Publications by authors named "Yunzhen Gao"

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), with high mortality and poor prognosis, is the most common type of renal malignancy. It is necessary to identify new biomarkers that can serve as indicators for the detection of ccRCC at its early stages. In this study, we analyzed the role of classical zinc finger protein 692 (ZNF692) in ccRCC using datasets from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Single Cell Portal and immunohistochemical (IHC) staining of a tissue-microarray, and analyzed the function of ZNF692 in ccRCC cells.

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Osteosarcoma is usually resistant to immunotherapy and, thus primarily relies on surgical resection and high-dosage chemotherapy. Unfortunately, less invasive or toxic therapies such as photothermal therapy (PTT) and chemodynamic therapy (CDT) generally failed to show satisfactory outcomes. Adequate multimodal therapies with proper safety profiles may provide better solutions for osteosarcoma.

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Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common chronic inflammatory disorder that usually affects joints. It was found that roburic acid (RBA), an ingredient from anti-RA herb Gentiana macrophylla Pall., displayed strong anti-inflammatory activity.

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The present study prepared shell-core nanoparticles comprising poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)(PLGA) cores encapsulated by shells composed of mixed lipids(Lipoid S100 and DSPE-PEG 2000) or polymer F127 to investigate the effects of shell composition on overcoming physiological barriers of gastrointestinal mucus and intestinal epithelial cells and improving bioavailability.The results are expected to provide references for the research on the improvement of the oral bioavailability of Chinese medicine by nanocar-riers. Silibinin(SLB) was used as a model drug to prepare PLGA nanoparticles coated with the shell of mixed lipids(SLB-LPNs) or F127(SLB-FPNs) via a modified nanoprecipitation method.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Researchers developed a virus-free in vitro system that allows them to analyze how the spike protein binds to ACE2-overexpressing HEK293T cells and discovered that a specific spike protein variant (D614G) binds more effectively than the original.
  • * The results offer a valuable method for studying SARS-CoV-2 interactions and for isolating ACE2-expressing cells for further research.
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Breast cancer metastasis and recurrence accounts for vast majority of breast cancer-induced mortality. Tumor microenvironment (TME) plays an important role at each step of metastasis, evasion of immunosurveillance, and therapeutic resistance. Consequently, TME-targeting alternatives to traditional therapies focused on breast cancer cells are gaining increasing attention.

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Article Synopsis
  • Sjögren's syndrome (SS) is a complex autoimmune disease that primarily affects the exocrine glands, causing symptoms like dry mouth (xerostomia) and dry eyes (xerophthalmia).
  • The disease is marked by the presence of autoantibodies and the infiltration of immune cells into glandular tissues, but its causes and progression are not well understood.
  • Recent advances in mouse models—both induced and genetic—have been instrumental in revealing the mechanisms behind SS, contributing to a better understanding of the disease’s pathogenesis.
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T-cell based immunotherapy increasingly shows broad application prospects in cancer treatment, but its performance in solid tumors is far from our expectation, partly due to the re-inhibition of infiltrated T cells by immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. Here we presented an artificial synthetic optogenetic circuit to control the immune responses of engineered T cells on demand for promoting and enhancing the therapeutic efficiency of cancer immunotherapy. We designed and synthesized blue-light inducible artificial immune signaling circuit and transgene expression system.

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Rheumatoid diseases are a group of systemic autoimmune diseases which affect multiple organs with largely unknown etiology. In the past decade, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as important regulators of biological processes and contribute deeply to immune cell development and immune responses. Substantial evidences have been accumulated showing that LncRNAs involved in the pathogenesis of the rheumatoid diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and Sjögren's syndrome (SS).

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Human coronin 3 is involved in many types of cancers, but the underlying molecular mechanisms require further elucidation. The present study demonstrated that coronin 3 is significantly upregulated in clinical primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) samples by reverse transcription‑quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT‑qPCR) and immunohistochemical staining. Subsequently, proteins that were regulated by coronin 3 in both coronin 3 overexpressing or knocked down HepG2 cells were analyzed by label free mass spectrometry; overall, 249 proteins were identified to be closely regulated by coronin 3, and those coronin 3 regulated proteins were enriched in cellular, physiological and metabolism processes.

