Articles

Identification of hub genes in papillary thyroid carcinoma: robust rank aggregation and weighted gene co-expression network analysis

Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), which is the most common endocrine malignancy, has been steadily increasing worldwide in incidence over the years, while mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis and diagnostic...

Authors: Yang Liu, Ting-Yu Chen, Zhi-Yan Yang, Wei Fang, Qian Wu and Chao Zhang

Simultaneous quantification of natural and inducible regulatory T-cell subsets during interferon-β therapy of multiple sclerosis patients

The mechanisms underlying the therapeutic activity of interferon-β in multiple sclerosis are still not completely understood. In the present study, we evaluated the short and long-term effects of interferon-β ...

Authors: Marco Chiarini, Ruggero Capra, Federico Serana, Diego Bertoli, Alessandra Sottini, Viviana Giustini, Cristina Scarpazza, Marco Rovaris, Valentina Torri Clerici, Diana Ferraro, Simonetta Galgani, Claudio Solaro, Marta Zaffira Conti, Andrea Visconti and Luisa Imberti

Microfluidic devices for neutrophil chemotaxis studies

Neutrophil chemotaxis plays a vital role in human immune system. Compared with traditional cell migration assays, the emergence of microfluidics provides a new research platform of cell chemotaxis study due to...

Authors: Wenjie Zhao, Haiping Zhao, Mingxiao Li and Chengjun Huang

Circulating HPV16 DNA may complement imaging assessment of early treatment efficacy in patients with HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer

Early detection of treatment failure may improve clinical outcome and overall survival in patients with head and neck cancer after first-line treatment. Circulating cell-free HPV16 DNA (cfHPV16 DNA) was evalua...

Authors: Tomasz W. Rutkowski, Agnieszka M. Mazurek, Mirosław Śnietura, Beata Hejduk, Maja Jędrzejewska, Barbara Bobek-Billewicz, Andrea d’Amico, Wojciech Pigłowski, Andrzej Wygoda, Krzysztof Składowski, Zofia Kołosza and Piotr Widłak

HSP90 inhibitor 17AAG attenuates sevoflurane-induced neurotoxicity in rats and human neuroglioma cells via induction of HSP70

17AAG has been extensively studied for its antitumor effects that protect cells from lethal stress by maintaining protein stability. The role of 17AAG in sevoflurane-induced neuronal injury has never been stud...

Authors: Min Liu, Moyun Li, Yu Zhou, Qian Zhou and Yugang Jiang

Anti-IL6R role in treatment of COVID-19-related ARDS

Authors: Franco Maria Buonaguro, Igor Puzanov and Paolo Antonio Ascierto

Why tocilizumab could be an effective treatment for severe COVID-19?

A severe pneumonia-associated respiratory syndrome caused by a new coronavirus was identified in December 2019 (COVID-19), spread rapidly and has become a world-wide public health challenge. About 25% of COVID...

Authors: Binqing Fu, Xiaoling Xu and Haiming Wei

In vitro cell culture of patient derived malignant pleural and peritoneal effusions for personalised drug screening

Malignant serous effusion (MSE) denotes a manifestation of metastatic disease with typical high concentrations of both cancer and immune cells, making them an ideal resource for in vitro cytologic studies. Hen...

Authors: Cheng-Guang Wu, Francesca Chiovaro, Alessandra Curioni-Fontecedro, Ruben Casanova and Alex Soltermann

The endless frontier? The recent increase of R&D productivity in pharmaceuticals

Studies on the early 2000s documented increasing attrition rates and duration of clinical trials, leading to a representation of a “productivity crisis” in pharmaceutical research and development (R&D). In thi...

Authors: Fabio Pammolli, Lorenzo Righetto, Sergio Abrignani, Luca Pani, Pier Giuseppe Pelicci and Emanuele Rabosio

Trehalose alleviates the phenotype of Machado–Joseph disease mouse models

Machado–Joseph disease (MJD), also known as spinocerebellar ataxia type 3, is the most common of the dominantly inherited ataxias worldwide and is characterized by mutant ataxin-3 aggregation and neuronal dege...

Authors: Magda M. Santana, Susana Paixão, Janete Cunha-Santos, Teresa Pereira Silva, Allyson Trevino-Garcia, Laetitia S. Gaspar, Clévio Nóbrega, Rui Jorge Nobre, Cláudia Cavadas, Hagar Greif and Luís Pereira de Almeida

Development of an autophagy-related gene expression signature for prognosis prediction in prostate cancer patients

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most prevalent cancers that occur in men worldwide. Autophagy-related genes (ARGs) may play an essential role in multiple biological processes of prostate cancer. However, A...

