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BACKGROUND: Stress hyperphenylalaninemia predicts elevated mortality rates in patients with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF). This study investigated the metabolic pathways underlying this association and identified a unique metabolic phenotype underlying the association between stress hyperphenylalaninemia and adverse outcomes in ADHF. METHODS AND RESULTS: This was a retrospective cohort study. We enrolled 120 patients with ADHF in an intensive care unit (60 with a phenylalanine level ≥112 µM, 60 with a phenylalanine level <112 µM), and 30 controls. Plasma phenylalanine-derived metabolites were measured, and participants were evaluated for 30-day death. Patients with ADHF had extensive activations of the alternative pathways for metabolizing phenylalanine, leading to the levels of phenylalanine-derived downstream metabolites 1.5 to 6.1 times higher in patients with ADHF than in the controls (all P<0.001). Extensive dysregulation of these alternative pathways significantly increased phenylalanine levels and contributed to a distinct metabolic phenotype, characterized by increased phenylalanine, tyrosine, homogentisic acid, and succinylacetone levels but decreased benzoic acid and 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine levels. Throughout the 30-day follow-up period, 47 (39.2%) patients died. This distinct metabolic phenotype was associated with an increased mortality rate (odds ratio, 1.59 [95% CI, 1.27-1.99]; P<0.001). A multivariable analysis confirmed the independent association of this metabolic phenotype, in addition to phenylalanine and tyrosine levels, with 30-day death. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with ADHF, extensive dysregulation of the alternative pathways for metabolizing phenylalanine was correlated with stress hyperphenylalaninemia and a distinct metabolic phenotype on the phenylalanine-tyrosine-homogentisic acid-succinylacetone axis. Both stress hyperphenylalaninemia and metabolic dysregulation on this axis were associated with poor outcomes.
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Estado Terminal , Insuficiência Cardíaca , Fenilalanina , Humanos , Fenilalanina/sangue , Masculino , Feminino , Insuficiência Cardíaca/mortalidade , Insuficiência Cardíaca/metabolismo , Insuficiência Cardíaca/fisiopatologia , Insuficiência Cardíaca/sangue , Estudos Retrospectivos , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Idoso , Fenilcetonúrias/mortalidade , Fenilcetonúrias/sangue , Fenilcetonúrias/metabolismo , Doença Aguda , Fatores de Risco , Biomarcadores/sangue , Fatores de Tempo , Prognóstico , FenótipoRESUMO
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Cecal intubation of colonoscopy relies on self-reporting. We developed an artificial intelligence-based cecum recognition system (AI-CRS) for post hoc verification of cecal intubation and explored its impact on adenoma metrics. METHODS: Quality metrics, including cecal intubation rate (CIR), adenoma detection rate (ADR), and other ADR-related metrics were compared both before (2015-2018) and after (2019-2022) the implementation of AI-CRS. RESULTS: While CIR did not change significantly after the implementation of AI-CRS, ADR and AADR significantly increased. While ADR significantly increased in all segments, the most significant increase in AADR was observed in the proximal colon. Implementation of AI-CRS was associated with a higher likelihood of detecting adenoma (aOR=1.35, 95%CI=1.26-1.45) and advanced adenoma (aOR=1.23, 95%CI=1.07-1.41), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of a post hoc verification of cecal intubation using an AI-CRS significantly improved various adenoma metrics in screening colonoscopy.
