An emerging antibacterial nanovaccine for enhanced chemotherapy by selectively eliminating tumor-colonizing bacteria.

Fusobacterium nucleatum (F. nucleatum), an oral anaerobe, is prevalent in colorectal cancer and is closely related to increased cancer cell growth, metastasis, and poor treatment outcomes. Bacterial vaccines capable of selectively eliminating bacteria present a promising approach to targeting intratumor F. nucleatum, thereby enhancing cancer treatment. Although adjuvants have been employed to enhance the immune response, the vaccine's effectiveness is constrained by inadequate T-cell activation necessary for eradicating intracellular pathogens. In this study, we developed a minimalistic, biomimetic nanovaccine by integrating highly immunostimulatory adjuvant cholesterol-modified CpG oligonucleotides into the autologously derived F. nucleatum membranes. Compared to the traditional vaccines consisting of inactivated bacteria and Alum adjuvant, the nanovaccine coupled with bacterial membranes and adjuvants could remarkably improve multiple antigens and adjuvant co-delivery to dendritic cells, maximizing their ability to achieve effective antigen presentation and strong downstream immune progress. Notably, the nanovaccine exhibits outstanding selective prophylactic and therapeutic effects, eliminating F. nucleatum without affecting intratumoral and gut microbiota. It significantly enhances chemotherapy efficacy and reduces cancer metastasis in F. nucleatum-infected colorectal cancer. Overall, this work represents the rational application of bacterial nanovaccine and provides a blueprint for future development in enhancing the antitumor effect against bacterial-infected cancer.

MKG-GC: A multi-task learning-based knowledge graph construction framework with personalized application to gastric cancer.

Over the past decade, information for precision disease medicine has accumulated in the form of textual data. To effectively utilize this expanding medical text, we proposed a multi-task learning-based framework based on hard parameter sharing for knowledge graph construction (MKG), and then used it to automatically extract gastric cancer (GC)-related biomedical knowledge from the literature and identify GC drug candidates. In MKG, we designed three separate modules, MT-BGIPN, MT-SGTF and MT-ScBERT, for entity recognition, entity normalization, and relation classification, respectively. To address the challenges posed by the long and irregular naming of medical entities, the MT-BGIPN utilized bidirectional gated recurrent unit and interactive pointer network techniques, significantly improving entity recognition accuracy to an average F1 value of 84.5% across datasets. In MT-SGTF, we employed the term frequency-inverse document frequency and the gated attention unit. These combine both semantic and characteristic features of entities, resulting in an average Hits@ 1 score of 94.5% across five datasets. The MT-ScBERT integrated cross-text, entity, and context features, yielding an average F1 value of 86.9% across 11 relation classification datasets. Based on the MKG, we then developed a specific knowledge graph for GC (MKG-GC), which encompasses a total of 9129 entities and 88,482 triplets. Lastly, the MKG-GC was used to predict potential GC drugs using a pre-trained language model called BioKGE-BERT and a drug-disease discriminant model based on CNN-BiLSTM. Remarkably, nine out of the top ten predicted drugs have been previously reported as effective for gastric cancer treatment. Finally, an online platform was created for exploration and visualization of MKG-GC at https://www.yanglab-mi.org.cn/MKG-GC/.

Exosomal miR-1202 mediates Brodmann Area 44 functional connectivity changes in medication-free patients with major depressive disorder: An fMRI study.

Previous large-sample postmortem study revealed that the expression of miR-1202 in brain tissues from Brodmann area 44 (BA44) was dysregulated in patients with major depressive disorder (MDDs). However, the specific in vivo neuropathological mechanism of miR-1202 as well as its interplay with BA44 circuits in the depressed brain are still unclear. Here, we performed a case-control study with imaging-genetic approach based on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data and miR-1202 quantification from 110 medication-free MDDs and 102 healthy controls. Serum-derived circulating exosomes that readily cross the blood-brain barrier were isolated to quantify miR-1202. For validation, repeated MR scans were performed after a six-week follow-up of antidepressant treatment on a cohort of MDDs. Voxelwise factorial analysis revealed two brain areas (including the striatal-thalamic region) in which the effect of depression on the functional connectivity with BA44 was significantly dependent on the expression level of exosomal miR-1202. Moreover, longitudinal change of the BA44 connectivity with the striatal-thalamic region in MDDs after antidepressant treatment was found to be significantly related to the level of miR-1202 expression. These findings revealed that the in vivo neuropathological effect of miR-1202 dysregulation in depression is possibly exerted by mediating neural functional abnormalities in BA44-striatal-thalamic circuits.

