Serum albumin and cardiovascular disease: a Mendelian randomization study.

Background: An increasing body of evidence suggests that serum albumin levels play a role in cardiovascular diseases. However, the specific causal relationship between serum albumin levels and cardiovascular disease remains partially unknown.

Methods: Mendelian randomization (MR) was employed in this study to examine potential causal relationships between instrumental variables and cardiovascular diseases.

AIM2 promotes the development of non-small cell lung cancer by modulating mitochondrial dynamics.

Mitochondrial fusion and fission dynamics fine-tune cellular calcium homeostasis, ATP production capacity and ROS production and play important roles in cell proliferation and migration. Dysregulated mitochondrial dynamics is closely related to tumor development, but the mechanism of mitochondrial dynamics dysregulation and its role in the development of lung cancer remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that the DNA sensor protein absent in melanoma 2 (AIM2) is highly expressed in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells and that high AIM2 expression is associated with poor prognosis in patients with NSCLC.

BH3 mimetic ABT-263 enhances the anticancer effects of apigenin in tumor cells with activating EGFR mutation.

Background: Mutated epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is one of the most successful targets in cancer targeted therapy. While this treatment has benefited many patients with an activating EGFR mutation (EGFRm), almost all those who initially benefited will eventually develop acquired drug resistance (ADR) after a certain period of time. New therapeutic strategies need to be explored to treat EGFRm tumors and overcome or minimize this recurring ADR.

Dihydroartemisinin suppresses STAT3 signaling and Mcl-1 and Survivin expression to potentiate ABT-263-induced apoptosis in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer cells harboring EGFR or RAS mutation.

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common malignancy worldwide. A significant fraction of NSCLC carries activating mutations in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) or RAS oncogene. Dihydroartemisinin (DHA) is a semisynthetic derivative of the herbal antimalarial drug artemisinin that has been recently reported to exhibit anti-cancer activity.