A high-affinity potassium transporter (MeHKT1) from cassava (Manihot esculenta) negatively regulates the response of transgenic Arabidopsis to salt stress.

BACKGROUND: High-affinity potassium transporters (HKTs) are crucial in facilitating potassium uptake by plants. Many types of HKTs confer salt tolerance to plants through regulating K+ and Na+ homeostasis under salinity stress. However, their specific functions in cassava (Manihot esculenta) remain unclear. RESULTS: Herein, an HKT gene (MeHKT1) was cloned from cassava, and its expression is triggered by exposure to salt stress. The expression of a plasma membrane-bound protein functions as transporter to rescue a low potassium (K+) sensitivity of yeast mutant strain, but the complementation of MeHKT1 is inhibited by NaCl treatment. Under low K+ stress, transgenic Arabidopsis with MeHKT1 exhibits improved growth due to increasing shoot K+ content. In contrast, transgenic Arabidopsis accumulates more Na+ under salt stress than wild-type (WT) plants. Nevertheless, the differences in K+ content between transgenic and WT plants are not significant. Additionally, Arabidopsis expressing MeHKT1 displayed a stronger salt-sensitive phenotype. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that under low K+ condition, MeHKT1 functions as a potassium transporter. In contrast, MeHKT1 mainly transports Na+ into cells under salt stress condition and negatively regulates the response of transgenic Arabidopsis to salt stress. Our results provide a reference for further research on the function of MeHKT1, and provide a basis for further application of MeHKT1 in cassava by molecular biological means.

Overexpression of Nrf2 reverses ferroptosis induced by Arenobufagin in gastric cancer.

Arenobufagin (ArBu) is a natural monomer extracted and isolated from the secretion of the Chinese toad, also known as toad venom. This compound exerts anti-tumor effects by promoting apoptosis in tumor cells, inhibiting tumor angiogenesis, and preventing the invasion and migration of tumor cells. However, their impact on ferroptosis in tumor cells has yet to be fully confirmed. In this study, we established a subcutaneous transplant tumor model in nude mice to investigate the inhibitory effect of ArBu on gastric cancer cells (MGC-803) and the safety of drug delivery. in vitro experiments, we screened the most sensitive cancer cell lines using the MTT method and determined the response of ArBu to cell death. Use flow cytometry to measure cytoplasmic and lipid reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels. Determine the expression levels of ferritin-related proteins through Western blot experiments. In addition, a MGC-803 cell model overexpressing Nrf2 was created using lentiviral transfection to investigate the role of ArBu in inducing ferroptosis in cancer cells. Our research findings indicate that ArBu inhibits the proliferation of MGC-803 cells and is linked to ferroptosis. In summary, our research findings indicate that ArBu is a potential anti-gastric cancer drug that can induce ferroptosis in human cancer cells through the Nrf2/SLC7A11/GPX4 pathway.

Benefit finding in chronic kidney disease patients receiving hemodialysis: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The psychological problems of hemodialysis (HD) patients are prominent, and benefit finding (BF) have been proven beneficial to physical and mental health, fewer researchers explored BF in HD patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the current status of BF in patients with chronic kidney disease and to analyze the factors influencing it in order to provide a reference for subsequent interventions. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was done on 246 HD patients by convenience sampling in the hemodialysis center of a 3 A hospital in Shanghai from March to September 2019. The measures include General Information Questionnaire, Benefit Finding Scale, Perceived Social Support Scale, General Self-efficacy Scale, and Simplified Coping Style scale. RESULTS: The median (interquartile range, IQR) score of BF was 66 (IQR = 19) and it was lower compared with other chronic diseases. Significant differences in BF scores were found between different age groups, HD duration categories, and understanding degrees of HD. Taking BF as the dependent variable, the results of multiple linear regression analysis showed that age, duration of HD, family support, other support, positive coping, and self-efficacy entered the regression equation to explain 43.8% of the total variation. Social support played an indirect effect in the relationship between positive coping and BF, accounting for 54.1% of the total effect. CONCLUSION: The BF of HD patients is worrisome and affected by many factors. Medical staff could pay attention to the positive psychology of HD patients, and construct individualized interventions according to the influencing factors to improve their BF level and achieve physical and mental health.

Dedifferentiated Schwann cells promote perineural invasion mediated by the PACAP paracrine signalling in cervical cancer.

