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Being a highly conserved catabolic process, autophagy is induced by various forms of cellular stress, and its modulation has considerable potential as a cancer therapeutic approach. In the present study, it was demonstrated that dicitrinone B (DB), a rare carbon‑bridged citrinin dimer, may exert anticancer effects by blocking autophagy at a late stage, without disrupting lysosomal function in MCF7 breast cancer and MDA‑MB‑231 triple‑negative breast cancer cells. Furthermore, it was discovered that DB significantly enhanced intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and that the removal of ROS was followed by the attenuation of autophagy inhibition. In addition, DB exerted notable inhibitory effects on the proliferation and promoting effects on the apoptosis of MCF7 and MDA‑MB‑231 cells. In combination with conventional chemotherapeutic drugs, DB exhibited a further enhanced synergistic effect than when used as a single agent. Overall, the data of the present study demonstrate that DB may prove to be a promising autophagy inhibitor with anticancer activity against breast cancer.

Aim This study was designed to investigate the prognostic effect of preoperative body mass index (BMI) for Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients with non-metastasis gastric cancer (GC) who underwent D2 gastrectomy. Methods T2DM patients with pT1–4bN0–3bM0 GC were retrospectively collected in Department of Gastrointestinal Surgical Oncology, Fujian Cancer Hospital & Fujian Medical University Cancer Hospital from January, 2000 to December, 2010. These patients underwent D2 radical resection of the stomach combined with regional lymphadenectomy. Chi-square test was used to analyze unordered categorical variables and ranked data, followed by Kaplan–Meier analysis as well as Cox regression models to detect risk factors for survival outcomes. In addition, the cut-off point was determined by the X-tile program. All analyses were carried out using survival package of R and SPSS Software. Results A total of 302 T2DM patients with pT1–4bN0–3bM0 GC were collected and analyzed. The cut-off points of BMI, identified by the X-tile program, was 19 kg/m2. Patients with low BMI (2) had a higher percentage of advanced T stage (T4a and T4b), more advanced TNM stage (stage IIIA, IIIB and IIIC), and more elevated level of serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), compared to those with high BMI (> 19 kg/m2) (all P P C stage (OR = 3.101), N3b stage (OR = 3.113) were the most important prognostic indicators, followed by pretreatment BMI (OR = 2.136). Conclusion Low preoperative BMI (2) was a poor prognostic marker for T2DM patients with pT1–4bN0–3bM0 GC.

Cancer stem cells (CSCs), characterized by infinite proliferation and self-renewal, greatly challenge tumor therapy. Research into their plasticity, dynamic instability, and immune microenvironment interactions may help overcome this obstacle. Data on the stemness indices (mRNAsi), gene mutations, copy number variations (CNV), tumor mutation burden (TMB), and corresponding clinical characteristics were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and UCSC Xena Browser. Tumor purity and infiltrating immune cells in stomach adenocarcinoma (STAD) tissues were predicted using the ESTIMATE R package and CIBERSORT method, respectively. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the high and low mRNAsi groups were used to construct prognostic models with weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) and Lasso regression. The association between cancer stemness, gene mutations, and immune responses was evaluated in STAD. A total of 6,739 DEGs were identified between the high and low mRNAsi groups. DEGs in the brown (containing 19 genes) and blue (containing 209 genes) co-expression modules were used to perform survival analysis based on Cox regression. A nine-gene signature prognostic model (ARHGEF38-IT1, CCDC15, CPZ, DNASE1L2, NUDT10, PASK, PLCL1, PRR5-ARHGAP8, and SYCE2) was constructed from 178 survival-related DEGs that were significantly related to overall survival, clinical characteristics, tumor microenvironment immune cells, TMB, and cancer-related pathways in STAD. Gene correlation was significant across the prognostic model, CNVs, and drug sensitivity. Our findings provide a prognostic model and highlight potential mechanisms and associated factors (immune microenvironment and mutation status) useful for targeting CSCs.

In semiarid regions, wind and water erosion are serious environmental and ecological problems around world. They have different impacts on soil quality over a range of spatial scales. Analyzing the spatial distribution of soil erosion and understanding the impacts of wind and water erosion on soil quality at the regional scale is vital for mitigating soil erosion risk. In this study we explore the spatial distributions of water and wind erosion around Zhangjiakou city which suffers both water and wind erosion contemporaneously, and detect the influence of soil erosion on soil quality. We find that annual wind erosion intensities range 4.99–10.05 t ha−1 yr−1, and annual water erosion intensities range 2.92–4.14 t ha−1 yr−1. Areas with higher potential wind and total erosion risk occur mainly in northwest and southeast Zhangjiakou city, whereas potential water erosion risk is highest in the southwest and central regions. The highest erosion rates are concentrated in gentle parts of the landscape, where agriculture has led to low vegetation cover. Steeper portions of the landscape, which remain forested, have lower erosion rates. These spatial patterns are dominated by higher wind erosion, which correlates with surface soil coarsening and higher water infiltration, whereas the soil water holding capacity decreases with increasing wind erosion rates. In regions with high water infiltration rates, we find the intensity of water erosion weakened. To mitigate risks of soil degradation, suitable erosion measures should be implemented according to the dominant erosion type, which varies in space.

