Curcumol β-cyclodextrin inclusion complex enhances radiosensitivity of esophageal cancer under hypoxic and normoxic condition.

Purpose: Radiotherapy is an indispensable treatment for esophageal cancer (EC), but radioresistance is not uncommon. Curcumol, as an active extract from traditional Chinese medicines, has been reported to have antitumor activity in various types of human tumor cells. However, its reversal of radioresistance has been rarely reported.

Radiation-induced mucositis: A retrospective study of dexamethasone-lidocaine-vitamin B12 mouth rinse versus compound chlorhexidine mouthwash in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Oral mucositis causes substantial morbidity during head and neck radiotherapy, especially nasopharyngeal carcinoma. During radiotherapy, patients develop severe oral mucositis, which leads to oral pain and difficulty in eating and interruption of radiotherapy, affects the treatment effect and increase the probability of recurrence. Although we have explored various methods to reduce the mucosal damage caused by radiotherapy, these methods still cannot reduce pain caused by mucositis clinically.

miR-18a increases insulin sensitivity by inhibiting .

The miR-17-92 cluster (miR-17, miR-18a, miR-19a, miR-20a, miR-19b-1 and miR-92a) contributes to the occurrence and development of various diseases by inhibiting multiple target genes. Here, we explored the effects of miR-18a on insulin sensitivity. Quantitative real-time PCR indicated that serum miR-18a levels were lower in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients than in healthy controls, suggesting that miR-18a may influence blood glucose levels.

Brown Adipose Tissue: A Potential Site for Islet Transplantation.

Background: Islet transplantation is a promising treatment in patients with complicated diabetes. The ideal transplant site that can extend islet graft survival and reduce the required number of engrafted islets remains to be established.

Methods: Donor islets were isolated from red fluorescent protein (RFP) mice and transplanted into interscapular brown adipose tissue (BAT) or unilateral inguinal white adipose tissue of age-matched diabetic RFP mice.

Overexpression of hsa_circ_0136666 predicts poor prognosis and initiates osteosarcoma tumorigenesis through miR-593-3p/ZEB2 pathway.

Background: Osteosarcoma (OS) is a type of malignant bone tumor with a growing incidence. Increasing studies indicate circular RNA (circRNA) has a vital function in tumorigenesis. Yet, how circRNA regulates OS development is not clear.

Development of a contouring guide for three different types of optic chiasm: A practical approach.

Introduction: Sparing of the organs at risk (OARs) is a crucial task in daily radiotherapy practice. Irradiation of the optic chiasm (OC) results in radiation-induced optic neuropathy (RION). The structure of the OC is complex, and OC morphology can vary in axial images.

PD-L1 Induces Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Cells Through Activation of the PI3K/AKT Pathway.

Nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) is a malignant epithelial carcinoma of the head and neck. Cancer therapy targeting programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) or programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) is revolutionary. However, the tumorigenic mechanism of PD-L1 is not yet clear in NPC.

Polydatin inhibits proliferation and promotes apoptosis of doxorubicin-resistant osteosarcoma through LncRNA TUG1 mediated suppression of Akt signaling.

Background: Development of doxorubicin-resistance is the main difficulty for osteosarcoma treatment. LncRNA Taurine upregulated gene 1 (TUG1) has been identified as oncogenic lncRNA in different types of carcinomas and was involved in chemoresistance. We aim to evaluate the anti-proliferative effects and the underlying molecular mechanism of Polydatin in doxorubicin-resistant osteosarcoma.

Synaptotagmin-7, a binding protein of P53, inhibits the senescence and promotes the tumorigenicity of lung cancer cells.

Lung cancer has been one of the most common malignancies in the world. Cell senescence has been recognized as the avenue to inhibit tumor progression. However, the mechanisms remain poorly understood.

Artesunate enhances radiosensitivity of esophageal cancer cells by inhibiting the repair of DNA damage.

Radiotherapy plays an important therapeutic role in esophageal cancer (EC). However, acquired radioresistance impairs the efficacy of radiotherapy, often leading to treatment failure. Therefore, it is important to develop novel radiosensitizers to enhance the clinical treatment of EC.

LncRNA HAND2-AS1 sponging miR-1275 suppresses colorectal cancer progression by upregulating KLF14.

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) represent a novel type of noncoding RNAs of over 200 nucleotides, characterized by no or limited protein-coding potential. Although the function of lncRNAs attracts increasing attention recently, the relationship between lncRNA and colorectal cancer (CRC) remains further investigation. In our study, we found that lncRNA HAND2-AS1 was markedly downregulated in CRC tissues.

T2 relaxation time for intervertebral disc degeneration in patients with upper back pain: initial results on the clinical use of 3.0 Tesla MRI.

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a useful non-invasive tool for evaluating abnormalities of intervertebral discs. However, there are few studies which applied functional MRI techniques to investigate degenerative changes in cervical and cervicothoracic junction (CTJ) spine among adults. The aim of this study was to compare T2 relaxation time measurement evaluation with morphological grading for assessing cervical and CTJ intervertebral discs (IVD) in the patients suffering neck, shoulder, and upper back pain.

