A novel nonsense mutation in ARMC5 causes primary bilateral macronodular adrenocortical hyperplasia.

Background: Primary bilateral macronodular adrenocortical hyperplasia (PBMAH) is a rare form of adrenal Cushing's syndrome. The slowly progressing expansion of bilateral adrenal tissues usually persists for dozens of years, leading to delayed onset with severe conditions due to chronic mild hypercortisolism. About 20-50% cases were found to be caused by inactivating mutation of armadillo repeat-containing protein 5 (ARMC5) gene.

Nasopharyngeal Swabs Are More Sensitive Than Oropharyngeal Swabs for COVID-19 Diagnosis and Monitoring the SARS-CoV-2 Load.

Detection of SARS-CoV-2 by oropharyngeal swabs (OPS) and nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS) is an essential method for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) management. It is not clear how detection rate, sensitivity, and the risk of exposure for medical providers differ in two sampling methods. In this prospective study, 120 paired NPS and OPS specimens were collected from 120 inpatients with confirmed COVID-19.

Stepwise neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy in the management of mid-low locally advanced rectal cancer.

Background: This study aimed to compare the treatment response, complications and prognosis in mid-low locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) patients who underwent stepwise neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (SCRT) or traditional neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT).

Methods: The medical records of patients with mid-low rectal cancer who underwent SCRT or CRT were retrospectively analyzed. Differences in the treatment response, pathologic complete response (pCR), R0 resection, local recurrence, anastomotic leakage, presacral infection, anal preservation, defunctioning stoma, treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs), overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) between patients who underwent SCRT and CRT were compared.

[Accordion operation for the bone transport in treating tibial bone defect].

Objective: To discuss clinical outcomes of accordion operation for the Ilizarov technique in treating tibial bone defects.

Methods: From January 2014 to June 2016, 22 patients with tibial bone defects were treated by Ilizarov bone-transport technique, including 19 males and 3 females with an average age of 44.04 years old ranging from 23 to 60 years old;the length of the bone defects before the bone transport was 5 to 11 cm with an average 7.

Numerical study on the lubrication performance of compression ring-cylinder liner system with spherical dimples.

The effects of surface texture on the lubrication performance of a compression ring-cylinder liner system are studied in this paper. By considering the surface roughness of the compression ring and cylinder liner, a mixed lubrication model is presented to investigate the tribological behaviors of a barrel-shaped compression ring-cylinder liner system with spherical dimples on the liner. In order to determine the rupture and reformulation positions of fluid film accurately, the Jacoboson-Floberg-Olsson (JFO) cavitation boundary condition is applied to the mixed lubrication model for ensuring the mass-conservative law.

Meta-analysis Reveals the Prognostic Value of Circulating Tumour Cells Detected in the Peripheral Blood in Patients with Non-Metastatic Colorectal Cancer.

Detecting circulating tumour cells (CTCs) is considered as effective and minimally invasive technique to predict the prognosis of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC), but its clinical validity is still conflicting in patients without metastasis. We performed this meta-analysis to evaluate whether detection of CTCs in the peripheral blood can be used as a prognostic marker for patients with non-metastatic CRC. We performed a comprehensive search of the EMBASE, PubMed, and Web of Science databases (up to September 2016).

Promotive effects of bone morphogenetic protein 2 on angiogenesis in hepatocarcinoma via multiple signal pathways.

The effects of Bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2) on the angiogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma have not yet been observed and its molecular mechanisms is not clear. We first constructed the recombinant lentivirus vectors expressing small hairpin RNA against BMP-2 gene (LV-SH-BMP2) and the recombinant lentivirus vectors over-expressing BMP-2 (overexpression-LV-BMP2), and then the two recombinant lentivirus vectors were respectively transfected into Hep G2 cells. The Hep G2 cells transfected with LV-SH-BMP2 or overexpression-LV-BMP2 were respectively co-cultured with human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) to observe the effects of BMP-2 on HUVECs.

Design and Hardware Implementation of a New Chaotic Secure Communication Technique.

In this paper, a scheme for chaotic modulation secure communication is proposed based on chaotic synchronization of an improved Lorenz system. For the first time, the intensity limit and stability of the transmitted signal, the characteristics of broadband and the requirements for accuracy of electronic components are presented by Multisim simulation. In addition, some improvements are made on the measurement method and the proposed experimental circuit in order to facilitate the experiments of chaotic synchronization, chaotic non-synchronization, experiment without signal and experiment with signal.

