Foxa1 disruption enhances human cell integration in human-mouse interspecies chimeras.

Blastocyst complementation can potentially generate a rodent model with humanized nasopharyngeal epithelium (NE) that supports sustained Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection, enabling comprehensive studies of EBV biology in nasopharyngeal carcinoma. However, during this process, the specific gene knockouts required to establish a developmental niche for NE remain unclear. We performed bioinformatics analyses and generated Foxa1 mutant mice to confirm that Foxa1 disruption could potentially create a developmental niche for NE.

Tumor-derived EBV-miR-BART2-5p promotes nasopharyngeal carcinoma metastasis by inducing pre-metastatic endothelial cell pyroptosis.

Extravasation is a key step in tumor metastasis. Epstein‒Barr virus (EBV) plays a crucial role in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) metastasis. However, the functions and molecular mechanisms of EBV during tumor cell extravasation remains unclear.

Simple design of fluorescein-based probe for rapid and in situ visual monitoring of histamine levels in food spoilage.

With the emergence of numerous food safety problems, rapid and accurate detection of histamine in food spoilage remains a challenge. To this end, we developed a simple design and easy synthesis of fluorescein-based probe FCHO to achieve specific and rapid (<1 s) quantitative detection of histamine through "imine formation" reaction. Significant enhanced fluorescence signal in response to histamine enabled our probe with high sensitivity as low as 51 nM.

Covalent assembly-based two-photon fluorescent probes for in situ visualizing nitroreductase activities: From cancer cells to human cancer tissues.

Nitroreductase (NTR) is widely regarded as a biomarker whose enzymatic activity correlates with the degree of hypoxia in solid malignant tumors. Herein, we utilized 2-dimethylamino-7-hydroxynaphthalene as fluorophore linked diverse nitroaromatic groups to obtain four NTR-activatable two-photon fluorescent probes based on covalent assembly strategy. With the help of computer docking simulation and in vitro assay, the sulfonate-based probe XN3 was proved to be able to identify NTR activity with best performances in rapid response, outstanding specificity, and sensitivity in comparison with the other three probes.

Homologous Tumor Cell-Derived Biomimetic Nano-Trojan Horse Integrating Chemotherapy with Genetherapy for Boosting Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Therapy.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a subtype of breast cancer that carries the worst prognosis and lacks specific therapeutic targets. To achieve accurate "cargos" delivery at the TNBC site, we herein constructed a novel biomimetic nano-Trojan horse integrating chemotherapy with gene therapy for boosting TNBC treatment. Briefly, we initially introduce the diselenide-bond-containing organosilica moieties into the framework of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MONs), thereby conferring biodegradability to intratumoral redox conditions in the obtained MON.

A near-infrared fluorescent probe with two-photon excitation for in situ imaging of NQO1 in human colorectum cancer tissue.

Colorectum cancer has become one of the most fatal cancer diseases, in which NAD(P)H: quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) plays a role in intracellular free radical reduction and detoxification and has been linked to colorectum cancer and chemotherapy resistance. Therefore, rational design of optical probe for NQO1 detection is urgent for the early diagnosis of colorectum cancer. Herein, we have developed a novel two-photon fluorescent probe, WHFD, which is capable of selectively detecting of intracellular NQO1 with two-photon (TP) absorption (800 nm) and near-infrared emission (620 nm).

A novel coumarin-fluorescein-based fluorescent probe for ultrafast and visual detection of HS in a Parkinson's disease model.

Hydrogen sulfide (HS) has a crucial impact on diverse biological processes and has been shown to be related to various diseases. Many probes have been developed to detect intracellular HS by fluorescent imaging. However, the development of rapid, highly selective and sensitive HS probes remains a challenge.

Recurrence risk assessment for stage III colorectal cancer based on five methylation biomarkers in plasma cell-free DNA.

For stage III colorectal cancer (CRC) patients with a high risk of recurrence, intensified adjuvant chemotherapy can improve overall survival. We aimed to develop a circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) methylation marker model for predicting the relapse risk of stage III CRC patients. Differentially methylated markers identified between 53 normal mucosa samples and 165 CRC tissue samples, as well as between plasma samples from 75 stage I/II (early-stage) CRC patients and 55 stage IV (late-stage) CRC patients, were analyzed using Student's t-tests.

The immunometabolic landscape of the bone marrow microenvironment in acute myeloid leukemia.

The bone marrow microenvironment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) consists of various cell types and signaling factors, which serve as a niche supporting leukemia cells in their invasion of the human body. However, a systematic landscape of metabolic heterogeneity and its relationship with immunity in the AML microenvironment at single-cell resolution has not yet been established. Herein, we addressed this issue by analyzing 208,543 bone marrow cells from 40 AML patients and 3 healthy donors obtained from GSE130756.

