Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled framework for a sustainable Vaccine cold chain management system.

Vaccines are a unique category of drugs sensitive to temperature and humidity and whose effectiveness directly impacts public health. There has been an increase in vaccine-related adverse events worldwide, particularly in developing countries, attributed to suboptimal temperatures during transport and storage. At the same time, the Internet of Things (IoT) has ushered in a paradigm shift in vaccine information and storage monitoring, enabling continuous 24/7 tracking. This further reduces the dependence on limited human resources and significantly reduces the associated errors and losses. This paper presents an IoT-driven framework that aims to improve the sustainability of medical cold chain management. The framework promotes trust and transparency in vaccine surveillance data by accessing and authenticating IoT devices. The proposed system aims to improve the safety and sustainability of vaccine management. Moreover, we provide detailed insights into the design and hardware components of the proposed framework. In addition, the specific use of the framework in a particular province is highlighted, covering the design of the software platform and the analysis of the hardware equipment.

PARP inhibition synergizes with CD47 blockade to promote phagocytosis by tumor-associated macrophages in homologous recombination-proficient tumors.

AIMS: PARP inhibitors (PARPi) are known to exert anti-tumor effects in patients with BRCA-mutated (BRCAmut) or homologous recombination (HR)-deficient cancer, but recent clinical investigations have suggested that this treatment may also be beneficial in patients with HR-proficient tumors. In this study, we aimed to investigate how PARPi exerts anti-tumor effects in non-BRCAmut tumors. MAIN METHODS: BRCA wild-type, HR-deficient-negative ID8 and E0771 murine tumor cells were treated in vitro and in vivo with olaparib, a clinically approved PARPi. The effects on tumor growth in vivo were determined in immune-proficient and -deficient mice and alterations of immune cell infiltrations were analyzed with flow cytometry. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) were further investigated with RNA-seq and flow cytometry. In addition, we confirmed olaparib's effect on human TAMs. KEY FINDINGS: Olaparib did not affect HR-proficient tumor cell proliferation and survival in vitro. However, olaparib significantly decreased tumor growth in C57BL/6 and SCID-beige mice (defective in lymphoid development and NK cell activity). Olaparib increased macrophage numbers in the tumor microenvironment, and their depletion diminished the anti-tumor effects of olaparib in vivo. Further analysis revealed that olaparib improved TAM-associated phagocytosis of cancer cells. Notably, this enhancement was not solely reliant on the "Don't Eat Me" CD47/SIRPα signal. In addition, compared to monotherapy, the concomitant administration of αCD47 antibodies with olaparib improved tumor control. SIGNIFICANCE: Our work provides evidence for broadening the application of PARPi in HR-proficient cancer patients and paves the way for developing novel combined immunotherapy to upgrade the anti-tumor effects of macrophages.

A New Strategy to Improve the Toughness of Epoxy Thermosets-By Introducing Poly(ether nitrile ketone)s Containing Phthalazinone Structures.

As high brittleness limits the application of all epoxy resins (EP), here, it can be modified by high-performance thermoplastic poly(ether nitrile ketone) containing phthalazinone structures (PPENK). Therefore, the influence of different PPENK contents on the mechanical, thermal, and low-temperature properties of EP was comprehensively investigated in this paper. The binary blend of PPENK/EP exhibited excellent properties due to homogeneous mixing and good interaction. The presence of PPENK significantly improved the mechanical properties of EP, showing 131.0%, 14.2%, and 10.0% increases in impact, tensile, and flexural strength, respectively. Morphological studies revealed that the crack deflection and bridging in PPENK were the main toughening mechanism in the blend systems. In addition, the PPENK/EP blends showed excellent thermal and low-temperature properties (-183 °C). The glass transition temperatures of the PPENK/EP blends were enhanced by approximately 50 °C. The 15 phr of the PPENK/EP blends had a low-temperature flexural strength of up to 230 MPa, which was 46.5% higher than EP. Furthermore, all blends exhibited better thermal stability.

Bibliometric analysis and mini-review of global research on pyroptosis in the field of cancer.

