 has been reported to be expressed in glioma and other malignant tumors. CD147 not only participates in lactic acid transport, but it also plays an important role in the invasion and metastasis of malignant tumor cells by stimulating the production of numerous matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and vascular endothelial growth factor by fibroblasts, and could also act as an autocrine factor stimulating MMPs production in metastatic tumor cells.

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Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a common malignancy in China and globally, is primarily treated through surgical resection and liver transplantation, with chemotherapy as a significant synergistic option. Adenine (Ade), a nucleobase, exhibits antitumor effects by blocking human hepatic carcinoma cells in S phase and inhibiting tumor cell proliferation. However, its use is limited owing to its low solubility, poor targeting ability, and nephrotoxicity.

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Liposomes have been widely used as drug carriers in both biomedical research and for clinical applications, allowing the stabilisation of therapeutic compounds and overcoming obstacles to cellular and tissue uptake. However, liposomes still have low targeting efficiency, resulting in insufficient killing of tumour cells and unnecessary damage to normal cells. In this study, glycyrrhetinic acid (GA) and peanut agglutinin (PNA) were used as ligands to prepare dual-ligand-modified doxorubicin-loaded liposomes (DOX-GA/PNA-Lips) to enhance the targeting accuracy and efficacy of drug delivery against malignant liver cancer.

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Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is an inhibitory neurotransmitter in the adult central nervous system (CNS), however, it causes excitation in the immature CNS neurons. The shift from GABA-induced depolarization to hyperpolarization in postnatal brain is primarily due to progressive decrease in the expression of the Na-K-2Cl symporter 1 (NKCC1) and increased expression of the K-Cl cotransporter 2 (KCC2). Unlike CNS neurons, both immature and mature neurons in the enteric nervous system (ENS) are depolarized by GABA.

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Background: Duodenal-jejunal bypass (DJB) can dramatically improve type 2 diabetes independent of weight loss and food restriction. Increasing evidence has demonstrated that brain insulin signaling plays an important role in the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes. This study explores whether the antidiabetic effect of DJB is involved in brain insulin signaling activation and brain glucose utilization.

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To observe the protective role of hapatopoietin Cn (HPPcn) on acute liver injury. Six hours after 10 mmol/L CCl, 150 mmol/L ethanol, or 0.6 mmol/L HO treatment, SMMC7721 human hepatoma cells were incubated with 10, 100, or 200 ng/ml recombinant human HPPCn protein (rhHPPCn) for an additional 24 h.

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Combination therapy based on nano-sized drug delivery system has been developed as a promising strategy by combining two or more anti-tumor mechanisms. Here, we prepared liver-targeted nanoparticles (GH-DPP) composed of 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-polyethylene glycol-polyetherimide (DSPE-PEG-PEI) with Glycyrrhetinic acid-modified hyaluronic acid (GA-HA) for co-delivery of doxorubicin (DOX) and Bcl-2 siRNA. Particles size, zeta potential and morphology were determined for the drug-loaded GH-DPP nanoparticles (siRNA/DOX/GH-DPP).

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Multidrug resistance (MDR) of hepatocellular carcinoma is a serious problem. Although CD13 is a biomarker in human liver cancer stem cells, the relationship between CD13 and MDR remains uncertain. This study uses liver cancer cell model to understand the role of CD13 in enhancing the cytotoxic effect of chemotherapy agents.

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