UFL1 ablation in T cells suppresses PD-1 UFMylation to enhance anti-tumor immunity.

UFMylation is an emerging ubiquitin-like post-translational modification that regulates various biological processes. Dysregulation of the UFMylation pathway leads to human diseases, including cancers. However, the physiological role of UFMylation in T cells remains unclear. Here, we report that mice with conditional knockout (cKO) Ufl1, a UFMylation E3 ligase, in T cells exhibit effective tumor control. Single-cell RNA sequencing analysis shows that tumor-infiltrating cytotoxic CD8+ T cells are increased in Ufl1 cKO mice. Mechanistically, UFL1 promotes PD-1 UFMylation to antagonize PD-1 ubiquitination and degradation. Furthermore, AMPK phosphorylates UFL1 at Thr536, disrupting PD-1 UFMylation to trigger its degradation. Of note, UFL1 ablation in T cells reduces PD-1 UFMylation, subsequently destabilizing PD-1 and enhancing CD8+ T cell activation. Thus, Ufl1 cKO mice bearing tumors have a better response to anti-CTLA-4 immunotherapy. Collectively, our findings uncover a crucial role of UFMylation in T cells and highlight UFL1 as a potential target for cancer treatment.

Unveiling the Morphology of Carbon-Supported Ru Nanoparticles by Multiscale Modeling.

Simulating the behavior of metal nanoparticles on supports is crucial for boosting their catalytic performance and various nanotechnology applications; however, such simulations are limited by the conflicts between accuracy and efficiency. Herein, we introduce a multiscale modeling strategy to unveil the morphology of Ru supported on pristine and N-doped graphene. Our multiscale modeling started with the electronic structures of a supported Ru single atom, revealing the strong metal-support interaction around pyridinic nitrogen sites. To determine the stable configurations of Ru2-13 clusters on three different graphene supports, global energy minimum searches were performed. The sintering of the global minimum Ru13 clusters on supports was further simulated by ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD). The AIMD data set was then collected for deep potential molecular dynamics to study the melting of Ru nanoparticles. This study presents comprehensive descriptions of carbon-supported Ru and develops modeling approaches that bridge different scales and can be applied to various supported nanoparticle systems.

Selective Orbital Coupling: An Adsorption Mechanism in Single-Atom Catalysis.

Quantitative understanding of the chemisorption on single-atom catalysts (SACs) by their electronic properties is crucial for the catalyst design. However, the physical mechanism is still under debate. Here, the CO catalytic oxidation on single transition metal (i.e., Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni) dopants is used as a theoretical model to explore the correlations between the characteristics of electronic structures and the chemisorption on SACs. For these metal dopants, their atomic d orbitals form several nondegenerate and localized electronic states that are found to be selectively coupled with the π* orbital of the adsorbed O2, which we defined as selective orbital coupling. Based on the selective orbital coupling, we find that the alignment between the selected d state and the π* state determines the bond strength, regardless of the electron occupation number of the selected d states; the electron transfer to form M-O bonding can be provided by the support. Such electron transfer can be related with the electronic metal-support interaction. We attribute the origin of the chemisorption mechanism to the coexistence of the localized orbital of the single transition metal and the continuous energy band of the Au support. Finally, we illustrate how this mechanism dominates the variation trend of the reaction barriers. Our results unravel a fundamental adsorption mechanism in SAC systems.

Autophagy suppresses tumorigenesis through elimination of p62.

Allelic loss of the essential autophagy gene beclin1 occurs in human cancers and renders mice tumor-prone suggesting that autophagy is a tumor-suppression mechanism. While tumor cells utilize autophagy to survive metabolic stress, autophagy also mitigates the resulting cellular damage that may limit tumorigenesis. In response to stress, autophagy-defective tumor cells preferentially accumulated p62/SQSTM1 (p62), endoplasmic reticulum (ER) chaperones, damaged mitochondria, reactive oxygen species (ROS), and genome damage. Moreover, suppressing ROS or p62 accumulation prevented damage resulting from autophagy defects indicating that failure to regulate p62 caused oxidative stress. Importantly, sustained p62 expression resulting from autophagy defects was sufficient to alter NF-kappaB regulation and gene expression and to promote tumorigenesis. Thus, defective autophagy is a mechanism for p62 upregulation commonly observed in human tumors that contributes directly to tumorigenesis likely by perturbing the signal transduction adaptor function of p62-controlling pathways critical for oncogenesis.