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BACKGROUND: Most gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) harbor c-KIT or PDGFRA mutations. Administration of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) has significantly improved the survival of patients with GISTs. We aimed to evaluate the clinical outcome of advanced or recurrent GIST patients in Taiwan. METHODS: Patients diagnosed between 2010 and 2020 were enrolled. The collected data included baseline characteristics, treatment pattern, treatment outcome, genetic aberrations and survival status. Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were analyzed and plotted with the Kaplan-Meier method. Cox regression analysis was used to analyze the prognostic factors of survival. RESULTS: A total of 224 patients with advanced or recurrent GISTs treated with TKIs were enrolled. All patients received imatinib treatment. Ninety-three and 42 patients received sunitinib and regorafenib treatment, respectively. The 48-month PFS and OS rates for patients treated with imatinib were 50.5% and 79.5%, respectively. c-KIT exon 9 and PDGFRA mutations were prognostic factors for a poor PFS and PDGFRA mutation was a prognostic factor for a poor OS in patients treated with imatinib in multivariate Cox regression analysis. The median PFS of patients who received sunitinib treatment was 12.76 months (95% confidence interval (CI), 11.01-14.52). Patients with c-KIT exon 9 mutations had a longer PFS than those with other genetic aberrations. The median PFS of patients treated with regorafenib was 7.14 months (95% CI, 3.39-10.89). CONCLUSIONS: We present real-world clinical outcomes for advanced GIST patients treated with TKIs and identify mutational status as an independent prognostic factor for patient survival.
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Tumores do Estroma Gastrointestinal , Mutação , Recidiva Local de Neoplasia , Inibidores de Proteínas Quinases , Proteínas Proto-Oncogênicas c-kit , Receptor alfa de Fator de Crescimento Derivado de Plaquetas , Sistema de Registros , Humanos , Tumores do Estroma Gastrointestinal/tratamento farmacológico , Tumores do Estroma Gastrointestinal/mortalidade , Tumores do Estroma Gastrointestinal/genética , Tumores do Estroma Gastrointestinal/patologia , Feminino , Masculino , Taiwan/epidemiologia , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Inibidores de Proteínas Quinases/uso terapêutico , Idoso , Proteínas Proto-Oncogênicas c-kit/genética , Adulto , Receptor alfa de Fator de Crescimento Derivado de Plaquetas/genética , Recidiva Local de Neoplasia/tratamento farmacológico , Recidiva Local de Neoplasia/genética , Sunitinibe/uso terapêutico , Mesilato de Imatinib/uso terapêutico , Prognóstico , Idoso de 80 Anos ou mais , Neoplasias Gastrointestinais/tratamento farmacológico , Neoplasias Gastrointestinais/mortalidade , Neoplasias Gastrointestinais/genética , Neoplasias Gastrointestinais/patologia , Compostos de Fenilureia/uso terapêutico , Piridinas/uso terapêutico , Taxa de Sobrevida , Intervalo Livre de Progressão , Estimativa de Kaplan-MeierRESUMO
This study aimed to define the role of heterogeneity of liver parenchymal enhancement on computed tomography (CT) in the survival of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after hepatic resection. The medical records of patients with HCCs and who had undergone hepatic resection were retrospectively reviewed. The standard deviation (SD) of three different enhanced CT scan images was used to estimate the heterogeneity of liver parenchymal enhancement: SD of > 5.6, heterogenous enhancement, and SD of ≤ 5.6, homogeneous enhancement. A total of 57 patients had heterogenous enhancement, and 143 patients had homogeneous enhancement. The patients with heterogenous enhancement had longer disease-free and overall survivals than those with other enhancements (log-rank test, P < 0.001 and P = 0.036). The pathologic exam showed that heterogenous enhancement tended to develop septa in the peritumoral liver tissues. The prevalence of CD8+ cells was significantly higher in the peritumor liver tissues with septa than in those without (0.83% vs. 0.26%, P < 0.001). The peritumoral CD8/Foxp3 ratio was higher in the liver tissues with septa than in those without (1.22 vs. 0.47, P = 0.001), and patients with CD8/Foxp3 of > 0.8 had better overall survival than those with CD8/Foxp3 of ≤ 0.8 (log-rank test, P = 0.028). In conclusion, patients who had undergone hepatic resection with a heterogenous liver parenchymal enhancement tended to develop hepatic septa, which was associated with a higher CD8/Foxp3 ratio and longer survival. Therefore, contrast-enhanced CT scans might be a useful tool to predict the outcome of HCC.
