Pancreatic agenesis and altered m6A methylation in the pancreas of PDX1-mutant cynomolgus macaques.

As an essential transcriptional activator, plays a crucial role in pancreatic development and β-cell function. Mutations in the gene may lead to type 4 maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY4) and neonatal diabetes mellitus. However, the precise mechanisms underlying MODY4 remain elusive due to the paucity of clinical samples and pronounced differences in pancreatic architecture and genomic composition between humans and existing animal models.

Effects of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes on nonresponse rate of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with invasive breast cancer.

High level of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) can predict the rate of total pathological complete remission (tpCR) of breast cancer patients who receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT). This study focused on evaluating the data of patients whose primary tumor and/or lymph node metastasis show nonresponse (NR) to NACT, trying to provide a basis for the clinical decision which patients will develop NACT resistance. The study included breast cancers from 991 patients who received NACT.

Characteristics of recurrence, predictors for relapse and prognosis of rapid relapse triple-negative breast cancer.

Background: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients who recur at different times are associated with distinct biological characteristics and prognoses. Research on rapid-relapse TNBC (RR-TNBC) is sparse. In this study, we aimed to describe the characteristics of recurrence, predictors for relapse, and prognosis in rrTNBC patients.

Hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha is a driving mechanism linking chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to lung cancer.

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), irrespective of their smoking history, are more likely to develop lung cancer than the general population. This is mainly because COPD is characterized by chronic persistent inflammation and hypoxia, which are the risk factors for lung cancer. However, the mechanisms underlying this observation are still unknown.

Coexistence of tuberculosis and squamous cell carcinoma in the right main bronchus: A case report.

Background: Lung cancer with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) refers to the occurrence of lesions simultaneously or sequentially in the lung(s) of the same patient, and the pathological examination and sputum TB examination diagnose them as lung cancer and TB, respectively. The occurrence of endobronchial TB (EBTB) with endobronchial tumor sequentially in the same bronchus lesion of the same patient is relatively rare.

Case Summary: A 62-year-old female patient was admitted to a local hospital on June 18, 2019 after a 3-mo history of dyspnea.

AI detection of mild COVID-19 pneumonia from chest CT scans.

Objectives: An artificial intelligence model was adopted to identify mild COVID-19 pneumonia from computed tomography (CT) volumes, and its diagnostic performance was then evaluated.

Methods: In this retrospective multicenter study, an atrous convolution-based deep learning model was established for the computer-assisted diagnosis of mild COVID-19 pneumonia. The dataset included 2087 chest CT exams collected from four hospitals between 1 January 2019 and 31 May 2020.

Heat-response patterns of the heat shock transcription factor family in advanced development stages of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and thermotolerance-regulation by TaHsfA2-10.

Background: Heat shock transcription factors (Hsfs) are present in majority of plants and play central roles in thermotolerance, transgenerational thermomemory, and many other stress responses. Our previous paper identified at least 82 Hsf members in a genome-wide study on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.).

Reprogramming of mA epitranscriptome is crucial for shaping of transcriptome and proteome in response to hypoxia.

Hypoxia causes a series of responses supporting cells to survive in harsh environments. Substantial post-transcriptional and translational regulation during hypoxia has been observed. However, detailed regulatory mechanism in response to hypoxia is still far from complete.

Resveratrol downregulates TNF-α-induced monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 in primary rat pulmonary artery endothelial cells by P38 mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling.

To evaluate the effects of resveratrol to monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and the role of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) in this process in vitro. Animal acute pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) model: rat model was established by infusion of an autologous blood clot into the pulmonary artery through a polyethylene catheter. One hundred and thirty-two rats were randomly and equally divided into ten groups: rats-control (untreated), rats-1% DMSO, rats-TNF-α, rats-TNF-α + resveratrol, rats-TNF-α +C1142, rats-TNF-α+SB203580, rats-TNF-α+resveratrol + SB203580, rats-resveratrol only, rats-C1142 only, and rats-SB203580 only.

Tumor-driven like macrophages induced by conditioned media from pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma promote tumor metastasis via secreting IL-8.

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are abundant population of inflammatory cells which play an essential role in remodeling tumor microenvironment and tumor progression. Previously, we found the high density of TAMs was correlated with lymph node metastasis and poor prognosis in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the mechanisms of interaction between TAMs and PDAC.

In situ measurement of perfluoroalkyl substances in aquatic systems using diffusive gradients in thin-films technique.