MiR-17-5p promotes cancer cell proliferation and tumorigenesis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma by targeting p21.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) may act as either tumor suppressors or oncogenes in various types of cancers. Previous studies have indicated that miR-17-5p is involved in the initiation and development of human tumors. However, its mechanism and function in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) remain largely unclear.

MiR-155 Enhances Insulin Sensitivity by Coordinated Regulation of Multiple Genes in Mice.

miR-155 plays critical roles in numerous physiological and pathological processes, however, its function in the regulation of blood glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivity and underlying mechanisms remain unknown. Here, we reveal that miR-155 levels are downregulated in serum from type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients, suggesting that miR-155 might be involved in blood glucose control and diabetes. Gain-of-function and loss-of-function studies in mice demonstrate that miR-155 has no effects on the pancreatic β-cell proliferation and function.

Ectopic expression of Cripto-1 in transgenic mouse embryos causes hemorrhages, fatal cardiac defects and embryonic lethality.

Targeted disruption of Cripto-1 in mice caused embryonic lethality at E7.5, whereas we unexpectedly found that ectopic Cripto-1 expression in mouse embryos also led to embryonic lethality, which prompted us to characterize the causes and mechanisms underlying embryonic death due to ectopic Cripto-1 expression. RCLG/EIIa-Cre embryos displayed complex phenotypes between embryonic day 14.

Targeted Disruption of miR-17-92 Impairs Mouse Spermatogenesis by Activating mTOR Signaling Pathway.

The miR-17-92 cluster and its 6 different mature microRNAs, including miR-17, miR-18a, miR-19a, miR-20a, miR-19b-1, and miR-92a, play important roles in embryo development, immune system, kidney and heart development, adipose differentiation, aging, and tumorigenicity. Currently, increasing evidence indicates that some members of miR-17-92 cluster may be critical players in spermatogenesis, including miR-17, miR-18a, and miR-20a. However, the roles and underlying mechanisms of miR-17-92 in spermatogenesis remain largely unknown.

Simple and rapid determination of homozygous transgenic mice via in vivo fluorescence imaging.

Setting up breeding programs for transgenic mouse strains require to distinguish homozygous from the heterozygous transgenic animals. The combinational use of the fluorescence reporter transgene and small animal in-vivo imaging system might allow us to rapidly and visually determine the transgenic mice homozygous for transgene(s) by the in vivo fluorescence imaging. RLG, RCLG or Rm17LG transgenic mice ubiquitously express red fluorescent protein (RFP).

Cytokine-induced killer cells efficiently kill stem-like cancer cells of nasopharyngeal carcinoma via the NKG2D-ligands recognition.

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are considered to be the root cause for cancer treatment failure. Thus, there remains an urgent need for more potent and safer therapies against CSCs for curing cancer. In this study, the antitumor activity of cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells against putative CSCs of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) was fully evaluated in vitro and in vivo.

MicroRNA-19 triggers epithelial-mesenchymal transition of lung cancer cells accompanied by growth inhibition.

The miR-19 family (miR-19a and miR-19b-1) are key oncogenic components of the miR-17-92 cluster. Overexpression of miR-19 is strongly associated with cancer invasion and metastasis, and poor prognosis of cancer patients. However, the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown.

MicroRNA-122 triggers mesenchymal-epithelial transition and suppresses hepatocellular carcinoma cell motility and invasion by targeting RhoA.

The loss of microRNA-122 (miR-122) expression is strongly associated with increased invasion and metastasis, and poor prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), however, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. In the present study, we observed that miR-122 over-expression in HCC cell lines Sk-hep-1 and Bel-7402 triggered the mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET), as demonstrated by epithelial-like morphological changes, up-regulated epithelial proteins (E-cadherin, ZO-1, α-catenin, occludin, BVES, and MST4), and down-regulated mesenchymal proteins (vimentin and fibronectin). The over-expression of miRNA-122 also caused cytoskeleton disruption, RhoA/Rock pathway inactivation, enhanced cell adhesion, and suppression of migration and invasion of Sk-hep-1 and Bel-7402 cells, whereas, these effects could be reversed through miR-122 inhibition.

Generation of Rm21LG transgenic mice: a powerful tool to generate conditional overexpression of miR-21 that is involved in oncogenesis.

miR-21 is highly expressed in a variety of cancers, suggesting that it might play a role in the process of oncogenesis, as supported by it directly causing pre-B cell lymphomas in transgenic mice. Rm21LG transgenic mice for the conditional co-expression of miR-21 and luciferase (Luc) mediated by Cre/lox P system were generated. The homozygous Rm21LG transgenic mice were visually and readily characterized immediately after birth by whole-body fluorescence imaging.

The enforced expression of c-Myc in pig fibroblasts triggers mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) via F-actin reorganization and RhoA/Rock pathway inactivation.

In previous studies from other labs it has been well demonstrated that the ectopic expression of c-Myc in mammary epithelial cells can induce epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), whereas in our pilot experiment, epithelial-like morphological changes were unexpectedly observed in c-Myc-expressing pig fibroblasts [i.e., porcine embryonic fibroblasts (PEFs) and porcine dermal fibroblasts (PDFs)] and pig mesenchymal stem cells, suggesting that the same c-Myc gene is entitled to trigger EMT in epithelial cells and mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) in fibroblasts.