RRM2 promotes liver metastasis of pancreatic cancer by stabilizing YBX1 and activating the TGF-beta pathway.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most malignant types of cancer, and despite recent advances in treatment, prognosis remains extremely poor. The most common site of pancreatic cancer metastasis is the liver. Elucidating the molecular mechanisms of pancreatic cancer progression and liver metastasis is essential for improving patients' survival. Ribonucleotide reductase subunit M2 (RRM2) has been linked to many types of cancers and is associated with tumor progression. However, the role of RRM2 in the liver metastasis of pancreatic cancer is still unclear. In this study, RRM2 was found to promote the malignant biological behavior of pancreatic cancer and enhance its liver metastasis. Further studies on the downstream molecular mechanisms of RRM2 revealed that RRM2 stabilizes YBX1, upregulates TGFBR1, and activates the TGF-beta pathway to promote pancreatic cancer progression and liver metastasis. In summary, these results suggest that RRM2 may be an effective therapeutic target for pancreatic cancer liver metastasis.

Dual cross-linked cellulose-based hydrogel for dendrites-inhibited flexible zinc-ion energy storage devices with ultra-long cycles and high energy density.

Hydrogel electrolytes, renowned for their mechanical robustness and versatility, are crucial in ensuring stable energy output in flexible energy storage devices. This work presents a dual cross-linked cellulose-based hydrogel electrolyte with chemical cross-linking from covalent bonding and physical cross-linking from hydrogen bonding. This electrolyte demonstrated outstanding mechanical strength and porous structure with abundant hydroxyl groups, which facilitates the migration of Zn2+ and suppresses the formation of undesirable zinc dendrite, thereby enhancing the ion conductivity (18.46 ± 0.39 mS cm-1 at room temperature) and extending electrochemical stability window (0-2.23 V). Zn||Zn symmetric cells based on this electrolyte demonstrated stable stripping/plating cycles of 3000 h at a current density of 1 mA cm-2. Furthermore, the corresponding flexible zinc-ion hybrid capacitor retains a 90.3 % capacity over 100,000 cycles at 10 A g-1, while remaining functional across various folding angles. Hence, this biomass-derived hydrogel electrolyte holds promise for flexible energy storage device applications.

ZDHHC1 downregulates LIPG and inhibits colorectal cancer growth via IGF2BP1 Palmitoylation.

Alteration in lipid metabolism is recognized as a hallmark feature of colorectal cancer (CRC). Protein S-palmitoylation plays a critical role in many different cellular processes including protein-lipid interaction. Zinc Finger DHHC-Type Containing 1 (ZDHHC1, also known as ZNF377) belongs to the palmitoyl-transferase ZDHHC family, and is a potential tumor suppressor. However, our knowledge of the functional roles of ZDHHC1 in CRC is limited. We discovered that ZDHHC1 expression was downregulated in CRC tissues and that low levels of ZDHHC1 were associated with unfavorable prognosis. Functional studies showed that ZDHHC1 inhibited CRC cell proliferation and invasion in vitro and in vivo. We also found that lipase G (LIPG) is negatively regulated by ZDHHC1 and plays a key role in CRC cell growth through lipid storage. Additionally, we demonstrated that ZDHHC1 functions as a IGF2BP1-palmitoylating enzyme that induces S-palmitoylation at IGF2BP1-C337, which results in downregulated LIPG expression via m6A modification. Mechanistic investigations revealed that the ZDHHC1/IGF2BP1/LIPG signaling axis is associated with inhibition of CRC cell growth. Our study uncovers the potential role of ZDHHC1 in CRC, including inhibition of CRC growth by reducing the stability of LIPG mRNA in an m6A dependent-manner by palmitoylation of IGF2BP1.

Cell-free Nucleic Acid as Promising Diagnostic Biomarkers for Gastric Cancer: a Systematic Review.

Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is a common malignancy with early detection being crucial for survival. Liquid biopsy analysis using cell-free nucleic acid is a preferred method for detection. Hence, we conducted a systematic review to assess the diagnostic efficacy of cell-free nucleic acid markers for GC. Methods: We searched PubMed and ISI Web of Science databases for articles that conformed to our inclusion and exclusion criteria from 2012 to 2022. The following information was abstracted: first author, year of publication, country/region, age, male proportion, tumor stage for cases, specimen type, measurement method, targeted markers and diagnostic related indicators (including sensitivity, specificity, AUC, P-value). Results: Fifty-eight studies examined cell-free RNAs (cfRNAs) with a total of 62 individual circulating markers and 7 panels in serum or plasma, while 21 studies evaluated cell-free DNAs (cfDNAs) with 29 individual circulating markers and 7 panels. For individual cfRNAs, the median (range) sensitivity and specificity were 80% (21% - 98%) and 80% (54% - 99%), respectively. The median (range) sensitivity and specificity for cfRNA panels were 86% (83% - 90%) and 75% (60% - 98%), respectively. In comparison, the median (range) sensitivity and specificity reported for individual cfDNAs were 50% (18% - 96%) and 93% (57% - 100%), respectively, while cfDNA panels had a median (range) sensitivity and specificity of 85% (41% - 92%) and 73.5% (38% - 90%), respectively. The meta results indicate that cfRNA markers exhibit high sensitivity (80%) and low specificity (80%) for detecting GC, while cfDNA markers have lower sensitivity (59%) but higher specificity (92%). Conclusions: This review has demonstrated that cell-free nucleic acids have the potential to serve as useful diagnostic markers for GC. Given that both cfRNA and cfDNA markers have shown promising diagnostic performance for GC, the combination of the two may potentially enhance diagnostic efficiency.

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Acupuncture manipulation, a crucial component of acupuncture procedures, significantly influences the therapeutic outcomes. Acupuncture manipulation measuring instrument and operating instrument have been developed based on modern technology to objectively characterize manipulation parameters, and achieve standardized and normalized output of acupuncture manipulation. This paper systematically reviews the development and current application status of in vivo acupuncture manipulation measuring instrument, ex vivo acupuncture manipulation measuring instrument, and acupuncture manipulation operating instrument worldwide, and explores key issues that acupuncture manipulation operating instruments need to address for clinical applications, and provides insights into the future prospect of acupuncture robots.

HMGA2 overexpression activates IGF2BP2 to stabilize APLP2 via m6A modification and promote pancreatic cancer progression.

Pancreatic cancer is a highly aggressive malignancy of the digestive system, with occult onset, rapid progression, and poor prognosis. The genetic heterogeneity of pancreatic cancer contributes to its highly malignant biological behavior. HMGA2 is overexpressed in tumors and is known to regulate tumor progression in various cancers through the HMGA2-IGF2BP2 axis, but its role and mechanism in pancreatic cancer remain unclear. In this study, we demonstrated that HMGA2 promotes pancreatic cancer progression. We further revealed that HMGA2 upregulates IGF2BP2, which stabilizes APLP2 mRNA via m6A modification, thereby promoting pancreatic cancer progression. These results indicate that HMGA2/IGF2BP2/APLP2 signaling axis regulates the progression of pancreatic cancer.

Fumarate Hydratase Enhances the Therapeutic Effect of PD-1 Antibody in Colorectal Cancer by Regulating PCSK9.

Despite the notable achievements of programmed death 1 (PD-1) antibodies in treating various cancers, the overall efficacy remains limited in the majority of colorectal cancer (CRC) cases. Metabolism reprogramming of tumors inhibits the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, leading to down-regulation of fumarate hydratase (FH), which is related to poor prognosis in CRC patients. By establishing a tumor-bearing mouse model of CRC with Fh1 expression deficiency, we confirmed that the therapeutic effect of PD-1 antibodies alone was suboptimal in mice with low Fh1 expression, which was improved by combination with a protein invertase subtilisin/kexin 9 (PCSK9) inhibitor. Mechanistically, FH binds to Ras-related nucleoprotein (RAN), which inhibits the nuclear import of the PCSK9 transcription factor SREBF1/2, thus reducing the expression of PCSK9. This leads to increased clonal expansion of CD8+ T cells while the number of Tregs remains unchanged, and the expression of PD-L1 does not change significantly, thus enhancing the immunotherapy response. On the contrary, the expression of PCSK9 increased in CRC cells with low FH expression, which antagonized the effects of immunotherapy. Overall, CRC patients with low FH expression may benefit from combinatorial therapy with PD-1 antibodies and PCSK9 inhibitors to enhance the curative effect.

