Biomedicines

Alcohol-related liver disease (ALD) is a major cause of mortality and disability adjusted life years. It is not fully understood why a small proportion of patients develop progressive forms of ALD (e.g. fibrosis, cirrhosis). Differences in the metabolic processes could be behind the individual progression of ALD. Our aim was to examine differences in serum metabolome between patients with non-progressive ALD and patients with an early form of progressive ALD. The study had three study groups: p...

ObjectiveCircular RNA(circRNA) is a kind of endogenous non-coding RNA, which may be related to the occurrence and development of cancer. Based on the GEO database, this paper constructs a circRNA as a competitive endogenous RNAs(ceRNAs) that binds with microRNAs (miRNAs) to affect and regulate the expression of target genes. The ceRNA regulatory network based on circRNA-miRNA-mRNA model plays an important role in tumor prognosis and treatment. This paper explores the mechanism of circRNA-related...

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy with cisplatin + 5-fluorouracil followed by radical surgery is the standard treatment for stage II and III esophageal cancers. Although, a more potent regimen comprising cisplatin + 5-fluorouracil with docetaxel, has shown superiority in overall survival compared to the cisplatin + 5-fluorouracil regimen, it involves worsening of Grade 3 or higher adverse events due to docetaxel. Based on these reports, this study aimed to construct a prognostic system for cisplatin + 5-...

BackgroundEndogenous ethanol (EtOH) production is an emerging pathophysiological mechanism involved in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH). Therefore, characterizing EtOH-producing species enriched in patients with liver disease could help identify putative pathobionts and potential therapeutic treatments. MethodsWe investigated EtOH production and tolerance, antimicrobial susceptibility and antimicrobial resistance gene(s) in 33 strains enriched in MASH, alcoholic hepatitis...

ObjectiveThis study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of plasma methylated SEPT9 (mSEPT9) gene combined with carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen 199 (CA199), fecal occult blood test (FOBT), red blood cell distribution width (RDW), and inflammation-related indices from complete blood count (CBC) for colorectal cancer (CRC). MethodsA prospective study was conducted on 188 patients pathologically diagnosed with CRC (CRC group) and 693 control subjects with gastrointesti...

BackgroundColorectal cancer (CRC) remains a major global health concern, with significant morbidity and mortality rates. Identifying reliable prognostic indicators is essential for optimizing risk stratification and guiding clinical management. In this study, we aimed to develop a comprehensive blood indicator based on systemic inflammation and nutritional condition to predict the prognosis of resectable CRC patients. MethodsA retrospective cohort of 210 CRC patients who underwent radical resec...

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), a type of nematode, is a common cause of chronic stomach infection around the world. In 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that H. pylori infection is a leading cause of gastric cancer (80%) worldwide and has specific carcinogenic factors. H. pylori infection is presumed to be the cause of gastric cancer in more than 98% of gastric cancer patients in East Asia, including Japan. However, only some types of gastric cancers are associated with H. pyl...

ObjectiveTo explore the application value of dual-staining for specific AT sequence binding protein 2 (SATB2) immunohistochemistry and elastic lamina in detecting elastic lamina invasion (ELI) in pT3 colon cancer, and to assess its association with clinicopathological characteristics, staging, and prognosis. MethodsThis retrospective cohort study enrolled 176 pT3 colon cancer patients who underwent radical resection at Affiliated Jinhua Hospital Zhejiang University School of Medicine. The deepe...

A newly identified novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has caused numerous acute respiratory syndrome cases in Wuhan China from December 2019 to Feb 2020. Its fast spreading to other provinces in China and overseas is very likely causing a pandemic. Since the novel coronavirus has been reported to be capable of endangering thousands of lives, it is extremely important to find out how the coronavirus is transmitted in human organs. Apart from fever and respiratory complications, gastrointestinal sympto...

Background and aimsAlcohol-associated hepatitis (AH) is the most life-threatening form of alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD). AH is characterized by severe inflammation attributed to increased levels of ethanol, microbes or microbial components, and damage-associated molecular pattern (DAMP) molecules in the liver. HSPB1 (Heat Shock Protein Family B (Small) Member 1; also known as Hsp25/27) is a DAMP that is rapidly increased in and released from cells experiencing stress, including hepatocy...

