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Notch1 is a type-1 transmembrane receptor which has been demonstrated to be involved in proliferation in various organisms. A number of studies have proposed that Notch signaling may be aberrantly activated, thus contributing to development, invasion and metastasis in a variety of human cancers. In the present study, the function and mechanism of Notch1 in human prostate cancer (PCa) LNCaP cells in vitro was investigated. Notch1 and cleaved-Notch1 expression were evaluated in human PCa cell lines, including LNCaP, PC-3 and DU 145, and the human prostate epithelial RWPE-1 cell line. LNCaP cells were transfected with Notch1-targeting short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) and the level of proliferation, the ability to invade and the expression of genes associated with cancer cell invasion were subsequently investigated. Notch1 was highly expressed in LNCaP, PC-3 and DU 145 cells compared with RWPE-1 cells, while cleaved-Notch1 was expressed in LNCaP, PC-3 and DU 145 cells, and only to a minimal extent in RWPE-1 cells. Knockdown of Notch1 by shRNA in LNCaP cells markedly decreased cell invasion through Matrigel and inhibited cell proliferation 48 h following transfection. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis indicated that Notch1-knockdown resulted in a significant reduction of metastasis-associated 1 (MTA1) and increase of KiSS-1 metastasis-suppressor (KISS-1), mitogen-activated protein kinase 4 (MKK4) and cluster of differentiation 82 (KAI1). The present data demonstrated that expression of Notch1 was significantly associated with the invasion of prostate cancer. Knockdown of Notch1 decreased the invasive ability of LNCaP cells, which may be caused by downregulating MTA1 and upregulating KISS-1, MKK4 and KAI1. These findings indicated that targeting Notch1 may provide a novel method of suppressing or treating metastasis in prostate cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• XGBoost is used to predict coal and gas outbursts with index missing data. • The prediction method does not need complex or subjective data processing. • Grid search combines intelligent optimization to set XGBoost parameters. • The proposed method can accurately predict gas outbursts. • Quantitative evaluation of the contribution of indexes to accurate prediction. The coal and gas outburst is a most destructive coal mine power disaster, which seriously threatens the safety of coal mine production. Accurate prediction of gas outbursts can effectively reduce its harm, but the mechanism of outburst is still unclear. We propose a gas outburst prediction method based on comprehensive index and machine learning. XGBoost parameter optimization is studied based on grid search and meta-heuristic algorithm optimization to obtain the best parameter combination for outburst prediction. The prediction accuracy of XGBoost with parameters optimization for the outbursts in the test set was 100%. Finally, we have studied the contribution rate of each index in outburst prediction based on XGBoost interpretability, and the gas content has the highest prediction decision-making contribution, which is 28.61%. This study is of great significance to the safety production of coal mines, and enriches the theory of coal and gas outburst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Merm1/Wbscr22 is a novel metastasis promoter that has been shown to be involved in tumor metastasis, viability and apoptosis. To the best of our knowledge, there are currently no studies suggesting the possible correlation between the expression of Merm1/Wbscr22 in tumor cells and chemosensitivity to antitumor agents. In the present study, two human non-small cell lung cancer cell lines, H1299 and H460, were used to investigate whether Merm1/Wbscr22 affects chemosensitivity to antitumor agents, including cisplatin (CDDP), doxorubicin (ADM), paclitaxel (PTX), mitomycin (MMC), 7-Ethyl-10-hydroxycamptothecin (SN-38; the active metabolite of camptothecin) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). Merm1/Wbscr22 knockdown cell lines (H1299-shRNA and H460-shRNA) and negative control cell lines (H1299-NC and H460-NC) were established by stable transfection, and the efficiency of Merm1/Wbscr22 knockdown was confirmed by western blotting, immunofluorescence microscopy and quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The results demonstrated that shRNA-mediated knockdown of Merm1/Wbscr22 did not affect cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo. The H460 cells harboring wild type p53 were markedly more sensitive to all six antitumor agents as compared with the p53-null H1299 cells. Downregulation of Merm1/Wbscr22 did not affect H1299 sensitivity to any of the six antitumor agents, whereas attenuated H460 sensitivity to SN-38 and 5-FU, without significant