LncRNA NR2F2-AS1 functions as a tumor suppressor in gastric cancer through targeting miR-320b/PDCD4 pathway.

Gastric cancer is among the most frequently occurring gastrointestinal malignancies with a high mortality rate worldwide. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are defined as core regulators in the occurrence and progression of multiple cancers, including gastric carcinoma. Mounting evidence has indicated that NR2F2-AS1 can inhibit several malignant tumors. However, the function and potential mechanism of NR2F2-AS1 remain unclear. In the current study, we found that NR2F2-AS1 was weakly expressed in gastric cancer cells in comparison with normal cells. The study has further disclosed that ectopic of NR2F2-AS1 repressed cell proliferation, migration, invasion and EMT whereas it promoted cell apoptosis in gastric carcinoma. Subsequently, our results confirmed that miR-320b was negatively regulated and that suppression of miR-320b alleviated the malignant behaviors of GC cells. More importantly, PDCD4 was a target of miR-320b. Mechanistically, NR2F2-AS1 modulated the expression level of PDCD4 by sponging miR-320b. Finally, rescue assays demonstrated that NR2F2-AS1 down-regulated PDCD4 expression to restrain the development of gastric cancer by competitively binding to miR-320b. On the whole, our study revealed the role of NR2F2-AS1/miR-320b/PDCD4 regulatory network in gastric cancer, suggesting NR2F2-AS1 may represent a novel therapeutic target for patients with gastric carcinoma.

The Structural Characteristics of Economic Network and Efficiency of Health Care in China.

With the rapid development of the economy of China, the interactivity between provinces and the mobility of the population is increasing. Some patients who could have received the same treatment in their residential areas still choose to receive services in areas with higher economic development and concentrated high-quality medical resources, resulting in a huge waste of medical resources. Blindly increasing medical resources everywhere does not necessarily increase the output effectively. In this study, the data envelopment analysis (DEA) model, social network analysis (SNA), cluster analysis, and regression analysis are used to analyze the structural characteristics of the economic network structure and efficiency of health care in China. The results show that indegree and eigenvector centrality have a significant positive correlation with the efficiency of health care, and the clustering coefficient has a significant negative correlation with the efficiency of health care in China. This study uses a k-means algorithm to classify 31 provinces into three groups and extract their characteristics. As for the supply of health care resources, the government should command and dispatch the resources in the whole country through a top-down design based on the characteristics of each province.

Threshold Effect of the Government Intervention in the Relationship Between Business Cycle and Population Health: Evidence From China.

China is an emerging country, and government intervention is always considered as an important part of the solutions when people facing challenges in China. Under the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic and the global economic downturn, the Chinese government quickly brought the epidemic under control and restored the positive economic growth through strong intervention. Based on the panel data of provincial level in China and the government intervention as the threshold variable, this paper empirically analyzed the non-linear effect of business cycle on population health by using the panel threshold regression model. The empirical results show that the impact of the business cycle on population health is significantly negative, and government intervention has a single threshold effect on the relationship between business cycle and population health. When the government intervention is below the threshold value, the business cycle has a significant negative effect on the improvement of the population health level; when the level of government intervention exceeds the threshold value, the relationship between business cycle and population health becomes significantly positive. To some extent, the conclusions of this paper can guide the formulation and revision of government health policy and help to adjust the direction and intensity of government intervention. The Chinese government and other governments of emerging countries should do more to harness the power of state intervention in their response to the business cycle.

Base-promoted annulation of α-hydroxy ketones and dimethyl but-2-ynedioate: straightforward access to pyrano[4,3-a]quinolizine-1,4,6(2H)-triones and 2H-pyran-2,5(6H)-diones.

A novel and efficient cascade annulation of tertiary α-hydroxy ketones and dimethyl but-2-ynedioate is reported. The reaction, which only requires a base as the promoter, provides a straightforward access to polysubstituted pyrano[4,3-a]quinolizine-1,4,6(2H)-triones and 2H-pyran-2,5(6H)-diones under very mild reaction conditions.

miR-143 inhibits the metastasis of pancreatic cancer and an associated signaling pathway.

Pancreatic cancer is characterized by early metastasis and high mortality. In this study, the role of miR-143 in invasion and metastasis was investigated in pancreatic cancer cells. miR-143 expression was established by an adenovirus-carried miR-143 expression cassette. mRNA and protein levels of gene expression were examined by RT-PCR and Western blot assay, respectively. Rho GTPases activity was measured by the pull down assay. The role of miR-143 in migration and invasion of Panc-1 cells was tested in vitro. The antimetastatic effect of miR-143 was tested in a liver metastasis model, while its antitumor growth effect was tested in a xenograft Panc-1 tumor model. Results demonstrated that ARHGEF1 (GEF1), ARHGEF2 (GEF2), and K-RAS genes are the targets of miR-143. miR-143 expression significantly decreased mRNA and protein levels of GEF1, GEF2, and K-RAS genes; lowered the constitutive activities of RhoA, Rac1, and Cdc42 GTPases; decreased the protein levels of MMP-2 and MMP-9; but significantly increased the protein level of E-cadherin. miR-143 expression also significantly inhibited the migration and invasion of Panc-1 cells in vitro, liver metastasis, and xenograft tumor growth in vivo. Our study suggested that miR-143 plays a central role in the invasion and metastasis of pancreatic cancer and miR-143 is a potential target for pancreatic cancer therapy.