Constrictive pericarditis in a patient with fiberglass lung disease: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Fiberglass has a larger aerodynamic diameter and is less likely to be inhaled into the lungs. Further, it will be cleared even if it is mechanically broken into smaller pieces and inhaled into the lungs. Fiberglass lung disease has been well documented if long term exposure but was thought reversible and would not cause severe diseases. The diagnosis of fiberglass lung disease depends on exposure history and histopathological findings. However, the exact occupational exposure history is often difficult to identify because mixed substance exposure often occurs and fiberglass disease is not as well-known as asbestosis. CASE PRESENTATION: A 66-year-old man had unexplained transudative pericardial effusion requiring pleural pericardial window operation twice at another medical center where asbestosis was told because of his self-reported long-term asbestosis exposure and the histopathological finding of a ferruginous body in his lung. Constrictive pericarditis developed two years later and resulted in congestive heart failure. Radical pericardiectomy combined with lung biopsy was performed following chest computed tomography imaging and the transudative nature of pericardial effusion not compatible with asbestosis. However, the histopathologic findings of his lung and pericardium at our hospital only showed chronic fibrosis without any asbestosis body. The patient's lung was found to be extremely fragile during a lung biopsy; histopathologic specimens were reviewed, and various fragments of fiberglass were found in the lung and pericardium. The patient's occupational exposure was carefully reevaluated, and he restated that he was only exposed to asbestosis for 1-2 years but was heavily exposed to fiberglass for more than 40 years. This misleading exposure history was mainly because he was only familiar with the dangers of asbestos. Since most fiberglass lung diseases are reversible and the symptoms of heart failure resolve soon after surgery, only observation was needed. Ten months after radical pericardiectomy, his symptoms, pleural effusion, and impaired pulmonary function eventually resolved. CONCLUSION: Fiberglass could cause inflammation of the pericardium, resulting in pericardial effusion and constrictive pericarditis, which could be severe and require radical pericardiectomy. Exact exposure history and histopathological examinations are the key to diagnosis.

Antibody-Conjugated Nanodiamonds as Dual-Functional Immunosensors for In Vitro Diagnostics.

Nanodiamonds (NDs) are carbon nanoparticles with a large refractive index, a high density, and exceptional chemical stability. When excited by green light, they can emit bright red fluorescence from implanted nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers. Taking advantage of these properties, we have developed antibody-conjugated NDs as in vitro diagnostic sensors for two complementary assays: particle-enhanced turbidimetric immunoassay (PETIA) and spin-enhanced lateral flow immunoassay (SELFIA). To achieve this goal, monocrystalline diamond powders (∼100 nm in diameter) with or without NV implantation were first treated in molten KNO3 to reduce their size and shape inhomogeneity, followed by surface carboxylation in strong oxidative acids and non-covalent conjugation with antibodies in water. PETIA and SELFIA were carried out separately with a microplate reader and a magnetically modulated fluorescence analyzer. Using C-reactive protein (CRP) as the target antigen, we found that anti-CRP-conjugated NDs exhibited high colloidal stability over 1 month at 4 °C in buffer solution. The limits of detection for 3 µL of CRP sample solution were 0.06 µg/mL and 1 ng/mL with variation coefficients of less than 10 and 15% for PETIA and SELFIA, respectively. These two methods together provide a detection range of 1 ng/mL-10 µg/mL, potentially useful for clinical applications. This work represents the first practical use of rounded monocrystalline NDs as in vitro diagnostic reagents.

Quantitative epileptiform burden and electroencephalography background features predict post-traumatic epilepsy.

