VEGFR2 promotes tumorigenesis and metastasis in a pro-angiogenic-independent way in gastric cancer.

BACKGROUND: VEGF/VEGFR2 pathway is the central therapeutic target in anti-angiogenic treatment in multiple cancers. However, little work has been carried out concerning the pro-malignancy functions of VEGFR2 that are independent of its pro-angiogenesis effects in gastric cancer. Here, we demonstrated that VEGFR2 up-regulation in gastric cancer tissues was a prognostic marker for poor disease-free survival and overall survival of gastric cancer patients. METHODS: Immunohistochemistry was used to detect VEGFR2 and VTN expressions in specimens. Kaplan-Meier curves were constructed for survival analysis. Stably knockdown cell lines and overexpression cell lines were constructed by small interfering RNA and plasmids transfection. Real-time PCR and Western blot were used to confirm the expressions of target genes at both RNA and protein levels. Cell proliferation was measured by using Cell Counting Kit-8 and xenograft models. Microarray and bioinformatic analysis were also performed to identify the relationship between Vitronectin (VTN) and VEGFR2. RESULTS: When overexpressed in gastric cancer cells, VEGFR2 increased cellular proliferation and invasion in vitro and tumor formation in xenograft models. By using integrating microarray and bioinformatic analysis, we identifiedVTN as a downstream of VEGFR2 pathway. In gain- and loss-of function analysis in gastric cancer cells, VTN was further verified in consistent with VEGFR2 in expression levels and in regulating cell growth and motility in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, in gastric cancer samples, VTN was as also revealed as a poor prognostic factor. CONCLUSIONS: Our present findings defined a novel activity for VEGFR2 in promoting tumorogenicity, motility and indicating a poor survival in gastric cancer beyond its known pro-angiogenic effects. IMPLICATIONS: Our present findings defined a novel activity for VEGFR2 in promoting tumorogenicity, motility and indicating a poor survival in gastric cancer beyond its known pro-angiogenic effects, which may provide a new and valuable target for design of therapies for intervention and a new cognitive perspective for the anti-angiogenesis therapies.

Rapid and specific detection of porcine parvovirus using real-time PCR and high resolution melting (HRM) analysis.

BACKGROUND: Porcine parvovirus (PPV) is the important causative agent for infectious infertility, which is a fairly tough virus that multiplies normally in the intestine of pigs without causing clinical signs in the world. RESULTS: We developed an assay integrating real-time PCR and high resolution melting (HRM) analysis for the detection of PPV. Primers targeting the VP gene were highly specific, as evidenced by the negative amplification of closely related viruses, such as porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2), porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), pseudorabies virus (PRV), classical swine fever virus (CSFV), or Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV). The performance of unlabeled real time PCR was compared to TaqMan real time PCR, and the detection limits of the two methods were nearly equal. Moreover, there was good correlation between Cp and diluted genomic DNA when tested with the two methods. The assay has the accuracy of 100% in reference to labeled real time PCR, when it was tested on 45 clinical samples. CONCLUSIONS: The present study demonstrated that the established assay integrating real-time PCR and HRM is relatively cost-effective and more stable, which provides an alternative tool for rapid, simple, specific and sensitive detection of PPV.

Mesh Neural Networks Based on Dual Graph Pyramids.

Deep neural networks (DNNs) have been widely used for mesh processing in recent years. However, current DNNs can not process arbitrary meshes efficiently. On the one hand, most DNNs expect 2-manifold, watertight meshes, but many meshes, whether manually designed or automatically generated, may have gaps, non-manifold geometry, or other defects. On the other hand, the irregular structure of meshes also brings challenges to building hierarchical structures and aggregating local geometric information, which is critical to conduct DNNs. In this paper, we present DGNet, an efficient, effective and generic deep neural mesh processing network based on dual graph pyramids; it can handle arbitrary meshes. Firstly, we construct dual graph pyramids for meshes to guide feature propagation between hierarchical levels for both downsampling and upsampling. Secondly, we propose a novel convolution to aggregate local features on the proposed hierarchical graphs. By utilizing both geodesic neighbors and Euclidean neighbors, the network enables feature aggregation both within local surface patches and between isolated mesh components. Experimental results demonstrate that DGNet can be applied to both shape analysis and large-scale scene understanding. Furthermore, it achieves superior performance on various benchmarks, including ShapeNetCore, HumanBody, ScanNet and Matterport3D. Code and models will be available at https://github.com/li-xl/DGNet.

Sampling Equivariant Self-Attention Networks for Object Detection in Aerial Images.

Objects in aerial images show greater variations in scale and orientation than in other images, making them harder to detect using vanilla deep convolutional neural networks. Networks with sampling equivariance can adapt sampling from input feature maps to object transformation, allowing a convolutional kernel to extract effective object features under different transformations. However, methods such as deformable convolutional networks can only provide sampling equivariance under certain circumstances, as they sample by location. We propose sampling equivariant self-attention networks, which treat self-attention restricted to a local image patch as convolution sampling by masks instead of locations, and a transformation embedding module to improve the equivariant sampling further. We further propose a novel randomized normalization module to enhance network generalization and a quantitative evaluation metric to fairly evaluate the ability of sampling equivariance of different models. Experiments show that our model provides significantly better sampling equivariance than existing methods without additional supervision and can thus extract more effective image features. Our model achieves state-of-the-art results on the DOTA-v1.0, DOTA-v1.5, and HRSC2016 datasets without additional computations or parameters.

