Precutting Endoscopic Band Ligation-Assisted Resection Is Safe and Effective for Treating Gastric Submucosal Tumors from the Muscularis Propria.

BACKGROUND: We previously treated small gastric submucosal tumors originating from the muscularis propria layer by precutting endoscopic band ligation but lacked precise pathological results. Then, precutting endoscopic band ligation was modified by additional snare resection after ligation to obtain tumor specimens, termed precutting endoscopic band ligation-assisted resection. AIMS: In this study, we aimed to explore the safety, feasibility, and efficacy of precutting endoscopic band ligation-assisted resection. METHODS: From 2021 to 2022, a total of 16 consecutive patients underwent precutting endoscopic band ligation-assisted resection to treat small gastric submucosal tumors originating from the muscularis propria. The clinical demography, perioperative data, and follow-up outcomes were retrospectively collected. RESULTS: With a mean operative time of 21.3 min, all lesions were successfully and completely resected, and no severe adverse events or local recurrences occurred postoperatively. More importantly, en bloc and R0 resection were achieved in all 16 patients. CONCLUSION: Precutting endoscopic band ligation-assisted resection is a safe, effective, and time-saving endoscopic technique for managing gastric small gastric submucosal tumors originating from the muscularis propria for both diagnosis and eradication.

Experimental study on calcium carbonate precipitation using electromagnetic field treatment.

The present study investigated the effectiveness of electromagnetic fields in preventing calcium carbonate (CaCO3) fouling in cooling water. Four different frequencies and two different voltages were adopted to induce electromagnetic fields directly in water with constant water temperature and constant flow velocity. Artificial hard water was used. The solution conductivities decreased by 17-25% from their initial values in the electromagnetic anti-fouling treatment (EAT) cases, depending on different frequencies of electric pulses, whereas the untreated case dropped by 31%. The particle size became small and the crystal structure changed into loose style after EAT. The EAT device independently developed by the State Key Laboratory had been validated as an effective apparatus in preventing CaCO3 fouling in cooling water.

In Situ Construction of Heterostructured Co3O4/CoP Nanoflake Arrays on Carbon Cloth as Binder-Free Anode for High-Performance Lithium-Ion Batteries.

Cobalt oxide (Co3O4) is regarded as the anode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) with great research value owing to its environmental friendliness and exceptional theoretical capacity. However, the low intrinsic conductivity, poor electrochemical kinetics, and unsatisfactory cycling performance severely limit its practical applications in LIBs. The construction of a self-standing electrode with heterostructure by introducing a highly conductive cobalt-based compound is an effective strategy to solve the above issues. Herein, Co3O4/CoP nanoflake arrays (NFAs) with heterostructure are constructed skillfully directly grown on carbon cloth (CC) by in situ phosphorization as an anode for LIBs. Density functional theory simulation results demonstrate that the construction of heterostructure greatly increases the electronic conductivity and Li ion adsorption energy. The Co3O4/CoP NFAs/CC exhibited an extraordinary capacity (1490.7 mA h g-l at 0.1 A g-l) and excellent performance at high current density (769.1 mA h g-l at 2.0 A g-l), as well as remarkable cyclic stability (451.3 mA h g-l after 300 cycles with a 58.7% capacity retention rate). The reasonable construction of heterostructure can promote the interfacial ion transport, significantly enhance the adsorption energy of lithium ions, improve the conductivity of Co3O4 electrode material, promote the partial charge transfer throughout the charge and discharge cycles, and enhance the overall electrochemical performance of the material.

ZEB1 promotes tumorigenesis and metastasis in hepatocellular carcinoma by regulating the expression of vimentin.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide and its prognosis remains poor. Epithelial­to­mesenchymal transition (EMT)­induced markers have emerged as key regulators of tumor development and progression in HCC. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of zinc finger E­box­binding homeobox 1 (ZEB1) in the tumorigenesis of HCC and to elucidate the mechanism underlying the correlation between ZEB1 and vimentin (VIM). The expression levels of ZEB1 and VIM were assessed by immunohistochemistry, western blotting and reverse transcription­quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis in HCC tissues and cell lines. The biological significance of ZEB1 was examined by downregulating the expression of ZEB1 in Huh­7 cells. A luciferase reporter assay was used to investigate the association between ZEB1 and VIM. The expression levels of ZEB1 and VIM were higher in tumor tissues compared with those in adjacent normal tissues, and they were significantly associated with a poor prognosis in patients with HCC, whereas ZEB1 silencing led to the attenuation of HCC cell proliferation, invasion and migration. Furthermore, it was observed that ZEB1 was able to bind to a certain site in the VIM promoter and regulate the transcriptional activity of VIM. Therefore, the present study demonstrated that ZEB1 is a potential biomarker of the tumorigenesis and progression of HCC, and it may regulate transcription of the VIM gene.