BACKGROUND: Post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE) is a severe complication of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Electroencephalography aids early post-traumatic seizure diagnosis, but its optimal utility for PTE prediction remains unknown. We aim to evaluate the contribution of quantitative electroencephalograms to predict first-year PTE (PTE1). METHODS: We performed a multicentre, retrospective case-control study of patients with TBI. 63 PTE1 patients were matched with 63 non-PTE1 patients by admission Glasgow Coma Scale score, age and sex. We evaluated the association of quantitative electroencephalography features with PTE1 using logistic regressions and examined their predictive value relative to TBI mechanism and CT abnormalities. RESULTS: In the matched cohort (n=126), greater epileptiform burden, suppression burden and beta variability were associated with 4.6 times higher PTE1 risk based on multivariable logistic regression analysis (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, AUC (95% CI) 0.69 (0.60 to 0.78)). Among 116 (92%) patients with available CT reports, adding quantitative electroencephalography features to a combined mechanism and CT model improved performance (AUC (95% CI), 0.71 (0.61 to 0.80) vs 0.61 (0.51 to 0.72)). CONCLUSIONS: Epileptiform and spectral characteristics enhance covariates identified on TBI admission and CT abnormalities in PTE1 prediction. Future trials should incorporate quantitative electroencephalography features to validate this enhancement of PTE risk stratification models.

Mechanistic understanding of N2 activation: a comparison of unsupported and supported Ru catalysts.

N2 dissociative adsorption is commonly the rate-determining step in thermal ammonia synthesis. Herein, we performed density functional theory (DFT) calculations to understand the N2 dissociation mechanism on models of unsupported Ru(0001) terraces, Ru B5 sites, and polar MgO(111)-supported Ru8 cluster mimicking a B5 site geometry, denoted (Ru8(B5-like)/MgO(111)). The activation energy of N2 dissociative adsorption on the Ru8(B5-like)/MgO(111) model (Ea = 0.33 eV) is much lower than that on the unsupported Ru(0001) terrace (Ea = 1.74 eV) and Ru B5 (Ea = 0.62 eV) models. The lower N2 dissociation barrier on Ru B5 sites is facilitated by the enhanced σ donation and π* back-donation between N2(σ, π*) and Ru(d) orbitals resulting in the stronger activation of the molecular side-on N2* dissociation precursor. The Ru8(B5-like)/MgO(111) also exhibits enhanced σ donation because of the B5-like cluster geometry. Furthermore, the Ru cluster of the bare Ru8(B5-like)/MgO(111) model is positively charged. This induced an unusual π donation from N2(π) to Ru(d) orbitals as revealed by analyses of the density of states and partial charge densities. The combined σ and π donation resulted in an increased synergistic π* back-donation. The total interactions between N2(σ, π, π*) and Ru(d) resulted in an overall electron transfer to the adsorbed N2 from the Ru atoms in the B5-like site with no direct involvement of the MgO(111) substrate. Analyses of bond stretching vibrations and bond lengths show that the N2(σ, π, π*) and Ru(d) interactions lead to a weaker N-N bond and stronger Ru-N bonds. These correspond to a lower barrier of N2 dissociation on the Ru8(B5-like)/MgO(111) model, where the highest red-shift of N-N vibration and the longest N-N bond length were observed after side-on N2* adsorption. These results demonstrate that an electron-deficient Ru catalyst are not always inhibited from donating electrons to adsorbed N2. Rather, this study shows that the electron deficiency of Ru can promote π* back-donation and N2 activation. These new insights may therefore open new avenues to design supported Ru catalysts for nitrogen activation.

Sediment pollutant exposures caused hepatotoxicity and disturbed glycogenesis.

