Infectious hepatitis E virus excreted into the vagina.

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) persists in the male genital tract that associates with infertility. However, the presence of HEV in the female genital tract is unreported. Vaginal secretions, cervical smears, and cervix uteri were collected to explore the presence of HEV in the female genital tract. HEV RNA and/or antigens were detected in the vaginal secretions, cervical smears, and the cervix uteri of women. The infectivity of HEV excreted into vaginal secretions was further validated in vitro. In addition, HEV replicates in the female genital tract were identified in HEV-infected animal models by vaginal injection or vaginal mucosal infection to imitate sexual transmission. Serious genital tract damage and inflammatory responses with significantly elevated mucosal innate immunity were observed in women or animals with HEV vaginal infection. Results demonstrated HEV replicates in the female genital tract and causes serious histopathological damage and inflammatory responses.

Stark Effects of Rydberg Excitons in a Monolayer WSe2 P-N Junction.

The enhanced Coulomb interaction in two-dimensional semiconductors leads to tightly bound electron-hole pairs known as excitons. The large binding energy of excitons enables the formation of Rydberg excitons with high principal quantum numbers (n), analogous to Rydberg atoms. Rydberg excitons possess strong interactions among themselves as well as sensitive responses to external stimuli. Here, we probe Rydberg exciton resonances through photocurrent spectroscopy in a monolayer WSe2 p-n junction formed by a split-gate geometry. We show that an external in-plane electric field not only induces a large Stark shift of Rydberg excitons up to quantum principal number 3 but also mixes different orbitals and brightens otherwise dark states such as 3p and 3d. Our study provides an exciting platform for engineering Rydberg excitons for new quantum states and quantum sensing.

Hepatitis E virus infection upregulates ING5 expression in vitro and in vivo.

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is the major pathogen of viral hepatitis. Immunocompromised individuals infected by HEV are prone to chronic hepatitis and increase the risk of hepato-cellular carcinoma (HCC). Inhibitor of growth family member 5 (ING5) is a tumor suppressor that is expressed at low levels in cancer tumors or cells. However, the underlying relationship between ING5 and HEV infection is unclear. In the present study, acute and chronic HEV animal models are used to explore the interaction between ING5 and HEV. Notably, the expression of ING5 is significantly increased in both the livers of acute HEV-infected BALB/c mice and chronic HEV-infected rhesus macaques. In addition, the relationship between HEV infection and ING5 expression is further identified in human hepatoma (HepG-2) cells. In conclusion, HEV infection strongly upregulates ING5 expression both in vivo and in vitro, which has significant implications for further understanding the pathogenic mechanism of HEV infection.

Severe maternal-fetal pathological damage and inflammatory responses contribute to miscarriage caused by hepatitis E viral infection during pregnancy.

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection causes serious adverse pregnancy outcomes during pregnancy. However, the maternal and fetal damage induced by HEV infection is rarely reported. METHODS: A BALB/c pregnant mouse model was established to explore the maternal and fetal pathological damage and inflammatory responses caused by HEV infection. RESULTS: Notably, miscarriages and stillbirths were observed in HEV-infected pregnant mice. HEV infections were identified by qRT-PCR, immunohistochemical analysis and immunofluorescence assay in the uterus, placenta, umbilical cords and livers and brains of fetuses. Serious inflammatory responses and pathological damage were triggered in the uterus and placenta of HEV-infected pregnant mice. Vertical transmission of HEV resulted in severe pathological damage and inflammatory responses in the livers and brains of fetuses, as well as emerging apoptosis cells in the brains of fetuses. Most of the cytokines/chemokines in the sera were significantly increased in the HEV-infected pregnant mice. Remarkably, cytokines/chemokines were significantly different between HEV-infected pregnant and miscarriage mice; IL9, GM-CSF and IL1α were the most important three cytokines/chemokines in determining the pregnancy outcomes. CONCLUSION: HEV infections cause serious maternal/fetal pathological damage, inflammatory responses and apoptosis, which may be responsible for adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Present Knowledge and Future Perspectives of Atmospheric Emission Inventories of Toxic Trace Elements: A Critical Review.

