Screening of significant biomarkers related with prognosis of liver cancer by lncRNA-associated ceRNAs analysis

This study aimed to identify significant biomarkers related to the prognosis of liver cancer using long noncoding RNA (lncRNA)-associated competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) analysis. Differentially expressed mRNA and lncRNAs between liver cancer and paracancerous tissues were screened, and the functions of these mRNAs were predicted by gene ontology and pathway enrichment analyses. A ceRNA network consisting of differentially expressed mRNAs and lncRNAs was constructed. LncRNA FENDRR and lncRNA HAND2-AS1 were hub nodes in the ceRNA network. A risk score assessment model consisting of eight genes (PDE2A, ESR1, FBLN5, ALDH8A1, AKR1D1, EHHADH, ADRA1A, and GNE) associated with prognosis were developed. Multivariate Cox regression suggested that both pathologic_T and risk group could be regarded as independent prognostic factors. Furthermore, a nomogram model consisting of pathologic_T and risk group showed a good prediction ability for predicting the survival rate of liver cancer patients. The nomogram model consisting of pathologic_T and a risk score assessment model could be regarded as an independent factor for predicting prognosis of liver cancer.     

Chimeric antigen receptor engineered innate immune cells in cancer immunotherapy

Introducing chimeric antigen receptor into immune cells against malignancies has contributed to a revolutionary innovation in cancer immunotherapy. As an important type of adaptive immune cells, T cells first caught researchers' attention and became great success in chimeric antigen receptor-based immunotherapy. However, engineered T cells seem to hit their bottleneck when resistance of cancerous cells, less encouraging responses in solid tumors and unwanted toxicities to the host remain to be solved.Meanwhile, innate immune cells get to join the race. Representatives such as natural killer cells, natural killer T cells, γδT cells and macrophages also prove to be well redirected with chimeric antigen receptors. Compared to chimeric antigen receptor engineered T cells, these engineered innate immune cells may possess multiple targeting and killing mechanisms, have the potential to crack the barrier of solid tumors and have less side effects in the host. Besides, possible universal access to cell resources and improvements in expansion and transduction techniques make these cells promising candidates with huge potential in translational medicine. Therefore, innate immune cells claim a brand-new dimension and are likely to supplement T cells greatly in the field of chimeric antigen receptor-based immunotherapy.     

On the computation of in vivo transmural mean stress of patient-specific aortic wall

Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology - It is well known that residual deformations/stresses alter the mechanical behavior of arteries, e.g., the pressure–diameter curves. In an effort...     

Inhibition Ability of Food Cues between Successful and Unsuccessful Restrained Eaters: A Two-Choice Oddball Task

BackgroundPrevious studies have presented mixed findings on the inhibition ability in restrained eaters (REs) due to the limited amount of neural evidence and limitations of behavioral measures. The current study explores the neural correlations of the specific inhibition ability among successful restrained eaters (S-REs), unsuccessful restrained eaters (US-REs), and unrestrained eaters (UREs).ConclusionResults indicate that S-REs and US-REs differ in terms of specific inhibition ability and that enhanced inhibition is essential to a successful diet.     

Development of a Efficient and Sensitive Dispersive Liquid–Liquid Microextraction Technique for Extraction and Preconcentration of 10 β2-Agonists in Animal Urine

Dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (DLLME) coupled with ultra-performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) was developed for the extraction and determination of 10 β₂-agonists in animal urine. Some experimental parameters, such as the type and volume of the extraction solvent, the concentration of the dispersant, the salt concentration, the pH value of the sample solution, the extraction time and the speed of centrifugation, were investigated and optimized. Under the optimized conditions, a good enrichment factors (4.8 to 32.3) were obtained for the extraction. The enrichment factor show that the concentration rate of DLLME is significantly higher than other pretreatment methods, and the detection sensitivity has been greatly improved. The calibration curves were linear, the correlation coefficient ranged from 0.9928 to 0.9999 for the concentration range of 0.05 to 50 ngmL^-1 and 0.1 to 50 ngmL^-1, and the relative standard deviations (RSDs, n = 15, intra and inter-day precision) at a concentration of 5 ngmL^-1 were in the range of 1.8 to 14.6%. The limits of detection (LODs) for the 10 β₂-agonists, based on a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of 3, were in the range of 0.01 to 0.03 ngmL^-1. The proposed method was used to identify β₂-agonists in three types of animal urine (swine, cattle, sheep), and the relative recoveries from each matrix were in the range of 89.2 to 106.8%, 90.0 to 109.8% and 89.2 to 107.2%, respectively.