Serine/threonine-protein kinase D2-mediated phosphorylation of DSG2 threonine 730 promotes esophageal squamous cell carcinoma progression.

Desmoglein-2 (DSG2) is a transmembrane glycoprotein belonging to the desmosomal cadherin family, which mediates cell-cell junctions; regulates cell proliferation, migration, and invasion; and promotes tumor development and metastasis. We previously showed serum DSG2 to be a potential biomarker for the diagnosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), although the significance and underlying molecular mechanisms were not identified. Here, we found that DSG2 was increased in ESCC tissues compared with adjacent tissues. In addition, we demonstrated that DSG2 promoted ESCC cell migration and invasion. Furthermore, using interactome analysis, we identified serine/threonine-protein kinase D2 (PRKD2) as a novel DSG2 kinase that mediates the phosphorylation of DSG2 at threonine 730 (T730). Functionally, DSG2 promoted ESCC cell migration and invasion dependent on DSG2-T730 phosphorylation. Mechanistically, DSG2 T730 phosphorylation activated EGFR, Src, AKT, and ERK signaling pathways. In addition, DSG2 and PRKD2 were positively correlated with each other, and the overall survival time of ESCC patients with high DSG2 and PRKD2 was shorter than that of patients with low DSG2 and PRKD2 levels. In summary, PRKD2 is a novel DSG2 kinase, and PRKD2-mediated DSG2 T730 phosphorylation promotes ESCC progression. These findings may facilitate the development of future therapeutic agents that target DSG2 and DSG2 phosphorylation. © 2024 The Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

Seasonal changes driving shifts in microbial community assembly and species coexistence in an urban river.

Microbial communities play a vital role in urban river biogeochemical cycles. However, the seasonal variations in microbial community characteristics, particularly phylogenetic group-based community assembly and species coexistence, have not been extensively investigated. Here, we systematically explored the microbiome characteristics and assembly mechanisms of urban rivers in different seasons using 16S rRNA gene sequencing and multivariate statistical methods. The results indicated that the microbial community presented significant temporal heterogeneity in different seasons, and the diversity decreased from spring to winter. The phylogenetic group-based microbial community assembly was governed by dispersal limitation and drift in spring, summer, and autumn but was structured by homogeneous selection in winter. Moreover, the main functions of nitrification, denitrification, and methanol oxidation were susceptible to dispersal limitation and drift processes, whereas sulfate respiration and aromatic compound degradation were controlled by dispersal limitation and homogeneous selection. Network analyses indicated that network complexity decreased and then increased with seasonal changes, while network stability showed the opposite trend, suggesting that higher complexity and diversity reduced community stability. Temperature was determined to be the primary driver of microbial community structure and assembly processes in different seasons based on canonical correspondence analysis and linear regression analysis. In conclusion, seasonal variation drives the dynamics of microbial community assembly and species coexistence patterns in urban rivers. This study provides new insights into the generation and maintenance of microbial community diversity in urban rivers under seasonal change conditions.

Secreted proteins encoded by super enhancer-driven genes could be promising biomarkers for early detection of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Early detection of cancer remains an unmet need in clinical practice, and high diagnostic sensitivity and specificity biomarkers are urgently required. Here, we attempted to identify secreted proteins encoded by super-enhancer (SE)-driven genes as diagnostic biomarkers for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). METHODS: We conducted an integrative analysis of multiple data sets including ChIP-seq data, secretome data, CCLE data and GEO data to screen secreted proteins encoded by SE-driven genes. Using ELISA, we further identified up-regulated secreted proteins through a small size of clinical samples and verified in a multi-centre validation stage (345 in test cohort and 231 in validation cohort). Receiver operating characteristic curves were used to calculate diagnostic accuracy. Artificial intelligence (AI) method named gradient boosting machine (GBM) were applied for model construction to enhance diagnostic accuracy. RESULTS: Serum EFNA1 and MMP13 were identified, and showed significantly higher levels in ESCC patients compared to normal controls. An integrated Five-Biomarker Panel (iFBPanel) established by combining EFNA1, MMP13, carcino-embryonic antigen, Cyfra21-1 and squmaous cell carcinoma antigen had AUCs of 0.881 and 0.880 for ESCC in test and validation cohorts, respectively. Importantly, the iFBPanel also exhibited good performance in detecting early-stage ESCC patients (0.872 and 0.864). Furthermore, the iFBPanel was further empowered by AI technology which showed excellent diagnostic performance in early-stage ESCC (0.927 and 0.907). CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggested that serum EFNA1 and MMP13 could potentially assist ESCC detection, and provided an easy-to-use detection model that might help the diagnosis of early-stage ESCC.