Messenger RNA (mRNA) stool based biomarkers represent a promising approach for the diagnosis of colorectal cancer (CRC) and advanced precancerous lesions (AA). But it is unclear which mRNA biomarkers have the most clinical utility. This study aims to partially fill this gap by performing an analysis which first ranks genes based on their expression profile in RNA-seq tissue datasets. The diagnostic performance of the top 20 ranked genes was then tested using 113 clinical samples (CRC N=33, AA N...

Background & AimsAlterations in the glycosylation of blood proteins affect protein functionality and have been linked to various diseases. Metabolic dysfunction- associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is a silent disease, of which progression to advanced disease stages including metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), fibrosis and cirrhosis often goes unnoticed. As current non- invasive diagnostic tests lack specificity, the purpose of this work was to study total blood prot...

BackgroundIt has been reported that loss of PCBP2 led to increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and accelerated cell aging. Knockdown of PCBP2 in HCT116 cells leads to significant down-regulation of fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2). Here, we tried to elucidate the intrinsic factors and potential mechanisms of BMSCs aging from the interactions among PCBP2, ROS and FGF2. MethodsUnlabeled quantitative proteomics were performed to show differentially expressed proteins in the replicati...

BackgroundChronic excessive alcohol consumption leads to a spectrum of alcohol-associated liver diseases (ALD), including alcoholic hepatitis (AH). AH is characterized by intense systemic and liver inflammation, posing significant risks of health complications and mortality. While inflammation is a crucial defense mechanism against injury and infection, its timely resolution is essential to prevent tissue damage and restore tissue homeostasis. The resolution of inflammation is an actively regula...

Background and AimLymphatic vessels (LVs) are crucial for maintaining abdominal fluid homeostasis and immunity. In liver cirrhosis, mesenteric LVs (mLVs) are dilated and dysfunctional. Given an established protective role of VEGF-C in LVs, we hypothesized that VEGF-C treatment could improve functions of mLVs in cirrhosis. MethodIn this study, we developed a nanoformulation comprising LV-specific growth-factor, recombinant human VEGF-C(Cys156Ser) protein(E-VEGF-C) and delivered it orally in rat ...

Alcohol-related hepatitis (AH) is plagued with high mortality and difficulty in identifying at-risk patients. The extracellular matrix undergoes significant remodeling during inflammatory liver injury that can be detected in biological fluids and potentially used for mortality prediction. EDTA plasma samples were collected from AH patients (n= 62); Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score defined AH severity as moderate (12-20; n=28) and severe (>20; n=34). The peptidome data was collected...

Background and AimsSevere alcoholic hepatitis (SAH) has a high mortality and corticosteroid therapy is effective in 60% patients. Reliable indicators of response to therapy and mortality in SAH are needed. A total of 223 SAH patients, 70 in derivative [50 responders (R) and 20 non-responders (NR)] and 153 in validation cohort [136R, 17NR] were subjected to plasma metabolic/meta-proteomic analysis using UHPLC-HRMS and validated using Machine-Learning (ML). Temporal metabolic changes were assessed...

Background and aimsAlcohol disturbs hepatic lipid synthesis and transport, but the role of lipid dysfunction in the severity of alcohol-related liver disease (ALD) is unclear. We therefore characterised the liver and plasma lipidome in a biopsy-controlled cohort of patients with early ALD. MethodsWe performed ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry for lipidomics of the liver and plasma from 315 patients, and of plasma from 51 healthy controls ma...

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a prevalent condition strongly linked to obesity, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. Its global incidence is steadily increasing, placing a significant health burden on both patients and society. Despite existing treatments, such as lifestyle changes and medications, the lack of effective biomarkers and therapeutic strategies leaves many patients at risk for disease progression. This study aims to identify ferroptosis-related differentially expressed g...

Chronic inflammation by infiltrating immune cells promotes colitis-associated dysplasia/colitic cancer in ulcerative colitis (UC) via activating inflammatory cytokine signalling (IL-6/p-STAT3 and TNF/NF-{kappa}B). Mucosal addressin cell adhesion molecule-1 (MAdCAM-1) is a cell adhesion molecule expressed on high endothelial venules that promote immune cell migration from the bloodstream to the gut. MAdCAM-1 targeting strategy is attracting attention as a novel therapeutic option for UC. However,...