Heterologously Expressed Cellobiose Dehydrogenase Acts as Efficient Electron-Donor of Lytic Polysaccharide Monooxygenase for Cellulose Degradation in Trichoderma reesei.

The conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to second-generation biofuels through enzymes is achieved at a high cost. Filamentous fungi through a combination of oxidative enzymes can easily disintegrate the glycosidic bonds of cellulose. The combination of cellobiose dehydrogenase (CDH) with lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) enhances cellulose degradation in many folds. CDH increases cellulose deconstruction via coupling the oxidation of cellobiose to the reductive activation of LPMOs by catalyzing the addition of oxygen to C-H bonds of the glycosidic linkages. Fungal LPMOs show different regio-selectivity (C1 or C4) and result in oxidized products through modifications at reducing as well as nonreducing ends of the respective glucan chain. T. reesei LPMOs have shown great potential for oxidative cleavage of cellobiose at C1 and C4 glucan bonds, therefore, the incorporation of heterologous CDH further increases its potential for biofuel production for industrial purposes at a reduced cost. We introduced CDH of Phanerochaete chrysosporium (PcCDH) in Trichoderma reesei (which originally lacked CDH). We purified CDH through affinity chromatography and analyzed its enzymatic activity, electron-donating ability to LPMO, and the synergistic effect of LPMO and CDH on cellulose deconstruction. The optimum temperature of the recombinant PcCDH was found to be 45 °C and the optimum pH of PcCDH was observed as 4.5. PcCDH has high cello-oligosaccharide kcat, Km, and kcat/Km values. The synergistic effect of LPMO and cellulase significantly improved the degradation efficiency of phosphoric acid swollen cellulose (PASC) when CDH was used as the electron donor. We also found that LPMO undergoes auto-oxidative inactivation, and when PcCDH is used an electron donor has the function of a C1-type LPMO electron donor without additional substrate increments. This work provides novel insights into finding stable electron donors for LPMOs and paves the way forward in discovering efficient CDHs for enhanced cellulose degradation.

Evolutionary Analysis of Respiratory Burst Oxidase Homolog (RBOH) Genes in Plants and Characterization of ZmRBOHs.

The respiratory burst oxidase homolog (RBOH), as the key producer of reactive oxygen species (ROS), plays an essential role in plant development. In this study, a bioinformatic analysis was performed on 22 plant species, and 181 RBOH homologues were identified. A typical RBOH family was identified only in terrestrial plants, and the number of RBOHs increased from non-angiosperms to angiosperms. Whole genome duplication (WGD)/segmental duplication played a key role in RBOH gene family expansion. Amino acid numbers of 181 RBOHs ranged from 98 to 1461, and the encoded proteins had molecular weights from 11.1 to 163.6 kDa, respectively. All plant RBOHs contained a conserved NADPH_Ox domain, while some of them lacked the FAD_binding_8 domain. Plant RBOHs were classified into five main subgroups by phylogenetic analysis. Most RBOH members in the same subgroup showed conservation in both motif distribution and gene structure composition. Fifteen ZmRBOHs were identified in maize genome and were positioned in eight maize chromosomes. A total of three pairs of orthologous genes were found in maize, including ZmRBOH6/ZmRBOH8, ZmRBOH4/ZmRBOH10 and ZmRBOH15/ZmRBOH2. A Ka/Ks calculation confirmed that purifying selection was the main driving force in their evolution. ZmRBOHs had typical conserved domains and similar protein structures. cis-element analyses together with the expression profiles of the ZmRBOH genes in various tissues and stages of development suggested that ZmRBOH was involved in distinct biological processes and stress responses. Based on the RNA-Seq data and qRT-PCR analysis, the transcriptional response of ZmRBOH genes was examined under various abiotic stresses, and most of ZmRBOH genes were up-regulated by cold stress. These findings provide valuable information for further revealing the biological roles of ZmRBOH genes in plant development and abiotic stress responses.

Therapeutic efficacy of chitosan nanoparticles loaded with BCG-polysaccharide nucleic acid and ovalbumin on airway inflammation in asthmatic mice.

