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Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are characterized as key layers of the genome in various cancers. TSPEAR-AS2 was highlighted to be a candidate lncRNA potentially involved in gastric cancer (GC) progression. However, the clinical significance and mechanism of TSPEAR-AS2 in GC required clarification. The clinical significance of TSPEAR-AS2 was elucidated through Kaplan-Meier Plotter. The mechanism of TSPEAR-AS2 in GC was clarified in vitro and in vivo using luciferase reporter, chromatin immunoprecipitation, RNA immunoprecipitation assays, and animal models. TSPEAR-AS2 elevation was closely correlated with overall survival of GC patients. A basic transcription element-binding protein 2 (BTEB2)-activated TSPEAR-AS2 model was first explored in this study. TSPEAR-AS2 silencing substantially reduced tumorigenic capacities of GC cells, while TSPEAR-AS2 elevation had the opposite effect. Mechanistically, TSPEAR-AS2 bound with both polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) and argonaute 2 (Ago2). TSPEAR-AS2 knockdown significantly decreased H3K27me3 levels at promoter regions of gap junction protein alpha 1 (GJA1). Ago2 was recruited by TSPEAR-AS2, which was defined to sponge miR-1207-5p, contributing to the repression of claudin 4 (CLDN4) translation. The axis of EZH2/GJA1 and miR-1207-5p/CLDN4 mediated by BTEB2-activated-TSPEAR-AS2 plays an important role in GC progression, suggesting a new therapeutic direction in GC treatment.

The segmentation of abnormal regions is vital in smart manufacturing. The blurring sauce-packet leakage segmentation task (BSLST) is designed to distinguish the sauce packet and the leakage's foreground and background at the pixel level. However, the existing segmentation system for detecting sauce-packet leakage on intelligent sensors encounters an issue of imaging blurring caused by uneven illumination. This issue adversely affects segmentation performance, thereby hindering the measurements of leakage area and impeding the automated sauce-packet production. To alleviate this issue, we propose the two-stage illumination-aware sauce-packet leakage segmentation (ISLS) method for intelligent sensors. The ISLS comprises two main stages: illumination-aware region enhancement and leakage region segmentation. In the first stage, YOLO-Fastestv2 is employed to capture the Region of Interest (ROI), which reduces redundancy computations. Additionally, we propose image enhancement to relieve the impact of uneven illumination, enhancing the texture details of the ROI. In the second stage, we propose a novel feature extraction network. Specifically, we propose the multi-scale feature fusion module (MFFM) and the Sequential Self-Attention Mechanism (SSAM) to capture discriminative representations of leakage. The multi-level features are fused by the MFFM with a small number of parameters, which capture leakage semantics at different scales. The SSAM realizes the enhancement of valid features and the suppression of invalid features by the adaptive weighting of spatial and channel dimensions. Furthermore, we generate a self-built dataset of sauce packets, including 606 images with various leakage areas. Comprehensive experiments demonstrate that our ISLS method shows better results than several state-of-the-art methods, with additional performance analyses deployed on intelligent sensors to affirm the effectiveness of our proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing preference for incorporating microbial aspartic proteases in industries is due to their high catalytic function and high degree of substrate selectivity. These properties, however, are attributable to molecular alterations in their structure and a variety of other characteristics. Molecular tools, functional genomics, and genome editing technologies coupled with other biotechnological approaches have aided in improving the potential of industrially important microbial proteases by addressing some of their major limitations, such as: low catalytic efficiency, low conversion rates, low thermostability, and less enzyme yield. However, the native folding within their full domain is dependent on a surrounding structure which challenges their functionality in substrate conversion, mainly due to their mutual interactions in the context of complex systems. Hence, manipulating their structure and controlling their expression systems could potentially produce enzymes with high selectivity and catalytic functions. The proteins produced by microbial aspartic proteases are industrially capable and far-reaching in regulating certain harmful distinctive industrial processes and the benefits of being eco-friendly. This review provides: an update on current trends and gaps in microbial protease biotechnology, exploring the relevant recombinant strategies and molecular technologies widely used in expression platforms for engineering microbial aspartic proteases, as well as their potential industrial and biotechnological applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: With the requirements of environmental, cost and economic sustainability, new sources of alternative proteins in the livestock industry are receiving increasing attention. Mulberry (Morus alba L.) leaves are a unique feed resource because of their high protein content and large availability. Therefore, mining sustainable protein suitable for the animal husbandry industry in sericulture resources could achieve a win–win situation. RESULTS: The protein content in mulberry leaves is 232.10–386.16 g kg−1, and the mean value of crude fat content is 43.76 ± 8.48 g kg−1, which has the advantages of protein content and energy. In addition, the average content of phytic acid in mulberry leaves is only 1.88 ± 0.56 g kg−1, which means that it is not inhibited in terms of nutrient absorption. Meanwhile, the digestibility of protein was Bean pulp > Sample 8 ≈ Alfalfa ≈ Sample 13 ≈ Cottonseed meal > Fish meal, and the β‐turn and particle size of mulberry leaf protein are more conducive to digestion in vitro. Furthermore, the protein of Sample 13 had the richest essential amino acids (252.00 g kg−1) and the highest essential amino acid index (EAAI), which was superior to conventional feed protein. In addition, the partial substitution of mulberry leaf protein (15%) significantly increased the EAAI value of conventional feed protein. However, to balance nutrition, it is necessary to combine mulberry leaf protein with other proteins to further broaden its application field. CONCLUSION: Mulberry leaves are a new source of feed protein, which helps to alleviate the two major problems of mulberry resource surplus and feed protein resource shortage. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Gastric cancer (GC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related mortality globally. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are dysregulated in obvious malignancies including GC and exploring the regulatory mechanisms underlying their expression is an attractive research area. However, these molecular mechanisms require further clarification, especially upstream mechanisms. Methods LncRNA MNX1-AS1 expression in GC tissue samples was investigated via microarray analysis and further determined in a cohort of GC tissues via quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) assays. Cell proliferation and flow cytometry assays were performed to confirm the roles of MNX1-AS1 in GC proliferation, cell cycle regulation, and apoptosis. The influence of MNX1-AS1 on GC cell migration and invasion was explored with Transwell assays. A xenograft tumour model was established to verify the effects of MNX1-AS1 on in vivo tumourigenesis. The TEAD4-involved upstream regulatory mechanism of MNX1-AS1 was explored through ChIP and luciferase reporter assays. The mechanistic model of MNX1-AS1 in regulating gene expression was further detected by subcellular fractionation, FISH, RIP, ChIP and luciferase reporter assays. Results It was found that MNX1-AS1 displayed obvious upregulation in GC tissue samples and cell lines, and ectopic expression of MNX1-AS1 predicted poor clinical outcomes for patients with GC. Overexpressed MNX1-AS1 expression promoted proliferation, migration and invasion of GC cells markedly, whereas decreased MNX1-AS1 expression elicited the opposite effects. Consistent with the in vitro results, MNX1-AS1 depletion effectively inhibited the growth of xenograft tumour in vivo. Mechanistically, TEAD4 directly bound the promoter region of MNX1-AS1 and stimulated the transcription of MNX1-AS1. Furthermore, MNX1-AS1 can sponge miR-6785-5p to upregulate the expression of BCL2 in GC cells. Meanwhile, MNX1-AS1 suppressed the transcription of BTG2 by recruiting polycomb repressive complex 2 to BTG2 promoter regions. Conclusions Our findings demonstrate that MNX1-AS1 may be able to serve as a prognostic indicator in GC patients and that TEAD4-activatd MNX1-AS1 can promote GC progression through EZH2/BTG2 and miR-6785-5p/BCL2 axes, implicating it as a novel and potent target for the treatment of GC.