Toxic trace elements (TEs) can pose serious risks to ecosystems and human health. However, a comprehensive understanding of atmospheric emission inventories for several concerning TEs has not yet been developed. In this study, we systematically reviewed the status and progress of existing research in developing atmospheric emission inventories of TEs focusing on global, regional, and sectoral scales. Multiple studies have strengthened our understanding of the global emission of TEs, despite attention being mainly focused on Hg and source classification in different studies showing large discrepancies. In contrast to those of developed countries and regions, the officially published emission inventory is still lacking in developing countries, despite the fact that studies on evaluating the emissions of TEs on a national scale or one specific source category have been numerous in recent years. Additionally, emissions of TEs emitted from waste incineration and traffic-related sources have produced growing concern with worldwide rapid urbanization. Although several studies attempt to estimate the emissions of TEs based on PM emissions and its source-specific chemical profiles, the emission factor approach is still the universal method. We call for more extensive and in-depth studies to establish a precise localization national emission inventory of TEs based on adequate field measurements and comprehensive investigation to reduce uncertainty.

Sub-10 nm Nanopattern Architecture for 2D Material Field-Effect Transistors.

Two-dimensional materials (2DMs) are competitive candidates in replacing or supplementing conventional semiconductors owing to their atomically uniform thickness. However, current conventional micro/nanofabrication technologies realize hardly ultrashort channel and integration, especially for sub-10 nm. Meanwhile, experimental device performance associated with the scaling of dimension needs to be investigated, due to the short channel effects. Here, we show a novel and universal technological method to fabricate sub-10 nm gaps with sharp edges and steep sidewalls. The realization of sub-10 nm gaps derives from a corrosion crack along the cleavage plane of Bi2O3. By this method, ultrathin body field-effect transistors (FETs), consisting of 8.2 nm channel length, 6 nm high-k dielectric, and 0.7 nm monolayer MoS2, exhibit no obvious short channel effects. The corresponding current on/off ratio and subthreshold swing reaches to 106 and 140 mV/dec, respectively. Moreover, integrated circuits with sub-10 nm channel are capable of operating as digital inverters with high voltage gain. The results suggest our technological method can be used to fabricate the ultrashort channel nanopatterns, build the experimental groundwork for 2DMs FETs with sub-10 nm channel length and 2DMs integrated circuits, and offer new potential opportunities for large-scale device constructions and applications.

The fourth central polypurine tract guides the synthesis of prototype foamy virus plus-strand DNA.

Foamy virus (FV) is a nonpathogenic retrovirus that has the potential to serve as a gene therapy vector. In retroviral replication, the central polypurine tract (cPPT) is used as a primer to synthesize plus-strand DNA. The cPPT is subsequently degraded to produce a single-stranded gap in the double-stranded viral DNA molecule. In the prototype foamy virus (PFV), four cPPT-like motifs have been previously identified, in which there is a gap with uncertain terminals. In this study, we determined the length of the PFV gap varying from 144 to 731 bp. The 3' terminus of the cleavage sites is located between 6272 bp and 6274 bp from the first base of PFV genome, while the 5' terminus is located within a 465 bp range. The start and terminal nucleotides of the gap are located on either side of the fourth cPPT element. Deletion, mutation, and replacement of the fourth cPPT with the Human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) cPPT resulted in a significant reduction in modified PFV virions, indicating that the fourth cPPT ought to be the primer that guides the synthesis of PFV plus-strand DNA. These results improve the theoretical basis for understanding FVs replication and will help construct new FV vectors with simple genome sequences containing only the necessary cis elements.

19 F DOSY diffusion-NMR spectroscopy of fluoropolymers.

A new pulse sequence for obtaining 19 F detected DOSY (diffusion ordered spectroscopy) spectra of fluorinated molecules is presented and used to study fluoropolymers based on vinylidene fluoride and chlorotrifluoroethylene. The performance of 19 F DOSY NMR experiments (and in general any type of NMR experiment) on fluoropolymers creates some unique complications that very often prevent detection of important signals. Factors that create these complications include: (1) the presence of many scalar couplings among 1 H, 19 F and 13 C; (2) the large magnitudes of many 19 F homonuclear couplings (especially 2 JFF ); (3) the large 19 F chemical shift range; and (4) the low solubility of these materials (which requires that experiments be performed at high temperatures). A systematic study of the various methods for collecting DOSY NMR data, and the adaptation of these methods to obtain 19 F detected DOSY data, has been performed using a mixture of low molecular weight, fluorinated model compounds. The best pulse sequences and optimal experimental conditions have been determined for obtaining 19 F DOSY spectra. The optimum pulse sequences for acquiring 19 F DOSY NMR data have been determined for various circumstances taking into account the spectral dispersion, number and magnitude of couplings present, and experimental temperature. Pulse sequences and experimental parameters for optimizing these experiments for the study of fluoropolymers have been studied. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Adaptive multidirectional frequency domain filter for noise removal in wrapped phase patterns.

