Construction of a Cancer Stem Cell Marker Genes-Related 22-Gene Signature for Overall Survival Prediction in High-Risk Wilms' Tumor.

Background: This study aimed to investigate the comprehensive expression profile of cancer stem cell (CSC)-related genes and construct a prognostic signature for overall survival (OS) prediction in high-risk Wilms' tumor (WT). Materials and methods: Gene expression and survival data from 120 high-risk WT cases in the Therapeutically Applicable Research to Generate Effective Treatments (TARGET)-WT were used. Results: In total, 229 CSC-related genes were found to be significantly dysregulated in WT compared to tumor-adjacent normal tissues, among which 34 were associated with OS. Using LASSO regression, a 22-gene signature was developed, which exhibited excellent performance in 3-, 5-, and 10-year OS predictions (AUC > 0.86). The high-risk score group showed markedly poorer OS compared to the low-risk score group (median separation, HR = 6.41, 95% CI: 3.18-12.92, p = 3.2e - 9). The 22-gene signature was an independent prognostic factor for OS (HR = 5.086, 95% CI: 3.019-8.568, p < 0.001). Conclusion: This study identified a robust prognostic signature that can effectively support OS prediction.

Atomic spin precession detection method based on the Mach-Zehnder interferometer in an atomic comagnetometer.

A new method for the detection of atomic spin precession based on the Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Different from the conventional polarization detection methods which obtain the atomic spin precession signal by measuring the change of the probe laser power, the proposed method uses the laser modulated by an electro-optic phase modulator (EOM) as the source of the interferometer, and obtains the atomic spin precession signal by measuring the phase difference between the two arms of the MZI. The output of interferometer is independent of the probe laser power, which avoids the system error caused by the fluctuation of the probe laser power, and the long-term stability of the system is effectively improved. At the same time, the method adopts high-frequency electro-optic modulation, which can effectively suppress low-frequency noise, such as 1/f noise, and can significantly improve the detection sensitivity. The rotation sensitivity and long-term stability of the atomic comagnetometer were tested using the MZI detection method and a typical detection method, respectively. The comparison results show that the proposed method has the highest low frequency sensitivity and the potential to improve the long-term stability of the system.

Effects of pump laser intensity on the cell temperature working point in a K-Rb-21Ne spin-exchange relaxation-free co-magnetometer.

The cell temperature working point optimization of the spin-exchange relaxation-free (SERF) co-magnetometer is studied theoretically and experimentally in this article. Based on the steady-state solution of the Bloch equations, the steady-state response model of the K-Rb-21Ne SERF co-magnetometer output signal with cell temperature is established in this paper. And combined with the model, a method to find the optimal working point of the cell temperature that incorporates the pump laser intensity is proposed. The scale factor of the co-magnetometer under different pump laser intensities and cell temperatures is obtained experimentally, and the long-term stability of the co-magnetometer at the different cell temperatures with corresponding pump laser intensities is measured. The results show that the bias instability of the co-magnetometer is reduced from 0.0311 deg/h to 0.0169 deg/h by obtaining the optimal working point of the cell temperature, which verifies the validity and accuracy of the theoretical derivation and the proposed method.

Demonstration of a high-density alkali-metal atomic magnetometer based on the frequency-symmetrical detuning effect of two pumping lights.

The existence of an approximately uniform and unsaturated electron spin polarization distribution within a high-density alkali-metal vapor is considered of great importance for significantly improving the response amplitude and sensitivity properties of an atomic magnetometer. However, when a high-density alkali-metal vapor is formed, the optical depth is much larger than the value of one, resulting in the electron spin polarization gradient. In this work, it was demonstrated from both numerical simulations and experimental points of view, that by replacing the resonant pumping light with two off-resonant pumping light sources, the signal amplitude of the magnetometer can be doubled. By using this approach, the electron spin polarization gradient can be significantly suppressed and the sensitivity can be improved by more than 10%. The proposed scheme is generally applicable to various optical pumping high-density alkali-metal vapor systems, where a uniform electron spin polarization distribution is required, such as optical pumping co-magnetometers and atomic gyroscopes.

CircRNA circ_0005273 contributes to the cisplatin resistance of cervical cancer cells by sponging miR-133b.

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been found to play important roles in drug resistance of human neoplasms. The aim of this study was to explore the effect of circ_0005273 on cisplatin (DDP) resistance of cervical cancer (CC) cells and identify its underlying mechanism. The quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was performed to analyse circ_0005273 and miR-133b expressions, and cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8), Hoechst 33258 staining and caspase-3 activity analysis were performed to evaluate cell proliferation and apoptosis. Luciferase reporter, RNA binding protein immunoprecipitation (RIP) and RNA pull down assays were applied to explore the interaction between circ_0005273 and miR-133b. Our research showed that circ_0005273 and miR-133b expressions were upregulated and downregulated in DDP-resistant CC cancer tissues and cell lines, respectively. Both of circ_0005273 and miR-133b levels were correlated with FIGO stage, DDP status and overall survival rates. Knockdown of circ_0005273 enhanced the sensitivity of DDP-resistant CC cells to DDP by inhibiting cell proliferation and promoting cell apoptosis. Furthermore, circ_0005273 acts as a competing endogenous RNA to modulate miR-133b expression. Downregulation of miR-133b partly reversed the DDP sensitivity of circ_0005273 knockdown in DDP-resistant CC cells. In summary, our study elucidated the role of circ_0005273/miR-133b axis in DDP resistance of CC cells, which might be a potential therapeutic target for DDP-resistant CC patients. Impact StatementWhat is already known on this subject? The detailed regulatory mechanisms underlying DDP chemoresistance are still unclear. Recently, literatures reported that circ_0005273 exerts a regulatory role in the tumorigenesis and progression of human cancers including thyroid carcinoma, pancreatic carcinoma, colorectal carcinoma and breast carcinoma.What do the results of this study add? Circ_0005273 contributes to the DDP resistance of CC cells via sponging miR-133b.What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? The results help to reverse DDP chemoresistance, and the circ_0005273/miR-133b axis might be a potential therapeutic target for DDP-resistant CC patients.