Differences in pathogenic community assembly processes and their interactions with bacterial communities in river and lake ecosystems.

Pathogenic bacterial infections caused by water quality degradation are one of the most widespread environmental problems. Clarifying the structure of pathogens and their assembly mechanisms in lake ecosystems is vital to prevent the infestation of waterborne pathogens and maintain human health. However, the composition and assembly mechanisms of pathogenic bacterial communities in river and lake ecosystems are still poorly understood. In this study, we collected 17 water and 17 sediment samples from Lake Chaohu and its 11 inflow rivers. Sequencing of 16S rRNA genes was used to study bacterial pathogen communities. The results of the study showed that there was a significant difference (P < 0.05) in the composition of the pathogen community between riverine and lake habitats. Acinetobacter (36.49%) was the dominant bacterium in the river, whereas Flavobacterium (21.6%) was the most abundant bacterium in the lake. Deterministic processes (i.e., environmental filtering and species interaction) drove the assembly of pathogenic bacterial communities in the lake habitat, while stochastic processes shaped river pathogenic bacterial communities. Spearman correlation analysis showed that the α-diversity of bacterial communities was linearly and negatively linked to the relative abundance of pathogens. Having a higher bacterial community diversity had a suppressive effect on pathogen abundance. In addition, co-occurrence network analysis showed that bacterial communities were tightly linked to pathogenic bacteria. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella enterica were identified as keystone species in an inflow water sampling network (W_FR), reducing the complexity of the network. These results provide a reference for assessments of water quality safety and pathogenic bacteria posing risks to human health in large freshwater lakes.

Construction and analysis of evaluation model for medical students' innovation competency based on research-oriented biochemistry and molecular biology course in China.

Presently, a variety of policies and measures has implemented to enhance the scientific research and innovation ability of medical students, but in the process of practice, there are many problems, such as they lack of independent topic selection ability, weak scientific research skills, lack of autonomous learning ability, the research results are simple and ineffective, limited teacher guidance time and so on. This paper attempted to build an effective model for the promotion of medical students' scientific research and innovation ability, in order to establish an efficacy evaluation model of the "Medical students' Innovative Scientific Research Program." Undergraduates, graduate assistants, and tutors were interviewed with the Behavioral Event Interview technique, and a questionnaire of efficacy evaluation characteristics concluded from the interviews was formed. The questionnaire was conducted on medical students in the Medical students' Innovative Scientific Research Program, and the constructed model was analyzed using reliability analysis, validity analysis, and variation analysis. At the same time, the experimental teaching models are summarized and combed, and compared with other methods such as independent sample test. The results show the model could effectively evaluate the efficacy of the Medical students' Innovative Scientific Research Program and its teaching model is effective in cultivating medical students' learning and scientific research ability. It can provide theoretical support and practical reference for the evaluation and reform of the teaching modes related to the cultivation of scientific and innovative ability of medical students.

Seasonal succession of microbial community co-occurrence patterns and community assembly mechanism in coal mining subsidence lakes.

Coal mining subsidence lakes are classic hydrologic characteristics created by underground coal mining and represent severe anthropogenic disturbances and environmental challenges. However, the assembly mechanisms and diversity of microbial communities shaped by such environments are poorly understood yet. In this study, we explored aquatic bacterial community diversity and ecological assembly processes in subsidence lakes during winter and summer using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. We observed that clear bacterial community structure was driven by seasonality more than by habitat, and the α-diversity and functional diversity of the bacterial community in summer were significantly higher than in winter (p < 0.001). Canonical correspondence analysis indicated that temperature and chlorophyll-a were the most crucial contributing factors influencing the community season variations in subsidence lakes. Specifically, temperature and chlorophyll-a explained 18.26 and 14.69% of the community season variation, respectively. The bacterial community variation was driven by deterministic processes in winter but dominated by stochastic processes in summer. Compared to winter, the network of bacterial communities in summer exhibited a higher average degree, modularity, and keystone taxa (hubs and connectors in a network), thereby forming a highly complex and stable community structure. These results illustrate the clear season heterogeneity of bacterial communities in subsidence lakes and provide new insights into revealing the effects of seasonal succession on microbial assembly processes in coal mining subsidence lake ecosystems.

