Uncovering the power of neurofeedback: a meta-analysis of its effectiveness in treating major depressive disorders.

Neurofeedback, a non-invasive intervention, has been increasingly used as a potential treatment for major depressive disorders. However, the effectiveness of neurofeedback in alleviating depressive symptoms remains uncertain. To address this gap, we conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy of neurofeedback as a treatment for major depressive disorders. We conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis of 22 studies investigating the effects of neurofeedback interventions on depression symptoms, neurophysiological outcomes, and neuropsychological function. Our analysis included the calculation of Hedges' g effect sizes and explored various moderators like intervention settings, study designs, and demographics. Our findings revealed that neurofeedback intervention had a significant impact on depression symptoms (Hedges' g = -0.600) and neurophysiological outcomes (Hedges' g = -0.726). We also observed a moderate effect size for neurofeedback intervention on neuropsychological function (Hedges' g = -0.418). As expected, we observed that longer intervention length was associated with better outcomes for depressive symptoms (ß = -4.36, P < 0.001) and neuropsychological function (ß = -2.89, P = 0.003). Surprisingly, we found that shorter neurofeedback sessions were associated with improvements in neurophysiological outcomes (ß = 3.34, P < 0.001). Our meta-analysis provides compelling evidence that neurofeedback holds promising potential as a non-pharmacological intervention option for effectively improving depressive symptoms, neurophysiological outcomes, and neuropsychological function in individuals with major depressive disorders.

Oxidative Dehydroxycyclization of Catechols with o-Mercaptoanilines to Access 1-Hydroxyphenothiazines.

The protocol of aerobic oxidative dehydroxycyclization installed in the synthesis of rarely studied 1-hydroxyphenothiazines from catechols and o-mercaptoanilines is presented. Utilizing a natural renewable low-toxicity gallic acid as an organocatalyst, this established transformation proceeded smoothly in an aqueous ethanol solution under mild conditions with good functional group compatibility and up to a 94% isolated yield. This protocol is also characterized by its operational simple workup involving only recrystallization, revealing its sustainability and synthetic practicability.

Dampened motivation in schizophrenia: evidence from a novel effort-based decision-making task in social scenarios.

Apathy represents a significant manifestation of negative symptoms within individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia (SCZ) and exerts a profound impact on their social relationships. However, the specific implications of this motivational deficit in social scenarios have yet to be fully elucidated. The present study aimed to examine effort-based decision-making in social scenarios and its relation to apathy symptoms in SCZ patients. We initially recruited a group of 50 healthy participants (16 males) to assess the validity of the paradigm. Subsequently, we recruited 45 individuals diagnosed with SCZ (24 males) and 49 demographically-matched healthy controls (HC, 25 males) for the main study. The Mock Job Interview Task was developed to measure effort-based decision-making in social scenarios. The proportion of hard-task choice and a range of subjective ratings were obtained to examine potential between-group differences. SCZ patients were less likely than HC to choose the hard task with strict interviewers, and this group difference was significant when the hard-task reward value was medium and high. More severe apathy symptoms were significantly correlated with an overall reduced likelihood of making a hard-task choice. When dividing the jobs into two categories based on the levels of social engagement needed, SCZ patients were less willing to expend effort to pursue a potential offer for jobs requiring higher social engagement. Our findings indicated impaired effort-based decision-making in SCZ can be generalized from the monetary/nonsocial to a more ecologically social dimension. Our findings affirm the critical role of aberrant effort allocation on negative symptoms, and may facilitate the development of targeted clinical interventions.

Unraveling the link between childhood maltreatment and depression: Insights from the role of ventral striatum and middle cingulate cortex in hedonic experience and emotion regulation.

Childhood maltreatment is an established risk factor for psychopathology. However, it remains unclear how childhood traumatic events relate to mental health problems and how the brain is involved. This study examined the serial mediation effect of brain morphological alterations and emotion-/reward-related functions on linking the relationship from maltreatment to depression. We recruited 156 healthy adolescents and young adults and an additional sample of 31 adolescents with major depressive disorder for assessment of childhood maltreatment, depressive symptoms, cognitive reappraisal and anticipatory/consummatory pleasure. Structural MRI data were acquired to identify maltreatment-related cortical and subcortical morphological differences. The mediation models suggested that emotional maltreatment of abuse and neglect, was respectively associated with increased gray matter volume in the ventral striatum and greater thickness in the middle cingulate cortex. These structural alterations were further related to reduced anticipatory pleasure and disrupted cognitive reappraisal, which contributed to more severe depressive symptoms among healthy individuals. The above mediating effects were not replicated in our clinical group partly due to the small sample size. Preventative interventions can target emotional and reward systems to foster resilience and reduce the likelihood of future psychiatric disorders among individuals with a history of maltreatment.