The nonsense-mediated RNA decay pathway is disrupted in inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors.

Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors (IMTs) are characterized by myofibroblast proliferation and an inflammatory cell infiltrate. Little is known about the molecular pathways that precipitate IMT formation. Here, we report the identification of somatic mutations in UPF1, a gene that encodes an essential component of the nonsense-mediated RNA decay (NMD) pathway, in 13 of 15 pulmonary IMT samples.

The significant prognostic value of circulating tumor cells in triple-negative breast cancer: a meta-analysis.

Background: The clinical validity of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is still controversial in patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).

Methods: A comprehensive literature search was performed to identify relevant articles in the PubMed, Web of Science, MEDLINE, and Embase databases through September 2015. The outcomes of interest were disease progression and overall survival.

Genetic variant in CLPTM1L confers reduced risk of lung cancer: a replication study in Chinese and a meta-analysis.

Background: Rs31489 in the cleft lip and palate transmembrane1-like gene (CLPTM1L) has been identified to be associated with lung cancer through genome-wide association studies (GWAS). However, some recent replication studies yielded inconclusive results. Thus, we undertook this study to investigate the precise effect of rs31489 on lung cancer susceptibility.

The UPF1 RNA surveillance gene is commonly mutated in pancreatic adenosquamous carcinoma.

Pancreatic adenosquamous carcinoma (ASC) is an enigmatic and aggressive tumor that has a worse prognosis and higher metastatic potential than its adenocarcinoma counterpart. Here we report that ASC tumors frequently harbor somatically acquired mutations in the UPF1 gene, which encodes the core component of the nonsense-mediated RNA decay (NMD) pathway. These tumor-specific mutations alter UPF1 RNA splicing and perturb NMD, leading to upregulated levels of NMD substrate mRNAs.

Cytoplasmic p21 induced by p65 prevents doxorubicin-induced cell death in pancreatic carcinoma cell line.

Background: Studies have shown the existence of p21 induction in a p53-dependent and -independent pathway. Our previous study indicates that DOX-induced p65 is able to bind the p21 promoter to activate its transactivation in the cells.

Methods: Over-expression and knock-down experiments were performed in Human Pancreatic Carcinoma (PANC1) cells.

P21 (waf1/cip1) is required for non-small cell lung cancer sensitive to Gefitinib treatment.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer in the world. Gefitinib is known to its inhibition of EGFR tyrosine kinase and worldwide used for antitumor in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Here, we show that Gefitinib reduces p-Akt levels, concomitant with elevation of p21 levels and suppression of cdk2/4 and cyclinE/D1 activities which result in impaired cell cycle progression through G1 arrest only in NSCLC cells in which it inhibits growth.

PTD4-apoptin protein and dacarbazine show a synergistic antitumor effect on B16-F1 melanoma in vitro and in vivo.

PTD4-apoptin protein enters cells and harbors tumor-selective cell death activity. Dacarbazine is the mainstay of treatment for malignant melanoma. In this study, we investigated the cytotoxic effect of PTD4-apoptin protein and/or dacarbazine in mouse B16-F1 and human A875 and SK-MEL-5 melanoma cells in vitro and by means of a mouse B16-F1 melanoma model in vivo.

Combined treatment with TNF-alpha/gefitinib alleviates the resistance to gefitinib in PC-9 cells.

Gefitinib has been approved for the treatment of patients with non-small cell lung cancer. However, its efficiency is limited by the development of drug resistance. Additional treatments for cases of non-small cell lung cancer relapsing with treatment with gefitinib are urgently required.

TNF-alpha promotes Doxorubicin-induced cell apoptosis and anti-cancer effect through downregulation of p21 in p53-deficient tumor cells.

p53 is a key regulator in cell apoptosis, and cancer cells deficient in p53 expression fail to respond to chemotherapy. Here we show that effective Doxorubicin (DOX)-induced apoptosis is p53-dependent. However, an alternative treatment of DOX/TNF-alpha/DOX restored sensitivity of p53-deficient cells to DOX-induced apoptosis.