Wastewater treatment effectiveness is facilitated by crucial bacterial communities in the wetland ecosystem.

Microorganisms play essential roles in nutrient removal and biogeochemical cycling during wastewater treatment. However, little is known about the main roles of key functional bacterial communities in wastewater treatment processes. We collected 18 water samples and 15 sediment samples from the six operational subsystems of the constructed wetland, among which the contact oxidation pond, enhanced hybrid biofilm reactor, and central stabilization pond are the main wastewater treatment units in the constructed wetland, and then investigated the bacterial communities using 16S rRNA gene targeting and sequencing to address this knowledge gap. The results indicated that the composition of the bacterial community is closely related to the efficiency of pollutant removal. The abundant carbon metabolism function increased the removal of nitrate­nitrogen (NO3--N) and total nitrogen (TN) by the contact oxidation pond by 89.84 % and 38.91 %, respectively. The overlap of ecological niches and the presence of pathogenic bacteria substantially affect effluent wastewater treatment. Second, NO3--N (p < 0.001) was the most important factor driving the bacterial community composition in water and sediments. Furthermore, the positive structure was prevalent in the cooccurrence network of water samples (87.24 %) and sediments (76.53 %) of the wetland, and this positive structure with keystone species was critical for the adaptation of the bacterial community to environmental filtration. In summary, this study reveals the distribution patterns of bacterial communities in different wastewater treatment processes and their driving factors and provides new perspectives on the link between the bacterial community composition and wastewater treatment.

Recovery trajectories of the bacterial community at distances in the receiving river under wastewater treatment plant discharge.

Microbes in rivers are an important part of the biogeochemical cycle in aquatic ecosystems, and understanding the major factors that influence the composition of microbial communities has an important role in assessing and improving ecosystem functioning. A high-throughput 16 S rRNA gene sequencing technique was employed to sequence bacterial communities in 21 sediment samples and 21 water samples from an urban river WWTP (wastewater treatment plant) discharge. A systematic study of changes in bacterial community composition in downstream river sediment and water was conducted. The study found that compared with the bacterial diversity in the natural upstream area of the wastewater outfall, the bacterial diversity in the sediment lower reaches decreased significantly, while the bacterial abundance and diversity in the water increased significantly. The Mantel test and redundancy analysis showed that the downstream distance and physicochemical properties were significantly related to the succession of bacterial communities in the sediment downstream of the WWTP discharge. Among them, TOC (total organic carbon) was the most important factor affecting the change in the bacterial community in the downstream sediment. The physicochemical properties were significantly correlated with the succession of bacterial communities in the water downstream of the WWTP discharge. Among them, TN (total nitrogen), PO43--P (phosphorus phosphate) and TP (total phosphorus) were the main factors that affected the change in the bacterial community in the downstream water. Key taxa in the co-occurrence network at different distances downstream reflected the depth of the effect of the WWTP effluent on the bacterial community. The bacterial community in the lower reaches of the river sediment showed a strong recovery ability under the influence of pollutants, while the bacterial community in the lower reaches of the river water was difficult to recover under the influence of pollutants. In general, pollutants contained in effluent are the key to changing the composition of bacterial communities in the lower reaches of the river, but exogenous bacteria in effluent are not. This study provides a basis for further improving the effluent discharge standards of WWTPs in the future.