Pyroptosis is one of the mechanisms of programmed cell death (PCD) activated by inflammasomes and involved by the caspase family and the gasdermin family. During the oncogenesis and progression of tumors, pyroptosis is crucial, and complex withal. Currently, pyroptosis is the focus topic in the research field of oncology, but there is no single bibliometric analysis systematically studying 'pyroptosis and cancer'. Our study aimed to visualize the research status of pyroptosis in oncology and excavate the hotspots and prospects in this field. Furthermore, in consideration of the professional direction of researchers, we particularly emphasized articles on pyroptosis in gynecology and formed a mini systematic review. This bibliometric work integrated and analyzed all articles from ISI Web of Science: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-Expanded) (dated April 25th, 2022), based on quantitative and visual mapping approaches. Systematically reviewing articles on pyroptosis in gynecology helped us complement our analysis of research advancements in this field. Including 634 articles, our study found that the number of articles on pyroptosis in cancer increased exponentially in recent years. These publications came from 45 countries and regions headed by China and the US mainly aiming at the mechanism of pyroptosis in cell biology and biochemistry molecular biology, as well as the role of pyroptosis in the development and therapeutic application of various cancers. The top 20 most cited studies on this topic mostly came from the US, followed by China and England, and half of the articles cited more than 100 times in total were published in Nature. Moreover, as for gynecologic cancer, in vitro and bioinformatics analysis were the main methodology conducting to explore roles of pyroptosis-related genes (PRGs) and formation of inflammasomes in cancer progression and prognosis. Pyroptosis has evolved into a burgeoning research field in oncology. The cellular and molecular pathway mechanism of pyroptosis, as well as the effect of pyroptosis in oncogenesis, progression, and treatment have been the hot topic of the current study and provided us the future direction as the potential opportunities and challenges. We advocate more active cooperation to improve therapeutic strategies for cancer.

Construction of Metastasis-Specific Regulation Network in Ovarian Cancer Based on Prognostic Stemness-Related Signatures.

WE aimed to reveal the correlation between ovarian cancer (OV) metastasis and cancer stemness in OV. RNA-seq data and clinical information of 591 OV samples (551 without metastasis and 40 with metastasis) were obtained from TCGA. The edgeR method was used to determine differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and transcription factors (DETFs). Then, mRNA expression-based stemness index was calculated using one-class logistic regression (OCLR). Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was used to define stemness-related genes (SRGs). Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression were conducted to identify the prognostic SRGs (PSRGs). PSRGs, DETFs, and 50 hallmark pathways quantified by gene set variation analysis (GSVA) were integrated into Pearson co-expression analysis. Significant co-expression interactions were utilized to construct an OV metastasis-specific regulation network. Cell communication analysis was carried out based on single cell RNA sequencing data to explore the molecular regulation mechanism of OV. Eventually, assay for targeting accessible-chromatin with high throughout sequencing (ATAC), chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) validation, and multiple data sets were used to validate the expression levels and prognostic values of key stemness-related signatures. Moreover, connectivity map (CMap) was used to identify potential inhibitors of stemness-related signatures. Based on edgeR, WGCNA, and Cox proportional hazard regression, 22 PSRGs were defined to construct a prognostic prediction model for metastatic OV. In the metastasis-specific regulation network, key TF-PSRS interaction pair was NR4A1-EGR3 (correlation coefficient = 0.81, p < 0.05, positive), and key PSRG-hallmark pathway interaction pair was EGR3-TNFα signaling via NFκB (correlation coefficient = 0.44, p < 0.05, positive), which were validated in multi-omics databases. Thioridazine was postulated to be the most significant compound in treatment of OV metastasis. PSRGs played critical roles in OV metastasis. Specifically, EGR3 was the most significant PSRG, which was positively regulated by DETF NR4A1, inducing metastasis via TNFα signaling.

