TICRR基因与乳腺癌发生及预后关系的研究

目的:评价TopBP1相互作用检查点和复制调节器(TICRR)基因在乳腺癌发生和预后中的作用。方法:基于肿瘤基因组图谱(TCGA)数据库中的乳腺癌的测序和临床数据,使用Wilcoxon秩和检验确定TICRR在肿瘤组织和正常组织中的表达。使用基因集富集分析(GSEA)方法评估TICRR的生物学功能。应用Logistic分析研究TICRR表达与乳腺癌临床病理特征的相关性。采用Cox回归分析、Kaplan-Meier分析和列线图确定TICRR对乳腺癌患者临床结局的预测价值。结果:TICRR在乳腺癌组织中表达显著升高(P<0.001)。GSEA分析结果表明,TICRR表达增加主要通过促进细胞周期循环、同源重组等通路来促进肿瘤细胞增。乳腺癌组织中TICRR的高表达与年龄、临床分期、雌激素受体(ER)、孕激素受体(PR)、人表皮生长因子2(HER2)表达有关。Logistics回归分析发现TICRR表达与T分期、HER2表达呈正相关,与ER和PR表达呈负相关。Cox回归分析显示,TICRR基因表达是乳腺癌总生存率(HR:1.881,P=0.036)的独立风险因素,在无疾病进展生存期(PFI)单因素分析中是危险因素(P<0.05)。结论:TICRR基因表达增加可能通过调节细胞周期、代谢等相关通路促进乳腺癌发生,检测TICRR基因表达对评价乳腺癌预后有较高的预测价值。

DNA-dependent activator of interferon-regulatory factors inhibits hepatitis B virus replication

AIM： To investigate whether DNA-dependent activator of interferon-regulatory factors （DAI） inhibits hepatitis B virus （HBV） replication and what the mechanism is. METHODS： After the human hepatoma cell line Huh7 was cotransfected with DAI and HBV expressing plas- mid, viral protein （HBV surface antigen and HBV e an- tigen） secretion was detected by enzyme-linked immu- nosorbent assay, and HBV RNA was analyzed by real- time polymerase chain reaction and Northern blotting, and viral DNA replicative intermediates were examined by Southern blotting. Interferon regulatory factor 3 （IRF3） phosphorylation and nuclear translocation were analyzed via Western blotting and immunofluorescence staining respectively. Nuclear factor-KB （NF-KB） activity induced by DAI was detected by immunofluorescence staining of P65 and dual luciferase reporter assay. Tran- swell co-culture experiment was performed in order to investigate whether the antiviral effects of DAI were dependent on the secreted cytokines. RESULTS： Viral protein secretion was significantly re- duced by 57% （P 〈 0.05）, and the level of total HBV RNA was reduced by 67% （P 〈 0.05）. The viral core particle-associated DNA was also dramatically down- regulated in DAI-expressing Huh7 cells. Analysis of involved signaling pathways revealed that activation of NF-KB signaling was essential for DAI to elicit antivi- ral response in Huh7 cells. When the NF-KB signaling pathway was blocked by a NF-KB signaling suppressor （I~：B^-SR）, the anti-HBV activity of DAI was remarkably abrogated. The inhibitory effect of DAI was indepen- dent of IRF3 signaling and secreted cytokines. CONCLUSION： This study demonstrates that DAI can inhibit HBV replication and the inhibitory effect is asso- ciated with activation of NF-KB but independent of IRF3 and secreted cytokines.

Evolution of plant microRNA gene families

MicroRNAs （miRNAs） are important post-transcriptional regulators of their target genes in plants and animals, miRNAs are usually 20-24 nucleotides long. Despite their unusually small sizes, the evolutionary history of miRNA gene families seems to be similar to their protein-codingcounterparts. In contrast to the small but abundant miRNA families in the animal genomes, plants have fewer but larger miRNA gene families. Members of plant miRNA gene families are often highly similar, suggesting recent expansion via tandem gene duplication and segmental duplication events. Although many miRNA genes are conserved across plant species, the same gene family varies significantly in size and genomic organization in different species, which may cause dosage effects and spatial and temporal differences in target gene regulations. In this review, we summarize the current progress in understanding the evolution of plant miRNA gene families.