A gene signature linked to fibroblast differentiation for prognostic prediction of mesothelioma.

BACKGROUND: Malignant mesothelioma is a type of infrequent tumor that is substantially related to asbestos exposure and has a terrible prognosis. We tried to produce a fibroblast differentiation-related gene set for creating a novel classification and prognostic prediction model of MESO. METHOD: Three databases, including NCBI-GEO, TCGA, and MET-500, separately provide single-cell RNA sequencing data, bulk RNA sequencing profiles of MESO, and RNA sequencing information on bone metastatic tumors. Dimensionality reduction and clustering analysis were leveraged to acquire fibroblast subtypes in the MESO microenvironment. The fibroblast differentiation-related genes (FDGs), which were associated with survival and subsequently utilized to generate the MESO categorization and prognostic prediction model, were selected in combination with pseudotime analysis and survival information from the TCGA database. Then, regulatory network was constructed for each MESO subtype, and candidate inhibitors were predicted. Clinical specimens were collected for further validation. RESULT: A total of six fibroblast subtypes, three differentiation states, and 39 FDGs were identified. Based on the expression level of FDGs, three MESO subtypes were distinguished in the fibroblast differentiation-based classification (FDBC). In the multivariate prognostic prediction model, the risk score that was dependent on the expression level of several important FDGs, was verified to be an independently effective prognostic factor and worked well in internal cohorts. Finally, we predicted 24 potential drugs for the treatment of MESO. Moreover, immunohistochemical staining and statistical analysis provided further validation. CONCLUSION: Fibroblast differentiation-related genes (FDGs), especially those in low-differentiation states, might participate in the proliferation and invasion of MESO. Hopefully, the raised clinical subtyping of MESO would provide references for clinical practitioners.

Named entity recognition in aerospace based on multi-feature fusion transformer.

In recent years, along with the rapid development in the domain of artificial intelligence and aerospace, aerospace combined with artificial intelligence is the future trend. As an important basic tool for Natural Language Processing, Named Entity Recognition technology can help obtain key relevant knowledge from a large number of aerospace data. In this paper, we produced an aerospace domain entity recognition dataset containing 30 k sentences in Chinese and developed a named entity recognition model that is Multi-Feature Fusion Transformer (MFT), which combines features such as words and radicals to enhance the semantic information of the sentences. In our model, the double Feed-forward Neural Network is exploited as well to ensure MFT better performance. We use our aerospace dataset to train MFT. The experimental results show that MFT has great entity recognition performance, and the F1 score on aerospace dataset is 86.10%.

Catalytic PMS oxidation universality of CuFe2O4/MnO2 heterojunctions at multiple application scenarios.

The magnetic CuFe2O4/MnO2 heterojunctions were prepared by hydrothermal method, and the effect of different reaction temperature on the physicochemical properties and catalytic activity was investigated. The CuFe2O4/MnO2 heterojunctions prepared at 100 °C can effectively activate peroxymonosulfate (PMS) at multiple application scenarios for degradation and mineralization of tetracycline, o-nitrophenol and ceftriaxone sodium under indoor light, visible light and dark condition. Additionally, the CuFe2O4/MnO2-PMS system showed high catalytic activity and anti-interference ability for degradation of pharmaceutical pollutants in natural water bodies and industrial wastewater. The TC removal efficiency in Qianhu Lake water, Ganjiang River water and tap water was about 88%, 92% and 89%, respectively. The CuFe2O4/MnO2-PMS system is also effective for actual pharmaceutical wastewater treatment with 77.9% of COD removal efficiency. Interestingly, the reactive species of CuFe2O4/MnO2-PMS system under visible light are different from those in dark condition, and the different catalytic mechanisms at multiple application scenarios were proposed. This work provides new insights into mechanism exploration of heterojunction catalyst for PMS activation.

