Integration of scRNA and bulk RNA-sequence to construct the 5-gene molecular prognostic model based on the heterogeneity of thyroid carcinoma endothelial cell.

Thyroid cancer (TC) is a kind of cancer with high heterogeneity, which leads to significant difference in prognosis. The prognostic molecular processes are not well understood. Cancer cells and tumor microenvironment (TME) cells jointly determine the heterogeneity. However, quite a little attention was paid to cells in the TME in the past years. In this study, we not only reveal that endothelial cells (ECs) are strongly associated with the progress of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) using single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) data downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and WGCNA, but also screen 5 crucial genes of ECs: CLDN5, ABCG2, NOTCH4, PLAT, and TMEM47. Furthermore, the 5-gene molecular prognostic model is constructed, which can predict how well a patient will do on PD-L1 blockade immunotherapy for TC and evaluate prognosis. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis demonstrates that PLAT is decreased in TC and the increase of PLAT can restrain the migratory capacity of TC cells. Meanwhile, in TC cells, PLAT suppresses VEGFa/VEGFR2-mediated human umbilical vascular endothelial cell (HUVEC) proliferation and tube formation. Totally, we construct the 5-gene molecular prognostic model from the perspective of EC and provide a new idea for immunotherapy of TC.

The impact of triglyceride-glucose index on ischemic stroke: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Strokes significantly impair quality of life and incur high economic and societal burdens. The triglyceride and glucose (TyG) index is a biochemical marker of insulin resistance (IR) and may have important value in the prediction of strokes, especially ischemic stroke (IS). Our study aims to investigate the relationship between TyG index and IS and ascertain whether TyG index is independently associated with IS adverse outcomes. METHODS: The Cochrane, Embase, Medline, Web of Science, PubMed, and other relevant English databases and related websites were systematically searched for articles on ''TyG index'' and "stroke" published from inception to April 4, 2022. We reviewed the available literature on the TyG index and its relation to predicting IS occurrence in the general population and adverse clinical outcomes. We calculated odds ratios (OR) of TyG index and its predictability of IS occurrence and adverse outcomes. Statistical analyses were performed using the Meta Package in STATA, version 12.0. RESULTS: A total of 18 studies and 592,635 patients were included in our analysis. The pooled effect values of all stroke types showed that higher TyG index was associated with increased the risk of IS in the general population (OR 1.37; 95% CI 1.22-1.54) in a total sample of 554,334 cases with a high level of heterogeneity (P = 0.000, I2 = 74.10%). In addition, compared to IS patients with a lower TyG index, IS patients with a higher TyG index was associated with higher risk of stroke recurrence (OR: 1.50; 95% CI 1.19-1.89) and increased risk of mortality (OR 1.40 95% CI 1.14-1.71). No correlation was found in the effect value combinations of poor functional outcomes (OR 1.12; 95% CI 0.88-1.43) and neurological worsening (OR: 1.76; 95% CI 0.79-3.95) in a total sample of 38,301 cases with a high level of heterogeneity (P = 0.000; I2 = 77.20%). CONCLUSIONS: TyG index has potential value in optimizing risk stratification for IS in the general population. Furthermore, there is a significant association between high TyG index and many adverse outcomes of stroke, especially stroke recurrence and high mortality. Future studies should focus on multi-center and multi-regional designs in order to further explore the relationship between IS and TyG index.

Circular forms of dedicator of cytokinesis 1 promotes breast cancer progression by derepressing never in mitosis related kinase 2 via sponging miR-128-3p.

The conjecture of breast cancer is uncertain because of its explosive growth and the complicated molecular mechanisms. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are regulatory RNA sequences present in the genome and their regulatory mechanism involves the sponging of microRNAs (miRNAs). In this study, we explored the regulation between circular forms of dedicator of cytokinesis 1 (circDOCK1) (hsa_circ_0007142) and miR-128-3p, and its implication on the pathogenesis of breast cancer modulated by never in mitosis (NIMA) related kinase 2 (NEK2). We revealed an increase in circDOCK1 and NEK2 expression, and a decrease in miR-128-3p expression in breast cancer tissues and cell lines. Bioinformatics analysis and experimental validation indicated a positive correlation between circDOCK1 and NEK2 expression but a negative correlation was recorded between miR-128-3p and circDOCK1 or NEK2, respectively. Furthermore, inhibition of circDOCK1 expression was followed by an increase in miR-128-3p and a decrease in NEK2 levels in vitro and in vivo. The luciferase assay concluded that miR-128-3p was a direct target of circDOCK1 while NEK2 was the direct target of miR-128-3p. Furthermore, circDOCK1 inhibition hindered breast cancer development by repressing NEK2 and thus promoting the increased expression of miR-128-3p both in vitro and in vivo. We therefore conclude that circDOCK1 promotes breast cancer progression by targeting miR-128-3p-mediated downregulation of NEK2 and that the circDOCK1/hsa-miR-128-3p/NEK2 axis may be a novel therapeutic target for breast cancer treatment.

