In situ phytoextraction of Mn and NH4+-N from aqueous electrolytic manganese residue solution by Pistia stratiotes: Effects of Fe/Co presence and rhizospheric microbe synergistic involvement.

The electrolytic manganese industry produces a large amount of electrolytic manganese residue (EMR). Soluble Mn, NH4+-N, and other pollutants may be released from the open-air stacked EMR and transported to the environment along with rainfall or surface runoff. Aqueous EMR solution (AES) generally contains various elements required for plant growth, and phytoremediation can be applied to remove these pollutants from AES. Since the contents of Fe and Co vary greatly in AES depending on the ore sources as well as the pre-treatment processes, the presence of bioavailable Fe and Co at different levels may affect plant growth, the rhizosphere microbes, and pollutant removal. The present study investigated the in-situ removal of Mn(II) and NH4+-N from AES solution using free floating aquatic plant Pistia stratiotes, focusing especially on the effects of Fe/Co presence and rhizospheric microbe synergistic involvement on contaminant removal. The results showed that 69.08% of Mn and 94.99% of NH4+-N were removed by P. stratiotes in 24 d. Both the presence of Fe(II) and Co(II) facilitated the Mn(II) immobilization and increased Mn(II) removal by 19-31% due to the enhanced peroxidase activity and the increased Mn accumulating in roots The complete removal of Mn from AES was found in the presence of Fe(II) at 2 mg L-1 or Co(II) at 0.5 mg L-1 and more than 51% accumulated Mn in the roots was stored in the vacuole and cytoplasm. BioMnOx was found on the surface of the roots, revealing that rhizofiltration, rhizospheric plaque/biofilm formation, and Mn biogeochemical cycle exert synergic effects on Mn(II) immobilization. The findings of the present study demonstrate the feasibility of using P. stratiotes in the treatment of aqueous EMR solutions and the presence of an appropriate amount of bio-available Fe and Co can promote the removal of Mn(II) and NH4+-N.

A survival model for prognostic prediction based on ferroptosis-associated genes and the association with immune infiltration in lung squamous cell carcinoma.

Lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) is the primary pathological type of lung cancer with a less favorable prognosis. This study attempts to construct a ferroptosis-associated signature associated with overall survival (OS) that can predict the prognosis of LUSC and explore its relationship with immune infiltration. A 5 ferroptosis-associated gene model was constructed by LASSO-penalized regression analysis to predict the prognosis of patients with LUSC in the TCGA database and validated in the GEO and TCGA databases. Patients were stratified into high-risk and low-risk groups by the median value of the risk scores, and the former prognosis was significantly worse (P<0.001). Additionally, we found a certain association between the two risk groups and immune infiltration through CIBERSORT. Meanwhile, the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between normal and tumor tissue were used to perform functional analysis, which showed a significant association with leukocyte transendothelial migration pathways in the TCGA cohort. In addition, immune cell infiltration analysis confirmed that M2 macrophages were significantly highly expressed in the high-risk group. Overall, the model successfully established by ferroptosis-associated genes suggests that ferroptosis may be related to immune infiltration in LUSC.

Positive response to trastuzumab deruxtecan in a patient with HER2-mutant NSCLC after multiple lines therapy, including T-DM1: a case report.

Human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2) mutations are uncommon in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and the lack of established, effective, targeted drugs has resulted in a persistently poor prognosis. Herein, we report the case of a non-smoking, 58-year-old man diagnosed with lung adenocarcinoma (cT3N0M1c, stage IVB) harboring a HER2 mutation (Y772_A775dupYVMA) and PD-L1 (-). The patient's Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (PS) score was assessed as 1. He commenced first-line treatment with chemotherapy, followed by immuno-chemotherapy, and with disease progression, he received HER2-targeted therapy and chemotherapy with an anti-angiogenic agent. However, HER2-targeted therapy, including pan-HER tyrosine kinase inhibitors (afatinib, pyrotinib, and pozitinib) and antibody-drug conjugate (T-DM1), produced only stable disease (SD) as the best response. After the previously described treatment, primary tumor recurrence and multiple brain metastases were observed. Despite the patient's compromised overall physical condition with a PS score of 3-4, he was administered T-DXd in addition to whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT). Remarkably, both intracranial metastases and primary lesions were significantly reduced, he achieved a partial response (PR), and his PS score increased from 3-4 to 1. He was then treated with T-DXd for almost 9 months until the disease again progressed, and he did not discontinue the drug despite the occurrence of myelosuppression during this period. This is a critical case as it exerted an effective response to T-DXd despite multiple lines therapy, including T-DM1. Simultaneously, despite the occurrence of myelosuppression in the patient during T-DXd, it was controlled after aggressive treatment.

