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Dissolved organic matter (DOM) in soils drives biogeochemical cycling and soil functions in different directions depending on its molecular signature. Notably, there is a distinct paucity of information concerning how the molecular signatures of soil DOM vary with different degrees of weathering across wide geographic scales. Herein, we resolved the DOM molecular signatures from 22 diverse Chinese reference soils and linked them with soil organic matter and weathering-related mineralogical properties. The mixed-effects models revealed that the yields of DOM were determined by soil organic carbon content, whereas the molecular signature of DOM was primarily constrained by the weathering-related dimension. The soil weathering index showed a positive effect on the lability and a negative effect on the aromaticity of DOM. Specifically, DOM in highly weathered acidic soils featured more amino sugars, carbohydrates, and aliphatics, as well as less O-rich polyphenols and condensed aromatics, thereby conferring a higher DOM biolability and lower DOM aromaticity. This study highlights the dominance of the weathering-related dimension in constraining the molecular signatures and potential functions of DOM in soils across a wide geographic scale.

Objective To discuss the current situation and challenge to the treatment strategy for elderly patients with advanced gastric cancer and provide reference for the exploration of ideal treatment methods. Methods Collect the clinical material of an elderly patient with advanced gastric cancer, and the relevant literatures were reviewed. Results A 79-year-old man was clinically diagnosed as adenocarcinoma on the fundus of stomach (cT4a-bN2Mx). After the third course of neo-adjuvant concurrent chemo-radiotherapy, a remarkable reduction and down-staging was achieved (cT3-4N1Mx), then followed by radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer. S1 was used alone for the postoperative chemotherapy. The patient received nutritional therapy in the full treatment course, and the physical condition was satisfactory without tumor metastasis and relapse two years and a half after the surgery. Conclusions The sequentially comprehensive therapy suggestes a treatment therapy for elderly patients with advanced gastric cancer, and deserves further verification and promotion clinically.

Flavonoids, which contain a benzo‐γ‐pyrone (C6–C3–C6) skeleton, have been reported to exhibit effective antioxidant ability. This study aimed to compare the antioxidant activities of 7,8‐dihydroxyflavone (7,8‐DHF) and 7‐hydroxyflavone (7‐HF) in H2O2, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), or tert‐butyl hydroperoxide (t‐BHP)‐induced RAW264.7 cells, respectively. The antioxidant capacities of 7,8‐DHF and 7‐HF were firstly evaluated by 2,2‐azinobis‐3‐ethyl‐benzothiazoline‐6‐sulphonic acid (ABTS), 2,2‐diphenyl‐1‐picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays. Then, reactive oxygen species (ROS), super oxide dismutase (SOD), and malondialdehyde (MDA) productions in H2O2, LPS, or t‐BHP‐induced RAW264.7 cells were tested and compared, respectively. Finally, the antioxidant mechanisms of 7‐HF and 7,8‐DHF were initially investigated by western blot. Our results showed that 7,8‐DHF possessed stronger free‐radical scavenging capacity than 7‐HF. Both 7,8‐DHF and 7‐HF suppressed MDA production and ROS accumulation, improved the activity of SOD in H2O2, LPS, or t‐BHP‐induced RAW264.7 cells, respectively. And 7,8‐DHF exerted a better antioxidant effect than 7‐HF, especially in t‐BHP‐induced oxidative stress. Mechanically, 7,8‐DHF prevented the activation of poly ADP‐ribosepolymerase and caspase‐3, meanwhile markedly upregulated the expression of HO‐1 protein in t‐BHP‐induced oxidative stress. These results suggested that 7,8‐DHF might serve as a potential pharmaceutical drug against oxidative stress injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new cembrane-type diterpenoid (1) and 9 known cembranoids (2 - 10) were isolated from the leaves of Nicotiana tabacum. The structure of the new metabolite was confirmed by extensive analyses of their spectroscopic data, including high-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HR-ESI-MS), 1D- and 2D nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and infrared spectroscopy (IR). All of the isolated compounds were tested for their protective effects against oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD)-induced neurotoxicity in SH-SY5Y cells. The new compound 1 exhibited a moderate protective effect against OGD-induced neurotoxicity at 10 μM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale and Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of computed tomography (CT) radiomics for the prediction of the human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2) status in patients with gastric cancer.Methods: One hundred and thirty two consecutive patients with advanced gastric cancer undergoing radical gastrectomy were retrospectively reviewed. All patients received preoperative contrast CT examination, and immunohistochemistry results of their HER2 status were available. All the subjects were randomly divided into a training cohort (n = 90) and a test cohort (n = 42). Arterial phase (AP) and portal phase (PP) contrast CT images were retrieved for tumor segmentation and feature extraction. