Assessing the cognition, attitudes and intentions of volunteers regarding unrelated peripheral blood stem cell donation: The UPBSC-DQ instrument in Chinese.

Objectives: This study aimed to develop and validate the Unrelated Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Donation Questionnaire (UPBSC-DQ) (an instrument in Chinese) to assess the degree of cognition, attitude and intention of enrolled volunteers towards UPBSC donation. Methods: The development process of the UPBSC-DQ was performed in a stepwise approach that included extensive literature retrieval, expert revision, and pretesting with 442 students. We conducted an online cross-sectional survey using the final version of the UPBSC-DQ among 336 participants. The reliability of the questionnaire was assessed by Cronbach's α and corrected item-total correlation (CITC), and the validity was evaluated by a correlation coefficient matrix, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and t-test. Results: The UPBSC-DQ consists of four domains: basic information, cognitive, attitude, and intention. The Cronbach's α values were 0.88 and 0.86 for the attitude and intention scales, respectively, indicating strong internal consistency and good reliability. Correlation analysis and CFA showed good structure and content validity. Interitem correlations indicated that each item had only a weak correlation with the other scales. Conclusions: The UPBSC-DQ is a reliable and valid assessment questionnaire for individuals' attitudes and intentions towards UPBSC donation. The questionnaire showed good to high reliability, content and construct validity.

Lipid metabolic features of T cells in the Tumor Microenvironment.

The tumor microenvironment (TME) is characterized by discrete changes in metabolic features of cancer and immune cells, with various implications. Cancer cells take up most of the available glucose to support their growth, thereby leaving immune cells with insufficient nutrients to expand. In the relative absence of glucose, T cells switch the metabolic program to lipid-based sources, which is pivotal to T-cell differentiation and activation in nutrient-stressed TME. Although consumption of lipids should provide an alternative energy source to starving T cells, a literature survey has revealed that it may not necessarily lead to antitumor responses. Different subtypes of T cells behave differently in various lipid overload states, which widely depends upon the kind of free fatty acids (FFA) engulfed. Key lipid metabolic genes provide cytotoxic T cells with necessary nutrients for proliferation in the absence of glucose, thereby favoring antitumor immunity, but the same genes cause immune evasion in Tmem and Treg. This review aims to detail the complexity of differential lipid metabolism in distinct subtypes of T cells that drive the antitumor or pro-tumor immunity in specific TME states. We have identified key drug targets related to lipid metabolic rewiring in TME.

TOPBP1 regulates resistance of gastric cancer to oxaliplatin by promoting transcription of PARP1.

Gastric cancer (GC) is the third leading cause of cancer-associated mortality worldwide. The platinum derivative oxaliplatin is widely applied in standard GC chemotherapy but recurrence and metastasis are common in advanced GC cases due to intrinsic or induced chemoresistance. Poly(ADP-Ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1) is an enzyme crucial for repairing DNA damage induced by platinum compounds, which undermines the effectiveness of platinum-based chemotherapy. Data from the current study showed that topoisomerase IIß binding protein 1 (TOPBP1), an interacting partner of topoisomerase IIß, is highly expressed in oxaliplatin-resistant GC (OR-GC) cells and promotes PARP1 transcription through direct binding to its proximal promoter region. Furthermore, AKT-mediated phosphorylation of TOPBP1 at Ser1159 was indispensable for inducing PARP1 expression in OR-GC cells. Disruption of the TOPBP1/PARP1 regulatory pathway decreased cell viability and augmented apoptosis of OR-GC cells. The positive correlation between TOPBP1 and PARP1 was confirmed using both the TCGA database and immunohistochemical analysis of GC tissues. In GC patients receiving oxaliplatin treatment, high expression of TOPBP1 or PARP1 was associated with poor prognosis. Our finding that the TOPBP1/PARP1 pathway facilitates acquisition of oxaliplatin resistance uncovers a novel mechanism underlying platinum-based chemotherapy resistance in gastric cancer that may be utilized for developing effective therapeutic strategies.