Prognostic significance of negative lymph node count in microsatellite instability-high colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND: Microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) tumors, with elevated tumor mutational burden and expression of neoantigens, represent a distinct immune-activated subpopulation in colorectal cancer (CRC), characterized by strong lymph node reaction, locally advanced tumor and higher total lymph nodes harvested (TLN), but less metastatic lymph nodes and fewer incidence of III-IV stage. Host immune response to tumor and lymph nodes may be an important prognostic factor. However, N stage and LNR (Lymph-Node Ratio) have limitations in predicting the prognosis of MSI-H patients. Negative lymph node count (NLC) provided a more precise representation of immune activation status and extent of tumor metastasis. The study aims to detect prognostic significance of NLC in MSI-H CRC patients, and compare it with N stage, TLN and LNR. METHODS: Retrospective data of 190 consecutive MSI-H CRC patients who received curative resection were collected. Survival analyses were performed using the Kaplan-Meier method. Clinicopathological variables including NLC, N stage, TLN and LNR were studied in univariate and multivariate COX regression analyses. ROC (receiver operating characteristic curve) and concordance index were employed to compare the differences in predictive efficacy between NLC, N stage, TLN and LNR. RESULTS: Patients with increased NLC experienced a significantly improved 5-years DFS and OS in Kaplan-Meier analysis, univariate analysis, and multivariate analysis, independent of potential confounders examined. Increased NLC corresponded to elevated 5-years DFS rate and 5-years OS rate. AUC (area under curve) and concordance index of NLC in DFS and OS predicting were both significantly higher than N stage, TLN and LNR. CONCLUSIONS: Negative lymph node is an important independent prognostic factor for MSI-H patients. Reduced NLC is associated with tumor recurrence and poor survival, which is a stronger prognostic factor than N stage, TLN and LNR.

Efficient preparation of anisotropic cellulose sponge from cotton stalks: An excellent material for separation applications.

Water pollution and solid waste resource reuse demand immediate attention and research. Here, we present a method to create anisotropic cellulose sponges from cotton stalk waste. Using the inherent structure of cotton stalks, we selectively remove lignin and hemicellulose via acid and alkali pretreatment. This process yields cellulose sponges with a natural pore structure. Our findings demonstrate that these sponges retain the original pore configuration of cotton stalks, providing excellent connectivity and compressibility due to their unique anisotropic three-dimensional structure. Moreover, these sponges exhibit exceptional super-hydrophilic and underwater super-oleophobic properties, with underwater oil contact angles exceeding 150° for all tested oils. External pressure can reduce the pore size of the cellulose sponge, facilitating the gravity-driven separation and removal of dyes and emulsions. Remarkably, removal efficiencies for Methylene Blue (MB), Congo Red (CR), water-in-oil (w/o) emulsions, and oil-in-water (o/w) emulsions exceed 99 %, 97 %, 99 %, and 99 %, respectively, highlighting superior removal and recyclability. Further investigation into the mechanisms of dye and emulsion removal employs X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) characterization and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. These insights lay the groundwork for the efficient recycling and resource utilization of waste cotton stalks, offering promising applications in water purification.

P4HA2 promotes tumor progression and is transcriptionally regulated by SP1 in colorectal cancer.

P4HA2 has been implicated in various malignant tumors; however, its expression and functional role in colorectal cancer (CRC) remain poorly elucidated. This study aims to investigate the involvement of P4HA2 in CRC metastasis and progression, uncovering the underlying mechanisms. In colorectal cancer (CRC), P4HA2 exhibited overexpression, and elevated levels of P4HA2 expression were associated with an unfavorable prognosis. Functional assays demonstrated P4HA2's regulation of cell proliferation, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) both in vitro and in vivo. Additionally, the AGO1 expression was correlated with P4HA2, and depletion of AGO1 reversed the proliferation and EMT function induced by P4HA2. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and luciferase assays suggested that the transcription factor SP1 binds to the promoter sequence of P4HA2, activating its expression in CRC. This study unveiled SP1 as a transcriptional regulator of P4HA2 in CRC and AGO1 is a probable target of P4HA2. In conclusion, P4HA2 emerges as a potential prognostic biomarker and promising therapeutic target in colorectal cancer.