[Analysis of two Chinese pedigrees affected with Alport syndrome due to novel variants of COL4A5 gene].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the genetic basis for two Chinese pedigrees affected with Alport syndrome. METHODS: Potential variants of the COL4A5 gene were screened by next generation sequencing (NGS). Candidate variants were verified by Sanger sequencing of other members from the pedigrees as well as 100 healthy controls. ClustalX 2.1 win was used to analyze the conservation of amino acid sequences. SWISS-MODEL was used for assessing the influence of variations on the protein structure. RESULTS: Two heterozygous missense variants of the COL4A5 gene, namely c.2210G>A (p.Gly737Asp) and c.3799G>A (p.Gly1267Ser), were respectively identified in the affected individuals from the two pedigrees but not among the 100 healthy controls. Neither variant was reported previously. CONCLUSION: The c.2210G>A (p.Gly737Asp) and c.3799G>A (p.Gly1267Ser) variants of the COL4A5 gene probably underlay the Alport syndrome in these pedigrees. Above finding has enriched the spectrum of COL4A5 gene variants and provided a basis for genetic counseling and prenatal diagnosis for the families.

A Lightweight Semantic Segmentation Algorithm Based on Deep Convolutional Neural Networks.

With the development of deep learning theory and the decrease of the cost of acquiring massive data, the image semantic segmentation algorithm based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) is gradually replacing the conventional segmentation algorithm by its high accuracy segmentation performance. By increasing the amount of training data and stacking more convolutional layers to form Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (DCNNs), a neural network model with higher segmentation accuracy can be obtained, but it faces the problems of serious memory consumption and long latency. For some special application scenarios, such as augmented reality and mobile interaction, real-time processing cannot be performed. To improve the speed of semantic segmentation while obtaining the most accurate segmentation results as possible, this paper proposes a semantic segmentation algorithm based on lightweight convolutional neural networks. Taking the computational complexity and segmentation accuracy into account, the algorithm starts from the perspective of extracting high-level semantic features and introduces a position-attention mechanism with richer contextual information to model the relationship between different pixels, avoiding the convolutional local perceptual field to be too small. To recover clearer target boundaries, a channel attention mechanism is introduced in the decoding part of the model to mine more useful feature channel information and effectively improve the fusion of low-level features with high-level features. By verifying the effectiveness of the above model on a publicly available dataset and comparing it with the more popular semantic segmentation methods, the model proposed in this paper has higher semantic segmentation accuracy and reflects certain advantages in objective evaluation.

An Investigation on the Impact of Unloading Rate on Coal Mechanical Properties and Energy Evolution Law.

In order to further explore the relationship between the excavation speed and the damage of surrounding rocks and dynamic manifestation, the stress paths of unloading confining pressure and loading axial pressure were designed based on the changes in the roadway surrounding rock stress in this study. Additionally, the mechanical properties and energy evolution law of the coal body were investigated under various unloading rates. As the unloading rate increased, the mechanical properties of the coal body including the failure strength, the confining pressure, the axial strain, and horizontal strain tended to decrease at the rupture stage, while the volume strain and the elastic modulus increased, indicating that the rupture form evolved from the ductile failure to brittle failure. Regarding the energy, the axial pressure did positive work while the confining pressure did negative work, with the total work and the stored elastic strain energy decreasing. In addition, with the increase of the dissipation energy, the elastic strain energy conversion rate decreased linearly, indicating that the high unloading rate increased the possibility of dynamic disasters induced by the instantaneous brittle rupture of the coal body. On the other hand, due to the low releasable elastic strain energy stored in the coal body, the strength and probability of subsequent dynamic manifestation of coal body destruction were reduced. Therefore, increasing the excavation speed in a controllable way can benefit the safety of mining.

The influence of socioeconomic and environmental determinants on acute myocardial infarction (AMI) mortality from the spatial epidemiological perspective.

