Phosphorylation of NFAT3 by CDK3 induces cell transformation and promotes tumor growth in skin cancer

The nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) family proteins are transcription factors that regulate the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and other genes during the immune response. Although the NFAT proteins have been extensively investigated in the immune system, their role in cancer progression remains controversial. Here, we report that NFAT3 is highly expressed in various skin cancer cell lines and tumor tissues. Knockdown of endogenous NFAT3 expression by short hairpin RNA (shRNA) significantly inhibited tumor cell proliferation, colony formation and anchorage-independent cell growth. Furthermore, results of the mammalian two-hybrid assay showed that cyclin-dependent kinase 3 (CDK3) directly interacted with NFAT3 and phosphorylated NFAT3 at serine 259 (Ser259), which enhanced the transactivation and transcriptional activity of NFAT3. The phosphorylation site of NFAT3 was critical for epidermal growth factor (EGF)-stimulated cell transformation of the HaCaT immortalized skin cell line and mutation of NFAT3 at Ser259 led to a reduction of colony formation in soft agar. We also found that overexpressing wildtype NFAT3, but not mutant NFAT3-S259A, promoted A431 xenograft tumor growth. Importantly, we showed that CDK3, NFAT3 and phosphorylated NFAT3-Ser259 were highly expressed in skin cancer compared with normal skin tissues. These results provided evidence supporting the oncogenic potential of NFAT3 and suggested that CDK3-mediated phosphorylation of NFAT3 has an important role in skin tumorigenesis.

High pressure common rail injection system modeling and control

In this paper modeling and common-rail pressure control of high pressure common rail injection system (HPCRIS) is presented. The proposed mathematical model of high pressure common rail injection system which contains three sub-systems: high pressure pump sub-model, common rail sub-model and injector sub-model is a relative complicated nonlinear system. The mathematical model is validated by the software Matlab and a virtual detailed simulation environment. For the considered HPCRIS, an effective model free controller which is called Extended State Observer - based intelligent Proportional Integral (ESO-based iPI) controller is designed. And this proposed method is composed mainly of the referred ESO observer, and a time delay estimation based iPI controller. Finally, to demonstrate the performances of the proposed controller, the proposed ESO-based iPI controller is compared with a conventional PID controller and ADRC.

Bone turnover alterations across the menopausal transition in south-eastern Chinese women [corrected]

OBJECTIVES

To explore the serum levels of bone resorption marker C-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (CTX) and bone formation marker N-amino terminal propeptide of type I collagen (PINP) in Chinese women across the menopausal transition and the correlation between follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH) and estradiol with the bone turnover markers.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted on 464 healthy Chinese women, separated into pre-, peri- and postmenopausal groups based on their menstruation changes. The serum levels of CTX, PINP, FSH, LH, and estradiol were measured.

RESULTS

The serum levels of CTX and PINP were significantly higher in women in the peri- and postmenopausal groups. The serum levels of FSH were significantly correlated with the serum levels of PINP in premenopausal women. Both serum FSH and LH were positively correlated with serum CTX in perimenopausal women and postmenopausal women. Estradiol was inversely correlated with CTX in the perimenopausal group. Multiple linear regression models show the serum FSH levels were independently related to the bone turnover markers CTX and PINP.

CONCLUSIONS

The elevated serum levels of FSH were independent risk factors for bone loss in peri- and postmenopausal women, and measurement of the serum FSH levels in mid-age women with irregular menses could be used in early diagnosis of postmenopausal osteoporosis.

Development and evaluation of a secondary reference panel for BCR-ABL1 quantification on the International Scale

Molecular monitoring of chronic myeloid leukemia patients using robust BCR-ABL1 tests standardized to the International Scale (IS) is key to proper disease management, especially when treatment cessation is considered. Most laboratories currently use a time-consuming sample exchange process with reference laboratories for IS calibration. A World Health Organization (WHO) BCR-ABL1 reference panel was developed (MR¹–MR⁴), but access to the material is limited. In this study, we describe the development of the first cell-based secondary reference panel that is traceable to and faithfully replicates the WHO panel, with an additional MR^4.5 level. The secondary panel was calibrated to IS using digital PCR with ABL1, BCR and GUSB as reference genes and evaluated by 44 laboratories worldwide. Interestingly, we found that >40% of BCR-ABL1 assays showed signs of inadequate optimization such as poor linearity and suboptimal PCR efficiency. Nonetheless, when optimized sample inputs were used, >60% demonstrated satisfactory IS accuracy, precision and/or MR^4.5 sensitivity, and 58% obtained IS conversion factors from the secondary reference concordant with their current values. Correlation analysis indicated no significant alterations in %BCR-ABL1 results caused by different assay configurations. More assays achieved good precision and/or sensitivity than IS accuracy, indicating the need for better IS calibration mechanisms.