Regulation of eukaryotic DNA replication and nuclear structure

In eukaryote, nuclear structure is a key component forthe functions of eukaryotic cells. More and more evidencesshow that the nuclear structure plays important role in re-gulating DNA replication. The nuclear structure providesa physical barrier for the replication licensing, participatesin the decision where DNA replication initiates, and orga-nizes replication proteins as replication factory for DNAreplication. Through these works, new concepts on theregulation of DNA replication have emerged, which willbe discussed in this minireview.

Evaluation of Antitumor,Immunomodulatory and Free Radical Scavenging Effects of A New Herbal Prescription Seaweed Complex Preparation

Seaweed Complex Preparation （SCP） is a clinical traditional Chinese medicine preparation which is composed of seven traditional Chinese herbs, and it has been used for treatment of lung cancer, liver cancer and digestive cancer. However, little infor- mation is available about the pharmacodynamic basis. The antitumor, immunomodulatory and free radical scavenging effects of SCP were evaluated in this study. Transplanted tumor in vivo method was used to determine the antitumor effect. The effects on spleno- cyte proliferation and phagocytosis of macrophages in tumor-bearing mice were measured by the MTT method and the phagocytizing cock red blood cell （CRBC） method respectively. The scavenging activities of SCP on DPPH and hydroxyl radicals in vitro were investigated. It was found that the medium-dose and high-dose of SCP could significantly inhibit the growth of transplanted hepatic tumor of murine hepatocarcinoma cell line H22, and promote proliferation of splenocytes and phagocytosis of macrophages. SCP possessed noticeable scavenging activities on DPPH and hydroxyl radicals. The antiturnor effects of SCP might be achieved by im- proving immune system and scavenging free radicals, which is in accordance with the viewpoint of traditional Chinese medicine in promoting the body resistance and eliminating pathogenic factors for cancer treatment.

Regulation of Hepatitis C Virus Replication and Gene Expression by the MAPK-ERK Pathway

The mitogen activated protein kinases-extracellular signal regulated kinases （MAPK-ERK） pathway is involved in regulation of multiple cellular processes including the cell cycle. In the present study using a Huh7 cell line Conl with an HCV replicon, we have shown that the MAPK-ERK pathway plays a significant role in the modulation of HCV replication and protein expression and might influence IFN-a signalling. Epithelial growth factor （EGF） was able to stimulate ERK activation and decreased HCV RNA load while a MAPK-ERK pathway inhibitor U0126 led to an elevated HCV RNA load and higher NS5A protein amounts in Conl cells. It could be further demonstrated that the inhibition of the MAPK-ERK pathway facilitated the translation directed by the HCV internal ribosome entry site. Consistently, a U0126 treatment enhanced activity of the HCV reporter replicon in transient transfeetion assays. Thus, the MAPK-ERK pathway plays an important role in the regulation of HCV gene expression and replication. In addition, cyclin-dependent kinases （CDKs） downstream of ERK may also be involved in the modulation of HCV replication since roscovitine, an inhibitor of CDKs had a similar effect to that of U0126. Modulation of the cell cycle progression by cell cycle inhibitor or RNAi resulted consistently in changes of HCV RNA levels. Further, the replication of HCV replicon in Conl cells was inhibited by IFN-~z. The inhibitory effect of IFN-CZ could be partly reversed by pre-incubation of Con-1 cells with inhibitors of the MAPK-ERK pathway and CDKs. It could be shown that the MAPK-ERK inhibitors are able to partially modulate the expression of interferon-stimulated genes.

野田村病毒RNA的复制机制

野田村病毒科Nodaviradae分为2个属,分别为主要感染昆虫的α野田村病毒属(Alphanodavirus)和主要感染鱼类的β野田村病毒属(Betanodavirus)。野田村病毒的基因组由2条单链正义RNA分子(RNA1和RNA2)所组成,RNA1编码蛋白A,即病毒负责复制病毒两条基因组的依赖RNA的RNA聚合酶催化亚基。RNA2编码衣壳前体蛋白α,此前体蛋白α先组装成原病毒粒子,再经历一次自我催化的成熟切割成2个病毒的衣壳蛋白β和γ,就成了成熟的有感染性的病毒粒子。在RNA复制过程中,从RNA1的3′末端会合成一个不被包装进病毒粒子的亚基因组RNA3。RNA1能在无RNA2的情况下自我复制,并持续地产生亚基因组RNA3,RNA3的合成采取的是提前终止机制。本文还介绍了野田村病毒复制的调节、非结构蛋白的功能和病毒复制在细胞内的定位。