Hsa-miR-1248 suppressed the proliferation, invasion and migration of colorectal cancer cells via inhibiting PSMD10.

BACKGROUND: Lymph node metastasis (LNM) is a critical event during the colorectal cancer (CRC) development and is indicative of poor prognosis. Identification of molecular markers of LNM may facilitate better therapeutic decision-making. METHODS: Six pairs of CRC tissues and corresponding adjacent tissues [3 pairs diagnosed as pT1N0M0 (M_Low group) and 3 pairs diagnosed as pT4N2M0 (M_High group)] collected from CRC patients who underwent surgical resection were used. MicroRNA sequencing was performed to screen differential microRNAs involved in CRC LNM. The selected microRNAs were validated in CRC tissues and cell lines using qRT-PCR. The functions of candidate hsa-miR-1248 were evaluated by CCK-8, colony formation, and Transwell assay. The binding of hsa-miR-1248 with its target PSMD10 was confirmed by luciferase activity assay, and the expression of PSMD10 in tissues was detected by droplet digital polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: Ninety-five miRNAs were downregulated in carcinoma tissues (M_Low and M_high groups) compared with the normal group. Their expression in M_High group was significantly lower compared with M_Low group. The top 3 were hsa-miR-635, hsa-miR-1248, and hsa-miR-668-3p. After validation in tissues/cell lines, only hsa- hsa-miR-1248 was decreased in high metastatic tissues or SW620 cells compared to low metastatic tissues or SW480 cells. Hsa-miR-1248 was found to inhibit CRC cell viability, proliferation, invasion, and migration. The tumor suppressor effect of has-miR-1248 in CRC cells was attenuated or enhanced by up-regulating or down-regulating PSMD10, respectively. CONCLUSION: Hsa-miR-1248 may act as a tumor suppressor gene in CRC by targeting and inhibiting PSMD10, which provides a clue for CRC treatment.

Vonoprazan-amoxicillin dual therapy for Helicobacter pylori eradication in Chinese population: A prospective, multicenter, randomized, two-stage study.

BACKGROUND: The efficacy of Vonoprazan-amoxicillin dual therapy (VAT) in the treatment of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is controversial. AIM: To evaluate the efficacy of VAT in the Chinese population. METHODS: This prospective, multicenter, randomized, open-label, and two-stage study was conducted at 23 centers in Fujian, China (May 2021-April 2022). H. pylori-infected patients were randomized to bismuth quadruple therapy (BQT), BQT-Vonoprazan (BQT-V), seven-day VAT (VAT-7), ten-day VAT (VAT-10), and fourteen-day VAT (VAT-14) groups. The primary endpoint was the H. pylori eradication rate. The secondary endpoint was the frequency of adverse events. This study was registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR2100045778. RESULTS: In the first stage, VAT-7 and BQT-V groups were selected for early termination because less than 23 among 28 cases were eradicated. In the second stage, the eradication rates for BQT, VAT-10, and VA-14 were 80.2% [95% confidence interval (95%CI): 71.4%-86.8%], 93.2% (86.6%-96.7%), 92.2% (85.3%-96.0%) in the intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis, and 80.9% (95%CI: 71.7%-87.5%), 94.0% (87.5%-97.2%), and 93.9% (87.4%-97.2%) in the per-protocol analysis. The ITT analysis showed a higher eradication rate in the VAT-10 and VAT-14 groups than in the BQT group (P = 0.022 and P = 0.046, respectively). The incidence of adverse events in the VAT-10 and VAT-14 groups was lower than in the BQT group (25.27% and 13.73% vs 37.62%, respectively; P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: VAT with a duration of 10 or 14 days achieves a higher eradication rate than the BQT, with a more tolerable safety profile in H. pylori-infected patients in Fujian.

Interactive Visual Cluster Analysis by Contrastive Dimensionality Reduction.

We propose a contrastive dimensionality reduction approach (CDR) for interactive visual cluster analysis. Although dimensionality reduction of high-dimensional data is widely used in visual cluster analysis in conjunction with scatterplots, there are several limitations on effective visual cluster analysis. First, it is non-trivial for an embedding to present clear visual cluster separation when keeping neighborhood structures. Second, as cluster analysis is a subjective task, user steering is required. However, it is also non-trivial to enable interactions in dimensionality reduction. To tackle these problems, we introduce contrastive learning into dimensionality reduction for high-quality embedding. We then redefine the gradient of the loss function to the negative pairs to enhance the visual cluster separation of embedding results. Based on the contrastive learning scheme, we employ link-based interactions to steer embeddings. After that, we implement a prototype visual interface that integrates the proposed algorithms and a set of visualizations. Quantitative experiments demonstrate that CDR outperforms existing techniques in terms of preserving correct neighborhood structures and improving visual cluster separation. The ablation experiment demonstrates the effectiveness of gradient redefinition. The user study verifies that CDR outperforms t-SNE and UMAP in the task of cluster identification. We also showcase two use cases on real-world datasets to present the effectiveness of link-based interactions.

Identification and verification of the prognostic value of CUL7 in colon adenocarcinoma.