In order to avoid the detrimental effects of excessive noise in the phase fringe patterns of a laser digital interferometer over the accuracy of phase unwrapping and the successful detection of mechanical fatigue defects, an effective method of adaptive multidirectional frequency domain filtering is introduced based on the characteristics of the energy spectrum of localized wrapped phase patterns. Not only can this method automatically set the cutoff frequency, but it can also effectively filter out noise while preserving the image edge information. Compared with the sine and cosine transform filtering and the multidirectional frequency domain filtering, the experimental results demonstrate that the image filtered by our method has the fewest number of residues and is the closest to the noise-free image, compared to the two aforementioned methods, demonstrating the effectiveness of this adaptive multidirectional frequency domain filter.

Controllable two-stage droplet evaporation method and its nanoparticle self-assembly mechanism.

Bottom-up self-assembly is able to constitute a variety of structures and has been thought to be a promising way for advanced nanofabrication. Droplet evaporation, as the simplest method, has been used in various self-assemblies. However, the assembled area is not large enough and the order is still not well controlled. Here we show a facile and controllable two-stage droplet evaporation method by adjusting the humidity and temperature of the evaporating droplet. Taking the highly monodispersed gold nanorods (GNRs) as an example, large-area, self-assembly monolayer arrays are reproducibly achieved. To understand the self-assembly mechanism, we adopted simplified models to analyze the interactions between the nanorods. The results show that a metastable state of secondary-energy-minimum exists, especially in the latter stage of the assembly process, leading to the ordered arrays. A large electrostatic barrier between the assembled arrays prevents the formation of the multilayer structures and thereby leads to the preferential monolayers. Moreover, we predict possibilities of different types of assemblies of the nanorods, and a schematic phase diagram is finally given. The results here may offer a way toward high-quality self-assembled nanoparticles superlattices for use in enhanced spectroscopy, sensors, or nanodevices.

Quadrupolar excitons and hybridized interlayer Mott insulator in a trilayer moiré superlattice.

Transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) moiré superlattices, owing to the moiré flatbands and strong correlation, can host periodic electron crystals and fascinating correlated physics. The TMDC heterojunctions in the type-II alignment also enable long-lived interlayer excitons that are promising for correlated bosonic states, while the interaction is dictated by the asymmetry of the heterojunction. Here we demonstrate a new excitonic state, quadrupolar exciton, in a symmetric WSe2-WS2-WSe2 trilayer moiré superlattice. The quadrupolar excitons exhibit a quadratic dependence on the electric field, distinctively different from the linear Stark shift of the dipolar excitons in heterobilayers. This quadrupolar exciton stems from the hybridization of WSe2 valence moiré flatbands. The same mechanism also gives rise to an interlayer Mott insulator state, in which the two WSe2 layers share one hole laterally confined in one moiré unit cell. In contrast, the hole occupation probability in each layer can be continuously tuned via an out-of-plane electric field, reaching 100% in the top or bottom WSe2 under a large electric field, accompanying the transition from quadrupolar excitons to dipolar excitons. Our work demonstrates a trilayer moiré system as a new exciting playground for realizing novel correlated states and engineering quantum phase transitions.

Greatly Enhanced Raman Scattering of Graphene on Metals by a Boron Nitride Film Covering.

Raman spectroscopy, a nondestructive fingerprinting technique, is mainly utilized to identify molecular species and phonon modes of materials. However, direct Raman characterization of two-dimensional materials typically synthesized on catalytic metal substrates is extremely challenging because of the significant electric screening and interfacial electronic couplings. Here, we demonstrate that by covering as-grown graphene with boron nitride (BN) films, the Raman intensity of graphene can be enhanced by two orders of magnitude and is also several times stronger than that of suspended graphene. This great Raman enhancement originates from the optical field amplification by Fabry-Pérot cavity in BN films and the local field plasmon near copper steps. We further demonstrate the direct characterization of the local strain and doping level of as-grown graphene and in situ monitoring of the molecule reaction process by enhanced Raman spectroscopy. Our results will broaden the optical investigations of interfacial sciences on metals, including photoinduced charge transfer dynamics and photocatalysis at metal surfaces.