Reduced Field-of-View Diffusion Tensor Imaging of the Optic Nerve in Retinitis Pigmentosa at 3T

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Diffusion tensor imaging may reflect pathology of the optic nerve; however, the ability of DTI to evaluate alterations of the optic nerve in retinitis pigmentosa has not yet been assessed, to our knowledge. The aim of this study was to investigate the diagnostic potential of reduced FOV-DTI in optic neuropathy of retinitis pigmentosa at 3T.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Thirty-eight patients and thirty-five healthy controls were enrolled in this study. Measures of visual field and visual acuity of both eyes in all subjects were performed. A reduced FOV-DTI sequence was used to derive fractional anisotropy, apparent diffusion coefficient, principal eigenvalue, and orthogonal eigenvalue of the individual optic nerves. Mean fractional anisotropy, ADC, and eigenvalue maps were obtained for quantitative analysis. Further analyses were performed to determine the correlation of fractional anisotropy, ADC, principal eigenvalue, and orthogonal eigenvalue with optic nerves in patients with mean deviation of the visual field and visual acuity, respectively.

RESULTS

The optic nerves of patients with retinitis pigmentosa compared with control subjects showed significantly higher ADC, principal eigenvalue, and orthogonal eigenvalue and significantly lower fractional anisotropy (P < .01). For patients with retinitis pigmentosa, the mean deviation of the visual field of the optic nerve was significantly correlated with mean fractional anisotropy (r = 0.364, P = .001) and orthogonal eigenvalue (r = -0.254, P = .029), but it was not correlated with mean ADC (P = .154) and principal eigenvalue (P = .337). Moreover, no correlation between any DTI parameter and visual acuity in patients with retinitis pigmentosa was observed (P > .05).

CONCLUSIONS

Reduced FOV-DTI measurement of the optic nerve may serve as a biomarker of axonal and myelin damage in optic neuropathy for patients with retinitis pigmentosa.

Gene expression profiling analysis of lung adenocarcinoma

The present study screened potential genes related to lung adenocarcinoma, with the aim of further understanding disease pathogenesis. The GSE2514 dataset including 20 lung adenocarcinoma and 19 adjacent normal tissue samples from 10 patients with lung adenocarcinoma aged 45-73 years was downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the two groups were screened using the t-test. Potential gene functions were predicted using functional and pathway enrichment analysis, and protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks obtained from the STRING database were constructed with Cytoscape. Module analysis of PPI networks was performed through MCODE in Cytoscape. In total, 535 upregulated and 465 downregulated DEGs were identified. These included ATP5D, UQCRC2, UQCR11 and genes encoding nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH), which are mainly associated with mitochondrial ATP synthesis coupled electron transport, and which were enriched in the oxidative phosphorylation pathway. Other DEGs were associated with DNA replication (PRIM1, MCM3, and RNASEH2A), cell surface receptor-linked signal transduction and the enzyme-linked receptor protein signaling pathway (MAPK1, STAT3, RAF1, and JAK1), and regulation of the cytoskeleton and phosphatidylinositol signaling system (PIP5K1B, PIP5K1C, and PIP4K2B). Our findings suggest that DEGs encoding subunits of NADH, PRIM1, MCM3, MAPK1, STAT3, RAF1, and JAK1 might be associated with the development of lung adenocarcinoma.

Radiobiological impact of dose calculation algorithms on biologically optimized IMRT lung stereotactic body radiation therapy plans

Background

The aim of this study is to evaluate the radiobiological impact of Acuros XB (AXB) vs. Anisotropic Analytic Algorithm (AAA) dose calculation algorithms in combined dose-volume and biological optimized IMRT plans of SBRT treatments for non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.

Methods

Twenty eight patients with NSCLC previously treated SBRT were re-planned using Varian Eclipse (V11) with combined dose-volume and biological optimization IMRT sliding window technique. The total dose prescribed to the PTV was 60 Gy with 12 Gy per fraction. The plans were initially optimized using AAA algorithm, and then were recomputed using AXB using the same MUs and MLC files to compare with the dose distribution of the original plans and assess the radiobiological as well as dosimetric impact of the two different dose algorithms. The Poisson Linear-Quadatric (PLQ) and Lyman-Kutcher-Burman (LKB) models were used for estimating the tumor control probability (TCP) and normal tissue complication probability (NTCP), respectively. The influence of the model parameter uncertainties on the TCP differences and the NTCP differences between AAA and AXB plans were studied by applying different sets of published model parameters. Patients were grouped into peripheral and centrally-located tumors to evaluate the impact of tumor location.

Results

PTV dose was lower in the re-calculated AXB plans, as compared to AAA plans. The median differences of PTV(D_95%) were 1.7 Gy (range: 0.3, 6.5 Gy) and 1.0 Gy (range: 0.6, 4.4 Gy) for peripheral tumors and centrally-located tumors, respectively. The median differences of PTV(mean) were 0.4 Gy (range: 0.0, 1.9 Gy) and 0.9 Gy (range: 0.0, 4.3 Gy) for peripheral tumors and centrally-located tumors, respectively. TCP was also found lower in AXB-recalculated plans compared with the AAA plans. The median (range) of the TCP differences for 30 month local control were 1.6 % (0.3 %, 5.8 %) for peripheral tumors and 1.3 % (0.5 %, 3.4 %) for centrally located tumors. The lower TCP is associated with the lower PTV coverage in AXB-recalculated plans. No obvious trend was observed between the calculation-resulted TCP differences and tumor size or location. AAA and AXB yield very similar NTCP on lung pneumonitis according to the LKB model estimation in the present study.

Conclusion

AAA apparently overestimates the PTV dose; the magnitude of resulting difference in calculated TCP was up to 5.8 % in our study. AAA and AXB yield very similar NTCP on lung pneumonitis based on the LKB model parameter sets we used in the present study.