Method for the extraction of circulating nucleic acids based on MOF reveals cell-free RNA signatures in liver cancer.

Cell-free RNA (cfRNA) allows assessment of health, status, and phenotype of a variety of human organs and is a potential biomarker to non-invasively diagnose numerous diseases. Nevertheless, there is a lack of highly efficient and bias-free cfRNA isolation technologies due to the low abundance and instability of cfRNA. Here, we developed a reproducible and high-efficiency isolation technology for different types of cell-free nucleic acids (containing cfRNA and viral RNA) in serum/plasma based on the inclusion of nucleic acids by metal-organic framework (MOF) materials, which greatly improved the isolation efficiency and was able to preserve RNA integrity compared with the most widely used research kit method. Importantly, the quality of cfRNA extracted by the MOF method is about 10-fold that of the kit method, and the MOF method isolates more than three times as many different RNA types as the kit method. The whole transcriptome mapping characteristics of cfRNA in serum from patients with liver cancer was described and a cfRNA signature with six cfRNAs was identified to diagnose liver cancer with high diagnostic efficiency (area under curve = 0.905 in the independent validation cohort) using this MOF method. Thus, this new MOF isolation technique will advance the field of liquid biopsy, with the potential to diagnose liver cancer.

Electrode materials for electrochromic supercapacitors.

Smart energy storage systems, such as electrochromic supercapacitor (ECSC) integrated technology, have drawn a lot of attention recently, and numerous developments have been made owing to their reliable performance. Developing novel electrode materials for ECSCs that embed two different technologies in a material is an exciting and emerging field of research. To date, the research into ECSC electrode materials has been ongoing with excellent efforts, which need to be systematically reviewed so that they can be used to develop more efficient ECSCs. This mini-review provides a general composition, main evaluation parameters and future perspectives for electrode materials of ECSCs as well as a brief overview of the published reports on ECSCs and performance statistics on the existing literature in this field.

JamTac: A Tactile Jamming Gripper for Searching and Grasping in Low-Visibility Environments.

Humans can feel and grasp efficiently in the dark through tactile feedback, whereas it is still a challenging task for robots. In this research, we create a novel soft gripper named JamTac, which has high-resolution tactile perception, a large detection surface, and integrated sensing-grasping capability that can search and grasp in low-visibility environments. The gripper combines granular jamming and visuotactile perception technologies. Using the principle of refractive index matching, a refraction-free liquid-particle rationing scheme is developed, which makes the gripper itself to be an excellent tactile sensor without breaking its original grasping capability. We simultaneously acquire color and depth information inside the gripper, making it possible to sense the shape, texture, hardness, and contact force with high resolution. Experimental results demonstrate that JamTac can be a promising tool to search and grasp in situations when vision is not available.

TRABID overexpression enables synthetic lethality to PARP inhibitor via prolonging 53BP1 retention at double-strand breaks.

53BP1 promotes nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ) over homologous recombination (HR) repair by mediating inactivation of DNA end resection. Ubiquitination plays an important role in regulating dissociation of 53BP1 from DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). However, how this process is regulated remains poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that TRABID deubiquitinase binds to 53BP1 at endogenous level and regulates 53BP1 retention at DSB sites. TRABID deubiquitinates K29-linked polyubiquitination of 53BP1 mediated by E3 ubiquitin ligase SPOP and prevents 53BP1 dissociation from DSBs, consequently inducing HR defects and chromosomal instability. Prostate cancer cells with TRABID overexpression exhibit a high sensitivity to poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors. Our work shows that TRABID facilitates NHEJ repair over HR during DNA repair by inducing prolonged 53BP1 retention at DSB sites, suggesting that TRABID overexpression may predict HR deficiency and the potential therapeutic use of PARP inhibitors in prostate cancer.