Genotype 4 Hepatitis E virus replicates in the placenta, causes severe histopathological damage, and vertically transmits to fetuses.

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection in pregnant women causes adverse pregnancy outcomes, including maternal death, premature delivery, stillbirth, and fetal infection. However, the pathogenesis of maternal and fetal HEV infection is unclear. METHODS: Placenta and placental appendixes were collected from HEV-4 infected pregnant women to explore the vertical transmission of HEV from mothers to fetuses. RESULTS: HEV-4 replicated in the placenta, placental membrane, and umbilical cord and was vertically transmitted from mothers to fetuses. HEV-4 placental infection resulted in serious histopathological damage, such as fibrosis and calcification, and severe inflammatory responses. Adverse maternal outcomes were observed in 38.5% of HEV-4 infected pregnant women. The distinct cytokine/chemokine expression patterns of HEV-infected pregnant women and nonpregnant women may contribute to the adverse pregnancy outcomes. Furthermore, the impaired maternal and fetal innate immune responses against HEV-4 facilitated viral replication during pregnancy. CONCLUSION: HEV-4 replicates in the placenta and is vertically transmitted from mothers to fetuses, causing severe histopathological damage.

Exciton Superposition across Moiré States in a Semiconducting Moiré Superlattice.

Moiré superlattices of semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides enable unprecedented spatial control of electron wavefunctions, leading to emerging quantum states. The breaking of translational symmetry further introduces a new degree of freedom: high symmetry moiré sites of energy minima behaving as spatially separated quantum dots. We demonstrate the superposition between two moiré sites by constructing a trilayer WSe2/monolayer WS2 moiré heterojunction. The two moiré sites in the first layer WSe2 interfacing WS2 allow the formation of two different interlayer excitons, with the hole residing in either moiré site of the first layer WSe2 and the electron in the third layer WSe2. An electric field can drive the hybridization of either of the interlayer excitons with the intralayer excitons in the third WSe2 layer, realizing the continuous tuning of interlayer exciton hopping between two moiré sites and a superposition of the two interlayer excitons, distinctively different from the natural trilayer WSe2.

Survival prediction model for right-censored data based on improved composite quantile regression neural network.

With the development of the field of survival analysis, statistical inference of right-censored data is of great importance for the study of medical diagnosis. In this study, a right-censored data survival prediction model based on an improved composite quantile regression neural network framework, called rcICQRNN, is proposed. It incorporates composite quantile regression with the loss function of a multi-hidden layer feedforward neural network, combined with an inverse probability weighting method for survival prediction. Meanwhile, the hyperparameters involved in the neural network are adjusted using the WOA algorithm, integer encoding and One-Hot encoding are implemented to encode the classification features, and the BWOA variable selection method for high-dimensional data is proposed. The rcICQRNN algorithm was tested on a simulated dataset and two real breast cancer datasets, and the performance of the model was evaluated by three evaluation metrics. The results show that the rcICQRNN-5 model is more suitable for analyzing simulated datasets. The One-Hot encoding of the WOA-rcICQRNN-30 model is more applicable to the NKI70 data. The model results are optimal for k=15 after feature selection for the METABRIC dataset. Finally, we implemented the method for cross-dataset validation. On the whole, the Cindex results using One-Hot encoding data are more stable, making the proposed rcICQRNN prediction model flexible enough to assist in medical decision making. It has practical applications in areas such as biomedicine, insurance actuarial and financial economics.

Two-stage feature selection for classification of gene expression data based on an improved Salp Swarm Algorithm.

