Gastric Adenocarcinomas and Signet-Ring Cell Carcinoma: Unraveling Gastric Cancer Complexity through Microbiome Analysis—Deepening Heterogeneity for a Personalized Therapy

Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most prevalent cancer worldwide and the third leading cause of global cancer mortality. With the advances of the omic studies, a heterogeneous GC landscape has been revealed, with significant molecular diversity. Given the multifaceted nature of GC, identification of different patient subsets with prognostic and/or predictive outcomes is a key aspect to allow tailoring of specific treatments. Recently, the involvement of the microbiota in gastric carcinogenesis has been described. To deepen this aspect, we compared microbiota composition in signet-ring cell carcinoma (SRCC) and adenocarcinoma (ADC), two distinct GC subtypes. To this purpose, 10 ADC and 10 SRCC and their paired non-tumor (PNT) counterparts were evaluated for microbiota composition through 16S rRNA analysis. Weighted and unweighted UniFrac and Bray–Curtis dissimilarity showed significant community-level separation between ADC and SRCC. Through the LEfSe (linear discriminant analysis coupled with effect size) tool, we identified potential microbial biomarkers associated with GC subtypes. In particular, SRCCs were significantly enriched in the phyla Fusobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Patescibacteria, whereas in the ADC type, Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria phyla were found. Overall, our data add new insights into GC heterogeneity and may contribute to deepening the GC classification.     

Portrait of Cancer Stem Cells on Colorectal Cancer: Molecular Biomarkers,Signaling Pathways and miRNAome

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of cancer death worldwide, and about 20% is metastatic at diagnosis and untreatable. Increasing evidence suggests that the heterogeneous nature of CRC is related to colorectal cancer stem cells (CCSCs), a small cells population with stemness behaviors and responsible for tumor progression, recurrence, and therapy resistance. Growing knowledge of stem cells (SCs) biology has rapidly improved uncovering the molecular mechanisms and possible crosstalk/feedback loops between signaling pathways that directly influence intestinal homeostasis and tumorigenesis. The generation of CCSCs is probably connected to genetic changes in members of signaling pathways, which control self-renewal and pluripotency in SCs and then establish function and phenotype of CCSCs. Particularly, various deregulated CCSC-related miRNAs have been reported to modulate stemness features, controlling CCSCs functions such as regulation of cell cycle genes expression, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, metastasization, and drug-resistance mechanisms. Primarily, CCSC-related miRNAs work by regulating mainly signal pathways known to be involved in CCSCs biology. This review intends to summarize the epigenetic findings linked to miRNAome in the maintenance and regulation of CCSCs, including their relationships with different signaling pathways, which should help to identify specific diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive biomarkers for CRC, but also develop innovative CCSCs-targeted therapies.     

Synthesis and degradation of agar‐carbomer based hydrogels for tissue engineering applications

Hydrogels studied in this investigation, synthesized starting from agarose and Carbomer 974P, were chosen for their potential use in tissue engineering. The strong ability of hydrogels to mimic living tissues should be complemented with optimized degradation time profiles: a critical property for biomaterials but essential for the integration with target tissue. In this study, chosen hydrogels were characterized both from a rheological and a structural point of view before studying the chemistry of their degradation, which was performed by several analysis: infrared bond response [Fourier transform infrared (FT‐IR)], calorimetry [differential scanning Calorimetry (DSC)], and % mass loss. Degradation behaviors of Agar‐Carbomer hydrogels with different degrees of crosslinkers were evaluated monitoring peak shifts and thermal property changes. It was found that the amount of crosslinks heavily affect the time and the magnitude related to the process. The results indicate that the degradation rates of Agar‐Carbomer hydrogels can be controlled and tuned to adapt the hydrogel degradation kinetics for different cell housing and drug delivery applications. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011     

Perception of Host Plant Volatiles in Hyalesthes obsoletus: Behavior, Morphology, and Electrophysiology

The Palearctic planthopper Hyalesthes obsoletus is the natural vector of the grapevine yellow disease Bois noir. Grapevine is an occasional host plant of this polyphagous planthopper. To deepen our knowledge of the role of plant volatile organic compounds for H. obsoletus host plant searching, we carried out behavioral, morphological, and electrophysiological studies. We tested the attraction of H. obsoletus to nettle, field bindweed, hedge bindweed, chaste tree, and grapevine by using a Y-shaped olfactometer. The results showed a significant attraction of male H. obsoletus to chaste tree, and of the females to nettle. Male H. obsoletus were repelled by odor from hedge bindweed. Ultrastructural studies of the antennae showed at least two types of olfactory sensilla at the antennal pedicel: plaque organs and trichoid sensilla. Volatile organic compounds from nettle and chaste tree were collected, and the extracts were analyzed by coupling gas-chromatography to both mass-spectrometry and electroantennography. The volatile organic compounds that elicited electrophysiological responses in male and female antennae were identified. These findings are discussed with respect to behavior of H. obsoletus males and females in the field.     

