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Introduction and objectives: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most malignant digestive tumors, and its insidious onset and rapid progression are the main reasons for the difficulty in effective treatment. Lysophosphatidylcholine acyltransferase 1 (LPCAT1) is a key enzyme that regulates phospholipid metabolism of the cell membrane. However, the mechanism by which LPCAT1 regulates HCC metastasis remains unknown. This study aimed to explore its biological function and potential mechanisms concerning migration and invasion in HCC. Materials and methods: LPCAT1 expression in HCC tissues and its association with clinical outcomes were investigated by western blotting and bioinformatic methods, respectively. The role of LPCAT1 in migration and invasion was assessed via Transwell assays. The expression pattern of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers was quantified by western blotting. The biological behaviors of LPCAT1 in vivo were evaluated using xenograft tumor models and caudal vein metastatic models. Signaling pathways related to LPCAT1 were predicted using gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) and further confirmed by western blotting. Results: LPCAT1 expression was significantly upregulated in HCC tissues and indicated a poor prognosis of HCC patients. Several EMT-related markers were found to be regulated by LPCAT1. HCC cells overexpressing LPCAT1 exhibited remarkably high migration and invasion capacities, upregulated expression of mesenchymal markers and reduced E-cadherin expression. In vivo, LPCAT1 promoted HCC pulmonary metastasis. Furthermore, the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway was confirmed to be activated by LPCAT1. Conclusions: LPCAT1 could serve as a promising biomarker of HCC and as a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of metastatic HCC.

Introduction and objectives: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most malignant digestive tumors, and its insidious onset and rapid progression are the main reasons for the difficulty in effective treatment. Lysophosphatidylcholine acyltransferase 1 (LPCAT1) is a key enzyme that regulates phospholipid metabolism of the cell membrane. However, the mechanism by which LPCAT1 regulates HCC metastasis remains unknown. This study aimed to explore its biological function and potential mechanisms concerning migration and invasion in HCC. Materials and methods: LPCAT1 expression in HCC tissues and its association with clinical outcomes were investigated by western blotting and bioinformatic methods, respectively. The role of LPCAT1 in migration and invasion was assessed via Transwell assays. The expression pattern of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers was quantified by western blotting. The biological behaviors of LPCAT1 in vivo were evaluated using xenograft tumor models and caudal vein metastatic models. Signaling pathways related to LPCAT1 were predicted using gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) and further confirmed by western blotting. Results: LPCAT1 expression was significantly upregulated in HCC tissues and indicated a poor prognosis of HCC patients. Several EMT-related markers were found to be regulated by LPCAT1. HCC cells overexpressing LPCAT1 exhibited remarkably high migration and invasion capacities, upregulated expression of mesenchymal markers and reduced E-cadherin expression. In vivo, LPCAT1 promoted HCC pulmonary metastasis. Furthermore, the Wnt/ β-catenin signaling pathway was confirmed to be activated by LPCAT1. Conclusions: LPCAT1 could serve as a promising biomarker of HCC and as a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of metastatic HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depression and anxiety are common in patients with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), and anxiety and depression can increase the risk of hospitalization and the acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The relationship between the frequency of hospitalization for acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD) and the anxiety and depression of patients is not fully understood. This study aims to analyze the relationship between the frequency of hospitalizations and anxiety and depression of patients of acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD). A collection of 309 AECOPD patients admitted to the emergency department in our hospital from 2019 to 2020 were divided into anxiety group A and depression group D according to the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) score and divided into A1 and D1 negative groups (≤7 Score), A2 and D2 suspicious groups (8–10 points), A3 and D3 confirmed groups (≥11 points) for paired analysis of anxiety and depression correlation and difference and comparison of the frequency of hospitalization in each group within 2 years. The