LHPP suppresses proliferation, migration, and invasion in hepatocellular carcinoma and pancreatic cancer by inhibiting EGFR signaling pathway.

Phospholysine phosphohistidine inorganic pyrophosphate phosphatase (LHPP) has been reported to be a new tumor suppressor with a significant inhibitory effect in various cancers. Although LHPP has been repeatedly shown to inhibit the progression of various tumors by inhibiting the phosphorylation of AKT, up to now, the studies on the function and mechanism of LHPP in tumors are insufficient. In this study, LHPP expression was found to be downregulated in both hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and pancreatic cancer (PC). Here, we found that LHPP could bind to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and inhibit its phosphorylation, which thereby inhibited the activation of EGFR downstream pathways ERK, AKT, and STAT3, and then weakening the ability to proliferate, invade, and migrate in HCC and PC. This paper showed a new physiological function of LHPP in inhibiting phosphorylation of EGFR and its potential anti-tumor mechanism and indicated that LHPP was a potential therapeutic target for HCC and PC.

Surgical treatment of liver inflammatory pseudotumor-like follicular dendritic cell sarcoma: A case report.

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory pseudotumor-like follicular dendritic cell sarcoma (IPT-like FDCS) is rare with a low malignant potential. Hepatic IPT-like FDCS has similar clinical features to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), making it extremely difficult to distinguish between them in clinical practice. We describe the case of a young female patient diagnosed with HCC before surgery, which was pathologically diagnosed as IPT-like FDCS after the left half of the liver was resected. During 6 mo of follow-up, the patient recovered well with no signs of recurrence or metastasis. CASE SUMMARY: A 23-year-old female patient with a 2-year history of hepatitis B presented to the Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University. She was asymptomatic at presentation, and the findings from routine laboratory examinations were normal except for slightly elevated alpha-fetoprotein levels. However, ultrasonography revealed a 3-cm diameter mass in the left hepatic lobe, and abdominal contrast-enhanced computed tomography revealed that the tumor had asymmetrical enhancement during the arterial phase, which declined during the portal venous phase, and had a pseudo-capsule appearance. Based on the findings from clinical assessments and imaging, the patient was diagnosed with HCC, for which she was hospitalized and had undergone laparoscopic left hepatectomy. However, the tumor specimens submitted for pathological analyses revealed IPT-like FDCS. After surgical removal of the tumor, the patient recovered. In addition, the patient continued to recover well during 6 mo of follow-up. CONCLUSION: Hepatic IPT-like FDCS is difficult to distinguish from HCC. Hepatectomy may provide beneficial outcomes in non-metastatic hepatic IPT-like FDCS.

E2F2 enhances the chemoresistance of pancreatic cancer to gemcitabine by regulating the cell cycle and upregulating the expression of RRM2.

Both pro-oncogenic and anti-oncogenic effects of E2F2 have been revealed in different malignancies. However, the precise role of E2F2 in pancreatic cancer, in particular in relation to therapeutic intervention with gemcitabine, remains unclear. In this study, the effect of E2F2 on the proliferation and cell cycle modulation of pancreatic cancer cells, and whether E2F2 plays a role in the treatment of pancreatic cancer cells by gemcitabine, were investigated. The expression of E2F2 in pancreatic cancer was assessed by various methods including bioinformatics prediction, Western blotting, and real-time PCR. The effect of E2F2 on the proliferation and cell cycling of pancreatic cancer cells was analyzed by tissue culture and flow cytometry. In addition, the effect of E2F2 on the intervention of pancreatic cancer by gemcitabine was investigated using both in vitro and in vivo approaches. The expression of E2F2 was found to be significantly increased in pancreatic cancer tissues and cell lines. The pathogenic capacity of E2F2 lied in the fact that this transcription factor promoted the transformation of pancreatic cancer cell cycle from G1-phase to S-phase, thus enhancing the proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells. Furthermore, the expression of E2F2 was increased in pancreatic cancer cells in the presence of gemcitabine, and the augmented expression of E2F2 upregulated the gemcitabine resistance-related gene RRM2 and its downstream signaling molecule deoxycytidine kinase (DCK). The resistance of pancreatic cancer cells to gemcitabine was confirmed using both in vitro and in vivo models. In this study, E2F2 has been demonstrated for the first time to play a pro-oncogenic role in pancreatic cancer by promoting the transition of the cell cycle from G1-phase to S-phase and, therefore, enhancing the proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells. E2F2 has also been demonstrated to enhance the chemotherapy resistance of pancreatic cancer cells to gemcitabine by upregulating the expression of RRM2 and DCK that is downstream of RRM2.

FW-Touch: A Finger Wearable Haptic Interface With an MR Foam Actuator for Displaying Surface Material Properties on a Touch Screen.

The haptic interface plays an increasingly important role in enhancing the realism and immersion of the user's interaction with the touch screen. Inspired by the wearable haptic system, this paper proposes a finger wearable device called FW-Touch for touch screen interaction. The device provides normal force, lateral force, and vibrotactile feedback for the interaction of the finger and the touch screen through three internally integrated actuators. By displaying the hardness, friction, and roughness of a virtual surface, the device is capable of simulating the active exploration and sensing process of the finger on a real surface. This paper describes the design and specifications of the FW-Touch, and details the design process of a magnetorheological (MR) foam actuator that uses a Hall sensor to correct the output force. Through physical measurements and psychophysical experiments, we comprehensively evaluated the force feedback performance of the FW-Touch and its ability in displaying the stiffness and friction of the virtual surface. The results show that improving the accuracy of force feedback is necessary for virtual stiffness display, and the accuracy and effectiveness of the FW-Touch in displaying virtual surface features can be confirmed from the measured stiffness and friction Weber fractions.