Gold nanourchin enhances detection of Alzheimer's disease biomarker "miRNA-137" on dual electrode sensing surface.

Diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a complex task, and at present, neuroimaging such as magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography is commonly used for the diagnosis of AD. This research work developed a new biosensing method with gold nanomaterial to identify AD biomarker of miRNA-137. Gold nanourchin (GNU) was attached on the interdigitated electrode through the silane linker and COOH-ended capture oligonucleotide was immobilized on the GNU surface. This surface helps to quantify the target sequence of miRNA-137 and the detection limit reached to 0.01 pM on the linear range of 0.01-100 pM. With 3δ calculation on the linearity, the determination coefficient was noticed as y = 1.2867x - 2.2697; R2  = 0.9059. The control performances did not show a significant response, indicating the specific identification of target.

Predicting subcellular location of protein with evolution information and sequence-based deep learning.

BACKGROUND: Protein subcellular localization prediction plays an important role in biology research. Since traditional methods are laborious and time-consuming, many machine learning-based prediction methods have been proposed. However, most of the proposed methods ignore the evolution information of proteins. In order to improve the prediction accuracy, we present a deep learning-based method to predict protein subcellular locations. RESULTS: Our method utilizes not only amino acid compositions sequence but also evolution matrices of proteins. Our method uses a bidirectional long short-term memory network that processes the entire protein sequence and a convolutional neural network that extracts features from protein sequences. The position specific scoring matrix is used as a supplement to protein sequences. Our method was trained and tested on two benchmark datasets. The experiment results show that our method yields accurate results on the two datasets with an average precision of 0.7901, ranking loss of 0.0758 and coverage of 1.2848. CONCLUSION: The experiment results show that our method outperforms five methods currently available. According to those experiments, we can see that our method is an acceptable alternative to predict protein subcellular location.

Achieving large and distant ancestral genome inference by using an improved discrete quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization algorithm.

BACKGROUND: Reconstructing ancestral genomes is one of the central problems presented in genome rearrangement analysis since finding the most likely true ancestor is of significant importance in phylogenetic reconstruction. Large scale genome rearrangements can provide essential insights into evolutionary processes. However, when the genomes are large and distant, classical median solvers have failed to adequately address these challenges due to the exponential increase of the search space. Consequently, solving ancestral genome inference problems constitutes a task of paramount importance that continues to challenge the current methods used in this area, whose difficulty is further increased by the ongoing rapid accumulation of whole-genome data. RESULTS: In response to these challenges, we provide two contributions for ancestral genome inference. First, an improved discrete quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization algorithm (IDQPSO) by averaging two of the fitness values is proposed to address the discrete search space. Second, we incorporate DCJ sorting into the IDQPSO (IDQPSO-Median). In comparison with the other methods, when the genomes are large and distant, IDQPSO-Median has the lowest median score, the highest adjacency accuracy, and the closest distance to the true ancestor. In addition, we have integrated our IDQPSO-Median approach with the GRAPPA framework. Our experiments show that this new phylogenetic method is very accurate and effective by using IDQPSO-Median. CONCLUSIONS: Our experimental results demonstrate the advantages of IDQPSO-Median approach over the other methods when the genomes are large and distant. When our experimental results are evaluated in a comprehensive manner, it is clear that the IDQPSO-Median approach we propose achieves better scalability compared to existing algorithms. Moreover, our experimental results by using simulated and real datasets confirm that the IDQPSO-Median, when integrated with the GRAPPA framework, outperforms other heuristics in terms of accuracy, while also continuing to infer phylogenies that were equivalent or close to the true trees within 5 days of computation, which is far beyond the difficulty level that can be handled by GRAPPA.

