Correction: A facile strategy to realize a single/double photon excitation-dependent photosensitizer for imaging-guided phototherapy against HeLa cancer cells at separate irradiation channels.

Correction for 'A facile strategy to realize a single/double photon excitation-dependent photosensitizer for imaging-guided phototherapy against HeLa cancer cells at separate irradiation channels' by Lin Kong et al., Chem. Commun., 2020, 56, 571-574.

A facile strategy to realize a single/double photon excitation-dependent photosensitizer for imaging-guided phototherapy against HeLa cancer cells at separate irradiation channels.

A novel difluoroboron fluorophore with an electron donor-acceptor conjugated structure was synthesized with 26.5% fluorescence quantum yield, 18 035 GM two-photon absorbing cross-section, and undetectable two-photon fluorescence, resulting in 25% 1O2 quantum yield. The unique optical behavior of CNFBBN enabled one-photon fluorescence imaging and two-photon phototherapy against HeLa cancer cells, irradiated at separate wavelengths.

Clinical Significance of CD163+ and CD68+ Tumor-associated Macrophages in High-risk HPV-related Cervical Cancer.

Objective. To explore the influence of M2-polarized tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) on high-risk human papillomavirus (hr-HPV)-related cervical carcinogenesis and metastasis. Methods. CD68+ and CD163+ macrophages were examined immunohistochemically in a series of 130 samples, including 26 cases of normal cervical tissues, 59 cases of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), and 45 cases of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), and the results were statistically analyzed. The macrophage count was corrected for the epithelial and stromal compartments respectively. Clinical data were also obtained. Results. High counts of CD68+ and CD163+ macrophages were associated with hr-HPV infection (both p < 0.05) and positively correlated with cervical carcinogenesis (Spearman's rho = 0.478, p = 0.000; Spearman's rho = 0.676, p =0.000, respectively). The immunostaining pattern of CD163 exhibited clearer background than that of CD68. CD163+ macrophages showed a more obviously increasing migration into the epithelium along with the progression of CIN to invasive cancer. Notably, a high index of CD163+ macrophages was significantly associated with higher FIGO stages (p = 0.009) and lymph node metastasis (p = 0.012), but a similar finding was not found for CD68+ macrophages (p = 0.067, p = 0.079, respectively). Conclusions. Our study supported a critical role of TAMs as a prospective predictor for hr-HPV-related cervical carcinogenesis. CD163, as a promising TAMs marker, is superior to CD68 for predicting the malignant transformation and metastatic potential of cervical cancer.

High Expression of Long Noncoding RNA MALAT1 Indicates a Poor Prognosis and Promotes Clinical Progression and Metastasis in Bladder Cancer.

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have demonstrated that the expression of long noncoding RNA metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) promotes cancer cell proliferation, invasion, and metastasis in many tumor types, but the association between bladder cancer and MALAT1 remains unknown. MATERIALS: The expression of MALAT1 was tested by in situ hybridization (ISH) in 120 bladder cancer specimens. The association between MALAT1 expression and clinicopathological features and prognosis of the patients with bladder cancer was analyzed. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was performed to verify the relationship between the expression of MALAT1 and progression and metastasis of bladder cancer. RESULTS: ISH showed that high MALAT1 expression was associated with advanced histological grade, high tumor stage, and positive lymph nodes. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox regression analysis indicated that high tumor stage, positive lymph nodes, and high MALAT1 expression were independent prognostic indicators for overall survival (OS) of patients with bladder cancer. qRT-PCR showed that the expression of MALAT1 in bladder cancer tissues was 2.85 times higher than those measured in adjacent normal tissues (P < .001). The expression of MALAT1 was 2.673 ± 0.254 in non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer and 2.987 ± 0.381 in muscle-invasive bladder cancer (P = .018). In bladder cancer specimens with positive lymph nodes, MALAT1 expression was 3.167 ± 0.297 versus 2.896 ± 0.329 in bladder cancer specimens with negative lymph nodes (P = .020). CONCLUSION: High MALAT1 expression could serve as an independent prognostic factor for OS of patients with bladder cancer and could be considered as a potential therapeutic target of bladder cancer.

Crystal structure of 9-butyl-6-[2-(pyridin-4-yl)ethen-yl]carbazol-3-amine.