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Directional autoreactive CD4 T cell migration into the central nervous system plays a critical role in multiple sclerosis. Recently, DOCK8 was identified as a guanine-nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) for Cdc42 activation and has been associated with human mental retardation. Little is known about whether DOCK8 is related to multiple sclerosis (MS) and how to restrict its GEF activity.

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Long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs) have played very important roles in the malignancy behaviors of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Linc-cdh4-2 (TCONS_00027978) is a novel LncRNA that has been identified in HCC tissues from our previous study. Overexpression of linc-cdh4-2 in HCC cell lines (SK-Hep-1 and Huh7) significantly decreases the migration and invasion abilities of these cells, while knockdown the expression of linc-cdh4-2 significantly increases the migration and invasion abilities.

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Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common cause of liver injury and seriously affects human health. In the present study, we aimed to investigate whether adipose tissue-derived stem cell (ADSC) transplantation in combination with dietary modification was capable of reversing the progression of NAFLD. After establishing a rat model of NAFLD by feeding them a high-fat diet (HFD), ADSCs were transplanted via the portal vein into rats with HFD-induced NAFLD, and simultaneously fed a modified diet.

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The Coronin family is one of the WD-repeat domain containing families that are diverse in both of their structures and functions. The first coronin was identified in the cytoskeleton composition of Dictyostelium discoideum, which was discovered to regulate the actin functions. So far, 723 coronins have been identified throughout the eukaryotic kingdom by bioinformatics analysis in 358 species.

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Non‑alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the major causes of chronic liver injury affecting the general health of various populations. In the present study, adipose tissue‑derived stem cells (ADSCs), which were isolated from the adipose tissues of Sprague‑Dawley rats, were transplanted into the liver of high‑fat‑diet‑induced NAFLD rats via the portal vein to attenuate the disease progression of NAFLD. The results demonstrated that ADSC transplantation reduced the serum levels of alanine aminotransferase, total bilirubin, total cholesterol, triglycerides and fatty acids, and reduced the content of malondialdehyde in the liver homogenates.

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Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAI, such as H5N1) infection causes severe cytokine storm and fatal respiratory immunopathogenesis in human and animal. Although TGF-β1 and the integrin CD103 in CD8+ T cells play protective roles in H5N1 virus infection, it is not fully understood which key signaling proteins control the TGF-β1-integrin crosstalk in CD8+ T cells to protect from H5N1 virus infection. This study showed that ADAP (Adhesion and Degranulation-promoting Adapter Protein) formed a complex with TRAF6 and TAK1 in CD8+ T cells, and activated SMAD3 to increase autocrine TGF-β1 production.

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Recurrence, invasion, and metastasis are the major reasons of the low 5-year survival of hepatocellular carcinoma. However, the mechanisms of recurrence, invasion, and metastasis are still poll understood. Long noncoding RNAs (LncRNAs, >200 nt) have been demonstrated to play important roles in both tumor suppressive and oncogenic signaling pathways.

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Galectin-4 is a multifunctional lectin found at both intracellular and extracellular sites. It could serve as a tumor suppressor intracellularly and promote tumor metastases extracellularly during colorectal cancer development. However, galectin-4 expression and its prognostic value for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have not been well investigated.

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Background: Hepatic resection is the preferred treatment for huge hepatocellular carcinoma (>10 cm in diameter; H-HCC). However, the patients with H-HCC suffer from poor prognosis due to the early recurrence/metastasis. The underlying mechanism of H-HCC's early recurrence/metastasis is currently not well understood.

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Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are critical in mediating innate immune responses against infections. However, uncontrolled TLR-triggered inflammation is associated with endotoxin shock. To better understand the homeostatic mechanisms induced by TLR4 signaling, we screened a group of key cytokines, chemokines, growth factors, and their receptors for bacteria- or LPS-induced expression.

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CCAAT enhancer binding protein β (C/EBP β) belongs to CCAAT enhancer binding protein (C/EBP) family, which is a subfamily of basic leucine zipper (bZIP) protein family. C/EBP family plays important roles in many processes such as cell differentiation, metabolism, and development. In this paper, the structure, expression regulation, and function of C/EBP β were reviewed.

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