It has been reported that 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D [1,25(OH)2D] deficiency leads to the loss of mandibular bone, however the mechanism is unclear. We investigated whether the Sirt1/FOXO3a signaling pathway is involved in this process. Using a 1,25(OH)2D deficiency model induced by genetic deletion in mice of 25-hydroxyvitamin D-1α hydroxylase [1α(OH)ase-/- mice]. We first documented a sharp reduction

Protein ubiquitination represents a critical modification occurring after translation. E3 ligase catalyzes the covalent binding of ubiquitin to the protein substrate, which could be degraded. Ubiquitination as an important protein post-translational modification is closely related to cardiovascular disease. The NEDD4 family, belonging to HECT class of E3 ubiquitin ligases can recognize different substrate

Normally, smooth muscle cells (SMCs) are localized in the tunica media of the vasculature, where they take responsibility for vascular contraction and extracellular matrix (ECM) generation. SMCs also play a significant role in obedience and elastic rebound of the artery in response to the haemodynamic condition. However, under pathological or stressed conditions, phenotype switching from contractile

Inflammasome is a complex composed of several proteins and an important part of the natural immune system. Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome is composed of NLRP3, apoptosis associated speck like protein (ASC) and pro-caspase-1. It plays an important role in many diseases. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is an important signaling molecule that regulates many

Protein S-palmitoylation is a powerful post-translational modification that regulates protein trafficking, localization, turnover, and signal transduction. Palmitoylation controls several important cellular processes, and, if dysregulated, can lead to cancer, cardiovascular disease, and neurological disorders. The role of protein palmitoylation in mediating resistance to systemic cisplatin-based chemotherapies

Excess glucocorticoid (GC) production is known to induce obesity and insulin resistance through increased activation of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR). The molecular mechanism for the non-genomic effects of excessive circulating GC on the insulin-signalling pathway in skeletal muscle is unknown. The plant alkaloid berberine has been shown to attenuate insulin resistance and inhibit gluconeogenesis

Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) play crucial roles in enhancing cell survival, proliferation, invasion, and metastasis. We previously showed that hepatocellular carcinoma-derived CAFs (H-CAFs) promoted proliferation of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells. This study aimed to further explore the role of CAFs in HCC epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and the underlying mechanism. High CAF

Metformin (Met) is a major widely used oral glucose lowering drug for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. It is reported that metformin could regulate autophagy in various diseases of cardiovascular system including in I/R injury, diabetic cardiomyopathy and heart failure. Autophagy plays a controversial role in ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury, and this research was performed to explore the cardioprotective

The majority of the deaths from breast cancer is due to metastasis. Bone is the most common organ to which breast cancer cells metastasize. The mechanism regulating the bone-metastatic preference remains unclear; there is a lack of a gene signature to distinguish bone-metastatic breast cancer cells. Herein, florescence-labeled MDA-MB-231 cells were transplanted into the fat pads of of the mammary gland

MiR-216a-5p has opposite effects on tumorigenesis and progression in the context of different tumors, acting as either a tumor suppressor or an oncogene. However, the expression and function of miR-216a-5p in pancreatic cancer (PC) is not well characterized./nIn this study, we found miR-216a-5p was significantly downregulated in PC tissues and cell lines, which showed a negative correlation with peripancreatic

Introduction: Crizotinib is a kinase inhibitor targeting c-MET/ALK/ROS1 used as the first-line chemical for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with ALK mutations. Although c-MET is frequently overexpressed in 35-72% of NSCLC, most NSCLCs are primarily resistant to crizotinib treatment./nMethod: A set of NSCLC cell lines were used to test the effect of chidamide on the primary crizotinib

Background: This study assessed the expression of Jagged2 in human bladder cancer (BC) tested the hypothesis that melatonin (Mel) inhibited the tumorigenesis of BC cells mainly through downregulating the Notch/Jagged2 and PI3K/AKT/mTOR/MMPs(2&9) signaling pathways./nMethods and Results: Tissue array from BC patients showed that the gene and protein expressions of JAG2/Jagged2 were significantly upregulated

Despite significant advances in parallel single-cell RNA sequencing revealing astonishing cellular heterogeneity in many tissue types, the spatial information in the tissue context remains missing. Spatial transcriptome sequencing technology is designed to distinguish the gene expression of individual cells in their original location. The technology is important for the identification of tissue function

Our previous studies have found that human papillomavirus (HPV)-16 E7 oncoprotein promotes epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) protein accumulation in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells and monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) is highly expressed in NSCLC tissues. Here, we further explored the role of MAOA in HPV-16 E7-induced EMT and HIF-1α protein accumulation

