New mechanistic insights of anti-obesity by sleeve gastrectomy-altered gut microbiota and lipid metabolism.

Background: The obesity epidemic has been on the rise due to changes in living standards and lifestyles. To combat this issue, sleeve gastrectomy (SG) has emerged as a prominent bariatric surgery technique, offering substantial weight reduction. Nevertheless, the mechanisms that underlie SG-related bodyweight loss are not fully understood. Methods: In this study, we conducted a collection of preoperative and 3-month postoperative serum and fecal samples from patients who underwent laparoscopic SG at the First Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University (Jinan, China). Here, we took an unbiased approach of multi-omics to investigate the role of SG-altered gut microbiota in anti-obesity of these patients. Non-target metabolome sequencing was performed using the fecal and serum samples. Results: Our data show that SG markedly increased microbiota diversity and Rikenellaceae, Alistipes, Parabacteroides, Bactreoidales, and Enterobacteraies robustly increased. These compositional changes were positively correlated with lipid metabolites, including sphingolipids, glycerophospholipids, and unsaturated fatty acids. Increases of Rikenellaceae, Alistipes, and Parabacteroide were reversely correlated with body mass index (BMI). Conclusion: In conclusion, our findings provide evidence that SG induces significant alterations in the abundances of Rikenellaceae, Alistipes, Parabacteroides, and Bacteroidales, as well as changes in lipid metabolism-related metabolites. Importantly, these changes were found to be closely linked to the alleviation of obesity. On the basis of these findings, we have identified a number of microbiotas that could be potential targets for treatment of obesity.

Long noncoding RNA FTX is associated with prognosis of glioma patients.

BACKGROUND: Long noncoding RNAs play influential roles in the progression of many types of human malignancies. The present study aimed to explore the prognostic value of long noncoding RNA FTX (FTX) on patients with glioma. METHODS: FTX expression in glioma specimens and matched adjacent non-neoplasm specimens was examined by a quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction assay. Furthermore, assays of the relationships between FTX expression and clinicopathologic characteristics of patients with glioma were also performed. Kaplan-Meier methods were applied for the assays of the overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) of patients and Cox regression assays were used to analyze the clinical value of FTX used as a possible biomarker. RESULTS: FTX levels were significantly up-regulated in glioma specimens compared to the paired non-neoplasm specimens (p < 0.01). Furthermore, high FTX expression in neoplasm tissues was dramatically associated with World Health Organization grade (p = 0.001) and Karnofsky Performance Score (p = 0.009). Kaplan-Meier assays with 187 patients revealed that patients with high level of FTX expression displayed poorer OS (p = 0.002) and PFS (p = 0.000). Subsequently, multivariable Cox regression analysis identified FTX expression as an independent prognostic factor of unfavorable survivals in glioma (OS: p = 0.001; PFS: p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicated that FTX may be a novel predictor for prognostic assessment of glioma patients. However, studies conducted with larger numbers of patients are essential to confirm our findings.

Effects of the combination of As2O3 and AZT on proliferation inhibition and apoptosis induction of hepatoma HepG2 cells following silencing of Egr-1.

CONTEXT: Previous studies have demonstrated that 3'-azido-3'-deoxythymidine (AZT) and arsenic trioxide (As2O3), traditional chemotherapy agents, can synergically inhibit the growth of hepatocellular carcinoma cells. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying As2O3 and AZT anti-hepatoma activity are unknown. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the role of early growth response protein 1 (Egr-1) in the process of As2O3 combined with AZT inhibiting proliferation and inducing apoptosis of human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cells, and explore the possible mechanism. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The expression of Egr-1 was silenced using siRNA, and then HepG2 cells were treated with As2O3 (2 µM) and AZT (20 µM). The rates of cell inhibition and apoptosis were determined by the 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazoliumbromide (MTT) method and flow cytometry, respectively. The mRNA and protein expression of p53, caspase-3, and Egr-1 were detected by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting, respectively. RESULTS: The inhibitory rate of As2O3 (2 µM) combined with AZT (20 µM) on proliferation of HepG2 cells was significantly higher than that of As2O3 alone. The combination index (CI) values were 0.2