Identification and validation of a glycolysis-related gene signature for predicting metastasis and survival rate in patients with thyroid cancer.

Background: Thyroid cancer (THCA) is one of the most commonly malignant endocrine tumors worldwide. This study aimed to explore new gene signatures to better predict the metastasis and survival rate of patients with THCA. Methods: mRNA transcriptome date and clinical characteristics of THCA were obtained from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database to identify the expression and prognostic implications of glycolysis-related genes. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) of differentiated expressed genes was performed, and relationship between genes and glycolysis was observed in the Cox proportional regression model. Using the cBioPortal, mutations were subsequently identified in model genes. Results: A 3-gene (HSPA5, KIF20A and SDC2) signature based on glycolysis related genes was identified and used to predict metastasis and survival rate in patients with THCA. Further expression analysis revealed that KIF20A was a poor prognostic gene, while HSPA5 and SDC2 were good prognostic genes. Evaluating the prognosis of patients with THCA could be more effective with this model. Conclusions: The study reported a three-gene signature of THCA, including HSPA5, KIF20A and SDC2, which were found to be closely correlated with the glycolysis of THCA, and it showed a high efficacy to the prediction of metastasis and survival rate of THCA.

Influence of SLCO1B1 Polymorphisms on the Pharmacokinetics of Mycophenolic Acid in Renal Transplant Recipients.

OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to analyze the correlation between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) related to drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics of mycophenolic acid (MPA) during long-term follow-up. MATERIALS AND METHOD: A retrospective cohort study involving 71 renal transplant recipients was designed. Blood samples were collected to extract total DNAs, followed by target sequencing based on next-generation sequencing technology. The MPA area under the curve (AUC) was calculated according to the formula established in our center. The general linear model and linear regression model were used to analyze the association between SNPs and MPA AUC. RESULTS: A total of 689 SNPs were detected in our study, and 90 tagger SNPs were selected after quality control and linkage disequilibrium analysis. The general linear model analysis showed that 9 SNPs significantly influenced MPA AUC. A forward linear regression was conducted, and the model with the highest identical degree (r2=0.55) included 4 SNPs (SLCO1B1: rs4149036 [P < 0.0001], ABCC2: rs3824610 [P = 0.005], POR: rs4732514 [P = 0.006], ABCC2: rs4148395 [P = 0.007]) and 6 clinical factors (age [P < 0.0001], gender [P < 0.0001], the incident of acute rejection (AR) [P = 0.001], albumin [P < 0.0001], duration after renal transplantation [P = 0.01], lymphocyte numbers [P = 0.026]). The most relevant SNP to MPA AUC in this model was rs4149036. The subgroup analysis showed that rs4149036 had a significant influence on MPA AUC in the older group (P = 0.02), high-albumin group (P = 0.01), male group (P = 0.046), and both within-36-month group (P = 0.029) and after-36-month group (P = 0.041). The systematic review included 4 studies, and 2 of them showed that the mutation in SLCO1B1 resulted in lower MPA AUC, which was contrary to our study. CONCLUSION: A total of 4 SNPs (rs4149036, rs3824610, rs4148395, and rs4732514) were identified to be significantly correlated with MPA AUC. Rs4149036, located in SLCO1B1, was suggested to be the most relevant SNP to MPA AUC, which had a stronger influence on recipients who were elder, male, or with high serum albumin. Furthermore, 6 clinical factors, including age, gender, occurrence of acute rejection, serum albumin, time from kidney transplantation, and blood lymphocyte numbers, were found to affect the concentration of MPA.

Evaluation of lncRNA FOXD3-AS1 as a Biomarker for Early-Stage Lung Cancer Diagnosis and Subtype Identification.