Microarray technology has developed rapidly in recent years, producing a large number of ultra-high dimensional gene expression data. However, due to the huge sample size and dimension proportion of gene expression data, it is very challenging work to screen important genes from gene expression data. For small samples of high-dimensional biomedical data, this paper proposes a two-stage feature selection framework combining Wrapper, embedding and filtering to avoid the curse of dimensionality. The proposed framework uses weighted gene co-expression network (WGCNA), random forest and minimal redundancy maximal relevance (mRMR) for first stage feature selection. In the second stage, a new gene selection method based on the improved binary Salp Swarm Algorithm is proposed, which combines machine learning methods to adaptively select feature subsets suitable for classification algorithms. Finally, the classification accuracy is evaluated using six methods: lightGBM, RF, SVM, XGBoost, MLP and KNN. To verify the performance of the framework and the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, the number of genes selected and the classification accuracy was compared with the other five intelligent optimization algorithms. The results show that the proposed framework achieves an accuracy equal to or higher than other advanced intelligent algorithms on 10 datasets, and achieves an accuracy of over 97.6% on all 10 datasets. This shows that the method proposed in this paper can solve the feature selection problem related to high-dimensional data, and the proposed framework has no data set limitation, and it can be applied to other fields involving feature selection.

The relationship between COVID-19-related prevention cognition and healthy lifestyle behaviors among university students: Mediated by e-health literacy and self-efficacy.

BACKGROUND: At present, few studies have explored the mediating effect of e-Health literacy and self-efficacy on prevention cognition and healthy lifestyle behaviors during the normalization stage of COVID-19 prevention and control. This study aimed to determine the associations among COVID-19-related prevention cognition, self-efficacy, e-Health literacy, and healthy lifestyle behaviors at university students. METHODS: By using a stratified cluster random sampling method, 971 students from five universities were recruited between May and August 2021 in Guangzhou, China. We collected participants' demographic characteristics, and assessed self-efficacy, COVID-19-related prevention cognition, e-Health literacy, and healthy lifestyle behaviors. A structural equation model was used for mediation analysis. RESULTS: The overall mean value of healthy lifestyle behaviors of college students was 0.307 (SD 0.389). Between COVID-19-related prevention cognition, e-Health literacy, self-efficacy, and healthy lifestyle behaviors (r = 0.132-0.505, P < 0.01) were a significant positive correlation. The COVID-19-related prevention cognition had a direct and positive predictive effect on healthy lifestyle behaviors, with a direct effect value of 0.136. e-Health literacy and self-efficacy played both an independent mediating and serial-multiple mediating roles in the association between COVID-19-related prevention cognition and healthy lifestyle behaviors, and the indirect effect values were 0.043, 0.020 and 0.035, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that the emphasis on improving college students' prevention cognition, supplemented by improving e-Health literacy and self-efficacy, could improve college students' healthy lifestyle behaviors. LIMITATIONS: This study was a cross-sectional investigation with no causal relationship between variables.

Distributive Justice and Turnover Intention Among Medical Staff in Shenzhen, China: The Mediating Effects of Organizational Commitment and Work Engagement.

Background: Turnover of medical staff is a vital issue in the global healthcare system. Previous evidence has confirmed the critical effect of distributive justice on turnover intention, but few studies have focused on the mediating mechanism behind this relationship or the medical staff. This study aimed to examine the mediating roles of organizational commitment and work engagement in the relationship between distributive justice and turnover intention of medical staff, and explore potential occupational differences. Methods: Stratified random sampling was adopted to select qualified medical staff from each clinical department of a large general hospital in Shenzhen, China, at a physician-to-nurse ratio of 1:1.5. The medical staff were surveyed using the Distributive Justice Scale, the Organizational Commitment Scale, the Work Engagement Scale, and the Turnover Intention Scale from May to July 2020. Of the 500 medical staff sampled, 480 responded (response rate: 96.00%), and 457 were finally included for analysis (effective response rate: 95.21%). A mediation analysis was performed using Model 6 of the SPSS macro PROCESS program. Results: There were significant positive correlations among distributive justice, organizational commitment, and work engagement and significant negative correlations among distributive justice, organizational commitment, work engagement, and turnover intention. Distributive justice directly and negatively affected the turnover intention of physicians and nurses, but there were occupational differences in the underlying mechanism between distributive justice and turnover intention. Distributive justice indirectly affected turnover intention among physicians mainly through the mediating effect of organizational commitment, and indirectly among nurses through three different pathways: the mediating effect of organizational commitment, the mediating effect of work engagement, and the chain mediating effect of organizational commitment and work engagement. Conclusion: The relationship between distributive justice and turnover intention was found to be mediated by organizational commitment and work engagement among medical staff in Shenzhen, with variations between physicians and nurses. Thus, appropriately targeted interventions are needed for physicians and nurses to reduce turnover intention.