Liver metabolic syndrome, which involves impaired hepatic glycogen synthesis, is persistently increased by exposure to environmental pollutants. Most studies have investigated the pathogenesis of liver damage caused by single metal species or pure organics. However, under normal circumstances, the pollutants that we are exposed to are usually chemical mixtures that accumulate over time. Sediments are long-term repositories for environmental pollutants due to their environmental cycles, which make them good samples for evaluating the effect of environmental pollutants on the liver via bioaccumulation. This study aimed to clarify the effects of sediment pollutants on liver damage. Our results indicate that industrial wastewater sediment (downstream) is more cytotoxic than sediments from other zones. Downstream sediment extract (DSE) causes hepatotoxicity, stimulates reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, triggers mitochondrial dysfunction, induces cell apoptosis, and results in the release of glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT) and glutamic pyruvic transaminase (GPT) proteins. Additionally, to elucidate the underlying mechanism by which sediment pollutants disturb hepatic glycogen synthesis, we investigated the effects of different sediment samples from different pollution situations on glycogen synthesis in liver cell lines. It was found that DSE induced multiple severe impairments in liver cells, and disturbed glycogen synthesis more than under other conditions. These impairments include decreased hepatic glycogen synthesis via inhibition and insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1) /AKT /glycogen synthase kinase3ß (GSK3ß)-mediated glycogen synthase (GYS) inactivation. To our knowledge, this study provides the first detailed evidence of in vitro sediment-accumulated toxicity that interferes with liver glycogen synthesis, leading to hepatic cell damage through apoptosis.

Twin-Boundary Reduced Surface Diffusion on Electrically Stressed Copper Nanowires.

Surface diffusion is intimately correlated with crystal orientation and surface structure. Fast surface diffusion accelerates phase transformation and structural evolution of materials. Here, through in situ transmission electron microscopy observation, we show that a copper nanowire with dense nanoscale coherent twin-boundary (CTB) defects evolves into a zigzag configuration under electric-current driven surface diffusion. The hindrance at the CTB-intercepted concave triple junctions decreases the effective surface diffusivity by almost 1 order of magnitude. The energy barriers for atomic migration at the concave junctions and different faceted surfaces are computed using density functional theory. We proposed that such a stable zigzag surface is shaped not only by the high-diffusivity facets but also by the stalled atomic diffusion at the concave junctions. This finding provides a defect-engineering route to develop robust interconnect materials against electromigration-induced failures for nanoelectronic devices.

Cluster Nanozymes with Optimized Reactivity and Utilization of Active Sites for Effective Peroxidase (and Oxidase) Mimicking.

Single-atom catalysts have attracted attention in the past decade since they maximize the utilization of active sites and facilitate the understanding of product distribution in some catalytic reactions. Recently, this idea has been extended to single-atom nanozymes (SAzymes) for the mimicking of natural enzymes such as horseradish peroxidase (HRP) often used in bioanalytical applications. Herein, it is demonstrated that those SAzymes without constructing the reaction pocket of HRP still undergo the OH radical-mediated pathway like most of the reported nanozymes. Their positively charged single-atom centers resulting from support electronegative oxygen/nitrogen hinder the reductive conversion of H2 O2 to OH radicals and hence display low activity per site. In contrast, it is found that this step can be facilitated over their metallic counterparts on cluster nanozymes with much higher site activity and atom efficiency (cf. SAzymes with 100% atom utilization). Besides the mimicking of HRP in glucose detection, cluster nanozymes are also demonstrated as a better oxidase mimetic for glutathione detection.

Long noncoding RNA BCRP3 stimulates VPS34 and autophagy activities to promote protein homeostasis and cell survival.