Authors: Daixing Hu, Li Jiang, Shengjun Luo, Xin Zhao, Hao Hu, Guozhi Zhao and Wei Tang

HDACi mediate UNG2 depletion, dysregulated genomic uracil and altered expression of oncoproteins and tumor suppressors in B- and T-cell lines

HDAC inhibitors (HDACi) belong to a new group of chemotherapeutics that are increasingly used in the treatment of lymphocyte-derived malignancies, but their mechanisms of action remain poorly understood. Here ...

Authors: Tobias S. Iveland, Lars Hagen, Animesh Sharma, Mirta M. L. Sousa, Antonio Sarno, Kristian Lied Wollen, Nina Beate Liabakk and Geir Slupphaug

Translational medicines “Ecosystem”

Authors: Vijay Mahant

A LASSO-derived risk model for long-term mortality in Chinese patients with acute coronary syndrome

The formal risk assessment is essential in the management of acute coronary syndrome (ACS). In this study, we develop a risk model for the prediction of 3-year mortality for Chinese ACS patients with machine l...

Authors: Yi-ming Li, Zhuo-lun Li, Fei Chen, Qi Liu, Yong Peng and Mao Chen

Serum sphingosine-1-phosphate levels and Sphingosine-1-Phosphate gene polymorphisms in acute respiratory distress syndrome: a multicenter prospective study

Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) is a signaling phospholipid involved in pathophysiologic progression of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) through its roles in endothelial barrier function and immune mod...

Authors: Jiangnan Zhao, Yan Tan, Li Wang, Xin Su and Yi Shi

The effects of statins on dental and oral health: a review of preclinical and clinical studies

The statin family of drugs are safe and effective therapeutic agents for the treatment of arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD). Due to a wide range of health benefits in addition to their cholesterol ...

Authors: Shabnam Tahamtan, Farinaz Shirban, Mohammad Bagherniya, Thomas P. Johnston and Amirhossein Sahebkar

CT imaging changes of corona virus disease 2019(COVID-19): a multi-center study in Southwest China

Since the first case of a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection pneumonia was detected in Wuhan, China, a series of confirmed cases of the COVID-19 were found in Southwest China. The aim of this study ...

Authors: Xiaoming Li, Wenbing Zeng, Xiang Li, Haonan Chen, Linping Shi, Xinghui Li, Hongnian Xiang, Yang Cao, Hui Chen, Chen Liu and Jian Wang

The effect of smoking on biological change of recurrent breast cancer

The selection of treatment for a patient with breast cancer largely relies on the cancer subtype. However, this process is complicated by changes in tumor biology at relapse. Smoking has been identified as a r...

Authors: Koji Takada, Shinichiro Kashiwagi, Yuka Asano, Wataru Goto, Rika Kouhashi, Akimichi Yabumoto, Tamami Morisaki, Hisakazu Fujita, Masatsune Shibutani, Tsutomu Takashima, Kosei Hirakawa and Masaichi Ohira

The emerging role of the long non-coding RNA HOTAIR in breast cancer development and treatment

Despite considering vast majority of the transcribed molecules as merely noise RNA in the last decades, recent advances in the field of molecular biology revealed the mysterious role of long non-coding RNAs (l...

Authors: Hossein Mozdarani, Vahid Ezzatizadeh and Roghayeh Rahbar Parvaneh

Towards individualized cortical thickness assessment for clinical routine

Cortical thickness measures the width of gray matter of the human cortex. It can be calculated from T1-weighted magnetic resonance images (MRI). In group studies, this measure has been shown to correlate with ...

Authors: Marlene Tahedl

Real-world use of ACEI/ARB in diabetic hypertensive patients before the initial diagnosis of obstructive coronary artery disease: patient characteristics and long-term follow-up outcome

Current guidelines recommend angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors (ACEI)/angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB) as a first-line therapy in diabetic hypertensive patients and for secondary prevention in patien...

Authors: Yue Zhang, Xiaosong Ding, Bing Hua, Qingbo Liu, Hui Chen, Xue-Qiao Zhao, Weiping Li and Hongwei Li

Development and validation of a survival model for lung adenocarcinoma based on autophagy-associated genes

Given that abnormal autophagy is involved in the pathogenesis of cancers, we sought to explore the potential value of autophagy-associated genes in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD).