Acupuncture for promoting intelligence of children--an observation on 37 cases with mental retardation.

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of acupuncture on intelligence quotient (IQ) in children with mental retardation (MR). METHODS: One hundred children with MR were randomly divided into an acupuncture group and a control group, 50 in each. There were 37 and 36 cases with complete data in the former and latter group respectively. Four-week treatment constituted a course, the comprehensive therapeutic effect of two groups was compared after 3 courses of treatment, and the influence of acupuncture on IQ was estimated. RESULTS: The total effective rate in the acupuncture group was 78.4%, better than 30.56% in the control group, the difference being significant (P < 0.01). Both groups were improved in IQ but the effect of the former group was better than that of the latter group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Acupuncture can obviously improve IQ of children suffering from MR.

Distribution patterns of octylphenol and nonylphenol in the aquatic system at mai po marshes nature reserve, a subtropical estuarine wetland in Hong Kong.

Spatial and temporal distribution of octylphenol (OP) and nonylphenol (NP) in Mai Po Marshes, a subtropical estuarine wetland in Hong Kong, were investigated. Surface water samples were collected every month from 11 sites during the period of September-December 2004. Concentrations of OP and NP ranged from 11.3 to 348 ng/L and from 29 to 2591 ng/L, respectively. The high levels of NP and OP were found in November and December than in September and October. The levels of OP and NP have no significant spatial differences except September. Total organic matter in the sediments appeared to be an important factor in controlling the fate of these compounds in the aquatic environment.

[Effect compound decoction on notoginsenosides in Panax notoginseng].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect of compound decoction on notoginsenosides in Panax notoginseng. METHOD: Notoginsenoside R1, Rg1, Re, Rb1 and pH were used as the parameters to investigate the changes on the content of notoginsenosides in different compound extractions by heating for two hours and their correlation with pH. RESULT: When the pH values of solution of P. notoginseng with Fructus ligustri, P. notoginseng with Eupolyphaga seu steleophaga, P. notoginseng with Pheretima asiatica, and Zhitangjiang Fang (free of Hirudo) were rept higher than 5.7, the reserved rate (RR) of notoginsenside were higher than 90%; When the pH values of decoetion of P. notoginseng with Salvia miltiorrhiza, P. notoginseng with Paeonia lactiflora, P. notoginseng with Platycodon grandiflorum, P. notoginseng with Arctium lappa were kept 4.5-5.5, their RR of notoginsenside were 60% - 85%; When the pH values of the decotction of P. notoginseng with Hirudo nipponica was decreased to 3.4, its RR of of notoginsenside was 38.4%; When the pH values of Zhitangjiang Fang extraction was regulated by 0.1% NaOH solution to pH 6. 3, and the RR of notoginsenside increased to 97%. CONCLUSION: The pH of other Chinese herbal medicines extraction with P. notoginseng compound is a critical effect on the stability and yields of notoginsensides.

Mean platelet volume provides beneficial diagnostic and prognostic information for patients with resectable gastric cancer.

Gastric cancer is the fourth most frequent cancer and the second cause of cancer-related mortalities worldwide. Platelets play an important and multifaceted role in cancer progression. Elevated mean platelet volume (MPV) detected in peripheral blood has been identified in various types of cancer. In the present study, we investigated the application value of MPV in early diagnostic and prognostic prediction in patients with resectable gastric cancer. In total, 168 patients with resectable gastric cancer were included and separated into the gastric cancer and healthy control groups according to median pre-operatic MPV value (MPV low, <10.51 or MPV high, ≥10.51). The results showed that the pre-operatic MPV level was significantly higher in gastric cancer patients compared with the healthy subjects. Low pre-operatic MPV level correlated with improved clinicopathological features, including decreased depth of invasion, less lymphonodus metastasis and early tumor stage. The Kaplan-Meier plots showed that the patients with higher pre-operatic MPV had decreased overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). Surgical tumor resection resulted in a significant decrease in the MPV level. The patients whose MPV level decreased following surgery had an improved OS. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that the depth of invasion, lymphonodus metastasis, American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stage, and changes in MPV following surgery were prognostic factors affecting OS, and the AJCC stage and pre-operatic MPV were prognostic factors affecting DFS. In conclusion, MPV measurement can provide important diagnostic and prognostic results in patients with resectable gastric cancer.

Mean platelet volume predicts chemotherapy response and prognosis in patients with unresectable gastric cancer.