Outage probability of multi-aperture and multi-antenna wireless-powered relaying assisted FSO-RF systems with a nonlinear energy harvester.

We consider the outage performance of a mixed free-space optical-radio frequency (FSO-RF) communication system, which consists of a source (S), a relay (R), a destination (D), and a power beacon (PB). In particular, S communicates with D through a multi-aperture and multi-antenna decode-and-forward (DF) relay, which is assumed to harvest energy from the PB under a nonlinear energy harvesting mode. Considering an equal gain combining scheme and a transmit antennas selection scheme, the exact expressions of probability density function (PDF) and cumulative distribution function (CDF) for instantaneous signal-to-noise ratio are first obtained, and then based on those PDF and CDF expressions, the analytical and asymptotic expressions for outage probability are derived. Finally, Monte Carlo simulation results are used to verify the accuracy of the derived analytical expressions.

Hypermethylation of lncRNA MEG3 impairs chemosensitivity of breast cancer cells.

BACKGROUND: Chemoresistance posed a barrier to successful treatment of breast cancer (BC), and lncRNA MEG3 has been documented to implicate in BC development. However, whether MEG3 methylation, which led to low MEG3 expression, was relevant to BC progression and chemoresistance remained uncertain. METHODS: In the aggregate, 374 pairs of tumor tissues and adjacent normal tissues were collected from pathologically confirmed BC patients, and four BC cell lines, including MDA-MB-231, Bcap-37, MCF-7, and SK-BR-3, were purchased. Moreover, methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was adopted to evaluate the methylation status of BC tissues and cell lines, and chemo-tolerance of BC cell lines was assessed by performing MTT assay. Concurrently, transwell assay and scratch assay were carried out to estimate the migratory and invasive capability of BC cell lines. RESULTS: Methylated MEG3, lowly expressed MEG3, large tumor size (≥2 cm), advanced TNM grade and lymphatic metastasis were potentially symbolic of poor prognosis among BC patients (P < .05). Besides, MDA-MB-231 cell line exhibited the strongest resistance against paclitaxel, adriamycin, and vinorelbine (P < .05), while MCF-7 cell line seemed more sensitive against these drugs than any other BC cell line (P < .05). Furthermore, pcDNA3.1-MEG3 and 5-Aza-dC markedly sensitized MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cell lines against the drug treatments (P < .05). Simultaneously, proliferation and metastasis of the BC cell lines were slowed down under the force of pcDNA3.1-MEG3 and 5-Aza-dC (P < .05). CONCLUSION: Preventing methylation of MEG3 might matter in lessening BC chemoresistance, owing to its hindering proliferation and metastasis of BC cells.

Optimal Relay Selection Scheme with Multiantenna Power Beacon for Wireless-Powered Cooperation Communication Networks.

Unlike the fixed power grid cooperative networks, which are mainly based on the reception reliability parameter while choosing the best relay, the wireless-powered cooperative communication network (WPCCN) and in addition to the reception reliability the transmission requirement consideration is important for relay selection schemes. Hence, enabling efficient transmission techniques that address high attenuation of radio frequency (RF) signals according to the distance without increasing the total transmission power is an open issue worth studying. In this relation, a multiantennas power beacon (PB) that assists wireless-powered cooperative communication network (PB-WPCCN) is studied in this paper. The communication between source and destination is achieved with the aid of multiple relays, where both the source and the multiple relays need to harvest energy from the PB in the first place to enable their transmission functionalities. A novel relay selection scheme is proposed, named as two-round relay selection (2-RRS), where a group of relays that successfully decode the source information is selected in the first round selection. In the second round, the optimal relay is selected to forward the recorded information to the destination. The proposed 2-RRS scheme is compared with two existing relay selection schemes, i.e., partial relay selection (PRS) and opportunistic relay selection (ORS). The analytical closed-form expressions of outage probability and average system throughput are derived and validated by numerical simulation. The comparison results between different relay selection schemes show: (I) The superiority of the proposed 2-RRS scheme as it achieves around 17% better throughput compared to the conventional ORS scheme and 40% better than the PRS scheme, particularly when PB transmit power is 10 dB; (II) The proposed 2-RRS scheme guarantees the lowest outage probability, especially when the PB is equipped with multiantennas and performs beamforming technique; (III) The optimal localisation of the PB between the source and N relays depends on the adopted relay selection scheme; (IV) The exhaustive search of the maximum system throughput value shows that the proposed 2-RRS scheme required shorter energy harvesting time compared to other schemes. The increase in energy harvesting time and number of relays do not necessarily reflect positively on the system throughput performance; hence tradeoffs should be taken into consideration.