In this study, immunoregulation and desensitization therapies were jointly applied in the treatment of asthma, in which chitosan (CS) nanoparticles were used. BALB/c mice were selected and mouse models of asthma were constructed. Mice were divided into 7 groups. A double-chamber plethysmograph, MTT, hematoxylin-eosin staining, and ELISA were used. The expression levels of IL-4 and IL-5 in lung tissue cells were detected. CS-BCG-PSN-OVA sustained-release vaccines significantly alleviated airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) in asthmatic mice. The numbers of total lymphocytes and eosinophils in BALF were remarkably reduced. The expression levels of IL-4 and IL-5 in lung tissue cells of the treatment groups were dramatically decreased. CS-BCG-PSN-OVA was found in vitro to be able to inhibit OVA-induced T-cell proliferation and upregulate the proportion of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ T cells. CS-BCG-PSN-OVA sustained-release vaccine could significantly attenuate AHR and airway inflammation in asthmatic mice. Thus, it has a promising application prospect for the treatment of bronchial asthma.

Nilotinib, a Discoidin domain receptor 1 (DDR1) inhibitor, induces apoptosis and inhibits migration in breast cancer.

Overexpression of discoidin domain receptor 1 (DDR1) is known to enhance the malignancy of breast cancer considerably. This study reports the identification of a potent DDR1 inhibitor, nilotinib, for the treatment of breast cancer. MTT assay was used to evaluate the inhibitory activity of nilotinib and meantime we used flow cytometry to evaluate the pro-apoptotic activity of nilotinib in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. Expression of DDR1 was manipulated in MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cell lines with low-level DDR1 expression by transfecting with plasmids containing shRNA. The effect of DDR1 or treatment with nilotinib on cell migration was assayed. The expression of p-DDR1, DDR1, p-ERK1/2, ERK1/2 and E-cadherin, Vimentin, Snail1, and caspase 3 were detected by western blot and immunofluorescent staining. Nilotinib in MCF-7 (IC50=0.403 µM) and MDA-MB-231 (IC50=0.819 µM) also indicated induced apoptotic cell death. After co-culturing with nilotinib (500 nM), apoptosis rate is 29.60±2.19% and 18.75±2.30%, respectively. Moreover, nilotinib effectually blocked the cellular migration of MCF-7 cells. Interestingly, the knock-down DDR1 could significantly block the migration of breast cancer, while the sensitivity of MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells to nilotinib was reduced. Targeting DDR1 therapeutically could potentially affect survival and influence metabolism in breast cancer, and nilotinib could be used as a candidate for the treatment of breast cancer.

Meta-analysis reveals severe pollen limitation for the flowering plants growing in East Himalaya-Hengduan Mountains region.

BACKGROUND: Pollen limitation occurs widely and has an important effect on flowering plants. The East Himalaya-Hengduan Mountains region is a global biodiversity hotspot. However, to our knowledge, no study has synthetically assessed the degree of pollen limitation in this area. The present study aims to reveal the degree of pollen limitation for the flowering plants growing on East Himalaya-Hengduan Mountains and to test whether the reproductive features or the elevation is closely correlated with the degree of pollen limitation in this area. RESULTS: We complied data from 76 studies, which included 96 species and 108 independent data records. We found that the flowering plants in this area undergo severe pollen limitation [overall Hedges' d = 2.004, with a 95% confidence interval (1.3264, 2.6743)] that is much higher than that of the flowering plants growing in many other regions around the world. The degree of pollen limitation was tested to determine the correlation with the capacity for autonomous self-reproduction and with the pollination pattern (generalized vs. specialized pollination) of plants. In addition, we found a clear relationship between elevation and the degree of pollen limitation, which indicates that plants might undergo more severe pollen limitation in relatively high places. CONCLUSIONS: This paper is the first to address the severe pollen limitation of the flowering plants growing in East Himalaya-Hengduan Mountains region. Moreover, we reveal the positive correlation between elevation and the degree of pollen limitation.

Synthesis, physicochemical properties, and health aspects of structured lipids: A review.