Trajectories of Perceived Parental Psychological Control and the Longitudinal Associations with Chinese Adolescents' School Adjustment across High School Years.

Past research supports the detrimental effects of parental psychological control on adolescent school adjustment in both emotional and academic domains. However, how psychological control changes during adolescence, and how such developmental course is related to adolescent psychological well-being and academic functioning are unclear. The direction of effects between parenting and child behaviors is also inconclusive. This 3-year longitudinal study addressed these research gaps by using five waves of survey data on 710 Chinese adolescents of high school ages (Mean age at T1 = 15.54 years, SD = 0.45, 50% males). Using latent growth curve models and latent class growth analysis, the majority of adolescents (about 63%) reported gradual increases of parental psychological control in the first 2 years of high school but a slight decline afterwards, while the other 37% perceived low and stable levels. Results from parallel latent growth modeling suggested that trajectories of psychological control were positively related to developmental trends of internalizing problems (i.e., depression and anxiety) and maladaptive academic functioning, but negatively associated with the trajectory of adaptive academic functioning, as indexed by intercept-intercept and slope-slope associations. The random-intercept cross-lagged models further revealed that psychological control was predictive of adolescent anxiety and lower adaptive academic functioning, and bidirectionally associated with maladaptive academic-related beliefs and behaviors at the within-person level. Taken together, these findings highlight the crucial role of parental psychological control on adolescent school adjustment in the Chinese cultural context and support the reciprocal model of parent-child interactions.

Identification of dominant taxa of sooty moulds and their impact on the leaf microbiome.

Sooty moulds are a widespread group of saprophytic ascomycetes that obtain nutrients from honeydew excreted by sap-feeding insects and coat plant tissue with mycelia. Research on sooty moulds has focused on fungal morphology and phylogeny-based taxonomy, but little research has been conducted on the community structure. In this study, the PacBio sequencing platform was used to systematically analyse the fungal and bacterial diversity of the sooty mould community on camphor trees at two sampling sites. Six dominant sooty mould genera were identified, of which three genera of Dothideomycetes were enriched only in diseased samples, while three genera of Eurotiomycetes were present in both healthy and diseased samples. Bacterial diversity and co-occurrence network analysis indicated that the sooty moulds had an effect on the leaf surface bacterial communities but not on the endophyte communities. There was a close correlation between the six dominant pathogenic groups and bacteria in the soot layer. Transcriptomic data from Cinnamomum camphora samples showed that the sooty moulds that did not penetrate plant cells not only affected plant photosynthesis but also induced plant defence responses. This study systematically studied the microbial community of sooty moulds, indicating the close relationship between sooty moulds and the bacterial communities.

Feeling unloved is the most robust sign of adolescent depression linking to family communication patterns.

Using network analysis, this study investigated how family communication patterns (Conversation and Conformity) were related to and predictive of adolescent overall depression severity and specific symptoms. A community sample of adolescents (10-17 years, n = 1327) completed the Children's Depression Inventory and the Revised Family Communication Pattern Instrument. Depressive symptoms were also re-assessed 6 months later. Results showed that Conversation orientation protected against, whereas Conformity orientation increased the risk of adolescent depression. Family communication particularly influenced the child's feeling of being unloved, and feeling unloved was the only symptom prospectively predicted by two communication orientations at baseline. These findings revealed the path linking family factors to adolescent depression and may have implications for future family-based interventions.

Altered brain structural and functional connectivity in schizotypy.

BACKGROUND: Schizotypy refers to schizophrenia-like traits below the clinical threshold in the general population. The pathological development of schizophrenia has been postulated to evolve from the initial coexistence of 'brain disconnection' and 'brain connectivity compensation' to 'brain connectivity decompensation'. METHODS: In this study, we examined the brain connectivity changes associated with schizotypy by combining brain white matter structural connectivity, static and dynamic functional connectivity analysis of diffusion tensor imaging data and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data. A total of 87 participants with a high level of schizotypal traits and 122 control participants completed the experiment. Group differences in whole-brain white matter structural connectivity probability, static mean functional connectivity strength, dynamic functional connectivity variability and stability among 264 brain sub-regions of interests were investigated. RESULTS: We found that individuals with high schizotypy exhibited increased structural connectivity probability within the task control network and within the default mode network; increased variability and decreased stability of functional connectivity within the default mode network and between the auditory network and the subcortical network; and decreased static mean functional connectivity strength mainly associated with the sensorimotor network, the default mode network and the task control network. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight the specific changes in brain connectivity associated with schizotypy and indicate that both decompensatory and compensatory changes in structural connectivity within the default mode network and the task control network in the context of whole-brain functional disconnection may be an important neurobiological correlate in individuals with high schizotypy.

