Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a malignant tumor associated with a genetic predisposition, Epstein-Barr virus infection and chromosomal abnormalities. Recently, several miRNAs have been shown to target specific mRNAs to regulate NPC development and progression. However, the involvement of miRNAs in processes leading to NPC migration and invasion remains to be elucidated. We predicted that miR-29a/b are associated with dysregulated genes controlling NPC through an integrated interaction network of miRNAs and genes. miR-29a/b over-expression in NPC cell lines had no significant effect on proliferation, whereas miR-29b mildly increased the percentage of cells in the G1 phase with a concomitant decrease in the percentage of cells in S phase. Furthermore, we demonstrated that miR-29a/b might be responsible for increasing S18 cell migration and invasion, and only COL3A1 was identified as a direct target of miR-29b despite the fact that both SPARC and COL3A1 were inhibited by miR-29a/b over-expression. Meanwhile, SPARC proteins were increased in metastatic NPC tissue and are involved in NPC progression. Unexpectedly, we identified that miRNA-29b expression was elevated in the serum of NPC patients with a high risk of metastasis. The 5-year actuarial overall survival rates in NPC patients with high serum miR-29b expression was significantly shorter than those with low serum miR-29b expression; therefore, serum miR-29b expression could be a promising prognostic marker.

Corneal epithelium expresses multiple neurotrophic factors, among which NGF and GDNF may play an important role in the corneal nerve regeneration.

Electrochemical degradation of bamboo lignin through electrocatalytic redox between Cu cathode and Pb/PbO 2 anode in sodium hydroxide solution was investigated in this work. Electrocatalytic performance of the electrode system was analyzed by cyclic voltammetry and cathodic polarization to validate that Cu and Pb/PbO 2 electrodes had a great ability of electrochemical oxidation and electrocatalytic hydrogenation (ECH) in lignin alkali solution. Through the electrocatalytic redox in the process, 24 kinds of products were detected by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and three of them (vanillin, syringaldehyde and p-coumaric acid) were detected with high yields by gas chromatograph (GC) with internal standard method. Effects of operating parameters, i. e., lignin concentration, current density and temperature, were also investigated to find the optimum degradation conditions at which the maximum yields of vanillin, syringaldehyde and pcoumaric acid could be obtained.

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