Fluorine-Functionalized Covalent Organic Framework Superhydrophobic Modified Melamine Sponge for Efficient oil-water Separation.

Hydrophobic sponges have attracted significant interest in oil spills and water-oil separation as potential absorption materials due to their desirable absorptivity, selectivity, and elasticity. In this paper, a hydrophilic melamine sponge (MS) is transferred into a superhydrophobic sponge via polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) modification followed by in situ growth of fluorine-functionalized covalent organic framework (denoted as TFA-COF) nanoparticles. Therefore, the PDMS@TFA-COF@MS sponge was successfully prepared for efficient oil-water separation. The resultant PDMS@TFA-COF@MS exhibits superhydrophobic properties with a water contact angle of 156.7°. The superhydrophobic sponge has selectivity adsorption for different organic solvents and oils from water as well as oil-water separation efficiency (96% after 30 cycles) and oil absorption capacity (12 646% after 30 cycles). Meanwhile, the PDMS@TFA-COF@MS sponge exhibits strong thermal stability and flame retardancy in addition to having exceptional resistance to chemical corrosion in acidic, alkaline, and salt solutions. Moreover, the surfactant-stabilized oil-in-water emulsion could be efficiently separated by the sponge. Therefore, the prepared superhydrophobic PDMS@TFA-COF@MS sponge demonstrates possible uses for long-life oil-water separation applications.

A core-shell structured AuNPs@ZnCo-MOF SERS substrate for sensitive and selective detection of thiram.

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) enables pesticide residue monitoring to become facile and efficient. In this study, a core-shell structured gold nanoparticles@ZnCo metal-organic framework (AuNPs@ZnCo-MOF) SERS substrate was designed and successfully synthesized for efficient and selective detection of thiram. The bimetallic ZnCo-MOF shell can not only enrich the targeted molecules in the electromagnetic field because of its excellent absorptive capacity, but also act as a stabilized matrix for protecting the AuNPs from aggregation. The AuNPs@ZnCo-MOFs exhibited a high enhancement factor (EF) of 3.51 × 106 and a low detection limit of 1 × 10-7 mol L-1. Besides, the substrate material showed exceptional stability for up to 28 days at room temperature. The AuNPs@ZnCo-MOFs were used to detect thiram which displayed wide linearity (1 × 10-7 to 1 × 10-4 mol L-1) and high recoveries (83.45-99.61%). Moreover, the AuNPs@ZnCo-MOF SERS substrate exhibited excellent anti-interference ability and size selectivity for the target molecules. These indicate that the AuNPs@ZnCo-MOF substrate has great potential for the detection of thiram residues in practical applications.

Efficient extraction based on a polydimethylsiloxane/bimetallic ZnCo-MOF carbonization sponge coupled with GC-MS for the rapid analysis of volatile compounds in cumin.

A novel porous polydimethylsiloxane/bimetallic ZnCo-MOF carbonization (PDMS/ZnCo-MOF@C) sponge was successfully fabricated, followed by its utilization in GC-MS for the high efficiency extraction and determination of volatile compounds in cumin. The PDMS/ZnCo-MOF@C sponge exhibits outstanding properties with a considerable adsorption capacity, high surface area, and large pore volume and has shown potential as an ideal adsorbent for the separation and preconcentration of trace volatile compounds. The effect of different parameters on the extraction efficiency were investigated. Excellent analytical performances were achieved for the representative compounds (ß-pinene, p-cymene, γ-terpinene, cuminaldehyde, and linalyl acetate), including wide linearity (2.31-440.1 ng) with high correlation coefficients (R2 ≥ 0.9979), low LODs (1.02-3.11 ng) and LOQs (2.45-7.08 ng), and satisfactory precision (intra-day RSDs ≤ 2.89% and inter-day RSDs ≤ 4.14%). The optimal method was applied for the analysis of cumin from different regions and 44 volatile compounds were identified. The correlation between the different regions of cumin and volatile compounds was explored using multivariate statistical analysis. These results demonstrated that PDMS/ZnCo-MOF@C is an efficient, simple and sensitive material for use in the pretreatment technique for the determination of the volatile compounds in aromatic plants.