Perineural invasion (PNI) has emerged as a key pathological feature and be considered as a poor prognostic factor in cervical cancer. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms are largely unknown. Here, PNI status of 269 cervical squamous cell carcinoma and endocervical adenocarcinoma (CESC) samples were quantified by using whole-slide diagnostic images obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas. Integrated analyses revealed that PNI was an indicative marker of poorer disease-free survival for CESC patients. Among the differentially expressed genes, ADCYAP1 were identified. Clinical specimens supported that high expression of PACAP (encoded by ADCYAP1) contributed to PNI in CESC. Mechanistically, PACAP, secreted from cervical cancer cells, reversed myelin differentiation of Schwann cells (SCs). Then, dedifferentiated SCs promoted PNI by producing chemokine FGF17 and by degrading extracellular matrix through secretion of Cathepsin S and MMP-12. In conclusion, this study identified PACAP was associated with PNI in cervical cancer and suggested that tumour-derived PACAP reversed myelin differentiation of SCs to aid PNI.

Recognizing pathology of renal tumor from macroscopic cross-section image by deep learning.

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to develop and evaluate the deep learning-based classification model for recognizing the pathology of renal tumor from macroscopic cross-section image. METHODS: A total of 467 pathology-confirmed patients who received radical nephrectomy or partial nephrectomy were retrospectively enrolled. The experiment of distinguishing malignant and benign renal tumor are conducted followed by performing the multi-subtypes classification models for recognizing four subtypes of benign tumor and four subtypes of malignant tumors, respectively. The classification models used the same backbone networks which are based on the convolutional neural network (CNN), including EfficientNet-B4, ResNet-18, and VGG-16. The performance of the classification models was evaluated by area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy. Besides, we performed the quantitative comparison among these CNN models. RESULTS: For the model to differentiate the malignant tumor from the benign tumor, three CNN models all obtained relatively satisfactory performance and the highest AUC was achieved by the ResNet-18 model (AUC = 0.9226). There is not statistically significance between EfficientNet-B4 and ResNet-18 architectures and both of them are significantly statistically better than the VGG-16 model. The micro-averaged AUC, macro-averaged sensitivity, macro-averaged specificity, and micro-averaged accuracy for the VGG-16 model to distinguish the malignant tumor subtypes achieved 0.9398, 0.5774, 0.8660, and 0.7917, respectively. The performance of the EfficientNet-B4 is not better than that of VGG-16 in terms of micro-averaged AUC except for other metrics. For the models to recognize the benign tumor subtypes, the EfficientNet-B4 ranked the best performance, but had no significantly statistical difference with other two models with respect to micro-averaged AUC. CONCLUSIONS: The classification results were relatively satisfactory, which showed the potential for clinical application when analyzing the renal tumor macroscopic cross-section images. Automatically distinguishing the malignant tumor from benign tumor and identifying the subtypes pathology of renal tumor could make the patient-management process more efficient.

Development and Application Evaluation of a Nursing Simulation Teaching Information System Based on Hospital Information Systems.

Background: The extensive application of hospital information systems in the current information-driven era suggests that nursing education should focus on information education. Methods: The newly developed hospital information system was used and evaluated by 544 students to explore the feasibility and necessity of such applications for teaching. Results: Overall, 97.1% of the students expressed satisfaction, and 96.0% supported simulated information education for nursing. The usability was good, with the system receiving a usability score of 72.625 ± 13.0907. The junior students had a higher score than the sophomores regarding system availability, and the difference was statistically significant. Conclusions: Students generally had a high degree of satisfaction with the simulated information nursing education system and highly approved of the teaching method. However, the system needs to be upgraded.

Synchronous Hepatoblastoma and Neuroblastoma in Two Chinese Infants.

Background: Commonly, pediatric solid tumors occur independently. Only two patients with synchronous hepatoblastoma (HBL) and neuroblastoma (NBL) have been reported. Case reports: Two Chinese infants presented with abdominal mass at 10 and 8 months. Computed tomography (CT) scans in both revealed hepatic masses with additional mediastinal or adrenal masses. Pathology confirmed synchronous HBLs in the liver and NBLs in the mediastinum and adrenal. Next generation sequencing (NGS) found no remarkable germline mutations. Both patients received gross total resections with chemotherapy before or after surgery. They were followed up for 36 and 8 months, and recovered well. Conclusion: These two cases of synchronous HBL and NBL tumors lacked significant genetic alterations.