Prognostic role of long noncoding RNA ZFAS1 in cancer patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Long noncoding RNA ZFAS1 has been identified as a crucial role in the tumorigenesis of malignant tumors. Numerous studies reported that the expression levels of ZFAS1 in tumor tissues were dramatically higher than that in adjacent normal tissues. We conducted a meta-analysis to investigate the correlation between ZFAS1 expression and clinical outcomes of cancer patients. The databases of PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, CNKI and WanFang were retrieved for eligible studies. A total of 841 patients from 9 studies were eventually included. Our results demonstrated that increased ZFAS1 expression was significantly associated with poor OS in cancer patients (HR = 2.13, 95% CI = 1.71-2.65, P < 0.001). Patients with high ZFAS1 expression presented shorter RFS than those with low ZFAS1 expression (HR = 2.00, 95% CI = 1.45-2.77, P < 0.001). The clinicopathological parameters analysis demonstrated that increased ZFAS1 expression was significantly associated with vascular invasion (OR = 2.26, 95% CI = 1.36-3.78, P = 0.002), lymph node metastasis (OR = 2.98, 95% CI = 2.12-4.19, P < 0.001) and advanced TNM stage (OR = 3.00, 95% CI = 2.18-4.12, P < 0.001). In conclusion, lncRNA ZFAS1 might serve as a prognostic biomarker for cancer patients and increased ZFAS1 expression may be closely related to advanced characteristics of cancer.

A new antibacterial chromone derivative from mangrove-derived fungus Penicillium aculeatum (No. 9EB).

One new chromone derivative, (2'S*)-2-(2'-hydroxypropyl)-5-methyl-7, 8-dihydroxy-chromone (1), together with three known compounds, bacillisporin A (2), bacillisporin B (3) and 5-carboxyphthalide (4) were obtained from the mangrove-derived fungus Penicillium aculeatum (No. 9EB). Their structures were elucidated by the detailed analysis of comprehensive spectroscopic data. Compounds 2 and 3 exhibited potent inhibitory activity against Bacillus subtilis with the same MIC values of 0.13 ± 0.02 µM, whereas compound 1 showed antibacterial activity against Salmonell with an MIC value of 2.00 ± 0.02 µM. Compound 2 and 3 possessed significant inhibitory activity against α-glucosidase with IC50 values of 33.55 ± 0.63 and 95.81 ± 1.12 µM, respectively.

Small nucleolar RNA 47 promotes tumorigenesis by regulating EMT markers in hepatocellular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is third leading cause of cancer-related death globally. Evidence suggest that small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) have emerged as key regulators of tumor development and progression in HCC. However, the biological significance of snoRNAs in HCC remains unclear. METHODS: We investigated the role of snoRA47 in a total of 60 paired HCC samples and six different human HCC cell lines by using qRT-PCR. Besides, snoRA47 was silenced through the siRNA transfection to determine whether snoRA47-siRNA is able to affect cell proliferation, invasion and metastasis by regulating the expressions of "epithelial-mesenchymal transition'' (EMT) markers. RESULTS: The expression of snoRA47 in HCC tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent normal tissues (non-diseased tissues) and it was remarkably associated with intrahepatic metastasis, lymphatic invasion, and TNM stage. The Kaplan-Meier survival curves suggested that HCC patients with high snoRA47 expression experienced significantly shorter overall survival and statistically higher recurrence rate than those with low expression of snoRA47. In addition, it was proved that the knockdown of snoRA47 inhibited cell proliferation by inducing cell apoptosis and suppressed cell invasion and migration by regulating the expressions of EMT markers. CONCLUSIONS: SnoRA47 may serve as a valuable biomarker and a potential therapeutic target for HCC.

Interleukin-10 promoter polymorphism and susceptibility to lung cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Interleukin-10 (IL-10) is a multifunctional cytokine with both immunosuppressive and anti-angiogenic properties and it plays an important role in the pathogenesis of cancer. A number of studies have examined the association between its promoter -1082/-819/-592 polymorphism and risk of lung cancer. However, the results are inconsistent and inconclusive. The aim of this study was to explore whether the IL-10 gene polymorphism contribute to the susceptibility of lung cancer. METHOD: We searched in PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library as well as Chinese databases including China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Wan Fang database for all the relevant studies up to May 15, 2015. The data were extracted by two independent authors. The pooled odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) under co-dominant model, dominant model and recessive model were estimated. RESULTS: A total of 8 studies involving 2033 cases and 3100 controls were included in the meta-analysis. The results revealed that the IL-10 -592C/A polymorphism was related to lung cancer susceptibility under all models (C allele vs. A allele: OR=1.195, 95% CI=1.075-1.329; CC vs. AA: OR=1.651, 95%=1.290-2.113; CA vs. AA: OR=1.229, 95%=1.029-1.468; CA+AA vs. CC: OR=0.832, 95%=0.704-0.984; CC+CA vs. AA: OR=1.301, 95%=1.100-1.538) and IL-10 -819C/T polymorphism was associated with lung cancer susceptibility under three models (C allele vs. T allele: OR=1.441, 95% CI=1.228-1.691; CC vs. TT: OR=2.444, 95%=1.732-3.449; CC+CT vs. TT: OR=1.496, 95%=1.172-1.908). For IL-10 -1082G/A, there was no significant association between its polymorphism and lung cancer risk. CONCLUSIONS: This meta-analysis demonstrated that two polymorphisms (-592C/A and -819C/T) in the promoter region of IL-10 gene were significantly associated with the risk of lung cancer in general population, while -1082G/A polymorphism did not affect susceptibility to lung cancer.