KLF8 is associated with poor prognosis and regulates glycolysis by targeting GLUT4 in gastric cancer.

Krüppel-like transcription factor (KLF) family is involved in tumorigenesis in different types of cancer. However, the importance of KLF family in gastric cancer is unclear. Here, we examined KLF gene expression in five paired liver metastases and primary gastric cancer tissues by RT-PCR, and immunohistochemistry was used to study KLF8 expression in 206 gastric cancer samples. The impact of KLF8 expression on glycolysis, an altered energy metabolism that characterizes cancer cells, was evaluated. KLF8 showed the highest up-regulation in liver metastases compared with primary tumours among all KLF members. Higher KLF8 expression associated with larger tumour size (P < 0.001), advanced T stage (P = 0.003) and N stage (P < 0.001). High KLF8 expression implied shorter survival outcome in both TCGA and validation cohort (P < 0.05). Silencing KLF8 expression impaired the glycolysis rate of gastric cancer cells in vitro. Moreover, high KLF8 expression positively associated with SUVmax in patient samples. KLF8 activated the GLUT4 promoter activity in a dose-dependent manner (P < 0.05). Importantly, KLF8 and GLUT4 showed consistent expression patterns in gastric cancer tissues. These findings suggest that KLF8 modulates glycolysis by targeting GLUT4 and could serve as a novel biomarker for survival and potential therapeutic target in gastric cancer.

Gastric Neuroendocrine Tumors (G-Nets): Incidence, Prognosis and Recent Trend Toward Improved Survival.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Gastric neuroendocrine tumors (G-NETs) are uncommon neoplasms that can present with or without clinical symptoms. In this study, we evaluated the incidence, prognosis, and temporal trends of G-NETs. METHODS: We analyzed all cases of G-NETs registered in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database from 1973 to 2014. Incidence was estimated by age and joinpoint analyses. Survival rates were calculated and survival trends over time were evaluated. RESULTS: A total of 3740 eligible patients were enrolled in the study. G-NETs incidence increased from 0.31 per 1 000 000 patients in 1975 to 4.85 in 2014, with an annual percentage changes (APCs) of 8.9% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 7.7% to 10.21%, P < 0.001, t test (29) from 1975 to 2001 and 3.6% from 2002 to 2014 (95% CI= 2.3% to 4.9%, P < 0.001). For cases diagnosed between 1973 and 1982, five-year survival was 62.8% ± 7.0% (Standard error, SE) and increased to 86.7% ± 0.7% for cases diagnosed between 2003 and 2012 (P < 0.001). Years of diagnosis, gender, age at diagnosis, marital status, grade, tumor size, tumor stage, and surgery performed or not were the strongest predictors of worse survival in both univariate and multivariate analysis (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: G-NETs are uncommon neoplasms but the incidence is growing. Survival has improved in the past decades. Years of diagnosis, gender, age at diagnosis, marital status, grade, tumor size, tumor stage, and surgery status predict survival in patients with G-NETs.

A Novel Computational Method for Detecting DNA Methylation Sites with DNA Sequence Information and Physicochemical Properties.

DNA methylation is an important biochemical process, and it has a close connection with many types of cancer. Research about DNA methylation can help us to understand the regulation mechanism and epigenetic reprogramming. Therefore, it becomes very important to recognize the methylation sites in the DNA sequence. In the past several decades, many computational methods-especially machine learning methods-have been developed since the high-throughout sequencing technology became widely used in research and industry. In order to accurately identify whether or not a nucleotide residue is methylated under the specific DNA sequence context, we propose a novel method that overcomes the shortcomings of previous methods for predicting methylation sites. We use k-gram, multivariate mutual information, discrete wavelet transform, and pseudo amino acid composition to extract features, and train a sparse Bayesian learning model to do DNA methylation prediction. Five criteria-area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), Matthew's correlation coefficient (MCC), accuracy (ACC), sensitivity (SN), and specificity-are used to evaluate the prediction results of our method. On the benchmark dataset, we could reach 0.8632 on AUC, 0.8017 on ACC, 0.5558 on MCC, and 0.7268 on SN. Additionally, the best results on two scBS-seq profiled mouse embryonic stem cells datasets were 0.8896 and 0.9511 by AUC, respectively. When compared with other outstanding methods, our method surpassed them on the accuracy of prediction. The improvement of AUC by our method compared to other methods was at least 0.0399 . For the convenience of other researchers, our code has been uploaded to a file hosting service, and can be downloaded from: https://figshare.com/s/0697b692d802861282d3.