Role of Cell-Cell Junctions in Oesophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

Cell-cell junctions comprise various structures, including adherens junctions, tight junctions, desmosomes, and gap junctions. They link cells to each other in tissues and regulate tissue homeostasis in critical cellular processes. Recent advances in cell-cell junction research have led to critical discoveries. Cell-cell adhesion components are important for the invasion and metastasis of tumour cells, which are not only related to cell-cell adhesion changes, but they are also involved in critical molecular signal pathways. They are of great significance, especially given that relevant molecular mechanisms are being discovered, there are an increasing number of emerging biomarkers, targeted therapies are becoming a future therapeutic concern, and there is an increased number of therapeutic agents undergoing clinical trials. Oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), the most common histological subtype of oesophageal cancer, is one of the most common cancers to affect epithelial tissue. ESCC progression is accompanied by the abnormal expression or localisation of components at cell-cell junctions. This review will discuss the recent scientific developments related to the molecules at cell-cell junctions and their role in ESCC to offer valuable insights for readers, provide a global view of the relationships between position, construction, and function, and give a reference for future mechanistic studies, diagnoses, and therapeutic developments.

Role of Integrin ß1 in the progression and chemo-resistance of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Objective: Integrins have been shown to play an important role in the tumorigenesis of many cancers. In this work, we aimed to explore the expression and clinical value of Integrin α5ß1 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), and the effect of integrin ß1 on the development and chemo-resistance of ESCC cells. Methods: The expression profiling of integrins was analyzed in the mRNA expression dataset of ESCC. The expression of Integrin α5ß1 in 278 cases of ESCC tissues and 62 cases of paracancerous tissues was detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC). The association between the expression of Integrin α5ß1 and the survival of ESCC patients was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier analysis. The effect of Integrin ß1 on the proliferation, migration, and invasion of ESCC cells was examined by MTS, Transwell migration, and Transwell invasion assay. The effect of Integrin ß1 and L1 cell adhesion molecule (L1CAM) on cisplatin resistance was detected by MTS and the signal pathways involved were analyzed by Western blotting. Results: Integrin ß1 and Integrin α5 were significantly up-regulated in ESCC. High expression of Integrin ß1 was also related to worse overall survival of ESCC patients and patients with low levels of both Integrin ß1 and Integrin α5 showed the shortest survival. Results of IHC revealed that Integrin α5ß1 was up-regulated in ESCC and its high expression was associated with poor prognosis and could serve as an independent prognostic factor. siRNA-mediated Integrin ß1 silencing or antibody blocking restrained the proliferation, migration, and invasion of ESCC cells. Simultaneous knockdown of Integrin ß1 and L1CAM reduced the cisplatin resistance of ESCC cells. Further studies showed that knockdown of Integrin ß1 and L1CAM suppressed the activity of Akt signaling with or without cisplatin treatment. Moreover, dual high expression of Integrin ß1 and L1CAM was related to worse overall survival of ESCC patients treated with preoperative chemotherapy. Conclusion: Integrin α5ß1 was up-regulated in ESCC and could be used as a new prognostic indicator for ESCC patients. In addition, Integrin ß1 was involved in the proliferation, invasion, and chemo-resistance of ESCC cells.

Serum DSG2 as a potential biomarker for diagnosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and esophagogastric junction adenocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Exploration of serum biomarkers for early detection of upper gastrointestinal cancer is required. Here, we aimed to evaluate the diagnostic potential of serum desmoglein-2 (DSG2) in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and esophagogastric junction adenocarcinoma (EJA). METHODS: Serum DSG2 levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 459 participants including 151 patients with ESCC, 96 with EJA, and 212 healthy controls. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to evaluate diagnostic accuracy. RESULTS: Levels of serum DSG2 were significantly higher in patients with ESCC and EJA than those in healthy controls (P<0.001). Detection of serum DSG2 demonstrated an area under the ROC curve (AUC) value of 0.724, sensitivity of 38.1%, and specificity of 84.8% for the diagnosis of ESCC in the training cohort, and AUC 0.736, sensitivity 58.2%, and specificity 84.7% in the validation cohort. For diagnosis of EJA, measurement of DSG2 provided a sensitivity of 29.2%, a specificity of 90.2%, and AUC of 0.698. Similar results were observed for the diagnosis of early-stage ESCC (AUC 0.715 and 0.722, sensitivity 36.3 and 50%, and specificity 84.8 and 84.7%, for training and validation cohorts, respectively) and early-stage EJA (AUC 0.704, sensitivity 44.4%, and specificity 86.9%). Analysis of clinical data indicated that DSG2 levels were significantly associated with patient age and histological grade in ESCC (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Serum DSG2 may be a diagnostic biomarker for ESCC and EJA.

