Protocadherin alpha 3 inhibits lung squamous cell carcinoma metastasis and epithelial-mesenchymal transition

Tao Yu,Fei Liu,Chang Liu,Yongyu Liu,Jianhui Jia,Yanan Liu,Yi Ren 한국유전학회 2022 Genes & Genomics Vol.44 No.2

Background: Lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) is associated with poor clinical prognosis and lacks available targeted therapy. Given that the major threat of cancer is metastasis, delineation of the molecular mechanism underlying it would help devise therapeutic strategies. Objective: To investigate the functional role of protocadherin alpha 3 (PCDHA3) in LUSC, as well as investigate the underlying molecular mechanism. Methods: Data for PCDHA3 expression and clinical information in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) were extracted and analyzed in the UALCAN platform. Expression levels of PCDHA3 in LUSC cell lines were analyzed via RT-PCR and western blot. Overexpression of PCDHA3 was conducted via plasmid transfection. CCK-8 and cell cycle assays were utilized to investigate effect of PCDHA3 on cell proliferation. Transwell assay was used to detect migration and invasion. The underlying mechanism was demonstrated via western blot analysis. Results: Our data indicate that PCDHA3 was low expressed in three kinds of LUSC cell lines and best in H520 cells. Furthermore, overexpression of PCDHA3 could significantly impair LUSC cells proliferation, invasion and migration. Moreover, PCHDA3 repressed the biomarkers of mesenchymal (N-cadherin, fibronectin and vimentin) and increased expression of epithelial markers (E-cadherin and α-catenin). On the other hand, PCDHA3 overexpression partially blocked epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Conclusions: PCDHA3 suppressed the LUSC cells proliferation, invasion and migration via inhibiting the expression of EMT signatures, suggesting that PCDHA3 could serve as a valuable therapeutic target for LUSC therapy.

MULTI-BRAIN NETWORK ACROSS CONSUMERS’ RIGHT INFERIOR FRONTAL GYRUS PREDICTS THEIR ATTITUDES TOWARD ADVERTISING

Tao Liu,Xingchen Liu 글로벌지식마케팅경영학회 2018 Global Marketing Conference Vol.2018 No.07

Introduction How to evaluate quality of advertising? Previous behavioral studies have mainly focused on subjective reports of survey and interview containing social and cognitive bias, or objective data of sell changes suffering huge temporal and monetary cost. Recently, increasing researchers have proposed that techniques of neuro-imaging could provide an objective and effective way to examine cognitive neural mechanisms underlying consumer behavior (referred to as consumer neuroscience) (Karmarkar & Yoon, 2016), and several studies have measured consumer's brain responses to advertising and movie trailer in both single- and two-brain frames (Barnett & Cerf, 2017; Venkatraman et al., 2015). However, still little is known about cognitive neural mechanisms underlying comprehension of advertising. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a non-invasive technique of brain-imaging measuring changes in the hemodynamic properties of human brain. Compared with fMRI and EEG, fNIRS is portable, has few physical constraints on participants with reasonable spatial and temporal resolution, and is tolerant to electromagnetic noise and motion artifact. Therefore, fNIRS is a suitable tool for research of human behavior in daily-life contexts (Liu et al., in press), which is a trends in neuroimaging (Hasson & Honey, 2012) and consumer neuroscience as weill. Methods To examine the neural responses to different quality of advertisings, in the present study we measured 14 undergraduate students' frontal activations while watching 20 advertisings in Study 1 and listening 30 music demos in Study 2 using a portable fNIRS device, and analyzed interpersonal neural network across all participants based on graph theory. Figure 1 shows positions of the fNIRS channels. Positions of the fNIRS channels were measured by a 3D magnetic digitizer. In a pilot study, another group of participants were recruited to score 30 advertisings from three dimensions: degree of liking, degree of willing to pay (WTP), and degree of understanding, and finally top-10 and bottom-10 scored adverting were remained for the final experiment in Study 1. Concerning the music demos used in Study 2, we selected the top-15 and bottow-15 ranking music in the ‘Billboard 2014 hot 100’. During the experiment, participants were asked to score their degree of liking and WTP to the advertising or the music immediately after each stimulus was displayed. After the experiment, they were also instructed to score and report their understanding on each advertising or music. Results and Discussion In Study 1, the intra-brain activations revealed higher medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) activation when participants watched low-scored advertisings than watched high-scored ones (Fig. 2), and the mPFC activations showed a positive relationship with participants’ understanding on the meaning of the advertisings. This result only suggests that low-scored advertisings were relatively hard for participants to understand the intentions of the adverting, requiring more cognitive resources of mentalizing (Lieberman, 2007). Importantly, when we considered all participants' brains as a network, and then calculated the interpersonal neural connectivity (INS) across the network (defined as the number of participant pairs who showed significant positive inter-brain neural synchronization across them indicating shared understanding) (Hasson et al., 2012), only the network connectivity in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) had significantly positive relationships with participants' scores of attitude towards the advertisings (defined as mean of the scores of liking and WTP) (Fig. 3). Study 2 confirmed the result showing significantly positive relationship between the network connectivity across all participants' brains and their scores of attitude towards the song demos. More importantly, the network connectivity in the right IFG of the small group of participants also significantly predicted the public's attitude towards the songs assessed by the rating scores on Douban website (Fig. 4). Conclusion The right IFG is a core area of mirror neuron system and is closely associated with empathy (Lamm et al., 2007). Thus, the present results suggest that high-scored advertisings may activate consumer's empathic response to simulate and experience their contents and intentions. And the network connectivity across consumers' brains in the right IFG may be a critical index evaluating quality of experiential advertisings. Practically, advertising should invite consumers to experience their products, and then could convey information and emotion more effectively.