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OBJECTIVE: To examine the possible synergic effect of spindle view-assisted intracytoplasmic sperm injection (SV-ICSI) with assisted oocyte activation (AOA) for low fertilization rate. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A single-center retrospective study from 2019/09-2023/06, a total of 47 patients, autologous IVF cycle, and low fertilization rate history, including control group (SV-ICSI, 33 patients) and intervention group (AOA-SV-ICSI, 14 patients), comparing fertilization rate, blastocyst formation rate, and clinical pregnancy rate. RESULTS: The blastocyst formation rate was significantly higher (p = 0.020) in the AOA-SV-ICSI group than in the SV-ICSI group. The fertilization rate (P = 0.468) and clinical pregnancy rate (p = 0.057) were non-significant between groups. CONCLUSION: The AOA-SV-ICSI group's blastocyst formation rate significantly improved in patients with previous low fertilization rates, which might help them obtain more useable embryos for further embryo implantation.
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Taxa de Gravidez , Injeções de Esperma Intracitoplásmicas , Humanos , Injeções de Esperma Intracitoplásmicas/métodos , Feminino , Estudos Retrospectivos , Adulto , Gravidez , Masculino , Fertilização in vitro/métodos , Oócitos , Transferência Embrionária/métodos , Blastocisto , Implantação do EmbriãoRESUMO
Drug-resistant efflux pumps play a crucial role in bacterial antibiotic resistance. In this study, potential efflux pump inhibitors (EPIs) with a diphenylmethane scaffold were screened and evaluated against drug-resistant Escherichia coli. Twenty-four compounds were docked against the drug-binding site of E. coli multidrug transporter AcrB, and 2,2-diphenylethanol (DPE), di-p-tolyl-methanol (DPT), and 4-(benzylphenyl) acetonitrile (BPA) were screened for their highest binding free energy. The modulation assay was further used for EPI evaluation, revealing that DPE, DPT, and BPA could reduce the drug IC50 value in E. coli strains overexpressing AcrB, indicating their modulation activity. Only DPE and BPA enhanced intracellular dye accumulation and inhibited the efflux of ethidium bromide and erythromycin. In addition, DPE and BPA showed an elevated post-antibiotic effect on drug-resistant E. coli, and they did not damage the permeability of the bacterial outer membrane. The cell toxicity test showed that DPE and BPA had limited human-cell toxicity. Therefore, DPE and BPA demonstrate efflux pump inhibitory activity, and they should be further explored as potential enhancers to improve the effectiveness of existing antibiotics against drug-resistant E. coli.
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Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a chronic inflammatory condition that affects persons between the ages of 20 and 40, causes synovium inflammation, cartilage loss, and joint discomfort as some of its symptoms. Diagnostic techniques for RA have traditionally been split into two main categories: imaging and serological tests. However, significant issues are associated with both of these methods. Imaging methods are costly and only helpful in people with obvious symptoms, while serological assays are time-consuming and require specialist knowledge. The drawbacks of these traditional techniques have led to the development of novel diagnostic approaches. The unique properties of nanomaterials make them well-suited as biosensors. Their compact dimensions are frequently cited for their outstanding performance, and their positive impact on the signal-to-noise ratio accounts for their capacity to detect biomarkers at low detection limits, with excellent repeatability and a robust dynamic range. In this review, we discuss the use of nanomaterials in RA theranostics. Scientists have recently synthesized, characterized, and modified nanomaterials and biomarkers commonly used to enhance RA diagnosis and therapy capabilities. We hope to provide scientists with the promising potential that nanomaterials hold for future theranostics and offer suggestions on further improving nanomaterials as biosensors, particularly for detecting autoimmune disorders.