Construction of the Six-lncRNA Prognosis Signature as a Novel Biomarker in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is a common malignant gastrointestinal tumor threatening global human health. For patients diagnosed with ESCC, determining the prognosis is a huge challenge. Due to their important role in tumor progression, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) may be putative molecular candidates in the survival prediction of ESCC patients. Here, we obtained three datasets of ESCC lncRNA expression profiles (GSE53624, GSE53622, and GSE53625) from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. The method of statistics and machine learning including survival analysis and LASSO regression analysis were applied. We identified a six-lncRNA signature composed of AL445524.1, AC109439.2, LINC01273, AC015922.3, LINC00547, and PSPC1-AS2. Kaplan-Meier and Cox analyses were conducted, and the prognostic ability and predictive independence of the lncRNA signature were found in three ESCC datasets. In the entire set, time-dependent ROC curve analysis showed that the prediction accuracy of the lncRNA signature was remarkably greater than that of TNM stage. ROC and stratified analysis indicated that the combination of six-lncRNA signature with the TNM stage has the highest accuracy in subgrouping ESCC patients. Furthermore, experiments subsequently confirmed that one of the lncRNAs LINC01273 may play an oncogenic role in ESCC. This study suggested the six-lncRNA signature could be a valuable survival predictor for patients with ESCC and have potential to be an auxiliary biomarker of TNM stage to subdivide ESCC patients more accurately, which has important clinical significance.

Phytoplankton-Zooplankton Community Structure in Coal Mining Subsidence Lake.

Land subsidence from coal mining has shaped new artificial aquatic ecosystems, these subsidence lakes are known for their restricted ecological system, water pollution, and extreme habitat conditions. However, knowledge concerning the community structure of plankton in these types of water bodies is still limited. Therefore, both phytoplankton and zooplankton communities' abundance, distribution, and diversity, as well as relations of these communities to physicochemical water quality variables were analyzed, alongside the interaction between phytoplankton and zooplankton groups. The results indicate zooplankton abundance was 842.375 to 186,355.0 ind./L. Biomass ranged from 0.3408 to 10.0842 mg/L. Phytoplankton abundance varied between 0.541 × 106 cell/L and 52.340 × 106 cell/L while phytoplankton wet biomass ranged from 0.5123 to 5.6532 mg/L. Pearson correlation analysis revealed that both the zooplankton and phytoplankton total densities were significantly correlated with nutrients (TN, TP, PO43-) and CODcr; zooplankton abundance was significantly correlated with phytoplankton abundance. According to the biodiversity index of Shannon-Wiener, both phytoplankton and zooplankton revealed less biodiversity in the subsidence water region than in the Huihe river system and Xiangshun canal, with values ranging from 0.20 to 2.60 for phytoplankton and 1.18 to 2.45 for zooplankton; however, the phytoplankton community showed lower biodiversity index values compared to the zooplankton community. Overall, the knowledge gleaned from the study of plankton community structure and diversity represents a valuable approach for the evaluation of the ecological conditions within the subsidence lakes, which has significant repercussions for the management and protection of aquatic environments in mining areas.

Paradoxical Roles of Desmosomal Components in Head and Neck Cancer.

Desmosomes are intercellular adhesion complexes involved in various aspects of epithelial pathophysiology, including tissue homeostasis, morphogenesis, and disease development. Recent studies have reported that the abnormal expression of various desmosomal components correlates with tumor progression and poor survival. In addition, desmosomes have been shown to act as a signaling platform to regulate the proliferation, invasion, migration, morphogenesis, and apoptosis of cancer cells. The occurrence and progression of head and neck cancer (HNC) is accompanied by abnormal expression of desmosomal components and loss of desmosome structure. However, the role of desmosomal components in the progression of HNC remains controversial. This review aims to provide an overview of recent developments showing the paradoxical roles of desmosomal components in tumor suppression and promotion. It offers valuable insights for HNC diagnosis and therapeutics development.

Impact of different types of anthropogenic pollution on bacterial community and metabolic genes in urban river sediments.