alteration in p53 at both mRNA and protein levels, was identified. The reduced H460 sensitivity to SN-38 was further confirmed in vivo. SN-38 demonstrated significant tumor growth inhibitory activity in both H460 and H460-NC tumor xenograft models, but only marginally suppressed the H460-shRNA xenograft tumor growth. Furthermore, CDDP (4, 10, 15 μg/ml)-resistant human non-small lung cancer cells A549 (A549-CDDPr-4, 10, 15) expressed significant amounts of Merm1/Wbscr22 protein, as compared with the parental A549 cells. In conclusion, shRNA-mediated knockdown of Merm1/Wbscr22 attenuates H460 sensitivity to SN-38 and 5-FU, suggesting Merm1/Wbscr22 is involved in chemosensitivity to SN-38 and 5-FU in H460 cells. No direct correlation between the p53 expression level and altered chemosensitivity was identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five new triphenyltin complexes of N-(5-bromosalicylidene)-α-amino acids, 5-Br-2-HOC6H3C(H) = NCH(R)COOSnPh3 (where R=H, 1; Me, 2; i-Pr, 3; i-Bu, 4; s-Bu, 5), were synthesized by one-step reactions of triphenyltin hydroxide, 5-bromosalicylaldehyde, and α-amino acid in 1:1:1 molar ratios and characterized by elemental analysis, IR, and NMR (¹H, 13C, and 119Sn) spectra. The crystal structures of 5-Br-2-HOC6H3C(H) = NCH(i-Pr)COOSnPh3 (3) and 5-Br-2-HOC6H3C(H) = NCH(s-Bu) COOSnPh3 (5) were determined and showed that the tin atom is five-coordinated and adopts a polymeric trans-O2SnC3 trigonal bipyramidal configuration with the axial positions occupied by a carboxylate oxygen from the ligand and the phenolic oxygen of the ligand in an adjacent complex. Bioassay results indicated that these compounds have stronger cytotoxic activity against three human tumor cell lines, HeLa, CoLo205 and MCF-7, than that of cis-platin used clinically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diverse sensing techniques have been developed and combined with machine learning method for forest fire detection, but none of them referred to identifying smoldering and flaming combustion phases. This study attempts to real-time identify different combustion phases using a developed wireless sensor network (WSN)-based multi-sensor system and artificial neural network (ANN). Sensors (CO, CO2, smoke, air temperature and relative humidity) were integrated into one node of WSN. An experiment was conducted using burning materials from residual of forest to test responses of each node under no, smoldering-dominated and flaming-dominated combustion conditions. The results showed that the five sensors have reasonable responses to artificial forest fire. To reduce cost of the nodes, smoke, CO2 and temperature sensors were chiefly selected through correlation analysis. For achieving higher identification rate, an ANN model was built and trained with inputs of four sensor groups: smoke; smoke and CO2; smoke and temperature; smoke, CO2 and temperature. The model test results showed that multi-sensor input yielded higher predicting accuracy (¥82.5%) than single-sensor input (50.9%-92.5%). Based on these, it is possible to reduce the cost with a relatively high fire identification rate and potential application of the system can be tested in future under real forest condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cisplatin (DDP)-based chemotherapy is the mainstay of first-line therapy for lung cancer. However, their efficacy is often limited by the existence or development of chemoresistance. The aim of this study was to find and investigate the function of miRNAs in cisplatin (DDP)-resistant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) A549 cell. Methods: Quantitative real-time PCR assay was employed to compare the differences of miRNA expression in both cisplatin-resistant A549 (A549/DDP) cell and the parental A549 cell. The dysregulated miRNAs were then corrected by transfecting oligonucleotides into A549/DDP cells. The cellular sensitivity to cisplatin, cell apoptosis and migration were conducted by MTT, low cytometry and cell wound healing assay, respectively. Results: Both miR-589 and miR-1244 were significantly down-regulated in A549/DDP cell compared to the parental A549, while the expression of miR-182 and miR-224 were increased in A549/DDP cell (P < 0.05). Importantly, transfection of the cisplatin-resistant cells with either miR-589 or miR-1244 resulted in an increased sensitivity to cisplatin, indicating that the dysregulated miRNA may play an important role in chemotherapy resistance in cancer cell. The rescued expression of miRNA also reduced cell invasion and increased apoptosis of A549/DDP cell. Conclusion: The study indicates a crucial role of miR-1244 in the progress of cisplatin resistance of A549. Further understanding of miR-1244-mediated signaling pathways may promote the clinical use of miR-1244 in lung cancer therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]