Identification of polymorphisms in cancer patients that differentially affect survival with age

A Degradable-Renewable Ionic Skin Based on Edible Glutinous Rice Gel

Traditional wearable devices are commonly nonrecyclable and nondegradable, resulting in energy waste and environmental pollution. Here, a household degradable and renewable ionic skin based on edible glutinous rice gel is developed for a strain, temperature and salivary enzyme activity sensor. This gel depends on intermolecular and intramolecular H-bonds among amylopectin and amylose, and this presents excellent skin-like properties, including stretchability, self-healing property, and adhesion to various substrates. The glutinous rice gel-based skin sensor can be used to monitor vital signs and physiological parameters such as body temperature and heart rate. The sensor also achieves specific speech recognition and detects temperature and body micromovements, which provides the potential to reconstruct language or sensory/motor functions. More importantly, because of the excellent biocompatibility and degradability, the sensor can directly detect the activity of human salivary amylase, which is useful for diagnosing pancreas-, kidney-, and spleen-related diseases in the elderly. Finally, the raw material of ionic skin that originates from traditional grains is degradable and renewable as well as it can be used to prepare household wearable devices. Hence, this work not only extends the application of wearable electronics in daily life but also facilitates health monitoring in the elderly and improves their quality of life.

A novel perspective suggesting high sustained energy expenditure may be net protective against cancer

Energy expenditure (EE) is generally viewed as tumorigenic, due to production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that can damage cells and DNA. On this basis, individuals within a species that sustain high EE should be more likely to develop cancer. Here, we argue the opposite, that high EE may be net protective effect against cancer, despite high ROS production. This is possible because individuals that sustain high EE have a greater energetic capacity (=greater energy acquisition, expenditure and ability to up-regulate output), and can therefore allocate energy to multiple cancer-fighting mechanisms with minimal energetic trade-offs. Our review finds that individuals sustaining high EE have greater antioxidant production, lower oxidative stress, greater immune function and lower cancer incidence. Our hypothesis and literature review suggest that EE may indeed be net protective against cancer, and that individual variation in energetic capacity may be a key mechanism to understand the highly individual nature of cancer risk in contemporary human populations and laboratory animals.

Lay summary The process of expending energy generates reactive oxygen species that can lead to oxidative stress, cell and DNA damage, and the accumulation of this damage is thought to be a major contributor to many ageing related diseases that include cancer. Here, we challenge this view, proposing how and why high energy expenditure (EE) may actually be net protective against cancer, and provide literature support for our hypothesis. We find individuals with high sustained EE have greater energetic capacity and thus can invest more in repair to counter oxidative stress, and more in immune function, both of which reduce cancer risk. Our hypothesis provides a novel mechanism to understand the highly individual nature of cancer, why taller individuals are more at risk, why physically active individuals have lower cancer risk, and why regular exercise can reduce cancer risk.

Ecological and Evolutionary Consequences of Anticancer Adaptations

Cellular cheating leading to cancers exists in all branches of multicellular life, favoring the evolution of adaptations to avoid or suppress malignant progression, and/or to alleviate its fitness consequences. Ecologists have until recently largely neglected the importance of cancer cells for animal ecology, presumably because they did not consider either the potential ecological or evolutionary consequences of anticancer adaptations. Here, we review the diverse ways in which the evolution of anticancer adaptations has significantly constrained several aspects of the evolutionary ecology of multicellular organisms at the cell, individual, population, species, and ecosystem levels and suggest some avenues for future research.

The dominant model analysis of Sirt3 genetic variants is associated with susceptibility to tuberculosis in a Chinese Han population

Tuberculosis (TB) is a complex infectious disease caused by the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) which has coexisted with humanity since the Neolithic. Recent research indicated that SIRT3 plays a pivotal role in promoting the antimycobacterial response of mitochondria and autophagy during Mtb infection. A case-control study comprised 900 TB patients and 1534 healthy controls who were retrospectively enrolled to assess the association between Sirt3 gene polymorphisms and TB susceptibility. In total, five single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs511744, rs3782118, rs7104764, rs536715 and rs28365927) were selected through database 1000 Genomes Project and offline software Haploview V4.2 and genotyped by a customized 2 × 48-Plex SNPscan™ Kit. Our results suggested that the minor allele genotypes (A carriers) of rs3782118 confers the decreased risk of TB susceptibility (p_Bonferroni = 0.032), and a similar but more significant effect was observed under the dominant model analysis (OR 0.787, 95% CI 0.666-0.931, p_Bonferroni = 0.026). Haplotype analysis showed that haplotype AGAAG (rs511744/rs3782118/rs7104764/rs536715/rs28365927) was associated with an increased risk of TB (p = 0.023, OR 1.159, 95% CI 1.019-1.317). In stratification analysis, we found that rs3782118 was associated with decreased risk of TB in female subgroup under the dominant model analysis (p_Bonferroni = 0.016, OR 0.678, 95% CI 0.523-0.878). Moreover, functional annotations for three loci (rs7930823, rs3782116 and rs3782115) which are strongly linked to rs3782118 indicated that they may be responsible for the changes in some motifs. In conclusion, our study suggested that the SNP rs3782118 was associated with a lower susceptibility to TB, especially under the dominant model analysis and that the haplotype AGAAG (containing the major allele G of rs3782118) was associated with an increased risk of TB. Further independent cohort studies are necessary to validate the protective effect of Sirt3 genetic variants on the risk of TB.