Altered activation and functional connectivity in individuals with social anhedonia when envisioning positive future episodes.

BACKGROUND: Anticipatory pleasure deficits are closely correlated with negative symptoms in schizophrenia, and may be found in both clinical and subclinical populations along the psychosis continuum. Prospection, which is an important component of anticipatory pleasure, is impaired in individuals with social anhedonia (SocAnh). In this study, we examined the neural correlates of envisioning positive future events in individuals with SocAnh. METHODS: Forty-nine individuals with SocAnh and 33 matched controls were recruited to undergo functional MRI scanning, during which they were instructed to simulate positive or neutral future episodes according to cue words. Two stages of prospection were distinguished: construction and elaboration. RESULTS: Reduced activation at the caudate and the precuneus when prospecting positive (v. neutral) future events was observed in individuals with SocAnh. Furthermore, compared with controls, increased functional connectivity between the caudate and the inferior occipital gyrus during positive (v. neutral) prospection was found in individuals with SocAnh. Both groups exhibited a similar pattern of brain activation for the construction v. elaboration contrast, regardless of the emotional context. CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide further evidence on the neural mechanism of anticipatory pleasure deficits in subclinical individuals with SocAnh and suggest that altered cortico-striatal circuit may play a role in anticipatory pleasure deficits in these individuals.

Circular RNA circSATB2 promotes progression of non-small cell lung cancer cells.

BACKGROUND: Lung cancer has high morbidity and mortality worldwide with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounting for 85% of the cases. Therapies for lung cancer have relatively poor outcomes and further improvements are required. Circular RNAs have been reported to participate in the occurrence and progression of cancer. Information on the functions and mechanism of circRNAs in lung cancer is limited and needs more exploration. METHODS: We detected expression of genes and proteins by qPCR and western blot. Function of circSATB2 was investigated using RNA interference and overexpression assays. Location of circSATB2 was assessed by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Interaction of circSATB2, miR-326 and FSCN1 was confirmed by dual-luciferase reporter assay. RESULTS: Data from the investigation showed that circSATB2 was highly expressed in NSCLC cells and tissues. circSATB2 positively regulated fascin homolog 1, actin-bundling protein 1 (FSCN1) expression via miR-326 in lung cancer cells. Furthermore, circSATB2 can be transferred by exosomes and promote the proliferation, migration and invasion of NSCLC cells, as well as induce abnormal proliferation in normal human bronchial epithelial cells. Also, circSATB2 was highly expressed in serumal exosomes from lung cancer patients with high sensitivity and specificity for clinical detection and was related to lung cancer metastasis. CONCLUSIONS: circSATB2 participated in the progression of NSCLC and was differentially expressed in lung cancer tissue and serumal exosomes. circSATB2 may be potential biomarker for the diagnosis of NSCLC.

Knockdown of TRPV Genes Affects the Locomotion and Feeding Behavior of Nilaparvata lugens (Hemiptera: Delphacidae).

The vanilloid-type transient receptor potential (TRPV) channel is reported to be the molecular target of the commercial insecticide pymetrozine, which specifically disrupts the feeding of plant sap-sucking insects. However, the functions of TRPV channels in plant sap-sucking insects have not been fully elucidated. In the present study, RNA interference was used to investigate the effects of the knockdown of TRPV genes (Nan and Iav) on the mortality, locomotion, and feeding behavior of an important plant-feeding insect pest in rice, the brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens. Injecting dsRNA of Nan and Iav into fourth-instar nymphs significantly knocked down the target genes. The injection of dsNan or dsIav did not affect any morphological phenotype (including leg extension) of N. lugens nymphs and adults. Knockdown of Nan or Iav resulted in significantly decreased climbing activity against top plants but did not influence the leg-griping strength of adults. Knockdown of Nan resulted in a significantly elevated mortality of N. lugens in the observation period of 7 d after injection, whereas no significant difference in survival rates 7 d after injection was found between dsIav-injected and dsGFP-injected insects. Electropenetrographic (EPG) recordings indicated that knockdown of Nan and Iav reduced the ingestion activity in the rice phloem tissues of N. lugens. Knockdown of Nan and Iav significantly reduced the amount of honeydew excreted by N. lugens. Our findings indicated a relationship between TRPV and N. lugens locomotion and feeding behavior, which may help to fully elucidate the functions of TRPV in insects.