A Rapid and Simple Method for DNA Preparation of Magnaporthe oryzae from Single Rice Blast Lesions for PCR-Based Molecular Analysis

Liying Dong(Liying Dong),Shufang Liu(Shufang Liu),Jing Li(Jing Li),Didier Tharreau(Didier Tharreau ),Pei Liu(Pei Liu),Dayun Tao(Dayun Tao),Qinzhong Yang(Qinzhong Yang) 한국식물병리학회 2023 Plant Pathology Journal Vol.39 No.2

A Rapid and Simple Method for DNA Preparation of Magnaporthe oryzae from Single Rice Blast Lesions for PCR-Based Molecular Analysis

Liying Dong(Liying Dong),Shufang Liu(Shufang Liu),Jing Li(Jing Li),Didier Tharreau(Didier Tharreau ),Pei Liu(Pei Liu),Dayun Tao(Dayun Tao),Qinzhong Yang(Qinzhong Yang) 한국식물병리학회 2022 Plant Pathology Journal Vol.38 No.6

Rice blast is one of the most destructive diseases of rice worldwide, and the causative agent is the filamentous ascomycete Magnaporthe oryzae. With the successful cloning of more and more avirulence genes from M. oryzae, the direct extraction of M. oryzae genomic DNA from infected rice tissue would be useful alternative for rapid monitoring of changes of avirulence genes without isolation and cultivation of the pathogen. In this study, a fast, low-cost and reliable method for DNA preparation of M. oryzae from a small piece of infected single rice leaf or neck lesion was established. This single step method only required 10 min for DNA preparation and conventional chemical reagents commonly found in the laboratory. The AvrPik and AvrPi9 genes were successfully amplified with the prepared DNA. The expected DNA fragments from 570 bp to 1,139 bp could be amplified even three months after DNA preparation. This method was also suitable for DNA preparation from M. oryzae strains stored on the filter paper. All together these results indicate that the DNA preparation method established in this study is reliable, and could meet the basic needs for polymerase chain reaction-based analysis of M. oryzae.

Inhibition of MicroRNA-15a/16 Expression Alleviates Neuropathic Pain Development through Upregulation of G Protein-Coupled Receptor Kinase 2

( Tao Li ),( Yingchun Wan ),( Lijuan Sun ),( Shoujun Tao ),( Peng Chen ),( Caihua Liu ),( Ke Wang ),( Changyu Zhou ),( Guoqing Zhao ) 한국응용약물학회 2019 Biomolecules & Therapeutics(구 응용약물학회지) Vol.27 No.4