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves and area under the curve (AUC) were used to evaluate the performance of the radiomics classifiers.Results: Among the 132 patients, a total of 99 patients were HER2 negative, and the remaining 33 patients were border line or positive. The AP radiomics model could distinguish HER2-negative cases with an AUC of 0.756 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.656-0.840) in the training cohort, which was confirmed in the test cohort with AUC of 0.830 (95% CI: 0.678-0.930). The PP radiomics model showed AUCs of 0.715 (95% CI: 0.612-0.804) and 0.718 (95% CI: 0.554-0.849) in the training and test cohort for distinction of negative HER2 cases, respectively.Conclusion: Radiomics models based on standard-of-care CT images hold promise for distinguishing HER2-negative gastric cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale and Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the value of computed tomography (CT) radiomics for the differentiation between T2 and T3/4 stage lesions in gastric cancer.Materials and Methods: A total of 244 consecutive patients with pathologically proven gastric cancer were retrospectively included and split into a training cohort (171 patients) and a test cohort (73 patients). Preoperative arterial phase and portal phase contrast enhanced CT images were retrieved for tumor segmentation and feature extraction by using a dedicated postprocessing software. The random forest method was used to build the classifier models.Results: The performance of single phase radiomics models were favorable in the differentiation between T2 and T3/4 stage tumors. Arterial phase-based radiomics model exhibited areas under the curve of 0.899 (95% CI: 0.812-0.955) in the training cohort and 0.825 (95% CI: 0.718-0.904) in the test cohort. Portal phase-based radiomics model showed areas under the curve of 0.843 (95% CI: 0.746-0.914) and 0.818 (95% CI: 0.711-0.899) in the training and test cohort, respectively.Conclusion: CT radiomics approach has a potential role in differentiation between T2 and T3/4 stage tumors in gastric cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale and Objectives: To determine the optimal keV for the visualization of gastric cancer and to investigate its value in depicting lesions and in identifying depth invasion using virtual monoenergetic images (VMIs) on a novel dual-layer spectral detector CT.Materials and Methods: Eighty-two gastric cancer patients were retrospectively enrolled, and 41 patients who did not undergo surgery were evaluated for image quality in VMIs at different keVs (40 keV-70 keV with 10 keV increments) and in conventional 120 kVp polyenergetic images (PEIs) reconstructed from the portal venous phase. Objective image quality was assessed by the contrast-to-noise ratio of the gastric cancer, while subjective performance was compared using a 5-point Likert scale. Another 41 patients who underwent surgery were examined to compare the diagnostic performance of the VMIs taken at the optimal keV and that of the 120 kVp-PEIs.Results: The contrast-to-noise ratio of gastric cancer at 40 keV (10.4 ± 4.6) was the highest among all the VMIs and was significantly superior to that of the 120 kVp-PEIs (3.5 ± 1.5, p < 0.001). Gastric-specific image quality was rated highest for the 40 keV-VMIs (4.92 ± 0.26), which was significantly superior to that of the 120 kVp-PEIs (4.15 ± 0.82, p < 0.001). In the diagnostic group, there were 13 pT1, 10 pT2, 9 pT3, and 9 pT4 gastric cancer patients. Compared with the 120 kVp-PEIs, the VMIs at 40 keV tended to have a higher detection rate of gastric cancer (82.9% vs. 92.7%, respectively, p = 0.125) and a significantly improved diagnostic accuracy in the T stage (from 41.5% to 78.11%, respectively) (p < 0.001), particularly in pT1 patients, whose diagnostic accuracy was improved by 53.8% (7.7% vs. 61.5%, respectively, p = 0.016).Conclusion: VMIs at 40 keV performed the best, both objectively and subjectively, for gastric cancer, leading to improved lesion depiction and higher T stage accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of nuclear ubiquitous casein and cyclin-dependent kinase substrate 1 (NUCKS1) on tumor cells and the relevant mechanisms are less well defined. This study aimed to explore the role and mechanism of action of NUCKS1 in gastric cancer (GC) progression. The expression dynamics of NUCKS1 were examined using microarray-based