LncRNA TUG1, a tumor oncogene associated with various human cancers, has been reported to be involved in regulating various cellular processes, such as proliferation, apoptosis and invasion through ...targeting multiple genes. However, its biological function in thyroid cancer cells has not been elucidated. The aim of this study is to measure TUG1 expression level and evaluate its function in thyroid cancer cells. LncRNA TUG1 expression levels in thyroid cancer tissues and three thyroid cancer cell lines （the ATC cell lines SW1736 and KAT18 and the FTC cell line FTC133） were assessed by qRT-PCR and compared with that of the human normal breast epithelial cell HGC-27. M＇IT assay, colony formation assay, transwell assay and western blot analysis were performed to assess the effects of TUG1 on proliferation, metastasis and EMT formation in thyroid cancer cells in vitro. Rescue assay was performed to further confirm that TUG1 contributes to the progression of thyroid cancer cells through regulating miR-145/ZEB1 signal pathway. LncRNA TUG1 was found to be up-regulated in thyroid cancer tissues and thyroid cancer cells compared with that in the human normal breast epithelial cell HGC-27. Increased IncRNA TUG1 expression was found to significantly promote tumor cell proliferation, and facilitate cell invasion, while down-regulated TUG1 could obviously inhibit cell proliferation, migration/invasion and reverse EMT to MET. These results indicated that TUG1 may contribute to the progression of thyroid cancer cells by function as a ceRNA competitive sponging miR-145, and that IncRNA TUG1 is associated with tumor progression In thyroid cancer Cells.
Rational design of artificial micro-structured metamaterials with advanced mechanical and physical properties that are not accessible in nature materials is challenging and important. In our paper, ...mechanical designs of 2D and 3D chiral mechanical metamaterials are reviewed, and their mechanical behaviors and deformation mechanisms can be investigated through equilibrium principle, strain energy analysis, micropolar elasticity and homogenization theories. Afterwards, multifunctional properties of chiral mechanical metamaterials are elaborated, such as: vibration attenuation, impact energy absorption and negative coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). Finally, several successful industrial applications of chiral mechanical metamaterials are demonstrated, such as: morphing airfoil smart deployable antenna and reconfigurable structures, auxetic stent, chiral flexible electronics and phase transforming metastructures, etc. Finally, perspectives and challenges on chiral mechanical metamaterials are discussed.
Rational design of artificial micro-structured metamaterials with advanced mechanical and physical properties that are not accessible in nature materials is challenging and important. In the past several years, making use of the node rotation and ligament bending deformation features of chiral elements, various types of 2D and 3D chiral mechanical metamaterials are designed and proposed for industrial application. In our paper, mechanical designs of 2D and 3D chiral mechanical metamaterials are reviewed, and their mechanical behaviors and deformation mechanisms can be investigated through force and momentum equilibrium principle, strain energy analysis, micropolar elasticity and homogenization theories. Afterwards, multifunctional properties of chiral mechanical metamaterials are elaborated, such as: vibration attenuation and bandgap features, impact energy absorption and negative coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). Finally, several successful industrial applications of chiral mechanical metamaterials are demonstrated, such as: morphing airfoil with chiral core configuration, shape memorial smart deployable antenna and reconfigurable structures, auxetic stent for biomedical application, chiral flexible electronics and phase transforming metastructures with shape switching abilities, etc. Display omitted
•Design of chiral mechanical metamaterials are reviewed, theoretical models are elaborated for exploring the deformation mechanisms.•Multifunctional mechanical benefits and limitations of chiral mechanical metamaterials are reviewed and discussed.•Industrial applications of chiral mechanical metamaterials are reviewed, perspectives and challenges are discussed.
•A UHPLC-QTOF-MS method was developed for multi-residue analysis in eggs.•A single-injection workflow was used for screening analysis.•QTOF-MS and QqQ-MS were comparable with residue concentrations ...over 0.01 mg·kg−1.•The reliability of QTOF-MS identification decreased substantially at trace levels.
A multi-class screening method for the determination of veterinary drugs and pesticides in eggs was developed by high performance liquid chromatography quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPLC-QTOF-MS). A single-injection workflow was developed for qualitative analysis, and method validation was conducted in terms of retention time deviation (ΔRt), exact mass error (Δm), selectivity, specificity, precision and trueness. The characteristic fragment ions in information dependent acquisition (IDA) mode were summarized for retrospective and non-target screening. Five of 70 samples were found positive with sulfachloropyridazine, sulfamonomethoxine and fipronil sulfone. Compared with triple-quadrupole (QqQ) MS method, the obtained results showed that QTOF-MS gave comparable results to QqQ-MS with residue concentrations higher than 10 μg·kg−1, whereas QqQ-MS was more powerful at lower concentrations (<1 μg·kg−1). Moreover, the amount of fragment ions acquired by HPLC-QTOF-MS decreased substantially at trace levels, which may be a potential cause of reduced reliability of identification.