Spatio-Temporal Distribution and Demographic Characteristics of Congenital Heart Defects in Guangdong, China, 2016-2020.

Background: Congenital heart defects are the most common type of birth defects and bring a heavy disease burden in China. Examining the temporal and spatial trends of congenital heart defects epidemics can give some elementary knowledge for succeeding studies. Objective: To characterize the spatial-temporal patterns of the prevalence of congenital heart defects based on a substantial cohort of the perinatal fetus in south China in 2016-2020. Methods: This study was a retrospective population-based cohort study conducted in Guangdong, China from 2016 to 2020. Pregnant women and their infants received birth defect surveillance during pregnancy and seven days after delivery in more than 1,900 midwifery hospitals in 21 cities. Perinatal infants with congenital heart defects were identified and enrolled. The prevalence of congenital heart defects was calculated according to cities, years, urban and rural areas, regions of Guangdong, categories of maternal age at delivery, seasons of delivery, and infant's gender. Results: A total of 8,653,206 perinatal infants and 53,912 total congenital heart defects were monitored in Guangdong, including 46,716 (86.65%) without other defects and 7,736 (13.35%) with other defects. The average prevalence of total congenital heart defects was 62.30/10,000 (95% CI, 61.78/10,000-62.83/10,000), congenital heart defects without other defects was 53.36/10,000 (95% CI, 52.88/10,000-53.85/10,000), and congenital heart defects with other defects was 8.94/10,000 (95%CI, 8.74/10,000-9.14/10,000). From 2016 to 2020, the prevalence of total congenital heart defects was 54.92/10,000, 54.23/10,000, 63.79/10,000, 73.11/10,000, 68.20/10,000, respectively. We observed geographical variations within the prevalence of congenital heart defects. The prevalence of congenital heart defects was much higher in the Pearl River Delta region than in the non-Pearl River Delta region, as well as higher in urban areas than in rural areas. Conclusion: The findings of this study are helpful to the understanding of the etiology and epidemiology characteristics of congenital heart defects in south China. Our data likely reflect a better estimate of the spatiotemporal trends in congenital heart defects prevalence than reported previously.

5­Aza­dC suppresses melanoma progression by inhibiting GAS5 hypermethylation.

The in­depth study of melanoma pathogenesis has revealed that epigenetic modifications, particularly DNA methylation, is a universal inherent feature of the development and progression of melanoma. In the present study, the analysis of the tumor suppressor gene growth arrest­specific transcript 5 (GAS5) demonstrated that its expression was downregulated in melanoma, and its expression level had a certain negative association with its methylation modification level. The promoter of GAS5 presented with detectable CpG islands, and methylation­specific polymerase chain reaction analysis demonstrated that GAS5 was actually modified by methylation in melanoma tissues and cells; however, no methylation modification of GAS5 was detected in normal tissues. Following the treatment of melanoma cells with 5­Aza­2'­deoxycytidine (5­Aza­dC), GAS5 methylation was significantly reversed. The analysis of melanoma cell proliferation revealed that 5­Aza­dC inhibited A375 and SK­MEL­110 cell proliferation in a time­dependent manner. Further analysis of apoptosis demonstrated that 5­Aza­dC significantly increased the apoptosis level of the two cell lines. Moreover, migration analysis of melanoma cells revealed that 5­Aza­dC significantly reduced cell migration. Furthermore, 5­Aza­dC significantly decreased the invasive ability of the two cell lines. However, when the expression of GAS5 was silenced, the effects of 5­Aza­dC on cell proliferation, apoptosis, invasion and migration were not significant. Furthermore, the subcutaneous injection of A375 cells in nude mice successfully resulted in xenograft tumor formation. However, following an intraperitoneal injection of 5­Aza­dC, the volume and weight of xenograft tumors and Ki­67 expression were significantly reduced, and caspase­3 activity and GAS5 expression were enhanced; following the silencing of GAS5, the antitumor effect of 5­Aza­dC was significantly blocked. On the whole, the present study demonstrates that 5­Aza­dC inhibits the growth of melanoma, and its function may be related to the methylation modification of GAS5.