Advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) still has a dismal prognostic outcome. However, the current approaches are unable to evaluate patient survival. Pyroptosis represents a novel ...programmed cell death type which widely investigated in various disorders and can influence tumor growth, migration, and invasion. Furthermore, few existing studies have used pyroptosis-related genes (PRGs) to construct a model for predicting ESCC survival. Therefore, the present study utilized bioinformatics approaches for analyzing ESCC patient data obtained from the TCGA database to construct the prognostic risk model and applied it to the GSE53625 dataset for validation. There were 12 differentially expressed PRGs in healthy and ESCC tissue samples, among which eight were selected through univariate and LASSO cox regression for constructing the prognostic risk model. According to K-M and ROC curve analyses, our eight-gene model might be useful in predicting ESCC prognostic outcomes. Based on the cell validation analysis, C2, CD14, RTP4, FCER3A, and SLC7A7 were expressed higher in KYSE410 and KYSE510 than in normal cells (HET-1A). Hence, ESCC patient prognostic outcomes can be assessed by our PRGs-based risk model. Further, these PRGs may also serve as therapeutic targets.
Metals released into the environment continue to be of concern for human health. Using white-rot fungi as biosorbents for heavy metals removal is an attractive alternative owing to its good ...performance and low cost. However, the molecular mechanism underlying heavy metal tolerance in white-rot fungi has not yet been fully elucidated. This study identified and analyzed the lead (Pb)-induced transcriptional changes in Phanerochaete chrysosporium, a well-known heavy metal hyperaccumulating white-rot fungus. The results confirmed its outstanding ability in Pb tolerance and effective defense system. By comparative analysis of gene expression profiles obtained from cDNA-amplified fragment length polymorphism (cDNA-AFLP), we isolated 43 transcript-derived fragments (TDFs) differentially regulated by Pb exposure in P. chrysosporium, and 23 TDFs presented significant similarities to genes encoding known or putative proteins which belong to different functional categories involving ion binding, energy and carbohydrate metabolism, and signal transduction. The detailed characterization of these Pb-responsive genes was presented and the expression patterns of some interesting genes were validated by quantitative RT-PCR. This work provides the first evidence of Pb-responsive genes along with their putatively functional annotations in P. chrysosporium, which may help to understand the mechanism underlying heavy metal accumulation and tolerance in P. chrysosporium.
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•Pb affected fungal growth and Pb accumulation in a dose- and time-dependent manner.•cDNA-AFLP analysis revealed the Pb-responsive genes in P. chrysosporium.•Genes involved in ion binding, energy and signal transduction were altered.•qRT-PCR analysis of six Pb-responsive genes validated the cDNA-AFLP result.
Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) is the most serious disorder among primary immunodeficiency diseases threatening children’s life. Atypical SCID variant, presenting with mild reduced T cells ...subsets, is often associated with infection susceptibility but poor clinical diagnosis. The atypical X-SCID patient in the present study showed a mild clinical presentation with a T
low
NK
+
B
+
immunophenotype. The patient has reduced T- cell subpopulations with a subdued thymic output measured by sjTRECs. Further analysis showed that T cells maintained a normal proliferation and a broad Vβ repertoire. NK cells, however, exhibited a skewed development toward immature CD3
−
CD16
+
CD56
−
cells. Genetic analysis revealed a novel deletion at nucleotide 52 in exon 1 of
IL2RG
gene. Sequence alignment predicted a truncated IL2RG protein missing signal peptide derived from a possible alternative reading frame. The novel mutation in
IL2RG
gene identified in our study may help the early diagnosis of atypical X-SCID.
Monocytes play important roles in antigen presentation and cytokine production to achieve a proper immune response, and are therefore largely implicated in the development and progression of ...autoimmune diseases. The aim of this study was to analyze the change in the intermediate (CD14+CD16+) monocyte subset in children with recent-onset type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and its possible association with clinical parameters reflecting islet β-cell dysfunction. Compared with age- and sex-matched healthy controls, intermediate monocytes were expanded in children with T1DM, which was positively associated with hemoglobin A1C and negatively associated with serum insulin and C-peptide. Interestingly, the intermediate monocytes in T1DM patients expressed higher levels of human leukocyte antigen-DR and CD86, suggesting better antigen presentation capability. Further analysis revealed that the frequency of CD45RO+CD4+ memory T cells was increased in the T1DM patients, and the memory T cell content was well correlated with the increase in intermediate monocytes. These results suggest that expanded intermediate monocytes are a predictive factor for the poor residual islet β-cell function in children with recent-onset T1DM.
Quantum-sized cerium dioxide (CeO
) show high catalytic capability as well as strong light absorption ability owing to its redox couple Ce
/Ce
and abundant oxygen vacancies, which making it a ...potential material for designing superior photoelectrochemical (PEC) sensors. However, it has scarcely been applied in the field of PEC sensing, because its wide band gap and aggregation effect can restrict the photoelectric conversion efficiency. Herein, we address these two obstacles by coupling CeO
quantum dots (QDs) with graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) and Au nanoparticles (NPs). The electron transfer path in this proposed heterojunction was proved by density functional theory (DFT) calculation for the first time, which provided theoretical support for the detection of MC-LR. The as-obtained PEC aptasensor exhibited excellent analytical performance with a wide liner response of 0.05-10
pM, and the detection limit was 0.01 pM. By designing appropriate sensing system and specific recognition mechanism, this work may pave a unique avenue for constructing ultrasensitive and selective analysis of MC-LR in complex environment without any external electric source.
With growing attention to energy conservation and emission reduction, solar energy is used in various fields as the basic renewable energy source and the maximum amount of energy that can be ...exploited in the world today is used in various fields. Therefore, a composite type combined heating operation mode based on solar collector, ground source heat pump and heat storage electric boiler in the integration is proposed, which solves the problems of traditional heating environment problems and shortcomings to a certain extent. In order to meet the load demand of the heating terminal and improve the economy of the whole heating system, combination of equipment capacity is optimized according to the existing load demand and the working characteristics of the related equipment. In this paper, the principle of the combined heating method is analyzed, and then the mathematical model and the relevant constraint conditions are set up for each component of the heating system such as solar collector, ground source heat pump and heat storage electric boiler, with the number of different components as variables, including energy, environment and economic evaluation of three indicators of a comprehensive the cost of the minimum target index. Finally, genetic algorithm is used to obtain the optimal capacity of each component in the system. The effectiveness of the proposed model is verified by a numerical example.
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