• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.20
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• pp.8829-8836
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• 2014

Background: Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), considered to have tumor-promoting potential, is highly expressed in a variety of tumors, including breast cancer. Since the functions and action mechanisms of COX-2 in breast cancer have not been fully elucidated, in the present study, the effects of target inhibiting COX-2 with recombinant adenovirus Ad-COX-2-shRNA on malignant biological behavior were investigated in representative cell lines. Materials and Methods: Breast cancer MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cells were transfected with Ad-COX-2-shRNA and COX-2 expression was tested by RT-PCR and Western blotting. Changes in proliferation, apoptosis and invasion of breast cancer cells were detected with various assays including MTT, colony forming, flowcytometry and Transwell invasion tests. The expression of related proteins involved in the cell cycle, apoptosis, invasion and signaling pathways was assessed by Western blotting. Results: COX-2 expression was significantly reduced in both breast cancer cell lines infected with Ad-COX-2-shRNA, with obvious inhibition of proliferation, colony forming rate, G2/M phase passage and invasion, as well as induction of apoptosis, in MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cells, respectively. At the same time, proteins related to the cell cycle, anti-apoptosis and invasion were significantly downregulated. In addition, c-myc expression and phosphorylation activation of Wnt/${\beta}$-catenin and p38MAPK pathways were reduced by the Ad-COX-2-shRNA. Conclusions: COX-2 expression is associated with proliferation, apoptosis and invasion of breast cancer cells, and its mechanisms of action involve regulating expression of c-myc through the p38MAPK and Wnt/${\beta}$-catenin pathways.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.1790-1795
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• 2016

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are highly conserved, short non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression at the posttranscriptional level. Although many miRNAs are identified in muscles and muscle cells, their individual roles are still not fully understood. In the present study, we investigated a muscle highly-expressed miRNA, miR-127-3p, in C2C12 myoblasts and tissues of goats with different muscle phenotypes (Boer vs Wushan black goats). Our results demonstrated that i) miR-127-3p was extensively expressed in tissues of goats; ii) miR-127-3p was higher expressed in muscle, spleen, heart, and skin in the muscular goats (Boer goats) than the control (Wushan black goats). Then we further characterized the dynamical expression of miR-127-3p, MyoD, MyoG, Myf5, Mef2c, and Myosin in the proliferating and differentiating C2C12 myoblasts at day of 0, 1, 3, 5, and 7 in culture mediums. Especially, we found that miR-127-3p was significantly higher expressed in the proliferating than differentiating cells. Our findings suggest that miR-127-3p probably plays roles in the proliferation and differentiation of myoblasts, which further underlies regulation of muscle phenotype in goats.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.5403-5408
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• 2013

Objective: CXCL12 exerts a wide variety of chemotactic effects on cells. Evidence indicates that CXCL12, in conjunction with its receptor, CXCR4, promotes invasion and metastasis of tumor cells. Our objective was to explore whether the CXCL12-CXCR4 biological axis might influence biological behavior of pancreatic cancer cells. Methods: Miapaca-2 human pancreatic cancer cells were cultured under three different conditions: normal medium (control), medium + recombinant CXCL12 (CXCL12 group), or medium + CXCR4-inhibitor AMD3100 (AMD3100 group). RT-PCR was applied to detect mRNA expression levels of CXCL12, CXCR4, matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2), MMP-9, and human urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA). Additionally, cell proliferation and invasion were performed using CCK-8 colorimetry and transwell invasion assays, respectively. Results: CXCL12 was not expressed in Miapaca-2 cells, but CXCR4 was detected, indicating that these cells are capable of receiving signals from CXCL12. Expression of extracellular matrix-degrading enzymes MMP-2, MMP-9, and uPA was upregulated in cells exposed to exogenous CXCL12 (P<0.05). Additionally, both proliferation and invasion of pancreatic cancer cells were enhanced in the presence of exogenous CXCL12, but AMD3100 intervention effectively inhibited these processes (P<0.05). Conclusions: The CXCL12-CXCR4 biological axis plays an important role in promoting proliferation and invasion of pancreatic cancer cells.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.5293-5299
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• 2013