Antibacterial Fusobacterium nucleatum-Mimicking Nanomedicine to Selectively Eliminate Tumor-Colonized Bacteria and Enhance Immunotherapy Against Colorectal Cancer.

Clinical evidence indicates that tumor-colonizing bacteria can be closely related to the tumor development and therapeutic responses. Selectively eliminating bacteria within tumors may be an attractive approach to enhance cancer treatment without additional side effects. Herein, it is found that, owing to the high affinity between the membrane protein Fap-2 on Fusobacterium nucleatum and d-galactose-ß (1-3)-N-acetyl-d-galactosamine (Gal-GalNAc) overexpressed on colorectal tumor cells, F. nucleatum can colonize in colorectal tumors, as evidenced by both clinical samples and animal tumor models. Notably, F. nucleatum colonized in colorectal tumors can lead to an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, greatly reducing their responses to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy. Inspired by this finding, an F. nucleatum-mimetic nanomedicine is designed by fusing F. nucleatum cytoplasmic membrane (FM) with Colistin-loaded liposomes to achieve selective killing of tumor-colonizing F. nucleatum without affecting gut microbes. As a result, the therapeutic responses of F. nucleatum-colonized tumors to ICB therapies can be successfully restored, as demonstrated in an F. nucleatum-infected subcutaneous CT-26 tumor model, chemically induced spontaneous colorectal cancer models, and MC-38 tumor model. In summary, this work presents an F. nucleatum-mimicking nanomedicine that can selectively eliminate tumor-colonized bacteria, which is promising for enhancing the responses of cancer immunotherapy against F. nucleatum-colonized colorectal cancer.

Developmental toxicity in Daphnia magna induced by environmentally relevant concentrations of carbon black: From the perspective of metabolomics and symbiotic bacteria composition.

The level of carbon black (CB) pollution in the environment is rapidly increasing, owing to the increase in natural and industrial emissions. The water environment has become an important sink for CB. However, studies on CB mainly focused on its impact on air pollution and phytoremediation applications, and the toxicity mechanism of CB in aquatic organisms is relatively limited. Thus, Daphnia magna was used as a model organism to explore the developmental toxicity of environmentally relevant concentrations of CB under a full life-cycle exposure. The toxicity mechanism of CB in aquatic organisms was investigated based on metabolomic and symbiotic microbial analyses. It was found that compared with the control group, the body length of exposed D. magna decreased, while the mortality and intestinal inflammation increased with increasing concentration of CB. The normal reproductive regularity of D. magna was disturbed, and the deformity and body length of the offspring increased and decreased, respectively, after CB exposure. Metabolomic analysis showed that the urea cycle metabolic pathway of exposed D. magna was increased significantly, suggesting a perturbation of N metabolism. In addition, two eicosanoids were increased, suggesting possible inflammation in D. magna. The levels of seven phospholipid metabolites decreased that might be responsible for offspring malformations. Microbiological analysis showed that the composition of the symbiotic microbial community of D. magna was disturbed, including microorganisms involved in carbon cycling, nitrogen cycling, and biodegradation of pollutants, as well as pathogenic microorganisms. Overall, this study found that the inflammatory related metabolites and symbiotic bacterial, as well as reproductive related metabolites, were disrupted after D. magna exposed to different concentrations of CB, which revealed a possible developmental toxicity mechanism of CB in D. magna. These findings provide a scientific basis for analyzing the risks of CB in aquatic environments.

Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Induces Porcine Gasdermin E-Mediated Pyroptosis through the Protease Activity of 3Cpro.

