Expression, Clinical Significance, Immune Infiltration, and Regulation Network of miR-3940-5p in Lung Adenocarcinoma Based on Bioinformatic Analysis and Experimental Validation.

Background: Based on bioinformatics analysis and experimental validation, we investigated the expression, clinical significance, immune infiltration, and potential signaling pathways of miR-3940-5p in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Methods: 521 LUAD tissue samples and 46 normal lung tissue samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. We evaluated the relationship between clinical features and miR-3940-5p expression using Kruskal-Wallis, Wilcoxon sign-rank, and logistic regression, explored the relationship between miR-3940-5p expression and the prognosis of LUAD patients using Kaplan-Meier survival curve analysis. Several databases were used to identify miRNA targets. MiR-3940-5p target genes were analyzed based on Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses. The significant role of miR-3940-5p in function was evaluated using immune infiltration analysis. LUAD cell lines were tested for miR-3940-5p expression using QRT-PCR. Results: There was a significant association between high miR-3940-5p expression in LUAD and T stage (P=0.005), pathologic stage (P=0.047), race (White vs Asian & Black or African American) (P=0.041), residual tumor (P=0.043), and anatomic neoplasm subdivision2 (P=0.030). MiR-3940-5p expression predicted poor overall survival (HR: 1.35; 95% CI: 1.01-1.81; P=0.045), disease-specific survival (HR: 1.53; 95% CI: 1.05-2.23; P=0.026), and progression-free survival (HR: 1.35; 95% CI: 1.03-1.77; P=0.032). BAP1, BBS1, CCR2, KCNE3, PEBP1, and RABL2A were all associated with poor OS in LUAD patients with low miR-3940-5p expression levels. According to GO and KEGG analyses, miR-3940-5p may play a role in LUAD development by regulating pathways such as measles, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, and p53 signaling pathway. There was a correlation between the expression level of miR-3940-5p and immune infiltration. LUAD cell lines showed significantly higher levels of miR-3940-5p than Beas-2B cells. Conclusion: A high expression of miR-3940-5p is significantly associated with a poor prognosis in patients with LUAD, suggesting that it could be used as a prognostic biomarker.

LncRNA ADAMTS9-AS2 is a Prognostic Biomarker and Correlated with Immune Infiltrates in Lung Adenocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND: The role of long noncoding RNA (LncRNA) ADAMTS9 antisense RNA 2 (ADAMTS9-AS2) is unclear in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between ADAMTS9-AS2 and LUAD, based on The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and bioinformatics analysis. METHODS: Various statistical methods, Kaplan-Meier method, Cox regression analysis, GSEA, and immune infiltration analysis were used to evaluate the relationship between clinical features and ADAMTS9-AS2 expression, prognostic factors, and the significant involvement of ADAMTS9-AS2 in function. RESULTS: In LUAD patients, low expression of ADAMTS9-AS2 was associated with N stage (P=0.011), gender (P=0.002), number of packs smoked (P=0.024) and smoker (P<0.001). Low ADAMTS9-AS2 expression predicted a poorer overall survival (OS) (HR: 0.68; 95% CI: 0.51-0.91; P=0.01). And ADAMTS9-AS2 expression (HR: 0.626; 95% CI: 0.397-0.986; P=0.043) was independently correlated with OS in LUAD patients. Unwinding of DNA, extrinsic pathway, polo-like kinase-mediated events, cori cycle, MCM pathway, proteasome pathway, lagging strand synthesis and PCNA-dependent long patch base excision repair were differentially enriched in ADAMTS9-AS2 high expression phenotype. ADAMTS9-AS2 expression was correlated with certain immune infiltrating cells. CONCLUSION: In LUAD patients, ADAMTS9-AS2 expression was significantly associated with poor survival and immune infiltration. ADAMTS9-AS2 may be a promising biomarker of prognosis and response to immunotherapy for LUAD.

Electronic-Grade High-Quality Perovskite Single Crystals by a Steady Self-Supply Solution Growth for High-Performance X-ray Detectors.