LAMB3 Promotes Intestinal Inflammation Through SERPINA3 and Is Directly Transcriptionally Regulated by P65 in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

BACKGROUND: Various extracellular matrix (ECM) reshaping events are involved in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). LAMB3 is a vital subunit of laminin-332, an important ECM component. Data on the biological function of LAMB3 in intestinal inflammation are lacking. Our aim is to discuss the effect of LAMB3 in IBD. METHODS: LAMB3 expression was assessed in cultured intestinal epithelial cells, inflamed mucosal tissues of patients and mouse colitis models. RNA sequencing, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting were used to detect the LAMB3 expression distribution and potential downstream target genes. Dual-luciferase assays and chromatin immunoprecipitation-quantitative polymerase chain reaction were used to determine whether P65 could transcriptionally activate LAMB3 under tumor necrosis factor α stimulation. RESULTS: LAMB3 expression was increased in inflammatory states in intestinal epithelial cells and colonoids and was associated with adverse clinical outcomes in Crohn's disease. Knockdown of LAMB3 inhibited the expression of proinflammatory cytokines. Mechanistically, LAMB3 expression was directly transcriptionally activated by P65 and was inhibited by nuclear factor kappa B inhibitors under tumor necrosis factor α stimulation. Furthermore, RNA sequencing and replenishment experiments revealed that LAMB3 upregulated SERPINA3 to promote intestinal inflammation via the integrin α3ß1/FAK pathway. CONCLUSION: We propose that LAMB3 could serve as a potential therapeutic target of IBD and a predictor of intestinal stenosis of Crohn's disease. Our findings demonstrate the important role of ECM in the progression of IBD and offer an experimental basis for the treatment and prognosis of IBD.

Treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer with BRAF V600E mutation: A multicenter real-world study in China.

BACKGROUND: BRAF V600E mutant-metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) is characterized by its short survival time. Treatment approaches vary depending on whether or not the metastases are initially resectable. The benefit of metastasectomy remains unclear, and the optimal first-line treatment is controversial. This study aimed to describe the prognosis of BRAF V600E mutant-mCRC, analyze the recurrence pattern in resectable patients, and explore the optimal first-line treatment for unresectable patients. METHODS: Patients diagnosed with BRAF V600E mutant-mCRC between February 2014 and January 2022 in five hospitals were enrolled. Date on clinical and pathological characteristics, treatment features, and survival outcomes were collected. RESULTS: Of the 220 included patients, 64 initially resectable patients had a significantly longer overall survival (OS) (37.07 vs. 20.20 months, P < 0.001) than initially unresectable patients. Of 156 unresectable patients, 54 received doublet (FOLFOX, XELOX or FOLFIRI) or triplet (FOLFOXIRI) chemotherapies (Chemo), 55 received Chemo plus Bevacizumab (Chemo+Bev), and 33 received vemurafenib plus cetuximab and irinotecan (VIC). The VIC regimen had a better progression-free survival (PFS) (12.70 months) than the Chemo (6.70 months, P < 0.001) and Chemo+Bev (8.8 months, P = 0.044) regimens. Patients treated with VIC had the best overall response rate (60.16%, P < 0.001), disease control rate (93.94%, P < 0.001) and conversional resection rate (24.24%, P = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: Metastasectomy is beneficial to the survival of patients with BRAF V600E mutant-mCRC. For initially unresectable patients, VIC as first-line therapy is associated with a better prognosis and efficacy than doublet and triplet chemotherapy with or without bevacizumab.

Determination of volatile components in cumin by microwave-assisted PDMS/GO/DES headspace solid phase extraction combined with GC-MS.

A novel approach based on polydimethylsiloxane/graphene oxide/deep eutectic solvent (PDMS/GO/DES) sponge headspace solid phase extraction followed by GC-MS was successfully developed to determine the volatile components in cumin. The PDMS/GO/DES exhibits outstanding properties with high adsorption capacity and good chemical stability, and has shown its potentiality as an ideal adsorbent for the extraction of volatile compounds. The influence factors of the extraction process were investigated. Excellent analytical performances were achieved, including wide linearity (0.60-107.72 ng) with high correlation coefficients (R2 ≥ 0.9951), low LODs (0.23-9.23 ng) and LOQs (0.54-18.47 ng), satisfactory precision (intra-day RSDs ≤ 2.85% and inter-day RSDs ≤ 3.92%). Under the optimal extraction conditions, the volatile components in 17 cumin samples from four origins in Xinjiang were analyzed and 31 compounds were identified. PCA was used to establish the relationship between the origins and the volatile compounds for further discriminant analysis. The results showed that the PDMS/GO/DES method was a rapid, simple and sensitive technique for the analysis of volatile components in spices.