immunohistochemistry (IHC) in a group of carcinomatous and adjacent non-tumor specimens. Various in vitro and in vivo assays were performed to clarify the function of NUCKS1 in GC and its underlying mechanisms. In our research, NUCKS1 overexpression was identified by IHC in 86/200 (43%) GC patients, was significantly related to the invasive phenotype of GC and was an indisputable predictor of shortened survival. Depleting NUCKS1 in GC cells significantly induced apoptosis and reduced cell proliferation and invasiveness in vitro and inhibited tumor growth in vivo. Additionally, ectopic overexpression of NUCKS1 in GC cells enhanced proliferation and invasion in vitro and promoted tumor growth in vivo. Importantly, PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway activity was inhibited upon downregulation of NUCKS1 expression and enhanced by ectopic overexpression of NUCKS1. Subsequently, the insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R) gene was found to be a potential downstream target of NUCKS1 in GC cells, and knockdown of IGF-1R eliminated the augmentation of GC cell migration, invasion and proliferation as well as PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway activity by ectopic NUCKS1. The data suggested that NUCKS1 enhanced GC aggressiveness via the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway in an IGF-1R-dependent manner. NUCKS1 or its respective signaling pathways could hold immense promise as potent anticancer targets for GC treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To develop a new bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) model for analyzing body composition by using isotope dilution, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) as the reference methods in young healthy Chinese populations.Methods: Thirty healthy participants were enrolled. Their body composition was analyzed using BIA and 3 reference methods. We established a model that uniformed data from 3 references methods (isotope, MRI, and DEXA) into 1 formula. This model was further validated with 209 participants.Results: The following BIA body composition adjustment model was developed: [Formula: see text], where X represents the impedance index; when K = 1, 2, and 3, Y represents total body water, fat mass, and bone mass, respectively. The prediction accuracy of this formula was 93.3%. By incorporating the data matrix, the protein mass was calculated using BIA: [Formula: see text]. In the verification part of this study, the lean body mass measured using DEXA and BIA was 43.02 ± 8.34 kg and 45.85 ± 8.81 kg, respectively. Analysis indicated that the model fit was extremely favorable ( R2 = .9997, P < .001).Conclusions: The accuracy of BIA measurement on body composition and protein mass is significantly improved by our work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: An accumulation of hyperphosphorylated tau in the brain is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Deficits in protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) are associated with tau hyperphosphorylation in AD. Objective: To investigate the effects of morroniside (MOR), isolated from Cornus officinalis, on tau hyperphosphorylation and its underlying mechanisms related to PP2A. Methods: SK-N-SH cells were pretreated with 50-200 μM MOR for 24 h followed by 20 nM okadaic acid (OA) for 6 h. PP2Ac siRNA was transfected into HEK293 cells to determine the direct interaction of MOR with PP2A. Western blotting was used to measure the expression of proteins and enzymes. PP2A activity was measured by molybdenum blue spectrophotometry. Results: Pretreatment with MOR improved the cellular morphological damage and inhibited tau hyperphosphorylation in SK-N-SH cells induced by OA, a PP2A inhibitor. Moreover, MOR increased PP2A activity, concurrent with a decrease in the expression of demethylated PP2A at Leu309 and phosphorylated PP2A at Tyr307. MOR decreased protein phosphatase methylesterase 1 (PME-1) expression and the ratio of PME-1/leucine carboxyl methyltransferase 1 (LCMT-1). Furthermore, MOR treatment decreased the phosphorylation of Src at Tyr416, which regulates the phosphorylation of PP2A. MOR had no effect on PP2Ac expression and tau hyperphosphorylation in PP2Ac siRNA-transfected cells. Conclusion: MOR attenuated OA-induced tau hyperphosphorylation via PP2A activation, and its mechanism might be related to the regulation of PP2Ac post-translational modification and upstream enzymes such as Src and PME-1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Human pepsinogens are considered promising serological biomarkers for the screening of atrophic gastritis (AG) and gastric cancer (GC). However, there has been controversy in the literature with respect to the validity of serum pepsinogen (SPG) for the detection of GC and AG. Consequently, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the diagnostic accuracy of SPG in GC and AG detection. Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, and the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) for correlative original studies published up to September 30, 2014. The summary sensitivity, specificity, positive diagnostic likelihood ratio (DLR+), negative diagnostic likelihood ratio (DLR-), area under the summary receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) were used to evaluate SPG in GC and AG screening based on bivariate random effects models. The inter-study heterogeneity was evaluated by the I2 statistics and publication bias was assessed using Begg and Mazumdar’s test. Meta-regression and subgroup analyses were performed to explore study heterogeneity. Results: In total, 31 studies involving 1,520 GC patients and 2,265 AG patients were included in the meta-analysis. The summary sensitivity, specificity, DLR+, DLR-, AUC and DOR for GC screening using SPG were 0.69 (95% CI: 0.60–0.76), 0.73 (95% CI: 0.62–0.82), 2.57 (95% CI: 1.82–3.62), and 0.43 (95% CI: 0.34–0.54), 0.76 (95% CI: 0.72–0.80) and 6.01 (95% CI: 3.69–9.79), respectively. For AG screening, the summary sensitivity, specificity, DLR+, DLR-, AUC and DOR were 0.69 (95% CI: 0.55–0.80), 0.88 (95% CI: 0.77–0.94), 5.80 (95% CI: 3.06–10.99), and 0.35 (95% CI: 0.24–0.51), 0.85 (95% CI: 0.82–0.88) and 16.50 (95% CI: 8.18–33.28), respectively. In subgroup analysis, the use of combination of concentration of PGI and the ratio of PGI:PGII as measurement of SPG for GC screening yielded sensitivity of 0.70 (95% CI: 0.66–0.75), specificity of 0.79 (95% CI: 0.79–0.80), DOR of 6.92 (95% CI: 4.36–11.00), and AUC of 0.78 (95% CI: 0.72–0.81), while the use of concentration of PGI yielded sensitivity of 0.55 (95% CI: 0.51–0.60), specificity of 0.79 (95% CI: 0.76–0.82), DOR of 6.88 (95% CI: 2.30–20.60), and AUC of 0.77 (95% CI: 0.73–0.92). For AG screening, the use of ratio of PGI:PGII as measurement of SPG yielded sensitivity of 0.69 (95% CI: 0.52–0.83), specificity of 0.84 (95% CI: 0.68–0.93), DOR of 11.51 (95% CI: 6.14–21.56), and AUC of 0.83 (95% CI: 0.80–0.86), the use of combination of concentration of PGI and the ratio of PGI:PGII yield sensitivity of 0.79 (95% CI: 0.72–0.85), specificity of 0.89 (95% CI: 0.85–0.93), DOR of 24.64 (95% CI: 6.95–87.37), and AUC of 0.87 (95% CI: 0.81–0.92), concurrently, the use of concentration of PGI yield sensitivity of 0.46 (95% CI: 0.38–0.54), specificity of 0.93 (95% CI: 0.91–0.95), DOR of 19.86 (95% CI: 0.86–456.91), and AUC of 0.86 (95% CI: 0.52–1.00). Conclusion: SPG has great potential as a noninvasive, population-based screening tool in GC and AG screening. In addition, given the potential publication bias and high heterogeneity of the included studies, further high quality studies are required in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gastric cancer is one of the most common malignant tumor types in the world and the majority of patients have already reached the advanced stage at the time of initial diagnosis, owing to the subtle symptoms of gastric cancer in the early stage and the low rate of screening in the population. Surgical resection is one of the main treatments for advanced gastric cancer; however, the efficacy of surgery is limited by factors such as low radical resection rate and high distant metastasis rate. A large number of clinical trials have indicated that neoadjuvant therapy (NAT), which consists of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and NAT combined with targeted therapy, may improve the therapeutic effect and prognosis of patients to different degrees. However, the benefit of NAT remains controversial due to the heterogeneity of clinical trials and gastric cancer itself. The present review summarizes the main research progress and key breakthrough of NAT for advanced gastric cancer and discusses its prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eukaryotic translation initiation factor 5A2 (EIF5A2) plays an important role in tumor progression and prognosis evaluation. However, little information is available about its potential role in gastric cancer. This study aimed to investigate the function of EIF5A2 in tumor progression and its potential mechanisms. EIF5A2 expression was measured in human gastric cancer cell lines, the immortalized gastric mucosal epithelial cell line (GES-1) and human gastric cancer tissues and knocked down by RNA interference or upregulated by EIF5A2 plasmid transfection. Cell proliferation, migration and invasion were assessed in vitro. The downstream targets of EIF5A2 were examined by western blotting. EIF5A2 and its potential target metastasis-associated protein 1 (MTA1) expression were examined in 160 pairs of human gastric cancer and adjacent non-tumor specimens using immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining, and its correlation with clinicopathological features and survival was investigated. Knockdown of EIF5A2 or MTA1 