Expression of HMGB2 indicates worse survival of patients and is required for the maintenance of Warburg effect in pancreatic cancer.

High mobility group proteins (HMGs) are the second most abundant chromatin proteins and exert global genomic functions in the establishment of active or inactive chromatin domains. Through interaction with nucleosomes, transcription factors, nucleosome-remodeling machines and histones, the HMGs family proteins contribute to the fine tuning of transcription in response to rapid environmental changes. Mammalian high mobility group Bs (HMGBs) are characterized by two tandem HMG box domains followed by a long acidic tail. Recent studies demonstrated that high expression of HMGBs has been found in many cancers, such as prostate, kidney, ovarian, and gastric cancers. However, their roles in pancreatic cancer have seldom been reported. In this study, we assessed the diagnostic and prognostic values of HMGBs proteins, including HMGB1, HMGB2, and HMGB3, in pancreatic cancer from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset. Our results demonstrated that HMGB2 predicted poor prognosis in pancreatic cancer. In vitro studies demonstrated that silencing HMGB2 inhibited cell proliferation and viability. Mechanistically, our results demonstrated that silencing HMGB2 decreased hypoxia inducible factor 1α (HIF1α) protein level and inhibited HIF1α-mediated glycolysis process. Further analysis indicated that HIF1α-targeted glycolytic genes, including GLUT1, HK2, and LDHA, are all prognostic factors and positively correlated with HMGB2 expression. Taken together, we discovered new prognostic and predictive markers for pancreatic cancer, and shed light on the novel function of HMGB2 in glycolytic control in cancer.

[Relationship between hepatitis B surface antigen, HBV DNA quantity and liver fibrosis severity].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the correlation between serum hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) level and hepatic tissue pathological staging in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB). METHODS: Clinical data was collected from our hospital's records for 302 CHB patients with HBsAg-positive status for more than 6 months and who had undergone hepatic biopsy. The HBsAg level,HBV DNA level and other clinical data were measured using commercial diagnostic assays. Liver histology was scored using the GS staging system. Correlation between serum HBsAg quantity, HBV DNA quantity, stage of inflammation and degree of fibrosis was assessed statistically. RESULTS: The correlation of serum HBsAg level and HBV DNA level was notable. The serum HBsAg level was a variable affecting hepatic tissue pathological stage significantly. Serum HBsAg level appeared to be a highly specific and sensitive diagnostic marker of hepatic fibrosis. As the severity of liver fibrosis increased, the quantitative levels of platelet (PLT), HBsAg and HBV DNA gradually decreased, and the APRI index gradually increased; there were significant differences between the groups (all P<0.001). Serum HBsAg and HBV DNA levels in patients with hepatitis B e antigen-positive (HBeAg(+)) status showed strong correlation (r=0.721, P<0.0001) by Spearman analysis. HBeAg(+) patients with moderate to severe fibrosis (S2-4) exhibited significantly lower serum HBsAg and HBV DNA levels compared with patients with no or mild fibrosis (S0-1; t=5.475 and 4.826, P<0.001). ROC analysis suggested that a serum HBsAg cutoff of 4.46 log 10 IU/mL (28 800 IU/mL) would provide a theoretical sensitivity of 76.3%, with theoretical specificity of 70.5% in HBeAg(+) CHB patients. A serum HBV DNA cutoff of 7.13 log 10 IU/mL (1.35*10(7) copies/mL) would provide a theoretical sensitivity of 71.1%, with theoretical specificity of 73.4% in HBeAg(+) CHB patients. Logistic regression analysis showed that the level of HBsAg was an independent prognostic factor of moderate to severe liver fibrosis, with alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, HBsAg, HBV DNA and PLT (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: HBsAg and HBV DNA levels decrease gradually along with aggravation of liver fibrosis. The cutoff values of 28800 IU/mL for HBsAg and 1.35*10(7) copies/mL ofHBV DNA provide higher specificity and sensitivity for predicting the degree of liver fibrosis in HBeAg-positive CHB patients, and the former is an independent predictor of severe liver fibrosis.

