A bibliometric analysis of metastatic breast cancer: two-decade report (2002-2022).

Background: MBC is a lethal form of breast cancer that arises when cancer cells invade other organs or tissues. The treatment of MBC needs personalized approaches based on the tumor and patient characteristics. The purpose of this paper is to analyze MBC studies from 2002 to 2022 using bibliometrics and to investigate its current situation, main contributors, core journals, highly cited papers, and topic evolution. Materials and methods: We retrieved data from Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC). Bibliometric analysis of the included literatures mainly used the following tools: the function of "analyze results" and "citation report" in WoS, Microsoft excel 2021, CiteSpace v.6.1. R6, VOSviewer v.1.6.18, BICOMB v.2.04 and gCLUTO v.1.0. Results: We found 12,653 articles on MBC research published in 1, 802 journals by 69, 753 authors from 118 countries. The annual output and citation of MBC articles showed a rising trend over time. The United States was the most influential country in MBC research. The most cited journal in this field was The Journal of Clinical Oncology. And the most cited article was by Slamon DJ. The co-word analysis of keywords divides MBC into six research clusters. The hormone receptor-positive MBC and liquid biopsy of MBC are the frontiers research trends. "CDK4/6 inhibitor" had the highest burst strength. Conclusion: Our bibliometric analysis offers a comprehensive overview of MBC research in the past two decades. It shows the current situation, main contributors, core journals, highly cited papers, and topic evolution of this field. Our study can assist researchers and practitioners to comprehend the development and trends of MBC research and to discover potential directions for future research.

[Research progress of natural collagen peptides and its skincare efficacy].

Natural collagen peptides are collagen hydrolysates. Because of their unique physicochemical properties and excellent biological activities, collagen peptides have been a research hotspot of cosmetic raw materials development and skincare efficacy improvement. Combined with the needs of the skincare efficacy and the development trends of cosmetics, the extraction methods and their structural characteristics of natural collagen peptides were summarized in detail. The applications and its research progress in skincare efficacy of collagen peptides, such as moisturizing and anti-wrinkle, trophism and anti-aging, filling and skin regeneration were expressed with emphasis. Finally, the development and practical applications in cosmetics of natural collagen peptides were adequately prospected.

The role of EMT-related lncRNA in the process of triple-negative breast cancer metastasis.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most malignant and fatal subtype of breast cancer, which has characterized by negativity expression of ER, PR, and HER2. Metastasis is the main factor affecting the prognosis of TNBC, and the process of metastasis is related to abnormal activation of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Recent studies have shown that long non-coding RNA (LncRNA) plays an important role in regulating the metastasis and invasion of TNBC. Therefore, based on the metastasis-related EMT signaling pathway, great efforts have confirmed that LncRNA is involved in the molecular mechanism of TNBC metastasis, which will provide new strategies to improve the treatment and prognosis of TNBC. In this review, we summarized many signal pathways related to EMT involved in the transfer process. The advances from the most recent studies of lncRNAs in the EMT-related signal pathways of TNBC metastasis. We also discussed the clinical research, application, and challenges of LncRNA in TNBC.

Positive feedback loop between mitochondrial fission and Notch signaling promotes survivin-mediated survival of TNBC cells.

Mitochondrial morphology is remodeled by continuous dynamic cycles of fission and fusion. Emerging data have shown that the disturbance of balance between mitochondrial fission and fusion is involved in the progression of several types of neoplasms. However, the status of mitochondrial dynamics and its potential biological roles in breast cancer (BC), particularly in triple negative BC (TNBC) are not fully clear. Here, we reported that the mitochondrial fission was significantly increased in BC tissues, especially in the TNBC tissues, when compared with that in the corresponding peritumor tissues. Meanwhile, our data showed that Drp1 was upregulated, while Mfn1 was downregulated in TNBC. Moreover, elevated mitochondrial fission was associated with poorer prognosis in TNBC patients. Mitochondrial fission promoted the survival of TNBC cells both in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, we identified a positive feedback loop between mitochondrial fission and Notch signaling pathway in TNBC cells, as proved by the experimental evidence that the activation of Notch signaling enhanced Drp1-mediated mitochondrial fission and Drp1-mediated mitochondrial fission in turn promoted the activation of Notch signaling, which ultimately promoted the cell survival of TNBC via increasing survivin expression level. Inhibition of either Notch1 or Drp1 significantly impaired the activation of the other, leading to the suppression of TNBC cell survival and proliferation. Collectively, our data reveal a novel mechanism that the positive feedback loop between mitochondrial fission and Notch signaling promotes the survival, proliferation and apoptotic resistance of TNBC cells via increasing survivin expression and thus favors cancer progression.

[TNF-α regulates the proliferation of human breast cancer cells via regulation of ceramide content].

Objective To determine whether tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) regulates the proliferation of MCF-7 and MDA-MB231 cells by modifying ceramide (Cer) production. Methods The optimum dosage and time of TNF-α treatment was determined at first. Immunocytochemistry combined with confocal microcopy was adopted to measure Cer content. MCF-7 and MDA-MB231 cells were treated with TNF-α (50 ng/mL) alone or combined with the interference of ASM inhibitor, desipramine (Des) or sphingosine kinase 1 (SPHK1) inhibitor, dimethylsphingosine (DMS) to investigate the role of Cer in the proliferative regulation of TNF-α on breast cancer cells. MTT assay was used to determine the proliferation of the cancer cells and Western blotting was performed to measure the protein expressions of acid sphingomyelinase (ASM), SPHK1 and apoptosis or proliferation relevant factors including Bcl2, Bax and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). Results TNF-α reduced the proliferation of MCF-7 cells, but enhanced the growth of MDA-MB-231 cells in a time- and dose-dependent manner. After TNF-α treatment, the protein expression of ASM, but not SPHK1 increased in MCF-7 cells, but both of them were elevated in MDA-MB-231 cells. Accordingly, Cer content was increase in MCF-7 cells treated by TNF-α, which was blocked by the pretreatment of ASM inhibitor Des. Cer content in MDA-MB231 cells was reduced by TNF-α, which was prevented by the pretreatment of SPHK1 inhibitor DMS. Des and DMS could respectively reverse the TNF-α-induced decrease and increase of proliferation in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. Moreover, the protein expression of Bcl2 decreased and Bax increased in MCF-7 cells, and the protein expression of PCNA increased in MDA-MB231 cells after TNF-α treatment. Conclusion TNF-α can alter Cer production by regulating the expressions of ASM and SPHK1 to control the proliferation of MCF-7 and MDA- MB231 cells.