BCAR4 facilitates trastuzumab resistance and EMT in breast cancer via sponging miR-665 and interacting with YAP1.

Breast cancer antiestrogen resistance 4 (BCAR4) has been suggested that can modulate cell behavior, resulting in tumorigenesis and chemoresistance. However, the underlying mechanisms of BCAR4 in trastuzumab resistance (TR) is still elusive. Here, we explored the function and the underlying mechanism of BCAR4 involving in TR. We found that BCAR4 is significantly upregulated in trastuzumab-resistant BC cells. Knockdown of BCAR4 could sensitize the BC cells to trastuzumab and suppress epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Mechanically, BCAR4 promotes yes-associated protein 1 (YAP1) expression by competitively sponging miR-665, to activated TGF-ß signaling. Reciprocally, YAP1 could occupy the BCAR4 promoter to enhance its transcription, suggesting that there exists a positive feedback regulation between YAP1 and BCAR4. Targeting the BCAR4/miR-665/YAP1 axis may provide a novel insight of therapeutic approaches for TR in BC.

Green Late-Stage Functionalization of Tryptamines.

An efficient and rapid protocol for the oxidative halogenation of tryptamines with 10 % aqueous NaClO has been developed. This reaction is featured by its operational simplicity, metal-free conditions, no purification, and high yield. Notably, the resulting key intermediates are suitable for further functionalization with various nucleophiles, including amines, N-aromatic heterocycles, indoles and phenols. The overall transformation exhibits broad functional-group tolerance and is applicable to the late-stage functionalization of complex biorelevant molecules.

Glycometabolism and lipid metabolism related genes predict the prognosis of endometrial carcinoma and their effects on tumor cells.

BACKGROUND: Glycometabolism and lipid metabolism are critical in cancer metabolic reprogramming. The primary aim of this study was to develop a prognostic model incorporating glycometabolism and lipid metabolism-related genes (GLRGs) for accurate prognosis assessment in patients with endometrial carcinoma (EC). METHODS: Data on gene expression and clinical details were obtained from publicly accessible databases. GLRGs were obtained from the Genecards database. Through nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) clustering, molecular groupings with various GLRG expression patterns were identified. LASSO Cox regression analysis was employed to create a prognostic model. Use rich algorithms such as GSEA, GSVA, xCELL ssGSEA, EPIC,CIBERSORT, MCPcounter, ESTIMATE, TIMER, TIDE, and Oncoppredict to analyze functional pathway characteristics of the forecast signal, immune status, anti-tumor therapy, etc. The expression was assessed using Western blot and quantitative real-time PCR techniques. A total of 113 algorithm combinations were combined to screen out the most significant GLRGs in the signature for in vitro experimental verification, such as colony formation, EdU cell proliferation, wound healing, apoptosis, and Transwell assays. RESULTS: A total of 714 GLRGs were found, and 227 of them were identified as prognostic-related genes. And ten GLRGs (AUP1, ESR1, ERLIN2, ASS1, OGDH, BCKDHB, SLC16A1, HK2, LPCAT1 and PGR-AS1) were identified to construct the prognostic model of patients with EC. Based on GLRGs, the risk model's prognosis and independent prognostic value were established. The signature of GLRGs exhibited a robust correlation with the infiltration of immune cells and the sensitivity to drugs. In cytological experiments, we selected HK2 as candidate gene to verify its value in the occurrence and development of EC. Western blot and qRT-PCR revealed that HK2 was substantially expressed in EC cells. According to in vitro experiments, HK2 knockdown can increase EC cell apoptosis while suppressing EC cell migration, invasion, and proliferation. CONCLUSION: The GLRGs signature constructed in this study demonstrated significant prognostic value for patients with endometrial carcinoma, thereby providing valuable guidance for treatment decisions.

A novel TCGA-validated programmed cell-death-related signature of ovarian cancer.

