Identification and validation of heterotypic cell-in-cell structure as an adverse prognostic predictor for young patients of resectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Dear Editor,Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma(PDAC)has a poor prognosis,with an overall 5-year survival rate of less than 10%.Between 20 and 30%of PDAC cases are resectable at diagnosis;however,patients’post-operative survival periods vary widely,irrespective of active therapeutic interventions.1 Therefore,extensive efforts have been made to identify biomarkers that may identify patients with an improved prognosis.Although profound local immune suppression had been implicated in PDAC progression and poor patient survival,a prognostic marker that can directly and functionally read immune evasion in situ is not yet available.

High Sensitivity Temperature Sensor Based on Harmonic Vernier Effect

A high-sensitivity temperature sensor based on the harmonic Vernier effect is proposed and verified by experiments.The main component of the sensor is a Sagnac interferometer consisting of two sections of polarization maintaining fibers(PMFs)spliced with an intersection angle of 45o between their fast axes.The harmonic Vernier effect is achieved by setting the length of one of the PMFs an integral multiple(i-times)of the length of the other plus a detuning factor.Compared with the Sagnac interferometer based on the fundamental Vernier effect,the temperature sensitivity of the harmonic Vernier effect is higher,reaching i+1 times of that of the fundamental Vernier effect(i is the order of the harmonic).

Molecular mechanisms underlying cell-in-cell formation:core machineries and beyond

Although cell-in-cell structures(CICs),with one or more cells present inside another cell,had been identified for a century,it was not until recent years that scientists started to uncover their pivotal roles in multiple biological processes,primarily via mediating the death of internalized cells.Meanwhile,considerable progresses were made on deciphering the mechanisms underlying their formation based on different models.Entosis was one of the best investigated CIC models,where cell internalization was coordinately driven by adherens junction and contractile ac-tomyosin,the two spatially polarized and complementary core elements that were coupled by mechanical ring,a recently identified core element.Meanwhile,an expanding group of factors were found capable of regulating CIC formation by targeting these core elements.The elucidation of the molecular machinery controlling CIC formation enables synthetic engineering of cells used for clinical and research purposes。