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 virus and its associated disease COVID-19 have triggered significant threats to public health, in addition to political and social changes. An important number of studies have reported the onset of symptoms compatible with pneumonia accompanied by coagulopathy and lymphocytopenia during COVID-19. Increased cytokine levels, the emergence of acute phase reactants, platelet

Immunotherapies such as immune checkpoint blockade benefit only a portion of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. The multidisciplinary field of nanomedicine is emerging as a promising strategy to achieve maximal anti-tumor effect in cancer immunotherapy and to turn non-responders into responders. Various methods have been developed to deliver therapeutic agents that can overcome bio-barriers

IgA nephropathy (IgAN) is a leading cause of chronic kidney disease and renal failure. The exact pathogenesis of IgAN is not well defined, but some genetic studies have led to a novel discovery that the immunoproteasome probably plays an important role in IgAN. The immunoproteasome is a proteasome variant that is expressed when cells are stressed or receive inflammatory signals. While immunoproteasome

MicroRNAs (miRNAs), small non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) of about 22 nucleotides in size, play important roles in gene regulation, and their dysregulation is implicated in human diseases including cancer. A variety of miRNAs could take roles in the cancer progression, participate in the process of tumor immune, and function with miRNA sponges. During the last two decades, the connection between miRNAs and

Bone metabolic disorders include osteolysis, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Osteoblasts and osteoclasts are two major types of cells in bone constituting homeostasis. The imbalance between bone formation by osteoblasts and bone resorption by osteoclasts has been shown to have a direct contribution to the onset of these diseases. Recent evidence indicates that autophagy and mitophagy

Statins, known as HMG-CoA reductase (HMGCR) inhibitors, have primarily been utilized for metabolic and angiographic medical applications because of their cholesterol-lowering effects. Similar to other drugs, statins may also induce a series of potential side effects. Statins inhibit the HMGCR (rate-limiting enzyme) activity in early stages of mevalonate pathway and then indirectly affect a number of

Recent studies showed that glucocorticoid drugs, which are easily available as pills on pharmacy shelves worldwide, could save lives of COVID-19 patients. With the swiftly increasing infections of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic at a lethality rate of about 4.7% countless lives may be saved globally.

In 2020, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused infections worldwide. However, the correlation between the immune infiltration and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) susceptibility or severity in cancer patients remains to be fully elucidated. ACE2 expressions in normal tissues, cancers and cell lines were comprehensively assessed. Furthermore, we compared ACE2 expression

The Hippo pathway undertakes a pivotal role in organ size control and the process of physiology and pathology in tissue. Its downstream effectors YAP1 and TAZ receive upstream stimuli and exert transcription activity to produce biological output. Studies have demonstrated that the Hippo pathway contributes to maintenance of cardiac homeostasis and occurrence of cardiac disease. And these cardiac biological

The serine/arginine-rich splicing factors (SRs) belong to the serine arginine-rich protein family, which plays an extremely important role in the splicing process of precursor RNA. The SRs recognize the splicing elements on precursor RNA, then recruit and assemble spliceosome to promote or inhibit the occurrence of splicing events. In tumors, aberrant expression of SRs causes abnormal splicing of RNA

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a highly heterogeneous disease, which makes the prognostic prediction challenging. Ferroptosis, an iron-dependent form of regulated cell death, can be induced by sorafenib. However, the prognostic value of ferroptosis-related genes in HCC remains to be further elucidated. In this study, the mRNA expression profiles and corresponding clinical data of HCC patients were

Cardiac remodeling is a common characteristic of almost all forms of heart disease, including cardiac infarction, valvular diseases, hypertension, arrhythmia, dilated cardiomyopathy and other conditions. It is not merely a simple outcome induced by an increase in the workload of cardiomyocytes (CMs). The remodeling process is accompanied by abnormalities of cardiac structure as well as disturbance

Interleukin 22(IL-22), a member of the IL-10 cytokine family and is an emerging CD4+Th cytokine that plays an important role in anti-microbial defense, homeostasis and tissue repair. We are interested in IL-22 as it has the double function of suppressing or encouraging inflammation in various disease models including hepatic inflammation. As a survival factor for hepatocytes, IL-22 plays a protective

Our previous study demonstrated that lymphoid enhancer-binding factor 1 (LEF1) could promote the progression of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). However, the regulatory mechanism of LEF1 was not clear thoroughly. Herein, we continued to explore the downstream mechanism of LEF1 in ESCC. In this study, we applied western blotting, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR),

COVID-19 is a public health emergency that has rapidly spread to over 200 countries and regions, and no effective treatment has been established to date. Severe and critical cases have been associated with higher mortality due to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and cytokine storm. Based on the novelty and recent emergence of COVID-19, no effective treatment regimen has been identified, thus

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.7150/ijbs.7723.].

The prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is increasing all around the world and it may become the primary cause of terminal liver disease in adults and children in the next few decades. However, the pathogenesis of NAFLD is complex, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved any drugs for its treatment. Kupffer cells are the key cells regulating immunity in the liver

The gut microbiota consists of a dynamic multispecies community of bacteria, fungi, archaea, and protozoans, playing a fundamental role in the induction, training, and function of the host immune system. The liver is anatomically and physiologically linked to the gut microbiota via enterohepatic circulation, specifically receiving intestine-derived blood through the portal vein. The gut microbiota

Rat Thy-1 nephritis (Thy-1N) is an experimental mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis (MsPGN) for studying human MsPGN. Although sublytic C5b-9 complex formation on glomerular mesangial cells (GMCs) and renal MCP-1 and RANTES production in rats with Thy-1N have been proved, the role and mechanism of MCP-1 or RANTES synthesis in GMCs induced by sublytic C5b-9 are poorly elucidated. In this study

Despite great progress has been made in treatment strategies, colorectal cancer (CRC) remains the predominant life-threatening malignancy with the feature of high morbidity and mortality. It has been widely acknowledged that the dysfunction of immune system, including aberrantly expressed cytokines, is strongly correlated with the pathogenesis and progression of colorectal cancer. As one of the most

Perturbation in lipid homeostasis is one of the major bottlenecks in metabolic diseases, especially Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), which has emerged as a leading global cause of chronic liver disease. The bile acids (BAs) and their derivatives exert a variety of metabolic effects through complex and intertwined pathways, thus becoming the attractive target for metabolic syndrome treatment

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.7150/ijbs.7.588.].

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), one of the main causes of cancer-related deaths globally, is characterized by rapid growth and high invasiveness. Accumulating evidence demonstrates that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play critical roles in the growth and metastasis of HCC. Recently, lncRNA LINC01123 has been found to contribute to cell proliferation and aerobic glycolysis in lung cancer. However, the

Liver diseases are one of the leading causes of mortality in the world, mainly caused by different etiological agents, alcohol consumption, viruses, drug intoxication, and malnutrition. The maturation of gene therapy has heralded new avenues for developing effective interventions for these diseases. Derived from a remarkable microbial defense system, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic

Insulin-like growth factor binding protein 4-1 (IGFBP4-1), a new long noncoding RNA (lncRNA), has been reported to contribute to tumorigenesis and has been suggested to be a poor prognostic marker in human lung cancer. However, there still lacks basic studies that investigated the biological role of IGFBP4-1 in bladder urothelial carcinoma to date. In this study, we investigated the relationship between

The 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic in China has presented substantial challenges to traditional forms of mental health service delivery. This review summarizes the expert consensus on the mental health treatment and services for severe psychiatric disorders during the COVID-19 outbreak developed by the Chinese Society of Psychiatry and other academic associations. The Expert Recommendations

Recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA) is a common complication of early pregnancy. Excessive M1 macrophage was found to be involved in RSA, but the underlying mechanisms remains unclear. MicroRNAs play critical roles in RSA as well as the polarization of macrophages; however, the regulatory effect of miRNAs on M1 differentiation in RSA has not been fully investigated. In this study, miRNA microarray

The survival and development of a semi-allogenic fetus during pregnancy require special immune tolerance microenvironment at the maternal fetal interface. During the establishment of a successful pregnancy, the endometrium undergoes a series of changes, and the extracellular matrix (ECM) breaks down and remodels. Collagen is one of the most abundant ECM. Emerging evidence has shown that collagen and

The biological function of nuclear PAK4 in ERα-positive breast cancer osteolytic bone destruction remains unclear. Here, we find that the nuclear PAK4 promotes osteoclastogenesis and tumor-induced osteolysis via phosphorylating RUNX1. We show that nuclear PAK4 interacts with and phosphorylates RUNX1 at Thr-207, which induces its localization from the nucleus to the cytoplasm and influences direct interaction

Purpose: Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Although tumor cell-T cell interactions are known to play a fundamental role in promoting tumor progression, these interactions have not been explored in LUAD. Methods: The 10x genomics single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and gene expression data of LUAD patients were obtained from ArrayExpress, TCGA, and

The incidence and mortality of breast cancer (BCa) are the highest among female cancers. There are approximate 70% BCa that are classified as estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) positive. Therefore, targeting ERα is the most significantly therapeutic schedule. However, patients with breast cancer develop resistance to ERα or estrogen (E2) antagonists such as fulvestrant and tamoxifen. In the present study

The histone H3K9 methyltransferase SETDB2 is involved in cell cycle dysregulation in acute leukemia and has oncogenic roles in gastric cancer. In our study, we found that SETDB2 plays essential roles in breast cancer stem cell maintenance. Depleted SETDB2 significantly decreased the breast cancer stem cell population and mammosphere formation in vitro and also inhibited breast tumor initiation and