Authors: Xiaofei Wang, Shuang Yao, Zengtuan Xiao, Jialin Gong, Zuo Liu, Baoai Han and Zhenfa Zhang

High-intensity interval training in allogeneic adoptive T-cell immunotherapy – a big HIT?

Adoptive transfer of virus-specific T cells (VSTs) represents a prophylactic and curative approach for opportunistic viral infections and reactivations after transplantation. However, inadequate frequencies of...

Authors: Nele Carolin Heinemann, Sabine Tischer-Zimmermann, Torge Christian Wittke, Julian Eigendorf, Arno Kerling, Theodor Framke, Anette Melk, Hans-Gert Heuft, Rainer Blasczyk, Britta Maecker-Kolhoff and Britta Eiz-Vesper

Hypoxia-induced complement dysregulation is associated with microvascular impairments in mouse tracheal transplants

Complement Regulatory Proteins (CRPs), especially CD55 primarily negate complement factor 3-mediated injuries and maintain tissue homeostasis during complement cascade activation. Complement activation and reg...

Authors: Mohammad Afzal Khan, Talal Shamma, Shadab Kazmi, Abdullah Altuhami, Hala Abdalrahman Ahmed, Abdullah Mohammed Assiri and Dieter Clemens Broering

Comparison and development of machine learning tools for the prediction of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the Chinese population

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major public health problem and cause of mortality worldwide. However, COPD in the early stage is usually not recognized and diagnosed. It is necessary to esta...

Authors: Xia Ma, Yanping Wu, Ling Zhang, Weilan Yuan, Li Yan, Sha Fan, Yunzhi Lian, Xia Zhu, Junhui Gao, Jiangman Zhao, Ping Zhang, Hui Tang and Weihua Jia

Ethnicity and survival in bladder cancer: a population-based study based on the SEER database

Bladder cancer is the most common cancer in the urinary system and the fourth most common cancer in males. This study aimed to examine differences in the survival of bladder cancer patients of different ethnic...

Authors: Wei Fang, Zhi-Yan Yang, Ting-Yu Chen, Xian-Feng Shen and Chao Zhang

An integrated prognosis model of pharmacogenomic gene signature and clinical information for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patients following CHOP-like chemotherapy

As the most common form of lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a clinical highly heterogeneous disease with variability in therapeutic outcomes and biological features. It is a challenge to iden...

Authors: Jinglei Hu, Jing Xu, Muqiao Yu, Yongchao Gao, Rong Liu, Honghao Zhou and Wei Zhang

Upregulation of microRNA-328-3p by hepatitis B virus contributes to THLE-2 cell injury by downregulating FOXO4

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) remains a major cause of chronic hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma, and miRNAs play important roles in HBV pathogenesis. Our previous study has shown that miR-328-3p is upregulated...

Authors: Xiaoyu Fu, Yi Ouyang, Juan Mo, Ronghua Li, Lei Fu and Shifang Peng

The effects of rapid weight loss on skeletal muscle in judo athletes

To observe the effect of rapid weight loss (RWL) methods over 3 days on muscle damage in judokas.

Authors: Roberto Roklicer, Nemanja Lakicevic, Valdemar Stajer, Tatjana Trivic, Antonino Bianco, Diba Mani, Zoran Milosevic, Nebojsa Maksimovic, Antonio Paoli and Patrik Drid

Emerging therapies for smoke inhalation injury: a review

Smoke inhalation injury increases overall burn mortality by up to 20 times. Current therapy remains supportive with a failure to identify an optimal or targeted treatment protocol for smoke inhalation injury. ...

Authors: Alexandra Mercel, Nick D. Tsihlis, Rob Maile and Melina R. Kibbe

Unleashing the immune response to NY-ESO-1 cancer testis antigen as a potential target for cancer immunotherapy

Cancer Immunotherapy has recently emerged as a promising and effective modality to treat different malignancies. Antigenic profiling of cancer tissues and determination of any pre-existing immune responses to ...

Authors: Afsheen Raza, Maysaloun Merhi, Varghese Philipose Inchakalody, Roopesh Krishnankutty, Allan Relecom, Shahab Uddin and Said Dermime

LTBP1 promotes esophageal squamous cell carcinoma progression through epithelial-mesenchymal transition and cancer-associated fibroblasts transformation

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the most prevalent cancers worldwide. Due to its high morbidity and mortality rates, it is urgent to find a molecular target that contributes to esophageal c...