Complete atrioventricular septal defect: comparison of modified single-patch technique with two-patch technique in infants.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to compare the modified single-patch technique with the two-patch technique for infants with complete atrioventricular septal defects (AVSDs). METHODS: Between December 2001 and October 2011, 98 infants underwent complete AVSD primary repair. Forty-six patients had a modified single-patch technique; 59 patients had a two-patch technique. Eighty-seven patients had follow-up by echocardiography to measure the degree of valve regurgitation. RESULTS: There were two deaths (one in modified single-patch group and one in two-patch group). Cross-clamp times and cardiopulmonary bypass times were shorter in the modified single-patch group (70.56 ± 21.05 vs. 83.76 ± 22.74 minutes, p=0.004; 95.02 ± 19.73 vs. 109.9 ± 34.07, p=0.011). There was no patient with third-degree atrioventricular (AV) block in the modified single-patch group, while two patients in the two-patch group required a pacemaker (3.85%, p=NS). During follow-up, one death occurred in the single-patch group and three deaths in the two-patch group. At last follow-up, ten patients had more than moderate left AV valve regurgitation (four in single-patch group vs. six in two-patch group, p=0.886) and eight patients required reoperation (three in single-patch group vs. five in two-patch group, p=0.841). One patient in the single-patch group required reoperation for a residual ventricular septal defect and none in the two-patch group. CONCLUSIONS: Modified single-patch repair in infants with complete AVSD is a safe and reproducible technique. The results are as good as the two-patch technique. Among long-term survivors, most have very good clinical and functional results and minimal or no regurgitation of either AV valve.

Computer vision-aided mmWave communications for indoor medical healthcare.

Comprehensive and exceedingly precise centralized patient monitoring has become essential to advance predictive, preventive, and efficient patient care in contemporary healthcare. Millimeter-wave (mmWave) technology, boasting high-frequency and high-speed wireless communication, holds promise as a viable solution to this challenge. This paper presents a new approach that combines mmWave communication and computer vision (CV) to achieve real-time patient monitoring and data transmission in indoor medical environments. The system comprises a transmitter, a reflective surface, and multiple communication targets, and utilizes the high-frequency, low-latency features of mmWave as well as CV-based target detection and depth estimation for precise localization and reliable data transmission. A machine learning algorithm analyses real-time images captured by an optical camera to identify target distance and direction and establish clear line-of-sight links. The system proactively adapts its transmission power and channel allocation based on the target's movements, guaranteeing complete coverage, even in potentially obstructive areas. This methodology tackles the escalating demand for high-speed, real-time data processing in modern healthcare, significantly enhancing its delivery.

Biodegradable and multifunctional black mulch film decorated with darkened lignin induced by iron ions for "green" agriculture.

High-value utilization of bleached lignin has been widely used in different fields, whereas the investigation on darkened lignin in composite materials was often ignored. In this work, a sort of eco-friendly and structurally robust sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC)/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/sodium lignosulfonate (SLS) black composite mulch film was elaborately designed. The chelation and redox reaction effect between Fe ions and SLS lead to the formation of a more quinones structure on lignin, darkening both lignin and the mulch films. The chelation effect between Fe ions and biopolymer formed three-dimensional structures, which can be used as sacrifice bonds to dissipate energy and improve the mechanical properties of the composite films. In particular, the maximum elongation at break and toughness increased from 48.4 % and 1141 kJ/m3 for the CMC/PVA film to 210.9 % and 1426 kJ/m3 for the optimized CMC/PVA/SLS/Fe black mulch film, respectively. In addition, the optimized black mulch film also possesses good soil water retention, thermal preservation effect, controlled urea release, and well biodegradability. This work offered a novel strategy for designing eco-friendly black mulch with reinforced mechanical strength, slow-release urea, soil moisture retention, and heat preservation performances.

Exploring personalized treatment for cardiac graft rejection based on a four-archetype analysis model and bioinformatics analysis.