BACKGROUND: Ovarian cancer (OC) is a gynecological malignancy tumor with high recurrence and mortality rates. Programmed cell death (PCD) is an essential regulator in cancer metabolism, whose functions are still unknown in OC. Therefore, it is vital to determine the prognostic value and therapy response of PCD-related genes in OC. METHODS: By mining The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) and Genecards databases, we constructed a prognostic PCD-related genes model and performed Kaplan-Meier (K-M) analysis and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve for its predictive ability. A nomogram was created via Cox regression. We validated our model in train and test sets. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was applied to identify the expression of our model genes. Finally, we analyzed functional analysis, immune infiltration, genomic mutation, tumor mutational burden (TMB) and drug sensitivity of patients in low- and high-risk group based on median scores. RESULTS: A ten-PCD-related gene signature including protein phosphatase 1 regulatory subunit 15 A (PPP1R15A), 8-oxoguanine-DNA glycosylase (OGG1), HECT and RLD domain containing E3 ubiquitin protein ligase family member 1 (HERC1), Caspase-2.(CASP2), Caspase activity and apoptosis inhibitor 1(CAAP1), RB transcriptional corepressor 1(RB1), Z-DNA binding protein 1 (ZBP1), CD3-epsilon (CD3E), Clathrin heavy chain like 1(CLTCL1), and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein beta (CEBPB) was constructed. Risk score performed well with good area under curve (AUC) (AUC3 - year =0.728, AUC5 - year = 0.730). The nomogram based on risk score has good performance in predicting the prognosis of OC patients (AUC1 - year =0.781, AUC3 - year =0.759, AUC5 - year = 0.670). Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) analysis showed that the erythroblastic leukemia viral oncogene homolog (ERBB) signaling pathway and focal adhesion were enriched in the high-risk group. Meanwhile, patients with high-risk scores had worse OS. In addition, patients with low-risk scores had higher immune-infiltrating cells and enhanced expression of checkpoints, programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 (PD-L1), indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO-1) and lymphocyte activation gene-3 (LAG3), and were more sensitive to A.443,654, GDC.0449, paclitaxel, gefitinib and cisplatin. Finally, qRT-PCR confirmed RB1, CAAP1, ZBP1, CEBPB and CLTCL1 over-expressed, while PPP1R15A, OGG1, CASP2, CD3E and HERC1 under-expressed in OC cell lines. CONCLUSION: Our model could precisely predict the prognosis, immune status and drug sensitivity of OC patients.

Dual Targeted Nanoparticles for the Codelivery of Doxorubicin and siRNA Cocktails to Overcome Ovarian Cancer Stem Cells.

Most anticancer treatments only induce the death of ordinary cancer cells, while cancer stem cells (CSCs) in the quiescent phase of cell division are difficult to kill, which eventually leads to cancer drug resistance, metastasis, and relapse. Therefore, CSCs are also important in targeted cancer therapy. Herein, we developed dual-targeted and glutathione (GSH)-responsive novel nanoparticles (SSBPEI-DOX@siRNAs/iRGD-PEG-HA) to efficiently and specifically deliver both doxorubicin and small interfering RNA cocktails (siRNAs) (survivin siRNA, Bcl-2 siRNA and ABCG2 siRNA) to ovarian CSCs. They are fabricated via electrostatic assembly of anionic siRNAs and cationic disulfide bond crosslinking-branched polyethyleneimine-doxorubicin (SSBPEI-DOX) as a core. Interestingly, the SSBPEI-DOX could be degraded into low-cytotoxic polyethyleneimine (PEI). Because of the enrichment of glutathione reductase in the tumor microenvironment, the disulfide bond (-SS-) in SSBPEI-DOX can be specifically reduced to promote the controlled release of siRNA and doxorubicin (DOX) in the CSCs. siRNA cocktails could specifically silence three key genes in CSCs, which, in combination with the traditional chemotherapy drug DOX, induces apoptosis or necrosis of CSCs. iRGD peptides and "sheddable" hyaluronic acid (HA) wrapped around the core could mediate CSC targeting by binding with neuropilin-1 (NRP1) and CD44 to enhance delivery. In summary, the multifunctional delivery system SSBPEI-DOX@siRNAs/iRGD-PEG-HA nanoparticles displays excellent biocompatibility, accurate CSC-targeting ability, and powerful anti-CSC ability, which demonstrates its potential value in future treatments to overcome ovarian cancer metastasis and relapse. To support this work, as exhaustive search was conducted for the literature on nanoparticle drug delivery research conducted in the last 17 years (2007-2023) using PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar.

