Search Our Scientific Publications & Authors

Shock 2021 Apr 13. Epub 2021 Apr 13.

Dell Medical School, University of Texas, Austin TX Department of Surgery, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX.

Abstract: Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) are a heterogenous population of immature myeloid cells hallmarked by their potent immunosuppressive function in a vast array of pathologic conditions. MDSCs have recently been shown to exhibit marked expansion in acute inflammatory states including traumatic injury, burn, and sepsis. Although MDSCs have been well characterized in cancer, there are significant gaps in our knowledge of their functionality in trauma and sepsis, and their clinical significance remains unclear. Read More

Int Arch Allergy Immunol 2021 Apr 21:1-11. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

Unidad de Investigación Biomédica de Zacatecas, IMSS, Zacatecas, Mexico.

Introduction: The formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) is a process in which several kinds of enzymes participate generating posttranslational modifications of proteins. NETs have been associated with infectious, autoimmune, and inflammatory diseases. Inhibition of several proteases reduces the formation of NETs. Read More

Eur Surg Res 2021 Apr 21:1-8. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Osaka City University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka City, Japan.

Background: Asporin (ASPN), a member of the proteoglycan family, has been shown to have a close correlation with cancer progression. It is not known whether ASPN is an oncogenic driver or a tumor suppressor in human gastric cancer. We sought herein to determine the relationship between ASPN expression and clinicopathological features of gastric cancer. Read More

Aging (Albany NY) 2021 Apr 21;13. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, P. R. China.

Unmasking the complex regulatory pathways that mediate the malignant phenotypes of cancer cells can provide novel targets for therapies that could limit the recurrence and metastasis of gastric cancer (GC). Herein, we intended to clarify the role of embryonic ectoderm development protein (EED), microRNA-228-5p (miR-338-5p), methyltransferase like 3 (METTL3) and CUB domain containing protein 1 (CDCP1) in GC. Differentially expressed miRNAs and their target genes were extracted by analysis. Read More

Aging (Albany NY) 2021 Mar 19;13. Epub 2021 Mar 19.

Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shengli Clinical Medical College of Fujian Medical University, Fujian Provincial Hospital, Fuzhou 350001, Fujian Province, China.

Chemo-resistance and refractoriness remain challenges for Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients and the underlying molecular mechanisms haven't been fully explained. In this study, we investigated the influence of circUBAP2 on the NSCLC tumor cells. This study might provide novel therapeutic targets for NSCLC treatment. Read More

J Biomech 2021 Apr 5;121:110400. Epub 2021 Apr 5.

Fischell Department of Bioengineering, University of Maryland, College Park 20742, MD, USA; Maryland Biophysics Program, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA. Electronic address:

During cancer metastasis, tumor cells undergo significant deformation in order to traverse through endothelial cell junctions in the walls of blood vessels. As cells pass through narrow gaps, smaller than the nuclear diameter, the spatial configuration of chromatin must change along with the distribution of nuclear enzymes. Nuclear stiffness is an important determinant of the ability of cells to undergo transendothelial migration, yet no studies have been conducted to assess whether tumor cell cytoskeletal or nuclear stiffness changes during this critical process in order to facilitate passage. Read More

Comput Methods Programs Biomed 2021 Apr 9;205:106092. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan; Kazakh-British Technical University, Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Background And Objective: Some types of cancer cause rapid cell growth, while others cause cells to grow and divide at a slower rate. Certain forms of cancer result in visible growths called tumors. This work proposes an inverse estimation of the size and location of the tumor using a feedforward Neural Network (FFNN) model. Read More

Cancer Treat Res Commun 2021 Apr 18;27:100376. Epub 2021 Apr 18.

Department of Surgery, Trinity Translational Medicine Institute, Trinity St. James's Cancer Institute, St. James's Hospital, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.