Gastric cancer is the fourth most frequent cancer and the second cause of cancer-related mortalities worldwide. Platelets play an important and multifaceted role in cancer progression. Elevated mean platelet volume (MPV) detected in peripheral blood has been identified in various types of cancer. In the present study, we investigated the application value of MPV in the prediction of chemotherapy response and prognosis in patients with unresectable gastric cancer. A total of 128 patients with unresectable gastric cancer were included and divided according to the median values of baseline MPV (low MPV: <11.65 or high MPV: ≥11.65). A low baseline MPV level was correlated with reduced metastasis. The results showed that patients with a low baseline level of MPV improved response to chemotherapy. Changes in MPV were associated with therapeutic efficacy. Patients who remained in or were transferred into the low MPV level subgroup following first-line chemotherapy had improved response, compared to those remaining in or being transferred into the high MPV level group. The patients with a higher baseline MPV had decreased progression-free and overall survival ratios. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that baseline MPV was a prognostic factor affecting progression-free survival. In conclusion, the results showed that MPV measurements can provide important prognostic information for gastric cancer patients.

Application of platelet/lymphocyte and neutrophil/lymphocyte ratios in early diagnosis and prognostic prediction in patients with resectable gastric cancer.

BACKGROUND: Gastric cancer is the fourth most frequent cancer and the second cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. China has a high incidence of gastric cancer. Inflammation is a critical component of tumor progression. It has been widely accepted that gastric cancer is an inflammation-driven cancer. In this study, we investigated the application value of systemic inflammatory response (SIR) markers, platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), in early diagnosis and prognostic prediction in patients with resectable gastric cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred and sixty-two patients with resectable gastric cancer were included and separated into groups according to median pre-operative PLR or NLR values (PLR low: < 208 or PLR high: ≥ 208, and NLR low: < 4.02 or NLR high: ≥ 4.02, respectively). To evaluate the changes in PLR or NLR values after operation, we introduced the concept of postpre-operative PLR or NLR ratios (< 1 indicated PLR or NLR values were decreased after operation, while ≥ 1 suggested not decreased PLR or NLR values). RESULTS: Pre-operative PLR and NLR levels were significantly higher in gastric cancer patients compared with the healthy subjects. Low pre-operative PLR and NLR levels correlated with better clinicopathological features, including decreased depth of invasion, less lymph node metastasis and early tumor stage. Kaplan-Meier plots illustrated that higher pre-operative NLR and PLR had decreased overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). Surgical tumor resection resulted in a significant CONCLUSIONS: PLR and NLR measurements can provide important diagnostic and prognostic results in patients with resectable gastric cancer.

Changes in neutrophil/lymphocyte and platelet/lymphocyte ratios after chemotherapy correlate with chemotherapy response and prediction of prognosis in patients with unresectable gastric cancer.

The aim of the study was to investigate the application value of neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and the platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) in the prediction of chemotherapy response and prognosis in patients with advanced gastric cancer. In total, 120 patients with unresectable gastric cancer were included and separated into two groups according to the median values of NLR or PLR (NLR low: <4.62 or NLR high: ≥4.62 and PLR low: <235 or PLR high: ≥235, respectively). Low baseline NLR level correlated with improved clinicopathological characteristics, including smaller tumor size, well differentiation and less metastasis. Low baseline PLR level also associated with less metastasis. Patients with a low baseline level of NLR or PLR had an improved response to chemotherapy. Patients with a higher baseline NLR and PLR had decreased progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) ratios. Alterations in the NLR and PLR levels were associated with therapeutic efficacy and prognosis. The patients who remained in or switched to the low NLR level subgroup subsequent to first-line chemotherapy had an improved response and improved OS ratios, compared to the patients remaining in or switching to the high NLR level group. Similar results were observed when the PLR level was investigated. In conclusion, baseline NLR and PLR measurements, as well as changes of NLR and PLR following chemotherapy can predict the prognostic results in patients with unresectable gastric cancer.

Facile fabrication of polymer and carbon nanocapsules using polypyrrole core/shell nanomaterials.

Core/shell nanomaterials composed of only polypyrroles (PPys) were fabricated by microemulsion polymerization using two oxidants with different chemical oxidation potentials, and used as a precursor for the fabrication of PPy and carbon nanocapsules.

Seasonal and spatial variations in microbial community structure and diversity in the acid stream draining across an ongoing surface mining site.

This study examined the microbial community in an acidic stream draining across the Yun-Fu pyrite mine (Guangdong, China), where extremely acidic mine water is a persistent feature due to the intensive surface mining activities. Analysis of terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that microbial populations varied spatially and seasonally and correlated with geochemical and physical conditions. After the stream moves from underground to the surface, the microbial community in the acidic water rapidly evolves into a distinct community close to that in the downstream storage pond. Comparisons of TRFLP peaks with sequenced clone libraries indicated that bacteria related to the recently isolated iron-oxidizer Ferrovum myxofaciens dominated the acidophilic community throughout the year except for the samples collected in spring from the storage pond, where Ferroplasma acidiphilum-like archaea represented the most abundant group. Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans-affiliated organisms increased along the acid stream and remained common over the year, whereas Leptospirillum ferrooxidans-like bacteria were negligible or even not detected in the analyzed samples. The data indicate that changes in environmental conditions are accompanied by significant shifts in community structure of the prokaryotic assemblages at this opencast mining site.