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Introduction: Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) played an important role in the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) and it was proved to be renoprotective in renal disease. Urinary angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (uACE2) has been shown to reflect renal injury in human and experimental studies, but its role in feline kidney disease remains unknown. Aims: Our objectives involve comparing uACE2 concentrations and activities in cats across CKD stages with healthy controls, investigating the relationship between uACE2 concentrations, activities, and clinicopathological data in feline CKD patients, and assessing the predictive abilities of both for CKD progression. Methods: A retrospective, case-control study. The concentration and activity of uACE2 were measured by commercial ELISA and fluorometric assay kits, respectively. The concentration was adjusted to give uACE2 concentration-tocreatinine ratios (UACCRs). Results: In total, 67 cats consisting of 24 control and 43 chronic kidney disease (CKD), including 24 early-stage CKD and 19 late-stage CKD, were enrolled in this study. UACCR values were significantly higher in both early-stage (2.100 [1.142-4.242] x 10-6) and late-stage feline CKD (4.343 [2.992-5.0.71] x 10-6) compared to healthy controls (0.894 [0.610-1.076] x 10-6; p < 0.001), and there was also significant difference between-early stage group and late-stage group (p = 0.026). Urinary ACE2 activity (UAA) was significantly lower in CKD cats (1.338 [0.644-2.755] x pmol/min/ml) compared to the healthy cats (7.989 [3.711-15.903] x pmol/min/ml; p < 0.001). UACCR demonstrated an independent, positive correlation with BUN (p < 0.001), and UAA exhibited an independent, negative correlation with plasma creatinine (p < 0.001). Both UACCR and UAA did not yield significant results in predicting CKD progression based on the ROC curve analysis. Conclusion and clinical importance: uACE2 concentration and activity exhibit varying changes as renal function declines, particularly in advanced CKD cats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Androgen receptor (AR) is a steroid hormone receptor that functions as a transcription factor for regulating cell growth and survival. Aberrant AR function becomes a risk factor for promoting the progression of prostate cancer (PCa). In this study, we examined the roles of proline-rich tyrosine kinase 2 (PYK2) and ribosomal S6 kinase 1 (S6K1) in regulating AR expression and activity and growth properties in PCa cells. Compared with normal prostate tissues, PCa tumors exhibited high levels of PYK2 and S6K1 expression. Furthermore, the expression levels of PYK2 and S6K1 were significantly correlated with nuclear AR expression in PCa tissues. We further found the association between PYK2, S6K1, and AR in their protein expression and phosphorylation levels among normal prostate PZ-HPV-7 cells and prostate cancer LNCaP and 22Rv1 cells. Overexpression of the wild-type PYK2 in PZ-HPV-7 and LNCaP cells promoted AR and S6K1 expression and phosphorylation as well as enhanced cell growth. In contrast, expression of the mutated PYK2 or knockdown of PYK2 expression in LNCaP or 22Rv1 cells caused reduced expression or phosphorylation of AR and S6K1 as well as retarded cell growth. Under an androgen-deprived condition, PYK2-promoted AR expression and phosphorylation and PSA production in LNCaP cells can be abolished by knocking down S6K1 expression. In summary, our data suggested that PYK2 via S6K1 activation modulated AR function and growth properties in PCa cells. Thus, PYK2 and S6K1 may potentially serve as therapeutic targets for PCa treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of a data exchanging culture accompanied by a supporting bioinformatic system is widely praised as an aid to sustainable development. Yet this is not always implemented as a top-down procedure in every governing environment. Common obstacles include lack of resources, lack of support from decision-makers, and lack of recognition from data-providers. Using citizen science (hereafter CS), which assumes a spirit of public information sharing, we demonstrate how CS can be a critical tool to help database managers overcome this difficulty. CS data contributes to impressively over 70% of the currently 4.5 million openly distributed occurrence data in Taiwan. Although CS projects emerged much earlier in a few taxa, such as Aves and Anura, CS was unknown to the wider public and politicians in the region until 2009. This was probably due to the combination of the popularity of social media and improvements to wifi connections, which brought discoveries and impacts of CS data to the news spotlight. Such cases include roadkill projects that aided rabies-outbreak control, and amateur bird records that helped downscale the conflict between solar energy deployment and migratory wetland bird conservation. These cases also created feedback on the call for more data to be open, an effect that was prominent from project managers in other CS communities, the previously reluctant expert researcher communities, and even placed pressure on data policy of several conservation agencies which previously were not supportive of open data. The inclusion of CS programs is also critical in forming alliances between agencies that were responsible for promoting and building the biodiversity informatics system. Previously, financial and human resources for such systems are split across agencies. However, in terms of building up a cutting edge biodiversity information service platform, or empowerment of human resources to handle the rapidly growing amount of data, joint partnerships across government agencies is then necessary. CS brings the spotlight of government efforts to the people, which is an important strategy to maintain support from top decision-makers and politicians, who mostly rely on public votes in a democratic society. Currently, the national node of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility in Taiwan, the administration for conservation in Taiwan, and the main biodiversity consultancy in Taiwan have teamed up, answering the call for sharing data for a better future. As a tribute to the CS projects, a biodiversity informatics system named Taiwan Biodiversity Network, is now enhancing its ability as a platform to promote data usage and provide technical aid to CS programs. Data visualization projects such as "Coldspots" pointed out regions that lack data, which can be used to decide where to focus efforts for the next field surveys. Online CS data platforms, such as Taiwan Reptile Report Program, are also working to ease the previously intensive efforts that project managers needed to contribute to run event-based monitoring. Combined, these developments form a cultural and technical basis for the implementation of multi-taxa atlas projects, which was made possible by the mainstreaming of open data culture and biodiversity awareness through citizen science project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]