There is a significant correlation between the degree of tumor differentiation and the survival of patients with gastric cancers. In this report, we compared proteomic differences between poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma tissues and welldifferentiated gastric adenocarcinoma tissues in order to identify differentiation-related proteins that may be closely correlated with differentiation of gastric cancer pathogenesis. We identified 7 proteins, of which calreticulin precursor, tapasinERP57 heterodimer, pyruvate kinase isozymes M1/M2 isoform M2, class Pi glutathione S-transferase, and chain A crystal structure of human enolase 1 were upregulated in poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma compared with well-differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma, while myosin-11 isoform SM2A and actin alpha cardiac were downregulated. Two of them, pyruvate kinase isozymes M1/M2 isoform M2 and enolase 1 are enzymes involved in glycolytic pathway. The upregulation of pyruvate kinase isozymes M1/M2 isoform M2 and enolase 1 in poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma was confirmed by Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. Furthermore, we observed 107 cases with gastric adenocarcinoma and found that the high expression of pyruvate kinase isozymes M1/M2 isoform M2 and enolase 1 correlates with tumor size (P ¼ .0001 and P ¼ .0017, respectively), depth of invasion (P ¼ .0024 and P ¼ .0261, respectively), and poor prognosis of patients. In conclusion, with this proteomic analysis, pyruvate kinase isozymes M1/M2 isoform M2 and enolase 1 were identified upregulated in poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma comparing with well-differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma. The expression level of pyruvate kinase isozymes M1/M2 isoform M2 and enolase 1 was significantly correlated with overall survival. Some of them would be differentiation-related cancer biomarkers and are associated with tumor metastasis, invasion, and prognosis.

Podophyllotoxin is a well known anti-tumor chemical, but because of its strong side effects much effort has been paid to reduce cytotoxicity by modifying its structure. Here, we evaluate the anti-tumor activity of a new isolated derivative of podophyllotoxin, 4'-demethyl-4-dehydroxy-4-seleno-phenyl-beta-peltatin-epipodophyllotoxin (CPZ) and find that CPZ can suppress the proliferation of human hepatoma SMMC-7721 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Phase-contrast microscope observation and flow cytometric analysis through PI stains showed that the reagents have strong inhibition of SMMC-7721 cell growth, as the cells were blocked in the G2/M period. Cell apoptosis induced by CPZ was further confirmed by staining with M30 Cytodeath antibody. Rh123 label testing revealed that the mitochondrial membrane potential had been decreased by CPZ treatment. Under the stress of CPZ, cytochrome c was secreted into the cytoplasm by mitochondria, and Bax in cytoplasm was translocated into the mitochondrial membrane. These results suggest that CPZ-induced apoptosis may work through a Bax-dependent pathway.

Differentially expressed proteins between cervical cancer tissues pre- and post-NAC with TP were identified by comparative proteomic approach. The NAC therapy with TP down-regulated proteins involved in energy production (glycolytic enzymes) and chaperones but up-regulated proteins involved in apoptosis. These findings shed new light on biomarkers associated with effect of chemotherapy.

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<p>Natural mineral dust and intensive anthropogenic emissions and its complex mixing processes during transport result in great impacts on regional environmental quality and climate in East Asia. However, the morphology change and hygroscopicity of East Asian dust particles owing to coating anthropogenic pollutants are still statistically poorly understood. In this study, the statistically significant morphology change and hygroscopic growth of East Asian dust particles in a real atmosphere were firstly evaluated by combining CALIOP lidar measurements and relative humidity (RH) derived from the MERRA-2 during the past ten years (2007-2016). Our statistical results indicate that the optical properties of East Asian dust aerosol have significant region inhomogeneity and trend to be smaller in particle size and regular in shape during transport away from the source area. The dust particle irregularities and extinction coefficient were significantly decreasing and increasing with increasing ambient RH, respectively.The irregularity declining rate of mineral dust tended to slow down from source region (-0.89) to transport region with intensive anthropogenic emissions (-0.14). The strong positive linear correlation between dust extinction coefficient and relative humidity demonstrate the dust aerosol’s hygroscopic growth. It is attributed as a result of possible saline component and coating anthropogenic pollutants. The stronger hygroscopic growth of dust aerosol in the lower atmosphere has also been found. These results improve our understanding on the hygroscopicity of East Asian dust aerosol. Dust particles coating with anthropogenic pollution have a great ability of acting cloud condensation nucleus (CCN) in the lower atmosphere, which will affect the cloud microphysical processes and even climate effect.</p>