Solid-phase extraction based on PDMS/ionic liquid sponge followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry for rapid and sensitive determination of volatile components in lavender.

INTRODUCTION: Due to the complexity and the low concentrations of volatile components in aromatic plants, sample pretreatment is an important step in the whole analytical procedure. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to propose a novel, sensitive and fast approach to determine the volatile components in lavender. METHODS: The 1-butyl-3-(propyltrimethoxysilane)imidazolium chloride ([BPtmsim]Cl) ionic liquid was introduced onto the surface of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to prepare a novel PDMS/[BPtmsim]Cl sponge with large surface area, good sorption performance, and reusability. A solid-phase extraction method was developed based on PDMS/[BPtmsim]Cl sponge combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). RESULTS: The effects of the various experimental parameters on the extraction efficiency were investigated. The optimal conditions were [BPtmsim]Cl amount of 0.3 g, 1:4 as the mass ratio of PDMS/[BPtmsim]Cl to lavender sample, microwave power of 700 W, microwave time of 10 min, and n-hexane as the desorption solvent. The method validation results showed good linearity (10-800 µg/ml), high correlation coefficient (R2 ≥ 0.9991), low limits of detection (1.73-2.50 ng/µl), and limits of quantification (4.10-5.11 ng/µl). The interday and intraday precision with relative standard deviation (RSD) values were below 1.93% and 4.71%, respectively. Under the optimal extraction conditions, 16 lavender samples from three different species were analysed and a total of 57 volatile compounds were identified. The correlation between different species of lavender and volatile components was explored using principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). CONCLUSION: The results showed that PDMS/[BPtmsim]Cl extraction is a rapid, highly efficient, and sensitive technique for the determination of volatile components in complex plant samples.

Metabolic pathway-based molecular subtyping of colon cancer reveals clinical immunotherapy potential and prognosis.

PURPOSE: Colon cancer presents challenges to clinical diagnosis and management due to its high heterogeneity. For more efficient and convenient diagnosis and treatment of colon cancer, we are committed to characterizing the molecular features of colon cancer by pioneering a classification system based on metabolic pathways. METHODS: Based on the 113 metabolic pathways and genes collected in the previous stage, we scored and filtered the metabolic pathways of each sample in the training set by ssGSEA, and obtained 16 metabolic pathways related to colon cancer recurrence. In consistent clustering of training set samples with recurrence-related metabolic pathway scores, we identified two robust molecular subtypes of colon cancer (MC1 and MC2). Furthermore, we performed multi-angle analysis on the survival differences of subtypes, metabolic characteristics, clinical characteristics, functional enrichment, immune infiltration, differences with other subtypes, stemness indices, TIDE prediction, and drug sensitivity, and finally constructed colon cancer prognostic model. RESULTS: The results showed that the MC1 subtype had a poor prognosis based on higher immune activity and immune checkpoint gene expression. The MC2 subtype is associated with high metabolic activity and low expression of immune checkpoint genes and a better prognosis. The MC2 subtype was more responsive to PD-L1 immunotherapy than the MC1 subclass. However, we did not observe significant differences in tumor mutational burden between the two. CONCLUSION: Two molecular subtypes of colon cancer based on metabolic pathways have distinct immune signatures. Constructing prognostic models based on subtype differential genes provides valuable reference for personalized therapy targeting unique tumor metabolic signatures.

Intestinal Microbiota: The Driving Force behind Advances in Cancer Immunotherapy.

