Screening and identification of autophagy-related biomarkers for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) via integrated bioinformatics analysis.

Increasing evidences have showed that autophagy played a significant role in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Purpose of our study was to explore the prognostic value of autophagy-related genes (ATGs) and screen autophagy-related biomarkers for OSCC. RNA-seq and clinical data were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database following extracting ATG expression profiles.

Water use efficiency in a primary subtropical evergreen forest in Southwest China.

We calculated water use efficiency (WUE) using measures of gross primary production (GPP) and evapotranspiration (ET) from five years of continuous eddy covariance measurements (2009-2013) obtained over a primary subtropical evergreen broadleaved forest in southwestern China. Annual mean WUE exhibited a decreasing trend from 2009 to 2013, varying from ~2.28 to 2.

[Pectoralis major myocutaneous flap for repairing large tissue defects following oral cancer surgery].

Objective: To investigate the method for reconstruction of large tissue defects following surgical resection of advanced oral cancer using pectoralis major myocutaneous flap.

Methods: From 2005 to 2009, 40 patients with advanced oral cancer received extensive surgical resection of oral cancer, and the intraoral defects were reconstructed using pectoralis major myocutaneous flaps.

Results: All the flaps survived except one flap with partial necrosis.

New molecular markers of early and progressive CJD brain infection.

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), including human Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), are caused by a related group of infectious agents that can be transmitted to many mammalian species. Because the infectious component of TSE agents has not been identified, we examined myeloid cell linked inflammatory pathways to find if they were activated early in CJD infection. We here identify a specific set of transcripts in CJD infected mouse brains that define early and later stages of progressive disease.

Early induction of interferon-responsive mRNAs in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Foreign infectious agents typically evoke a host immune response. In scrapie and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), no immune response has been detectable. However, many latent or persistent viruses evade immune recognition but still activate inflammatory pathways.

Virus-like interference in the latency and prevention of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

We previously showed that intracerebral (ic) inoculation of the attenuated SY strain of Creutzfeld-Jakob disease in mice could delay clinical signs and widespread neuropathology evoked by subsequent ic challenge with the more virulent FU strain. Using lower doses of SY and FU ic, we here demonstrate that mice can be protected well into old age without demonstrable neuropathology or pathologic prion protein (PrP-res). In contrast, parallel FU only controls became terminally diseased 1 year earlier.