Purpose: To explore the correlation between tumor-infiltrating immune cell subsets and breast cancer prognosis. Materials and methods: Specimens of 102 patients with invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast were analyzed for immune-related markers (CD8, CD20, FOXP3 and CD68). The number of positive cells in the 3 most highly stained intratumoral stroma areas of the primary tumor was counted. The mean number was calculated and used to divide patients into 2 groups for each marker (CD8-high/CD8-low, CD20-high/CD20-low, FOXP3-high/FOXP3-low, and CD68-high/CD68-low). Results: Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed (a) for all patients that high tumor-infiltrating CD8+ and CD20+ B lymphocytes, low tumor-infiltrating FOXP3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs), and CD68+ macrophages all increased OS and DFS (pConclusion: High numbers of tumor-infiltrating CD8+ and low numbers of FOXP3+ T lymphocytes both could function as potential independent prognostic markers for invasive ductal breast carcinoma.

Natural killer (NK) cells, discovered ~40 years ago, are believed to be the most effective cytotoxic lymphocytes to counteract cancer; however, adoptive NK cell therapy in vivo has encountered certain limitations, including a lack of specificity. The drug cetuximab can mediate antibody dependent cell mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) activity through NK cells in vivo, and has been approved for the first-line treatment of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-positive metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the ADCC activity of adoptive NK cells, induced by cetuximab in a nude mouse CRC xenograft model, has not been previously reported. The aim of the present study was to explore the ADCC activity of cetuximab combined with adoptive NK cells in CRC xenograft models with various EGFR expressions. The nude mouse xenograft models were established by subcutaneously injecting LOVO or SW620 cells. The mice were then randomly divided into 6 groups: Phosphate-buffered saline, cetuximab, human immunoglobulin G (hIgG), NK cells, hIgG plus NK cells and cetuximab plus NK cells. The ADCC antitumor activity was evaluated in these CRC models. The results indicated that the cetuximab plus NK cells group showed the greatest tumor inhibition effect compared with the NK cells group in LOVO xenograft tumor models with positive EGFR expression. However, the combination of cetuximab and NK cells did not show a stronger tumor inhibitory effect against the SW620 xenograft tumor models compared with the efficiency of NK cells. In conclusion, cetuximab could intensify the ADCC antitumor activity of adoptive NK cells towards CRC with an increased EGFR expression. The combination of cetuximab and NK cells may be a potential immunotherapy for metastatic CRC patients with positive EGFR expression.

Blockchain technology has received great attention in recent years. However, the data volume of blockchain grows continuously due to the features that cannot be deleted and can only be added. Currently, the total size of Bitcoin blockchain ledger has reached 200GB. Its high demand for storage space and bandwidth to synchronize data with the network prevents many nodes from joining the network.This is not only not conducive to the expansion of this decentralized network, but also becomes the bottleneck of the development of blockchain technology. This paper proposes an IPFS-based blockchain data storage model to solve this problem.In this paper, the miners deposit the transaction data into the IPFS network and pack the returned IPFS hash of transaction into the block. Utilizing the characteristics of the IPFS network and the features of the IPFS hash, the blockchain data is greatly reduced. The scheme is applied to the Bitcoin blockchain. According to the experimental results, the compression ratio can reach 0.0817. According to the analysis, it also has good performance in terms of security and synchronization speed of new node.

Background Surgical resection combined with adjuvant chemotherapy is considered as the gold-standard treatment for advanced colorectal cancer patients. These patients have a poor 5-year survival rate of 5% or less. Furthermore, a large dose of chemotherapy can produce adverse side effects and severe toxicity. Therefore, this retrospective study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of dendritic cell-cytokine-induced killer (DC-CIK) cell infusion as an adjuvant therapy in patients with advanced colorectal cancer combined with first-line treatment. Methods A total of 142 patients with stage III/IV colorectal carcinoma who had been treated with first-line therapy were included in this study. Among these patients, 71 patients received first-line treatment only (non-DC-CIK group), while the other 71 patients who had similar demographic and clinical characteristics received a DC-CIK cell infusion combined with first-line treatment (DC-CIK group). These patients were followed up until August 2014. Data were analyzed by Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression. Results Our results showed that the 5-year overall survival (OS) rate for the DC-CIK group versus the non-DC-CIK group was 41.3 versus 19.4% (p = 0.001) and the 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) rate for the DC-CIK group versus the non-DC-CIK group was 57.4 versus 33.6% (p = 0.022). Conclusions Our results showed that patients with advanced colorectal cancer might benefit from DC-CIK immunotherapy combined with first-line therapy by significantly prolonging 5-year OS and PFS.