Interactome analysis of gene expression profiles identifies CDC6 as a potential therapeutic target modified by miR-215-5p in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background: Illustrating the pathogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) pathogenesis as well as identifying specific biomarkers are of great significance. Methods: The original CEL files were obtain from Gene Expression Omnibus, then affymetrix package was used to preprocess the CEL files, the function of DEGs were investigated by multiple bioinformatics approach. Finally, typical HCC cell lines and tissue samples were using to validate the role of CDC6 in vitro. Bioinformatics software was used to predict potential microRNA of CDC6. Luciferase assay was used to verify the interactions between CDC6 and microRNA. Results: A total of 445 DEGs were identified in HCC tissues based on two GEO datasets. GSEA results showed that the significant enriched gene sets were only associated with cell cycle signaling pathway. In the co-expression analysis, there were 370 hub genes from the blue modules were screened. We integrated DEGs, hub genes, TCGA cohort and GSEA analyses to further obtain 10 upregulated genes for validation. These genes were overexpressed in HCC tissues and negatively associated with overall and disease-free survival in HCC patients and related to immune cell infiltration in HCC microenvironments. Finally, Cell Division Cycle 6 (CDC6) was highlighted as one of the most probable genes among the 10 candidates participating in cancer process. The expression of CDC6 either in public datasets and HCC tissues sample were commonly high than the non-cancerous counterpart. Furthermore, we recognized that miR-215-5p, could directly bind to the 3'UTR of CDC6. In addition, CDC6 promoted proliferation via regulation of G1 phase checkpoint and was negative regulated by miR-215-5p to involve in the proliferation of HCC. Conclusion: Our study suggested that CDC6 served as a potential therapeutic target for HCC.

MiR-22-3p Regulates Cell Proliferation and Inhibits Cell Apoptosis through Targeting the eIF4EBP3 Gene in Human Cervical Squamous Carcinoma Cells.

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding small RNAs that function as negative regulators of gene expression and are involved in tumour biology. The eIF4E-binding proteins (eIF4EBPs) play essential roles in preventing translation initiation and inhibiting protein synthesis at a global or message-specific level in a variety of tumours. Methods: According to comparative miRNA profiles of clinical cervical cancer and non-cancerous cervical tissue specimens, several miRNAs were aberrantly expressed in the cervical cancer samples. C33a and SiHa cell proliferation and apoptosis were detected using methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) and flow cytometry assays, respectively. Results: Among the aberrantly expressed miRNAs, miR-22-3p was significantly differentially expressed in cervical cancer tissues and was highly associated with cervical cancer cell growth regulation. In addition, bioinformatic predictions and experimental validation were used to identify whether eIF4E-binding protein 3 (eIF4EBP3) was a direct target of miR-22-3p; eIF4EBP3 protein levels were generally low in the cervical cancer tissues. Furthermore, functional studies revealed that either a miR-22-3p inhibitor or eIF4EBP3 overexpression could induce apoptosis in cervical cancer cells in vitro. Importantly, we found that eIF4EBP3 accumulation could significantly attenuate cervical cancer cell proliferation triggered by a miR-22-3p mimic as well as enhance apoptosis in cervical cancer cells. Conclusion: Taken together, our data provide primary proof that miR-22-3p can induce cervical cancer cell growth at least in part by up-regulating its expression to decrease eIF4EBP3 expression levels; miR-22-3p thus holds promise as a prognostic biomarker and potential therapeutic target for treating cervical cancer.

Raman spectroscopy enables noninvasive biochemical identification of the collagen regeneration in cutaneous wound healing of diabetic mice treated with MSCs.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) had been reported as a novel therapeutic strategy for non-healing diabetic cutaneous wound mainly by promoting the formation of extracellular matrix (ECM) and neovasculature. Collagen regeneration is one of the key processes of ECM remodeling in wound healing. Accordingly, rapid assessment of the collagen content in a noninvasive manner can promptly provide objective evaluation for MSC therapy of cutaneous wound healing and strength evidence to adjust therapeutic regimen. In the present study, noninvasive Raman microspectroscopy was used for tracing the regeneration status of collagen during diabetic wound healing with MSCs. Wound tissues of normal mice, diabetic mice, and MSC-treated diabetic mice were subjected to Masson trichrome staining assay and submitted to spectroscopic analysis by Raman microspectroscopy after wounding 7, 14, and 21 days. Masson trichrome staining demonstrated that there was more collagen deposition in diabetic + MSCs group relative to diabetic group. The relative intensity of Raman collagen peak positions at 937, 1004, 1321, 1452, and 1662 cm-1 increased in MSC-treated diabetic group compared to diabetic group, although normal mice group had the highest relative intensity of collagen peak bands. Correlation analysis suggested that the spectral bands had a high positive correlation with the collagen intensity detected by Masson trichrome staining in wound tissues of three groups. Our results demonstrate that Raman microspectroscopy has potential application in rapidly and quantitatively assessing diabetic wound healing with MSCs by monitoring collagen variation, which may provide a novel method for the study of skin regeneration.