caused an apparent suppression of HGC27 cell proliferation, migration and invasion. After knockdown of EIF5A2 in HGC27 cells, E-cadherin levels were upregulated and vimentin, cyclin D1, cyclin D3, C-MYC and MTA1 levels were downregulated. Upregulation of EIF5A2 in MKN45 cells resulted in the converse. IHC results showed a positive correlation between EIF5A2 and MTA1 expression in gastric cancers (P<0.001). Both EIF5A2 and MTA1 overexpression were correlated with pT stage (P=0.018 and P=0.042), pN stage (P=0.037 and P=0.020) and lymphovascular invasion (P=0.016 and P=0.044). EIF5A2 or MTA1 overexpression was significantly associated with poor overall survival and disease-free survival (All P<0.05). Multivariate analyses identified EIF5A2 as an independent predictor for both overall survival (P=0.012) and disease-free survival (P=0.008) in gastric cancer patients. Our findings indicate that EIF5A2 upregulation plays an important oncogenic role in gastric cancer. EIF5A2 may represent a new predictor for poor survival and is a potential therapeutic target for gastric cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lung cancer, particularly non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the leading cause of cancer mortality. Chemotherapy combined dendritic cells co-cultured with cytokine-induced killer cells (DC-CIK) immunotherapy has been applied in advanced NSCLC patients' treatment, but couldn't provide consistent beneficial results. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the efficiency and safety of combination therapy to promote the application. Methods: A literature search for randomized controlled trials of NSCLC was conducted in PubMed database. Before meta-analysis was performed, studies were evaluated heterogeneity. Pooled risk ratios (RRs) were estimated and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using a fixed-effect model. Sensitivity analysis was also performed. Results: Six eligible trials were enrolled. Efficiency and safety of chemotherapy followed by DC-CIK immunotherapy (experimental group) and chemotherapy alone (control group) were compared. 1-year overall survival (OS) (P = 0.02) and progression free survival (PFS) (P = 0.005) in the experimental group were significantly increased compared with the control. Disease control rate (DCR) (P = 0.006) rose significantly in experimental group. However, no significant differences between the two groups were observed in 2-year OS (P = 0.21), 2-year PFS (P = 0.10), overall response rate (ORR) (P = 0.76) and partial response (PR) (P = 0.22). Temporary fever, anemia, leukopenia and nausea were the four major adverse events (AEs) treated by chemotherapy. The incidence of anemia, leukopenia and nausea in the experimental group was obviously lower than the control group. Temporary fever rate was higher in experimental group than that in the control, but could be alleviated by taking sufficient rest. Conclusions: Chemotherapy combined with DC-CIK immunotherapy showed superiority in DCR, 1-year OS and PFS, and no more AEs appeared, however, there was no significant improvement in ORR, PR, 2-year OS and PFS. As a whole, the combination therapy is safer but modest in efficacy for advanced NSCLC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Observational studies have given inconsistent findings on the relationship between intake of dairy products and gastric cancer. We therefore conducted a systematic review with a meta-analysis of observational studies to summarize available evidence on this point. Methods: We searched the electronic literature databases of PubMed (Medline), EMBASE and the Chinese Biomedical Literature Database up until August 30, 2013. All studies were limited to the English language. Random-effects models were used to pool study results between dairy products consumption and the risk of gastric cancer. We also performed subgroup, publication bias and sensitivity analysis. Results: Eight prospective studies and 18 case-control studies were included in our analysis, with a total number of 7272 gastric cancer cases and 223,355 controls. Pooled relative risks of all studies showed no significant association between dairy intake and gastric cancer (odds ratio [OR]: 1.09, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.96–1.25). When study design was separately analyzed, population-based case-control studies showed a positive association between dairy intake and gastric cancer risk (OR: 1.36; 95% CI: 1.07–1.74), whereas no associations were shown by hospital-based case-control studies (OR: 0.86, 95% CI: 0.72–1.02) or cohort studies (OR = 1.01, 95% CI = 0.91–1.13). Conclusions: The meta-analysis shows that no clear association apparently exists between consumption of dairy products and gastric cancer risk. Further well-designed cohort and intervention studies should be conducted to verify this lack of association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]