Plenty of epidemiological approaches have been explored to detect the effects of environmental and socioeconomic factors on acute myocardial infarction (AMI) mortality. Whereas, identifying the influence of potential affecting factors on AMI mortality based on a spatial epidemiological perspective was strongly desired. Moreover, the interaction effects of two potential factors on the diseases were always neglected previously. Here, the Geodetector and geographically & temporally weighted regression model (GTWR) combined with multi-source spatiotemporal datasets were introduced to quantitatively determine the relationship between AMI mortality and potential influencing factors across Xi'an during 2014-2016. Besides, Moran's I was adopted to diagnose the spatial autocorrelation of AMI mortality. Some findings were achieved. The number of AMI mortality cases increased from 5075 in 2014 to 6774 in 2016. Air pollutants, meteorological factors, economic status, and topography factors exhibited a significant effect on AMI mortality. The AMI mortality demonstrated an obvious spatial autocorrelation feature during 2014-2016. POP and PE represented the most obvious impact on AMI mortality, respectively. Moreover, the interaction of any two factors was larger than that of the single factor on AMI mortality, and the factors with the strongest interaction vary according to lag groups and ages. The effects of factors on AMI mortality were POP (- 628.925) > PE (140.102) > RD (79.145) > O3 (- 58.438) > E_NH3 (42.370) for male, and POP (- 751.206) > RD (132.935) > E_NH3 (58.758) > PE (- 45.434) > O3 (- 21.256) for female, respectively. This work reminds the local government to continuously control air pollution, strengthen urban planning, and improve the health care of the rural areas for alleviating AMI mortality. Meanwhile, the scheme of the current study supplies a scientific reference for examining the effects of potential impact factors on related diseases using the spatial epidemiological perspective.

Ral GEF with the PH Domain and SH3 Binding Motif 1 Regulated by Splicing Factor Junction Plakoglobin and Pyrimidine Metabolism Are Prognostic in Uterine Carcinosarcoma.

Uterine carcinosarcoma (UCS) is a highly invasive malignant tumor that originated from the uterine epithelium. Many studies suggested that the abnormal changes of alternative splicing (AS) of pre-mRNA are related to the occurrence and metastasis of the tumor. This study investigates the mechanism of alternative splicing events (ASEs) in the tumorigenesis and metastasis of UCS. RNA-seq of UCS samples and alternative splicing event (ASE) data of UCS samples were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and TCGASpliceSeq databases, several times. Firstly, we performed the Cox regression analysis to identify the overall survival-related alternative splicing events (OSRASEs). Secondly, a multivariate model was applied to approach the prognostic values of the risk score. Afterwards, a coexpressed network between splicing factors (SFs) and OSRASEs was constructed. In order to explore the relationship between the potential prognostic signaling pathways and OSRASEs, we fabricated a network between these pathways and OSRASEs. Finally, validations from multidimension platforms were used to explain the results unambiguously. 1,040 OSRASEs were identified by Cox regression. Then, 6 OSRASEs were incorporated in a multivariable model by Lasso regression. The area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve was 0.957. The risk score rendered from the multivariate model was corroborated to be an independent prognostic factor (P < 0.001). In the network of SFs and ASEs, junction plakoglobin (JUP) noteworthily regulated RALGPS1-87608-AT (P < 0.001, R = 0.455). Additionally, RALGPS1-87608-AT (P = 0.006) showed a prominent relationship with distant metastasis. KEGG pathways related to prognosis of UCS were selected by gene set variation analysis (GSVA). The pyrimidine metabolism (P < 0.001, R = -0.470) was the key pathway coexpressed with RALGPS1. We considered that aberrant JUP significantly regulated RALGPS1-87608-AT and the pyrimidine metabolism pathway might play a significant part in the metastasis and prognosis of UCS.

Correlations between Clinical Characteristics and Prognosis in Patients with Grade II Glioma.

OBJECTIVE: Grade II gliomas are mostly astrocytomas and oligodendrocytomas. The treatment method is mainly surgery, combined with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. According to statistics, young patients under the age of 40 years with grade II gliomas have a 50% chance of more than 5-year survival through reasonable treatment and normal eating habits. The survival time of middle-aged and elderly patients over 40 years old is about 2-3 years under the same conditions. The study aimed at analyzing the clinical characteristics and prognostic factors of 60 patients with glioma. METHODS: A total of 60 patients diagnosed pathologically with grade II glioma according to the World Health Organization (WHO) classification in 2007 admitted into our hospital from January 2016 to December 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. The Kaplan-Meier curve was plotted to reflect 5-year survival according to patients' clinical characteristics. The Cox regression model was used to analyze prognostic factors of grade II glioma. RESULTS: Preoperative KPS scores <60, 60-80, and >80 accounted for 25.00% (15/60), 40.00% (24/60), and 35.00% (21/60), respectively. The largest tumor diameter LTD was less than 5 cm revealed in 60.00% patients, of which astrocytoma accounted for 65.00%. Subventricular zone (SVZ) expansion occurred in 23.33% of the patients and peritumoral edema occurred in 16.67% of the patients. The median follow-up time was 54 months. 5-year overall survival and progression-free survival rates of all patients were 70.0% and 56.7%, respectively. The Cox regression model indicated SVZ expansion, surgical resections, and recurrence were the independent prognostic factors of grade II glioma. CONCLUSION: These data suggested that SVZ expansion, surgical resections, and recurrence were independent factors affecting the prognosis of grade II glioma. According to the above clinical indexes of patients, individualized therapies can be established to prolong the survival time of patients.