Authors: Rui Cai, Ping Wang, Xin Zhao, Xiansheng Lu, Ruxia Deng, Xiaoyu Wang, Zhaoji Su, Chang Hong and Jie Lin

Skin wound healing triggers epigenetic modifications of histone H4

The skin is the largest organ of the human body. Upon injury, the skin triggers a sequence of signaling pathways that induce epithelial proliferation, migration, and ultimately, the re-establishment of the epi...

Authors: Carlos H. V. Nascimento-Filho, Ericka J. D. Silveira, Eny M. Goloni-Bertollo, Lelia Batista de Souza, Cristiane H. Squarize and Rogerio M. Castilho

The MK2 pathway is linked to G-CSF, cytokine production and metastasis in gastric cancer: a novel intercorrelation analysis approach

Gastric cancer is associated with chronic inflammation, but there is still much to understand about the tumor microenvironment and the underlying tumor-promoting mechanisms. The Map kinase-activated protein ki...

Authors: Fares Qeadan, Pranshu Bansal, Joshua A. Hanson and Ellen J. Beswick

Pathogenesis of chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps: role of IL-6 in airway epithelial cell dysfunction

Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) is characterized by an alteration in airway epithelial cell functions including barrier function, wound repair mechanisms, mucociliary clearance. The mechanism...

Authors: Emilie Bequignon, David Mangin, Justine Bécaud, Jennifer Pasquier, Christelle Angely, Mathieu Bottier, Estelle Escudier, Daniel Isabey, Marcel Filoche, Bruno Louis, Jean-François Papon and André Coste

Circulating PAMM, a novel antioxidant and anti-inflammatory protein, is elevated in acute SCI

Peroxiredoxin activated in M-CSF stimulated monocytes (PAMM) is a novel protein produced by adipocytes with putative redox regulatory and anti-inflammatory properties. Because acute spinal cord injury (SCI) is...

Authors: Leslie R. Morse, Nguyen Nguyen, Yan Xu, Prakash Jha and Ricardo A. Battaglino

Patients with stage IV epithelial ovarian cancer: understanding the determinants of survival

The most appropriate management for patients with stage IV ovarian cancer remains unclear. Our objective was to understand the main determinants associated with survival and to discuss best surgical management.

Authors: Yohann Dabi, Cyrille Huchon, Lobna Ouldamer, Sofiane Bendifallah, Pierre Collinet, Alexandre Bricou, Emile Daraï, Marcos Ballester, Vincent Lavoue, Bassam Haddad and Cyril Touboul

Changing trajectories of serum uric acid and risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a prospective cohort study

It is unclear the role of longitudinal trajectory of serum uric acid (SUA) on the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We aimed to determine whether longitudinal SUA trajectories are assoc...

Authors: Zhimin Ma, Chaonan Xu, Xiaoping Kang, Shan Zhang, Haibin Li, Lixin Tao, Deqiang Zheng, Xiuhua Guo and Xinghua Yang

Optimization of small RNA library preparation protocol from human urinary exosomes

Sequencing of miRNAs isolated from exosomes has great potential to identify novel disease biomarkers, but exosomes have low amount of RNA, hindering adequate analysis and quantification. Here, we have assessed...

Authors: Dolores Olivares, Javier Perez-Hernandez, Daniel Perez-Gil, Felipe J. Chaves, Josep Redon and Raquel Cortes

Transitional B cells involved in autoimmunity and their impact on neuroimmunological diseases

Transitional B cells (TrB cells) represent a crucial link between immature B cells in the bone marrow and mature peripheral B cells. Although TrB cells represent one of the regulatory B cell subpopulations in ...

Authors: Yang Zhou, Ying Zhang, Jinming Han, Mengge Yang, Jie Zhu and Tao Jin

Characteristics of the urinary microbiome in kidney stone patients with hypertension

Kidney stone disease (KSD) is more common in individuals with hypertension (HTN) than in individuals with normotension (NTN). Urinary dysbiosis is associated with urinary tract disease and systemic diseases. H...

Authors: Fengping Liu, Nan Zhang, Peng Jiang, Qixiao Zhai, Chen Li, Deshui Yu, Yan Wu, Yuwei Zhang, Longxian Lv, Xinyu Xu and Ninghan Feng

Glandular orientation and shape determined by computational pathology could identify aggressive tumor for early colon carcinoma: a triple-center study

Identifying the early-stage colon adenocarcinoma (ECA) patients who have lower risk cancer vs. the higher risk cancer could improve disease prognosis. Our study aimed to explore whether the glandular morpholog...