CUL7, a gene composed of 26 exons associated with cullin 7 protein, is also an E3 ligase that is closely related to cell senescence, apoptosis, and cell transformation and also plays an important role in human cancer. However, there is no systematic pan-cancer analysis has been performed to explore its role in prognosis and immune prediction. In this study, the expression of CUL7 in colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) was investigated to determine its prognosis value. First, based on the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), Genotypic-Tissue Expression Project(GTEx), Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedias(CCLE), and TISIDB database, the potential role of CUL7 in different tumors was explored. Subsequently, the expression of CUL7 in COAD was explored and verified by Immunohistochemistry (IHC). Furthermore, the mutation frequency of CUL7 in COAD was analyzed, and the prognostic value of CUL7 in COAD was discussed. In addition, the nomogram was constructed, and its prognostic value was verified by follow-up data from Jiangmen Central Hospital. Finally, PPI network analysis explored the potential biological function of CUL7 in COAD. The results show that CUL7 is upregulated in most tumors, which is significantly associated with poor survival. At the same time, CUL7 is correlated with the clinical stage and immune landscape of various tumors. In colorectal cancer, CUL7 was overexpressed in tumor tissues by IHC with a mutation frequency of about 4%. CUL7 is an independent prognostic factor for colorectal cancer. The nomogram constructed has effective predictive performance, and external databases proved the prognostic value of CUL7. In addition, PPI network analysis showed that CUL7 was closely related to FBXW8, and further pathway enrichment analysis showed that CUL7 was mainly involved in ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis. Therefore, our study provides a comprehensive understanding of the potential role of CUL7 in different tumors, and CUL7 might be a prognostic marker for COAD.

Visual Clustering Factors in Scatterplots.

Cluster analysis is an important technique in data analysis. However, there is no encompassing theory on scatterplots to evaluate clustering. Human visual perception is regarded as a gold standard to evaluate clustering. The cluster analysis based on human visual perception requires the participation of many probands, to obtain diverse data, and hence is a challenge to do. We contribute an empirical and data-driven study on human perception for visual clustering of large scatterplot data. First, we systematically construct and label a large, publicly available scatterplot dataset. Second, we carry out a qualitative analysis based on the dataset and summarize the influence of visual factors on clustering perception. Third, we use the labeled datasets to train a deep neural network for modeling human visual clustering perception. Our experiments show that the data-driven model successfully models the human visual perception, and outperforms conventional clustering algorithms in synthetic and real datasets.

A simple method to prepare g-C3N4-TiO2/waste zeolites as visible-light-responsive photocatalytic coatings for degradation of indoor formaldehyde.

The indoor air quality should be highly addressed because people spend more time staying in indoor environments. Photocatalytic degradation of indoor pollutants (e.g., formaldehyde) is one of the most promising and environmental friendly technologies. In this work, a heterostructured photocatalyst combining graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4), TiO2 and waste zeolites (g-C3N4-TiO2/waste zeolites) is developed by a facile calcination and sol-gel method. The prepared photocatalysts exhibit the superior visible-light-responsive activities toward formaldehyde degradation (k = 0.0127 min-1) which is higher than g-C3N4-TiO2 (k = 0.0123 min-1) and P25 (k = 0.0056 min-1). Over 90% of low-concentration formaldehyde can be oxidized by g-C3N4-TiO2/waste zeolites under a commercial LED light within 300 min. The electron spin resonance spectra indicate that the superoxide radical anions (O2-) photogenerated on the g-C3N4-TiO2/waste zeolites under visible light irradiation are responsible for the decomposition of formaldehyde. The enhancement in the photocatalytic decomposition of formaldehyde in the air is possibly due to the heterojunction between g-C3N4 (the enhanced absorption of visible light) and TiO2 (fast transfer of photogenerated electrons from g-C3N4) as well as assisted adsorption of gas-phase formaldehyde via waste zeolites. This work also exemplifies the valorization of industrial silicate wastes to efficient photocatalytic coatings for indoor air purification.

[Evaluation of three-dimensional CT reconstruction on the anatomic variation of inferior mesenteric artery and left colic artery].

OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate the clinical applicability of three-dimensional CT angiography by evaluating the anatomic features and variation of inferior mesenteric artery(IMA) and left colic artery(LCA) in order to provide reference to vessel ligation strategy in laparoscopic rectal cancer surgery. METHODS: Clinical and image data of 123 patients receiving abdominal multislice CT at The Sixth Affiliated Hospital from 2014 to 2015 were retrospectively analyzed. The images were 3D-reconstructed with computer 3D CT angiography and arterial enhancement phase images were chosen for analysis. Linear distances from IMA root to abdominal aortic bifurcation and from LCA at IMA root level to IMA root were measured. Branch types of IMA, coursing pattern of LCA, and association between LCA and inferior mesenteric vein (IMV) site were summarized. RESULTS: Of 123 cases, 80 were males and 43 were females, mean age was (46.8±16.6) years, body weight was (57.7±10.4) kg, and BMI was (21.3±3.6) kg/m2. The average distance from IMA root to abdominal aortic bifurcation was (42.5±7.9) mm, and this distance was closely associated with body weight (OR=4.771, 95%CI: 1.398 to 16.283, P=0.013). Longer distance tended to appear in the heavier patients. LCA and sigmoid artery (SA) originating from same single IMA was found in 61(49.6%) cases; LCA and SA forking at same point in 35(28.5%) cases; LCA and SA coursing together and forking afterwards in 24(19.5%) cases, and LCA disappearing in 3(2.4%) cases. In 71(57.7%) patients, LCA ascended medial to the lateral border of left kidney, while in 16(13.0%) patients, LCA arranged below the inferior border of left kidney. When the LCA site was higher and the distance from LCA to IMA root was closer [distance from LCA to IMA root level was (24.2±9.9) mm, (30.0±15.2) mm and (66.6±12.3) mm, F=83.2, P<0.001]. At the level of IMA root, LCA located medial to IMV in 21(17.1%) cases, located just lateral to IMV in 54(43.9%) cases, and located lateral and ascended far away from IMV in 48(39.0%) cases. CONCLUSION: 3D-CT angiography is non-invasive, efficient and accurate in evaluating coursing features and variation of IMA and its branches, which can provide important reference to the surgeons, promising laparoscopic surgery smooth and safe.