Benefits of applying hourly resolution in the assessment of the climate aptitude to manage tourist activities in arid regions.

The availability of reliable information on local climatic-tourism conditions is a growing need due to the influence it exerts on the quality of the organizational strategy of tourist destination's, and travel experience. Evaluations of the tourism potential of the climate have been carried out on a daily or monthly resolution, thus limiting the collection of detailed information that makes it possible to fine-tune tourism management and operational decision-making on an intraday scale. This research is the first case study to analyse the climatic suitability for nature tourism, using the weather types method at hourly resolution. The study applies to arid tourist destinations in Isfahan province (Iran). The detailed resolution has made it possible to identify the time slots favourable to the development of nature tourism in those periods of the year recognized as critical in the daily resolution analyses. In the same way, the hourly resolution has also identified critical bands in those periods indicated as favourable in the evaluations to daily resolution. The hourly resolution provides detailed information that can allow tourists and also tourism managers to establish intraday adaptation strategies that make it possible to develop the activity even in places with extreme climates.

EZH2 regulates oncomiR-200c and EMT markers in esophageal squamous cell carcinomas.

EZH2, as a histone methyltransferase, has been associated with cancer development and metastasis possibly through the regulation of microRNAs and cellular pathways such as EMT. In this study, the effect of EZH2 expression on miR-200c and important genes of the EMT pathway was investigated in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Comparative qRT-PCR was used to examine EZH2 expression in ESCC lines (YM-1 and KYSE-30) following the separately transfected silencing and ectopic expressional EZH2 vectors in ESCC. Subsequently, expression of miR-200c and EMT markers was also assessed using qRT-PCR, western blotting and immunocytochemistry. Underexpression of Mir200c was detected in YM-1 and KYSE-30 cells after EZH2 silencing, while its overexpression was observed after EZH2 induced expression. Following EZH2 silencing, downregulation of mesenchymal markers and upregulation of epithelial markers were detected in the ESCCs. Our results demonstrate that EZH2 regulates the expression of miR-200c and critical EMT genes, implying that overexpression of Zeb2, Fibronectin, N-cadherin, and Vimentin lead to a mesenchymal phenotype and morphology while underexpression of epithelial genes, enhance cell migration after enforced expression of EZH2 in ESCCs. EZH2 gene can be a beneficial treatment marker for patients with esophageal cancer through decrease invasiveness of the disease and efficient response to neoadjuvant therapy.

Allogeneic tumor cell line-based vaccines: A good alternative to autologous and cancer stem cell vaccines in colorectal cancer.

OBJECTIVES: Besides the uncertainty about colorectal cancer stem cell (CCSC) markers, isolating, purifying, and enriching CCSCs to produce CCSC vaccines is highly challenging. However, allogeneic vaccines developed from CRC cell lines can provide universal, comprehensive, inexpensive, simple, and fast approach to cancer treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: CCSCs were isolated from human CRC tissue using the in vitro sphere formation assay and then characterized through gene expression analysis, in vivo and in vitro tumor formation assay, karyotyping, and surface marker detection. Subsequently, CCSCs and two CRC cell lines (HT-29 and SW-480) were inactivated with cisplatin (CDDP) and administrated as vaccines to the three groups of athymic C57BL/6 nude mice. Afterward, tumorigenesis was challenged with HT-29 cells. The antitumor effect of vaccines was evaluated by tumor and spleen examination and immune response analysis. The cytotoxic activity of splenocytes and serum levels of TGF-ß and IFN-γ were measured by Calcein-AM cytotoxicity assay and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), respectively. RESULTS: The results of gene expression analysis showed that CCSCs are CD44+CD133-LGR5-. All vaccinations resulted in decreased tumor growth, spleen enlargement, enhanced serum level of IFN-γ and TGF-ß, and increased cytotoxic activity of natural killer (NK) cells. The antitumor efficacy of the CCSC vaccine was not more than CRC cell line-based vaccines. Interestingly, the allogeneic SW-480 vaccine could effectively inhibit tumorigenesis. CONCLUSION: Despite the great challenge in developing CCSC vaccines, allogeneic vaccines based on CRC cell lines can efficiently induce antitumor immunity in CRC.