Deriving prognostic significance from a molecular subtype model of laryngeal carcinoma.

Background: This study explored whether laryngeal carcinoma could be divided into different subtypes based on molecular differences using a molecular subtype-prediction model.

Methods: We extracted data from the Cancer Genome Atlas and Gene Expression Omnibus databases and then performed unsupervised cluster analysis to identify discrete molecular subtypes of laryngeal carcinoma. Significance analysis of microarrays was performed to detect differentially expressed genes for each subtype, and gene set enrichment analysis and the GenCliP3 software were used to label gene functions and identify key pathways.

Small-molecule fluorescent probes based on covalent assembly strategy for chemoselective bioimaging.

Fluorescent probes have been widely studied and applied in environment and health analysis, where among them small molecular "covalent assembly" probes are a novel type of reaction probes with many advantages, including no background interference, remarkable colorimetric change, rapid response, high sensitivity, and strong fluorescent signal. During the past decade, significant contributions have been made globally to both the application and mechanism of covalent assembly probes. In this review, we summarize the recent development of covalent assembly probes, classifying them based on different analytes, such as anions, metal ions, small biological molecules, reactive oxidative spices (ROS), reactive nitrogen species (RNS), nerve agent mimics, and enzymes, and introduce their detection mechanism in detail.

Exosomal HMGA2 protein from EBV-positive NPC cells destroys vascular endothelial barriers and induces endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition to promote metastasis.

Increased vascular permeability facilitates metastasis. Cancer-secreted exosomes are emerging mediators of cancer-host crosstalk. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), identified as the first human tumor-associated virus, plays a crucial role in metastatic tumors, especially in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).

Surface engineering strategies of gold nanomaterials and their applications in biomedicine and detection.

Gold nanomaterials have potential applications in biosensors and biomedicine due to their controllable synthesis steps, high biocompatibility, low toxicity and easy surface modification. However, there are still various limitations including low water solubility and stability, which greatly affect their applications. In addition, some synthetic methods are very complicated and costly.

[Effect of exosomes derived from human Epstein-Barr virus-positive nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells on lymphangiogenesis and lymph node metastasis].

Objective: To investigate the effect of exosomes derived from Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-positive nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cells on lymphangiogenesis and lymph node metastasis of NPC.

Methods: Exosomes from NP69 cells and EBV-positive HK1 (HK1-EBV) cells were obtained by ultracentrifugation and identified by Western blotting and nanoparticle tracking analysis. Dio dye phagocytosis test was performed to observe exosome uptake by lymphatic endothelial cells.

Casticin inhibits nasopharyngeal carcinoma growth by targeting phosphoinositide 3-kinase.

Background: Casticin, an isoflavone compound extracted from the herb Fructus Viticis, has demonstrated anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities and properties. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects and mechanisms of casticin in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cells and to determine its potential for targeted use as a medicine.

Methods: NPC cells were used to perform the experiments.

GenCLiP 3: mining human genes' functions and regulatory networks from PubMed based on co-occurrences and natural language processing.

Summary: We present a web server, GenCLiP 3, which is an updated version of GenCLiP 2.0 to enhance analysis of human gene functions and regulatory networks, with the following improvements: i) accurate recognition of molecular interactions with polarity and directionality from the entire PubMed database; ii) support for Boolean search to customize multiple-term search and to quickly retrieve function related genes; iii) strengthened association between gene and keyword by a new scoring method; and iv) daily updates following literature release at PubMed FTP.

Availability: The server is freely available for academic use at: http://ci.

Trifluoperazine Activates FOXO1-Related Signals to Inhibit Tumor Growth in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Schizophrenic patients tend to have reduced incidence of some cancers due to the treatment of antipsychotic drugs with antitumor effects, such as chlorpromazine and trifluoperazine (TFP). Forkhead Box O1 (FOXO1) as tumor suppressor in many malignancies is often inactivated by nuclear export, which could be inhibited by TFP. However, the antitumor efficiency of TFP and related role of FOXO1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are unclear.

Assessing Hepatic Fibrosis Using 2-D Shear Wave Elastography in Patients with Liver Tumors: A Prospective Single-Center Study.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the diagnostic performance of 2-D shear wave elastography (2-D-SWE) in evaluations of liver stiffness in patients with liver tumors before resection. A total of 121 consecutive patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (n = 93), intra-hepatic cholangiocarcinoma (n = 6), mixed hepatocellular carcinoma and intra-hepatic cholangiocarcinoma (n = 6), liver metastases (n = 10) and benign tumors (n = 6) were prospectively enrolled in this study from June 2015 to March 2016. Three valid 2-D-SWE measurements for each patient and median liver stiffness values were calculated.