Significance of MUC2 gene methylation detection in pancreatic cancer diagnosis.

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to explore the diagnostic value of MUC2 gene methylation in pancreatic cancer. METHODS: Methylation restriction enzyme digestion (Msp I/Hap II) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were performed to detect methylation of the MUC2 gene in fecal and blood specimens from seven study subjects with pancreatic cancer (PC), chronic pancreatitis (CP), or normal controls (CON). Simultaneously, blood CA 19-9 levels were detected as a positive indicator of PC. RESULTS: MUC2 methylation was detected in 50% of PC cell lines. In fecal samples, the MUC2 methylation rate in PC (n = 30) was 43.3%, which was significantly higher than those in CP (n = 8, 0%, P < 0.05) and CON (n = 20, 5.0%, P < 0.05). In blood samples, the MUC2 methylation rate in PC (n = 40) was 52.5%, which was significantly higher than those in CP (n = 15, 0%, P < 0.01) and CON (n = 25, 4.0%, P < 0.01). For PC diagnosis, MUC2 gene methylation in blood samples showed higher specificity and positive predictive value than CA 19-9. The combined detection in the feces and blood showed a 60% MUC2 methylation rate in PC (n = 10), which was higher than those in the CP (n = 5, 0%, P < 0.01) and CON (n = 12, 0%, P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The study can clearly indicate that combined detection of MUC2 gene methylation in the peripheral blood and feces could be used as a new screening and early diagnosis method for pancreatic cancer.

Development and validation of the Social Touch Experiences and Attitudes Questionnaire-Chinese version (STEAQ-C): How interpersonal touch relates to subclinical traits and symptoms.

Social touch has a vital role in human development and psychological well-being. However, there is a lack of measures assessing individual differences in social touch experiences and attitudes, especially under Eastern cultures. This study developed the Social Touch Experiences and Attitudes Questionnaire - Chinese version (STEAQ-C) and examined its psychometric properties with healthy young Chinese adults. In Study 1, an item pool was generated and principal component analysis (PCA) was used to identify the factor structure of the STEAQ. Study 2 recruited an independent sample and examined its reliability and validity. Network analysis further explored the interrelations between social touch and a variety of subclinical traits and symptoms. PCA identified four factors of the STEAQ-C, relating to childhood touch experiences, current touch with intimate partners, with family and friends, and with unfamiliar people. Study 2 confirmed the four-factor structure and upheld its internal consistency and stability. Positive attitudes towards and greater experiences of social touch were negatively correlated with sensory over-responsiveness and sensory hyposensitivity, as well as childhood trauma particularly emotional neglect, supporting the convergent validity. Evidence of criterion-related validity was accrued via its concurrent and predictive associations with secure attachment style, higher levels of social competence, and lower levels of social anxiety. Network analysis highlighted altered perception of social touch may be a shared feature for psychiatric conditions with social dysfunctions (e.g., autism, social anxiety and negative schizotypy). The newly-developed STEAQ-C may be a timely tool in assessing social touch experiences and attitudes under Eastern cultures.

Psychometric properties of a Mandarin Chinese version of the Body Appreciation Scale-2 among Chinese adolescents.

In the present study, we explored the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Mandarin Chinese BAS-2 among adolescents residing in the Chinese mainland. Exploratory factor analysis in Study 1 (N = 790; 396 girls, 394 boys) supported the unidimensionality of the Mandarin Chinese BAS-2 among Chinese adolescents. Internal consistency reliability was upheld via McDonald's omega. Convergent validity was supported by its moderate-to-strong relationships with body satisfaction, functionality satisfaction, self-esteem, life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect, while its small-to-moderate correlation with social desirability provided somewhat weaker discriminant validity support. Criterion-related validity was upheld by its inverse correlation with eating disorder symptomatology and positive correlation with intuitive eating. It explained unique variance in self-esteem (for girls and boys), eating disorder symptomatology (for girls), and intuitive eating (for boys) beyond age, body satisfaction, and functionality satisfaction, providing incremental validity evidence. A subsample of 134 girls and 114 boys completed the Mandarin Chinese BAS-2 again after three months, and test-retest reliability was upheld. The confirmatory factor analysis in Study 2 (N = 337; 192 girls, 145 boys) replicated the unidimensional structure and supported measurement invariance across gender. Collectively, the present study supported the unidimensionality, reliability, and validity of the Mandarin Chinese BAS-2's scores among Chinese adolescents.