In recent years, cancer immunotherapy has become a breakthrough method to solve solid tumors. It uses immune checkpoint inhibitors to interfere with tumor immune escape to coordinate anti-tumor therapy. However, immunotherapy has an individualized response rate. Moreover, immune-related adverse events and drug resistance are still urgent issues that need to be resolved, which may be attributed to the immune imbalance caused by immune checkpoint inhibitors. Microbiome research has fully revealed the metabolic-immune interaction relationship between the microbiome and the host. Surprisingly, sequencing technology further proved that intestinal microbiota could effectively intervene in tumor immunotherapy and reduce the incidence of adverse events. Therefore, cancer immunotherapy under the intervention of intestinal microbiota has innovatively broadened the anti-tumor landscape and is expected to become an active strategy to enhance individualized responses.

Polydimethylsiloxane/graphene oxide/ß-cyclodextrin sponge as a solid-phase extraction sorbent coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry for rapid adsorption and sensitive determination of lavender essential oil.

An adsorbent polydimethylsiloxane/graphene oxide/ß-cyclodextrin sponge, which possessed the merits of high surface area, chemical stability, environment friendly, and excellent extraction capacity, was successfully fabricated. Based on the advantages, a novel microwave-assisted headspace solid-phase extraction method for lavender essential oil using polydimethylsiloxane/graphene oxide/ß-cyclodextrin sponge as adsorbents was developed in this study. Various experimental parameters were studied. The optimal extraction conditions were as follows: 1 mg/mL as dopamine solution concentration, graphene oxide dosages of 30 mg, microwave power of 700 W, microwave irradiation time of 10 min, and desorption solvent of n-hexane. Under the optimal extraction condition, linearities ranging from 10 to 800 ng were achieved for six representative compounds with a correlation coefficients value of >0.99. The intra-day and inter-day precisions were in the ranges of 0.40-1.56 and 0.67-2.56%, respectively. Finally, the proposed technique was applied to analyze essential oil constituents in 14 samples of three lavender varieties, and 48 compounds were identified. Lavender varieties were distinguished using principal component analysis and partial least squares discriminant analysis. The results showed that the method developed in this study is a novel, simple, and sensitive method for the determination of essential oil in complex plant samples.

Cut-off value of ulcerative colitis endoscopic index of severity (UCEIS) score for predicting the need for pouch construction in ulcerative colitis: results of a multicenter study with long-term follow-up.

BACKGROUND: Total proctocolectomy with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) was the first choice for the surgical treatment of the ulcerative colitis (UC) patients. The data on the predictive value of the ulcerative colitis endoscopic index of severity (UCEIS) for the need for IPAA in UC patients is scarce. We aimed to establish the UCEIS cut-off value to further analyse whether the UCEIS cut-off was suitable for predicting the need for IPAA in UC patients. METHODS: The clinical data of UC patients from June 1986 to March 2020 at our institute were retrospectively assessed. The UCEIS scores recorded at the time of the first colonoscopy after hospitalization were used in the study. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed to determine the UCEIS cut-off value for predicting the need for IPAA. RESULTS: A total of 283 UC patients were included in the study, with a median UCEIS of 4. During a median follow-up of 13 years, 80 patients (28.3%) received surgery invention, among whom 75 (93.8%) underwent IPAA surgery and 5 (6.2%) received subtotal colectomy with permanent ostomy. A UCEIS cut-off of 6 had the most significant area under the curve of 0.769 for predicting the need for IPAA (P < 0.001), with a sensitivity of 72.0% and specificity of 81.8%. UCEIS ≥6 was an independent predictive factor for the need for IPAA (P < 0.001) and malignant transformation (P = 0.010). Patients with UCEIS ≥6 had a significantly shorter IPAA-free survival time than those with UCEIS <6 (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: UCEIS ≥6 may be a threshold value for decision-making for IPAA and should be recommended for UC patients for reducing the incidence of malignant transformation.

Proteomics analysis of tissue small extracellular vesicles reveals protein panels for the reoccurrence prediction of colorectal cancer.