The clinical management of locally advanced oesophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC) involves neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT), but as radioresistance remains a major clinical challenge, complete pathological response to CRT only occurs in 20-30% of patients. In this study we used an established isogenic cell line model of radioresistant OAC to detect proteomic signatures of radioresistance to identify novel molecular and cellular targets of radioresistance in OAC. A total of 5785 proteins were identified of which 251 were significantly modulated in OE33R cells, when compared to OE33P. Read More

Transl Oncol 2021 Apr 18;14(7):101088. Epub 2021 Apr 18.

Department of General Surgery, Suqian First Hospital, Suqian 223800, Jiangsu Province, China. Electronic address:

Background: The lncRNA colorectal neoplasia differentially expressed (lncRNA CRNDE) has been reported to play a pivotal role in various cancers. However, the expression and function of CRNDE in pancreatic cancer remain unclear. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of CRNDE on pancreatic cancer and the underlying mechanisms. Read More

Transl Oncol 2021 Apr 18;14(7):101096. Epub 2021 Apr 18.

Department of Oncology, Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410013, Hunan, China. Electronic address:

Background: Breast cancer is the most common malignancy and has been considered as a leading cause of cancer death in women. Exploring the mechanism of breast cancer metastasis is extremely important for seeking novel therapeutic strategies and improving prognosis.

Methods: Clinical specimens and pathological characteristics were collected for evaluating the expression of forkhead box class O 3a (FOXO3a) and twist-related protein 1 (TWIST-1) in breast cancer tissues. Read More

Acta Biomater 2021 Apr 18. Epub 2021 Apr 18.

Key Laboratory of Drug-Targeting and Drug Delivery System of the Education Ministry and Sichuan Province, Sichuan Engineering Laboratory for Plant-Sourced Drug and Sichuan Research Center for Drug Precision Industrial Technology, West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, People's Republic of China. Electronic address:

The dilemma of tumor accumulation and deep penetration has always been a barrier in antitumor therapy. Stimuli-responsive size changeable drug delivery systems provide possible solutions. Nevertheless, the low size-shrinkage efficiency limited the antitumor effects. Read More

Acta Biomater 2021 Apr 18. Epub 2021 Apr 18.

Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA. Electronic address:

Technological innovations and advances in scientific understanding have created an environment where data can be collected, analyzed, and interpreted at scale, ushering in the era of personalized medicine. The ability to isolate cells from individual patients offers tremendous promise if those cells can be used to generate functional tissue replacements or used in disease modeling to determine optimal treatment strategies. Here, we review recent progress in the use of hydrogels to create artificial cellular microenvironments for personalized tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications, as well as to develop personalized disease models. Read More

Cell Rep 2021 Apr;35(3):109009

Departments of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA. Electronic address:

Cancer cells function as primary architects of the tumor microenvironment. However, the molecular features of cancer cells that govern stromal cell phenotypes remain unclear. Here, we show that cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF) heterogeneity is driven by lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) cells at either end of the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) spectrum. Read More

Cell Rep 2021 Apr;35(3):109026

Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne-(EPFL-SV), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. Electronic address:

Organoids allow the recapitulation of intestinal homeostasis and cancerogenesis in vitro; however, RNA sequencing (RNA-seq)-based methods for drug screens are missing. We develop targeted organoid sequencing (TORNADO-seq), a high-throughput, high-content drug discovery platform that uses targeted RNA-seq to monitor the expression of large gene signatures for the detailed evaluation of cellular phenotypes in organoids. TORNADO-seq is a fast, highly reproducible time- and cost-effective ($5 per sample) method that can probe cell mixtures and their differentiation state in the intestinal system. Read More

Mol Cell 2021 Apr 16. Epub 2021 Apr 16.

Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology-Oncology and Cancer Research Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA. Electronic address:

Repair pathway "choice" at stalled mammalian replication forks is an important determinant of genome stability; however, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. FANCM encodes a multi-domain scaffolding and motor protein that interacts with several distinct repair protein complexes at stalled forks. Here, we use defined mutations engineered within endogenous Fancm in mouse embryonic stem cells to study how Fancm regulates stalled fork repair. Read More

Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2021 Apr 21. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

University of Nottingham, Division of Respiratory Medicine, Biodiscovery Institute and NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Nottingham, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland;

Rationale: Lymphangioleiomyomatosis is a multisystem disease causing lung cysts and respiratory failure. Loss of tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) gene function results in a clone of 'LAM cells' with dysregulated mTOR activity. LAM cells and fibroblasts form lung nodules that also contain mast cells although their significance is unknown. Read More

Annu Rev Biochem 2021 Apr 21. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Blavatnik Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA; email:

DNA interstrand cross-links (ICLs) covalently connect the two strands of the double helix and are extremely cytotoxic. Defective ICL repair causes the bone marrow failure and cancer predisposition syndrome, Fanconi anemia, and upregulation of repair causes chemotherapy resistance in cancer. The central event in ICL repair involves resolving the cross-link (unhooking). Read More

Curr Protoc 2021 Apr;1(4):e110

Department of Medical Oncology, Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The propensity of uveal melanoma to metastasize to the liver hinders the accrual of micro-metastatic and end-stage disease tissue samples and restricts the investigation of metastatic uveal melanoma (MUM). Pre-clinical experimental animal models of MUM can help elucidate the pathophysiology of metastatic lesions and provide a tool for designing new therapeutic approaches for MUM. Here, we present an advanced model of hepatic metastases that enables quantitatively visualizing the development of individual hepatic tumor clones and estimating their growth kinetics and colonization efficiency. Read More

Adv Healthc Mater 2021 Apr 21:e2100070. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

Department of Cardiac Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.

Regeneration of large bones remains a challenge in surgery. Recent developmental engineering efforts aim to recapitulate endochondral ossification (EO), a critical step in bone formation. However, this process entails the condensation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into cartilaginous templates, which requires long-term cultures and is challenging to scale up. Read More

Acta Biochim Biophys Sin (Shanghai) 2021 Apr 21. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

Department of Urology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230022, China.

We have previously demonstrated that exosomes derived from cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) promote bladder cancer (BC) cell proliferation and invasion by transferring LINC00355. In this study, the molecular mechanisms underlying the pro-bladder cancer action of exosomal LINC00355 were explored. CAFs were obtained from BC tumor tissues, and normal fibroblasts (NFs) were obtained from adjacent normal tissues. Read More

PLoS One 2021 21;16(4):e0245415. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

Department of Genitourinary Oncology, H Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Tampa, Florida, United States of America.

Immune infiltration is typically quantified using cellular density, not accounting for cellular clustering. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) activate oncogenic signaling through paracrine interactions with tumor cells, which may be better reflected by local cellular clustering than global density metrics. Using multiplex immunohistochemistry and digital pathologic analysis we quantified cellular density and cellular clustering for myeloid cell markers in 129 regions of interest from 55 samples from 35 patients with metastatic ccRCC. Read More

Curr Neuropharmacol 2021 Apr 19. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

Neuroscience Program, Biology Department, University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT 06117, United States.

An inverse correlation between the incidence of cancer and neurodegenerative disease has been observed, with the prevalence of cancer peaking around 60 years of age, then slowly tapering off as neurodegenerative diseases increase in the elderly. Although the diseases rarely occur concurrently, the same genes are differentially expressed between the diseases, with four transcription factors found to be in common for their expression. In the brain, mature astrocytes are the origin of astrocytoma, which make up 58. Read More

Nano Lett 2021 Apr 21. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

Fischell Department of Bioengineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, United States.

Outcomes during immunotherapy are impacted not only by the specific therapeutic signals and pharmacodynamics, but also by the biophysical forms in which signals are delivered. This integration is determinative in autoimmunity because the disease is caused by immune dysregulation and inflammation. Unfortunately, the links between nanomaterial design, biophysical properties, and immune regulation are poorly defined. Read More

J Org Chem 2021 Apr 21. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

State Key Laboratory of Functions and Applications of Medicinal Plants, Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang 550014, China.