results found that anxiety and depression were significantly positively correlated (r = 0.654, p = 0.000). Intra-group comparison shows that the difference between the anxiety-diagnosed and non-diagnosed groups and the depression subgroups are statistically p < 0.05; the comparison between the anxiety subgroup and the depression subgroup showed that there was a statistical difference between the confirmed group and the non-diagnosed group (p < 0.01). In short, AECOPD anxiety is positively correlated with depression, and depression is affected by the frequency of hospitalization earlier and gradually, and anxiety should be prioritized in the acute phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glycerol is a major by-product in bioethanol fermentation by the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and decreasing glycerol formation for increased ethanol yield has been a major research effort in the bioethanol field. A new strategy has been used in the present study for reduced glycerol formation and improved ethanol fermentation performance by finely modulating the expression of GPD1 in the KAM15 strain (fps1▵ pPGK1-GLT1 gpd2▵ ). The GPD1 promoter was serially truncated from the 3= end by 20 bp to result in a different expression strength of GPD1. The two engineered promoters carrying 60- and 80-bp truncations exhibited reduced promoter strength but unaffected osmostress response. These two promoters were integrated into the KAM15 strain, generating strains LE34U and LE35U, respectively. The transcription levels of LE34U and LE35U were 37.77 to 45.12% and 21.34 to 24.15% of that of KAM15U, respectively, depending on osmotic stress imposed by various glucose concentrations. In very high gravity (VHG) fermentation, the levels of glycerol for LE34U and LE35U were reduced by 15.81% and 30.66%, respectively, compared to KAM15U. The yield and final concentration of ethanol for LE35U were 3.46% and 0.33% higher, respectively, than those of KAM15U. However, fermentation rate and ethanol productivity for LE35U were reduced. On the other hand, the ethanol yield and final concentration for LE34U were enhanced by 2.28% and 2.32%, respectively, compared to those of KAM15U. In addition, a 2.31% increase in ethanol productivity was observed for LE34U compared to KAM15U. These results verified the feasibility of our strategy for yeast strain development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genome shuffling is an efficient way to improve complex phenotypes under the control of multiple genes. For the improvement of strain's performance in very high-gravity (VHG) fermentation, we developed a new method of genome shuffling. A diploid ste2/ ste2 strain was subjected to EMS (ethyl methanesulfonate) mutagenesis followed by meiotic recombination-mediated genome shuffling. The resulting haploid progenies were intrapopulation sterile and therefore haploid recombinant cells with improved phenotypes were directly selected under selection condition. In VHG fermentation, strain WS1D and WS5D obtained by this approach exhibited remarkably enhanced tolerance to ethanol and osmolarity, increased metabolic rate, and 15.12% and 15.59% increased ethanol yield compared to the starting strain W303D, respectively. These results verified the feasibility of the strain improvement strategy and suggested that it is a powerful and high throughput method for development of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains with desired phenotypes that is complex and cannot be addressed with rational approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recombinant xylose-fermenting Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain harboring xylose reductase (XR) and xylitol dehydrogenase (XDH) from Scheffersomyces stipitis requires NADPH and NAD+, creates cofactor imbalance, and causes xylitol accumulation during growth on D-xylose. To solve this problem, noxE, encoding a water-forming NADH oxidase from Lactococcus lactis driven by the PGKI promoter, was introduced into the xylose-utilizing yeast strain KAM-3X. A cofactor microcycle was set up between the utilization of NAD+ by XDH and the formation of NAD+ by water-forming NADH oxidase. Overexpression of noxE significantly decreased xylitol formation and increased final ethanol production during xylose fermentation. Under xylose fermentation conditions with an initial D-xylose concentration of 50 glliter, the xylitol yields for of KAM-3X(pPGK1-noxE) and control strain KAM-3X were 0.058 g/g xylose and 0.191 g/g, respectively, which showed a 69.63% decrease owing to noxE overexpression; the ethanol yields were 0.294 g/g for KAM-3X(pPGK1-noxE) and 0.211 g/g for the control strain KAM-3X, which indicated a 39.33% increase due to noxE overexpression. At the same time, the glycerol yield also was reduced by 53.85% on account of the decrease in the NADH pool caused by overexpression of noxE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]