Effect of preoperative radiotherapy on overall survival in N2 non-small-cell lung cancer: a propensity score-matched analysis of Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of preoperative radiotherapy (PrORT) on the overall survival (OS) of patients with stage ipsilateral mediastinal lymph node metastasis (N2) non-small-cell lung cancer. METHODS: A total of 1390 patients with stage N2 non-small-cell lung cancer between 2010 and 2015 were identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. The efficacy of PrORT combined with surgery was compared with that of surgery alone on OS. Propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to balance the baseline characteristics of patients who received (n = 239) and did not receive (n = 1151) PrORT. We compared the OS of the 2 groups using the Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank were used to compare the OS between the 2 groups test before and after PSM and to analyse subgroups of patients with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and adenocarcinoma. RESULTS: In whole group analysis before PSM, the median OS was superior in the PrORT group than in the surgery alone group (44.0 [34.4-56.6] vs 39.0 [34.5-43.5] months). There was a significant difference in OS [hazard ratio (HR): 0.819; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.677-0.991; P = 0.029]. Nevertheless, no statistically significant difference was found in OS between the 2 groups after PSM (HR: 0.856; 95% CI: 0.654-1.122; P = 0.260). Among subgroup analysis of the SCC group before PSM revealed that patients who received PrORT had significantly higher median OS than those who did not receive PrORT (52.0 [40.0-NA] vs 27.0 [22.0-32.0] months; HR: 0.591, 95% CI: 0.442-0.792, P = 0.000) and the differences in OS existed after PSM (P = 0.043). However, no significant difference was found in OS before and after matching in the adenocarcinoma group (P = 0.827 and P = 0.801, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: PrORT demonstrated an OS benefit for patients with stage N2 lung SCC; however, further prospective randomized clinical trials are warranted to confirm this finding.

Use of GC-IMS for detection of volatile organic compounds to identify mixed bacterial culture medium.

In order to explore the possibility to identify common wound infection bacteria in mixed culture with gas chromatograph-ion migration spectroscopy (GC-IMS), the headspace gas of single and mixed cultures of Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were detected and analyzed by GC-IMS system. The bacteria were cultured in thioglycolate medium tubes then transferred to the sampling bottles (indirect method), or directly cultured in the sampling bottles (direct method) to allow accumulation of volatile compounds and facilitate automation. The specific microorganism volatile organic compounds (mVOCs) of the three bacteria were obtained. Some of them have been known to certain substance, for example, ethanol, isoamyl acetate, Phenylacetaldehyde, 2-heptanone etc., while others have not. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that a higher separability can be achieved with direct method than indirect method. This work indicated that it is possible to identify compound bacteria by detecting specific mVOCs with GC-IMS, and the specific mVOCs should be medium-dependent.

[Corrigendum] Lycorine inhibits cell proliferation and migration by inhibiting ROCK1/cofilin­induced actin dynamics in HepG2 hepatoblastoma cells.

After having carefully checked the original data of Fig. 3, the authors noted that the student in their research group had inadvertently selected incorrect images for the 10 and 20 µM lycorine experiments to show the effect of lycorine on the migration of HepG2 cells during the figure compilation process. The corrected version of Fig. 3 is shown. The authors confirm that this error did not influence the statistical analysis shown for the migration of the cells, and neither were the overall results and conclusions of this article affected. The authors appreciate this opportunity to correct the scientific record, and all authors agree with this correction. Furthermore, the authors apologize for not noticing this error prior to publication, and for any inconvenience caused. [the original article was published in Oncology Reports 40: 2298­2306, 2018; DOI: 10.3892/or.2018.6609].

Lycorine inhibits cell proliferation and migration by inhibiting ROCK1/cofilin­induced actin dynamics in HepG2 hepatoblastoma cells.

Lycorine, a natural alkaloid extracted from the Amaryllidaceae plant family, has been reported to exhibit anti­cancer effects in various types of cancer cells. However, the molecular mechanisms through which lycorine exhibits anti­hepatoblastoma activity are unclear. In the present study, the inhibitory effects of lycorine on the proliferation and migration of HepG2 hepatoblastoma cells were investigated. Lycorine inhibited the proliferation of HepG2 cells in a dose­dependent manner by inducing cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase, via downregulation of cyclin A, cyclin B1 and cyclin dependent kinase 1. Additionally, wound healing and Transwell assays revealed that treatment with lycorine resulted in a decrease in the migratory ability of HepG2 cells. Also, treatment with lycorine decreased the expression levels of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)­9 and MMP­2. Furthermore, lycorine induced the cleavage/activation of Rho associated coiled­coil containing protein kinase 1 (ROCK1) and the downregulation of cofilin, accompanied by an increase in polymerized filamentous actin and a loss of depolymerized globular actin. Furthermore, pre­incubation of cells with Y­27632, a specific ROCK1 inhibitor, markedly attenuated lycorine­induced anti­proliferative and anti­migration effects. Taken together, the results demonstrated that lycorine inhibited the proliferation and migration of HepG2 cells by suppressing ROCK1/cofilin­induced actin dynamics, which suggests that lycorine has the potential to be developed into a novel drug for hepatoblastoma treatment.