Cuproptosis-related gene SERPINE1 is a prognostic biomarker and correlated with immune infiltrates in gastric cancer.

PURPOSE: The serine protease inhibitor clade E member 1 (SERPINE1) has been studied as a potential biomarker in a variety of cancers, but poorly studied in gastric cancer (GC). The purpose of this study was to explore the prognostic value of SERPINE1 in GC and primarily analyze its functions. METHODS: We analyzed the the prognostic value of SERPINE1 and studied the relationship with clinicopathologic biomarkers in gastric cancer. The expression of SERPINE1 was analyzed by GEO and TCGA databases. Moreover, we validated the results by immunohistochemistry. Next, the correlation analysis between SERPINE1 and the cuproptosis-related genes was analyzed by the "Spearman" method. CIBERSORT and TIMER algorithms were used to analyze the correlation of SERPINE1 with immune infiltration. Furthermore, GO and KEGG gene enrichment analyses were used to study the functions and pathways that SERPINE1 might be involved in. Then, drug sensitivity analysis was performed using CellMiner database. Finally, a cuproptosis-immune-related prognostic model was constructed using genes related to immune and cuproptosis, and verified against external datasets. RESULTS: SERPINE1 was up-regulated in gastric cancer tissues, which tends toward poor prognosis. Using immunohistochemistry experiment, the expression and prognostic value of SERPINE1 were verified. Then, we found that SERPINE1 was negatively correlated with cuproptosis-related genes FDX1, LIAS, LIPT1, and PDHA1. On the contrary, SERPINE1 was positively correlated with APOE. This indicates the effect of SERPINE1 on the cuproptosis process. Furthermore, by conducting immune-related analyses, it was revealed that SERPINE1 may promote the inhibitory immune microenvironment. The infiltration level of resting NK cells, neutrophils, activated mast cells, and macrophages M2 was positively correlated with SERPINE1. However, B cell memory and plasma cells were negatively correlated with SERPINE1. Functional analysis showed that SERPINE1 was closely related to angiogenesis, apoptosis, and ECM degradation. The KEGG pathway analysis showed that SERPINE1 may be associated with P53, Pi3k/Akt, TGF-ß, and other signaling pathways. Drug sensitivity analysis showed that SERPINE1 could be also seen as a potential treatment target. The risk model based on SERPINE1 co-expression genes could better predict the survival of GC patients than SERPINE1 alone. We also verified the prognostic value of the risk score by GEO external datasets. CONCLUSION: SERPINE1 is highly expressed in gastric cancer and related to poor prognosis. SERPINE1 may regulate cuproptosis and the immune microenvironment by a series of pathways. Therefore, SERPINE1 as a prognostic biomarker and potential therapeutic target deserves further study.

Photoinduced Charge Transfer in Push/Pull Systems of Two-Photon Absorption.

A series of stilbene derivatives have been constructed by modifying the stilbene systems with different H, CN, NH2, NMe2, and NO2 groups. In a vacuum, it was found that a redshift in the ultraviolet-visible spectrum occurred because of the enhancement of the donor/acceptor capabilities of this group, with the order of redshift being NO2 > NMe2 > CN > NH2 > H. For stilbene molecular systems, the peak of two-photon absorption (TPA) observed in the simulated spectra should be attributed to two transitions that are contributed by two excited states with similar energy. In the case of derivatives, such a transition is separated by energy, and two TPA peaks can be clearly observed (derivatives containing NO2 and NMe2 groups have two TPA peaks), where the magnitude of the separation is directly related to the intensity of the peripheral group. In addition, the S1 state is the intermediate state in the TPA transitions to both of the final excited states.

The nature of chirality induced by molecular aggregation and self-assembly.

In this paper, we theoretically analyze the nature of chirality induced by molecular self-assembly with molecular dynamics and visualization methods. Firstly, the dynamics of molecular self-assembly of biphenylenes system are demonstrated in detail. Secondly, the molecular interactions for the assembled molecules are analyzed with the weak intermolecular forces. Thirdly, electron-hole coherence and charge transfer in optical absorption are demonstrated with a transition density matrix and charge difference density, respectively. The detailed visualized analysis of electric and magnetic transition dipole moment integrals reveals the nature of chirality of assembled molecules in electronic circular dichroism (ECD) spectroscopy. The Raman optical activity (ROA) spectra demonstrate that the chirality of assembled molecules is strongly dependent on the pre-resonance Raman spectra, based on the optical absorption and ECD spectroscopy. Our visualized analysis method can well reveal the nature and origin of chirality of molecular self-assembly.

Ultrasonically activated scalpel versus monopolar electrocautery shovel in laparoscopic total mesorectal excision for rectal cancer.

AIM: To investigate the feasibility and safety of monopolar electrocautery shovel (ES) in laparoscopic total mesorectal excision (TME) with anal sphincter preservation for rectal cancer in order to reduce the cost of the laparoscopic operation, and to compare ES with the ultrasonically activated scalpel (US). METHODS: Forty patients with rectal cancer, who underwent laparoscopic TME with anal sphincter preservation from June 2005 to June 2007, were randomly divided into ultrasonic scalpel group and monopolar ES group, prospectively. White blood cells (WBC) were measured before and after operation, operative time, blood loss, pelvic volume of drainage, time of anal exhaust, visual analogue scales (VAS) and surgery-related complications were recorded. RESULTS: All the operations were successful; no one was converted to open procedure. No significant differences were observed in terms of preoperative and postoperative d 1 and d 3 WBC counts (P=0.493, P=0.375, P=0.559), operation time (P=0.235), blood loss (P=0.296), anal exhaust time (P=0.431), pelvic drainage volume and VAS in postoperative d 1 (P=0.431, P=0.426) and d 3 (P=0.844, P=0.617) between ES group and US group. The occurrence of surgery-related complications such as anastomotic leakage and wound infection was the same in the two groups. CONCLUSION: ES is a safe and feasible tool as same as US used in laparoscopic TME with anal sphincter preservation for rectal cancer on the basis of the skillful laparoscopic technique and the complete understanding of laparoscopic pelvic anatomy. Application of ES can not only reduce the operation costs but also benefit the popularization of laparoscopic operation for rectal cancer patients.