Abstract Background Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a new class of endogenous non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) widely expressed in eukaryotic cells. Mounting evidence has highlighted circRNAs as critical regulators of various tumours. More importantly, circRNAs have been revealed to recruit and reprogram key components involved in the tumour microenvironment (TME), and mediate various signaling pathways, thus affecting tumourigenesis, angiogenesis, immune response, and metastatic progression. Main body of the abstract In this review, we briefly introduce the biogenesis, characteristics and classification of circRNAs, and describe various mechanistic models of circRNAs. Further, we provide the first systematic overview of the interplay between circRNAs and cellular/non-cellular counterparts of the TME and highlight the potential of circRNAs as prospective biomarkers or targets in cancer clinics. Finally, we discuss the biological mechanisms through which the circRNAs drive development of resistance, revealing the mystery of circRNAs in drug resistance of tumours. Short conclusion Deep understanding the emerging role of circRNAs and their involvements in the TME may provide potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets for cancer patients. The combined targeting of circRNAs and co-activated components in the TME may achieve higher therapeutic efficiency and become a new mode of tumour therapy in the future.

According to the traditional blasting theory and practice, the slotted cartridge blasting can form straight cracks extending along the slot direction and achieve directional fracture. In this paper, an experimental study has been carried out to determine the influence of incident stress waves and reflected stress waves. Under the influence of stress waves, the propagation path of the main crack in slotted cartridge blasting is not straight, and the directional fracture effect is inadequate. Under the experimental conditions in this paper, the propagation of main cracks mainly experienced three stages: directional propagation stage, counterclockwise deflecting propagation stage, and clockwise deflecting propagation stage. The difference between incident stress waves and reflected stress waves results in the difference in the deflecting direction, transforming the main crack into a wing shape. In rock roadway drilling and blasting engineering, the propagation path of main cracks produced by peripheral boreholes using the slotted cartridge blasting is also affected by the incident and reflected stress waves. These stress waves are inevitably generated from free faces and adjacent boreholes; however, these are rarely considered in the design of blasting parameters. Therefore, the design and optimization of blasting parameters considering the interaction of stress waves and main cracks in the slotted cartridge blasting need to be further developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aims: Lung cancer (LC) is a serious disease with high morbidity and mortality. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have garnered attention because they participate in diverse human disorders, including cancer. Our study examined the long intergenic noncoding RNA 00707 (LINC00707). The effects of LINC00707 on lung adenocarcinoma (LAD) and molecular mechanisms are unclear. This study is aimed to investigate the role of LINC00707 in the malignant processes of LAD. Methods: Quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) was used to examine the expression level of LINC00707 in tissues and cell lines. The association of LINC00707 expression and postoperative prognosis was analyzed by the Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test. Cell proliferation was evaluated in vitro and in vivo. Transwell assays were performed to examine cell migration. Cell cycle and apoptosis was determined by flow -cytometric and western blot analyses. Microarray analysis was conducted to screen for the downstream target gene Cdc42 of LINC00707, which was identified by qRT-PCR, functional analysis, and rescue experiment. Results: The expression level of LINC00707 was clearly upregulated in LAD tissues compared to that in corresponding normal tissues. Its overexpression was related to advanced TNM stage, larger tumor size, lymphatic metastasis, and poor prognosis. Functional assays revealed that LINC00707 knockdown repressed LAD cell proliferation both in vitro and in vivo. This process may involve the inducing of G1 arrest and apoptosis. Moreover, cell migration was impaired after LINC00707 inhibition. Microarray analysis and rescue assays suggested that Cdc42 is an important target gene involved in the carcinogenesis of LINC00707. Conclusions: In summary, LINC00707 is a noncoding oncogene that exerts important regulatory functions in LAD, suggesting its potential as a biomarker in the prognosis and treatment of LAD.