Diminished hedonic capacity in social activities as a mediator of the link between dysfunctional behavioral activation system and depressive symptoms.

Background: Adolescence is a crucial period for the development of depression, and previous studies have suggested that the Behavioral Activation System (BAS) plays a significant role. However, little is known about the underlying mechanisms. This study aimed to explore the mediating role of anhedonia in the relationship between BAS and depressive symptoms among Chinese adolescents. Method: A total of 1,023 high-school students aged 15-18 years participated in the study, with 916 continuing their participation three months later. All participants completed the Behavioral Inhibition System/Activation System (BIS/BAS) scale, Dimensional Anhedonia Rating Scale (DARS), Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-S/T). Pathway model analysis was performed to examine the concurrent and prospective mediating effects of anhedonia and the potential moderating effect of sex. Result: Anhedonia in the domains of social activities, hobbies and sensory experiences significantly mediated the cross-sectional relationship between BAS and depressive level three months later. Furthermore, the beta-value of the mediating effect of social activities was significantly higher than that of the other domains of hedonic capacity cross-sectionally and longitudinally. However, sex showed no significant moderating effect. Conclusion: Our findings underscore the importance of hedonic capacity, especially within the social domain, in the development of depressive symptoms. These findings contribute to the early diagnosis and prevention of depressive disorders.

Adverse Weather Optical Flow: Cumulative Homogeneous-Heterogeneous Adaptation.

Optical flow has made great progress in clean scenes, while suffers degradation under adverse weather due to the violation of the brightness constancy and gradient continuity assumptions of optical flow. Typically, existing methods mainly adopt domain adaptation to transfer motion knowledge from clean to degraded domain through one-stage adaptation. However, this direct adaptation is ineffective, since there exists a large gap due to adverse weather and scene style between clean and real degraded domains. Moreover, even within the degraded domain itself, static weather (e.g., fog) and dynamic weather (e.g., rain) have different impacts on optical flow. To address above issues, we explore synthetic degraded domain as an intermediate bridge between clean and real degraded domains, and propose a cumulative homogeneous-heterogeneous adaptation framework for real adverse weather optical flow. Specifically, for clean-degraded transfer, our key insight is that static weather possesses the depth-association homogeneous feature which does not change the intrinsic motion of the scene, while dynamic weather additionally introduces the heterogeneous feature which results in a significant boundary discrepancy in warp errors between clean and degraded domains. For synthetic-real transfer, we figure out that cost volume correlation shares a similar statistical histogram between synthetic and real degraded domains, benefiting to holistically aligning the homogeneous correlation distribution for synthetic-real knowledge distillation. Under this unified framework, the proposed method can progressively and explicitly transfer knowledge from clean scenes to real adverse weather. In addition, we further collect a real adverse weather dataset with manually annotated optical flow labels and perform extensive experiments to verify the superiority of the proposed method. Both the code and the dataset will be available at https://github.com/hyzhouboy/CH2DA-Flow.

The effectiveness of mindfulness-based intervention for psychological distress and emotion regulation in college students with non-suicidal self-injury.

This study explored the effectiveness of a short-term mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) on psychological distress, mindfulness levels, emotion regulation, and impulsivity among college students with non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). Participants completed four questionnaires, including the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and the Brief Barratt Impulsivity Scale, and two behavioral tasks, including an emotion regulation task and a stop signal task (SST), at three time points. Compared with the healthy group, the NSSI group had a significantly greater level of psychological distress and a lower level of mindfulness. Compared with the NSSI control group and the healthy group, the NSSI MBI group had significantly increased mindfulness levels and decreased psychological distress after the intervention. In the NSSI MBI group, regardless of which emotion regulation strategy was adopted when viewing negative pictures, the intensity of negative emotions during the emotion regulation task was significantly reduced. Moreover, in the NSSI MBI group, the effectiveness of the MBI on the mindfulness level, stress level, and emotion regulation process was maintained at the follow-up. The present study provided empirical support that short-term MBI has the potential to help individuals with NSSI by enhancing their emotion regulation.

RNA-Seq Analysis Revealed circRNAs Associated with Resveratrol-Induced Apoptosis of Porcine Ovarian Granulosa Cells.

