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Objective: To investigate the expression, prognosis, and underlying mechanism of Paxillin (PXN) in ovarian cancer. Materials and methods: By comprehensive use of various bioinformatics tools, we analyzed the expression of PXN and its prognostic value in ovarian cancer. Then, the enrichment analyses were conducted to determine the possible regulatory pathways PXN involved in ovarian cancer. Finally, the associations of PXN expression with immune cell infiltration and immune checkpoints were analyzed. Results: PXN was highly expressed in ovarian cancer and its expression could independently predict the overall survival of ovarian cancer patients. More importantly, PXN had a superior ability in predicting long-term survival than age and tumor residual disease in ovarian cancer patients. In addition, PXN was positively related to adherens junction and tight junction pathways. Significant negative relationships between PXN expression and immune infiltrates were observed, however, PXN was positively connected with immune checkpoint (VSIR) in ovarian cancer. Conclusions: PXN serves as a reliable prognostic biomarker and may be a potent therapeutic target for ovarian cancer. Moreover, high PXN expression may affect ovarian cancer progression via positive regulation of metastasis-related pathways.

Abstract Backgrounds Due to the unexpected side effects of the iodinated contrast agents, novel contrast agents for X-ray computed tomography (CT) imaging are urgently needed. Nanoparticles made by heavy metal elements are often employed, such as gold and bismuth. These nanoparticles have the advantages of long in vivo circulation time and tumor targeted ability. However, due to the long residence time in vivo, these nanoparticles may bring unexpected toxicity and, the preparation methods of these nanoparticles are complicated and time—consuming. Methods In this investigation, a small molecular bismuth chelate using diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DPTA) as the chelating agent was proposed to be an ideal CT contrast agent. Results The preparation method is easy and cost—effective. Moreover, the bismuth agent show better CT imaging for kidney than iohexol in the aspect of improved CT values. Up to 500 µM, the bismuth agent show negligible toxicity to L02 cells and negligible hemolysis. And, the bismuth agent did not induce detectable morphology changes to the main organs of the mice after intravenously repeated administration at a high dose of 250 mg/kg. The pharmacokinetics of the bismuth agent follows the first—order elimination kinetics and, it has a short half—life time of 0.602 h. The rapid clearance from the body promised its excellent biocompatibility. Conclusions This bismuth agent may serve as a potential candidate for developing novel contrast agent for CT imaging in clinical applications.

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation with flavonoid from Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi (SBGFN) as SBGFN-zinc (SBGFN-Zn) on growth performance, meat quality, immune responses and antioxidation of broilers. A total of 450 one-d-old Arbor Acres male broilers were randomly allocated to 5 treatments with 6 replicates of 15 birds per replicate for each treatment in a completely randomized design. Birds were fed a SBGFN-unsupplemented corn-soybean meal basal diet (control) or the basal diet supplemented with 60, 120, 180 or 240 mg SBGFN kg−1 from SBGFN-Zn for 42 d. Dietary SBGFN supplementation affected (P