Transmembrane Helix of Novel Oncogene with Kinase-Domain (NOK) Influences Its Oligomerization and Limits the Activation of RAS/MAPK Signaling

Ying-Hua Li,Yin-Yin Wang,Shan Zhong,Zhi-Li Rong,Yong-Ming Ren,Zhi-Yong Li,Shu-Ping Zhang,Zhi-Jie Chang,Li Liu 한국분자세포생물학회 2009 Molecules and cells Vol.27 No.1

Ligand-dependent or independent oligomerization of receptor protein tyrosine kinase (RPTK) is often an essential step for receptor activation and intracellular signaling. The novel oncogene with kinase-domain (NOK) is a unique RPTK that almost completely lacks an ectodomain, expresses intracellularly and activates constitutively. However, it is unknown whether NOK can form oligomer or what function oligomerization would have. In this study, two NOK deletion mutants were generated by either removing the ectodomain (NOKECD) or including the endodomain (NOK-ICD). Co-immunoprecipitation demonstrated that the transmembrane (TM) domain of NOK was essential for its intermolecular interaction. The results further showed that NOK aggregated more closely as lower order oligomers (the dimer- and trimer-sized) than either deletion mutant did since NOK could be cross-linked by both Sulfo-EGS and formaldehyde, whereas either deletion mutant was only sensitive to Sulfo-EGS. Removing the NOK TM domain (NOK-ICD) not only markedly promoted higher order oligomerization, but also altered the subcellular localization of NOK and dramatically elevated the NOK-mediated constitutive activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK). Moreover, NOK-ICD but not NOK or NOKECD was co-localized with the upstream signaling molecule RAS on cell membrane. Thus, TM-mediated intermolecular contacting may be mainly responsible for the constitutive activation of NOK and contribute to the autoinhibitory effect on RAS/MAPK signaling.

TP63 Gene Polymorphisms, Cooking Oil Fume Exposure and Risk of Lung Adenocarcinoma in Chinese Non-smoking Females

Yin, Zhi-Hua,Cui, Zhi-Gang,Ren, Yang-Wu,Su, Meng,Ma, Rui,He, Qin-Cheng,Zhou, Bao-Sen Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.14 No.11

Background: Genetic polymorphisms of TP63 have been suggested to influence susceptibility to lung adenocarcinoma development in East Asian populations. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between common polymorphisms in the TP63 gene and the risk of lung adenocarcinoma, as well as interactions of the polymorphisms with environmental risk factors in Chinese non-smoking females. Methods: A case-control study of 260 cases and 318 controls was conducted. Data concerning demographic and risk factors were obtained for each subject. The genetic polymorphisms were determined by Taqman real-time PCR and statistical analyses were performed using SPSS software. Results: For 10937405, carriers of the CT genotype or at least one T allele (CT/TT) had lower risks of lung adenocarcinoma compared with the homozygous wild CC genotype in Chinese nonsmoking females (adjusted ORs were 0.68 and 0.69, 95%CIs were 0.48-0.97 and 0.50-0.97, P values were 0.033 and 0.030, respectively). Allele comparison showed that the T allele of rs10937405 was associated with a decreased risk of lung adenocarcinoma with an OR of 0.78 (95%CI=0.60-1.01, P=0.059). Our results showed that exposure to cooking oil fumes was associated with increased risk of lung adenocarcinoma in Chinese nonsmoking females (adjusted OR=1.58, 95%CI=1.11-2.25, P=0.011). However, we did not observe a significant interaction of cooking oil fumes and TP63 polymorphisms. Conclusion: TP63 polymorphism might be a genetic susceptibility factor for lung adenocarcinoma in Chinese non-smoking females, but no significant interaction was found with cooking oil fume exposure.