Copper-Catalyzed Three-Component Tandem Cyclization for One-Pot Synthesis of 1,4-Benzothiazines.

A copper-catalyzed three-component tandem reaction has been developed for the convenient and practical synthesis of 1,4-benzothiazines. A variety of terminal alkynes and 2-iodo/bromophenyl isothiocyanates underwent this one-pot cyclization with aqueous ammonia to afford 1,4-benzothiazines in moderate to good yields.

Hierarchically constructed NiCo2S4@Ni(1-x)Co x (OH)2 core/shell nanoarrays and their application in energy storage.

We report a new type of core-shell heterostructure consisting of a rod-like NiCo2S4 (NCS) core and an urchin-like Ni(1-x)Co x (OH)2 (NCOH) shell via a simple hydrothermal route coupled with a facile electrodeposition. NCS nanorod arrays (NRAs) can not only act as excellent electrochemically active materials by themselves, but they can also serve as hierarchical porous scaffolds capable of fast electron conduction and ion diffusion for loading a large amount of additional active materials. Moreover, it is observed that the urchin-like NCOH nanosheets coating could bind the inner NCS nanorods together and thereby reinforce the whole structure mechanically. Meanwhile, more effective pathways for electrons are available in the NCS@NCOH hybrids than an individual NCS nanorod. Benefiting from both structural and compositional features, the NCS@NCOH electrode exhibits greatly improved electrochemical performance with high capacity (3.54 C cm(-2) at 1 mA cm(-2)) and excellent cycling stability (78% capacity retention after 4000 cycles). Moreover, a battery-type device is also fabricated by using NCS@NCOH as a positive electrode and activated carbon (AC) as a negative electrode, displaying high capacity (2.51 C cm(-2) at 2 mA cm(-2)) and good durability (88.8% capacity retention after 4000 cycles) as well.

Cyclic GMP-AMP Synthase Is Required for Cell Proliferation and Inflammatory Responses in Rheumatoid Arthritis Synoviocytes.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is characterized by inflammatory cell infiltration, fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) invasive proliferation, and joint destruction. Cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS) is a cytosolic DNA sensor that induces immune activation. In this study, we examined whether cGAS plays a role in RA FLS. In this study, cGAS was overexpressed in RA-FLS compared with OA FLS. TNFα stimulation induced cGAS expression in RA FLS. Overexpression of cGAS promoted the proliferation and knockdown of cGAS inhibited the proliferation of RA FLS. cGAS overexpression enhanced the production of proinflammatory cytokines and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) as well as AKT and ERK phosphorylation in TNFα-stimulated FLS. In contrast, cGAS silencing inhibited production of proinflammatory cytokines and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) as well as AKT and ERK phosphorylation in TNFα-stimulated FLS. These results suggest that cGAS activates the AKT and ERK pathways to promote the inflammatory response of RA FLS, and the development of strategies targeting cGAS may have therapeutic potential for human RA.

[Diagnostic utility of S100A1, GLUT-1 and Caveolin-1 in renal tumors with oncocytic features: a comparative study].