Purpose: Lung cancer (LC) is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths. More and more long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) are associated with cancer. This study aimed to assess whether plasma lncRNA could be used to diagnose early-stage LC and identify subtypes of LC. Methods: For bioinformatic analysis, we used genetic data from the Cancer Genome Atlas, lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), and lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) datasets and a small cell lung cancer (SCLC) dataset from the Gene Expression Omnibus. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to examine the relative expression of lncRNA in LC tissues and plasma samples. The patients' clinical information was obtained at the time of sample collection. Results: According to public datasets, the lncRNA forkhead box D3 antisense 1 (FOXD3-AS1) was significantly upregulated in LUAD, LUSC, and SCLC tissues over controls. RT-qPCR assays confirmed this finding in LUAD, LUSC, and SCLC tissues and plasma samples. Even early-stage receiver operating characteristic analysis showed that plasma FOXD3-AS1 could be used to discriminate LUAD, LUSC, and SCLC from normal controls and identify LC subtypes SCLC. Conclusion: FOXD3-AS1 is significantly upregulated in LC tissues and plasma. FOXD3-AS1 could be a potential biomarker for LC subtype identification and early diagnosis.

Carboxymethyl Cellulose Binder Greatly Stabilizes Porous Hollow Carbon Submicrospheres in Capacitive K-Ion Storage.

On account of the large radius of K-ions, the electrodes can suffer huge deformation during K-ion insertion and extraction processes. In our work, we unveil the impact of using carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) instead of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) as binders for K-ion storage. Our porous hollow carbon submicrosphere anodes using the CMC binder exhibit a reversible capacity of 208 mA h g-1 after 50 cycles at 50 mA g-1, and even at a high current density of 1 A g-1, they achieve a reversible capacity of 111 mA h g-1 over 3000 cycles with almost no decay, demonstrating remarkably improved reversibility and cycling stability than those using PVDF (18 mA h g-1 after 3000 cycles at 1 A g-1). It is showed that the CMC binder can result in higher adhesion force and better mechanical performance than the PVDF binder, which can restrain the crack during a potassiation/depotassiation process. According to the test of adhesion force, the hollow carbon submicrospheres using the CMC binder show above three times of average adhesion force than that using the PVDF binder. Furthermore, based on the rational design, our hollow carbon submicrospheres also exhibit 62.3% specific capacity contribution below 0.5 V vs K/K+ region, which is helpful to design the full cell with high energy density. We believe that our work will highlight the binder effect to improve the K-ion storage performance.

Rational design of metal organic framework-derived FeS2 hollow nanocages@reduced graphene oxide for K-ion storage.

K-ion batteries (KIBs) have become one of the promising alternatives to lithium ion batteries. In this work, we are the first to utilize reduced graphene oxide (RGO) wrapped metal organic framework-derived FeS2 hollow nanocages (FeS2@RGO) as an anode for KIBs. Owing to the synergistic effect from FeS2 nanocages and RGO shells, our FeS2@RGO sample exhibited superior electrochemical performance. Such FeS2@RGO electrodes demonstrate a high capacity of 264 mA h g-1 after 50 cycles at 50 mA g-1 and 123 mA h g-1 after 420 cycles even at a large current density of 500 mA g-1. More importantly, we also explain the electrochemical reaction process about FeS2 and believe that these results would open the door for a novel class of long cycling performance anode materials in the KIB field.

The complete genome of Comamonas testosteroni reveals its genetic adaptations to changing environments.

Members of the gram-negative, strictly aerobic genus Comamonas occur in various environments. Here we report the complete genome of Comamonas testosteroni strain CNB-2. Strain CNB-2 has a circular chromosome that is 5,373,643 bp long and has a G+C content of 61.4%. A total of 4,803 open reading frames (ORFs) were identified; 3,514 of these ORFs are functionally assigned to energy production, cell growth, signal transduction, or transportation, while 866 ORFs encode hypothetical proteins and 423 ORFs encode purely hypothetical proteins. The CNB-2 genome has many genes for transportation (22%) and signal transduction (6%), which allows the cells to respond and adapt to changing environments. Strain CNB-2 does not assimilate carbohydrates due to the lack of genes encoding proteins involved in glycolysis and pentose phosphate pathways, and it contains many genes encoding proteins involved in degradation of aromatic compounds. We identified 66 Tct and nine TRAP-T systems and a complete tricarboxylic acid cycle, which may allow CNB-2 to take up and metabolize a range of carboxylic acids. This nutritional bias for carboxylic acids and aromatic compounds enables strain CNB-2 to occupy unique niches in environments. Four different sets of terminal oxidases for the respiratory system were identified, and they putatively functioned at different oxygen concentrations. This study conclusively revealed at the genomic level that the genetic versatility of C. testosteroni is vital for competition with other bacteria in its special niches.