P53 Arg72Pro and MDM2 SNP309 Polymorphisms Cooperate to Increase Lung Adenocarcinoma Risk in Chinese Female Non-smokers: A Case Control Study

Ren, Yang-Wu,Yin, Zhi-Hua,Wan, Yan,Guan, Peng,Wu, Wei,Li, Xue-Lian,Zhou, Bao-Sen Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.14 No.9

Background: Cell cycle deregulation is a major component of carcinogenesis. The p53 tumor suppressor gene plays an important role in regulating cell cycle arrest, and mouse double minute 2 (MDM2) is a key regulator of p53 activity and degradation. Abnormal expression of p53 and MDM2 occurs in various cancers including lung cancer. Methods: We investigated the distribution of the p53 Arg72Pro (rs1042522) and MDM2 SNP309 (rs2279744) genotypes in patients and healthy control subjects to assess whether these single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are associated with an increased risk of lung adenocarcinomas in Chinese female non-smokers. Genotypes of 764 patients and 983 healthy controls were determined using the TaqMan SNP genotyping assay. Results: The p53 Pro/Pro genotype (adjusted OR = 1.55, 95% CI = 1.17-2.06) significantly correlated with an increased risk of lung adenocarcinoma, compared with the Arg/Arg genotype. An increased risk was also noted for MDM2 GG genotype (adjusted OR = 1.68, 95% CI = 1.27-2.21) compared with the TT genotype. Combined p53 Pro/Pro and MDM2 GG genotypes (adjusted OR = 2.66, 95% CI = 1.54-4.60) had a supermultiplicative interaction with respect to lung adenocarcinoma risk. We also found that cooking oil fumes, fuel smoke, and passive smoking may increase the risk of lung adenocarcinomas in Chinese female non-smokers who carry p53 or MDM2 mutant alleles. Conclusions: P53 Arg72Pro and MDM2 SNP309 polymorphisms, either alone or in combination, are associated with an increased lung adenocarcinoma risk in Chinese female non-smokers.

Colorimetric Probe Coupled to Dispersive Liquid–Liquid Microextraction for Determination of Dopamine in Serum

Zhi-gang Tai,Yi-ren Zhu,Yi-bo Yuan,Jin Liu,Zhen-jie Li,Zhi-hua Liu,Kun-miao Wang 대한화학회 2020 Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society Vol.41 No.3

In this work, a highly sensitive method using a colorimetric probe coupled to dispersive liquid?liquid microextraction (DLLME) was developed for the quantitative determination of dopamine (DA) in serum. The DA in serum was concentrated by DLLME to increase the detection sensitivity and reduce the matrix effects. After the DLLME process, a colorimetric probe of silver triangular nanoparticles (AgTNPs) was used to detect DA, which was based on the plasma transformation of AgTNPs caused by strong interactions with melamine (MA). The results showed that DA could inhibit the aggregation of AgTNPs induced by MA, resulting in the recovery of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peak of AgTNPs. Thus, the DLLME method followed by colorimetric probe detection of DA can be achieved. The parameters affecting the proposed method were optimized, under the optimal conditions, a linear calibration curve was obtained over a concentration range of 5 to 250?nM with a recovery from 94.4 to 101.3%. The detection limit was 1.6 nM (at an S/N ratio of 3). The present method was successfully applied to determine DA in human serum.

A Rapid and Efficient Pre-deployment Key Scheme for Secure Data Transmissions in Sensor Networks Using Lagrange Interpolation Polynomial

Hua-Yi Lin,De-Jun Pan,Xin-Xiang Zhao,Zhi-Ren Qiu 보안공학연구지원센터 2008 International Journal of Security and Its Applicat Vol.2 No.3

This study proposes a pre-deployment key management scheme that requires a few memory capacities and CPU computations to address secure data transmissions in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). The proposed scheme exploits threshold key management mechanisms by Lagrange Interpolation polynomial generating a key set for sensor nodes, and uses symmetric and irreversible cryptography schemes to encrypt transmitted data by the generated keys with Message Authentication Code (MAC). The sensor nodes merely have to aggregate and encrypt received data without complicated cryptography operations. The proposed approach can achieve rapid and efficient secure data transmissions with low communications, and is proper to be implemented on large-scale sensor networks.