BACKGROUND: Autophagy plays important roles in cell homeostasis and protein quality control. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been revealed as an emerging class of autophagy regulators, but the majority of them function in regulating the expression of autophagy-related genes. LncRNAs that directly act on the core autophagic proteins remain to be explored. METHODS: Immunofluorescence staining and Western blotting were used to evaluate the function of BCRP3 in autophagy and aggrephagy. RNA immunoprecipitation and in vitro RNA-protein binding assay were used to evaluate the interaction of BCRP3 with its target proteins. Phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate ELISA assay was used to quantify the enzymatic activity of VPS34 complex. qRT-PCR analysis was used to determine BCRP3 expression under stresses, whereas mass spectrometry and Gene Ontology analyses were employed to evaluate the effect of BCRP3 deficiency on proteome changes. RESULTS: We identified lncRNA BCRP3 as a positive regulator of autophagy. BCRP3 was mainly localized in the cytoplasm and bound VPS34 complex to increase its enzymatic activity. In response to proteotoxicity induced by proteasome inhibition or oxidative stress, BCRP3 was upregulated to promote aggrephagy, thereby facilitating the clearance of ubiquitinated protein aggregates. Proteomics analysis revealed that BCRP3 deficiency under proteotoxicity resulted in a preferential accumulation of proteins acting in growth inhibition, cell death, apoptosis, and Smad signaling. Accordingly, BCRP3 deficiency in proteotoxic cells compromised cell proliferation and survival, which was mediated in part through the upregulation of TGF-ß/Smad2 pathway. CONCLUSIONS: Our study identifies BCRP3 as an RNA activator of the VPS34 complex and a key role of BCRP3-mediated aggrephagy in protein quality control and selective degradation of growth and survival inhibitors to maintain cell fitness.

Integrative analyses of noncoding RNAs reveal the potential mechanisms augmenting tumor malignancy in lung adenocarcinoma.

Precise noncoding RNA (ncRNA)-based network prediction is necessary to reveal ncRNA functions and pathological mechanisms. Here, we established a systemic pipeline to identify prognostic ncRNAs, predict their functions and explore their pathological mechanisms in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). After in silico and experimental validation based on evaluations of prognostic value in multiple LUAD cohorts, we selected the PTTG3P pseudogene from among other prognostic ncRNAs (MIR497HG, HSP078, TBX5-AS1, LOC100506990 and C14orf64) for mechanistic studies. PTTG3P upregulation in LUAD cells shortens the metaphase to anaphase transition in mitosis, increases cell viability after cisplatin or paclitaxel treatment, facilitates tumor growth that leads to poor survival in orthotopic lung models, and is associated with a poor survival rate in LUAD patients in the TCGA cohort who received chemotherapy. Mechanistically, PTTG3P acts as an ncRNA that interacts with the transcription factor FOXM1 to regulate the transcriptional activation of the mitotic checkpoint kinase BUB1B, which augments tumor growth and chemoresistance and leads to poor outcomes for LUAD patients. Overall, we established a systematic strategy to uncover prognostic ncRNAs with functional prediction methods suitable for pan-cancer studies. Moreover, we revealed that PTTG3P, due to its upregulation of the PTTG3P/FOXM1/BUB1B axis, could be a therapeutic target for LUAD patients.

Laparoscopic liver resection is associated with less significant muscle loss than the conventional open approach.

BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic liver resections (LLR) have been shown a treatment approach comparable to open liver resections (OLR) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the influence of procedural type on body composition has not been investigated. The aim of the current study was to compare the degree of skeletal muscle loss between LLR and OLR for HCC. METHODS: By using propensity score matching (PSM) analysis, 64 pairs of patients were enrolled. The change of psoas muscle index (PMI) after the operation was compared between the matched patients in the LLR and OLR. Risk factors for significant muscle loss (defined as change in PMI > mean change minus one standard deviation) were further investigated by multivariate analysis. RESULTS: Among patients enrolled, there was no significant difference in baseline characteristics between the two groups. The PMI was significantly decreased in the OLR group (P = 0.003). There were also more patients in the OLR group who developed significant muscle loss after the operations (P = 0.008). Multivariate analysis revealed OLR (P = 0.023), type 2 diabetes mellitus, indocyanine green retention rate at 15 min (ICG-15) > 10%, and cancer stage ≧ 3 were independent risk factors for significant muscle loss. In addition, significant muscle loss was associated with early HCC recurrence (P = 0.006). Metabolomic analysis demonstrated that the urea cycle may be decreased in patients with significant muscle loss. CONCLUSION: LLR for HCC was associated with less significant muscle loss than OLR. Since significant muscle loss was a predictive factor for early tumor recurrence and associated with impaired liver metabolism, LLR may subsequently result in a more favorable outcome.