Many stage II/III colorectal cancer (CRC) patients might relapse after routine treatment and there is a great need of reliable biomarkers for predicting its reoccurrence risk. Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) could regulate many pathophysiological processes of diseases, which are promising source for biomarker discovery. In this study, we implemented a MS-based workflow that utilizes data-dependent acquisition (DDA) for discovery and parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) for validation of high relapse risk related biomarkers. We compared the protein profiling of sEVs from CRC tissues and paired adjacent tissues in relapsed group (n = 5) and non-relapsed group (n = 5). 417 and 1140 proteins were differentially expressed between the tumor tissues and adjacent tissues in relapsed group and non-relapsed group, respectively. Bioinformatics analysis showed that immunity of the relapsed patients (Z-score - 0.69) was relatively poorer than the non-relapsed patients (Z-score 2.59), while chronic inflammatory response was activated (Z-score 3.0), which might enhance the reoccurrence risk. Four proteins (HLA-DPA1, S100P, NUP205, PCNA) showed significant expressions in the adjacent tissues of the relapsed group by PRM validation. ROC analysis of HLA-DPA1 (AUC = 0.96) achieved the best classification accuracy in separating the relapsed group and the non-relapsed group. Our data demonstrate that tissue-derived sEVs harbor prognostic proteomic signatures of CRC. SIGNIFICANCE: In this research, our proteomics analysis of tissue sEVs revealed that poor immunity as well as chronic inflammatory of the CRC relapsed patient likely lead to poor prognosis and high risk of reoccurrence. The significant expression levels of four proteins (HLA-DPA1, S100P, NUP205, PCNA) in the adjacent tissues of the relapsed group might be used to predict the risk of relapse in postoperative follow-ups.

Non-invasive SERS serum detection technology combined with multivariate statistical algorithm for simultaneous screening of cervical cancer and breast cancer.

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), as a rapid, reliable and non-destructive spectral detection technology, has made a series of breakthrough achievements in screening and pre-diagnosis of various cancerous tumors. In this paper, high-performance gold nanoparticles/785 porous silicon photonic crystals (Au NPs/785 PSi PhCs) active SERS substrates were specially designed for serum testing, and realized highly sensitive detection of serum from healthy people, patients with cervical cancer and breast cancer. Based on the SERS spectra of the three groups of serum, the significant differences between the healthy group and cancer group at 1030 cm-1 and 1051 cm-1 were analyzed, and the similar but different serum SERS spectra of cervical cancer and breast cancer patients were compared. In addition, the spectral difference detected by SERS technology combined with a multivariate statistical algorithm was used to distinguish three kinds of serum. The serum SERS spectral sensitive bands were extracted by recursive weighted partial least squares (rPLS), and the three classification diagnosis models were established by combining orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and principal component analysis support vector machine (PCA-SVM) for synchronous classification and discrimination of the three groups of serum. The diagnostic results showed that the overall screening accuracy of three models were 93.28%, 97.77% and 94.78%, respectively. These above results confirmed that the Au NPs/785 PSi PhCs can realize super-sensitive detection of serum, and the established diagnostic model has great potential for pre-diagnosis and simultaneous screening of cervical cancer and breast cancer.

Establishment of a reliable scheme for obtaining highly stable SERS signal of biological serum.

As a rapid and non-destructive biological serum detection method, SERS technology was widely used in the screening and medical diagnosis of various diseases by combining the analysis of serum SERS spectrum and multivariate statistical algorithm. Because of the high complexity of serum components and the variability of SERS spectra, which often resulted in the phenomenon that the SERS spectrum of the same biological serum was significantly different due to the different test conditions. In this experiment, through the dilution treatment of the serum and the systematic test of the serum of all concentration gradients with lasers of wavelength of 785, 633 and 532 nm, the most suitable conditions for detecting the serum were investigated. The experimental results showed that only when the serum is diluted to low concentration (10 ppm), the SERS spectrum with high reproducibility and stability could be obtained, furthermore, the low concentration serum had weak tolerance to laser, and 532 nm laser was not suitable for serum detection. In this paper, a set of test scheme for obtaining highly stable serum SERS spectra was established by using high-performance gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) as the active substrate of SERS. Through comparative analysis of SERS spectrum of serum of normal people and cervical cancer, the reliability of the established low-concentration serum test program was verified, as well as its great potential advantages in disease screening and diagnosis.

Increased AOC1 Expression Promotes Cancer Progression in Colorectal Cancer.