To better understand the environmental impact of ubiquitous perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in waters, reliable and robust measurement techniques are needed. As one of the most widely used passive sampling approaches, diffusive gradients in thin-films (DGT) is not only easy to handle but also provides time-weighted analyte concentrations. Based on DGT with XAD18 as a binding agent, we developed a new methodology to measure two frequently detected PFASs in surface waters and wastewaters, i.

A Genome-Wide Association Study of α-Synuclein Levels in Cerebrospinal Fluid.

α-Synuclein is a 140-amino acid protein produced predominantly by neurons in the brain which plays a role in the regulation of neurotransmitter release, synaptic function, and plasticity, thus making it the focus in understanding the etiology of a group of neurodegenerative diseases. We conducted genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of α-synuclein levels in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) with 209 non-Hispanic white participants from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI-1) cohort using a linear regression model to identify novel variants associated with α-synuclein concentration. The minor allele (T) of rs7072338 in the long intergenic non-protein coding RNA 1515 (LINC01515) and the minor allele (T) of rs17794023 in clusterin-associated protein 1 (CLUAP1) were associated with higher CSF α-synuclein levels at genome-wide significance (P = 4.

Lentivirus-mediated disintegrin and metalloproteinase 17 RNA interference reversed the acquired resistance to gefitinib in lung adenocarcinoma cells in vitro.

Objective: The aim of the study is to evaluate the effects of silencing a disintegrin and metalloproteinase 17 (ADAM17) gene expression by lentivirus-mediated RNA interference (RNAi) in the gefitinib-resistant lung adenocarcinoma cells, and then to explore whether the recombinant lentivirus mediated ADAM17 RNAi reversed the acquired resistance of lung adenocarcinoma to gefitinib in vitro.

Methods: The gefitinib-resistant RPC-9 cells were established and the mutations of EGFR were detected by gene sequencing. The ADAM17 shRNA expression vectors were constructed and packaged to recombinant lentivirus.

The Two-Component System RsrS-RsrR Regulates the Tetrathionate Intermediate Pathway for Thiosulfate Oxidation in .

() is a common bioleaching bacterium that possesses a sophisticated and highly efficient inorganic sulfur compound metabolism network. Thiosulfate, a central intermediate in the sulfur metabolism network of and other sulfur-oxidizing microorganisms, can be metabolized via the tetrathionate intermediate (SI) pathway catalyzed by thiosulfate:quinol oxidoreductase (Tqo or DoxDA) and tetrathionate hydrolase (TetH). In , there is an additional two-component system called RsrS-RsrR.

Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Strategies.

Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) is characterized by progressive deterioration of frontal and anterior temporal lobes of the brain and often exhibits frontotemporal dementia (FTD) on clinic, in <65-year-old patients at the time of diagnosis. Interdisciplinary approaches combining genetics, molecular and cell biology, and laboratory animal science have revealed some of its potential molecular mechanisms. Although there is still no effective treatment to delay, prevent, and reverse the progression of FTD, emergence of agents targeting molecular mechanisms has been beginning to promote potential pharmaceutical development.

A R2R3-MYB transcription factor gene in common wheat (namely TaMYBsm1) involved in enhancement of drought tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis.

We isolated the TaMYBsm1 genes, encoding R2R3-type MYB proteins in common wheat, aimed to uncover the possible molecular mechanisms related to drought response. The TaMYBsm1 genes, TaMYBsm1-A, TaMYBsm1-B and TaMYBsm1-D, were isolated and analyzed from the common wheat cultivar Shimai 15. Their expression patterns under PEG 6000 and mannitol were monitored by semi-quantitative RT-PCR and β-glucuronidase (Gus) assay.

Bmi1 combines with oncogenic KRAS to induce malignant transformation of human pancreatic duct cells in vitro.

It is critical to understand the pathogenesis of preinvasive stages of pancreatic duct adenocarcinoma (PDAC) for developing novel potential diagnostic and therapeutic targets. The polycomb group family member B-lymphoma Moloney murine leukemia virus insertion region-1 (Bmi1) is overexpressed and involved in cancer progression in PDAC; however, its role in the multistep malignant transformation of human pancreatic duct cells has not been directly demonstrated. In this study, we stably expressed Bmi1 in a model of telomerase-immortalized human pancreatic duct-derived cells (HPNE) and showed that Bmi1 promoted HPNE cell proliferation, migration, and invasion but not malignant transformation.