Rapid Interchangeable Hydrogen, Hydride, and Proton Species at the Interface of Transition Metal Atom on Oxide Surface.

Hydrogen spillover is the phenomenon where a hydrogen atom, generated from the dissociative chemisorption of dihydrogen on the surface of a metal species, migrates from the metal to the catalytic support. This phenomenon is regarded as a promising avenue for hydrogen storage, yet the atomic mechanism for how the hydrogen atom can be transferred to the support has remained controversial for decades. As a result, the development of catalytic support for such a purpose is only limited to typical reducible oxide materials. Herein, by using a combination of in situ spectroscopic and imaging technique, we are able to visualize and observe the atomic pathway for which hydrogen travels via a frustrated Lewis pair that has been constructed on a nonreducible metal oxide. The interchangeable status between the hydrogen, proton, and hydride is carefully characterized and demonstrated. It is envisaged that this study has opened up new design criteria for hydrogen storage material.

Proteomic and microbial assessments on the effect of Antrodia cinnamomea in C57BL/6 mice.

Antrodia cinnamomea (AC) is a nutraceutical fungus and studies have suggested that AC has the potential to prevent or alleviate diseases. However, little is known about the AC-induced phenotypes on the intestine-liver axis and gut microbial alterations. Here, we performed two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) and MALDI-Biotyper to elaborate the AC-induced phenotypes on the intestine-liver axis and gut microbial distribution of C57BL/6 mice. The experimental outcomes showed that the hepatic density may increase by elevating hepatic redox regulation, lipid degradation and glycolysis-related proteins and alleviating cholesterol biosynthesis and transport-related proteins in C57BL/6 mice with AC treatment. Moreover, AC facilitates intestinal glycolysis, TCA cycle, redox and cytoskeleton regulation-related proteins, but also reduces intestinal vesicle transport-related proteins in C57BL/6 mice. However, the body weight, GTT, daily food/water intake, and fecal/urine weight were unaffected by AC supplementation in C57BL/6 mice. Notably, the C57BL/6-AC mice had a higher gut microbial abundance of Alistipes shahii (AS) than C57BL/6-Ctrl mice. In summary, the AC treatment affects intestinal permeability by regulating redox and cytoskeleton-related proteins and elevates the gut microbial abundance of AS in C57BL/6 mice that might be associated with increasing hepatic density and metabolism-related proteins of the liver in C57BL/6 mice. Our study provides an insight into the mechanisms of AC-induced phenotypes and a comprehensive assessment of AC's nutraceutical effect in C57BL/6 mice.

Group Music Intervention Using Percussion Instruments to Reduce Anxiety Among Elderly Male Veterans with Alzheimer Disease.

BACKGROUND This study aimed to assess the impact of a group music intervention on anxiety and depression of elderly male veterans with dementia. MATERIAL AND METHODS In total, 50 elderly men with Alzheimer disease were randomly divided into intervention and control groups. Patients in the intervention group attended a 60-minute group music session that used percussion instruments with familiar music in the morning once a week for 12 weeks, whereas those in the control group received a rest and reading session at the same intervals and under the same conditions. The Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale and Geriatric Depression Scale were used to assess anxiety and depression at baseline, week 6, and week 12. The Primary Measures of Music Audiation (PMMA) was used to assess musical aptitude at the baseline. RESULTS A significant reduction in the anxiety level following the 12-week music sessions was observed in the intervention group (P<.001), but there was no significant change in the control group. However, the change in depressive symptoms between the 2 groups was nonsignificant. In the intervention group, when stratifying patients based on music aptitude determined through PMMA assessment, patients with high PMMA scores had significantly reduced anxiety symptoms over time compared with those with low scores. CONCLUSIONS For elderly male veterans with dementia, participating in a group music intervention reduced anxiety symptoms. In patients with high musical aptitude, the treatment effects on anxiety reduction were satisfactory. Measures of music aptitude may provide valuable information regarding patients' response to music intervention.

Targeting UDP-glucose dehydrogenase inhibits ovarian cancer growth and metastasis.

