Network-based co-expression analysis for exploring the potential diagnostic biomarkers of metastatic melanoma.

Metastatic melanoma is an aggressive skin cancer and is one of the global malignancies with high mortality and morbidity. It is essential to identify and verify diagnostic biomarkers of early metastatic melanoma. Previous studies have systematically assessed protein biomarkers and mRNA-based expression characteristics. However, molecular markers for the early diagnosis of metastatic melanoma have not been identified. To explore potential regulatory targets, we have analyzed the gene microarray expression profiles of malignant melanoma samples by co-expression analysis based on the network approach. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened by the EdgeR package of R software. A weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was used for the identification of DEGs in the special gene modules and hub genes. Subsequently, a protein-protein interaction network was constructed to extract hub genes associated with gene modules. Finally, twenty-four important hub genes (RASGRP2, IKZF1, CXCR5, LTB, BLK, LINGO3, CCR6, P2RY10, RHOH, JUP, KRT14, PLA2G3, SPRR1A, KRT78, SFN, CLDN4, IL1RN, PKP3, CBLC, KRT16, TMEM79, KLK8, LYPD3 and LYPD5) were treated as valuable factors involved in the immune response and tumor cell development in tumorigenesis. In addition, a transcriptional regulatory network was constructed for these specific modules or hub genes, and a few core transcriptional regulators were found to be mostly associated with our hub genes, including GATA1, STAT1, SP1, and PSG1. In summary, our findings enhance our understanding of the biological process of malignant melanoma metastasis, enabling us to identify specific genes to use for diagnostic and prognostic markers and possibly for targeted therapy.

Silencing NLRC5 inhibits extracellular matrix expression in keloid fibroblasts via inhibition of transforming growth factor-ß1/Smad signaling pathway.

Dermal fibrosis is characterized by collagen accumulation and hyperproliferation of fibroblasts. NLRC5, as the largest member of nucleotide-binding domain and leucine-rich repeat (NLRs) family, has recently been implicated in the development of hepatic fibrosis. However, the role of NLRC5 in dermal fibrosis remains unknown. Therefore, herein, we investigated the effects of NLRC5 on keloid fibroblasts (KFs) and transforming growth factor-ß1 (TGF-ß1)-induced collagen expression and explored the underlying mechanism. We observed that NLRC5 mRNA and protein levels were highly expressed in KFs, silencing NLRC5 greatly suppressed TGF-ß1-induced KFs proliferation. Silencing NLRC5 also obviously inhibited the expression of type I collagen, CTGF and α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) in human KFs induced by TGF-ß1, as well as the expression of TGF-ß receptor I and II. Furthermore, silencing NLRC5 suppressed the expression of TGF-ß1-induced Smad2 and Smad3 phosphorylation in human KFs. Taken together, our study suggest that silencing NLRC5 reduced ECM expression in KFs through inhibiting the TGF-ß1/Smad signaling pathway. Therefore, NLRC5 may represent a promising target for treatment of the keloid disease.

Effect of cyclophosphamide on fungal infection in SLE mice detected by fluorescent quantitative PCR.

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of the cyclophosphamide (CTX) on systemic lupus erythematosus mice by fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction. METHODS: (BALB/c × C57BL/J6) F1 hybrid mice were used as recipients of donor lymphocytes which were injected intravenously. Mice were randomly divided into control group and treatment group, serum autoantibody and urinary protein were measured, renal pathological changes and the situation of fungal infection were observed. RESULTS: The reduced urinary protein, ameliorated renal lesions were found in the CTX-treated mice. Candida albicans and Aspergillus flavus were detected respectively in respiratory tract and gastrointestinal tract. CONCLUSIONS: CTX can alleviate lupus nephritis and the fluorescent quantitative PCR is a rapid and sensitive method for the detection of fungal infection.

Ultrasound image enhancement using structure-based filtering.

Ultrasound images are prone to speckle noises. Speckles blur features which are essential for diagnosis and assessment. Thus despeckling is a necessity in ultrasound image processing. Linear filters can suppress speckles, but they smooth out features. Median filter based despeckling algorithms produce better results. However, they may produce artifact patterns in the resulted images and oversmooth nonuniform regions. This paper presents an innovative despeckle procedure for ultrasound images. In the proposed method, the diffusion tensor of intensity is computed at each pixel at first. Then the eigensystem of the diffusion tensor is calculated and employed to detect and classify the underlying structure. Based on the classification result, a feasible filter is selected to suppress speckles and enhance features. Test results show that the proposed despeckle method reduces speckles in uniform areas and enhances tissue boundaries and spots.

[Behavioral characteristics of men who have sex with men with sadomasochism associated with bleeding].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the behavioral characteristics of men who have sex with men (MSM)with sadomasochism associated bleeding and to analyze the relationship with HIV/AIDS high risk behavior. METHODS: Using modified snowball sampling methods (target sampling methods) to carry out a cross-sectional study on persons with behavior of sadomasochism that associated with bleeding in MSM, using a valid questionnaire. Another control group without the related behavior was set up. SPSS 13.0 was used. RESULTS: People practicing sadomasochism associated with bleeding had higher percentage in the following indicators: number of accumulated same gender sexual partners (median = 20), anal intercourse (median = 10), oral intercourse (median = 10), hand intercourse (median = 15) with same gender sexual partners, number of same gender sexual partners in the previous six months (median = 4), numbers of anal intercourse (median = 3), hand intercourse (median = 3), were more than in the control group. People with sadomasochism associated bleeding had higher rates in the following behaviors: condom was ever broken or slipped in the previous six months (22.6%), suffering from disease of sexual transmitted infections (28.0%), involving in group-sex intercourse (34.8%), having sex with same sex strangers at the place for MSM in the previous six months (62.2%), ever having initiative or passive behavior of oral-anal sex (64.0%), fist-sex (18.9%), finger-sex (66.7%), bleeding during sexual intercourse(58.3%), first coition object was pupil (33.8%), having strong suicide attempts (33.3%) and suicide attempt (23.6%) etc. were more than in the control group. CONCLUSION: MSM who had the behavior of sadomasochism which associated with bleeding had the higher percentage of HIV/AIDS high risk behaviors than the persons without those behaviors. The latter group called for special concern on interventions.

Probabilistic assessment of contamination using the two-phase flow model.

A physically motivated model is indispensable for a successful analysis of the impact of leaching from nuclear waste storage sites on the environment and public health. While most analyses use the single-phase flow model for modelling unsaturated flow and solute transport, the two-phase flow model considering the resistance of gas to water flow is a more realistic one. The effect of the two-phase flow model on the water content is theoretically investigated first in this study. Then, by combining a geostatistical generator using the turning bands method and a multi-phase transport code TOUGH2, an automatic process is used for Monte Carlo simulation of the solute transport. This stochastic approach is applied to a potentially polluted site by low-level nuclear waste in Taiwan. In the simulation, the saturated hydraulic conductivity is treated as the random variable. The stochastic approach provides a probabilistic assessment of contamination. The results show that even though water content from the two-phase flow model is only 1.5% less than the one from the single-phase flow model, the two-phase flow causes a slower movement but a wider lateral spreading of the plume in the unsaturated zone. The stochastic approach provides useful probability information which is not available from the deterministic approach. The probability assessment of groundwater contamination provides the basis for more informed waste management, better environmental assessment and improved evaluation of impact on public health.