Expression and Clinical Significance of miRNA-34a in Colorectal Cancer

Ma, Zhi-Bin,Kong, Xiao-Lin,Cui, Gang,Ren, Cui-Cui,Zhang, Ying-Jie,Fan, Sheng-Jin,Li, Ying-Hua Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.21

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate differences of miRNA-34a expression in benign and malignant colorectal lesions. Materials and Methods: Samples of cancer, paraneoplastic tissues and polyps were selected and total RNA was extracted by conventional methods for real-time PCR to detect the miRNA-34a expression. In addition, the LOVO colorectal cancer cell line was cultured, treated with the demethylating agent 5-azacytidine and screened for differentially expressed miRNA-34a. Results: After the drug treatment, the miRNA-34a expression of colorectal cancer cell line LOVO was increased and real-time PCR showed that levels of expression in both cell line and colorectal cancer tissues were low, as compared to paraneoplastic tissue (p<0.05). Polyps tissues had significantly higher expression than paraneoplastic and colorectal cancer samples (p<0.05). Conclusions: miRNA-34a-5p may play a role as a tumor suppressor gene in colorectal cancer, with involvement of DNA methylation.

Endophytic Fungal strains Specifically Modified the Biochemical Status of Grape Cells

Li-Hua Huang,Ming-Zhi Yang,Xiu-Jin Ao,An-Yun Ren,Ming-Quan Yuan,Han-Bo Zhang 한국식물학회 2018 Journal of Plant Biology Vol.61 No.4

Previously, specific interactions in morphologywere observed between grape cells and endophytic fungalstrains during a dual culture experiment. However, thebiochemical impacts of these fungal endophytes on grapecells is also expected due to their potential application in grapequality management. After assessed multiple physiochemicaltraits to those grape cells which have co-cultured with differentendophytic fungal strains in this study, and found the presenceof fungal endophytes obviously triggered ROS stress responsesin grape cells, and the biochemical status in grape cells weredifferentially modified by different fungal strains. In thosetested endophytic fungal strains, RH37 (Epicoccum sp.),RH6 (Alternaria sp.), RH32 (Alternaria sp.) and RH34(Trichothecium sp.) conferred greater metabolic impacts ongrape cells. And soluble protein (SPr), total flavonoids (TF),total phenols (TPh) and malondialdehyde (MDA) on the otherhand, were sensitive biochemical parameters which can beinfluenced in greater ranges than other detected parameters. Most interestedly, fungal endophytes shaped metabolitespatterns in grape cells during the dual culture appeared fungalgenus/species/strain-specificity. The work confirmed thesignificance of fungal endophytes in grape metabolic regulationand elucidated the possibility to purposely manage grapequality using tool of fungal endophytes.

Portable Low-Cost MRI System Based on Permanent Magnets/Magnet Arrays

Huang, Shaoying,Ren, Zhi Hua,Obruchkov, Sergei,Gong, JIa,Dykstra, Robin,Yu, Wenwei Korean Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 2019 Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging Vol.23 No.3