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Artrite Reumatoide , Biomarcadores , Nanoestruturas , Artrite Reumatoide/diagnóstico , Humanos , Nanoestruturas/química , Biomarcadores/análise , Técnicas Biossensoriais/métodos , Nanomedicina Teranóstica/métodosAssuntos
Cegueira Cortical , Bursite , Embolização Terapêutica , Humanos , Embolização Terapêutica/efeitos adversos , Resultado do Tratamento , Bursite/terapia , Bursite/diagnóstico por imagem , Bursite/etiologia , Cegueira Cortical/etiologia , Cegueira Cortical/diagnóstico por imagem , Articulação do Ombro/diagnóstico por imagem , Articulação do Ombro/fisiopatologia , Feminino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , MasculinoRESUMO
BACKGROUND: Most tail-anchored (TA) membrane proteins are delivered to the endoplasmic reticulum through a conserved posttranslational pathway. Although core mechanisms underlying the targeting and insertion of TA proteins are well established in eukaryotes, their role in mediating TA protein biogenesis in plants remains unclear. We reported the crystal structures of algal arsenite transporter 1 (ArsA1), which possesses an approximately 80-kDa monomeric architecture and carries chloroplast-localized TA proteins. However, the mechanistic basis of ArsA2, a Get3 (guided entry of TA proteins 3) homolog in plants, for TA recognition remains unknown. RESULTS: Here, for the first time, we present the crystal structures of the diatom Pt-Get3a that forms a distinct ellipsoid-shaped tetramer in the open (nucleotide-bound) state through crystal packing. Pulldown assay results revealed that only tetrameric Pt-Get3a can bind to TA proteins. The lack of the conserved zinc-coordination CXXC motif in Pt-Get3a potentially leads to the spontaneous formation of a distinct parallelogram-shaped dimeric conformation in solution, suggesting a new dimer state for subsequent tetramerization upon TA targeting. Pt-Get3a nonspecifically binds to different subsets of TA substrates due to the lower hydrophobicity of its α-helical subdomain, which is implicated in TA recognition. CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides new insights into the mechanisms underlying TA protein shielding by tetrameric Get3 during targeting to the diatom's cell membrane.
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Diatomáceas , Diatomáceas/metabolismo , Proteínas de Membrana/metabolismo , Proteínas de Membrana/química , Proteínas de Membrana/genética , Multimerização ProteicaAssuntos
Deficiência do Fator VII , Fator VII , Humanos , Deficiência do Fator VII/genética , Taiwan , Masculino , Feminino , Fator VII/genética , Adulto , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Mutação , Adolescente , Criança , Pré-Escolar , Adulto JovemRESUMO
Engineering human enzymes for therapeutic applications is attractive but introducing new amino acids may adversely affect enzyme stability and immunogenicity. Here we used a mammalian membrane-tethered screening system (ECSTASY) to evolve human lysosomal beta-glucuronidase (hBG) to hydrolyze a glucuronide metabolite (SN-38G) of the anticancer drug irinotecan (CPT-11). Three human beta-glucuronidase variants (hBG3, hBG10 and hBG19) with 3, 10 and 19 amino acid substitutions were identified that display up to 40-fold enhanced enzymatic activity, higher stability than E. coli beta-glucuronidase in human serum, and similar pharmacokinetics in mice as wild-type hBG. The hBG variants were two to three orders of magnitude less immunogenic than E. coli beta-glucuronidase in hBG transgenic mice. Intravenous administration of an immunoenzyme (hcc49-hBG10) targeting a sialyl-Tn tumor-associated antigen to mice bearing human colon xenografts significantly enhanced the anticancer activity of CPT-11 as measured by tumor suppression and mouse survival. Our results suggest that genetically-modified human enzymes represent a good alternative to microbially-derived enzymes for therapeutic applications.