There is accumulating evidence that microRNAs are emerging as pivotal regulators in the development and progression of neuropathic pain. MicroRNA-15a/16 (miR-15a/16) have been reported to play an important role in various diseases and inflammation response processes. However, whether miR-15a/16 participates in the regulation of neuroinflammation and neuropathic pain development remains unknown. In this study, we established a mouse model of neuropathic pain by chronic constriction injury (CCI) of the sciatic nerves. Our results showed that both miR-15a and miR-16 expression was significantly upregulated in the spinal cord of CCI rats. Downregulation of the expression of miR-15a and miR-16 by intrathecal injection of a specific inhibitor significantly attenuated the mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia of CCI rats. Furthermore, inhibition of miR-15a and miR-16 downregulated the expression of interleukin-1β and tumor-necrosis factor-αin the spinal cord of CCI rats. Bioinformatic analysis predicted that G protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 (GRK2), an important regulator in neuropathic pain and inflammation, was a potential target gene of miR-15a and miR-16. Inhibition of miR-15a and miR-16 markedly increased the expression of GRK2 while downregulating the activation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase and NF-κB in CCI rats. Notably, the silencing of GRK2 significantly reversed the inhibitory effects of miR-15a/16 inhibition in neuropathic pain. In conclusion, our results suggest that inhibition of miR-15a/16 expression alleviates neuropathic pain development by targeting GRK2. These findings provide novel insights into the molecular pathogenesis of neuropathic pain and suggest potential therapeutic targets for preventing neuropathic pain development.

Identification and characterization of scirr1, a novel geneup-regulated after spinal cord injury

Tao Liu,Zhenlian Ma,Haiping Que,Xin Li,Yanli Ni,Shuqian Jing,Shaojun Liu 생화학분자생물학회 2007 Experimental and molecular medicine Vol.39 No.3

Spinal cord injury and regeneration involves trans-criptional activity of many genes, of which many remain unknown. Using the rat spinal cord full- transection model, bioinformatics, cloning, expres-sion assays, fusion proteins, and transfection techniques, we identified and characterized one such differentially expressed gene, termed scirr1 (spinal cord injury and/or regeneration related gene 1). Fourteen orthologs were found in 13 species from echinoderm to insect and human by Blast search of NCBI protein reference sequence database. However, no further information is available for these homo-logues. Using whole-mount in situ hybridization, mouse scirr1 mRNA was expressed temporally and spatially in accordance with the early development sequence of the central nervous system. In adult rat spinal cord, expression of scirr1 mRNA was localized to neurons of gray matter by in situ hybridization. Using immunohistochemistry, SCIRR1 protein was found to be up-regulated and expressed more highly in spinal cord neurons farther from the epicenter of injury. Although the precise function of SCIRR1 is unknown, its unique pattern of expression during CNS early development and up-regulation after spinal cord injury sugges t that SCIRR1 should be involved in the succeeding injury and/or repair processes of the injured spinal cord. Also, the typical F-box and leucine-rich repeat (LRR) architecture of substrate recruiting role in the pleiotropic ubiquitin/ proteasome pathway. All these make scirr1 a new interesting start to study the spinal cord injury and regeneration mechanism.

Application of galactinol to tomato enhances tolerance to cold and heat stresses

Liu Yudong,Zhang Li,Ma Jian,Meng Sida,Pang Chunpeng,Zhao Xiaomeng,Zhang Huidong,Wang Shou,Xu Tao,He Yi,Liu Yufeng,Qi Mingfang 한국원예학회 2022 Horticulture, Environment, and Biotechnology Vol.63 No.3

Galactinol, a galactosyl donor, is the key substrate in raffinose family oligosaccharide (RFO) biosynthesis pathways. Many studies proved that galactinol also regulates some defense-related genes to be transcribed as a sugar signal under biotic and abiotic stresses. There are four galactinol synthase (SlGolS) genes in tomato. In this study, SlGolS1, SlGolS2, and SlGolS4 responded to cold stress, especially SlGolS1 stems treated for 12 h and SlGolS4 stems treated for 24 h. Under heat stress, the expression levels of SlGolS1, SlGolS2, and SlGolS3, especially SlGolS1 and SlGolS2, increased in leaves, roots, and stems. When expressed in E. coli cells, SlGolS2 and SlGolS4 enhanced cold tolerance, whereas SlGolS1 and SlGolS3 improved heat tolerance. These results suggested that SlGolS family members played different roles in tolerance to cold and heat stresses. In addition, the application of galactinol or galactinol + α-galactosidase inhibitor (DGJ) improved the cold and heat tolerances of tomato plants, whereas the single application of DGJ had no effect. Interestingly, the applications of DGJ, galactinol, and galactinol + DGJ also affected the expression levels of SlRS, SlSTS, and SlAGAL under cold and heat stresses. These findings indicated that galactinol was involved in the biosynthesis pathways of RFOs as a galactosyl donor and regulated the expression levels of RFO biosynthesis and breakdown-related genes as a sugar signal under cold and heat stresses.