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a class of circular non-coding RNAs that play essential roles in the intricate and dynamic networks governing cell growth, development, and apoptosis. Resveratrol (RSV), a non-flavonoid polyphenol, is known to participate in follicular development and ovulation. In our previous research, we established a model using porcine ovarian granulosa cells (POGCs) treated with resveratrol, which confirmed its regulatory effects on long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) within these cells. However, the influence of resveratrol on circRNA expression has not been thoroughly investigated. To explore how resveratrol affects circRNA levels in POGCs, we designed an experiment with three groups: a control group (CON, n = 3, 0 µM RSV), a low-dose RSV group (LOW, n = 3, 50 µM RSV), and a high-dose RSV group (HIGH, n = 3, 100 µM RSV) for circRNA sequencing. We identified a total of 10,045 candidate circRNAs from POGCs treated with different concentrations of resveratrol (0, 50, and 100 µM). Differential expression analysis indicated that 96 circRNAs were significantly altered in the LOW vs. CON group, while 109 circRNAs showed significant changes in the HIGH vs. CON group. These circRNAs were notably enriched in biological processes associated with cell metabolism, apoptosis, and oxidative stress. Functional enrichment analysis of the host genes revealed their involvement in critical signaling pathways, including mTOR, AMPK, and apoptosis pathways. Additionally, we identified potential miRNA sponge candidates among the differentially expressed circRNAs, particularly novel_circ_0012954 and novel_circ_0004762, which exhibited strong connectivity within miRNA-target networks. Our findings provide valuable insights into the regulatory mechanisms of circRNAs in the context of resveratrol-induced apoptosis in POGCs, highlighting their potential as innovative therapeutic targets in reproductive biology.

Circ0087385 promotes DNA damage in benzo(a)pyrene-induced lung cancer development by upregulating CYP1A1.

Increasing environmental genotoxic chemicals have been shown to induce epigenetic alterations. However, the interaction between genetics and epigenetics in chemical carcinogenesis is still not fully understood. Here, we constructed an in vitro human lung carcinogenesis model (16HBE-T) by treating human bronchial epithelial cells with a typical significant carcinogen benzo(a)pyrene (BaP). We identified a novel circular RNA, circ0087385, which was overexpressed in 16HBE-T and human lung cancer cell lines, as well as in lung cancer tissues and serum exosomes from lung cancer patients. The upregulated circ0087385 after exposure to BaP promoted DNA damage in the early stage of chemical carcinogenesis and affected the cell cycle, proliferation, and apoptosis of the malignantly transformed cells. Overexpression of circ0087385 enhanced the expression of cytochrome P450 1A1 (CYP1A1), which is crucial for metabolically activating BaP. Interfering with circ0087385 or CYP1A1 reduced the levels of ultimate carcinogen benzo(a)pyrene diol epoxide (BPDE) and BPDE-DNA adducts. Interfering with CYP1A1 partially reversed the DNA damage induced by high expression of circ0087385, as well as decreased the level of BPDE and BPDE-DNA adducts. These findings provide novel insights into the interaction between epigenetics and genetics in chemical carcinogenesis which are crucial for understanding the epigenetic and genetic toxicity of chemicals.

TMEM64 aggravates the malignant phenotype of glioma by activating the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway.

Transmembrane protein 64 (TMEM64), a member of the family of transmembrane protein, is an α-helical membrane protein. Its precise role in various types of tumors, including glioma, is unclear. This study used immunohistochemical (IHC) staining, western blotting, and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) techniques to show that TMEM64 expression was significantly higher in glioma cells and tissues compared to normal cells and tissues, respectively. Additionally, a correlation between high TMEM64 expression and higher grade as well as a worse prognosis was found. TMEM64 enhanced cell proliferation and tumorigenicity while inhibiting glioma cell apoptosis in vitro and in vivo, according to loss- and gain-of-function studies. Mechanistically, it was discovered that TMEM64 increased the malignant phenotype of gliomas by accelerating the translocation of ß-catenin from the cytoplasm to the nucleus, thereby activating the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway. Stimulation with the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway activator CHIR-99021 successfully reversed the malignant phenotype of glioma; however, these effects were inhibited upon TMEM64 silencing. Stimulation with the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway inhibitor XAV-939 successfully rescued the malignant phenotype of glioma, which was promoted upon TMEM64 overexpression. Our results provide that TMEM64 as a novel prognostic biomarker and a potential treatment target for glioma.