Dual-Activated Nano-Prodrug for Chemo-Photodynamic Combination Therapy of Breast Cancer.

Herein, we developed a dual-activated prodrug, BTC, that contains three functional components: a glutathione (GSH)-responsive BODIPY-based photosensitizer with a photoinduced electron transfer (PET) effect between BODIPY and the 2,4-dinitrobenzenesulfonate (DNBS) group, and an ROS-responsive thioketal linker connecting BODIPY and the chemotherapeutic agent camptothecin (CPT). Interestingly, CPT displayed low toxicity because the active site of CPT was modified by the BODIPY-based macrocycle. Additionally, BTC was encapsulated with the amphiphilic polymer DSPE-mPEG2000 to improve drug solubility and tumor selectivity. The resulting nano-prodrug passively targeted tumor cells through enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effects, and then the photosensitizing ability of the BODIPY dye was restored by removing the DNBS group with the high concentration of GSH in tumor cells. Light-triggered ROS from activated BODIPY can not only induce apoptosis or necrosis of tumor cells but also sever the thioketal linker to release CPT, achieving the combination treatment of selective photodynamic therapy and chemotherapy. The antitumor activity of the prodrug has been demonstrated in mouse mammary carcinoma 4T1 and human breast cancer MCF-7 cell lines and 4T1 tumor-bearing mice.

Bacillus xiapuensis sp. nov., isolated from marine sediment.

A rod-shaped, endospore-forming, aerobic bacterium, designated FJAT-46582T, was isolated from a sediment sample of the coastal region in Xiapu County, Fujian Province in China. Growth was observed at 10-30 °C (optimum, 25 °C), in 0-7.0 % NaCl (0 %) and at pH 6.0-11.0 (pH 8.0), respectively. The cell-wall peptidoglycan contained meso-diaminopimelic acid and the isoprenoid quinone was MK-7. The main fatty acids were anteiso-C17 : 0 (26.5 %), anteiso-C15 : 0 (19.6 %), iso-C15 : 0 (14.4 %) and C16 : 0 (10.5 %). The main polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidyl ethanolamine. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences affiliated strain FJAT-46582T with the genus Bacillus, and showed the highest sequence similarity to Bacillus thermotolerans SGZ-8T (97.6 %) and Bacillus ectoinformans (97.1 %). The average nucleotide identity and in silico DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain FJAT-46582T and the most closely related species were 72.3 and 22.9 %, respectively, which were much lower than the thresholds commonly used to define species (96 and 70 %, respectively) indicating that it belonged to a different taxon. The DNA G+C content was 44.2 mol%. The phenotypic characters and taxono-genomics study revealed that strain FJAT-46582T represents a novel Bacillus species, for which the name Bacillus xiapuensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is FJAT-46582T (=JCM 33155=CCTCC AB 2017047T).

Bacillus praedii sp. nov., isolated from purplish paddy soil.

A Gram-stain-positive, rod-shaped, endospore-forming, aerobic bacterium, designated strain FJAT-25547T, was isolated from the purplish paddy soil collected from Linshan Township, Yanting Prefecture of Sichuan Province in PR China (31° 16' N 105° 27' E). Growth was achieved aerobically at temperatures between 15 and 40 °C (optimum 30 °C), with between 0 and 10.0 % NaCl (w/v) (optimum 4 %) and in the range of pH 5.0-12.0 (optimum pH 9.0). The cell-wall peptidoglycan contained meso-diaminopimelic acid, and the main isoprenoid quinone was MK-7. The major fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0 (55.4 %), anteiso-C15 : 0 (22.2 %), iso-C16 : 0 (5.1 %) and iso-C14 : 0 (6.5 %). The main polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain FJAT-25547T was a member of the genus Bacillus and was most closely related to Bacillus horneckiae DSM 23495T (97.7 % similarity), Bacillus eiseniae A1-2T (97.5 %), Bacillus mesophilum IITR-54T (97.2 %) and Bacillus kochii WCC 4582T (97.0 %). The average nucleotide identity value between strain FJAT-25547T and the type strain of the most closely related species, B. horneckiae DSM 23495T, was 77.7 %, less than the proposed cut-off value of 96.0 % for differentiating species within the genus. The in silico DNA-DNA hybridization value of strain FJAT-25547T with the most closely related species was 22.7 %, <70 %, again indicating they belong to different taxa. The DNA G+C content of strain FJAT-25547T was 39.1 mol%. This taxono-genomics study revealed that strain FJAT-25547T represents a novel species of the genus Bacillus for which the name Bacillus praedii sp. nov. (type strain FJAT-25547T=CCTCC AB 2015208T=DSM 101002T) is proposed.