Structured lipids (SLs) refer to a new type of functional lipids obtained by chemically, enzymatically, or genetically modifying the composition and/or distribution of fatty acids in the glycerol backbone. Due to the unique physicochemical characteristics and health benefits of SLs (for example, calorie reduction, immune function improvement, and reduction in serum triacylglycerols), there is increasing interest in the research and application of novel SLs in the food industry. The chemical structures and molecular architectures of SLs define mainly their physicochemical properties and nutritional values, which are also affected by the processing conditions. In this regard, this holistic review provides coverage of the latest developments and applications of SLs in terms of synthesis strategies, physicochemical properties, health aspects, and potential food applications. Enzymatic synthesis of SLs particularly with immobilized lipases is presented with a short introduction to the genetic engineering approach. Some physical features such as solid fat content, crystallization and melting behavior, rheology and interfacial properties, as well as oxidative stability are discussed as influenced by chemical structures and processing conditions. Health-related considerations of SLs including their metabolic characteristics, biopolymer-based lipid digestion modulation, and oleogelation of liquid oils are also explored. Finally, potential food applications of SLs are shortly introduced. Major challenges and future trends in the industrial production of SLs, physicochemical properties, and digestion behavior of SLs in complex food systems, as well as further exploration of SL-based oleogels and their food application are also discussed.

DTMiner: identification of potential disease targets through biomedical literature mining.

MOTIVATION: Biomedical researchers often search through massive catalogues of literature to look for potential relationships between genes and diseases. Given the rapid growth of biomedical literature, automatic relation extraction, a crucial technology in biomedical literature mining, has shown great potential to support research of gene-related diseases. Existing work in this field has produced datasets that are limited both in scale and accuracy. RESULTS: In this study, we propose a reliable and efficient framework that takes large biomedical literature repositories as inputs, identifies credible relationships between diseases and genes, and presents possible genes related to a given disease and possible diseases related to a given gene. The framework incorporates name entity recognition (NER), which identifies occurrences of genes and diseases in texts, association detection whereby we extract and evaluate features from gene-disease pairs, and ranking algorithms that estimate how closely the pairs are related. The F1-score of the NER phase is 0.87, which is higher than existing studies. The association detection phase takes drastically less time than previous work while maintaining a comparable F1-score of 0.86. The end-to-end result achieves a 0.259 F1-score for the top 50 genes associated with a disease, which performs better than previous work. In addition, we released a web service for public use of the dataset. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: The implementation of the proposed algorithms is publicly available at http://gdr-web.rwebox.com/public_html/index.php?page=download.php The web service is available at http://gdr-web.rwebox.com/public_html/index.php CONTACT: jenny.wei@astrazeneca.com or kzhu@cs.sjtu.edu.cn Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Reduction- and pH-Sensitive Hyaluronan Nanoparticles for Delivery of Iridium(III) Anticancer Drugs.

The organoiridium(III) complex (Ir(III)) [(η5-Cpxbiph)Ir(phpy) (py)]PF6 containing π-bonded biphenyltetramethylcyclopentadienyl(Cpxbiph), C∧N-chelated phenylpyridine(phpy), and pyridine (py) ligands has more potent antitumor activity as a new generation of drug than cisplatin toward various cancer cells. However, poor site-specific delivery, low solubility, and poor tumor penetration are common limitations of chemotherapy drugs. To develop CD44-targetable, pH-, and reduction-responsive drug delivery systems for Ir(III) drugs, the amphiphilic hyaluronan (HA)-based conjugates of HA-cystamin-pyrenyl (HA-ss-Py) containing disulfide bonds and HA-pyrenyl (HA-Py) were designed. The Ir(III) drug was readily loaded into these two amphiphilic conjugates and nanoparticles were formed. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) studies showed that the micelles formed from HA-ss-Py were sufficiently stable under physiological conditions, but were prone to rapid dissociation in reducing environments (20 mM glutathione (GSH)). In subsequent confocal microscopy analyses, A549 cancer cells efficiently internalized HA-based micelles. Moreover, in vitro cytotoxicity assays in A549 cells demonstrat that Ir-loaded HA-based nanoparticles have higher cytotoxicity than the free Ir(III) anticancer drug. Finally, systemic administration of Ir(III)-loaded HA-ss-Py nanoparticles enhanced tumor inhibition in vivo, and the corresponding biodistribution experiments showed that HA-ss-Py micelles accumulate in tumors. Overall, our results suggest that HA-ss-Py micelles have a great potential to be used as an effective Ir(III) drug carrier for targeted cancer therapy.