Portable low-cost magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems have the potential to enable "point-of-care" and timely MRI diagnosis, and to make this imaging modality available to routine scans and to people in underdeveloped countries and areas. With simplicity, no maintenance, no power consumption, and low cost, permanent magnets/magnet arrays/magnet assemblies are attractive to be used as a source of static magnetic field to realize the portability and to lower the cost for an MRI scanner. However, when taking the canonical Fourier imaging approach and using linear gradient fields, homogeneous fields are required in a scanner, resulting in the facts that either a bulky magnet/magnet array is needed, or the imaging volume is too small to image an organ if the magnet/magnet array is scaled down to a portable size. Recently, with the progress on image reconstruction based on non-linear gradient field, static field patterns without spatial linearity can be used as spatial encoding magnetic fields (SEMs) to encode MRI signals for imaging. As a result, the requirements for the homogeneity of the static field can be relaxed, which allows permanent magnets/magnet arrays with reduced sizes, reduced weight to image a bigger volume covering organs such as a head. It offers opportunities of constructing a truly portable low-cost MRI scanner. For this exciting potential application, permanent magnets/magnet arrays have attracted increased attention recently. A magnet/magnet array is strongly associated with the imaging volume of an MRI scanner, image reconstruction methods, and RF excitation and RF coils, etc. through field patterns and field homogeneity. This paper offers a review of permanent magnets and magnet arrays of different kinds, especially those that can be used for spatial encoding towards the development of a portable and low-cost MRI system. It is aimed to familiarize the readers with relevant knowledge, literature, and the latest updates of the development on permanent magnets and magnet arrays for MRI. Perspectives on and challenges of using a permanent magnet/magnet array to supply a patterned static magnetic field, which does not have spatial linearity nor high field homogeneity, for image reconstruction in a portable setup are discussed.

Portable Low-Cost MRI System Based on Permanent Magnets/Magnet Arrays

Shaoying Huang,Zhi Hua Ren,Sergei Obruchkov,JIa Gong,Robin Dykstra,Wenwei Yu 대한자기공명의과학회 2019 Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging Vol.23 No.3

Portable low-cost magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems have the potential to enable “point-of-care” and timely MRI diagnosis, and to make this imaging modality available to routine scans and to people in underdeveloped countries and areas. With simplicity, no maintenance, no power consumption, and low cost, permanent magnets/magnet arrays/magnet assemblies are attractive to be used as a source of static magnetic field to realize the portability and to lower the cost for an MRI scanner. However, when taking the canonical Fourier imaging approach and using linear gradient fields, homogeneous fields are required in a scanner, resulting in the facts that either a bulky magnet/magnet array is needed, or the imaging volume is too small to image an organ if the magnet/magnet array is scaled down to a portable size. Recently, with the progress on image reconstruction based on nonlinear gradient field, static field patterns without spatial linearity can be used as spatial encoding magnetic fields (SEMs) to encode MRI signals for imaging. As a result, the requirements for the homogeneity of the static field can be relaxed, which allows permanent magnets/magnet arrays with reduced sizes, reduced weight to image a bigger volume covering organs such as a head. It offers opportunities of constructing a truly portable low-cost MRI scanner. For this exciting potential application, permanent magnets/magnet arrays have attracted increased attention recently. A magnet/magnet array is strongly associated with the imaging volume of an MRI scanner, image reconstruction methods, and RF excitation and RF coils, etc. through field patterns and field homogeneity. This paper offers a review of permanent magnets and magnet arrays of different kinds, especially those that can be used for spatial encoding towards the development of a portable and low-cost MRI system. It is aimed to familiarize the readers with relevant knowledge, literature, and the latest updates of the development on permanent magnets and magnet arrays for MRI. Perspectives on and challenges of using a permanent magnet/magnet array to supply a patterned static magnetic field, which does not have spatial linearity nor high field homogeneity, for image reconstruction in a portable setup are discussed.

Optimization of APE1547-catalyzed Enantioselective Transesterification of (R/S)-2-methyl-1-butanol in an Ionic Liquid

Rui Tian,Chun-Hua Yang,Xiao-Fei Wei,Er-Na Xun,Ren Wang,Shu-Gui Cao,Zhi Wang,Lei Wang 한국생물공학회 2011 Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering Vol.16 No.2

Aeropyrum pernix esterase (APE1547) was successfully used to catalyze the enantioselective transesterification of (R/S)-2-methyl-1-butanol in an ionic liquid (IL). Effects of various reaction conditions on the synthetic activity of the enzyme as well as enantioselectivity, including the type of IL, acyl donor, temperature, water activity,and substrate molar ratio were inverstigated. APE1547showed good catalytic performance (activity > 0.8 μmol/min/mg, E > 25), and the enzyme-IL mixture was recycled five times with only a slight decrease in catalytic performance.