The Meaningful Function of the Emerging Clinical Targets-lncRNA MEG3 in Gastric Cancer.

LncRNA MEG3, a tumor suppressor gene, is related to reducing the proliferation, migration, and invasion as well as apoptosis abilities of gastric cancer (GC), which is a promising therapeutic target in patients. We conducted a comprehensive search of the literature on Pubmed using the keywords "lncRNA MEG3 and gas cancer" from 2014 to the present. Here, we provide a systematic and comprehensive summary of existing knowledge of the lncRNAs MEG3 and reveal its biological function and specific mechanisms in gastric cancer. MEG3 is involved in many molecular mechanisms that inhibit the development and progression of gastric cancer. For example, MEG3 can inhibit the proliferation of gastric cancer cells by inhibiting the expression of miR-21, miR-665, miR-148, miR-208, etc. MEG3 inhibits gastric carcinogenesis by inhibiting the negative regulator MDM2, regulating the expression of tumor suppressor genes p53 and Rb gene, and managing PI3K/Akt and Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathways. Additionally, gastric cancer patients with low MEG3 expression have poor prognosis, and transfection of MEG3 can improve the overall survival time of normal cells. Eventually, lncRNA MEG3 can be used as a biomarker or target for intervention, thereby providing new insights for gastric cancer therapy.

{[In2S7]8-}∞ Chain and Isolated HgS4 Planar Unit Constructed One-Dimensional Pentanary Sulfide K2Ba7HgIn4S16 Exhibiting Nonlinear-Optical Activity.

Hg-based chalcogenides possess diverse structures, large nonlinear-optical (NLO) responses, and suitable birefringences, making them potentially suitable for numerous crucial criteria of practical application as infrared (IR) NLO crystals. Here, a new pentanary Hg-based sulfide K2Ba7HgIn4S16 has been discovered by a high-temperature solid-state method. It crystallizes in the orthorhombic P21212 space group, and its one-dimensional structure is constructed by {[In2S7]8-}∞ chains and isolated [HgS4]6- planar quadrilateral units located bewteeen the chains, representing a novel type of chalcogenide. K2Ba7HgIn4S16 exhibits a moderate NLO effect of 0.5 × AGS at 2.1 µm and a high laser-induced damage threshold of ∼5.8 × AGS, as well as a band gap of 2.98 eV, demonstrating that K2Ba7HgIn4S16 is a potential IR NLO material. This work enriches the structural chemistry of chalcogenides and the family of Hg-based IR NLO chalcogenides.

Effective evaluation of HGcnMLP method for markerless 3D pose estimation of musculoskeletal diseases patients based on smartphone monocular video.

Markerless pose estimation based on computer vision provides a simpler and cheaper alternative to human motion capture, with great potential for clinical diagnosis and remote rehabilitation assessment. Currently, the markerless 3D pose estimation is mainly based on multi-view technology, while the more promising single-view technology has defects such as low accuracy and reliability, which seriously limits clinical application. This study proposes a high-resolution graph convolutional multilayer perception (HGcnMLP) human 3D pose estimation framework for smartphone monocular videos and estimates 15 healthy adults and 12 patients with musculoskeletal disorders (sarcopenia and osteoarthritis) gait spatiotemporal, knee angle, and center-of-mass (COM) velocity parameters, etc., and compared with the VICON gold standard system. The results show that most of the calculated parameters have excellent reliability (VICON, ICC (2, k): 0.853-0.982; Phone, ICC (2, k): 0.839-0.975) and validity (Pearson r: 0.808-0.978, p<0.05). In addition, the proposed system can better evaluate human gait balance ability, and the K-means++ clustering algorithm can successfully distinguish patients into different recovery level groups. This study verifies the potential of a single smartphone video for 3D human pose estimation for rehabilitation auxiliary diagnosis and balance level recognition, and is an effective attempt at the clinical application of emerging computer vision technology. In the future, it is hoped that the corresponding smartphone program will be developed to provide a low-cost, effective, and simple new tool for remote monitoring and rehabilitation assessment of patients.

The study of isotopic enrichment of water in human plasma and erythrocyte.

