Background: Erythrocyte dysfunction is a characteristic of diabetes mellitus (DM). However, erythrocyte-associated biomarkers do not adequately explain the high prevalence of DM. Here, we describe red blood cell distribution width to albumin ratio (RAR) as a novel inflammatory biomarker for evaluating an association with DM prevalence and prognosis of all-cause mortality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) have a poor prognosis due to the lack of effective molecular targets for therapeutic intervention. Here we found that the long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) MILIP supports TNBC cell survival, proliferation, and tumorigenicity by complexing with transfer RNAs (tRNA) to promote protein production, thus representing a potential therapeutic target in TNBC. MILIP was expressed at high levels in TNBC cells that commonly harbor loss-of-function mutations of the tumor suppressor p53, and MILIP silencing suppressed TNBC cell viability and xenograft growth, indicating that MILIP functions distinctively in TNBC beyond its established role in repressing p53 in other types of cancers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe protooncoprotein N-Myc, which is overexpressed in approximately 25% of neuroblastomas as the consequence of gene amplification, has long been postulated to regulate DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair in neuroblastoma cells, but experimental evidence of this function is presently scant. Here, we show that N-Myc transcriptionally activates the long noncoding RNA MILIP to promote nonhomologous end-joining (NHEJ) DNA repair through facilitating Ku70-Ku80 heterodimerization in neuroblastoma cells. High MILIP expression was associated with poor outcome and appeared as an independent prognostic factor in neuroblastoma patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGenomic amplification of the distal portion of chromosome 3q, which encodes a number of oncogenic proteins, is one of the most frequent chromosomal abnormalities in malignancy. Here we functionally characterise a non-protein product of the 3q region, the long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) PLANE, which is upregulated in diverse cancer types through copy number gain as well as E2F1-mediated transcriptional activation. PLANE forms an RNA-RNA duplex with the nuclear receptor co-repressor 2 (NCOR2) pre-mRNA at intron 45, binds to heterogeneous ribonucleoprotein M (hnRNPM) and facilitates the association of hnRNPM with the intron, thus leading to repression of the alternative splicing (AS) event generating NCOR2-202, a major protein-coding NCOR2 AS variant.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPesticides and medications have adverse effects in non-target organisms that can lead to different modes of action (MOAs). However, no study has been performed to compare the MOAs between different levels of aquatic species. In this study, theoretical equations of interspecies relationship and excess toxicity have been developed and used to investigate the MOAs among fish, Daphnia magna, Tetrahymena pyriformis and Vibrio fischeri for pesticides and medications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough in vitro assay is an ideal alternative method for the in vivo toxicity prediction, different in vivo-in vitro correlations have been observed for the toxicity endpoints obtained from different levels of species. In this paper, theoretical in vivo-in vitro toxicity correlations have been developed for cytotoxicity versus human, mammalian and fish toxicity, respectively. These theoretical models were then used to investigate the correlations and the influencing factors between in vivo and in vitro toxicity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Our objective was to determine the secular trend in prevalence of type 2 diabetes in Shanghai, China.
Research Design And Methods: Two consecutive population-based surveys for type 2 diabetes were conducted in randomly selected adults aged 35-74 years in Shanghai in 2002-2003 (n = 12,329) and in 2009 (n = 7,423). Diagnosed type 2 diabetes was determined based on self-report, whereas those undiagnosed were identified by measured fasting and postload glucose according to 2009 American Diabetes Association criteria.