Hypermonins A-D (-), four rearranged nor-polycyclic polyprenylated acylphloroglucinols (PPAPs) with unprecedented skeletons, together with two new biosynthesis related PPAPs ( and ) were isolated and identified from the flowers of . Hypermoins A-D represented the first examples of highly modified norPPAPs characterized by a rare 7/6/6/5-tetracyclic system. From the biogenic synthesis pathway analysis, all isolates shared the same biosynthetic intermediate, and the addition of two methyls or one methyl to this intermediate through methyltranferase could generate different types of PPAPs (-). Read More

J Med Chem 2021 Apr 21. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

Center of Excellence for Drug Design and Discovery, Department of Chemistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, Athens 15771, Greece.

The discovery of novel bioactive lipids that promote human health is of great importance. Combining "suspect" and targeted lipidomic liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) approaches, a previously unrecognized class of oxidized fatty acids, the saturated oxo fatty acids (SOFAs), which carry the oxo functionality at various positions of the long chain, was identified in human plasma. A library of SOFAs was constructed, applying a simple green photochemical hydroacylation reaction as the key synthetic step. Read More

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2021 Apr 21. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022 Jilin, China.

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) of M2 phenotype have mediated the immunosuppression in a tumor microenvironment, facilitating the escape of tumor cells from immunosurveillance. Reprograming the immunosuppressive M2 TAMs to immunostimulatory M1 phenotype can activate the antitumor immune responses for cancer immunotherapy. Herein, hollow iron oxide (FeO) nanoparticles (NPs) were employed to reprogram M2 TAMs toward M1 TAMs, aiming to release proinflammatory cytokines and recruit T cells to kill tumor cells. Read More

Chem Asian J 2021 Apr 21. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

Key Laboratory of Photochemical Conversion and Optoelectronic Materials and CityU-CAS Joint Laboratory of Functional Materials and Devices, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, P. R. China.

Peroxalate CL as an energy source to excite photosensitizers has attracted tremendous attention in photodynamic therapy (PDT). In this work, peroxyoxalate CPPO and hypocrellin B (HB)-based nanoparticles (CBNPs) for ultrasound (US)-enhanced self-exciting PDT were designed and prepared. CBNPs showed an excellent therapeutic effect against cancer cells with the assistance of US. Read More

EMBO J 2021 Apr 21:e106188. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK.

Tumour progression locus 2 (TPL-2) kinase mediates Toll-like receptor (TLR) activation of ERK1/2 and p38α MAP kinases in myeloid cells to modulate expression of key cytokines in innate immunity. This study identified a novel MAP kinase-independent regulatory function for TPL-2 in phagosome maturation, an essential process for killing of phagocytosed microbes. TPL-2 catalytic activity was demonstrated to induce phagosome acidification and proteolysis in primary mouse and human macrophages following uptake of latex beads. Read More

Adv Ther 2021 Apr 21. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

Department of Urology, The First Hospital of Qinhuangdao, No. 258 of Cultural North Road, Haigang District, Qinhuangdao, 066000, China.

Introduction: Metastatic prostate cancer (mPCa) is responsible for most prostate cancer (PCa) deaths worldwide. The present study aims to explore the molecular differences between mPCa and PCa.

Methods: The authors downloaded GSE6752, GSE6919, and GSE32269 from the Gene Expression Omnibus and employed integrated analysis to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between mPCa and PCa. Read More

Drugs 2021 Apr 21. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

Department of Dermatology, John Hopkins University School of Medicine, Cancer Research Building II Suite 206, 1550 Orleans Street, Baltimore, MD, 21231, USA.

Chronic pruritus is a debilitating symptom with limited treatment options. Identifying molecular targets underlying chronic pruritic dermatoses is essential for the development of novel, targeted therapies. IL-31 is an important mediator of itch by integrating dermatologic, neural, and immune systems. Read More