Targeting transcriptional regulators to regenerate midbrain dopaminergic axons in Parkinson's disease

Introduction： Parkinson＇s disease （PD） is a chronic, age-re- lated neurodegenerative disorder that affects 1-2% of the population over the age of 65. PD is characterised by the progressive degeneration of nigrostriatal dopaminergic （DA） neurons. This leads to disabling motor symptoms, due to the striatal DA denervation. Despite decades of research, there is still no therapy that can slow, stop or regenerate the dying midbrain DA neurons in PD.

MiR-183-5p promotes the progression of non-small cell lung cancer through targeted regulation of FOXO1

Objective To investigate miR-183-5p targeting to forkhead box protein O1(FOXO1)and its corresponding effect on the proliferation,migration,invasion,and epithelial-mesenchymal transition(EMT)of non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC)cells.Methods NSCLC tissues and adjacent normal tissues from 60 patients with NSCLC adenocarcinoma were obtained via pathological biopsy or intraoperative resection.Several cell lines were cultured in vitro,including the human normal lung epithelial cell line BEAS-2B and human NSCLC cell lines A549,SPCA-1,PC-9,and 95-D.miR-183-5p and FOXO1 mRNA expression in tissues and cells were detected by qRT-PCR;the corresponding correlations in NSCLC tissues were analyzed using the Pearson test,and the relationship between miR-183-5p expression and clinicopathological parameters was analyzed.The miR-183-5p-mediated regulation of FOXO1 was verified by bioinformatics prediction alongside double luciferase,RNA-binding protein immunoprecipitation(RIP)assay,and pull-down experiments.A549 cells were divided into control,anti-miR-NC,anti-miR-183-5p,miR-NC,miR-183-5p,miR-183-5p+pcDNA3.1,and miR-183-5p+pcDNA3.1-FOXO1 groups.Cell proliferation,invasion,migration,apoptosis,and cell cycle distribution were detected using an MTT assay,clone formation assay,Transwell assay,scratch test,and flow cytometry,respectively.The expression of EMT-related proteins in the cells was analyzed by western blotting.The effect of miR-185-3p silencing on the development of transplanted tumors was detected by analyzing tumor formation in nude mice.Results miR-183-5p expression was significantly higher in NSCLC tissues and cells than in adjacent normal tissues,whereas FOXO1 mRNA expression was significantly down-regulated.There was a significant negative correlation between miR-183-5p and FOXO1 mRNA in NSCLC tissues(P<0.05).Additionally,the expression of miR-183-5p was significantly correlated with tumor size,tumor differentiation,and tumor-node-metastasis stage in patients with NSCLC(P<0.05).miR-183-5p targeted and inhibited FOXO1 expression.Compared to the anti-miR-NC group,the cell proliferation,scratch healing rate,N-cadherin and vimentin protein expression,and the proportion of S phase cells were significantly lower in the anti-miR-183-5p group,whereas the protein expression of E-cadherin andα-catenin and the proportion of G0/G1 phase cells were significantly higher;additionally,the frequency of colony formation and invasion were significantly lower in the anti-miR-183-5p group(P<0.05).Compared to the miR-NC group,the cell proliferation,scratch healing rate,N-cadherin and vimentin protein expression,and the proportion of S phase cells in the miR-183-5p group were significantly higher,whereas the E-cadherin andα-catenin protein expression and the proportion of G0/G1 phase cells were significantly lower;furthermore,the frequency of colony formation and invasion were significantly higher in the miR-183-5p group(P<0.05).Compared with the miR-183-5p+pcDNA3.1 group,the OD value,scratch healing rate,N-cadherin and vimentin protein expression,and the proportion of S phase cells were significantly lower in the miR-183-5p+pcDNA3.1-FOXO1 group,whereas E-cadherin andα-catenin protein expression and the proportion of G0/G1 phase cells were significantly higher;additionally,the frequency of colony formation and invasion was significantly lower in the miR-183-5p+pcDNA3.1-FOXO1 group(P<0.05).Overall,silencing miR-185-3p inhibited the growth of transplanted tumors and promoted FOXO1 expression.Conclusion Overexpression of miR-183-5p can inhibit apoptosis and promote the proliferation,migration,invasion,and EMT,of NSCLC cells by down-regulating FOXO1 expression.

Research Progress of miRNA Regulating Cell Signaling Pathways Related to Hepatocarcinogenesis

Hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)is one of the most common malignant tumors in clinical practice.The pathogenesis of HCC is still unclear.Currently,the clinical treatment of HCC is poorly targeted and the therapeutic effect is poor.MicroRNAs(miRNAs)are closely related to the occurrence of HCC,and they are mainly involved in the occurrence and development of HCC through binding to target genes or acting on related signaling pathways.In recent years,studies have shown that miRNA can be used as a potential biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis of HCC.In addition,studies have also shown that miRNA plays a tumorsuppressing or tumor-promoting role in the process of HCC by regulating the biological processes of tumor cell proliferation,migration,invasion and metastasis.In this paper,the recent studies on miRNA signaling pathways related to the occurrence and development of HCC were reviewed,with a view to providing ideas for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of HCC.

Inhibiting Human Copper Transfer and Tumor Growth

Copper is a trace element that is required by almost all forms of life.Acting as cofactors for various key metabolism enzymes,copper takes part in many vital biological processes.Previous studies have found the concentration of copper is significantly higher in tumor cells than in normal cells.In addition,copper can promote angiogenesis by activating VEGF and FGF signaling.