OBJECTIVE: To study the immunohistochemical expression of S100A1, GLUT-1 and Cavolin-1 and its diagnostic significance in renal tumors with oncocytic features. METHODS: Tissue microarray and immunohistochemical staining for S100A1, GLUT-1 and Cavolin-1 were carried out in 59 cases of renal tumors with oncocytic features, including 19 cases of renal oncocytoma, 15 cases of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (CCRCC) with eosinophilic cells, 11 cases of eosinophilic variant of chromophobe renal cell carcinoma, 7 cases of oncocytic papillary renal cell carcinoma and 7 cases of epithelioid angiomyolipoma. RESULTS: S100A1 was expressed in renal oncocytoma, with a positive propotion of 16/19 (including 14 cases showing widespread and strong positivity). On the other hand, the rate of expression of S100A1 was 2/11 in eosinophilic variant of chromophobe renal cell carcinoma, 10/15 in CCRCC with eosinophilic cells, 3/7 in oncocytic papillary renal cell carcinoma and 6/7 in epithelioid angiomyolipoma (P>0.05). The difference of S100A1 expression between renal oncocytoma and eosinophilic variant of chromophobe renal cell carcinoma was statistically significant. GLUT-1 was located in cell membrane, with a positive rate of 13/15 in CCRCC with eosinophilic cells, 7/19 in renal oncocytoma, 4/7 (weak) in oncocytic papillary renal cell carcinoma, 1/11 in eosinophilic variant of chromophobe renal cell carcinoma and 0/7 in epithelioid angiomyolipoma. The rate of expression of Cav-1 was 6/15 in CCRCC with eosinophilic cells, 2/7 in oncocytic papillary renal cell carcinoma, 5/7 in epithelioid angiomyolipoma, 2/11 (weak) in eosinophilic variant of chromophobe renal cell carcinoma and 0/19 in renal oncocytoma. S100A1 showed high sensitivity and 50% specificity in the diagnosis of renal oncocytoma. GLUT-1 and Cav-1 showed high specificity and sensitivity in the diagnosis of CCRCC and epithelioid angiomyolipoma. CONCLUSIONS: S100A1 is widely expressed in various oncocytic renal neoplasms and helpful in differential diagnosis of renal oncocytoma from eosinophilic variant of chromophobe renal cell carcinoma, but not from other 3 oncocytic renal tumors. Overexpression of GLUT-1 can be used in distinction between CCRCC and renal oncocytoma. Cav-1 is widely expressed in CCRCC and epithelioid angiomyolipoma but not in renal oncocytoma. Cav-1 expression thus rules out renal oncocytoma.

FeCl3-promoted carboxamidation and cyclization of aryl isonitriles with formamides toward phenanthridine-6-carboxamides.

An iron-promoted tandem carboxamidation and cyclization between aryl isonitriles and formamides has been developed. The one-pot strategy can be applied to a wide range of 2-isocyanobiphenyls and formamides with excellent functional group tolerance for the synthesis of phenanthridine-6-carboxamides in moderate to excellent yields.

Reduced CD200 and CD200R1 expression in human chorionic villi contributes to early spontaneous abortion.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the expression of CD200 and its receptor (CD200R) in human chorionic villi during the first trimester of normal pregnancy and early spontaneous abortion (ESA). DESIGN: Prospective study. METHODS: Expression of CD200 and CD200R in the chorionic villi was determined using streptavidin-peroxidase immunohistochemistry, confocal laser scanning microscopy and real-time polymerase chain reaction. POPULATION: Thirty-five women diagnosed with ESA and 30 women experiencing a healthy pregnancy in a medical university hospital in China were enrolled in this study between 2011 and 2013. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: CD200 and CD200R expression. RESULTS: The expression of CD200 in syncytiotrophoblast cells was significantly higher during normal pregnancy than in ESA (0.51 ± 0.05 vs. 0.35 ± 0.05). In contrast, expression of CD200 in cytotrophoblast cells and CD200R in stromal cells was significantly lower during normal pregnancy when compared with ESA (CD200: 0.16 ± 0.02 vs. 0.32 ± 0.03; CD200R: 0.19 ± 0.03 vs. 0.22 ± 0.02). In villi, the expression of both CD200 protein and CD200R transcripts were significantly higher in healthy first-trimester pregnancy than in ESA (CD200: 156.89 ± 105.65 vs. 37.51 ± 17.62). CONCLUSIONS: There is an increase in inhibitory properties of human chorionic villi during normal pregnancy. The mechanism underlying ESA might be associated with enhanced expression of CD200 and CD200R in the trophoblast, leading to an upregulation of the immune response during the first trimester of pregnancy.

Potential Cause-and-Effect Relationship between Gut Microbiota and Childhood Neuroblastoma: A Mendelian Randomization Analysis.