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Camptotecina , Glucuronidase , Irinotecano , Camundongos Transgênicos , Pró-Fármacos , Animais , Pró-Fármacos/administração & dosagem , Humanos , Irinotecano/administração & dosagem , Irinotecano/farmacocinética , Glucuronidase/genética , Glucuronidase/metabolismo , Camptotecina/análogos & derivados , Camptotecina/farmacocinética , Camptotecina/administração & dosagem , Camptotecina/uso terapêutico , Engenharia de Proteínas , Camundongos , Linhagem Celular Tumoral , Feminino , Antineoplásicos Fitogênicos/administração & dosagem , Antineoplásicos Fitogênicos/farmacocinética , Antineoplásicos Fitogênicos/uso terapêutico , Neoplasias/tratamento farmacológico , Neoplasias/imunologia , Ensaios Antitumorais Modelo de Xenoenxerto , Estabilidade Enzimática , Camundongos NusRESUMO
BACKGROUND: Poor sleep quality is associated with multiple factors in cardiac surgery patients. AIM: To examine the trajectory of sleep quality and its associated factors over 3 months in Taiwanese patients undergoing cardiac surgery. STUDY DESIGN: A longitudinal study. This study enrolled 95 patients undergoing cardiac surgery in northern Taiwan. Sleep quality was measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Epworth Sleepiness Scale before surgery, at discharge, and at 1 month and 3 months postsurgery. RESULTS: The majority of participants reported poor sleep quality before cardiac surgery (76.8%) and at discharge (81.6%), and they showed significant improvements in sleep quality at 1 month (B = -0.93, p = .023) and 3 months postsurgery (B = -1.50, p < .001). Significant daytime sleepiness was reported by 25.3% of patients before cardiac surgery, and this proportion significantly decreased at 3 months postsurgery (B = -2.59, p < .001). The significant predictors of sleep quality in cardiac surgery patients were symptom distress, sleep medications, occupation, left ventricular ejection fraction, ACE-I drugs and potassium ions, which explained 53.7% of the total variance in sleep quality. Having a nap habit was an independent predictor of daytime sleepiness in cardiac surgery patients, which could explain 3.7% of the total variation. CONCLUSION: Poor sleep quality was common in patients undergoing cardiac surgery and was associated with multiple factors, including symptom distress, cardiac function, medications, and psychosocial and environmental factors. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Poor sleep quality was observed in cardiac surgical patients before surgery and at discharge postsurgery. Patient education on symptom management, medication adherence and sleep hygiene are suggested to improve sleep quality in patients undergoing cardiac surgery.
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PURPOSE: To analyze the safety of combination treatment comprising drug-eluting bead transarterial chemoembolization (DEB-TACE) and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHOD: In total, 208 HCC patients receiving DEB-TACE were enrolled for this retrospective single-institution study. Among them, 50 patients who received ICIs at an interval less than one month from DEB-TACE were categorized into the DEB-ICI group; the remaining 158 patients were categorized into the DEB group. Albumin-bilirubin (ALBI) score before and at three months after DEB-TACE were recorded to evaluate liver function changes. Adverse events within three months after DEB-TACE were considered TACE-related and were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: The DEB-ICI group had significantly higher incidence of liver abscess than the DEB group (14.0 % versus 5.1 %, p-value = 0.0337). No significant difference in the other TACE-related adverse events and change of ALBI score between the groups. Univariate logistic regression confirmed that combination with ICIs was an independent risk factor for liver abscess after DEB-TACE (odds ratio = 3.0523, 95 % confidence interval: 1.0474-8.8947, p-value = 0.0409); other parameters including subjective angiographic chemoembolization endpoint scale and combined targeted therapy were nonsignificant risk factors in this study population. In the DEB-ICI group, patients who received ICIs before DEB-TACE exhibited a trend toward liver abscess formation compared with those who received DEB-TACE before ICIs (23.8 % versus 6.9 %, p-value = 0.0922). CONCLUSIONS: Combination treatment involving DEB-TACE and ICIs at an interval less than one month increased the risk of liver abscess after DEB-TACE. Greater caution is therefore warranted for HCC patients who receive ICIs and DEB-TACE with this short interval.