Downregulation of CBX7 induced by EZH2 upregulates FGFR3 expression to reduce sensitivity to cisplatin in bladder cancer.

BACKGROUND: Cisplatin-based cytotoxic chemotherapy is considered to be the first-line therapy for advanced bladder cancer (BC), but resistance to cisplatin limits its antitumor effect. Fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3) has been reported to contribute to the progression and cisplatin resistance of BC. Meanwhile, chromobox protein homologue 7 (CBX7) was reported to inhibit BC progression. And our previous RNA-seq data on CBX7 (GSE185630) suggested that CBX7 might repress FGFR3, but the underlying mechanism and other cancer-related functions of CBX7 are still unknown. METHODS: Silico analysis of RNA-seq data to identify the upstream regulators and downstream target genes of CBX7. The western blot analysis, quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR), chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP)-qPCR analysis, CCK-8 assay, and nude mice xenograft models were used to confirm the enhancer of zeste homologue (EZH2)/CBX7/ FGFR3 axis. RESULTS: In this study, we first showed that CBX7 is downregulated in BC. Then, we revealed that EZH2 represses CBX7 expression by increasing H3K27me3 in BC cells. Moreover, we demonstrated that CBX7 directly downregulates FGFR3 expression and sensitises BC cells to cisplatin treatment by inactivating the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)-(RAC-alpha serine/threonine-protein kinase) AKT signalling pathway. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that CBX7 is an ideal candidate to overcome cisplatin resistance in BC.

HDAC5 Loss Enhances Phospholipid-Derived Arachidonic Acid Generation and Confers Sensitivity to cPLA2 Inhibition in Pancreatic Cancer.

HDAC5 is a class IIa histone deacetylase member that is downregulated in multiple solid tumors, including pancreatic cancer, and loss of HDAC5 is associated with unfavorable prognosis. In this study, assessment of The Cancer Genome Atlas pancreatic adenocarcinoma dataset revealed that expression of HDAC5 correlates negatively with arachidonic acid (AA) metabolism, which has been implicated in inflammatory responses and cancer progression. Nontargeted metabolomics analysis revealed that HDAC5 knockdown resulted in a significant increase in AA and its downstream metabolites, such as eicosanoids and prostaglandins. HDAC5 negatively regulated the expression of the gene encoding calcium-dependent phospholipase A2 (cPLA2), the key enzyme in the production of AA from phospholipids. Mechanistically, HDAC5 repressed cPLA2 expression via deacetylation of GATA1. HDAC5 knockdown in cancer cells enhanced sensitivity to genetic or pharmacologic inhibition of cPLA2 in vitro and in vivo. Fatty acid supplementation in the diet reversed the sensitivity of HDAC5-deficient tumors to cPLA2 inhibition. These data indicate that HDAC5 loss in pancreatic cancer results in the hyperacetylation of GATA1, enabling the upregulation of cPLA2, which contributes to overproduction of AA. Dietary management plus cPLA2-targeted therapy could serve as a viable strategy for treating HDAC5-deficient pancreatic cancer patients. SIGNIFICANCE: The HDAC5-GATA1-cPLA2-AA signaling axis regulates sensitivity to fat restriction plus cPLA2 inhibition in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, proposing dietary management as a feasible strategy for treating a subset of patients with pancreatic cancer.

Lumbar segment-dependent soft tissue artifacts of skin markers during in vivo weight-bearing forward-Backward bending.

