The identification of synergistic chemotherapeutic agents from a large pool of candidates is highly challenging. Here, we present a Ranking-system of Anti-Cancer Synergy (RACS) that combines features of targeting networks and transcriptomic profiles, and validate it on three types of cancer. Using data on human β-cell lymphoma from the Dialogue for Reverse Engineering Assessments and Methods consortium we show a probability concordance of 0.78 compared with 0.61 obtained with the previous best algorithm. We confirm 63.6% of our breast cancer predictions through experiment and literature, including four strong synergistic pairs. Further in vivo screening in a zebrafish MCF7 xenograft model confirms one prediction with strong synergy and low toxicity. Validation using A549 lung cancer cells shows similar results. Thus, RACS can significantly improve drug synergy prediction and markedly reduce the experimental prescreening of existing drugs for repurposing to cancer treatment, although the molecular mechanism underlying particular interactions remains unknown.

Tea is an important beverage in humans’ daily lives. For a long time, tea grade identification relied on sensory evaluation, which requires professional knowledge, so is difficult and troublesome for laypersons. Tea chemical component detection usually involves a series of procedures and multiple steps to obtain the final results. As such, a simple, rapid, and reliable method to judge the quality of tea is needed. Here, we propose a quick method that combines ultraviolet (UV) spectra and color difference to classify tea. The operations are simple and do not involve complex pretreatment. Each method requires only a few seconds for sample detection. In this study, famous Chinese green tea, Huangshan Maofeng, was selected. The traditional detection results of tea chemical components could not be used to directly determine tea grade. Then, digital instrument methods, UV spectrometry and colorimetry, were applied. The principal component analysis (PCA) plots of the single and combined signals of these two instruments showed that samples could be arranged according to grade. The combined signal PCA plot performed better with the sample grade descending in clockwise order. For grade prediction, the random forest (RF) model produced a better effect than the support vector machine (SVM) and the SVM + RF model. In the RF model, the training and testing accuracies of the combined signal were all 1. The grades of all samples were correctly predicted. From the above, the UV spectrum combined with color difference can be used to quickly and accurately classify the grade of Huangshan Maofeng tea. This method considerably increases the convenience of tea grade identification.

Hepatocytes perform most of the functions of the liver and are considered terminally differentiated cells. Recently, it has been suggested that hepatocytes might have the potential to transdifferentiate or dedifferentiate under physiological or pathological conditions in vivo. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition of hepatocytes in liver fibrosis has also been proposed. However, these findings have not been fully confirmed. In this study, hepatocytes were genetically labelled for cell fate tracing using lacZ via the tamoxifen-induced CreERT/loxP system. After induction with tamoxifen, alb + cells were permanently marked by lacZ expression, and all progeny lacZ + cells were derived from a single source with no interference. We did not observe transdifferentiation or dedifferentiation of hepatocytes into cholangiocytes or hepatic progenitor cells under conditions of liver homeostasis or following a 2/3 partial hepatectomy. Meanwhile, lacZ/OPN-positive cells were observed in livers of 3,5-diethoxycarbonyl-1,4-dihydrocollidine-fed mice, and lacZ/alpha-smooth muscle actin-positive cells were detected in carbon tetrachloride-induced chronic liver injury models. These results suggested that some existing differentiated alb + cells might have the potential of transdifferentiation/dedifferentiation or epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in vivo in some liver injury models, but the proportion of these alb + cells in liver was very low, and their significance and actual function during the pathological process remains to be elucidated.

No abstract