In recent decades, numerous long non‑coding (lnc)RNAs, including growth arrest‑specific transcript 5 (GAS5), have been demonstrated to exert promoting or suppressive effects in human cancers. Decreased expression of the lncRNA GAS5 was reported to promote cell proliferation, migration and invasion and indicate poor prognosis in ovarian cancer. However, the exact underlying molecular mechanism through which GAS5 is involved in ovarian cancer growth remains unknown. The present study aimed to investigate the regulatory mechanism of GAS5 in ovarian cancer cell proliferation. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis were used to examine RNA and protein expression, respectively. An MTT assay was used to examine cell proliferation. A luciferase reporter gene assay was conducted to verify the targeting relationship. It was identified that the expression levels of GAS5 and Sprouty homolog 2 (SPRY2) were significantly downregulated, while the expression level of microRNA (miR)‑21 was significantly upregulated in ovarian cancer tissues and cell lines compared with adjacent non‑tumor tissues and normal ovarian epithelial cells, respectively. Downregulation of GAS5 was significantly associated with advanced clinical stage. Luciferase assay data indicated that miR‑21 was a direct target of GAS5 and that SPRY2 was a target gene of miR‑21 in ovarian cancer‑derived A2780 cells. GAS5 overexpression significantly inhibited the proliferation of ovarian cancer cells, which was accompanied by the downregulation of miR‑21 and the upregulation of SPRY2. The overexpression of miR‑21 caused a significant decrease in A2780 cell proliferation, which was accompanied by reduced SPRY2 expression. Furthermore, miR‑21 overexpression attenuated the suppressive effects of GAS5 on A2780 cell proliferation and rescued the promoting effects of GAS5 on SPRY2 expression. In addition, the knockdown of SPRY2 also rescued the suppressive effects of GAS5 on the proliferation of A2780 cells. In summary, our study demonstrates that GAS5 exerts a suppressive effect on the proliferation of ovarian cancer cells, at least in part via the inhibition of miR‑21 expression and subsequent increased SPRY2 expression. These findings suggest that the GAS5/miR‑21/SPRY2 signaling pathway may be a potential therapeutic target in ovarian cancer.
Zinc deficiency is closely related to cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), but the effects of marginal zinc deficiency (MZD) after birth on the heart are unknown. In this study, 4-week-old male rats were fed a low zinc diet (10 mg kg-1, 1/3 recommended nutrient intake, RNI) for 8 weeks. Echocardiography and histopathology were performed to assess the functional and morphological alterations of the heart. High-throughput proteomics was used to study the effects of MZD on cardiac protein expression. We found that MZD reduced food intake, body weight, serum zinc, and heart weight; however, the coefficient, zinc concentration, function, and histopathology of the heart were not changed. The heart proteome was altered in the marginal zinc-deficient diet group (MZG), compared with the normal zinc diet group (NZG). A total of 310 differentially expressed proteins (P < 0.05) were significantly changed by MZD, among which 163 proteins were up-regulated and 147 were down-regulated. Of these, 43 proteins are related to CVDs and 18 proteins are zinc-associated proteins. Gene Ontology and Pathway analysis revealed that 74 biological processes (BPs) and 37 pathways were significantly changed by MZD. This included six CVD-related BPs, such as regulation of heart rate, cardiac muscle contraction, regulation of ventricular cardiac muscle cell action potential, and regulation of blood pressure, and eight CVD-related pathways, such as dilated cardiomyopathy, diabetic cardiomyopathy, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Our data show that marginal zinc deficiency after birth significantly alters cardiac protein expression and pathways related to CVDs.
An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world’s repository for small molecule crystal structures. The entry contains experimental data from a crystal diffraction study. The deposited dataset for this entry is freely available from the CCDC and typically includes 3D coordinates, cell parameters, space group, experimental conditions and quality measures.
An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world’s repository for small molecule crystal structures. The entry contains experimental data from a crystal diffraction study. The deposited dataset for this entry is freely available from the CCDC and typically includes 3D coordinates, cell parameters, space group, experimental conditions and quality measures.
An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world’s repository for small molecule crystal structures. The entry contains experimental data from a crystal diffraction study. The deposited dataset for this entry is freely available from the CCDC and typically includes 3D coordinates, cell parameters, space group, experimental conditions and quality measures.