To explore the risk factors and prognosis of No.8p lymph node metastasis in cases with advanced gastric cancer.Clinicopathological and follow-up data of 790 cases with advanced gastric cancer undergoing gastrectomy (including No.8p lymphadenectomy) from October 2003 to October 2013 in Fujian Provincial Tumor Hospital were analyzed retrospectively. Patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy were excluded. Associations of No.8p lymph node metastasis with clinicopathological characteristics and metastasis in other regional lymph node were analyzed. Prognostic difference between positive No.8p group and negative No.8p group was examined.Positive No.8p lymph node was found in 93 cases (11.8%) among 790 cases with advanced gastric cancer. Univariate analysis showed that gender [male 9.8%(56/572) vs. female 17.0%(37/218), P=0.005], preoperative CEA level [5 μg/L 28.0%(61/218) vs. ≥5 μg/L 5.6%(32/572), P=0.005], tumor size[diameter5 cm 3.8%(13/346) vs. ≥5 cm 18.0%(80/445), P=0.000], tumor location [gastric fundus and cardiac 10.7% (26/244) vs. gastric body 13.5% (30/222) vs. gastric antrum 10.1% (31/308) vs. total gastric 37.5%(6/16), P=0.007], Borrmann staging [type II( 1.9%(4/211) vs. type III( 11.6% (54/464) vs. type IIII( 30.4%(35/115), P=0.000], tumor differentiation [high 0/8 vs. moderate 6.7%(25/372) vs. low 16.6%(68/410), P=0.000], T staging [T2 2.4%(4/170) vs. T3 13.1%(35/267) vs. T4 15.3%(54/353), P=0.000], N staging [N0 0 (0/227) vs. N1 2.2%(5/223) vs. N2 15.2%(26/171) vs. N3 36.7%(62/169), P=0.000] were closely associated with the No.8p lymph node metastasis. Multivariate analysis that revealed gender (OR=1.762, 95%CI: 1.020-3.043), tumor size (OR=1.107, 95%CI: 1.020-1.203), N staging (OR=4.093, 95%CI: 2.929-5.718), tumor differentiation (OR=1.782, 95%CI:1.042-3.049), and metastasis in No.8a(OR=5.370, 95%CI: 3.425-8.419), No.3(OR=1.127, 95%CI:1.053-1.206), No.6(OR=1.221,95%CI: 1.028-1.450), No.7(OR=2.149, 95%CI: 1.711-2.699), No,11p(OR=2.085, 95%CI: 1.453-2.994), No.14v(OR=2.604, 95%CI: 1.038-6.532) group lymph nodes were the independent risk factors of No.8p lymph node metastasis. One-year, 3-year and 5-year survival rates in positive No.8p group were 85.7%, 47.5% and 22.6%, and those in negative No.8p group were 96.2%, 82.5% and 70.3% respectively, whose differences were significant (χMetastasis in Np.8p lymph nodes is an important factor affecting the prognosis of patients with advanced gastric cancer. In patients with female gender, tumor diameter ≥5 cm, preoperative late N staging, low tumor differentiation or metastasis in No.8a, No.3, No.6, No.7, No.11p, No.14v group lymph nodes, thorough clean rance of No.8p group lymph node should be considered.

To evaluate the clinicopathologic characteristics and prognostic difference of gastric stump cancer between non-anastomotic site and anastomotic site.Clinicopathologic data of 149 patients with gastric stump cancer undergoing operation (radical resection and palliative resection) in our department from January 1999 to June 2015 were analyzed retrospectively. Gastric stump cancer was defined as a primary carcinoma detected in the remnant stomach more than 5 years after subtotal gastrectomy for a benign disease(87 cases) or over 10 years after radical subtotal gastrectomy for a malignant disease (62 cases). Patients were divided into the anastomotic site group (72 cases) and the non-anastomotic site group (77 cases) according to tumor sites within the remnant stomach. Clinicopathologic characteristics, operative data, lymph node metastasis and prognosis were compared between the two groups.Compared with non-anastomotic site group, the T stage, N stage and TNM stage were later in the anastomotic site group. Number of case of T1, T2, T3, and T4 stage in anastomotic site group was 1(1.4%), 2 (2.8%), 17(23.6%) and 52(72.2%), while such number in non-anastomotic site group was 8(10.4%), 10(13.0%), 27(35.1%) and 32(41.6%) respectively(χGastric stump cancer locating in anastomotic site indicates worse differentiation histology, higher lymph node metastasis rate, lower curative resection rate and poorer prognosis.

