Asparagine endopeptidase deficiency mitigates radiation-induced brain injury by suppressing microglia-mediated neuronal senescence.

Mounting evidence supports the role of neuroinflammation in radiation-induced brain injury (RIBI), a chronic disease characterized by delayed and progressive neurological impairment. Asparagine endopeptidase (AEP), also known as legumain (LGMN), participates in multiple malignancies and neurodegenerative diseases and may potentially be involved in RIBI. Here, we found AEP expression was substantially elevated in the cortex and hippocampus of wild-type () mice following whole-brain irradiation.

Combined simultaneous transsphenoidal and transcranial regimen improves surgical outcomes in complex giant pituitary adenomas: a longitudinal retrospective cohort study.

Background: Surgical treatment of complex giant pituitary adenomas (GPAs) presents significant challenges. The efficacy and safety of combining transsphenoidal and transcranial approaches for these tumors remain controversial. In this largest cohort of patients with complex GPAs, we compared the surgical outcomes between those undergoing a combined regimen and a non-combined regimen.

Syringo-Subarachnoid Shunt with Tube Versus T-Tube via the Dorsal Root Entry Zone Approach for Eccentric Syringomyelia.

Objective: This study compared the clinical therapeutic efficacy of syringo-subarachnoid shunt placement with direct tube and T-tube via the dorsal root entry zone (DREZ) approach for treatment of eccentric syringomyelia.

Methods: A retrospective study was performed of 41 patients with idiopathic or secondary eccentric syringomyelia from November 2011 to December 2022. Syringo-subarachnoid shunt placement with direct tube or T-tube via the DREZ approach was performed.

AEP-cleaved DDX3X induces alternative RNA splicing events to mediate cancer cell adaptation in harsh microenvironments.

Oxygen and nutrient deprivation are common features of solid tumors. Although abnormal alternative splicing (AS) has been found to be an important driving force in tumor pathogenesis and progression, the regulatory mechanisms of AS that underly the adaptation of cancer cells to harsh microenvironments remain unclear. Here, we found that hypoxia- and nutrient deprivation-induced asparagine endopeptidase (AEP) specifically cleaved DDX3X in a HIF1A-dependent manner.

Novel Bimolecular Fluorescence Complementation (BiFC) Assay for Visualization of the Protein-Protein Interactions and Cellular Protein Complex Localizations.

Investigations of protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are of paramount importance for comprehending cellular processes within biological systems. The bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) assay presents a convenient methodology for visualizing PPIs within live cells. While a range of fluorescent proteins have been introduced into the BiFC system, there is a growing demand for new fluorescent proteins to accommodate the expanding requirements of researchers.

Circular RNA hsa_circ_0075323 promotes glioblastoma cells proliferation and invasion via regulation of autophagy.

Background: Protein p62 (sequestosome 1) encoded by gene SQSTM1 plays a vital role in mediating protectively selective autophagy in tumor cells under stressed conditions. CircSQSTM1 (hsa_circ_0075323) is a circular transcript generated from gene SQSTM1 (chr5:179260586-179260782) by back-splicing. However, the potential role of hsa_hsa_circ_0075323 in glioblastoma (GBM) remains unclear.

Super-resolution of brain tumor MRI images based on deep learning.

Introduction: To explore and evaluate the performance of MRI-based brain tumor super-resolution generative adversarial network (MRBT-SR-GAN) for improving the MRI image resolution in brain tumors.

Methods: A total of 237 patients from December 2018 and April 2020 with T2-fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) MR images (one image per patient) were included in the present research to form the super-resolution MR dataset. The MRBT-SR-GAN was modified from the enhanced super-resolution generative adversarial networks (ESRGAN) architecture, which could effectively recover high-resolution MRI images while retaining the quality of the images.

Whole Transcriptome Analysis Identifies Platycodin D-Mediated RNA Regulatory Network in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer.

Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is one of the most fatal malignant tumors harmful to human health. Previous studies report that (PD) exhibits anti-tumor effects in multiple human cancers, including NSCLC, but the underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. Accumulating evidence indicates that non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) participate in NSCLC disease progression, but the link between PD and the ncRNAs in NSCLC is poorly elucidated.

Cleavage of tropomodulin-3 by asparagine endopeptidase promotes cancer malignancy by actin remodeling and SND1/RhoA signaling.

Background: Abnormal proliferation and migration of cells are hallmarks of cancer initiation and malignancy. Asparagine endopeptidase (AEP) has specific substrate cleavage ability and plays a pro-cancer role in a variety of cancers. However, the underlying mechanism of AEP in cancer proliferation and migration still remains unclear.

Dematin inhibits glioblastoma malignancy through RhoA-mediated CDKs downregulation and cytoskeleton remodeling.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is well known as a highly aggressive brain tumor subtype. Here, we show that overexpression (OE) of dematin actin-binding protein (DMTN) inhibits GBM proliferation and invasion by affecting cell cycle regulation and actin remodeling, respectively. RT-qPCR, western blotting, and immunohistochemical (IHC) staining demonstrated a significant reduction in DMTN expression in gliomas, especially in high-grade gliomas (HGG) compared with normal brains, which correlates with worse survival in HGG patients.

A Novel Nomogram for Predicting the Risk of Short-Term Recurrence After Surgery in Glioma Patients.