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is an acute, highly contagious disease of cloven-hoofed animals caused by FMD virus (FMDV). Currently, the molecular pathogenesis of FMDV infection remains poorly understood. Here, we demonstrated that FMDV infection induced gasdermin E (GSDME)-mediated pyroptosis independent of caspase-3 activity. Further studies showed that FMDV 3Cpro cleaved porcine GSDME (pGSDME) at the Q271-G272 junction adjacent to the cleavage site (D268-A269) of porcine caspase-3 (pCASP3). The inhibition of enzyme activity of 3Cpro failed to cleave pGSDME and induce pyroptosis. Furthermore, overexpression of pCASP3 or 3Cpro-mediated cleavage fragment pGSDME-NT was sufficient to induce pyroptosis. Moreover, the knockdown of GSDME attenuated the pyroptosis caused by FMDV infection. Our study reveals a novel mechanism of pyroptosis induced by FMDV infection and might provide new insights into the pathogenesis of FMDV and the design of antiviral drugs. IMPORTANCE Although FMDV is an important virulent infectious disease virus, few reports have addressed its relationship with pyroptosis or pyroptosis factors, and most studies focus on the immune escape mechanism of FMDV. GSDME (DFNA5) was initially identified as being associated with deafness disorders. Accumulating evidence indicates that GSDME is a key executioner for pyroptosis. Here, we first demonstrate that pGSDME is a novel cleavage substrate of FMDV 3Cpro and can induce pyroptosis. Thus, this study reveals a previously unrecognized novel mechanism of pyroptosis induced by FMDV infection and might provide new insights into the design of anti-FMDV therapies and the mechanisms of pyroptosis induced by other picornavirus infections.

Inhaled Lipid Nanoparticles Alleviate Established Pulmonary Fibrosis.

Pulmonary fibrosis, a sequela of lung injury resulting from severe infection such as severe acute respiratory syndrome-like coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection, is a kind of life-threatening lung disease with limited therapeutic options. Herein, inhalable liposomes encapsulating metformin, a first-line antidiabetic drug that has been reported to effectively reverse pulmonary fibrosis by modulating multiple metabolic pathways, and nintedanib, a well-known antifibrotic drug that has been widely used in the clinic, are developed for pulmonary fibrosis treatment. The composition of liposomes made of neutral, cationic or anionic lipids, and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) is optimized by evaluating their retention in the lung after inhalation. Neutral liposomes with suitable PEG shielding are found to be ideal delivery carriers for metformin and nintedanib with significantly prolonged retention in the lung. Moreover, repeated noninvasive aerosol inhalation delivery of metformin and nintedanib loaded liposomes can effectively diminish the development of fibrosis and improve pulmonary function in bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis by promoting myofibroblast deactivation and apoptosis, inhibiting transforming growth factor 1 (TGFß1) action, suppressing collagen formation, and inducing lipogenic differentiation. Therefore, this work presents a versatile platform with promising clinical translation potential for the noninvasive inhalation delivery of drugs for respiratory disease treatment.

Comparison of newly diagnosed COPD patients and the non-COPD residents in Shanghai Minhang District.

Background: To compare whether the general population, especially those without characteristic symptoms, need spirometry screening for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods: Residents aged > 40 years old in Minhang, Shanghai, China, filled out screening questionnaires and underwent spirometry. The structured questionnaire integrating COPD population screening and COPD screening questionnaire was designed to obtain data on demographic characteristics, risk factors of COPD, respiratory symptoms, lifestyle habits, and comorbidities. We assessed the correlations between variables and COPD and the impact factors of FEV1% predicted. Results: A total of 1,147 residents were included with a newly diagnosed mild to moderate COPD prevalence of 9.4% (108/1,147); half of the patients (54/108) were asymptomatic. Multivariate analysis did not reveal any significant differences in symptoms or lifestyle factors between newly diagnosed COPD patients and non-COPD participants. However, according to the generalized linear model, older age (ß = -0.062, p < 0.001), male sex (ß = -0.031, p = 0.047), and respiratory symptoms (ß = -0.025, p = 0.013) were associated with more severe airflow limitation. Conclusion: Newly diagnosed COPD patients had few differences compared with the general population, which suggests that a targeted case finding strategy other than general screening was currently preferred. More attention should be paid to respiratory symptoms when making a diagnosis and exploring new therapies and interventions for COPD in the early stage.

Seneca Valley Virus Induces DHX30 Cleavage to Antagonize Its Antiviral Effects.