BACKGROUND Occult breast cancer (OBC) has traditionally been considered to be a carcinoma of unknown primary origin with a favorable prognosis and can be treated as stage II-III breast cancer. Due to the small number of cases and limited clinical ex-perience, treatments vary greatly around the world and no standardized treatment has yet been established. AIM To investigate the clinicopathological features, psychological status and prog-nostic features of patients with OBC. METHODS The clinicopathological data of 33 OBC patients diagnosed and treated in the Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University and Xuzhou Central Hospital from November 2015 to November 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. The psychological status of OBC patients was evaluated by the Self-rating Anxiety Scale and Self-rating Depression Scale. Patients’ emotions, stress perception and psychological resilience were evaluated by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, the Chinese Perceived Stress Scale, and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), respectively. Patient survival was calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method, and survival curves were plotted for analysis with the log-rank test. Univariate and multivariate survival analyses were performed using the Cox regression model. RESULTS The 33 OBC patients included 32 females and 1 male. Of the 33 patients, 30 (91%) had axillary tumors, 3 (9%) had a neck mass as the primary symptom; 18 (54.5%) had estrogen receptor-positive tumors, 17 (51.5%) had progesterone receptor-positive tumors, and 18 (54.5%) had Her-2-positive tumors; 24 (72.7%) received surgical treatment, including 18 patients who underwent modified radical mastectomy, 1 patient who underwent breast-conserving surgery plus axillary lymph node dissection (ALND), and 5 patients who underwent ALND alone; 12 patients received preoperative neoadjuvant therapy. All 30 patients developed anxiety and depression, with low positive affect scores and high negative affect scores, accompanied by a high stress level and poor psychological resilience. There were no differences in the psychological status of patients according to age, body mass index, or menopausal status. The overall survival and disease-free survival (DFS) of all the patients were 83.3% and 55.7%, respectively. Univariate analysis demonstrated that the initial tumor site (P = 0.021) and node stage (P = 0.020) were factors that may affect patient prognosis. The 5-year DFS rate of OBC patients who received radiotherapy was greater (P < 0.001), while the use of different surgical methods (P = 0.687) had no statistically significant effect on patient outcomes. Multivariate analysis revealed that radiotherapy (P = 0.031) was an independent prognostic factor. Receiving radiotherapy had a significant effect on the CD-RISC score (P = 0.02). CONCLUSION OBC is a rare breast disease whose diagnosis and treatment are currently controversial. There was no significant difference in the efficacy of other less invasive surgical procedures compared to those of modified radical mastectomy. In addition, radiotherapy can significantly improve patient outcomes. We should pay attention to the psychological state of patients while they receive antitumor therapy.
An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world’s repository for small molecule crystal structures. The entry contains experimental data from a crystal diffraction study. The deposited dataset for this entry is freely available from the CCDC and typically includes 3D coordinates, cell parameters, space group, experimental conditions and quality measures.
The effect of donor lung colonized bacteria on the prognosis of lung transplantation is not clear. We used the technique of next-generation sequencing (NGS) to detect the colonized bacteria from the lower respiratory tract and analyzed whether the colonized bacteria of donor lung could affect the outcomes of lung transplantation.Seventeen patients who underwent lung transplantation from March 2018 to June 2018 at Wuxi People's Hospital affiliated to Nanjing Medical University were included in this study. Twelve cases of donor lung were obtained, and 17 lung transplants were performed, including 12 single lung transplantation and 5 bilateral lung transplantation. The colonized bacteria in the lower lobe tissue of donor lung were detected by NGS, and the bacteria culture method was used to detect the bacteria in the airway secretion before and after the operation. The information of length of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support, mechanical ventilation time, length of intensive care unit (ICU) stay, duration of fever and length of hospital stay were collected for prognostic analysis.Compared with bacterial culture methods, the positive rate by using NGS in the lungs were higher (52.9% vs 41.2%). Among the patients who were transplanted with donor lungs with detected bacteria by NGS before surgery, only one patient (1/9) developed the same bacteria after lung transplantation. Based on results of NGS and bacterial culture, there was no association between the colonized bacteria in donor lungs and the patients' outcomes of immediate posttransplant period.NGS showed more sensitive than bacterial culture for detection of bacteria. The colonized bacteria in different parts of the lung are inconsistent. There is no association between the colonized bacteria in donor lungs and short-term outcome of lung transplantation patients.
Background— Increasing evidence, derived mainly from animal models, supports the existence of endogenous cardiac renewal and repair mechanisms in adult mammalian hearts that could contribute to normal homeostasis and the responses to pathological insults. Methods and Results— Translating these results, we isolated small c-kit + cells from 36 of 37 human hearts using primary cell isolation techniques and magnetic cell sorting techniques. The abundance of these cardiac progenitor cells was increased nearly 4-fold in patients with heart failure requiring transplantation compared with nonfailing controls. Polychromatic flow cytometry of primary cell isolates (<30 μm) without antecedent c-kit enrichment confirmed the increased abundance of c-kit + cells in failing hearts and demonstrated frequent coexpression of CD45 in these cells. Immunocytochemical characterization of freshly isolated, c-kit–enriched human cardiac progenitor cells confirmed frequent coexpression of c-kit and CD45. Primary cardiac progenitor cells formed new human cardiac myocytes at a relatively high frequency after coculture with neonatal rat ventricular myocytes. These contracting new cardiac myocytes exhibited an immature phenotype and frequent electric coupling with the rat myocytes that induced their myogenic differentiation. Conclusions— Despite the increased abundance and cardiac myogenic capacity of cardiac progenitor cells in failing human hearts, the need to replace these organs via transplantation implies that adverse features of the local myocardial environment overwhelm endogenous cardiac repair capacity. Developing strategies to improve the success of endogenous cardiac regenerative processes may permit therapeutic myocardial repair without cell delivery per se.