Study of the effect of mechanically treated CeO2 and SiO2 pigments on the corrosion protection of painted galvanized steel

The effectiveness of mechanically treated CeO₂ particles and SiO₂ particles as active fillers into an organic coating was investigated. For this purpose, different combinations of CeO₂ and SiO₂ particles were added to an epoxy-polyester polymeric matrix: mechanically treated CeO₂ particles, mechanically treated CeO₂/SiO₂ particles and mechanically treated SiO₂ powders (used for comparison). The particles were dispersed into the polymeric matrix and HDG steel panels were coated with the different paints. A strontium chromates containing paint was used as a reference to compare the performances of the other samples. The salt spray results proved the good performance of coatings containing combinations of ceria and silica especially where these had been mechanically treated in a co-milling operation. The paint containing only the mechanically treated SiO₂ particles showed a fairly good resistance in the salt spray chamber considering the scratched samples. The EIS measurements evidenced the good corrosion protection properties of the paints containing the different combinations of mechanically treated CeO₂ and SiO₂ particles. After about 1000 h of immersion in 0.1 M NaCl solution, the samples containing the mix of mechanically treated CeO₂/SiO₂ particles showed impedance values which were comparable with the chromate control sample. The cathodic polarization tests evidenced the low extent of detachment of the coating containing the mix of mechanically treated CeO₂/SiO₂ particles. The electrochemical characterization and neutral salt spray test results proved the effectiveness of the mechanical treated cerium (IV) oxides treated together with SiO₂ as active pigments to improve the corrosion protection of the substrate. The reasons for the synergistic effect of the milled (together or separately) SiO₂ and CeO₂ particles was not clear at all, but a few hypothesis were discussed.     

Nanodiamond-mediated crystallization in fibers of PANI nanocomposites produced by template-free polymerization: Conductive and thermal properties of the fibrillar networks

The detonation nanodiamond is a novel versatile nanomaterial with tunable properties and surface chemistry. In this work, we report on a template-free method to synthesize polyaniline based nanocomposite fibers during a chemical oxidative precipitation polymerization where the cooperative interactions between nanodiamond and polyaniline nucleates trigger the final morphology of the nanocomposite. FE–SEM and TEM observations evidence the prominent growth of fibril-like structures assembled in 2-D networks of tightly woven, partially oriented fibers. Optical and Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analyses reveal that the polymer chains are in a protonated emeraldine form and organize themselves in a highly ordered 3-D spatial arrangement. Conductivity measurements performed on isolated fibers by a conductive tip of an AFM apparatus highlight that the diamond filler does not affect the conductive properties of the polyaniline matrix while increases the thermal stability of the polymer as confirmed by TGA studies.     

Submicron machining and biomolecule immobilization on porous silicon by electron beam

Three-dimensional submicrometric structures and biomolecular patterns have been fabricated on a porous silicon film by an electron beam-based functionalization method. The immobilized proteins act as a passivation layer against material corrosion in aqueous solutions. The effects'' dependence on the main parameters of the process (i.e., the electron beam dose, the biomolecule concentration, and the incubation time) has been demonstrated.     

Optical properties of hybrid T3Pyr/SiO2/3C-SiC nanowires

A new class of nanostructured hybrid materials is developed by direct grafting of a model thiophene-based organic dye on the surface of 3C-SiC/SiO₂ core/shell nanowires. TEM-EDX analysis reveals that the carbon distribution is more spread than it would be, considering only the SiC core size, suggesting a main contribution from C of the oligothiophene framework. Further, the sulfur signal found along the treated wires is not detected in the as-grown samples. In addition, the fluorescent spectra are similar for the functionalized nanostructures and T3Pyr in solution, confirming homogeneous molecule grafting on the nanowire surface. Chemical and luminescence characterizations confirm a homogeneous functionalization of the nanowires. In particular, the fluorophore retains its optical properties after functionalization.     

Fluoro-functionalized PLA polymers as potential water-repellent coating materials for protection of stone

A series of sixteen fluoro-functionalized poly(lactic acid)s were synthesised using two commercial fluorinated alcohols [3,3,4,4,5,5,6,6,7,7,8,8,8-tridecafluoro-1-octanol and 4-(3,3,4,4,5,5,6,6,7,7,8,8,8-tridecafluorooctyl)benzyl alcohol] as co-initiators in the ring-opening polymerization of L-lactide and rac-lactide (the racemic mixture of L- and D-lactide) catalyzed by Tin(II) 2-ethylhexanoate. The polymers were characterized by NMR, IR, GPC, DSC and tested as potential protective coating for stone. The performances were comparatively evaluated in terms of water protection efficacy and colour changes of the treated stone. Furthermore, the photo-stability of nine selected polymers under Solar Box condition was also investigated. It has been shown that the presence of fluorine makes the stone more water-repellent. The polymers showed also interesting photo-stability and some of them provided a behavior close to PLA-FLK-PLA block copolymers recently reported in the literature, in spite of their lower fluorine content © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012