Authors: Meng-Yao Ji, Lei Yuan, Shi-Min Lu, Meng-Ting Gao, Zhi Zeng, Na Zhan, Yi-Juan Ding, Zheng-Ru Liu, Ping-Xiao Huang, Cheng Lu and Wei-Guo Dong

Gastrointestinal mixed adenoneuroendocrine carcinoma: a population level analysis of epidemiological trends

The rise in incidence and mortality of gastrointestinal mixed adenoneuroendocrine carcinoma (MANEC) has not been well focused. The aim of our study was to examine epidemiological trends in incidence and incide...

Authors: Jiakun Wang, Aoxiao He, Qian Feng, Ping Hou, Junjun Wu, Zhihao Huang, Zhouqing Xiao, Chi Sun, Wenjun Liao and Linquan Wu

Profiling the Salivary microbiome of the Qatari population

The role of the human microbiome in human health and disease has been studied in various body sites. However, compared to the gut microbiome, where most of the research focus is, the salivary microbiome still ...

Authors: Selvasankar Murugesan, Sara Fahad Al Ahmad, Parul Singh, Marwa Saadaoui, Manoj Kumar and Souhaila Al Khodor

Long noncoding RNA lncARSR promotes nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma by promoting YAP1 and activating the IRS2/AKT pathway

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the main cause for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study was intended to identify the function of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) lncARSR in NAFLD and its role in ...

Authors: Yuan Chi, Zheng Gong, He Xin, Ziwen Wang and Zhaoyu Liu

TLR expression in peripheral monocyte subsets of patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies: association with clinical and immunological features

Monocytes and toll-like receptors (TLR) have been found in the inflammatory infiltrate of muscle biopsies in patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM), suggesting an important role of these cells ...

Authors: Jiram Torres-Ruiz, Daniel Alberto Carrillo-Vazquez, Diana Marcela Padilla-Ortiz, Ricardo Vazquez-Rodriguez, Carlos Nuñez-Alvarez, Guillermo Juarez-Vega and Diana Gomez-Martin

Association between serum HER2/ErbB2 levels and coronary artery disease: a case–control study

Research has associated human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER2) with glucose and lipid metabolism. However, the association between circulating HER2 levels and coronary artery disease (CAD) remains to be...

Authors: Wen Jian, Chun-Mei Wei, Jia-Hui Guan, Chang-Hua Mo, Yu-Tao Xu, Wen-Bo Zheng, Lang Li and Chun Gui

Effects of dietary methionine and cysteine restriction on plasma biomarkers, serum fibroblast growth factor 21, and adipose tissue gene expression in women with overweight or obesity: a double-blind randomized controlled pilot study

Dietary restriction of methionine and cysteine is a well-described model that improves metabolic health in rodents. To investigate the translational potential in humans, we evaluated the effects of dietary met...

Authors: Thomas Olsen, Bente Øvrebø, Nadia Haj-Yasein, Sindre Lee, Karianne Svendsen, Marit Hjorth, Nasser E. Bastani, Frode Norheim, Christian A. Drevon, Helga Refsum and Kathrine J. Vinknes

Frequency of circulating CD8+CD73+T cells is associated with survival in nivolumab-treated melanoma patients

PD-1 blocking agents, such as nivolumab, have demonstrated clear anti-tumor effects and clinical benefits in a subset of patients with advanced malignancies. Nonetheless, more efforts are needed to identify re...

Authors: Mariaelena Capone, Federica Fratangelo, Diana Giannarelli, Claudia Sorrentino, Roberta Turiello, Serena Zanotta, Domenico Galati, Gabriele Madonna, Marilena Tuffanelli, Luigi Scarpato, Antonio M. Grimaldi, Assunta Esposito, Rosa Azzaro, Antonio Pinto, Ernesta Cavalcanti, Aldo Pinto…

Improving accuracy of estimating glomerular filtration rate using artificial neural network: model development and validation

The performance of previously published glomerular filtration rate (GFR) estimation equations degrades when directly used in Chinese population. We incorporated more independent variables and using complicated...

Authors: Ningshan Li, Hui Huang, Han-Zhu Qian, Peijia Liu, Hui Lu and Xun Liu