Traditional optical motion capture (OMC) with retroreflective markers is commonly used to measure joint kinematics but was also reported with unavoidable soft tissue artifacts (STAs) when quantifying the motion of the spine. Additionally, the patterns of the STA on the lumbar spine remain unclear. This study aimed to 1) quantify the in vivo STAs of the human lower back in three-dimensional directions during weight-bearing forward-backward bending and 2) determine the effects of the STAs on the calculated flexion angles between the upper and lower lumbar spines and adjacent vertebrae by comparing the skin marker (SM)- and virtual bone marker (VM)-based measurements. Six healthy volunteers were imaged using a biplanar radiographic system, and thirteen skin markers were mounted on every volunteer's lower back while performing weight-bearing forward-backward bending. The STAs in the anterior/posterior (AP), medial/lateral (ML), and proximal/distal (PD) directions were investigated. The flexion angles between the upper and lower lumbar segments and adjacent intervertebral segments (L2-L5) throughout the cycle were calculated. For all the participants, STAs continuously increased in the AP direction and exhibited a reciprocal trend in the PD direction. During flexion, the STA at the lower lumbar region (L4-L5: 13.5 ± 6.5 mm) was significantly higher than that at the upper lumbar (L1-L3: 4.0 ± 1.5 mm) in the PD direction (p < 0.01). During extension, the lower lumbar (L4-L5: 2.7 ± 0.7 mm) exhibited significantly less STAs than that exhibited by the upper lumbar region (L1-L3: 6.1 ± 3.3 mm) (p < 0.05). The STA at the spinous process was significantly lower than that on both sides in the AP direction (p < 0.05). The present results on STAs, based on dual fluoroscopic measurements in healthy adult subjects, presented an anatomical direction, marker location, and anatomic segment dependency, which might help describe and quantify STAs for the lumbar spine kinematics and thus help develop location- and direction-specific weighting factors for use in global optimization algorithms aimed at minimizing the effects of STAs on the calculation of lumbar joint kinematics in the future.

The role of hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha in multidrug-resistant breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide with increasing incidence. Significant therapeutics advances in the field of breast cancer have resulted in a growing number of treatment options, whereas de novo or acquired resistance is still a persistent clinical challenge. Drug resistance involves a variety of mechanisms, and hypoxia is one of the many causes. Hypoxia-inducible Factor-1 Alpha (HIF-1α) is a key transcription factor which can regulate the response of cells to hypoxia. HIF-1α can trigger anaerobic glycolysis of tumor cells, induce angiogenesis, promote the proliferation, invasion, and migration of tumor cells, and lead to multidrug resistance. This review mainly discusses the role of HIF-1α in the drug-resistant breast cancer and highlighted the potential of HIF-1α -targeted therapy.

The Relationship Between Academic Encouragement and Academic Self-Efficacy: A Moderated Mediation Model.

To explore the influence mechanism and boundary conditions of academic encouragement on college students' academic self-efficacy, this study did a questionnaire survey and used the four scales, namely, Academic Encouragement Scale (AES), Course Subscale of the College Self-Efficacy Inventory (CCSI), Adult Hope Scale (AHS), and Campus Connectedness Scale (CCS). The questionnaires were distributed both online and offline. A total of 355 questionnaires were distributed, with 267 valid returns. Among them, 139 were women (52.1%) and 128 were men (47.9%), and the age range is 18-24 years old. As for the grade level, 123 were first-year college students (46.1%), 58 were second-year college students (21.7%), and 86 were third-year college students (32.2%). The results of this study showed the following. (1) Campus connectedness or hope mediated the relations between (challenge-focused or potential-focused) encouragement and academic self-efficacy. (2) Academic engagement could not moderate the above mediation models.