Seneca Valley virus (SVV) is a new pathogen associated with porcine idiopathic vesicular disease (PIVD) in recent years. However, SVV-host interaction is still unclear. In this study, through LC-MS/MS analysis and coimmunoprecipitation analysis, DHX30 was identified as a 3Cpro-interacting protein. 3Cpro mediated the cleavage of DHX30 at a specific site, which depends on its protease activity. Further study showed that DHX30 was an intrinsic antiviral factor against SVV that was dependent on its helicase activity. DHX30 functioned as a viral-RNA binding protein that inhibited SVV replication at the early stage of viral infection. RIP-seq showed comparatively higher coverage depth at SVV 5'UTR, but the distribution across SVV RNA suggested that the interaction had low specificity. DHX30 expression strongly inhibited double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) production. Interestingly, DHX30 was determined to interact with 3D in an SVV RNA-dependent manner. Thus, DHX30 negatively regulated SVV propagation by blocking viral RNA synthesis, presumably by participating in the viral replication complex. IMPORTANCE DHX30, an RNA helicase, is identified as a 3Cpro-interacting protein regulating Seneca Valley virus (SVV) replication dependent on its helicase activity. DHX30 functioned as a viral-RNA binding protein that inhibited SVV replication at the early stage of virus infection. DHX30 expression strongly inhibited double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) production. In addition, 3Cpro abolished DHX30 antiviral effects by inducing DHX30 cleavage. Thus, DHX30 is an intrinsic antiviral factor that inhibits SVV replication.

The role of toll-like receptors (TLRs) in pan-cancer.

BACKGROUND: Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are important components of the innate and adaptive immune systems, and abnormal TLR expression has been linked to a variety of cancers. However, there was a lack of clarity on the association of TLR stimulation with the carcinogenesis of cancer. The study's goal was to analyse the clinical importance of TLRs expression at the mRNA level in pan-cancer datasets, as well as the link between TLR expression and carcinogenesis, progression, and clinical prognosis. METHODS: The expression profile of TLRs derived from UCSC pan-cancer data was analysed in multiple dimensions, including clinical analysis, immunological subtype analysis, tumour microenvironment (TME) analysis, tumour stem cell correlation analysis, and drug sensitivity analysis. Additionally, we analyse protein-protein interactions, functional enrichment, and chromatin accessibility, as well as TLR expression in single-cell sequencing data. RESULTS: Our multi-omics analysis results imply that TLRs may operate as a biological marker for carcinogenesis and progression, a potential target for anti-tumour therapy, and a prognostic biomarker, laying the theoretical groundwork for future translational medicine research. CONCLUSION: TLRs are involved in the formation of malignancies and can be explored in further detail as potential prognostic indicators. Key MessagesToll-like receptors (TLRs) are key factors in the process of the innate and adaptive immune response, and their aberrant expression of TLRs have been widely reported in various cancer. However, the association between TLRs stimulation and tumorigenesis of cancer has not been well clarified.In this study, in the pan-cancer data, integrated TLR family gene expression analysis, clinical correlation analysis, immune subtype correlation analysis, tumour microenvironment correlation analysis, tumour stem cell correlation analysis, and drug sensitivity correlation analysis were performed.TLRs play an important role in the development of tumours and can be studied in depth as potential prognostic markers.

Prognostic Ability of Enhancer RNAs in Metastasis of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.

(1) Background: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common lung cancer. Enhancer RNA (eRNA) has potential utility in the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of cancer, but the role of eRNAs in NSCLC metastasis is not clear; (2) Methods: Differentially expressed transcription factors (DETFs), enhancer RNAs (DEEs), and target genes (DETGs) between primary NSCLC and metastatic NSCLC were identified. Prognostic DEEs (PDEEs) were screened by Cox regression analyses and a predicting model for metastatic NSCLC was constructed. We identified DEE interactions with DETFs, DETGs, reverse phase protein arrays (RPPA) protein chips, immunocytes, and pathways to construct a regulation network using Pearson correlation. Finally, the mechanisms and clinical significance were explained using multi-dimensional validation unambiguously; (3) Results: A total of 255 DEEs were identified, and 24 PDEEs were selected into the multivariate Cox regression model (AUC = 0.699). Additionally, the NSCLC metastasis-specific regulation network was constructed, and six key PDEEs were defined (ANXA8L1, CASTOR2, CYP4B1, GTF2H2C, PSMF1 and TNS4); (4) Conclusions: This study focused on the exploration of the prognostic value of eRNAs in the metastasis of NSCLC. Finally, six eRNAs were identified as potential markers for the prediction of metastasis of NSCLC.