High-quality perovskite single crystals with large size are highly desirable for the fundamental research and high energy detection application. Here, a simple and convenient solution method, featuring continuous-mass transport process (CMTP) by a steady self-supply way, is shown to keep the growth of semiconductor single crystals continuously stable at a constant growth rate until an expected crystal size is achieved. A significantly reduced full width at half-maximum (36 arcsec) of the (400) plane from the X-ray rocking curve indicates a low angular dislocation of 6.8 × 106 cm-2 and hence a higher crystalline quality for the CH3 NH3 PbI3 (MAPbI3 ) single crystals grown by CMTP as compared to the conventional inverse temperature crystallization (ITC) method. Furthermore, the CMTP-based single crystals have lower trap density, reduced by nearly 200% to 4.5 × 109 cm-3 , higher mobility increased by 187% to 150.2 cm2 V-1 s-1 , and higher mobility-lifetime product increased by around 450% to 1.6 × 10-3 cm2 V-1 , as compared with the ITC-grown reference sample. The high performance of the CMTP-based MAPbI3 X-ray detector is comparable to that of a traditional high-quality CdZnTe device, indicating the CMTP method as being a cost-efficient strategy for high-quality electronic-grade semiconductor single crystals.

[Effect of RNA interference of CD59 gene on proliferation of non-small cell lung cancer cell line GLC-P in vitro].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of CD59 gene inhibition mediated by RNA interference on the proliferation and apoptosis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) GLC-P cells in vitro. METHODS: Recombinant plasmids for RNA interference of CD59 gene were constructed and transfected into GLC-P cells via lipofectamine 2000. The stably transfected cells were examined with real-time RT-PCR, MTT assay and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to investigate the changes in cell proliferation and apoptosis. RESULTS: Compared with the control cells, the cells transfected with CD59-siRNA showed significantly decreased expression levels of CD59 mRNA (P<0.05) and significantly inhibited cell proliferation. CONCLUSION: CD59 gene is highly expressed in NSCLC and RNA interference-mediated CD59 silencing can strongly inhibit the proliferation and induce apoptosis in GLC-P cells, which shed light on a potentially new target for targeted gene therapy of NSCLC.

[miRNA-144 in the saliva is a genetic marker for early diagnosis of esophageal cancer].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the presence of miRNA-144 in the saliva of patients with esophageal cancer and its value for early diagnosis of esophageal cancer. METHODS: Saliva samples were collected form patients with esophageal cancer admitted in the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University and the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical College between January, 2011 and May, 2013, with saliva samples from 50 middle-aged healthy volunteers matched for age and gender ratio as the control group. The contents of miRNA-144 in the samples were detected with RT-PCR. RESULTS: The levels of miRNA-144 in both the whole saliva and saliva supernatant were significantly higher in esophageal cancer group than in the control group (P<0.05). In the whole saliva, the cut-off point of miRNA-144 was ≥100, with a sensitivity of 74.6% and a specificity of 92.0% for esophageal cancer diagnosis (Az=0.865); in saliva supernatant, the cut-off point was ≥20 with a sensitivity of 53.7% and a specificity of 94.0% (Az=0.754), suggesting a moderate diagnostic value of miRNA-144 in whole saliva and saliva supernatant. CONCLUSION: miRNA-144 is highly expressed in the saliva of patients with esophageal cancer and can be used as a genetic marker for early diagnosis of esophageal cancer.

Environmental fate and effects of nicotine released during cigarette production.

A variety of test methods were used to study the gradation, bioaccumulation, and toxicity of nicotine. Studies included determination of the octanol-water partition coefficient, conversion to CO2 in soil and activated sludge, and evaluation of the effects on microbiological and algal inhibition as well as plant germination and root elongation. The partitioning of nicotine between octanol and water indicated that nicotine will not bioaccumulate regardless of the pH of the medium. The aqueous and soil-based biodegradation studies indicated that nicotine is readily biodegradable in both types of media. The microbiological inhibition and aquatic and terrestrial toxicity tests indicated that nicotine has low toxicity. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Persistence, Bioaccumulation, and Toxicity Profiler model, based on the structure of nicotine and the predictive rates of hydroxyl radical and ozone reactions, estimated an atmospheric half-life of less than 5.0 h. Using this value in the Canadian Environmental Modeling Center level III model, the half-life of nicotine was estimated as 3.0 d in water and 0.5 d in soil. This model also estimated nicotine discharge into the environment; nicotine would be expected to be found predominantly in water (93%), followed by soil (4%), air (3%), and sediment (0.4%). Using the estimated nicotine concentrations in water, soil, and sediment and the proper median effective concentrations derived from the algal growth, biomass inhibition, and buttercrunch lettuce (Lactuca sativa) seed germination and root elongation studies, hazard quotients of between 10(-7) and 10(-8) were calculated, providing further support for the conclusion that the potential for nicotine toxicity to aquatic and terrestrial species in the environment is extremely low.