CircLNPEP promotes the progression of ovarian cancer through regulating miR-876-3p/ WNT5A axis.

CircRNA LNPEP has been shown to promote the development of hepatocellular carcinoma, but its function in ovarian cancer (OC) remains unclear. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze the clinical significance of circLNPEP expression in OC patients. The stability of circLNPEP was detected by actinomycin D and RNase R treatment. The correlations between miR-876-3p and two genes (circLNPEP and WNT5A) were predicted by bioinformatics analysis and confirmed by dual-luciferase reporter assay. Expressions of circLNPEP, miR-876-3p, and WNT5A were determined by qRT-PCR and western blot. The effect of circLNPEP/miR-876-3p/WNT5A axis on viability, proliferation, migration, and invasion, and angiogenesis of cells was determined by cell function experiment and rescue experiment. Xenograft tumor mice were constructed for in vivo verification. Expressions of apoptosis, epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related genes, and CD34 were determined by qRT-PCR, western blot and immunohistochemistry. High level of circLNPEP was related to poor prognosis in OC. CircLNPEP was highly expressed in OC tissues and cell lines, mainly distributed in the cytoplasm, while miR-876-3p was the opposite. MiR-876-3p targeted and negatively correlated with circLNPEP and WNT5A. Sh-circLNPEP repressed cell viability, proliferation, migration, invasion, angiogenesis, and EMT but promoted apoptosis, which were related to its regulation of expression of EMT- and apoptosis-related genes, WNT5A, and CD34. The regulatory effect of sh-circLNPEP can be reversed by miR-876-3p inhibitor, and that of miR-876-3p inhibitor can be reversed by sh-WNT5A. CircLNPEP promoted cancer cell proliferation, EMT and angiogenesis, and inhibited apoptosis by regulating miR-876-3p/WNT5A axis.

The regulatory effect of acetylation of HMGN2 and H3K27 on pyocyanin-induced autophagy in macrophages by affecting Ulk1 transcription.

Pyocyanin (PYO) is a major virulence factor secreted by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and autophagy is a crucial homeostatic mechanism for the interaction between the pathogens and the host. It remains unknown whether PYO leads to autophagy in macrophages by regulating histone acetylation. The high mobility group nucleosomal binding domain 2 (HMGN2) has been reported to regulate the PYO-induced autophagy and oxidative stress in the epithelial cells; however, the underlying molecular mechanism has not been fully elucidated. In this study, PYO was found to induce autophagy in macrophages, and the mechanism might be correlated with the up-regulation of HMGN2 acetylation (HMGN2ac) and the down-regulation of H3K27 acetylation (H3K27ac) by modulation of the activities of acetyltransferases and deacetylases. Moreover, we further demonstrated that the up-regulated HMGN2ac enhances its recruitment to the Ulk1 promoter, while the down-regulation of H3K27ac reduces its recruitment to the Ulk1 promoter, thereby promoting or inhibiting the transcription of Ulk1. In conclusion, HMGN2ac and H3K27ac play regulatory roles in the PYO-induced autophagy in macrophages.