Natural hybridization and reproductive isolation between two Primula species.

Natural hybridization frequently occurs in plants and can facilitate gene flow between species, possibly resulting in species refusion. However, various reproductive barriers block the formation of hybrids and maintain species integrity. Here, we conducted a field survey to examine natural hybridization and reproductive isolation (RI) between sympatric populations of Primula secundiflora and P. poissonii using ten nuclear simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci. Although introgressive hybridization occurred, species boundaries between P. secundiflora and P. poissonii were maintained through nearly complete reproductive isolation. These interfertile species provide an excellent model for studying the RI mechanisms and evolutionary forces that maintain species boundaries.

Prevalence and antimicrobial resistance of Mycoplasmas and Chlamydiae in patients with genital tract infections in Shanghai, China.

The infections of Mycoplasmas and Chlamydiae are still severe in patients with genital tract diseases and antimicrobial resistance for these organisms has been changing in recent years. In this study, we reported the prevalence status of Ureaplasma urealyticum, Mycoplasma hominis and Chlamydia trachomatis in 965 patients with genital tract infection in Shanghai from January 2011 to December 2014 and analyzed the antimicrobial resistance of U. urealyticum and M. hominis to 12 kinds of antimicrobial drugs by using commercial kits and SPSS13.0 software. Here, we found the infection of U. urealyticum was the most frequent among these three organisms. The total infection rate for containing any organisms of them was 49.5%, and it has been increasing in recent 4 years. Positive rate in female (53.3%) was higher than male's (34.8%), and the high risk population was 20-39 years old (56.7%). Besides, U. urealyticum and M. hominis displayed relative lower resistance rates to minocycline, doxycycline, josamycin and gatifloxacin (6.5%, 7.2%, 13.5% and 8.6%, respectively). However, for erythromycin, roxithromycin, thiamphenicol and clindamycin, the resistance rates were relatively high (41.9%, 47.2%, 62.3% and 74.9%, respectively). U. urealyticum and M. hominis displayed a declined trend of the antimicrobial resistance to 12 kinds of drugs detected in this study. In total, these preliminary data showed the prevalence of Mycoplasmas and Chlamydiae in patients and the antimicrobial resistance status of Mycoplasmas, which has use for reference on both prevention and treatment of diseases caused by them.

Field survey data for conservation: Evaluating suitable habitat of Chinese pangolin at the county-level in eastern China (2000-2040).

The scarcity of up-to-date data on the distribution and dynamics of the Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) presented a significant challenge in developing effective conservation strategies and implementing protective measures within China. Currently, most of China's national-level nature reserves and administrative departments operate at the county level, thereby limiting the applicability of larger-scale analyses and studies for these administrative entities. This study employed 11 widely used modeling techniques created within the Biomod2 framework to predict suitable habitats for the pangolin at the county scale, while examining the correlation between environmental variables and pangolin distribution. The results revealed that highly suitable habitats in Mingxi County of China encompassed only 49 km2. Within the county-managed nature reserve, the proportion of highly suitable habitats reached as high as 52%. However, nearly half of these areas, both moderately and highly suitable habitats, remained inadequately addressed and conserved. We found nine administrative villages that necessitated prioritized conservation efforts. The study anticipated an overall expansion in suitable habitats over the ensuing two decades, with significant growth projected in the eastern regions of Xiayang and Hufang Town. This research offered a clear and applicable research paradigm for the specific administrative level at which China operates, particularly pertinent to county-level jurisdictions with established nature reserves.

18F-FDG PET/CT of Intracholecystic Papillary Neoplasm in Cystic Neck and Duct.