Macrophage migration inhibitory factor takes part in the lumbar ligamentum flavum hypertrophy.

The present study aimed to observe the content difference of macrophage migration inhibitory factor [MIF; novoprotein recombinant human MIF (n­6his) (ch33)], TGFß1 and MMP13 in patients with and without ligamentum flavum (LF) hypertrophy and investigate the roles of MIF in LF hypertrophy. The concentration of MIF, TGFß1 and MMP13 in LF were detected by ELISA in a lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) group and a lumbar disc herniation (LDH) group. Culture of primary LFs and identification were performed for the subsequent study. Cell treatments and cell proliferation assay by CCK­8 was performed. Western blot and quantitative PCR analysis were used to detect the expression of TGFß1, MMP13, type I collagen (COL­1) and type III collagen (COL­3) and Src which were promoted by MIF. The concentration of MIF, TGFß1 and MMP13 were higher in the LSS group compared with the LDH group. Culture of primary LFs and identification were performed. Significant difference in LFs proliferation occurred with treatment by MIF at a concentration of 40 nM for 48 h (P<0.05). The gene and protein expression of TGFß1, MMP13, COL­1, COL­3 and Src were promoted by MIF (P<0.05). Proliferation of LFs was induced by MIF and MIF­induced proliferation of LFs was inhibited by PP1 (a Src inhibitor). MIF may promote the proliferation of LFs through the Src kinase signaling pathway and can promote extracellular matrix changes by its pro­inflammatory effect. MIF and its mediated inflammatory reaction are driving factors of LF hypertrophy.

Efficacy of a Self-Designed Questionnaire for Community Screening of COPD.

Purpose: To evaluate the screening efficacy of a self-designed questionnaire for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and the potential gender disparity in its efficacy. Patients and Methods: A screening questionnaire, the COPD Screening Questionnaire-Minhang (COPD-MH), was designed with reference to the self-scored COPD population screener (COPD-PS) and the COPD screening questionnaire (COPD-SQ), incorporating characteristics of the local population in Shanghai, China. The revised questionnaire included only five questions. Each question scored 0-4, with a highest total score of 20. The COPD-PS and COPD-SQ comprised 5 and 7 questions, respectively. Their scoring criteria were not consecutive integers and, thus, not easily counted. The COPD-MH focused on symptoms, and each item was set the same answers for convenience. Screening for COPD was conducted among residents over 40 years old in a community in Shanghai using the three aforementioned questionnaires. Each participant also received spirometry tests. A receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn, and the area under the curve (AUC) was calculated to assess the validity of each questionnaire. Results: A total of 1197 community residents in Minhang District completed the screening. A total of 1023 participants were finally included in analysis with a detected prevalence of 12.4% for COPD. The best cut-off values for the COPD-PS, COPD-SQ, and COPD-MH were 4, 16, and 7 points, respectively. The AUCs for these three questionnaires were >0.5, but the sensitivity of the COPD-MH was higher than those of the COPD-PS and COPD-SQ. The sensitivity of COPD-MH was 80.77% for males and 77.5% for females. The COPD-MH had higher diagnostic efficiency and higher sensitivity with gender-specific cut-off values. Conclusion: The COPD-MH is comparable to and less time-consuming than the existing screening methods for COPD. Gender-related factors affect the optimal cut-off values of the COPD screening questionnaire, and rectifying this can improve the practical screening efficacy.

Carbon Foam-Reinforced Polyimide-Based Carbon Aerogel Composites Prepared via Co-Carbonization as Insulation Material.