OBJECTIVES: To analyze the potential causal-effect of gut microbiota (GM) on neuroblastoma (NB) risk using a Mendelian randomization (MR) study. METHODS: A two-sample MR study was conducted using summary statistics of the GM from the largest available meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies conducted by the MiBioGen consortium. Pooled statistics for childhood NB were obtained from the IEU Consortium release data (1627 cases and 3254 controls). Inverse variance-weighted, weighted median, MR-Egger, and weighted mod were used to examine the causal relationship between GM and childhood NB. Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genes of positive GM were extracted using the PLINK program, and correlations between key SNP genes and tumor-regulated genes were analyzed. Functional enrichment analysis and transcription factor prediction were performed. RESULTS: Inverse variance weighted (IVW) results indicated that Erysipelotrichia exerted a protective effect against childhood NB (odds ratio = 0.371, 95% Confidence interval: 0.173 - 0.795, P = 0.011) and that Oscillospira exerted a risk effect against childhood NB (odds ratio = 2.378, 95% Confidence interval: 1.121 - 5.043, P = 0.024), indicating the association of GM with childhood NB. Further screening analysis using the IVW test revealed a reliable causal relationship between Erysipelotrichia and NB. Two SNP genes (MUC4 and PELI2) of Erysipelotrichia were extracted and analyzed. Both key genes were significantly associated with tumor-regulated genes, enriched in several pathways associated with tumor progression, and correlated with several upstream transcription factors. CONCLUSIONS: It was observed that Erysipelotrichia is causally associated with NB using a two-sample MR study. Furthermore, the discovery of two SNP genes, MUC4 and PELI2, provides potential targets for the diagnosis and treatment of NB.

Named entity recognition in aerospace based on multi-feature fusion transformer.

In recent years, along with the rapid development in the domain of artificial intelligence and aerospace, aerospace combined with artificial intelligence is the future trend. As an important basic tool for Natural Language Processing, Named Entity Recognition technology can help obtain key relevant knowledge from a large number of aerospace data. In this paper, we produced an aerospace domain entity recognition dataset containing 30 k sentences in Chinese and developed a named entity recognition model that is Multi-Feature Fusion Transformer (MFT), which combines features such as words and radicals to enhance the semantic information of the sentences. In our model, the double Feed-forward Neural Network is exploited as well to ensure MFT better performance. We use our aerospace dataset to train MFT. The experimental results show that MFT has great entity recognition performance, and the F1 score on aerospace dataset is 86.10%.

Cervicovaginal microbiota: a promising direction for prevention and treatment in cervical cancer.

Cervical cancer is a common malignancy in women, with high incidence rate and mortality. Persistent infection of high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most important risk factor for cervical cancer and precancerous lesions. Cervicovaginal microbiota (CVM) plays an essential role in the defense of HPV infections and prevention of subsequent lesions. Dominance of Lactobacillus is the key of CVM homeostasis, which can be regulated by host, exogenous and endogenous factors. Dysbiosis of CVM, including altered microbial, metabolic, and immune signatures, can contribute to persist HPV infection, leading to cervical cancer. However, there is no evidence of the causality between CVM and cervical cancer, and the underlying mechanism remains unexplored. Considering the close correlation between CVM dysbiosis and persistent HPV infection, this review will overview CVM, its role in cervical cancer development and related mechanisms, and the prospects for therapeutic applications.

Positive Regulatory Roles of Manihot esculenta HAK5 under K+ Deficiency or High Salt Stress.

HAK/KUP/KT family members have been identified as playing key roles in K+ uptake and salt tolerance in numerous higher plants. However, their functions in cassava (Manihot esculenta Cantz) remain unknown. In this study, a gene encoding for a high-affinity potassium transporter (MeHAK5) was isolated from cassava and its function was investigated. Subcellular localization analysis showed that MeHAK5 is a plasma membrane-localized transporter. RT-PCR and RT-qPCR indicated that MeHAK5 is predominantly expressed in cassava roots, where it is upregulated by low potassium or high salt; in particular, its highest expression levels separately increased by 2.2 and 2.9 times after 50 µM KCl and 150 mM NaCl treatments. When heterologously expressed in yeast, MeHAK5 mediated K+ uptake within the cells of the yeast strain CY162 and rescued the salt-sensitive phenotype of AXT3K yeast. MeHAK5 overexpression in transgenic Arabidopsis plants exhibited improved growth and increased shoot K+ content under low potassium conditions. Under salt stress, MeHAK5 transgenic Arabidopsis plants accumulated more K+ in the shoots and roots and had reduced Na+ content in the shoots. As a result, MeHAK5 transgenic Arabidopsis demonstrated a more salt-tolerant phenotype. These results suggest that MeHAK5 functions as a high-affinity K+ transporter under K+ starvation conditions, improving K+/Na+ homeostasis and thereby functioning as a positive regulator of salt stress tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis. Therefore, MeHAK5 may be a suitable candidate gene for improving K+ utilization efficiency and salt tolerance.