Data-Driven Design for Targeted Regulation of Heat Transfer in Carbon/Carbon Composite Structure

Targeted regulation of heat transfer in carbon/carbon composite structure is built for cooling electronic device.A three-dimensional data-driven design model coupling genetic algorithm(GA) with self-adaption deep learning for targeted regulation of heat transfer in built structure is proposed.The self-adaption deep learning model predicts the temperature of built structure closer to optimal value in GA model.The distributions of pore and carbon fiber bundles in built structure are optimized by the proposed model.The surface temperature of electronic device in the optimized structures is 19.1%-27.5% lower than that in the initial configurations when the porosity of built structure varies from 3% to 11%.The surface temperature of electronic device increases with an increase in porosity.The built structure with carbon fiber bundles near the surface of electronic device and pore distribution in the middle of structure has a higher heat dissipation capacity compared with that in the initial configuration.Besides,the computation time of the proposed model is less than one tenth compared with that of the traditional genetic algorithm.

A facile and sensitive colorimetric detection for RNase A activity based on target regulated protection effect on plasmonic gold nanoparticles aggregation

In this work,a facile and sensitive colorimetric detection method was firstly reported for RNase A activity detection based on target regulated protection effect of chimeric DNA probe on the salt-induced aggregation of plasmonic gold nanoparticles.Compared with previous works of RNase A activity detection,this colorimetric assay integrated the advantages of sensitive,low cost,facile operation,rapid response and low biological toxicity.

A STIR nucleic acid drug delivery system for stirring phenotypic switch of microglia in Parkinson’s disease treatments

Neuroinflammation is one of the three important pathological features in neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson’s disease(PD).The regulation of neuroinflammation can reduce the severity of neurological damage to alleviate diseases.Numerous studies have shown that the phenotype switch of microglia is tightly associated with the nuclear factorκB(NF-κB)-mediated inflammatory pathway.Therefore,the small interfering RNA(siRNA)therapy for downregulating the expression of NF-κB,provides a promising therapeutic strategy for Parkinson’s disease treatments.Considering the brain delivery challenges of siRNA,a sequential targeting inflammation regulation(STIR)delivery system based on poly(amino acid)s is developed to improve the therapeutic effects of Parkinson’s disease treatments.The STIR system sequentially targets the blood–brain barrier and the microglia to enhance the effective concentration of siRNA in the targeted microglia.The results demonstrate that the STIR nanoparticles can transform microglial phenotypes and regulate brain inflammation,thus achieving neuronal recovery and abnormal aggregation ofα-synuclein protein(α-syn)reduction in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.Herein,this STIR delivery system provides a promising therapeutic platform in PD treatments and has great potential for other neurodegenerative diseases’therapies.

CXCR4-guided liposomes regulating hypoxic and immunosuppressive microenvironment for sorafenib-resistant tumor treatment

Clinical sorafenib treatment could activate C-X-C receptor type 4(CXCR4)/stromal source factor-1α(SDF-1α)axis to aggravate intra-tumoral hypoxia of hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC),which further leads to progression,invasion,metastasis,and immunosuppression of tumors and in return causes resistance to sorafenib therapy.Therefore,a multi-functional oxygen delivery nanoplatform was rationally constructed based on an oxygen-saturated perfluorohexane(PFH)-cored liposome,with the CXCR4 antagonist LFC131 peptides modifying on the surface to simultaneously deliver sorafenib and the CSF1/CSF1R inhibitor PLX3397(named PFH@LSLP)for sorafenib-resistant HCC treatment.The PFH@LSLP was developed to overcome sorafenib resistance by syner-gistic effects of the following 3 roles:1)the O_(2)-saturated PFH core could alleviate the tumor hypoxia by O_(2) supply;2)the LFC131 peptide recognized the hypoxia-related overexpressed CXCR4 and then blocked SDF-1α/CXCR4 axis to re-sensitize the HCC cells to sorafenib;3)PLX3397 activated the immune responses via inhibiting the CSF1/CSF1R pathway in TAMs,further enhanced CD8^(+)T cell infiltration to reverse immunosuppression in tumors.Antitumor performance on H22 tumor-bearing mice and HCC patient-derived tumor xenograft(PDX)model showed that PFH@LSLP could overcome sorafenib resistance by synergistic effect of hypoxia attenuation,resistance-related gene regulation,and immune-microenvironment modification.

The genetic and epigenetic alterations in human hepatocellular carcinoma： a recent update

Hepatocellular carcinoma （HCC） is one of the most frequent human malignancies worldwide with very poor prognosis. It is generally accepted that the progression of HCC is a long-term process with accumulation of multiple genetic and epigenetic alterations, which further lead to the activation of critical oncogenes or inactivation of tumor suppressor genes. HCC is characterized with multiple cancer hallmarks including their ability to proliferate, anti-poptosis, invade, metastasis, as well as the emerging features such as stem cell properties and energy metabolic switch. The irreversible alterations at genetic level could be detected as early as in the pre-neoplastic stages and accumulate during cancer progression. Thus, they might account for the cancer initiating steps and further malignant transformation. In addition to genetic alterations, epigenetic alterations can affect the cancer transcriptome more extensively. Alterations in DNA methylation, histone modification, miRNAs, RNA editing, and IncRNAs might result in disrupted gene regulation networks and substantially contribute to HCC progression. In this review, the genetic and epigenetic alterations which significantly contribute to the malignant capabilities of HCC will be updated and summarized in detail. Further characterization of those critical molecular events might better elucidate the pathogenesis of HCC and provide novel therapeutic targets for treatment of this deadly disease.