Sediment bacterial communities play a crucial role in the biogeochemical cycle of nutrient elements in urban river. However, the distribution of nitrogen cycle genes on bacterial communities in urban rivers sediments is largely unknown. Here, 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing was used to analyze the composition, co-occurrence patterns and nitrogen cycle process of bacterial communities in urban river sediments under the influence of different exogenous pollution. The results revealed that bacterial communities had significant spatial heterogeneity in river sediments of different polluted areas, and the input of different exogenous pollutants shaped the abundance and distribution of nitrogen cycle-related genes in the sediments. In addition, denitrification process played a leading role in the nitrogen cycle of river sediments, and the genes associated with the nitrification process were rarely observed in all samples. The important bacterial taxonomic biomarkers of nitrogen cycling-related genes screened by random forest algorithm were Synergistia, WS6_Dojkabacteria and Caldisericia. Meanwhile, different co-occurrence patterns observed in different types of polluted areas clarified the impact of environmental filtration and niche differentiation on bacterial communities. In conclusion, this study reveals the nitrogen cycle process and the distribution of related genes mediated by bacterial communities under the impact of different anthropogenic contamination, and provides novel insights for the assembly of bacterial communities in urban river sediments.

Serum CYR61 as a potential biomarker for the diagnosis of esophagogastric junction tumor.

BACKGROUND: Esophagogastric junction tumor (EGJ) is a rare but fatal disease with a rapid rising incidence worldwide in the late 20 years, and it lacks a convenient and safe method for diagnosis. The present study aimed to evaluate the potential of serum CYR61 as a biomarker for the diagnosis of EGJ tumor. METHODS: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to estimate CYR61 levels in sera of 152 EGJ tumor patients and 137 normal controls. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) was carried out to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy. The Mann-Whitney's U test was used to compare the difference of serum levels of CYR61 between groups. And chi-square tests were employed to estimate the correlation of the positive rate of serum CYR61 between/among subgroups. RESULTS: Serum CYR61 levels were statistically lower in EGJ tumor and early-stage EGJ tumor patients than those in normal controls (P<0.0001). The sensitivity, specificity and the area under the curve (AUC) of this biomarker in EGJ tumor were 88.2%, 43.8% and 0.691, respectively, and those for early stage of EGJ tumor were 80.0%, 66.4% and 0.722, respectively. Analyses showed that there was no correlation between the clinical data and the levels of CYR61 (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: The present study showed that CYR61 might be a potential biomarker to assist the diagnosis of EGJ tumor.

Circulating Levels of L1-cell Adhesion Molecule as a Serum Biomarker for Early Detection of Gastric Cancer and Esophagogastric Junction Adenocarcinoma.

Background: Low serum L1 cell adhesion molecule (L1CAM) has been found in several malignant tumors. Here, we aimed to evaluate the diagnostic potential for serum L1CAM in patients with gastric cancers (GC) and esophagogastric junction adenocarcinoma (EJA). Methods: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was carried out to detect L1CAM level in sera of 148 GC patients, 59 EJA patients and 148 healthy controls. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) was employed to evaluate diagnostic accuracy. Results: The concentrations of serum L1CAM were significantly lower in GC and EJA than those in healthy controls (P<0.001). Detection of L1CAM provided a sensitivity of 83.1%, a specificity of 62.2%, and an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.769 (95% CI: 0.715-0.823) in diagnosing GC, and a sensitivity of 66.1%, a specificity of 62.2%, and an AUC of 0.672 (95% CI: 0.590-0.755) in diagnosing EJA. Similar results were observed in the diagnosis of early-stage GC (0.681 (95%CI: 0.596-0.766)) and early-stage EJA (0.674 (95%CI: 0.528-0.820)). Analysis of clinical data showed that the levels of L1CAM were significantly associated with lymph node metastasis in GC (P<0.05). Conclusions: Our study showed that serum L1CAM might be a diagnostic biomarker for GC and EJA.

Strong linkages between dissolved organic matter and the aquatic bacterial community in an urban river.