Identification of Stemness-Related Genes for Cervical Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Endocervical Adenocarcinoma by Integrated Bioinformatics Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Invasion and metastasis of cervical cancer are the main factors affecting the prognosis of patients with cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CESC). Therefore, it is of vital importance to find novel biomarkers that are associated with CESC invasion and metastasis, which will aid in the amelioration of individualized therapeutic methods for advanced patients. METHODS: The gene expression profiles of 10 metastatic and 116 non-metastatic samples were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), where differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were defined. Weighted gene correlation network analysis (WGCNA) was employed to identify the stemness-related genes (SRGs). Univariate and multivariate regression analyses were used to identify the most significant prognostic key genes. Differential expression analysis of transcription factor (TF) and Gene Set Variation Analysis (GSVA) were utilized to explore the potential upstream regulation of TFs and downstream signaling pathways, respectively. Co-expression analysis was performed among significantly enriched TFs, key SRGs, and signaling pathways to construct a metastasis-specific regulation network in CESC. Connectivity Map (CMap) analysis was performed to identify bioactive small molecules which might be potential inhibitors for the network. Additionally, direct regulatory patterns of key genes were validated by ChIP-seq and ATAC-seq data. RESULTS: DEGs in yellow module acquired via WGCNA were defined as key genes which were most significantly related to mRNAsi. A multivariate Cox regression model was constructed and then utilized to explore the prognostic value of key SRGs by risk score. Area under curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was 0.842. There was an obvious co expression pattern between the TF NR5A2 and the key gene VIM (R = 0.843, p < 0.001), while VIM was also significantly co-expressed with hallmark epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) signaling pathway (R = 0.318, p < 0.001). Naringenin was selected as the potential bioactive small molecule inhibitor for metastatic CESC based on CMap analysis. CONCLUSIONS: VIM positively regulated by NR5A2 affected EMT signaling pathways in metastatic CESC, and naringenin was the inhibitor for the treatment of metastatic CESC via suppressing cancer stemness. This hypothetical signaling axis and potential inhibitors provide biomarkers and novel therapeutic targets for metastatic CESC.

Do air pollutants as well as meteorological factors impact Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)? Evidence from China based on the geographical perspective.

The COVID-19 is still a huge challenge that seriously threatens public health globally. Previous studies focused on the influence of air pollutants and probable meteorological parameters on confirmed COVID-19 infections via epidemiological methods, whereas the findings of relations between possible variables and COVID-19 incidences using geographical perspective were scarce. In the present study, data concerning confirmed COVID-19 cases and possible affecting factors were collected for 325 cities across China up to May 27, 2020. The geographically weighted regression (GWR) model was introduced to explore the impact of probable determinants on confirmed COVID-19 incidences. Some results were obtained. AQI, PM2.5, and PM10 demonstrated significantly positive impacts on COVID-19 during the most study period with the majority lag group (P< 0.05). Nevertheless, the relation of temperature with COVID-19 was significantly negative (P< 0.05). Especially, CO exhibited a negative effect on COVID-19 in most study period with the majority lag group. The impacts of each possible determinant on COVID-19 represented significantly spatial heterogeneity. The obvious influence of the majority of possible factors on COVID-19 was mainly detected during the after lockdown period with the lag 21 group. Although the COVID-19 spreading has been effectively controlled by tough measures taken by the Chinese government, the study findings remind us to address the air pollution issues persistently for protecting human health.

Determining the effects of socioeconomic and environmental determinants on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) mortality using geographically and temporally weighted regression model across Xi'an during 2014-2016.

Numerous methods have been implemented to evaluate the relationship between environmental factors and respiratory mortality. However, the previous epidemiological studies seldom considered the spatial and temporal variation of the independent variables. The present study aims to detect the relations between respiratory mortality and related affecting factors across Xi'an during 2014-2016 based on a novel geographically and temporally weighted regression model (GTWR). Meanwhile, the ordinary least square (OLS) and the geographically weighted regression (GWR) models were developed for cross-comparison. Additionally, the spatial autocorrelation and Hot Spot analysis methods were conducted to detect the spatiotemporal dynamic of respiratory mortality. Some important outcomes were obtained. Socioeconomic and environmental determinants represented significant effects on respiratory diseases. The respiratory mortality exhibited an obvious spatial correlation feature, and the respiratory diseases tend to occur in winter and rural areas of the study area. The GTWR model outperformed OLS and GWR for determining the relations between respiratory mortality and socioeconomic as well as environmental determinants. The influence degree of anthropic factors on COPD mortality was higher than natural factors, and the effects of independent variables on COPD varied timely and locally. The results can supply a scientific basis for respiratory disease controlling and health facilities planning.