BACKGROUND: Amine oxidase copper containing 1 (AOC1) is a gene whose biological function in colorectal cancer (CRC) has not been elucidated. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical significance of AOC1 expression in CRC and its biological function in CRC cell lines. MATERIALS AND METHODS: AOC1 expression levels were examined in paired CRC and peritumoral tissues, and distant liver metastatic tissues were examined using quantitative real-time PCR, western blotting, and immunohistochemistry staining. The log-rank test and Cox regression model were used to analyze the relationship between AOC1 expression and prognosis. Proliferation assays (Cell Counting Kit-8 and colony formation assays), migration assays (Transwell and wound healing assays) and xenograft tumor formation in nude mice were performed to assess the biological role of AOC1 in CRC cells. RESULTS: AOC1 expression significantly increased in human CRC tissues, especially in liver metastases, and was associated with a worse prognosis. In addition, AOC1 had higher expression in tumor organoids than in normal organoids, suggesting that it was highly expressed in the tumor epithelium. Functional analysis demonstrated that AOC1 knockdown inhibited the proliferation and migration of CRC cells by inducing EMT in vitro. Xenograft tumor formation in nude mice showed that knockdown of AOC1 inhibited the tumor xenografts growth in vivo. CONCLUSION: High expression of AOC1 was significantly associated with worse clinical outcomes, was an independent risk factor for poor prognosis, and promoted aggressive CRC cell phenotypes. AOC1 is expected to become a novel biomarker for predicting the prognosis of patients with CRC and an effective therapeutic target in clinical practice.

Polydimethylsiloxane/ZIF-8@GO sponge headspace solid-phase extraction followed by GC-MS for the analysis of lavender essential oil.

A novel microwave-assisted (MA) headspace solid-phase extraction (HS-SPE) based on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)/ZIF-8@GO sponge was developed for the simultaneous extraction and determination of essential oil constituents in lavender. The PDMS/ZIF-8@GO sponge with a high surface area and excellent adsorption capacity was successfully applied in the HS-SPE process. Microwave-assisted coupled with PDMS/ZIF-8@GO sponge headspace solid-phase extraction followed by GC-MS was proposed. Different experimental parameters were investigated. The optimal conditions were found to be as follows: 2:1 as the quality ratio of ZIF-8 to GO, ZIF-8@GO dosage of 30 mg, microwave power of 600 W, extraction time of 10 min and desorption solvent of n-hexane. This method was successfully applied to the analysis of 11 samples of lavender in different varieties. A total of 52 compounds were identified by the proposed method. A good linearity was observed from 14 to 800 ng with a correlation coefficient (R2) value of >0.99. Multivariate statistical analysis was used to establish the relationship between the varieties and the volatile components for further discriminant analysis. These results demonstrated that the MA-PDMS/ZIF-8@GO is an efficient, sensitive and small sample consumption method for the determination of the essential oil in dried plant materials.

Polydimethylsiloxane/ionic liquid sponge used in headspace solid-phase extraction coupled with GC-MS for rapid analysis of essential oil in lavender.

A headspace (HS) solid-phase extraction (SPE) based on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)/ionic liquid (IL) sponge was developed for the extraction of lavender essential oil. The PDMS after loading of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrachloroferrate ([BMIM]FeCl4 ) with a high surface area and excellent adsorption capacity was successfully applied in the SPE process. Microwave distillation (MD) coupled with HS-PDMS/[BMIM]FeCl4 extraction after GC-MS was proposed. Various experimental parameters were studied. The optimal conditions were as follows: optimal IL, [BMIM]FeCl4 ; volume ratio of IL to ethanol, 1:5; extraction solvent, n-hexane; microwave power, 600 W; and irradiation time, 12 min. The limits of detection and quantification of the analytic compounds were in the ranges 4.00-16.32 and 10.00-40.00 ng, respectively. The intra-day and inter-day precisions were in the ranges 0.37-1.94% and 1.20-2.45%, respectively. Under the optimized conditions, 13 samples of 3 lavender varieties were analyzed, and 40 compounds were identified. Lavender varieties were distinguished using principal component analysis. The results showed that MD-HS-PDMS/IL-GC-MS is a novel, simple, and sensitive method for the determination of essential oil in complex plant samples.