Effects of media reporting on mitigating spread of COVID-19 in the early phase of the outbreak.

The 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is running rampantly in China and is swiftly spreading to other countries in the world, which causes a great concern on the global public health. The absence of specific therapeutic treatment or effective vaccine against COVID-19 call for other avenues of the prevention and control measures. Media reporting is thought to be effective to curb the spreading of an emergency disease in the early stage.

Analysis of a mathematical model with nonlinear susceptibles-guided interventions.

In this paper, we considered a mathematical model describing the nonlinear susceptibles-guided vaccination and isolation strategies, incorporating the continuously saturated treatment. In this strategy, we find that the disease-free periodic solution can always exist, and consequently the control reproduction number can be defined through analyzing the stability of the disease-free periodic solution. Also, we discussed the existence and stability of the positive order-1 periodic solution from two points of view.

Implication of sexual transmission of Zika on dengue and Zika outbreaks.

Dengue and Zika viruses belong to the same Flavivirus family and usually cocirculate within the same area. Both the viruses can be transmitted by a common mosquito species Aedes aegypti. However, non-vector-borne transmission of Zika virus, such as sexual transmission and vertical transmission, has been reported in recent studies.

The SIS model with diffusion of virus in the environment.

In this paper, we propose an SIS-type reaction-diffusion equations, which contains both direct transmission and indirect transmission via free-living and spatially diffusive bacteria/virus in the contaminated environment, motivated by the dynamics of hospital infections. We establish the basic reproduction number ₀ which can act as threshold level to determine whether the disease persists or not. In particular, if ₀<1 ="" ="" ="" ="" ="" ="" ="" ="" ="".

Interleukin 6-triggered ataxia-telangiectasia mutated kinase activation facilitates epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in lung cancer by upregulating vimentin expression.

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) contribute to metastasis. As shown in our previous studies, interleukin-6 (IL-6) induces ATM phosphorylation to increase MMP expression and metastasis in lung cancer. However, the exact roles of ATM activation in the IL-6-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition and lung cancer metastasis are currently unclear.

TIPE attenuates the apoptotic effect of radiation and cisplatin and promotes tumor growth via JNK and p38 activation in Raw264.7 and EL4 cells.

Tumor necrosis factor α‑induced protein 8 (TIPE) is highly expressed in many types of malignancies. Apoptosis is the process of programmed cell death which maintains the balance of cell survival and death. TIPE is involved in the carcinogenesis of many tumor types, yet the exact role of TIPE in defective apoptosis‑associated carcinogenesis remains uncertain.

Robust concentration and frequency control in oscillatory homeostats.

Homeostatic and adaptive control mechanisms are essential for keeping organisms structurally and functionally stable. Integral feedback is a control theoretic concept which has long been known to keep a controlled variable A robustly (i.e.

Nicotine promotes cell proliferation and induces resistance to cisplatin by α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor‑mediated activation in Raw264.7 and El4 cells.

Although nicotine is a risk factor for carcinogenesis and atherosclerosis, epidemiological data indicate that nicotine has therapeutic benefits in treating Alzheimer's disease. Our previous studies also showed that nicotine-treated dendritic cells have potential antitumor effects. Hence, the precise effects of nicotine on the biological characterizations of cells are controversial.

Camptothecin and cisplatin upregulate ABCG2 and MRP2 expression by activating the ATM/NF-κB pathway in lung cancer cells.

Multidrug resistance (MDR) formation is an important problem in lung cancer chemotherapy. Our study showed that both camptothecin and cisplatin could not only induce ATM and NF-κB activation but also upregulate expression of the MDR-related genes ABCG2, MRP2 in NCI-H446 cells. Moreover, camptothecin and cisplatin-induced ABCG2 and MRP2 upregulation could be impaired by ATM and NF-κB inhibitors, indicating a relationship between ATM, NF-κB activation and MDR formation in lung cancer chemo-therapy.

TGF-β of lung cancer microenvironment upregulates B7H1 and GITRL expression in dendritic cells and is associated with regulatory T cell generation.

The effects of TGF-β on dendritic cells (DCs) on the tumor microenvironment are not well understood. We report, here, the establishment of an in vitro lung cancer microenvironment by co-incubation of seminaphtharhodafluor (SNARF) labeled Lewis lung cancer (LLC) cells, carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester (CFSE) labeled fibroblasts and 4-chloromethyl-7-hydroxycoumarin (CMHC) labeled DCs. Raw 264.

Lipopolysaccharide and dose of nicotine determine the effects of nicotine on murine bone marrow-derived dendritic cells.

The reported effects of nicotine on dendritic cells (DCs) are controversial. To investigate the factors which determine the effects of nicotine on DCs, immature dendritic cells (imDCs) induced from murine bone marrow were treated with different doses of nicotine with or without lipopolysaccharides (LPS). The morphology and expression of the co-stimulatory molecules CD80, CD86, CD40 and CD54 were observed and determined by microscopy and flow cytometry, respectively.

Harmonic oscillations in homeostatic controllers: Dynamics of the p53 regulatory system.

Homeostatic mechanisms are essential for the protection and adaptation of organisms in a changing and challenging environment. Previously, we have described molecular mechanisms that lead to robust homeostasis/adaptation under inflow or outflow perturbations. Here we report that harmonic oscillations occur in models of such homeostatic controllers and that a close relationship exists between the control of the p53/Mdm2 system and that of a homeostatic inflow controller.

The control of the controller: molecular mechanisms for robust perfect adaptation and temperature compensation.

Organisms have the property to adapt to a changing environment and keep certain components within a cell regulated at the same level (homeostasis). "Perfect adaptation" describes an organism's response to an external stepwise perturbation by regulating some of its variables/components precisely to their original preperturbation values. Numerous examples of perfect adaptation/homeostasis have been found, as for example, in bacterial chemotaxis, photoreceptor responses, MAP kinase activities, or in metal-ion homeostasis.