More than 70% of patients with ovarian cancer are diagnosed in advanced stages. Therefore, it is urgent to identify a promising prognostic marker and understand the mechanism of ovarian cancer metastasis development. By using proteomics approaches, we found that UDP-glucose dehydrogenase (UGDH) was up-regulated in highly metastatic ovarian cancer TOV21G cells, characterized by high invasiveness (TOV21GHI ), in comparison to its parental control. Previous reports demonstrated that UGDH is involved in cell migration, but its specific role in cancer metastasis remains unclear. By performing immunohistochemical staining with tissue microarray, we found overexpression of UGDH in ovarian cancer tissue, but not in normal adjacent tissue. Silencing using RNA interference (RNAi) was utilized to knockdown UGDH, which resulted in a significant decrease in metastatic ability in transwell migration, transwell invasion and wound healing assays. The knockdown of UGDH caused cell cycle arrest in the G0 /G1 phase and induced a massive decrease of tumour formation rate in vivo. Our data showed that UGDH-depletion led to the down-regulation of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related markers as well as MMP2, and inactivation of the ERK/MAPK pathway. In conclusion, we found that the up-regulation of UGDH is related to ovarian cancer metastasis and the deficiency of UGDH leads to the decrease of cell migration, cell invasion, wound healing and cell proliferation ability. Our findings reveal that UGDH can serve as a prognostic marker and that the inhibition of UGDH is a promising strategy for ovarian cancer treatment.

Progesterone receptor membrane component 1 is involved in oral cancer cell metastasis.

Cancer metastasis is a common cause of failure in cancer therapy. However, over 60% of oral cancer patients present with advanced stage disease, and the five-year survival rates of these patients decrease from 72.6% to 20% as the stage becomes more advanced. In order to manage oral cancer, identification of metastasis biomarker and mechanism is critical. In this study, we use a pair of oral squamous cell carcinoma lines, OC3, and invasive OC3-I5 as a model system to examine invasive mechanism and to identify potential therapeutic targets. We used two-dimensional differential gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/TOF MS) to examine the global protein expression changes between OC3 and invasive OC3-I5. A proteomic study reveals that invasive properties alter the expression of 101 proteins in OC3-I5 cells comparing to OC3 cells. Further studies have used RNA interference technique to monitor the influence of progesterone receptor membrane component 1 (PGRMC1) protein in invasion and evaluate their potency in regulating invasion and the mechanism it involved. The results demonstrated that expression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers including Twist, p-Src, Snail1, SIP1, JAM-A, vimentin and vinculin was increased in OC3-I5 compared to OC3 cells, whereas E-cadherin expression was decreased in the OC3-I5 cells. Moreover, in mouse model, PGRMC1 is shown to affect not only migration and invasion but also metastasis in vivo. Taken together, the proteomic approach allows us to identify numerous proteins, including PGRMC1, involved in invasion mechanism. Our results provide useful diagnostic markers and therapeutic candidates for the treatment of oral cancer invasion.

Identification of hyperglycemia-associated microbiota alterations in saliva and gingival sulcus.

Oral microbes are a contributing factor to hyperglycemia by inducing an increase in insulin resistance resulting in uncontrolled blood glucose levels. However, the relationship between the distribution of oral flora and hyperglycemia is still controversial. Combining the power of MALDI-Biotyper with anaerobic bacterial culture, this study explores the correlation between anaerobic bacteria in the oral cavity and blood glucose levels. The results demonstrated that altered blood glucose levels contributed to a varied bacterial distribution in the oral cavity. Specifically, Veillonella spp. and Prevotella spp. were identified in a higher proportion in people with elevated blood glucose levels. Six bacterial species identified in this study (Prevotella melaninogenica, Campylobacter rectus, Streptococcus gordonii, Streptococcus mitis, Streptococcus salivarius, and Veillonella parvula) not only demonstrated a positive association with higher blood glucose levels, but also likely contribute to the development of the condition. The data demonstrated MALDI-TOF MS to be a simpler, faster, and more economical clinical identification tool that provides clarity and depth to the research on blood glucose and oral microbiota.