ABSTRACT: We report 18F-FDG PET/CT appearances of intracholecystic papillary neoplasm (ICPN) in the gallbladder neck and duct of a 74-year-old woman with a history of hepatitis B cirrhosis. The lesion presented with a large and sessile soft mass in the neck and duct of gallbladder with obvious glucose metabolism on PET/CT images, which was confirmed pathologically as ICPN (gastric foveolar type) with high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia. ICPN localized in the gallbladder neck and duct is extremely rare, and is easily misdiagnosed as gallbladder carcinoma. Our report aids in the application of PET/CT in the differential diagnosis of ICPN and guiding early surgery.

[Depression status of the family member and its influencing factors in the patient with mental disorder caused by cerebral trauma: 245 cases analysis].

OBJECTIVE: To determine the family member's depression status and its influencing factors in the patient with mental disorder caused by cerebral trauma. METHODS: The self-designed information questionnaire and self-rating depression scale (SDS) were used to investigate 245 family members' depression conditions. On the basis of SDS score index, all cases were divided into depression group and non-depression group. The data were analyzed by the univariate analysis and multiple factors regression analysis. RESULTS: In the 245 family members, 117 family members had different degrees of depressive symptoms including 68 with mild depression, 42 with moderate depression, and 7 with severe depression. In the multiple factors regression analysis, genetic relationship, personality characteristics and payment method were the main influencing factors of the depression status. CONCLUSION: Much attention should be paid to the family member's depression condition of the patient with mental disorder caused by cerebral trauma through specific psychological intervention.

CO2-Switchable Hierarchically Porous Zirconium-Based MOF-Stabilized Pickering Emulsions for Recyclable Efficient Interfacial Catalysis.

Stimuli-responsive Pickering emulsions are recently being progressively utilized as advanced catalyzed systems for green and sustainable chemical conversion. Hierarchically porous metal-organic frameworks (H-MOFs) are regarded as promising candidates for the fabrication of Pickering emulsions because of the features of tunable porosity, high specific surface area and structure diversity. However, CO2-switchable Pickering emulsions formed by hierarchically porous zirconium-based MOFs have never been seen. In this work, a novel kind of the amine-functionalized hierarchically porous UiO-66-(OH)2 (H-UiO-66-(OH)2) has been developed using a post-synthetic modification of H-UiO-66-(OH)2 by (3-aminopropyl)trimethoxysilane (APTMS), 3-(2-aminoethylamino)propyltrimethoxysilane (AEAPTMS) and 3-[2-(2-aminoethylamino)ethylamino]propyl-trimethoxysilane (AEAEAPTMS), and employed as emulsifiers for the construction of Pickering emulsions. It was found that the functionalized H-UiO-66-(OH)2 could stabilize a mixture of toluene and water to give an emulsion even at 0.25 wt % content. Interestingly, the formed Pickering emulsions could be reversibly transformed between demulsification and re-emulsification with alternate addition or removal of CO2. Spectral investigation indicated that the mechanism of the switching is attributed to the reaction of CO2 with amino silane on the MOF and the generation of hydrophilic salts, leading to a reduction in MOF wettability. Based on this strategy, a highly efficient and controlled Knoevenagel condensation reaction has been gained by using the emulsion as a mini-reactor and the emulsifier as a catalyst, and the coupling of catalysis reaction, product isolation and MOF recyclability has become accessible for a sustainable chemical process.

Nitrogen doped CoP on ammoniated black phosphorus nanosheets enabling highly efficient hydrogen evolution electrocatalysis.

Developing a rational and cost-effective approach for designing highly-efficient and sustainable electrocatalysts is essential for clean and renewable hydrogen energy. Herein, we report nitrogen-doped CoP on two-dimensional ammoniated black phosphorus (BP) nanosheets (N-CoP/NH2-BP) as novel and highly-active heterostructure electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Using the reactive defects on the BP nanosheets as the original sites under NH3 gas, N-doped CoP nanocrystals were grown on the surface of the BP nanosheets that were functionalized with NH2 groups at their edge. The N-CoP/NH2-BP heterostructure exhibits low overpotentials of 90 and 246 mV at 10 and 200 mA cm-2, respectively, in an alkaline electrolyte. The excellent HER activity should be attributed to the synergistic effect between N-doped CoP and NH2-functionalized BP, in which NH2-BP, with its high electron mobility and hydrophilicity, accelerates the charge transfer and offers more active sites, moreover, N-doped CoP modulates the electronic structure of CoP for enhanced HER activity. This work not only provides a novel and effective electrocatalyst, but also opens up a straightforward strategy for the design of phosphorene-based electrocatalysts for highly efficient hydrogen evolution and beyond.