Purpose: High levels of bone morphogenetic protein (BMPs) have been reported in patients with lung cancer. This study was conducted to assess correlations between serum BMP-2 levels and prognostic outcome in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: Blood samples from 84 patients with advanced NSCLC and 42 healthy controls were analyzed and quantitated for serum BMP-2 levels before and after two cycles of chemotherapy using a commercially available ELISA kit. Results: The median level of BMP-2 was 146.9 pg/ml in patients with NSCLC vs. 87.7 pg/ml in healthy controls (P<0.01). A significant correlation was observed between pretreatment serum BMP-2 level and ECOG PS, disease stage and number of organs with metastases (P<0.05). Serum BMP-2 level decreased significantly in patients who achieved objective response after two cycles of chemotherapy. Multivariate analysis showed that increased BMP-2 level and advanced clinical stage were significantly correlated with poor prognosis. Conclusion: Thes erum BMP-2 level is positively correlated with clinical stage, ECOG PS and metastatic burden and may serve as an independent negative predictor for prognosis. Decreased BMP-2 after chemotherapy could be a reliable marker for efficacy of treatment.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.1168-1177
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• 2018

The aim of this study was to investigate the microbial community of three tannery wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) involved in nitrification by Illumina MiSeq sequencing. The results showed that highly diverse communities were present in tannery wastewater. A total of six phyla, including Proteobacteria (37-41%), Bacteroidetes (6.04-16.80), Planctomycetes (3.65-16.55), Chloroflexi (2.51-11.48), Actinobacteria (1.91-9.21), and Acidobacteria (3.04-6.20), were identified as the main phyla, and Proteobacteria dominated in all the samples. Within Proteobacteria, Beta-proteobacteria was the most abundant class, with the sequence percentages ranging from 9.66% to 17.44%. Analysis of the community at the genus level suggested that Thauera, Gp4, Ignavibacterium, Phycisphaera, and Arenimonas were the core genera shared by at least two tannery WWTPs. A detailed analysis of the abundance of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) indicated that Nitrosospira, Nitrosomonas, and Nitrospira were the main AOB and NOB in tannery wastewater, respectively, which exhibited relatively high abundance in all samples. In addition, real-time quantitative PCR was conducted to validate the results by quantifying the abundance of the AOB and total bacteria, and similar results were obtained. Overall, the results presented in this study may provide new insights into our understanding of key microorganisms and the entire community of tannery wastewater and contribute to improving the nitrogen removal efficiency.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.4923-4939
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• 2019

In this paper, a secure transmission scheme based on the artificial noise is proposed for D2D communications underlaying the full-duplex cellular network, and a secure power allocation scheme to maximize the overall secrecy rate of both the cellular user and D2D transmitter node is presented. Firstly, the full-duplex base station transmits the artificial noise to guarantee the secure communications when it receives signals of cellular uplinks. Under this secure framework, it is found that improving the transmission power of the cellular user or the D2D transmitter node will degrade the secrecy rate of the other, although will improve itself secrecy rate obviously. Hence, a secure power allocation scheme to maximize the overall secrecy rate is presented subject to the security requirement of the cellular user. However, the original power optimization problem is non-convex. To efficiently solve it, we recast the original problem into a convex program problem by utilizing the proper relaxation and the successive convex approximation algorithm. Simulation results evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.59-65
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• 2010