Life does not sustain without water. For water, there is a natural abundance of stable isotope hydrogen and oxygen. Water molecules get across cell membranes through a plasma membrane protein, named aquaporin. Moreover, the kidney is the main organ to maintain water homeostasis. Here, we study the stable isotopic ratios of hydrogen and oxygen in human blood plasma and erythrocyte corresponding to kidney functions. We extract waters from human plasma and erythrocyte, collected from 110 participants, including 51 clinically stable outpatients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and 59 subjects with normal renal function (NRF). We observed that (i) both extracellular (blood plasma) and intracellular (erythrocyte) biology waters are isotopic differences between the ESRD and NRF participants, (ii) the natural abundance of isotopic waters of ESRD is hypo-isotopic, and (iii) the isotopic enrichment of water between erythrocyte and blood plasma are distinct. In addition, we introduce an empirical formula using entropy transformation to describe isotopic water enrichment for biology. Accordingly, the natural abundance of stable isotope water of blood plasma and erythrocyte may be possibly put in practice a new sign for assessments of kidney dysfunctions.

Prebiotic Iron Originates the Peptidyl Transfer Origin.

The ribosome is responsible for protein synthesis in all living organisms. It is best known to exist around 3.5-3.7 Ga whereat life on Earth inhabited anoxic environment with abundant soluble irons. The RNAs and proteins are the two biopolymers that constitute the ribosome. However, both proteins and RNAs require metal cations to fold and to function. There are four Mg-microcluster (Mg2+-µc) structures conserved in core of large subunit, and the 23S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) was shown to catalyze electron transfer in an anoxic environment in the presence of Fe2+. The Mg2+-µc features two idiosyncratic Mg2+ ions that are chelated and bridged by a common phosphate group and along with that, the adjacent residues of RNA backbone together forming ten-membered chelation ring(s). Here, we utilized four rRNA fragments of the large subunit 23S rRNA of Haloarcula marismortui, that includes the residues that form the four Mg2+-µc's. These four rRNA fragments are shown competent to assemble with Mg2+. Our results show that when these rRNA fragments fold or assembly in the presence of Fe2+ under anoxic conditions, each Fe2+-microcluster can catalyze electron transfer. We propose that Fe2+-microclusters of the ribosome, which use Fe2+ as a cofactor to regulate electron transfer, are pivotal and primordial and may be an origin in evolution of the ribosome.

WITHDRAWN: Bioaugmentation strategies to improve cellulolytic and hydrogen-producing characteristics of CSTR intermittent fed with vegetable kitchen waste and napiergrass.

This article has been withdrawn at the request of the author(s) and/or editor. The Publisher apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause. The full Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal can be found at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy.

Urgency-free time interval as primary endpoint for evaluating the outcome of a randomized OAB treatment.

INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: This study was conducted to determine whether urgency-free interval (UFI) was effective to evaluate the outcome of overactive bladder (OAB) and the correlation of changes between this parameter and urgency episodes. METHODS: A randomized placebo-controlled trial was conducted involving 73 women with OAB. The interventions for a 12-week period included a vaginal electric stimulation and oxybutynin (2.5 mg) or placebo three times per day. Identical preintervention and postintervention assessments included the measurement of UFI and warning time (WT). The King's Health Questionnaire, Spearman's correlation coefficient (SCC), Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney U, and Wilcoxon-signed rank tests were used for analysis. RESULTS: A positive and significant correlation between the improvements of WT and UFI was noted in the oxybutynin group (p = 0.009). In all groups, none of the SCC revealed significant correlation between the improvement of UFI and urgency episodes (all p >or= 0.145). CONCLUSIONS: The efficacy of UFI in evaluating treatment outcome of OAB was comparable with that of WT in selected modality.

Age, sex and vitamin status affect plasma level of homocysteine, but hyperhomocysteinaemia is possibly not an important risk factor for venous thrombophilia in Taiwanese Chinese.

The biological effects of age, sex and vitamin status on plasma total homocysteine (tHcy), and association of hyperhomocysteinaemia with venous thromboembolism in Taiwanese Chinese individuals, were investigated. Eighty patients (16-85 years) with venous thrombophilia and 123 healthy subjects (15-85 years) without history of vascular thrombosis were studied for plasma levels of tHcy, folate and vitamin B12. A multivariate analysis in healthy subjects revealed that plasma tHcy levels tended to increase with age (P < 0.001) and with decreasing plasma levels of folate (P=0.001) or vitamin B12 (P < 0.029); men tended to have higher plasma tHcy levels than women (P=0.006). Thrombotic risk assessment in a case-control study demonstrated that neither plasma level of tHcy [odds ratio (OR), 1.07; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.96-1.18; P=0.210] nor hyperhomocysteinaemia (OR, 1.65; 95% CI, 0.50-5.49; P=0.415) was significantly associated with venous thrombophilia. The relationship between hyperhomocysteinaemia and recurrence of episode remained insignificant (P=0.560). We conclude that age, sex and vitamin status affect plasma tHcy but hyperhomocysteinaemia is possibly not an important risk factor for venous thrombophilia in Taiwanese Chinese.