Polymer Vector Loading Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Matrix Protein Gene for Colon Cancer Therapy.

Gene therapy has been widely studied in colon cancer treatment. However, effective delivery of genes is a limitation for clinical applications. In the research, DOATP/mPEG-PLA-mPEG (DPLP) nanoparticles carrying the vesicular stomatitis virus matrix protein plasmid (pVSVMP) was used for colon cancer therapy, resulting in high transfection efficiency and expression efficiency in CT26 cells. Moreover, the DPLP-pVSVMP complex was provide with apoptosis induction and proliferation suppression of CT26 cells in vitro and can efficiently inhibit tumor growth in murine colon cancer model by inducing apoptosis, suppressing proliferation and angiogenesis. These results suggest that DPLP nanoparticles delivering pVSVMP might be a latent therapeutic avenue for colon cancer.

LAMC2 regulated by microRNA-125a-5p accelerates the progression of ovarian cancer via activating p38 MAPK signalling.

AIMS: Laminin γ2 (LAMC2) is over-expressed in ovarian cancer, and its high expression facilitates cell invasion. Nevertheless, the effects of LAMC2 on other ovarian cancer cell functions and its underlying mechanism remain largely unclear. Bioinformatics analysis shows that LAMC2 is a predicted target of miR-125a-5p and miR-193a-3p. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of LAMC2 in ovarian cancer progression and determine whether LAMC2 expression is under the regulation of miR-125a-5p or miR-193a-3p in ovarian cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Immunohistochemistry staining, western blot and qPCR were used to detect LAMC2 expression profiles. CCK-8, flow cytometry and tumour formation assays were used to assess cell proliferation, apoptosis and tumorigenesis. The interaction between miR-125a-5p/miR-193a-3p and LAMC2 were determined by the luciferase gene reporter assay. KEY FINDINGS: The results showed that LAMC2 was over-expressed in ovarian cancer tissues and cell lines. Over-expression of LAMC2 significantly promoted cell proliferation and repressed cell apoptosis, as well as increased the expression levels of p38, p-p38, c-myc and CREB, and translocated p38 protein to the nucleus. In addition, the promotion of cell proliferation and repression of cell apoptosis mediated by LAMC2 over-expression were all weakened when p38 was downregulated. Moreover, LAMC2 expression was negatively regulated by miR-125a-5p, which inhibited the nuclear accumulation of p38 protein. Upregulation of LAMC2 significantly abolished the effects of miR-125a-5p on cell proliferation inhibition and cell apoptosis promotion, as well as tumourigenesis repression. SIGNIFICANCE: The present study clarified that LAMC2 functioned as an oncogene in ovarian cancer through upregulating p38 under the regulation of miR-125a-5p.

P54/nrb prompts rheumatoid arthritis progression mainly by transcriptionally activating NF-κB signaling.

In various tumors, aberrant expression of P54/nrb has been identified. However, the expression pattern and specific role of P54/nrb in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has never been explored. Here, we first demonstrated that the expression of P54/nrb was markedly enhanced in the synovial tissues of RA patients. Functional study showed that P54/nrb could enhance the levels of inflammatory factors, including IL-1, IL-2, IL-6, IL-8 and TNFα. More importantly, we first found that overexpression of P54/nrb can induce the protein levels of P65, an important subunit of NF-κB. In contrast, knockdown of P54/nrb by RNAi significantly decreased the expression of NF-κB. Luciferase reporter assay and CHIP assay showed that P54/nrb could transcriptionally activate the expression of NF-κB, thereby enhancing pro-inflammatory responses. In summary, the expression of p54 was markedly increased in the synovial tissues of RA patients. Further study demonstrated that p54 could transcriptionally activate the expression of p65, an important NF-κB subunit, thereby enhancing the pro-inflammatory response.