Aquatic bacterial communities play an important role in biogeochemical cycling in river ecosystems; however, knowledge of the linkages between bacterial communities and dissolved organic matter (DOM) in urban rivers is limited. Here, 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and parallel factor (PARAFAC) modeling of excitation-emission fluorescence spectroscopy were used to analyze the compositions, co-occurrence patterns, and interactions with chromophoric DOM (CDOM) of bacterial communities in urban river water samples influenced by different human activities. The results revealed that two protein-like components accounted for 65.2 ± 9.56% of the total variability in all three fluorescence components, which suggests that CDOM in urban rivers is mainly a microbial source. In addition to pH and DO, CDOM is also an important factor affecting bacterial community structure, and the main classes (Gammaproteobacteria and Clostridia) and genera (Limnohabitans and Alpinimonas) showed strong positive correlations with terrestrial humic-like C1 and tryptophan-like C2, respectively. When autotrophic and heterotrophic bacteria coexist in urban rivers, the production and degradation of CDOM will occur simultaneously. Furthermore, the riverine bacterial co-occurrence network had a nonrandom modular structure, which was mainly driven by classification correlation and bacterial function. The high abundance of genes related to xenobiotic metabolism, carbon metabolism and nitrogen metabolism in the urban river indicated that anthropogenic activity may be the dominant selective force altering the bacterial communities. Overall, our results provide a novel view for the assembly of bacterial communities in urban river ecosystems under the influence of different human activities.

The Diagnostic Value of Serum L1CAM in Patients With Colorectal Cancer.

OBJECTIVE: Colorectal cancer is one of the most important malignant cancer in the world with high incidence and mortality. Some studies have found that the expression of low serum L1 cell adhesion molecule is associated with poor prognosis in some malignancies. It is suggested that L1 cell adhesion molecule is a candidate serum marker for certain tumors. However, the relationship between serum L1 cell adhesion molecule and colorectal cancer, especially about the diagnostic value, is rarely reported. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic potential of serum L1 cell adhesion molecule in patients with colorectal cancer. METHODS: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was carried out to detect L1 cell adhesion molecule level in sera of 229 patients with colorectal cancer and 145 normal controls. Receiver operating characteristic curves were employed to calculate the accuracy of diagnosis. RESULTS: The levels of serum L1 cell adhesion molecule in the colorectal cancer group were significantly lower than that in normal controls (P < .05). In the normal group, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (area under the curve) of all colorectal cancer was 0.781 (95% confidence interval: 0.734-0.828) and early-stage colorectal cancer was 0.764 (95% confidence interval: 0.705-0.823). With optimized cutoff of 17.760 ng/mL, L1 cell adhesion molecule showed certain diagnostic value with specificity of 90.3% and sensitivities of 43.2% and 36.2% in colorectal cancer and early-stage colorectal cancer, respectively. Clinical data analysis showed that the levels of L1 cell adhesion molecule were significantly correlated with gender (P < .05) and early and late stages (P < .05). Furthermore, when compared with carcinoembryonic antigen, serum L1 cell adhesion molecule had significantly improved diagnostic accuracy for both colorectal cancer and early-stage colorectal cancer. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrated that serum L1 cell adhesion molecule might be served as a potential biomarker for the diagnosis of colorectal cancer.

Linking bacterial community shifts with changes in the dissolved organic matter pool in a eutrophic lake.

Aquatic bacterial communities play crucial roles in the circulation of nutrients in watershed ecosystems. However, the interaction between bacterial communities and chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) in freshwater ecosystems has not been studied in depth. In our study, we examined the constitution and interactions of CDOM with the bacterial community in Lake Chaohu and its inflow rivers under the influence of different exogenous pollutants. The results revealed that the bacterial community diversity in the inflow rivers was significantly lower than that in the lake sites. Clustering of different types of polluted inflow rivers integrated with the most abundant genera observed in specific areas indicated that environmentally guided species selection had a large impact on the composition of aquatic bacterial communities. Moreover, our study suggests that communities in lake environments may be more susceptible to interference through a variety of physiologies or via functional redundancy, allowing them to preserve their community structure. Through linear discriminant analysis effect size (Lefse) methods, we revealed that some taxa (from phylum to genus) were consistently enriched in the lake sites. Based on correlation network analysis results, the supersession niches of bacterial community members related to different CDOM in the biogeochemical process was determined. This study provides an ecological basis for the control of external pollution and the protection of the water environment in watershed ecosystems.