Antitumor Effects and Related Mechanisms of Penicitrinine A, a Novel Alkaloid with a Unique Spiro Skeleton from the Marine Fungus Penicillium citrinum.

Penicitrinine A, a novel alkaloid with a unique spiro skeleton, was isolated from a marine-derived fungus Penicillium citrinum. In this study, the isolation, structure and biosynthetic pathway elucidation of the new compound were described. This new compound showed anti-proliferative activity on multiple tumor types. Among them, the human malignant melanoma cell A-375 was confirmed to be the most sensitive. Morphologic evaluation, apoptosis rate analysis, Western blot and real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) results showed penicitrinine A could significantly induce A-375 cell apoptosis by decreasing the expression of Bcl-2 and increasing the expression of Bax. Moreover, we investigated the anti-metastatic effects of penicitrinine A in A-375 cells by wound healing assay, trans-well assay, Western blot and RT-qPCR. The results showed penicitrinine A significantly suppressed metastatic activity of A-375 cells by regulating the expression of MMP-9 and its specific inhibitor TIMP-1. These findings suggested that penicitrinine A might serve as a potential antitumor agent, which could inhibit the proliferation and metastasis of tumor cells.

The marine fungal metabolite, dicitrinone B, induces A375 cell apoptosis through the ROS-related caspase pathway.

Dicitrinone B, a rare carbon-bridged citrinin dimer, was isolated from the marine-derived fungus, Penicillium citrinum. It was reported to have antitumor effects on tumor cells previously; however, the details of the mechanism remain unclear. In this study, we found that dicitrinone B inhibited the proliferation of multiple tumor types. Among them, the human malignant melanoma cell, A375, was confirmed to be the most sensitive. Morphologic evaluation, cell cycle arrest and apoptosis rate analysis results showed that dicitrinone B significantly induced A375 cell apoptosis. Subsequent observation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) reduction revealed that the apoptosis induced by dicitrinone B may be triggered by over-producing ROS. Further studies indicated that the apoptosis was associated with both intrinsic and extrinsic apoptosis pathways under the regulation of Bcl-2 family proteins. Caspase-9, caspase-8 and caspase-3 were activated during the process, leading to PARP cleavage. The pan-caspase inhibitor, Z-VAD-FMK, could reverse dicitrinone B-induced apoptosis, suggesting that it is a caspase-dependent pathway. Our data for the first time showed that dicitrinone B inhibits the proliferation of tumor cells by inducing cell apoptosis. Moreover, compared with the first-line chemotherapy drug, 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu), dicitrinone B showed much more potent anticancer efficacy, suggesting that it might serve as a potential antitumor agent.

Speradines F-H, three new oxindole alkaloids from the marine-derived fungus Aspergillus oryzae.

A rare hexacyclic oxindole alkaloid, speradine F (1), together with two novel tetracyclic oxindole alkaloids, speradines G (2) and H (3), were isolated from the marine-derived fungus Aspergillus oryzae. Their structures were determined by spectroscopic methods and X-ray diffraction analysis. This study is the first report on cyclopiazonic acid (CPA)-type alkaloids with a hexacyclic skeleton.

Weakly supervised temporal action localization with actionness-guided false positive suppression.