The weak inherent non-covalent interactions between carbon aerogel backbone nanoparticles obtained by the pyrolysis of conventional organic aerogel can lead to poor mechanical properties. When applied in the thermal protection system of a high-speed spacecraft, the preparation of carbon aerogel insulation materials with excellent formability and high mechanical strength still remains a huge challenge. This work reports an efficient approach for fabricating carbon foam-reinforced carbon aerogel composites by compounding the nanoporous polyimide aerogel into the microporous pre-carbonized phenolic resin-based carbon foam via vacuum impregnation, gelatinizing and co-carbonization. Benefiting from the co-shrinkage caused by co-carbonization, the thermal insulation capacity of the carbon aerogel and the formability of the pre-carbonized foam are efficiently utilized. The shrinkage, density and carbon yield of aerogels, pre-carbonized foams and the composites at different temperatures were measured to analyze the formation of the interfacial gap within the composite. The co-carbonization mechanism of the polyimide aerogels and phenolic resin-based pre-carbonized foams was analyzed through XPS, TG-MS, and FT-IR. Among the prepared samples, CF30-CPI-1000 °C with small interfacial gaps showed the lowest thermal conductivity, which was as low as 0.56 W/(m·K) at 1900 °C, and the corresponding compressive strength and elastic modulus were as high as 0.532 MPa and 9.091 MPa, respectively.

Prognostic Bone Metastasis-Associated Immune-Related Genes Regulated by Transcription Factors in Mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma (MESO) is a mesothelial originate neoplasm with high morbidity and mortality. Despite advancement in technology, early diagnosis still lacks effectivity and is full of pitfalls. Approaches of cancer diagnosis and therapy utilizing immune biomarkers and transcription factors (TFs) have attracted more and more attention. But the molecular mechanism of these features in MESO bone metastasis has not been thoroughly studied. Utilizing high-throughput genome sequencing data and lists of specific gene subsets, we performed several data mining algorithm. Single-sample Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (ssGSEA) was applied to identify downstream immune cells. Potential pathways involved in MESO bone metastasis were identified using Gene Oncology (GO) analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis, Gene Set Variation Analysis (GSVA), Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA), and Cox regression analysis. Ultimately, a model to help early diagnosis and to predict prognosis was constructed based on differentially expressed immune-related genes between bone metastatic and nonmetastatic MESO groups. In conclusion, immune-related gene SDC2, regulated by TFs TCF7L1 and POLR3D, had an important role on immune cell function and infiltration, providing novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets for metastatic MESO.

Microbes in lung cancer initiation, treatment, and outcome: Boon or bane?

Lung cancer is the top reason for cancer-related deaths worldwide. The 5-year overall survival rate of lung cancer is approximately 20 % due to the delayed diagnosis and low response rate to regular treatments. Microbiota, both host-microbiota and alien pathogenic microbiota, have been investigated to be involved in a complicated and contradictory relationship with lung cancer initiation, treatments, and prognosis. Disorders of certain host-microbiota and pathogen infection are associated with the risk of lung cancers based on epidemiological evidence, and antibiotics (ATBs) could dramatically impair anti-cancer treatment efficacy, including chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Moreover, probiotics and microbe-mediated drugs are potential approaches to enhance regular anti-tumor treatments. Therefore, the knowledge of the complex dual effect of microbes on lung cancer is beneficial to take their essence and remove their dross. This review offers insight into the current trends and advancements in microbiota or microbial components related to lung cancer.

A narrative review of tumor heterogeneity and challenges to tumor drug therapy.

OBJECTIVE: To accurately evaluate tumor heterogeneity, make multidimensional diagnosis according to the causes and phenotypes of tumor heterogeneity, and assist in the individualized treatment of tumors. BACKGROUND: Tumor heterogeneity is one of the most essential characteristics of malignant tumors. In tumor recurrence, development, and evolution, tumor heterogeneity can lead to the formation of different cell groups with other molecular characteristics. Tumor heterogeneity can be characterized by the uneven distribution of tumor cell subsets of other genes between and within the disease site (spatial heterogeneity) or the time change of cancer cell molecular composition (temporal heterogeneity). The discovery of tumor targeting drugs has dramatically promoted tumor therapy. However, the existence of heterogeneity seriously affects the effect of tumor treatment and the prognosis of patients. METHODS: The literature discussing tumor heterogeneity and its resistance to tumor therapy was broadly searched to analyze tumor heterogeneity as well as the challenges and solutions for gene detection and tumor drug therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Tumor heterogeneity is affected by many factors consist of internal cell factors and cell microenvironment. Tumor heterogeneity greatly hinders effective and individualized tumor treatment. Understanding the fickle of tumors in multiple dimensions and flexibly using a variety of detection methods to capture the changes of tumors can help to improve the design of diagnosis and treatment plans for cancer and benefit millions of patients.