Heart transplantation is the gold standard for treating patients with advanced heart failure. Although improvements in immunosuppressive therapies have significantly reduced the frequency of cardiac graft rejection, the incidences of T cell-mediated rejection (TCMR) and antibody-mediated rejection remain almost unchanged. A four-archetype analysis (4AA) model, developed by Philip F. Halloran, illustrated this problem well. It provided a new dimension to improve the accuracy of diagnoses and an independent system for recalibrating the histology guidelines. However, this model was based on the invasive method of endocardial biopsy, which undoubtedly increased the postoperative risk of heart transplant patients. Currently, little is known regarding the associated genes and specific functions of the different phenotypes. We performed bioinformatics analysis (using machine-learning methods and the WGCNA algorithm) to screen for hub-specific genes related to different phenotypes, based Gene Expression Omnibus accession number GSE124897. More immune cell infiltration was observed with the ABMR, TCMR, and injury phenotypes than with the stable phenotype. Hub-specific genes for each of the four archetypes were verified successfully using an external test set (accession number GSE2596). Logistic-regression models based on TCMR-specific hub genes and common hub genes were constructed with accurate diagnostic utility (area under the curve > 0.95). RELA, NFKB1, and SOX14 were identified as transcription factors important for TCMR/injury phenotypes and common genes, respectively. Additionally, 11 Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs were chosen from the DrugBank Database for each four-archetype model. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors may be a promising new option for transplant rejection treatment. KRAS signaling in cardiac transplant rejection is worth further investigation. Our results showed that heart transplant rejection subtypes can be accurately diagnosed by detecting expression of the corresponding specific genes, thereby enabling precise treatment or medication.

Postoperative nomogram and risk calculator of acute renal failure for Stanford type A aortic dissection surgery.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to explore the risk factors of acute renal failure (ARF) after Stanford type A aortic dissection (AAD) surgery, establish a nomogram prediction model and calculate the risk of ARF. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 241 AAD patients who received aortic surgery in the department of cardiovascular surgery, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University were enrolled in this study. All enrolled patients were divided into the ARF group and non-ARF group. The clinical data of the two groups were collected and compared. The independent risk factors of ARF after aortic surgery were analyzed by univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Moreover, a nomogram prediction model was generated. The calibration curve, ROC curve and independent external validation were performed to evaluate the nomogram prediction model. RESULTS: 67 patients were diagnosed with ARF within 48 h after the operation. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that hypertension, preoperative renal artery involvement, CPB time extension and postoperative decreased platelet lymphocyte ratio were the independent risk factors of ARF after AAD surgery. The nomogram model could predict the risk of ARF with a sensitivity of 81.3% and a specificity of 78.6%. The calibration curve displayed good agreement of the predicted probability with the actual observed probability. AUC of the ROC curve was 0.839. External data validation was performed with a sensitivity of 79.2% and a specificity of 79.8%. CONCLUSIONS: Hypertension, preoperative renal artery involvement, CPB time extension and postoperative decreased platelet lymphocyte ratio could predict the risk of ARF after AAD surgery.

JUND facilitates proliferation and angiogenesis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cell via MAPRE2 up-regulation.

OBJECTIVE: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is a globally aggressive malignant tumor. This study aimed to investigate the mechanism of JUND in ESCC development via MAPRE2. METHODS: ESCC cells (KYSE-450 and ECA109) were transfected with small interfering RNA (si)-JUND, si-MAPRE2, si-JUND, or pcDNA3.1-MAPRE2. JUND and MAPRE2 expression in ESCC cells was detected with quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and western blot. Cell counting kit-8 and 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine assays were used to determine ESCC cell proliferation. Dual-luciferase reporter gene and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays were performed to assess binding between JUND and MAPRE2. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were co-cultured with ESCC cell supernatants. Angiogenesis was assessed with an in vitro angiogenesis assay. Western blot was conducted to evaluate the expression of angiogenic proteins [vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA), matrix metallopeptidase 9 (MMP-9), and angiopoietin-2 (ang2)]. RESULTS: The levels of expression of JUND and MAPRE2 were high in ESCC cells. Mechanistically, JUND bound to MAPRE2 promoter and increased MAPRE2 transcription. Downregulation of JUND or MAPRE2 inhibited KYSE-450 and ECA109 cell proliferation and reduced the levels of expression of VEGFA, MMP-9, and ang2 and tube formation in HUVECs co-cultured with ESCC cell supernatants. MAPRE2 upregulation counteracted the inhibitory effects of JUND silencing on cell proliferative and angiogenic capabilities in ESCC. CONCLUSIONS: JUND promoted MAPRE2 transcription, thereby facilitating cell proliferative and angiogenic abilities in ESCC.