In order to degrade aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁), AFB₁-degrading microbes (probiotics) such as Lactobacillus casei, Bacillus subtilis and Pichia anomala, and the AFB₁-degrading enzyme from Aspergillus oryzae were selected and combined to make feed additive. Seventy-five 43-day-old male Arbor Acres broilers were randomly divided into 5 groups, 15 broilers for each group. The broilers were given with 5 kinds of diets such as the basal diet, 400 μg/kg AFB₁ supplement without feed additive, and 200, 400, 800 μg/kg AFB₁ supplement with 0.15% feed additive. The feeding experimental period was 30 d, which was used to determine production performance of broilers. In addition, serum, liver and chest muscle were selected for measuring AFB₁ residues, gene expressions, microscopic and antioxidant analyses. The results showed that adding 0.15% feed additive in broiler diets could significantly relieve the negative effect of AFB₁ on chicken's production performance and nutrient metabolic rates (P

Recent evidence suggests the involvement of γ-synuclein in tumorigenesis and tumor progression. The present study was designed to further clarify the effects of γ-synuclein on the biological features of colon cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. We constructed the eukaryotic expression vector and siRNA vector and selected stable transfectants to respectively upregulate and downregulate γ-synuclein expression in SW1116 cells. we found that silencing of γ-synuclein significantly attenuated SW1116 cell growth and colony formation in vitro (P0.05), and overexpression of γ-synuclein moderately enhanced cell growth and colony formation, but not significantly when compared with the parental SW1116 cells and empty vector-transfected cells (P0.05). Meanwhile, overexpression of γ-synuclein significantly facilitated SW1116 cell migration, invasion and adhesion to human liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (HLSECs) in vitro (P0.05), and the effects were less attenuated by γ-synuclein knockdown (P0.05). Furthermore, γ-synuclein promoted these malignant phenotypes in a γ-synuclein expression quantity-dependent manner not only in vitro but also in the in vivo expression. stable cells were injected subcutaneously into the right flank, and injected intrasplenically in nude mice. γ-synuclein knockdown suppressed the tumorigenicity of SW1116 cells in mice, which presented significantly smaller tumor masses on day 6 over a 30-day period, compared with empty vector cells (P0.05). Meanwhile, overexpression of γ-synuclein led to a profound augmentation of liver metastasis in nude mice, not only in macroscopic appearance but also in the size and weight of livers (P0.05). These results provide strong evidence that suggests γ-synuclein plays a positive role in the progression of colorectal cancer.

To construct a lentiviral vector carrying the γ-synuclein(SNCG) gene and establish a human colorectal carcinoma cell line SW1116 stably expressing this gene, and then investigate the inhibition of the growth and invasion capacity of SW1116 cells.RNA interference fragment was designed according to the SNCG sequence (GenBank: No.NM003087.2), and then SNCG RNAi effective target genes were screened. After the Oligo DNA of target sequences was synthesized, the lentiviral vectors carrying LV-SNCG-RNAi-EGFP (RNAi group) and LV-SNCG-NC-EGFP (NC group) were constructed and packaged to produce lentivirus venom. The supernatants of different virus-producing cells were used to transfect SW1116 cells respectively. Wild SW1116 cells were used as blank control (CON group) EGFP fluorescence was detected by fluorescent microscopy and the differential expression of SNCG mRNA and protein was detected by real-time PCR and Western blot. CCK-8, soft agar assay and Transwell chamber were employed to estimate the inhibiting effect on growth and invasion of SW1116 respectively.Recombinant lentiviral vectors respectively carrying the SNCG-RNAi-EGFP and SNCG-NC-EGFP were successfully constructed and the supernatants of lentivirus could effectively infect SW1116 cells. The titer of the virus carrying LV-SNCG-RNAi-EGFP or LV-SNCG-NC-EGFP was 8×10(8) TU/ml. Real-time PCR and Western blot confirmed that compared with the NC group, SNCG-RNAi group had lower SNCG expression (1.009±0.161 vs. 0.114±0.030, P=0.009), and showed tremendous silencing effect as 76.8%(P0.05). SNCG protein expression was also significantly reduced (RNAi:12.001±2.884, NC:32.443±4.731, CON:34.308±6.920, P0.05). After SNCG knockdown, the number of proliferation cells was obviously reduced at 48, 72, 96 and 120 hours respectively(P=0.036). In soft agar assay, clones in RNAi group were smaller[RNAi:(0.582±0.103) mm, NC:(1.863±0.316) mm, CON:(1.749±0.525) mm]. Colony formation rate of RNAi group was down to (17.1±3.5)%, which was significantly lower than (36.5±4.3)% in NC group and (33.8±3.9)% in CON group. In migration test, the number of invasion cell was 37.4±9.3 in RNAi group, which was significantly less than 112.3±8.6 in NC group and 100±0.0 in CON group.Expression of SNCG mRNA and protein plays an important role in the growth and the invasion capacity of SW1116 cells.

