KCNAB2 overexpression inhibits human non-small-cell lung cancer cell growth in vitro and in vivo.

Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for approximately 85% of all lung cancer cases. NSCLC patients often have poor prognosis demanding urgent identification of novel biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets. KCNAB2 (regulatory beta subunit2 of voltage-gated potassium channel), encoding aldosterone reductase, plays a pivotal role in regulating potassium channel activity. In this research, we tested the expression of KCNAB2 as well as its potential functions in human NSCLC. Bioinformatics analysis shows that expression of KCNAB2 mRNA is significantly downregulated in human NSCLC, correlating with poor overall survival. In addition, decreased KCNAB2 expression was detected in different NSCLC cell lines and local human NSCLC tissues. Exogenous overexpression of KCNAB2 potently suppressed growth, proliferation and motility of established human NSCLC cells and promoted NSCLC cells apoptosis. In contrast, CRISPR/Cas9-induced KCNAB2 knockout further promoted the malignant biological behaviors of NSCLC cells. Protein chip analysis in the KCNAB2-overexpressed NSCLC cells revealed that KCNAB2 plays a possible role in AKT-mTOR cascade activation. Indeed, AKT-mTOR signaling activation was potently inhibited following KCNAB2 overexpression in NSCLC cells. It was however augmented by KCNAB2 knockout. In vivo, the growth of subcutaneous KCNAB2-overexpressed A549 xenografts was significantly inhibited. Collectively, KCNAB2 could be a novel effective gene for prognosis prediction of NSCLC. Targeting KCNAB2 may lead to the development of advanced therapies.

Prognostic Factors for Attempted Finger Replantation and Revascularisation after Traumatic Amputation: A 16-Year Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of variant factors on finger replantation and revascularisation after traumatic amputation, which also included duty shift and the level of main operator. Methods: To determine the prognostic factors for the survival rate of finger replantation and revascularisation after traumatic finger amputation, we retrospectively reviewed the cases of finger replantation conducted from January 2001 to December 2017. Data collected consisted of the basic information of the patients, trauma-related factors, details of the operation and treatment outcomes. Descriptive statistics and data analysis was performed to assess outcomes. Results: In total, 150 patients with 198 replanted digits were enrolled in this study. The median age of the participants was 42.5 years, and 132 (88%) patients were men. The overall successful replantation rate was 86.4%. Seventy-three (36.9%) digits had Yamano type 1 injury; 110 (55.6%), Yamano type 2 injury and 15 (7.6%), Yamano type 3 injury. In total, 73 (36.9%) digits were completely amputated and 125 (63.1%) were not. Half of the replantation procedures (101, 51.0%) were performed during night shift (16:00-00:00), 69 (34.8%) during day shift (08:00-16:00) and 28 (14.1%) during graveyard shift (00:00-08:00). Multivariate logistic regression demonstrated that the trauma mechanism and type of amputation (complete vs. incomplete) significantly affect the survival rate of replantation. Conclusions: The trauma mechanism and type of amputation (complete vs. incomplete) significantly affect the survival rate of replantation. Other factors including duty shift and the level of operator did not reach statistically significance. Further studies must be conducted to validate the results of the current study. Level of Evidence: Level III (Prognostic).

[Estimation of Surface Ozone Concentration and Health Impact Assessment in China].

Within the context of PM2.5 concentrations decreasing annually, ozone concentrations have increased instead of decreased, and ozone has become one of the main pollutants in the warm season in China. Based on the idea of big data association analysis, the extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) ozone concentration estimation model was constructed and developed to estimate the maximum daily 8 h average ozone concentration (O3_8h) in China in 2019 for human exposure assessment. The model input ground monitoring station data, high-resolution remote-sensing satellite data, meteorological data, emission inventory data, digital elevation model (DEM) data, and population data were used to capture the temporal and spatial variation of O3_8h. In this study, ten-fold cross-validation was used to evaluate the estimation performance of the model (R2=0.871, RMSE=11.7 µg·m-3). Compared to those with the random forest (RF) model and kernel ridge regression (KRR) model, due to the improvement in the algorithm itself and the advancement of parallel processing, the estimation results of the XGBoost model showed higher accuracy (RF:R2=0.864, RMSE=12.387 µg·m-3). The KRR model was as follows:R2=0.582, RMSE=23.1 µg·m-3, and the computational efficiency of the model was significantly improved. At the same time, the level of ozone exposure and the relative risk of death due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in China's provinces and cities were evaluated. The results showed that the top five number of days exceeding the standard occurred in Shandong Province, Henan Province, Hebei Province, Anhui Province, and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. In terms of exposure intensity, Hebei Province, Shandong Province, Shanxi Province, Tianjin City, and Jiangsu Province ranked the top five in terms of population weighted ozone concentration. In terms of health effects, the relative risk of COPD death showed seasonal changes, with the highest in summer and the lowest in winter.

RNA-Binding Protein Dnd1 Promotes Breast Cancer Apoptosis by Stabilizing the Bim mRNA in a miR-221 Binding Site.

RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) and miRNAs are capable of controlling processes in normal development and cancer. Both of them could determine RNA transcripts fate from synthesis to decay. One such RBP, Dead end (Dnd1), is essential for regulating germ-cell viability and suppresses the germ-cell tumors development, yet how it exerts its functions in breast cancer has remained unresolved. The level of Dnd1 was detected in 21 cancerous tissues paired with neighboring normal tissues by qRT-PCR. We further annotated TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) mRNA expression profiles and found that the expression of Dnd1 and Bim is positively correlated (p = 0.04). Patients with higher Dnd1 expression level had longer overall survival (p = 0.0014) by KM Plotter tool. Dnd1 knockdown in MCF-7 cells decreased Bim expression levels and inhibited apoptosis. While knockdown of Dnd1 promoted the decay of Bim mRNA 3'UTR, the stability of Bim-5'UTR was not affected. In addition, mutation of miR-221-binding site in Bim-3'UTR canceled the effect of Dnd1 on Bim mRNA. Knockdown of Dnd1 in MCF-7 cells confirmed that Dnd1 antagonized miR-221-inhibitory effects on Bim expression. Overall, our findings indicate that Dnd1 facilitates apoptosis by increasing the expression of Bim via its competitive combining with miR-221 in Bim-3'UTR. The new function of Dnd1 may contribute to a vital role in breast cancer development.

The association between phosphatase and tensin homolog hypermethylation and patients with breast cancer, a meta-analysis and literature review.

The Phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) protein is a negative regulator of the Akt pathway, leading to suppression of apoptois and increased cell survival. Its role as a tumor-suppressor gene has been adequately substantiated, and PTEN hypermethylation has been demonstrated in familial and sporadic cancers. However, the association and clinical significance between PTEN hypermethylation and breast cancer remains unclear. In this study, we systematically reviewed studies of PTEN hypermethylation and breast cancer and quantify the association between PTEN hypermethylation and breast cancer using meta-analysis methods. The pooled OR, 22.30, 95% confidential intervals, CI = 1.98-251.51, P = 0.01, which demonstrates that loss of PTEN expression by hypermethylation plays a critical role in the early tumorigenesis of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). In addition, PTEN hypermethylation also is detected in invasive ductal carcinomas (IDCs) and is significantly higher than in normal controls, OR = 23.32, 95% CI = 10.43-52.13, P < 0.00001. Further analysis did not show significant correlation between PTEN hypermethylation and the progression of breast cancer, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PgR), as well as HER2 status. These results indicate the PTEN hypermethylation is significantly associated with both DCIS and IDCs. The detection of PTEN hypermethylation could be an early tumorigenesis marker for breast cancer patients.

The prognostic value of intermedin in patients with breast cancer.

This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of preoperative plasma intermedin levels in breast cancer patients. Plasma intermedin levels of 252 breast cancer women and 100 healthy women were determined using radioimmunoassay kit. Adverse event was defined as first local recurrence, distant metastasis, second primary cancer of another organ, or death from any cause during 5-year follow-up. Disease-free survival was defined as the time between surgery and the date of any adverse event whichever appeared first. Overall survival was defined from surgery to death for any cause. The relationships between plasma intermedin levels and clinical outcomes of breast cancer patients were evaluated using multivariate analysis. The results showed that preoperative plasma intermedin levels were substantially higher in patients than in healthy subjects using t-test. Intermedin was identified as an independent predictor for 5-year mortality, adverse event, disease-free survival, and overall survival using multivariate analysis. Based on receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, preoperative plasma intermedin levels had high predictive value for 5-year mortality and adverse event. In conclusion, preoperative plasma intermedin levels are highly associated with poor patient outcomes and intermedin may be a potential prognostic biomarker for patients with breast cancer.

Combination of percutaneous radiofrequency ablation with transarterial chemoembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma: observation of clinical effects.

OBJECTIVE: To observe the clinical effect of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) combined with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS: A total of 92 cases of advanced primary liver cancer underwent TACE and RFA treatment from June 2005 to 2011 at the Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical College. A total of 88 cases with complete clinical treatment and follow-up data were divided into two groups: 43 patients treated with TACE (TACE group) and 45 patients that received TACE combined with RFA treatment (TACE + RFA group). After clinical data assessment, tumor size and survival status were not significantly different between the groups as determined by stratified analysis. RESULTS: Before and after surgery, spiral CT radiography and color comparison observed ablation conditions. The tumor necrosis rates after treatment (CR + PR) were 67.4% (29/43) and 91.1% (41/45) for the TACE and combined treatment groups, respectively, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The quality of life was significantly improved for patients undergoing TACE + RFA compared with the control group. Survival duration was not significantly different in patients undergoing TACE + RFA compared with the control group. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, the effect of RFA combined with TACE treatment was better than TACE alone in treating advanced HCC.

[Determination of nano-silver spatiotemporal distribution in cut gerbera flowers by ICP-AES].

The spatiotemporal distribution of nano-silver in cut gerbera (Gerbera hybrida cv. Crossfire) flowers were determined by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry technique (ICP-AES). The relative standard deviations of this method were between 0.14% and 2.89%, and the recovery ratio obtained by standard addition method ranged from 93.33% to 106.67%. The method was proved to be simple, rapid, reliable and highly sensitive, which can meet the demands of actual sample analysis. The experimental results also showed that Ag could be found in the basal stem end, upper stem end and petal of the cut gerbera flowers treated in nano-silver solution of 5 mg x L(-1) for 24 h and thereafter placed in distilled water. However, the Ag content in basal stem ends was much higher than those in upper stem ends and petals. The results indicated that nano-silver particles could enter into the flower stems through the cuts of stem ends and then moved to different parts of the cut gerbera flowers, but most of them located in the basal stem ends during the vase period. The fact that Ag was centred in basal stem end implied that the positive preservation effects of nano-silver on cut gerbera flowers is related to its strong and sustainable antiseptic action in the stem ends of cut flowers. The above results provide a reliable method for the determination of nano-silver and theoretical basis for its futher research and application in the preservation of cut flowers.