Search

Due to the sustained proliferative potential of cancer cells, inducing cell death is a potential strategy for cancer therapy. Paraptosis is a mode of cell death characterized by endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and/or mitochondrial swelling and cytoplasmic vacuolization, which is less investigated. Considerable evidence shows that paraptosis can be triggered by various chemical compounds, particularly in cancer cells, thus highlighting the potential application of this non-classical mode of cell death in cancer therapy. Despite these findings, there remain significant gaps in our understanding of the role of paraptosis in cancer. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on chemical compound-induced paraptosis. The ER and mitochondria are the two major responding organelles in chemical compound-induced paraptosis, which can be triggered by the reduction of protein degradation, disruption of sulfhydryl homeostasis, overload of mitochondrial Ca2+, and increased generation of reactive oxygen species. We also discuss the stumbling blocks to the development of this field and the direction for further research. The rational use of paraptosis might help us develop a new paradigm for cancer therapy.

ABSTRACTThis piece reflects on an innovative introductory workshop for an international professional doctorate development project based on Ursula Le Guin’s ‘Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction’. In the session academic supervisors from four participating countries shared stories about their own experiences of doing a doctorate using a bag of everyday objects which reminded them of their time as students. The exercise gave the group an opportunity to begin to get to know each other and to appreciate the complexity and challenge that completing a doctorate whilst working and balancing other personal and family responsibilities entails. Drawing on humanist pedagogical approaches which value the inner world of the learner and taking inspiration from previous arts based approaches to identity work for education students and practitioners the piece argues for the importance of making space for story-telling about the self from the outset of professional doctorate programmes.

This study aimed to develop and validate a nomogram for predicting the overall survival of cervical adenocarcinoma (CAC) patients using a large database comprising patients with different ethnicities. We enrolled primary CAC cases with complete clinicopathological and survival data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program during 2004 to 2015. For training set samples, this work applied the Cox regression model to obtain factors independently associated with patient prognosis, which could be incorporated in constructing the nomogram. Altogether 3096 qualified cases were enrolled, their survival ranged from 0 to 155 (median, 45.5) months. As revealed by multivariate regression, age, marital status, tumor size, grade, International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) classification, pelvic lymph node metastasis, surgery, and chemotherapy served as the factors to independently predict CAC (all P < .05). We later incorporated these factors for constructing the nomogram. According to the concordance index determined, this nomogram had superior discrimination over FIGO classification system (all P < .001). Based on calibration plot, the predicted value was consistent with actual measurement. As revealed by time-independent area under the curves, our constructed nomogram had superior 5-year overall survival over FIGO system. Additionally, according to decision curve analysis, our constructed nomogram showed high clinical usefulness as well as favorable discrimination. Our constructed nomogram attains favorable performances, indicating that it may be applied in predicting survival for CAC patients.

Marriage has been reported as a beneficial factor associated with improved survival among cancer patients, but conflicting results have been observed in cervical adenocarcinoma (AC). Thus, this study is aimed to examine the relationship between the prognosis of cervical AC and marital status. Eligible patients were selected from 2004 to 2015 using the surveillance, epidemiology and end results (SEER) database. Cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS) were compared between married and unmarried groups. A total of 3096 patients had been identified, with married ones accounting for 51.29% (n = 1588). Compared to unmarried groups, more patients in the married group were relatively younger (aged ≤ 45) and belonged to white race, with grade I/II, Federation of International of Gynecologists and Obstetricians (FIGO) stage I/II and tumor size ≤4 cm. Apart from that, more patients received surgery, whereas fewer patients received chemotherapy and radiotherapy (all P< 0.05). The 5–year CSS and OS rates were 80.16% and 78.26% in married patients, 68.58% and 64.62% in the unmarried group (P < .0001). Multivariate analysis showed that marital status was an independent prognostic factor, and the married group performed better CSS (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.770; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.663–0.895; P = .001) as well as OS (HR: 0.751; 95%CI: 0.653–0.863; P < .001). As demonstrated by the results of subgroup analysis, married patients had better CSS and OS survival than unmarried ones in nearly all the subgroups. Marital status was identified as an independent prognostic factor for improved survival in patients with cervical AC.

Palladium nanoparticles (Pd NPs) are the most widely used functional materials for a variety of catalytic reactions. In this work, we synthesized the size-controlled Pd NPs using amyloid fibrils as bio-templates. First, 1mg/ml insulin peptides were incubated at 80°Cfor 3 days to form protein fibrils. Then, layer-by-layer technology was used to prepare Pd-insulin fibrils multilayer film as catalyst by alternatively depositing insulin fibrils and palladium chloride which has been aged at several different temperatures for two days. The chemical compositions of Pd-insulin film were also characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The Pd-insulin film demonstrated high isolated yield in promoting Suzuki cross-coupling reaction. In addition, the effect of Pd NPs size on the catalytic activity was also discussed.

n the process of modeling, ignoring the displacement of the pier directly replaced with fixed constraint, beam elements were adopted to simulate girder and pylon, and link elements were adopted to simulate the cable. The first ten order natural vibration mode and natural frequency were obtained, and the dynamic characteristics analysis of a single pylon cable-stayed bridge was discussed, which can provide certain reference and guidance for solving the problem of the cable-stayed bridge design.