Extracellular vesicle biomarkers for pancreatic cancer diagnosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Extracellular vesicle (EV) biomarkers have promising diagnosis and screening capacity for several cancers, but the diagnostic value for pancreatic cancer (PC) is controversial. The aim of our study was to review the diagnostic performance of EV biomarkers for PC. METHODS: We performed a systematic review of PubMed, Medline, and Web Of Science databases from inception to 18 Feb 2022. We identified studies reporting the diagnostic performance of EV biomarkers for PC and summarized the information of sensitivity, specificity, area under the curve (AUC), or receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve) in according to a pre-designed data collection form. Pooled sensitivity and specificity was calculated using a random-effect model. RESULTS: We identified 39 studies, including 2037 PC patients and 1632 noncancerous, seven of which were conducted independent validation tests. Seventeen studies emphasized on EV RNAs, sixteen on EV proteins, and sixteen on biomarker panels. MiR-10b, miR-21, and GPC1 were the most frequently reported RNA and protein for PC diagnosis. For individual RNAs and proteins, the pooled sensitivity and specificity were 79% (95% CI: 77-81%) and 87% (95% CI: 85-89%), 72% (95% CI: 69-74%) and 77% (95% CI: 74-80%), respectively. the pooled sensitivity and specificity of EV RNA combined with protein panels were 84% (95% CI: 81-86%) and 89% (95% CI: 86-91%), respectively. Surprisingly, for early stage (stage I and II) PC EV biomarkers showed excellent diagnostic performance with the sensitivity of 90% (95% CI: 87-93%) and the specificity of 94% (95% CI: 92-95%). Both in sensitivity and subgroup analyses, we did not observe notable difference in pooled sensitivity and specificity. Studies might be limited by the isolation and detection techniques of EVs to a certain extent. CONCLUSIONS: EV biomarkers showed appealing diagnostic preference for PC, especially for early stage PC. Solving the deficiency of technologies of isolation and detection EVs has important implications for application these novel noninvasive biomarkers in clinical practice.

CBX3 Regulated By YBX1 Promotes Smoking-induced Pancreatic Cancer Progression via Inhibiting SMURF2 Expression.

As a key reversible and heritable mechanism of transcriptional regulation, the epigenetic modification plays a crucial role in tumorigenesis. Of note, tobacco smoking induces epigenetic modifications to promote pancreatic cancer development. Chromobox protein homolog 3 (CBX3) acts as an epigenetic regulator, modulating gene expression of downstream targets via chromatin modifications. To date, the relationship between CBX3 and smoking in pancreatic cancer remains unknown. This study aimed to uncover the specific role and underlying mechanism of CBX3 in smoking-related pancreatic cancer. The bioinformatics analyses were conducted to identify CBX3 as a key player in tobacco-induced pancreatic cancer. The abnormal upregulation of CBX3 was associated with poor prognosis in pancreatic cancer patients. Moreover, cigarette smoke extract (CSE) exposure promoted the overexpression of Y-box-binding protein 1 (YBX1), which consequently led to upregulated CBX3 in pancreatic cancer cells. We also revealed that CBX3 enhanced pancreatic cancer progression, likely by inhibiting the expression of SMAD specific E3 ubiquitin protein ligase 2 (SMURF2) and promoting the activation of TGF-ß signaling. In summary, the YBX1/CBX3/SMURF2 signaling axis may be a promising therapeutic target in patients with smoking-related pancreatic cancer.

CBX7 represses the POU2F2 to inhibit the PD-L1 expression and regulate the immune response in bladder cancer.

Bladder cancer (BC) is one of the most common malignant tumors of the urinary system worldwide. To date, immune checkpoint inhibitors (including PD-1/PD-L1) have been applied to treat patients with bladder cancer in the clinic and achieved the promising outcome. Further improvement of the anticancer efficiency of these immune therapies is crucial for bladder cancer. Our previous RNA-seq data on CBX7 (GSE185630) suggested that CBX7 might repress PD-L1 expression and PD-1 checkpoint pathway in cancer. In this study, we revealed that CBX7 downregulated the expression of POU2F2 that indirectly repressed the PD-L1 in BC cells. Depletion of CBX7 resulted in resistance to PD-1 blockade in bladder cancer. Collectively, our results suggested that the CBX7/POU2F2/PD-L1 axis plays an important role in determining the antitumor effect of PD-1 blockade in bladder cancer.