LncRNA SNHG14 aggravates invasion and migration as ceRNA via regulating miR-656-3p/SIRT5 pathway in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Recurrence and adverse events after hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treatment occur frequently even treated with the most efficient therapy for HCC, liver transplantation. Therefore, better understanding of HCC progression is required to advance the therapeutic strategy of HCC. This study aims to explore the effect and mechanism of small nucleolar RNA host gene 14 (SNHG14) on HCC cell invasion and migration. SNHG14 and miR-656-3p expression in HCC tissues and cells were examined by qRT-PCR. After co-transfection with sh-SNHG14, miR-656-3p inhibitor, miR-656-3p mimic, si-SIRT5, pcDNA3.1-SIRT5 and corresponding negative controls, HepG2 and MHCC97H cell proliferation, invasion and migration were detected. Then the expression levels of SNHG14, miR-656-3p and SIRT5 were measured by qRT-PCR and Western blot. Luciferases reporter gene assay and RNA pull down identified the relation between SNHG14 and miR-656-3p and between miR-656-3p and SIRT5. SNHG14 was upregulated and miR-656-3p was downregulated in HCC cells. Inhibition of SNHG14 could inhibit HepG2 and MHCC97H cell proliferation, invasion and migration. Upregulation of miR-656-3p or knockdown of SIRT5 significantly suppressed the biological process of HepG2 and MHCC97H cells. SNHG14 directly acted on miR-656-3p and SIRT5 was a target gene of miR-656-3p. miR-656-3p inhibitor or pcDNA3.1-SIRT5 could reverse the inhibition of sh-SNHG14 on cell proliferation, invasion and migration of HCC cells. SNHG14 promotes HCC cell invasion and migration through regulating miR-656-3p/SIRT5 axis.

[Activated sludge model based COD fractionation in wastewater characterization].

The successful application of activated sludge model (ASM) in wastewater treatment plant mainly depends on the correctness of wastewater fractionation. Based on three batch oxygen uptake rate (OUR) tests, a COD fractionation protocol and the corresponding Matlab program were developed to aid the standardization of COD fractionation in wastewater. COD fractionation results of two wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) in Shanghai show that COD in wastewater of the Quyang WWTP is composed of 8.1% +/- 1.6% readily biodegradable COD (S(s)), 6.3% +/- 2.2% soluble inert COD (S(I)), 45.5% +/- 3.5% slowly biodegradable COD (X(S)), 31.1% +/- 2.1% particulate inert COD (X(I)) and 9.0% +/- 1.1% heterotrophic biomass (X(H)), and those fractions in wastewater of the Bailonggang WWTP are 11.1% +/- 2.2%, 9.9% +/- 2.0%, 38.9% +/- 10.7%, 23.3% +/- 9.8% and 16.9% +/- 1.8%, respectively. Compared to the Quyang WWTP, wastewater of the Bailonggang WWTP showed lower X(S) and X(I) contents in COD, but greatly higher X(H)/COD value, indicating that long pipeline transportation could significantly influence the concentration of COD fractions.

[Fractionation of soluble COD in wastewater based on batch respirometric method].

A fractionation protocol of soluble COD (SCOD) was put forward by combining respirometric method with hydrolysis kinetics of soluble slowly biodegradable COD (S(H)). SCOD fractionation results of two wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) in Shanghai show that the SCOD in sand basin effluents (typical domestic wastewater) of WWTP A is composed of 43.5%-58.6% S(H), 21.8%-35.2% readily biodegradable COD (S(S)) and 15.4%-30.9% soluble inert COD (S(I)), and those SCOD fractions in sand basin effluents (combined sewers after long pipeline transportation) of WWTP B are 34.5%-45.2%, 29.3%-37.7% and 25.6%-31.2%, respectively. The linear regression results of respirometric tests data from nine samples demonstrate that the first-order kinetics can reliably describe hydrolysis process of S(H), and the kinetic constants of S(H) from WWTP A and B are respectively 28.00-39.77 d(-1) and 26.48-29.52 d(-1). Experimental results demonstrate that this protocol can achieve theoretical partition for the integration area of S(S), and also eliminate the effect of soluble microbial products on S(I) determination.