Objective: The aim of this study was to establish a nomogram model for predicting the risk of short-term recurrence in glioma patients.

Methods: The clinical data of recurrent glioma patients were summarized and analyzed in this study. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to analyze the correlation between clinical data and the risk of short-term recurrence after operation.

A Giant Pituitary Adenoma Can Coexist with an Incidental Aneurysm: Look Beyond the Pituitary Adenoma and Don't Miss the Diagnosis.

An intracranial aneurysm in a pituitary adenoma (PA) is not uncommon; however, preoperative angiography is not clinically used as a routine screening test for PA patients. Therefore an intracranial aneurysm is often missed while diagnosing PA patients. When an aneurysm is missed in patients with pituitary tumors, the supporting power by the tumor to the blood vessels or aneurysm will disappear when the tumor is removed and patients may suffer intraoperative or postoperative aneurysm rupture, which may lead to fatal, catastrophic hemorrhage.

Circular RNA circLGMN facilitates glioblastoma progression by targeting miR-127-3p/LGMN axis.

Glioblastoma (GBM) is one of the most devastating cancers and is characterized by rapid cell proliferation and aggressive invasiveness. Legumain (LGMN), a substrate-specific protease, is associated with poor progression of GBM. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are aberrantly expressed in various cancers and play crucial roles in tumor progression; however, the functional roles of circRNAs originating from LGMN remain largely unknown in GBM.

Guideline conformity to the Stupp regimen in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme in China.

To determine how consistently Chinese glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) patients were treated according to the Stupp regimen. The proportion of treatments conforming to the Stupp regimen and reasons for nonconformity were evaluated in 202 newly diagnosed GBM patients. Only 15.

Balloon Test Occlusion of Internal Carotid Artery in Recurrent Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Before Endoscopic Nasopharyngectomy: A Single Center Experience.

Objectives: Endoscopic nasopharyngectomy (ENPG) is a promising way in treating recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma (rNPC), but sometimes may require therapeutic internal carotid artery (ICA) occlusion beforehand. Balloon test occlusion (BTO) is performed to evaluate cerebral ischemic tolerance for ICA sacrifice. However, absence of neurological deficits during BTO does not preclude occur of delayed cerebral ischemia after permanent ICA occlusion.

Molecular Characteristics of Thalamic Gliomas in Adults.

The 2016 World Health Organization classification of central nervous system tumor firstly introduces molecular diagnosis to glioma, while the molecular features of adult thalamic gliomas (ATGs) in a relatively large sample have not been reported. We aimed at exploring molecular characteristics in ATGs. The data of 97 and 575 newly diagnosed ATGs and superficial gliomas (SGs) patients were collected, and we performed a comparative analysis of molecular characteristics between them.

The LGMN pseudogene promotes tumor progression by acting as a miR-495-3p sponge in glioblastoma.

Pseudogenes, which are long noncoding RNAs that originate from protein-coding genes, have been suggested to play important roles in disease. Although studies have revealed high expression of legumain (LGMN) in many types of tumors, the regulation of LGMN remains largely unknown. Here, we found that a novel LGMN pseudogene (LGMNP1) was upregulated in glioblastoma (GBM) tissues and high LGMNP1 expression in GBM cells enhanced proliferation and invasion.

Blocking lncRNA MALAT1/miR-199a/ZHX1 Axis Inhibits Glioblastoma Proliferation and Progression.

Zinc fingers and homeoboxes 1 (ZHX1) is a transcription repressor that has been implicated in the tumorigenesis and progression of diverse tumors. The functional role and regulating mechanism of ZHX1 has not been elucidated in glioblastoma (GBM). Previous reports have suggested that a large number of non-coding RNAs play a vital role in glioma initiation and progression.

Histone methyltransferase SUV39H2 regulates cell growth and chemosensitivity in glioma via regulation of hedgehog signaling.

Background: Malignant glioma is one of the essentially incurable tumors with chemoresistance and tumor recurrence. As a histone methyltransferase, SUV39H2 can trimethylate H3K9. SUV39H2 is highly expressed in many types of human tumors, while the function of SUV39H2 in the development and progression of glioma has never been elucidated.

An Integrative Survival Analysis for Multicentric Low-Grade Glioma.

Objective: This study aimed to perform a survival analysis of patients with multicentric low-grade gliomas (MLGGs) and to assess the influence of various prognostic factors on progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival.

Methods: A literature search on Web of Science and PubMed was performed for literature in English published from 1963 to September 2018. Detailed information including demographics, clinical characteristics, treatments, critical events, and time to events for survival analysis were extracted from the included articles.

Role of Asparagine Endopeptidase in Mediating Wild-Type p53 Inactivation of Glioblastoma.

Background: Isocitrate dehydrogenase wild-type (WT) glioblastoma (GBM) accounts for 90% of all GBMs, yet only 27% of isocitrate dehydrogenase WT-GBMs have p53 mutations. However, the tumor surveillance function of WT-p53 in GBM is subverted by mechanisms that are not fully understood.

Methods: We investigated the proteolytic inactivation of WT-p53 by asparaginyl endopeptidase (AEP) and its effects on GBM progression in cancer cells, murine models, and patients' specimens using biochemical and functional assays.