Weakly supervised temporal action localization aims to locate the temporal boundaries of action instances in untrimmed videos using video-level labels and assign them the corresponding action category. Generally, it is solved by a pipeline called "localization-by-classification", which finds the action instances by classifying video snippets. However, since this approach optimizes the video-level classification objective, the generated activation sequences often suffer interference from class-related scenes, resulting in a large number of false positives in the prediction results. Many existing works treat background as an independent category, forcing models to learn to distinguish background snippets. However, under weakly supervised conditions, the background information is fuzzy and uncertain, making this method extremely difficult. To alleviate the impact of false positives, we propose a new actionness-guided false positive suppression framework. Our method seeks to suppress false positive backgrounds without introducing the background category. Firstly, we propose a self-training actionness branch to learn class-agnostic actionness, which can minimize the interference of class-related scene information by ignoring the video labels. Secondly, we propose a false positive suppression module to mine false positive snippets and suppress them. Finally, we introduce the foreground enhancement module, which guides the model to learn the foreground with the help of the attention mechanism as well as class-agnostic actionness. We conduct extensive experiments on three benchmarks (THUMOS14, ActivityNet1.2, and ActivityNet1.3). The results demonstrate the effectiveness of our method in suppressing false positives and it achieves the state-of-the-art performance. Code: https://github.com/lizhilin-ustc/AFPS.

IL-21- and CXCL9-engineered GPC3-specific CAR-T cells combined with PD-1 blockade enhance cytotoxic activities against hepatocellular carcinoma.

The application of CAR-T cells in solid tumors poses several challenges, including poor T cell homing ability, limited infiltration of T cells and an immunosuppressive tumor environment. In this study, we developed a novel approach to address these obstacles by designing GPC3-specific CAR-T cell that co-express IL-21 and CXCL9 (21 × 9 GPC3 CAR-T cells) and blocking the PD-1 expression on it. The proliferation, cell phenotype, cytokine secretion and cell migration of indicated CAR-T cells were evaluated in vitro. The cytotoxic activities of genetically engineered CAR-T cells were accessed in vitro and in vivo. Compared to conventional GPC3 CAR-T cells, the 21 × 9 GPC3 CAR-T cells demonstrated superior proliferation, cytokine secretion and chemotaxis capabilities in vitro. Furthermore, when combined with PD-1 blockade, the 21 × 9 GPC3 CAR-T cells exhibited enhanced proliferation, cytokine secretion and enrichment of effector T cells such as CTL, NKT and TEM cells. In xenograft tumor models, the PD-1 blocked 21 × 9 GPC3 CAR-T cells effectively suppressed HCC xenograft growth and increased T cell infiltration. Overall, our study successfully generated GPC3 CAR-T cells expressing both IL-21 and CXCL9, demonstrated that combining PD-1 blockade can further enhance CAR-T cell function by promoting proliferation, cytokine secretion, chemotaxis and antitumor activity. These findings present a hopeful and potentially effective strategy for GPC3-positive HCC patients.

Splicing Factor PTBP1 Silencing Induces Apoptosis of Human Cervical Cancer Cells via PI3K/AKT Pathway and Autophagy.

BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer is the most common gynecological malignancy in the world and seriously threatens to women's lives and health. Polypyrimidine tract binding protein 1 (PTBP1), as an important splicing factor, has been identified as a proto-oncogene in several cancers, but its role and mechanism in cervical cancer remain poorly understood. Thus, our aim is to explore the impact of PTBP1 on proliferation, migration, apoptosis of cervical cancer cells, and its underlying mechanisms. METHODS: The biological functions in cervical cancer cells were determined using small interfering RNA (siRNA), agonist, Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), transwell, migration test, western blot, real-time-PCR, immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence, respectively. RESULTS: The results indicated that PTBP1 was highly expressed in cervical cancer patients and cervical cancer cell lines compared to the normal group. Moreover, PTBP1 silencing significantly inhibited cell proliferation, and migration in both HeLa and SiHa cells. The PTBP1 silencing also induced mitochondrial apoptosis through upregulating Bax and mitochondrial apoptotic protein Cytochrome C, and downregulating B-Cell Leukemia/Lymphoma 2 (Bcl2) protein. Additionally, PTBP1 silencing induced autophagy by downregulating Sequestosome I (p62) and upregulating the ratio of Light chain 3-Ⅱ/Light chain 3-Ⅰ (LC3-Ⅱ/LC3-Ⅰ). Mechanistically, we found that the Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) agonist reversed the changes induced by PTBP1 silencing. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, PTBP1 silencing can induce cervical cancer cells apoptosis mainly through PI3K/AKT pathway and protective autophagy. This study provides preliminary evidence for PTBP1 as a therapeutic target or prognostic marker for cervical cancer.