In recent decades, widespread multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria have become a serious problem in healthcare facilities.
To systematically summarize and investigate the prevalence and genomic ...features of clinical MDR
(
) clinical isolates recovered from the first hospital of Lanzhou University, we collected 50 MDR
isolates isolated in the first quarter of 2022 and using whole-genome sequencing investigate the genotypic characteristics.
All of these isolates were generally resistant to the common β-lactamase antibiotics. Resistance to cefoperazone-sulbactam varies greatly between different clones. The proportion of CC208 isolates resistant and mediated to cefoperazone-sulbactam is as high as 84.6%. There were no isolates resistant to tigecycline and colistin. The presence of
(94.0%) and
(98.0%) were the most frequent determinants for carbapenem resistance. Two main endemic clones were identified, one (ST469
) was predominantly circulating in ICUs and carried the same resistance genes, virulence genes and transposons, and the other clone (CC208) carried more resistance genes and had more widely disseminated.
Our study showed that clinical MDR
isolates circulating in our hospital exhibited highly similar genetic features. We should take timely and effective measures to control the further epidemic of these isolates.
We present measurements of the angular diameter distance D
A
(z) and the Hubble parameter H(z) at z = 0.35 using the anisotropy of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) signal measured in the galaxy ...clustering distribution of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7 (DR7) luminous red galaxy (LRG) sample. Our work is the first to apply density-field reconstruction to an anisotropic analysis of the acoustic peak. Reconstruction partially removes the effects of non-linear evolution and redshift-space distortions in order to sharpen the acoustic signal. We present the theoretical framework behind the anisotropic BAO signal and give a detailed account of the fitting model we use to extract this signal from the data. Our method focuses only on the acoustic peak anisotropy, rather than the more model-dependent anisotropic information from the broad-band power. We test the robustness of our analysis methods on 160 Large Suite of Dark Matter Simulation DR7 mock catalogues and find that our models are unbiased at the ∼0.2 per cent level in measuring the BAO anisotropy. After reconstruction we measure D
A
(z = 0.35) = 1050 ± 38 Mpc and H(z = 0.35) = 84.4 ± 7.0 km s−1 Mpc−1 assuming a sound horizon of r
s
= 152.76 Mpc. Note that these measurements are correlated with a correlation coefficient of 0.57. This represents a factor of 1.4 improvement in the error on D
A
relative to the pre-reconstruction case; a factor of 1.2 improvement is seen for H.
The association of Zika virus (ZIKV) infections with microcephaly and neurological diseases has highlighted an emerging public health concern. Here, we report the crystal structure of the full‐length ...ZIKV nonstructural protein 1 (NS1), a major host‐interaction molecule that functions in flaviviral replication, pathogenesis, and immune evasion. Of note, a long intertwined loop is observed in the wing domain of ZIKV NS1, and forms a hydrophobic “spike”, which can contribute to cellular membrane association. For different flaviviruses, the amino acid sequences of the “spike” are variable but their common characteristic is either hydrophobic or positively charged, which is a beneficial feature for membrane binding. Comparative studies with West Nile and Dengue virus NS1 structures reveal conserved features, but diversified electrostatic characteristics on both inner and outer faces. Our results suggest different mechanisms of flavivirus pathogenesis and should be considered during the development of diagnostic tools.
Synopsis
The Zika virus (ZIKV) nonstructural protein 1 (NS1) functions in viral replication, pathogenesis, and immune evasion. Here, we solved the crystal structure of full‐length NS1 protein, and found an extended membrane association interface contributed by the hydrophobic “spike” of a long intertwined loop, providing important information for ZIKV pathogenesis and development of diagnostic tools.
Full‐length ZIKV NS1 structure has a similar overall structural fold to other flavivirus NS1 structures.
A long intertwined loop forming a hydrophobic “spike” in the NS1 structure could contribute to cellular membrane association.
The variable “spike” residues for different flaviviruses have common hydrophobic or positively charged characteristics.
ZIKV NS1 has diversified electrostatic characteristics on both inner and outer faces.
Conservation analysis of NS1 structure reveals vulnerable sites for the development of diagnostic tools.
The crystal structure of the Zika virus NS1 protein reveals an extended intertwined loop forming a hydrophobic “spike” that contributes to cellular membrane association.