Long-term eye exposure to ultraviolet (UV)A can effect memory and learning ability. However, the underlying mechanism behind these effects remain unknown. In this study, we used HR-1 mice to study effects of long-term UVA eye irradiation. The eyes or dorsal skin of the mice were exposed to UVA at the dose of 110kj/m2 using an FL20SBLB-A lamp three times a week over 12 months. We measured the levels

Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most lethal human cancers without efficient therapeutic strategy. MicoRNAs (miRNAs) are a group of small non-coding RNAs involved in multiple biological processes including tumor development and progression. In this study, we investigated the expression and function of miR-4516 in pancreatic cancer. MiR-4516 was low-expressed in pancreatic cancer tissues and cell

Background: Recent advances in nanomedicine provided promising alternatives for tumor treatment to improve the survival and life quality of cancer patients. This study was designed to explore the insight mechanisms of the anti-tumor effects of the novel nanocomposites (NCs) MFP-FePt-GO with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: A chemical co-reduction method was applied to the synthesis process

The powerful pro-angiogenic capacity of human amnion-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hAMSCs) could be a valuable therapeutic angiogenesis strategy for bone regeneration. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this process remain largely unknown. Herein, we report upregulated expression of circular RNA 100290 (circ-100290) and an enhanced angiogenic phenotype of human umbilical vein endothelial

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are emerging as important regulators involved in the pathogenesis of many diseases. However, it is still unknown if they contribute to the occurrence of acute pancreatitis (AP). Here, we identified a lncRNA CASC2 (Cancer Susceptibility Candidate 2) was significantly upregulated in the pancreatic tissues from AP patients. Knockdown or overexpression of CASC2 in vitro could

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a diverse class of longer than 200 nucleotides RNA transcripts that have limited protein coding capacity. LncRNAs display diverse cellular functions and widely participate in both physiological and pathophysiological processes. Aberrant expressions of lncRNAs are correlated with tumor progression, providing sound rationale for their targeting as attractive anti-tumor

Glioblastoma multiform (GBM) continues to threaten people's lives due to the limited therapeutic strategies. As a new drug, Valerenic Acid suppresses the progression of GBM, however, the mechanism is largely unknown. Here, we found that Valerenic Acid can inhibit cell proliferation, migration and invasion of GBM cells by increasing innate immune signals such as enhancing ROS levels and activating the

Breast cancer (BC) is one of the most common female cancers, and its incidence has been increasing in recent years. Although treatments are continuously improving, the prognosis of patients in the advanced stage is still unsatisfactory. Thus, an in-depth understanding of its molecular mechanisms is necessary for curing breast cancer. KIF15 is a tetrameric spindle motor which can regulate mitosis in

Asthma is a complex and heterogeneous inflammatory response characterized by various immune cells, including myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) and CD4+ T-cell subsets. However, few studies on MDSC subsets and the association between MDSCs and CD4+ T-cell subsets in asthma are reported. In the present study, we detected CD4+ T cells and MDSC subsets and evaluated the relationship of these cells

Krüppel-like factor 10 (KLF10) has been identified as an important regulator in carcinogenesis and cancer progression. However, the role of KLF10 in multiply myeloma (MM) development and progression remains unknown. In present study, we found that KLF10 mRNA and protein were down-regulated in MM tissues and cell lines. Notably, KLF10 inhibited cell proliferation, cell cycle progression and promoted

DNA damage signals transducer RING finger protein 8 (RNF8) is involved in maintaining genomic stability by facilitating the repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSB) via ubiquitin signaling. By analyzing the TCGA database and colon cancer tissue microarrays, we found that the expression level of RNF8 was positively correlated with that of c-Myc in colon cancer, which were closely associated with poor

Central nervous system (CNS) trauma, including traumatic brain injury (TBI) and spinal cord injury (SCI), remains a leading cause for morbidity and mortality worldwide. Past research has shown that cell death plays a critical role in the pathophysiology of CNS injuries. More recently, pyroptosis has been identified as a form of programmed inflammatory cell death, and it is a unique form of cell death

Significant enhancement of the glycolysis pathway is a major feature of tumor cells, even in the presence of abundant oxygen; this enhancement is known as the Warburg effect, and also called aerobic glycolysis. The Warburg effect was discovered nearly a hundred years ago, but its specific mechanism remains difficult to explain. DNA methylation is considered to be a potential trigger for the Warburg

Metastasis is a complicated, multistep process that is responsible for over 90% of cancer-related death. Metastatic disease or the movement of cancer cells from one site to another requires dramatic remodeling of the cytoskeleton. The regulation of cancer cell migration is determined not only by biochemical factors in the microenvironment but also by the biomechanical contextual information provided