1. Objectives: The aim of this study is data analysis for acute toxicity and safety of Cheongsimyeonja-tang. 2. Methods: We investigated the acute toxicity for water-extracted Cheongsimyeonja-tang. Fifty five male and female mice were observed for 14 days after one day oral administration of Cheongsimyeonja-tang at the respective doses of 0 (control group), 2560, 3200, 4000 and 5000 mg/kg. 3. Results: We observed survival rates, general toxicity, change of body weight and autopsy. In animals administered with Cheongsimyeonja-tang, there were nither dead animals nor significant changes of body weights. In addition, no differences were found between control and treated groups in clinical sign and autopsy. 4. Conclusion: The data confirmed that Cheongsimyeonja-tang is free from the toxicity and safety problems in treated groups. Compared with the control group, we could not find any toxic alteration in all treated groups(2560, 3200, 4000 and 5000 mg/kg). Lethal Dose 50 (LD50) value for mice was more than 5000 mg/kg per oral for both male and females. It suggest that Cheongsimyeonja-tang in mice is considered to be safe.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.8
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• pp.1358-1366
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• 2016

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the immune-enhancing activity of selenizing Codonopsis pilosula polysaccharide (sCPPS₅) in nonspecific immune response. In in vitro experiment, the results showed that sCPPS₅ could promote the phagocytic uptake, NO production, and TNF-α and IL-6 secretion of RAW264.7 cells. sCPPS₅ could also strongly increase the IκB-α degradation in the cytosol and the translocation of NF-κB p65 subunit into the nucleus of RAW264.7 cells. In the vivo experiment, sCPPS₅ at medium doses could significantly improve the phagocytic index of peritoneal macrophages and induce the secretion of TNF-α and IL-6. Moreover, the effect of sCPPS₅ was significantly better than Codonopsis pilosula polysaccharide (CPPS). These results indicated that selenylation modification could significantly enhance the immune-enhancing activity of CPPS in the nonspecific immune response.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.186-193
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• 2017

Tetrandrine (Tet), a bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloid, has been reported to have a radiosensitization effect on tumors. However, its effects on human glioma and the specific molecular mechanisms of these effects remain unknown. In this study, we demonstrated that Tet has a radiosensitization effect on human glioma cells. It has been hypothesized that Tet has a radiosensitization effect on glioma cells by affecting the glioma cell cycle and DNA repair mechanism and that ERK mediates these activities. Therefore, we conducted detailed analyses of the effects of Tet on the cell cycle by performing flow cytometric analysis and on DNA repair by detecting the expression of phosphorylated H2AX by immunofluorescence. We used western blot analysis to investigate the role of ERK in the effect of Tet on the cell cycle and DNA repair. The results revealed that Tet exerts its radiosensitization effect on glioma cells by inhibiting proliferation and decreasing the expression of phosphorylated ERK and its downstream proteins. In summary, our data indicate that ERK is involved in Tet-induced radiosensitization of glioma cells via inhibition of glioma cell proliferation or of the cell cycle at G0/G1 phase.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.72 no.1
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• pp.43-60
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• 2019

This paper presents a finite element model which can simulate the axial compression behavior of steel reinforced recycled concrete (SRRC) filled square steel tube columns using the ABAQUS software. The analytical model was established by selecting the reasonable nonlinear analysis theory and the constitutive relationship of material in the columns. The nonlinear analysis of failure modes, deformation characteristics, stress nephogram, and load-strain curves of columns under axial loads was performed in detail. Meanwhile, the influences of recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) replacement percentage, profile steel ratio, width thickness ratio of square steel tube, RAC strength and slenderness ratio on the axial compression behavior of columns were also analyzed carefully. It shows that the results of finite element analysis are in good agreement with the experimental results, which verifies the validity of the analytical model. The axial bearing capacity of columns decreased with the increase of RCA replacement percentage. While the increase of wall thickness of square steel tube, profile steel ratio and RAC strength were all beneficial to improve the bearing capacity of columns. Additionally, the parameter analysis of finite element analysis on the columns was also carried out by using the above numerical model. In general, the SRRC filled square steel tube columns have high bearing capacity and good deformation ability. On the basis of the above analysis, a modified formula based on the American ANSI/AISC 360-10 was proposed to calculate the nominal axial bearing capacity of the columns under axial loads. The research conclusions can provide some references for the engineering application of this kind of columns.