Abstract
A supercurrent flowing in a superconductor meets no resistance. Yet an electric field may still be established within the superconductor in the presence of dissipative processes, such as ...vortex motion. Here we report the observation of a transverse voltage drop in superconducting
β-
Bi
2
Pd thin films. Unlike the Hall effect in general or in other superconductors, the sign of the observed transverse voltage does not depend on the external magnetic field. Instead, it is dictated by the broken inversion symmetry on the film interfaces. This anomalous transverse voltage, or transverse resistance, is indicative of a chirality that likely resonates with the topological surface states reported in
β-
Bi
2
Pd.
The baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) feature in the clustering of matter in the universe serves as a robust standard ruler and hence can be used to map the expansion history of the universe. We use ...high force resolution simulations to analyze the effects of galaxy bias on the measurements of the BAO signal. We apply a variety of Halo Occupation Distributions (HODs) and produce biased mass tracers to mimic different galaxy populations. We investigate whether galaxy bias changes the nonlinear shifts on the acoustic scale relative to the underlying dark matter distribution presented by Seo et al. For the less biased HOD models (b < 3), we do not detect any shift in the acoustic scale relative to the no-bias case, typically 0.10% ? 0.10%. However, the most biased HOD models (b > 3) show a shift at moderate significance (0.79% ? 0.31% for the most extreme case). We test the one-step reconstruction technique introduced by Eisenstein et al. in the case of realistic galaxy bias and shot noise. The reconstruction scheme increases the correlation between the initial and final (z = 1) density fields, achieving an equivalent level of correlation at nearly twice the wavenumber after reconstruction. Reconstruction reduces the shifts and errors on the shifts. We find that after reconstruction the shifts from the galaxy cases and the dark matter case are consistent with each other and with no shift. The 1 Delta *s systematic errors on the distance measurements inferred from our BAO measurements with various HODs after reconstruction are about 0.07%-0.15%.
This study aims to investigate the function and mechanism of microRNA-106b-5p (miR-106b-5p) in cervical cancer (CC). Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was ...performed to determine miR-106b-5p expression in CC tissues and normal gastric tissues. Cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) and colony formation assays were used to analyze the regulatory effects of miR-106b-5p on CC cells’ proliferative ability. Wound healing and Transwell assays were conducted to detect the effects of miR-106b-5p on cell migration and invasion. Besides, TargetScan was used to predict the potential target genes of miR-106b-5p. The interaction between miR-106b-5p and fibroblast growth factor 4 (FGF4) was proved by qRT-PCR, Western blot, and dual-luciferase reporter gene assay. MiR-106b-5p expression was down-regulated in CC tissues compared to non-tumorous tissues. The expression of miR-106b-5p was associated with the lymphatic node metastasis, FIGO stage and differentiation of CC. Functional assays revealed that miR-106b-5p overexpression suppressed CC cell proliferation, migration and invasion while miR-106b-5p inhibitor had the opposite effects. In addition, FGF4 was identified as a target gene of miR-106b-5p, and FGF could be negatively regulated by miR-106b-5p. MiR-106b-5p may serve as a tumor suppressor in CC, which can inhibit CC growth and metastasis by down-regulating FGF4 expression.
Background: In recent years, abnormalities in plasma omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (omega-3 PUFAs) have been proven to be related to the risk of cancer, but their prognostic value for cancer is ...unclear. The purpose of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the response and prognostic significance of plasma omega-3 PUFAs in patients with cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). Spearman rank correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between omega-3 PUFAs and squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCC-Ag) levels. Methods: A total of 89 patients with CSCC who underwent CCRT were evaluated retrospectively. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the independent predictors related to complete response (CR) after CCRT. A Cox proportional hazard model and Kaplan-Meier analysis were utilized to perform survival analysis. Results: According to multivariate logistic regression analyses, a high level of plasma EPA was independently correlated with an increased incidence of CR after CCRT (odds ratio (OR), 0.980; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.962–0.999, p = 0.038). With a median follow-up of 41.3 months, the CSCC patients in the high EPA (≥46.0 nmol/mL) group exhibited longer OS and PFS. According to our multivariate analysis, pretreatment plasma EPA level was an independent prognostic factor for PFS in patients with CSCC who underwent CCRT (hazard ratio (HR), 0.263; 95% CI, 0.089–0.782, p = 0.016). However, it was not an independent prognostic factor of OS. Spearman rank correlation analysis revealed was a negative correlation between pretreatment SCC-Ag (pre SCC-Ag) levels and EPA levels ( r = −0.305, p = 0.004), and a weak negative correlation between posttreatment SCC-Ag (post SCC-Ag) levels and EPA levels ( r = −0.251, p = 0.018). Conclusion: Plasma omega-3 PUFAs are related to the response and survival outcome of patients with CSCC who underwent CCRT. Pretreatment plasma EPA levels may be a promising biomarker for predicting the response and prognosis of patients with CSCC who undergo CCRT. In addition, the pretreatment plasma EPA levels presented a negative correlation with the SCC-Ag levels.
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