MicroRNA Expression Profile Analysis Reveals Diagnostic Biomarker for Human Prostate Cancer

Liu, Dong-Fu,Wu, Ji-Tao,Wang, Jian-Ming,Liu, Qing-Zuo,Gao, Zhen-Li,Liu, Yun-Xiang Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2012 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.13 No.7

Prostate cancer is a highly prevalent disease in older men of the western world. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small RNA molecules that regulate gene expression via posttranscriptional inhibition of protein synthesis. To identify the diagnostic potential of miRNAs in prostate cancer, we downloaded the miRNA expression profile of prostate cancer from the GEO database and analysed the differentially expressed miRNAs (DE-miRNAs) in prostate cancerous tissue compared to non-cancerous tissue. Then, the targets of these DE-miRNAs were extracted from the database and mapped to the STRING and KEGG databases for network construction and pathway enrichment analysis. We identified a total of 16 miRNAs that showed a significant differential expression in cancer samples. A total of 9 target genes corresponding to 3 DE-miRNAs were obtained. After network and pathway enrichment analysis, we finally demonstrated that miR-20 appears to play an important role in the regulation of prostate cancer onset. MiR-20 as single biomarker or in combination could be useful in the diagnosis of prostate cancer. We anticipate our study could provide the groundwork for further experiments.

Experimental Evaluation on Defuzzification of TSK-type-based Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Inference Systems

Tao Zhan,Wen-Tao Li,Bing-Jiao Fan,Shuai Liu 제어·로봇·시스템학회 2023 International Journal of Control, Automation, and Vol.21 No.4

With A2-C0 and A2-C1 models, this study conducted a series of experimental evaluation on four kinds of type reduction and defuzzification algorithms, namely Karnik-Mendel iterative procedure (KM), Nie-Tan method (NT), q factor method (QF) and modified q factor method (MQ), to show which algorithm exhibits better performance. In the experimental part, the accuracy, computational cost and stability of these methods are compared, and the accuracy between different defuzzification methods are analyzed statistically with the Wilcoxon Nonparametric Test. It is shown that for both A2-C0 and A2-C1 models, the NT, QF and MQ method could save around 80% development time than KM. The associated improvement for the accuracy and stability caused by KM are mainly concluded as: 1) for the A2-C0 model, less than 5% and around 10% than NT, about 0% and less than 5% than QF and around 20% and about 40% than MQ; 2) for the A2-C1 model, more than 60% and over 70% than NT and less than 20% and more than 30% for both QF and MQ. It becomes clear that for the A2-C0 model, the NT and QF method are better choices; while for the A2-C1, KM is a better choice when high accuracy and stability are the prerequisites but if the accuracy, stability and cost of development time are considered synchronously, QF and MQ are better. During the design of the A2-C0 and A2-C1 structures, the reported results provide us a map for the most suitable selection of the defuzzification approach among these four kinds of methods.

Analysis of Key Genes and Pathways Associated with Colorectal Cancer with Microarray Technology

Liu, Yan-Jun,Zhang, Shu,Hou, Kang,Li, Yun-Tao,Liu, Zhan,Ren, Hai-Liang,Luo, Dan,Li, Shi-Hong Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.14 No.3

Objective: Microarray data were analyzed to explore key genes and their functions in progression of colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods: Two microarray data sets were downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified using corresponding packages of R. Functional enrichment analysis was performed with DAVID tools to uncover their biological functions. Results: 631 and 590 DEGs were obtained from the two data sets, respectively. A total of 32 common DEGs were then screened out with the rank product method. The significantly enriched GO terms included inflammatory response, response to wounding and response to drugs. Two interleukin-related domains were revealed in the domain analysis. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis showed that the PPAR signaling pathway and the renin-angiotensin system were enriched in the DEGs. Conclusions: Our study to systemically characterize gene expression changes in CRC with microarray technology revealed changes in a range of key genes, pathways and function modules. Their utility in diagnosis and treatment now require exploration.