Background Epidemiology studies have reported associations between soy intake and the risk of endocrine-related gynaecological cancers. However, to date there have been no quantitative meta-analyses reported regarding this topic.

The role of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1) in cancer has been extensively studied in the context of DNA repair, leading to clinical trials of PARP1 inhibitors in cancers defective in homologous recombination. However, the DNA repair-independent roles of PARP1 in carcinogenesis and metastasis, particularly in lung cancer metastasis, remain largely uncharacterized. Here, we report that PARP1 promotes lung adenocarcinoma relapse to the brain and bones by regulating several steps of the metastatic process in a DNA repair-independent manner. We find that PARP1 expression is associated with overall and distant metastasis-free survival in lung adenocarcinoma patients. Consistent with this, genetic knockdown and pharmacological inhibition of PARP1 significantly attenuated the metastatic potential of lung adenocarcinoma cells. Further investigation revealed that PARP1 potentiates lung adenocarcinoma metastasis by promoting invasion, anoikis resistance, extravasation and self-renewal of lung adenocarcinoma cells and also by modifying the brain microenvironment. Finally, we identified S100A4 and CLDN7 as novel transcriptional targets and clinically relevant effectors of PARP1. Collectively, our study not only revealed previously unknown functions of PARP1 in lung adenocarcinoma metastasis but also delineated the molecular mechanisms underlying the pro-metastatic function of PARP1. Furthermore, these findings provide a foundation for the potential use of PARP1 inhibitors as a new treatment option for lung adenocarcinoma patients with elevated PARP1 expression.

Active disease of tuberculosis (TB) can be developed decades later by either a relapse of the initial infection (endogenous reactivation) or by an entrance of the secondary infection (exogenous reinfection), since the current chemotherapy cannot lead to complete elimination of tuberculosis. Although the immunotherapeutic approaches in conjunction with conventional chemotherapy were tried to prevent TB growth via boosting the immune system, their therapeutic effects are still controversial. Here, we found that TB DNA vaccination completely blocked tuberculosis reactivation and significantly prevented from the secondary infection when chemotherapy was combined simultaneously.In particular, double-gene DNA vaccine composed of Ag85A and PstS-3 genes could reduce bacteria growth better than single-gene DNA vaccine after a secondary reinfection, indicating a correlation between the breadth of Th1 IFN-g response and the efficacy of the protection from reinfection. Thus, we propose that multigene TB DNA immunotherapy including Ag85A and PstS-3 genes during the period of chemotherapy could benefit patients undergoing TB chemotherapy in prevention from exogenous reinfection as well as endogenous reactivation. Gene Therapy (2005) Tuberculosis (TB) holds the dubious honor of being the leading single-agent infectious disease killer in the world 1,2 and the situation is worsened by the increasing incidence of both multidrug resistant (MDR) stains and combination with AIDS. 1,3 After Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, active disease arises in about 5% of exposed individuals and most of the others will develop a latent infection in which the tubercle bacilli can persist in vivo without causing any clinical symptoms. However, active disease may also develop decades later either as a relapse of the initial infection or because of a secondary infection. Although most cases of tuberculosis were once believed to result from a endogenous reactivation acquired in the past, 4 recent studies indicate that onethird of tuberculosis cases are due to recent transmission by exogenous reinfection of multiple M. tuberculosis strains, [5][6][7][8][9] implicating that the exogenous reinfection significantly contributes to disease transmission. Therefore, novel immunotherapeutic approaches will be required to prevent reinfection as well as reactivation of M. tuberculosis in individuals with latent tuberculosis.DNA vaccination has become a promising strategy for developing an effective vaccine against TB, since it efficiently induces Th1 immunity, an essential arm of immune system to clear the bacteria. In prophylactic settings, there are several reports that DNA vaccines expressing M. tuberculosis antigens are effective for limiting the bacterial growth in mice. 10-13 However, it is still controversial whether DNA vaccines work against TB reactivation in postexposure models. 14-16 For example, the vaccination of plasmid DNA expressing hsp65 after completion of chemotherapy was shown to be effective in preventing the reactivation of intravenou...

The Pohang Light Source (PLS) has operated for 14 years successfully. To meet the request of the increasing user community, the PLS-II that is the upgrade project of PLS has been completed. Main goals of the PLS-II are to increase beam energy to 3 GeV, to increase number of insertion devices by the factor of two (20 IDs), to increase beam current to 400 mA and to reduce beam emittance below 10 nm with existing PLS tunnel and injection system. The PLS-II had been commissioned over the six months. During commissioning, we achieved 14 insertion devices operation and top-up operation with 100 mA beam current and 5.8 nm beam emittance. In this paper, we report the experimental results from the PLS-II commissioning.

We constructed a neutron calibration facility based on a 300-mCi Am-Be source in conjunction with a search for weakly interacting massive particle candidates for dark matter. The facility is used to study the response of CsI(Tl) crystals to nuclear recoils induced by neutrons from the Am-Be source and comparing them with the response to electron recoils produced by Compton scattering of 662-keV γ-rays from a 137 Cs source. The measured results on pulse shape discrimination (PSD) between nuclear-and electron-recoil events are quantified in terms of quality factors. A comparison with our previous result from a neutron generator demonstrate the feasibility of performing calibrations of PSD measurements using neutrons from a Am-Be source.