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Carcinoma Hepatocelular , Quimioembolização Terapêutica , Abscesso Hepático , Neoplasias Hepáticas , Humanos , Carcinoma Hepatocelular/patologia , Neoplasias Hepáticas/patologia , Inibidores de Checkpoint Imunológico , Estudos Retrospectivos , Doxorrubicina , Quimioembolização Terapêutica/efeitos adversos , Abscesso Hepático/etiologia , Resultado do TratamentoRESUMO
BACKGROUND: Serplulimab is a novel, recombinant, humanized, monoclonal, anti-programmed death 1 antibody with a similar or better affinity and pre-clinical antitumor activity than pembrolizumab and nivolumab. OBJECTIVE: This phase I, open-label, dose-escalation study evaluated serplulimab in patients with advanced solid tumors. The second interim analysis of the dose-finding phase is reported here. METHODS: Adult patients with histologically confirmed metastatic/recurrent solid tumors who had progressed on, or were intolerant to/clinically unsuitable for standard treatment, were enrolled. Four intravenous serplulimab dose levels were evaluated: 0.3, 1.0, 3.0, and 10.0 mg/kg every 2 weeks in 28-day cycles for up to 2 years. Primary endpoints were the incidence of treatment-emergent adverse events and the maximum tolerated dose. RESULTS: By 27 July, 2020 (data cut-off), 29 patients with stage IV disease (34.5% with lung cancer) received one or more doses of serplulimab. One (3.4%) patient had completed treatment and 26 (89.7%) had discontinued from the study. The maximum tolerated dose was not reached. Twenty-two (75.9%) patients experienced treatment-emergent adverse events related to serplulimab, most frequently nausea (24.1%), with no notable differences in incidence between dose cohorts; of these, grade ≥ 3 events occurred in four (13.8%) patients. Pharmacokinetic data demonstrated minimal accumulation of serplulimab after repeated administration. Functional programmed death 1 blockade was observed across dose levels. Objective response and disease control rates were 8.0 and 60.0%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Serplulimab was well tolerated and demonstrated antitumor activity. These data support further study of serplulimab in larger patient populations. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03468751 (19 March, 2018).
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Neoplasias Pulmonares , Recidiva Local de Neoplasia , Adulto , Humanos , Recidiva Local de Neoplasia/tratamento farmacológico , Anticorpos Monoclonais/efeitos adversos , Nivolumabe/uso terapêutico , Neoplasias Pulmonares/tratamento farmacológico , Inibidores de Checkpoint Imunológico/uso terapêuticoRESUMO
Hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] is a common environmental pollutant and chronic exposure to Cr(VI) causes lung cancer and other types of cancer in humans, although the mechanism of Cr(VI) carcinogenesis remains elusive. Cr(VI) has been considered as a genotoxic carcinogen, but accumulating evidence indicates that Cr(VI) also causes various epigenetic toxic effects that play important roles in Cr(VI) carcinogenesis. However, it is not clear how Cr(VI)-caused epigenetic dysregulations contributes to Cr(VI) carcinogenesis. This study investigates whether Cr(VI) epigenetic toxic effect has an impact on its genotoxic effect. It was found that chronic low dose of Cr(VI) exposure time-dependently down-regulates the expression of a critical DNA damage repair protein O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT), leading to the increases of the levels of the highly mutagenic and carcinogenic DNA lesion O6-methylguanine (O6-MeG) in human bronchial epithelial BEAS-2B cells. Moreover, the levels of MGMT and O6-MeG in chronic Cr(VI) exposure-caused human lung cancer tissues are also significantly lower and higher than that in the adjacent normal lung tissues, respectively. It was further determined that chronic low dose of Cr(VI) exposure-transformed BEAS-2B cells display impaired DNA damage repair capacity and a high sensitivity to the toxicity of the alkylating chemotherapeutic drug Temozolomide. In contrast, stably overexpressing MGMT in parental BEAS-2B cells reverses chronic low dose of Cr(VI) exposure-caused DNA damage repair deficiency and significantly reduces cell transformation by Cr(VI). Further mechanistical studies revealed that chronic low dose of Cr(VI) exposure down-regulates MGMT expression through epigenetic mechanisms by increasing DNA methylation and histone H3 repressive modifications. Taken together, these findings suggest that epigenetic down-regulation of a crucial DNA damage repair protein MGMT contributes significantly to the genotoxic effect and cell transformation caused by chronic low dose of Cr(VI) exposure.
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Neoplasias Pulmonares , O(6)-Metilguanina-DNA Metiltransferase , Humanos , Regulação para Baixo , O(6)-Metilguanina-DNA Metiltransferase/genética , O(6)-Metilguanina-DNA Metiltransferase/metabolismo , Transformação Celular Neoplásica/genética , Cromo/toxicidade , Cromo/metabolismo , Carcinogênese , Dano ao DNA , Neoplasias Pulmonares/genética , Epigênese GenéticaRESUMO
Cell migration is an essential biological process for organisms, in processes including embryonic development, immune response, and cancer metastasis. To elucidate the regulatory machinery of this vital process, methods that mimic in vivo migration, including in vitro wound healing assay and random migration assay, are widely used for cell behavior investigation. However, several concerns are raised with traditional cell migration experiment analysis. First, a manually scratched wound often presents irregular edges, causing the speed analysis difficult. Second, only the migration speed of leading cells is considered in the wound healing assay. Here, we provide a reliable analysis method to trace each cell in the time-lapse images, eliminating the concern about wound shape and creating a more comprehensive understanding of cell migration-not only of collective migration speed but also single-cell directionality and coordination between cells.