Comparative analysis of chloroplast genomes of endangered heterostylous species Primula wilsonii and its closely related species.

Primula, well known for its heterostyly, is the largest genus in the family Primulaceae with more than 500 species. The considerable species number has introduced a huge challenge for taxonomy. The phylogenetic relationships among Primula still maintain unresolved due to frequent hybridization and introgression between closely related species. In this study, we sequenced and assembled the complete chloroplast genomes of Primula wilsonii Dunn, which is a PSESP (plant species with extremely small populations), using Illumina sequencing and compared its genomic sequences with those of four related Primula species. The chloroplast genomes of Primula species were similar in the basic structure, gene order, and GC content. The detected 38 SSRs (simple sequence repeats) loci and 17 hypervariable regions had many similarities in P. wilsonii, P. anisodora, P. miyabeana, and P. poissonii, but showed a significant difference compared with those in P. secundiflora. Slight variations were observed among Primula chloroplast genomes, in consideration of the relatively stable patterns of IR (inverted repeats) contraction and expansion. Phylogenetic analysis based on chloroplast genomes and protein-coding genes confirmed three major clades in Chinese Primula, but the infrageneric sections were not in accordance with morphological traits. The P. poissonii complex was confirmed here and P. anisodora was the most closely related species to P. wilsonii. Overall, the chloroplast genome sequences provided useful genetic and evolutionary information for phylogeny and population genetics on Chinese Primula species.

Application of protection motivation theory in epidemic prevention in patients with respiratory diseases under the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the effects of nursing intervention based on protection motivation theory (PMT) on patients with respiratory diseases in the context of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. METHODS: A total of 74 patients with respiratory diseases who were hospitalized from June 2020 to February 2021 were enrolled and stratified into a control group (n = 37) and an experimental group (n = 37) according to a stratified random sampling method. The control group adopted a routine nursing intervention program of the respiratory department, whereas the experimental group received a PMT-based nursing intervention program on the basis of the control group. Chronic Disease Self-Management Study Measures (CDSMS) and Self-Efficacy for Managing Chronic Diseases 6-item Scale (SECD6) were used to evaluate the effect of PMT intervention before intervention, after 1 week, and after 4 weeks of intervention. The levels of forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), FEV1/FVC and peak expiratory flow (PEF) were measured to evaluate pulmonary function. RESULTS: Before the intervention, there were no significant differences in the scores of CDSMS and SECD6 scales and liver function indexes between the two groups (p > 0.05). After 1 and 4 weeks of intervention, the scores of CDSMS and SECD6 scales of the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group (p < 0.0001). The indexes of pulmonary function of the experimental group were improved, but there was no significant difference compared with the control group (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Nursing intervention based on PMT contributes to the improvement of self-management behaviors and self-efficacy, which is conducive to the prognoses of patients.

STRIP2 motivates non-small cell lung cancer progression by modulating the TMBIM6 stability through IGF2BP3 dependent.