Identification of upregulated exosomal miRNAs between A2780 and A2780/DDP human ovarian cancer cells by high-throughput sequencing.

Exosomal miRNAs are known to play important roles in ovarian cancer and chemotherapeutic resistance. However, a systematic evaluation of characteristics of exosomal miRNAs involved in cisplatin resistance in ovarian cancer remains totally unclear. Exosomes (Exo-A2780, Exo-A2780/DDP) were extracted from cisplatin-sensitive cells (A2780) and cisplatin-resistant cells (A2780/DDP). Differential exosomal miRNA expression profiles were found by high-throughput sequencing (HTS). Target genes of the exo-miRNAs were predicted by using two online databases to increase the prediction accuracy. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses were utilized to find biological relationships with chemoresistance. RT‒qPCR of three exosomal miRNAs was performed, and a protein‒protein interaction (PPI) network was established to identify the hub genes. The GDSC database was used to prove the association between hsa-miR-675-3p expression and the IC50 value. An integrated miRNA-mRNA network was constructed to predict miRNA-mRNA associations. The connection between hsa-miR-675-3p and ovarian cancer was discovered by immune microenvironment analyses. The upregulated exosomal miRNAs could regulate gene targets through signalling pathways such as the Ras, PI3K/Akt, Wnt, and ErbB pathways. GO and KEGG analyses indicated that the target genes were involved in protein binding, transcription regulator activity and DNA binding. The RT‒qPCR results were consistent with the HTS data, and the results of PPI network analysis suggested that FMR1 and CD86 were the hub genes. GDSC database analysis and construction of the integrated miRNA-mRNA network suggested that hsa-miR-675-3p was associated with drug resistance. Immune microenvironment analyses showed that hsa-miR-675-3p was crucial in ovarian cancer. The study suggested that exosomal hsa-miR-675-3p is a potential target for treating ovarian cancer and overcoming cisplatin resistance.

The marine natural product, dicitrinone B, induces apoptosis through autophagy blockade in breast cancer.

Being a highly conserved catabolic process, autophagy is induced by various forms of cellular stress, and its modulation has considerable potential as a cancer therapeutic approach. In the present study, it was demonstrated that dicitrinone B (DB), a rare carbon­bridged citrinin dimer, may exert anticancer effects by blocking autophagy at a late stage, without disrupting lysosomal function in MCF7 breast cancer and MDA­MB­231 triple­negative breast cancer cells. Furthermore, it was discovered that DB significantly enhanced intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and that the removal of ROS was followed by the attenuation of autophagy inhibition. In addition, DB exerted notable inhibitory effects on the proliferation and promoting effects on the apoptosis of MCF7 and MDA­MB­231 cells. In combination with conventional chemotherapeutic drugs, DB exhibited a further enhanced synergistic effect than when used as a single agent. Overall, the data of the present study demonstrate that DB may prove to be a promising autophagy inhibitor with anticancer activity against breast cancer.

A low-jitter timing generator based on completely on-chip self-measurement and calibration in a field programmable gate array.

This paper presents a high-stability and low-jitter Arbitrary Timing Generator (ATG) design based on the Xilinx Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and its special integrated delay line. In recent years, FPGA-based or application specific integrated circuit-based delay lines have been used to achieve picosecond-level timing resolution. Devices with pure digital delay methods can only acquire triggers at the clock rising edges when triggered externally. Therefore, there is a large time irregularity caused by the uncertainty of the entry time of the trigger, which is difficult to compensate and leads to a large time jitter of outputs. We describe the design of an ATG that includes jitter self-measurement and calibration methods, which is available for both internal and external trigger modes. This structure is completely based on the FPGA's own resources and has the advantages of being simple and flexible. Experimental results show a sub-nanosecond timing resolution of 78 ± 20 ps with a minimum of 120 ps and a time jitter of 160 ± 20 ps in the external trigger mode after compensation.

Advances in plant-derived natural products for antitumor immunotherapy.