In order to increase nutrient values of corn stover, effects of steam explosion (2.5 MPa, 200 s) and Aspergillus oryzae (A. oryzae) fermentation on cellulose and lignin degradation were studied. The results showed the contents of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin in the exploded corn stover were 8.47%, 50.45% and 36.65% lower than that in the untreated one, respectively (P

Aims To obtain floating spheres from the adherent gastric cancer cell line SGC-7901 and to analyze the properties of the spheres. Methods Serum-free medium was applied to cultured SGC-7901 cells. Limiting dilution assay, tumor formation assay, microarray analysis, and real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR were used to test the stem cell properties of the spheres. Results A subpopulation of SGC-7901 cells formed floating spheres in serum-free medium. These cells showed enhanced tumorigenic ability and also highly expressed certain stem-cell-associated proteins. Conclusions We successfully propagated floating spheres with stem cell properties in the SGC-7901 gastric cell line.

A 1.4-kb DNA containing the coding region of phytase gene from Aspergillus ficuum (A. ficuum) was connected with the plasmid of pIAbeta8 to construct shuffling vector, which was inserted into Lactobacillus casei (L. casei) by electroporation. The Lactobacillus with phytase gene was selected and incubated in anaerobic liquid medium. The results indicated that the highest phytase activities in the supernatant and cells were 22.12 and 4.49 Uml(-1) (P0.05) at the fourth day of incubation; the optimum pH and temperature of phytase were 5.0 and 40-80 degrees C, respectively (P0.05); the lowest pH value in the anaerobic medium was 3.35 (P0.05) at the third day incubation; and the molecular weight of the expressed phytase was 39.2 kDa.

Gully erosion is an important environmental hazard in the black soil region of northeastern China. It is a primary sediment source in the region which needs appropriate soil conservation practices. Gully incision in rolling hills typical of this region was monitored using real-time kinematic GPS to assess the rates of gully development and the resultant sediment production. From 2002 to 2005, gully heads in the study area retreated between 15.4 and 33.5 m, giving an average retreat rate of 8.4 m yr− 1. Field measurements showed that total sediment production due to gully erosion during the three years ranged between 257 and 1854 m3 yr− 1, which is equivalent to 326 to 2355 t yr− 1, with gully-head retreat accounting for 0 to 21.7% (4.4% in average). The sediment delivery ratio was especially high during the summer rainy season (56% in average). Sediment production by ephemeral gullies and permanent gullies was 1.5 times greater than that from surface erosion. Gully heads retreated faster in the spring freeze–thaw period than in the summer. The stage of gully development could be identified based on short-term changes in the gully erosion rate.

Ephemeral gully erosion is an important process in the black soil region, Northeast China and can be responsible for severe damage to agricultural lands. However, little research on gully formation in this area has been published. The study described in this paper attempted to quantify soil losses, the spatial distribution and morphology of the gullies, and the factors that control their development. Ephemeral gullies were measured in spring and summer of 2005 in two small catchments. The critical periods for ephemeralgullyformationwerelatespringandsummerinthestudyarea.Meansoil lossesduetoephemeralgullyerosionwere0.40 and 0.43 kg m � 2 year � 1 for only croplands despite low slope gradients, and this loss is above the tolerable erosion rates of 0.20 kg m � 2 year � 1 . The erosion rates were greater in spring because the topsoil thawed before deeper layers, reducing infiltration into the soil, and the bare vegetation cover provided no barriers to surface flow. In contrast, summer erosion occurred primarily in response to intense rain events. Development of the gullies was promoted by freeze-thaw cycles in spring and was affected by the type of agricultural operations and crops in summer. A linear regression model for the prediction of ephemeral gully length at the catchment level was established using field data, and although it did not successfully predict the length of individual gullies, it explained 55% of the variation in ephemeral gully length. # 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.