Analysis and suppression of the polarization error for the optical rotation detection system in an atomic comagnetometer.

This paper investigates the laser polarization error in the optical rotation detection system (ORDS) of an atomic comagnetometer (ACM), which will seriously degrade the long-term performance of the ORDS. We first establish an optical transmission model of the ORDS by using Jones matrix concerning the optical imperfection of polarizers. Then, we analyze the polarization error based on this model and propose a novel error suppression method. Finally, we experimentally test the long-term performance of the ORDS and the ACM before and after the polarization error suppression to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. The experimental results show that the long-term performance of the ORDS and the ACM can be improved by approximately 3.4 times with the proposed polarization error suppression method.

Atractylenolide II reverses the influence of lncRNA XIST/miR-30a-5p/ROR1 axis on chemo-resistance of colorectal cancer cells.

This investigation was conducted to elucidate whether atractylenolide II could reverse the role of lncRNA XIST/miR-30a-5p/ROR1 axis in modulating chemosensitivity of colorectal cancer cells. We totally collected 294 pairs of colorectal cancer tissues and adjacent normal tissues and also purchased colorectal cancer cell lines and human embryonic kidney cell line. 5-fluorouracil, cisplatin, mitomycin and adriamycin were designated as the chemotherapies for colorectal cell lines, and atractylenolides were arranged as the Chinese drug. The expressions of XIST, miR-30a-5p and ROR1 were quantified with aid of qRT-PCR or Western blot, and luciferase reporter gene assay was implemented to determine the relationships among XIST, miR-30a-5p and ROR1. Our results demonstrated that XIST and ROR1 expressions were dramatically up-regulated, yet miR-30a-5p expression was down-regulated within colorectal cancer tissues (P < 0.05). The overexpressed XIST and ROR1, as well as under-expressed miR-30a-5p, were inclined to promote viability and proliferation of colorectal cells under the influence of chemo drugs (P < 0.05). In addition, XIST could directly target miR-30a-5p, and ROR1 acted as the targeted molecule of miR-30a-5p. Interestingly, atractylenolides not only switched the expressions of XIST, miR-30a-5p and ROR1 within colorectal cancer cells but also significantly intensified the chemosensitivity of colorectal cancer cells (P < 0.05). Finally, atractylenolide II was discovered to slow down the viability and proliferation of colorectal cancer cells (P < 0.05). In conclusion, the XIST/miR-30a-5p/ROR1 axis could be deemed as pivotal markers underlying colorectal cancer, and administration of atractylenolide II might improve the chemotherapeutic efficacy for colorectal cancer.

Effects of pump laser power density on the hybrid optically pumped comagnetometer for rotation sensing.

We investigate the effects of pump laser power density on the hybrid optically pumped comagnetometer operated in the spin-exchange relaxation-free (SERF) regime. The analytic steady-state output model for the comagnetometer considering two alkali metal species and one nuclear species is presented for the first time. And the effects of pump laser power density on the rotation sensitivity, suppression of low-frequency magnetic noise and long-term stability of the comagnetometer are studied experimentally. The results indicate that when the product of pumping rate and density ratio of pumped atom to probed atom is equal to the spin relaxation rate of the probed atom, the maximum response and highest sensitivity of the comagnetometer are achieved. However, the suppression of low-frequency magnetic noise and long-term stability improve with the increasing of pump laser power density due to the increasing of nuclear spin polarization. Our focus is to optimize the performance of the comagnetometer for rotation sensing, but the theory and method presented here are relevant to all applications of the hybrid optical pumping technique.

Rotation sensing decoupling of a dual-axis K-Rb-21Ne atomic comagnetometer.

A dual-axis atomic comagnetometer can sense the angular rotation of two measurement axes simultaneously and independently. However, there is a cross-talk coupling effect between the two axes because of the residual magnetic field and the light shift arising from the pumping laser. Here, we propose a scheme to eliminate the rotation coupling of dual-axis K-Rb-N21e atomic comagnetometers. The residual magnetic field can be effectively removed by controlling the comagnetometer at the magnetic compensation point and the magnetic shielding layer. The light shift could be eliminated by using the K atom light shift to counteract the Rb atom light shift, in which the light shift of K atoms was optimized to the decoupling point by finely adjusting the pumping laser wavelength of the K D1 line. The feasibility and efficiency of this decoupling scheme have been experimentally verified. The output response of the coupling axis is reduced by two orders of magnitude compared to the sensitive axis. This scheme can also be applied to any atomic comagnetometer with hybrid optical pumping that experiences cross-talk coupling.

Common-mode noise reduction in an atomic spin gyroscope using optical differential detection.

Optical rotation of linearly polarized light is used to measure atom spin precession in an atomic spin gyroscope (ASG). However, the common-mode noise in the polarization measurement seriously affects the performance of the sensitive ASG. Here we propose an optical differential detection method based on the photoelastic polarization modulation, which could effectively eliminate the light power fluctuation of the laser source and optical elements, while removing the polarization noise and the residual birefringence. The feasibility and efficiency of this method have been verified experimentally. The rotation sensitivity of the ASG is an order of magnitude better, and the long-time stability is significantly improved. In addition, this method is easier to implement because noise sources do not need to be strictly distinguished.