In recent years, immunotherapy has emerged as a novel antitumor strategy in addition to traditional surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. It uniquely focuses on immune cells and immunomodulators in the tumor microenvironment and helps eliminate tumors at the root by rebuilding the immune system. Despite remarkable breakthroughs, cancer immunotherapy still faces many challenges: lack of predictable and prognostic biomarkers, adverse side effects, acquired treatment resistance, high costs, etc. Therefore, more efficacious and efficient, safer and cheaper antitumor immunomodulatory drugs have become an urgent requirement. For decades, plant-derived natural products obtained from land and sea have provided the most important source for the development of antitumor drugs. Currently, more attention is being paid to the discovery of potential cancer immunotherapy modulators from plant-derived natural products, such as polysaccharides, phenols, terpenoids, quinones and alkaloids. Some of these agents have outstanding advantages of multitargeting and low side effects and low cost compared to conventional immunotherapeutic agents. We intend to summarize the progress of comprehensive research on these plant-derived natural products and their derivatives and discuss their possible mechanisms in regulating the immune system and their efficacy as monotherapies or in combination with regular chemotherapeutic agents.

A 13-Gene Metabolic Prognostic Signature Is Associated With Clinical and Immune Features in Stomach Adenocarcinoma.

Patients with advanced stomach adenocarcinoma (STAD) commonly show high mortality and poor prognosis. Increasing evidence has suggested that basic metabolic changes may promote the growth and aggressiveness of STAD; therefore, identification of metabolic prognostic signatures in STAD would be meaningful. An integrative analysis was performed with 407 samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and 433 samples from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) to develop a metabolic prognostic signature associated with clinical and immune features in STAD using Cox regression analysis and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO). The different proportions of immune cells and differentially expressed immune-related genes (DEIRGs) between high- and low-risk score groups based on the metabolic prognostic signature were evaluated to describe the association of cancer metabolism and immune response in STAD. A total of 883 metabolism-related genes in both TCGA and GEO databases were analyzed to obtain 184 differentially expressed metabolism-related genes (DEMRGs) between tumor and normal tissues. A 13-gene metabolic signature (GSTA2, POLD3, GLA, GGT5, DCK, CKMT2, ASAH1, OPLAH, ME1, ACYP1, NNMT, POLR1A, and RDH12) was constructed for prognostic prediction of STAD. Sixteen survival-related DEMRGs were significantly related to the overall survival of STAD and the immune landscape in the tumor microenvironment. Univariate and multiple Cox regression analyses and the nomogram proved that a metabolism-based prognostic risk score (MPRS) could be an independent risk factor. More importantly, the results were mutually verified using TCGA and GEO data. This study provided a metabolism-related gene signature for prognostic prediction of STAD and explored the association between metabolism and the immune microenvironment for future research, thereby furthering the understanding of the crosstalk between different molecular mechanisms in human STAD. Some prognosis-related metabolic pathways have been revealed, and the survival of STAD patients could be predicted by a risk model based on these pathways, which could serve as prognostic markers in clinical practice.

Survival-associated alternative splicing events interact with the immune microenvironment in stomach adenocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Alternative splicing (AS) increases the diversity of mRNA during transcription; it might play a role in alteration of the immune microenvironment, which could influence the development of immunotherapeutic strategies against cancer. AIM: To obtain the transcriptomic and clinical features and AS events in stomach adenocarcinoma (STAD) from the database. The overall survival data associated with AS events were used to construct a signature prognostic model for STAD. METHODS: Differentially expressed immune-related genes were identified between subtypes on the basis of the prognostic model. In STAD, 2042 overall-survival-related AS events were significantly enriched in various pathways and influenced several cellular functions. Furthermore, the network of splicing factors and overall-survival-associated AS events indicated potential regulatory mechanisms underlying the AS events in STAD. RESULTS: An eleven-AS-signature prognostic model (CD44|14986|ES, PPHLN1|21214|AT, RASSF4|11351|ES, KIAA1147|82046|AP, PPP2R5D|76200|ES, LOH12CR1|20507|ES, CDKN3|27569|AP, UBA52|48486|AD, CADPS|65499|AT, SRSF7| 53276|RI, and WEE1|14328|AP) was constructed and significantly related to STAD overall survival, immune cells, and cancer-related pathways. The differentially expressed immune-related genes between the high- and low-risk score groups were significantly enriched in cancer-related pathways. CONCLUSION: This study provided an AS-related prognostic model, potential mechanisms for AS, and alterations in the immune microenvironment (immune cells, genes, and pathways) for future research in STAD.