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C23H23N3, consists of two mol-ecules, A and B, with different conformations. In mol-ecule A, the dihedral angle between the carbazole ring system (r.m.s. deviation = 0.028 Å) and the pyridine ring is 20.28 (9)° and the N-C-C-C torsion angle of the butyl side chain is -63.4 (3)°. The equivalent data for mol-ecule B are 0.065 Å, 48.28 (11)° and 61.0 (3)°, respectively. In the crystal, the components are connected by weak N-H⋯N hydrogen bonds, generating [030] C(14) chains of alternating A and B mol-ecules.

[Chemical constituents of Taxus chinensis var. mairei cell cultures].

The chemical constituents of Taxus chinensis var. mairei cell cultures were investigated by chromatographic methods, including silica gel column chromatography, Sephadex LH-20 and preparative HPLC. Thirteen compounds were isolated from the 80% ethanol extract of cultured cells and their structures were elucidated by spectral data and physicochemical properties, which were identified as 2α,4α,7ß,9α,10ß-pentaacetoxy-14ß-hydroxytax-11-ene (1), 2α,4α,7ß,9α,10ß-pentaacetoxytax-11-ene (2), 1ß-deoxybaccatin VI (3), 2α-acetoxytaxusin (4), taxuyunnanine C (5), yunnanxane (6), 2α,5α,10ß-triacetoxy-14ß-propionyloxy-4 (20), 11-taxadiene (7), 2α,5α,10ß-triacetoxy-14ß-isobutyryloxy-4 (20), 11-taxadiene (8), 2α,5α,10ß-triacetoxy-14ß-(2'-methyl)butyryloxy-4 (20), 11-taxadiene (9), 13-dehydroxylbaccatin III (10), 13-dehydroxy-10-deacetylbaccatin III (11), paclitaxel (12) and (13) ß-sitosterol. Among them, compound 1 is a new compound, and compounds 2, 4, 10 and 11 are isolated from the cell culture of Taxus chinensis var. mairei for the first time.

[Short hairpin RNA silences Pin1 and affects proliferation and apoptosis in HeLa cell line].

OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of short hairpin RNA (shRNA) on the expression of Pin1 mRNA and protein and its influence on the proliferation and apoptosis in HeLa cell lines. METHODS: The recombinant plasmid pSIREN-Pin1 expressing Pin1-targeted shRNA was constructed and then transfected into cervical cancer cell lines by lipofectamine (HeLa/p-shRNA), the control vector pSIREN-Con (HeLa/p-Con) and culture media (HeLa) as control, respectively. The Pin1 mRNA and protein expression were detected by RT-PCR and immunoblotting. The proliferation of cells after transfection was detected by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) and colony formation in soft agar. Flow cytometry (FCM) was used to test the apoptosis of cells marked with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-annexin V. RESULTS: After transfected with pSIREN-Pin1 for 48 h, the expression of Pin1 mRNA and protein in HeLa cells were 0.19 +/- 0.05 and 0.33 +/- 0.14 respectively. Compared with HeLa/p-Con cells (0.84 +/- 0.16, 0.79 +/- 0.17) and HeLa cells (0.89 +/- 0.11, 0.81 +/- 0.15), the difference was significant respectively (P < 0.05). The proliferation was suppressed significantly in HeLa/p-shRNA cells. The colony ratios are as follows: HeLa/p-shRNA, (12 +/- 3)%; HeLa/p-Con, (20 +/- 5)%; HeLa, (24 +/- 4)% (P < 0.05). The apoptosis ratio was (24.3 +/- 5.7)% in HeLa/p-shRNA cells. It was significantly higher than that in HeLa/p-Con cells (5.0 +/- 1.4)% and HeLa cells (1.8 +/- 0.4)% (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: RNA interference through Pin1-targeted shRNA can effectively inhibit the expression of target gene, and might be potentially useful in gene therapy of Pin1 related cervical cancers. Silencing Pin1 gene can suppress the proliferation and promote the apoptosis in HeLa cells.

[The construction and expression of superantigen SEA and antimelanoma ScFv fusion gene].

Two strategies, direct ligation after enzyme digestion and over-lap PCR technology, were adopted to construct a fusion gene which was composed of the antimelanoma single chain antibody gene and the staphylococcal enterotoxin A gene without N-terminal signal sequence. The fusion gene was subcloned into pET28-a vector and transformed into E. coli BL21(DE3). Ni-NTA system was selected to separate and purify the expresstd products. The inhibition ratio of the fusion protein was tested by MTT method. It is shown that the 6His-ScFv-SEA fusion protein can be expressed stably in E. coli BL21 (DE3). The quantity of the fusion protein was shown up to 30% of the total protein of the bacteria and mainly in inclusion body. By activation the effective cells, the fution protein can inhibit the melanoma cell whith expressed corresponding antigen.