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Cell signaling is highly integrated for the process of various cell activities. Although previous studies have shown how individual genes contribute to cell migration, it remains unclear how the integration of these signaling pathways is involved in the modulation of cell migration. In our two-hit migration screen, we revealed that serine-threonine kinase 40 (STK40) and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) worked synergistically, and the suppression of both genes could further lead to suppression in cell migration. Furthermore, based on our analysis of cellular focal adhesion (FA) parameters using MATLAB analysis, we are able to find out the synergistic reduction of STK40 and MAPK that further abolished the increased FA by shSTK40. While FA identification in previous studies includes image analysis using manual selection, our protocol provides a semi-automatic manual selection of FAs using MATLAB. Here, we provide a method that can shorten the amount of time required for manual identification of FAs and increase the precision for discerning individual FAs for various analyses, such as FA numbers, area, and mean signals.
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Research on working memory (WM) has followed two largely independent traditions: One concerned with memory for sequentially presented lists of discrete items, and the other with short-term maintenance of simultaneously presented arrays of objects with simple, continuously varying features. Here we present a formal model of WM, the interference model (IM), that explains benchmark findings from both traditions: The shape of the error distribution from continuous reproduction of visual features, and how it is affected by memory set size; the effects of serial position for sequentially presented items, the effect of output position, and the intrusion of nontargets as a function of their distance from the target in space and in time. We apply the model to two experiments combining features of popular paradigms from both traditions: Lists of colors (Experiment 1) or of nonwords (Experiment 2) are presented sequentially and tested through selection of the target from a set of candidates, ordered by their similarity. The core assumptions of the IM are: Contents are encoded into WM through temporary bindings to contexts that serve as retrieval cues to access the contents. Bindings have limited precision on the context and the content dimension. A subset of the memory set-usually one item and its context-is maintained in a focus of attention with high precision. Successive events in an episode are encoded with decreasing strength, generating a primacy gradient. With each encoded event, automatic updating of WM reduces the strength of preceding memories, creating a recency gradient and output interference. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
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INTRODUCTION: Emicizumab mimicking the cofactor function of activated factor VIII (FVIII) restores haemostasis. METHODS: This nationwide observational study aimed to retrospectively investigate efficacy, safety, and cost in 1 year before and up to 3 years after emicizumab prophylaxis for haemophilia A (HA) patients with FVIII inhibitors. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: A total of 39 severe HA patients with a median age of 23.0 years were enrolled. The median historical peak FVIII inhibitor titre was 174.2 BU/mL with an interquartile range of 56.5-578.8 BU/mL. The median annualized bleeding rate reduced from 24 to 0 events in the first year after emicizumab prophylaxis (p < .01) and sustained in the second and third years. The median annualized joint bleeding rate reduced to 0 and maintained up to 3 years (p < .01). Twenty-seven patients (69.2%) had target joints before emicizumab prophylaxis and only seven patients (17.9%) of them had target joints after prophylaxis. Medical costs, including cost of haemostatic therapy, frequency of outpatient department visits, emergency room visits and hospital admission, were significantly reduced after emicizumab prophylaxis (p < .01). FVIII inhibitor titre decreased after emicizumab prophylaxis. Overall, three (7.7%) patients experienced 202 grade 1 drug-related adverse events after emicizumab prophylaxis. No serious adverse events were reported during emicizumab prophylaxis period. The adherence to emicizumab prophylaxis was 100% up to 3 years. CONCLUSIONS: HA patients with FVIII inhibitors treated with emicizumab prophylaxis resulted in a significant reduction in treated bleeds and associated costs. No new safety events were observed.