BACKGROUND: Striatin interacting protein 2 (STRIP2) is a core component of the striatin-interacting phosphatase and kinase (STRIPAK) complexes, which is involved in tumor initiation and progression via the regulation of cell contractile and metastasis. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of STRIP2 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) progression remain largely unknown. METHODS: The expressions of STRIP2 and IGF2BP3 in human NSCLC specimens and NSCLC cell lines were detected using quantitative RT-PCR, western blotting, and immunohistochemistry (IHC) analyses. The roles and molecular mechanisms of STRIP2 in promoting NSCLC progression were investigated in vitro and in vivo. RESULTS: Here, we found that STRIP2 expression was significantly elevated in NSCLC tissues and high STRIP2 expression was associated with a poor prognosis. Knockdown of STRIP2 suppressed tumor growth and metastasis in vitro and in vivo, while STRIP2 overexpression obtained the opposite effect. Mechanistically, P300/CBP-mediated H3K27 acetylation activation in the promoter of STRIP2 induced STRIP2 transcription, which interacted with insulin-like growth factor 2 mRNA-binding protein 3 (IGF2BP3) and upregulated IGF2BP3 transcription. In addition, STRIP2-IGF2BP3 axis stimulated m6A modification of TMBIM6 mRNA and enhanced TMBIM6 stability. Consequently, TMBIM6 involved NSCLC cell proliferation, migration and invasion dependent on STRIP2 and IGF2BP3. In NSCLC patients, high co-expression of STRIP2, IGF2BP3 and TMBIM6 was associated with poor outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that STRIP2 interacts with IGF2BP3 to regulate TMBIM6 mRNA stability in an m6A-dependent manner and may represent a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for NSCLC.

Treatment of Hoffa fracture of femoral condyle with anchor combined with auxiliary fixation.

BACKGROUND: A Hoffa fracture is an unstable intra-articular break that is generally treated with surgery. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the feasibility and clinical outcomes of using a suture anchor combined with auxiliary fixation for the treatment of a lateral femoral condyle Hoffa fracture. METHODS: The study retrospectively reviewed 8 patients (5 males and 3 females) with a lateral femoral condyle Hoffa fracture who had been treated by combining a suture anchor with auxiliary fixation between January 2016 and April 2020. The mean age of patients was 37.5 years (ranging from 23 to 45). According to Letenneur's classification, there were 4 cases of type I, 2 cases of type II, and 2 cases of type III fractures. The clinical outcomes were assessed using Letenneur's functional assessment. RESULTS: The follow-up duration ranged between 14-24 months. All patients achieved primary healing of the incision and fracture union, as well as normal flexion and extension of the knee joint, with 7 cases showing excellent outcomes and 1 case showing a good outcome. No postoperative complications, such as fracture displacement, anchor loosening, or fracture malunion, occurred in this series. CONCLUSION: Our results indicated that a suture anchor, combined with external fixation, was an effective treatment for a lateral femoral condyle Hoffa fracture. Accordingly, this procedure is worthy of wider clinical application.

Aquaporin 1 and aquaporin 4 are involved in invasion of lung cancer cells.

BACKGROUND: An oncogenic capacity of aquaporins (AQPs) has been recently proposed. They are channel-forming membrane proteins that function as osmotically driven transepithelial and transcellular water. Most recently, overexpression of several AQPs has been reported in different types of human cancer, which indicates that AQPs may play an important role in human carcinogenesis. METHODS: In this study, we were going to elucidate the involvement of aquaporin 1 and 4 (AQP1,4) in the metastasis of lung cancer. RESULTS: Expression of AQP1,4 was examined by immunohistochemistry on the twenty lung cancer tissues. AQP1,4 were overexpressed in 65% (13 of 20) and 70% (14 of 20) of adenocarcinoma, while the normal lung tissues were negative. We next investigated the roles of AQP1,4 in the invasion of lung cancer cells by transwell migration assays. It is indicated that migration cells of the AQP1-shRNA or AQP4-shRNA were reduced significantly in comparison to the controls (AQP1- shRNA vs. AQP1-CTL, 5.6% vs. 15.9%, p < 0.05; AQP4- shRNA vs. AQP4-CTL, 8.9% vs. 14.8%, p < 0.05). From this study, we found AQP1 and AQP4 in lung cancer cell extravasation and spread, which may provide a functional explanation for the expression of AQP1 and AQP4 in lung cancer tissues and lung cancer cell lines. CONCLUSIONS: Although further details on the molecular function of AQP1 or 4 related to tumorigenesis remain to be elucidated, our results suggest a potential role of AQP1 or 4 as novel therapeutic targets for the management of lung cancer.