Tetra- and pentanucleotide short tandem repeat instability in gastric cancer

The association between genetic instability in repetitive DNA domains and cancer has been reported in different types of malignancies. In this work we perform a comparative study of 29 gastric tumors with paired normal tissue using seven tetra-(FES/FPS, VWA31/A, HTPO, TH01, MBPB) and pentanucleotide (CD4, TP53) STR polymorphic markers regarding loss of heterozygosity and replication error status. Furthermore, we compare the gene frequencies obtained in normal tissue from patients with those of a normal control population from the same area, looking for allele associations between any of these polymorphic loci and gastric cancer risk. The results have shown that FES/FPS and TP53 present the higher rates of somatic instability. The observed results for TP53 are in accordance with those previously reported in gastric carcinogenesis, while instability of FES/FPS is for the first time reported in this tumor type. Our data suggest that different loci show different rates of instability and/or loss of heterozygosity and do not seem to consist of a result of an RER+ phenotype affecting several genomic repetitive domains. Furthermore, the instability in markers TH01, MBPB, TP53, and FES was generally detected in genotypes involving alleles with a high number of repeats. Comparing gene frequencies in patients and normal controls, no significant differences were found, although longer alleles are consistently more frequent in patients for the markers MBPB, TH01, and CD4.     

Rosmarinic acid,scutellarein 4′-methyl ether 7-O-glucuronide and (16S)-coleon E are the main compounds responsible for the antiacetylcholinesterase and antioxidant activity in herbal tea of Plectranthus barbatus (“falso boldo”)

Plectranthus barbatus, known as “falso boldo” in Brazil, is used in herbal tea or cooked as a vegetable. Infusions and decoctions of leaves from P. barbatus were analysed for their inhibition of acetylcholinesterase and their antioxidant activity. The decoction showed high inhibition activity (31% inhibition with 0.5 mg of extract/ml) and also high antioxidant activity (IC₅₀ = 45.8 ± 0.5 μg of dry extract/ml in the DPPH test; IC₅₀ = 69.8 ± 3.1 μg of dry extract/ml in the β-carotene–linoleic acid test). Rosmarinic acid, scutellarein 4′-methyl ether 7-O-glucuronide and (16S)-coleon E were the main constituents identified. These compounds have antiacetylcholinesterase activity. Rosmarinic acid and the scutellarein derivative have IC₅₀ = 440 μg/ml and 1 mg/ml, respectively. One milligram per millilitre of (16S)-coleon E showed 61% inhibition of the enzyme. Other Plectranthus species, P. ecklonii, P. fructicosus, P. lanuginosus and P. verticillatus, were also analysed and the results obtained correlated with the content in rosmarinic acid.     

Well-data-based prediction of productivity decline due to sulphate scaling

Sulphate scaling can have a disastrous impact on oil production in waterflood projects with incompatible injected and formation waters. This is due to precipitation of barium/strontium sulphate from the mixture of both waters and the consequent permeability reduction resulting in loss of well productivity.The system where sulphate scaling damage occurs is determined by two governing parameters: the kinetics coefficient characterising the velocity of chemical reaction and the formation damage coefficient reflecting permeability decrease due to salt precipitation.Previous work has derived an analytical model-based method for determination of two coefficients from laboratory corefloods during quasi-steady state commingled flow of injected and formation waters. The current study extends the method for determination of kinetics and formation damage coefficients from production well data consisting of barium concentrations in the produced water and of well productivity decline.We analyse production data for five wells from giant offshore field A, submitted to seawater flooding (Campos Basin, Brazil), and obtain values of the two sulphate scaling damage parameters. The two coefficient values were used for prediction of productivity decline for these wells. The values of kinetics and formation damage coefficients as obtained from either laboratory or field data vary in the same range intervals. These results validate the proposed mathematical model for sulphate scaling damage and the analytical model-based method “from lab and wells to wells”.     

Fermented soy product supplemented with isoflavones affects adipose tissue in a regional-specific manner and improves HDL-cholesterol in rats fed on a cholesterol-enriched diet

It has been proposed that isoflavones and probiotics possess specific biological activities that enable them to affect lipid metabolism. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a soy product fermented with Enterococcus faecium and Lactobacillus jugurti and supplemented with isoflavones on the plasma lipid and glucose profiles, and on the retroperitoneal (RET) and epididymal (EPI) adipose tissue adipocyte areas in juvenile rats. Male Wistar rats were subjected to 6-week experimental diets: (1) cholesterol-enriched diet (rat chow) plus fermented soy product supplemented with isoflavones, (2) cholesterol-enriched diet plus unfermented placebo, (3) cholesterol-enriched diet plus placebo supplemented with isoflavones, (4) standard diet (rat chow), or (5) cholesterol-enriched diet. Soy products affected adipose tissue in a regional-specific manner and may be responsible for the observed increase in RET adipocyte area (μ²): (1) 12757.00 ± 286.25; (2) 13269.00 ± 326.87 or (3) 13050.00 ± 226.85 versus (4) 8714.92 ± 262.41 or (5) 8892.70 ± 131.79 or decrease in EPI adipocyte area (μ²): (1) 7759.00 ± 108.89 and (2) 7481.90 ± 111.21 compared with the control group (4) 8346.60 ± 158.89. The effect on epididymal adipose tissue was probably due to isoflavones. Probiotics significantly raised the plasma level of HDL cholesterol. Fermented soy product supplemented with isoflavones did not promote changes in the glucose and triglyceride plasma levels. This product may offer a new approach for improving or preventing lipid metabolism abnormalities by decreasing visceral adipocyte area, adjusting cholesterol-mediated loss of RET adipose tissue (lipoatrophy), and increasing the HDL cholesterol plasma level.     

Encapsulation of α-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid into a NaY zeolite

The faujasite zeolite structure was studied to investigate its suitability for development of new drug delivery systems (DDS). The sodium form (NaY) of the zeolite was used for encapsulation of α-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid (CHC), an experimental anticancer drug used in colorectal cancer therapy. The DDS was prepared by diffusion in liquid phase of CHC as a guest in the void space of the host zeolite structure at pH 7.0. The molecular integrity of CHC in the encapsulation process was evaluated by proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (¹H NMR) and Ultraviolet–Visible spectroscopy (UV–Vis). The new drug delivery system, CHC@NaY, was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and UV–Vis, chemical analysis, powder X-ray diffraction, and Scanning electron microscopy. Analysis of the data of the drug alone and encapsulated in NaY show that CHC and the zeolite framework preserved their original structure. The effect of the zeolite and DDS on HCT-15 human colon carcinoma cell line viability was evaluated. The encapsulation of CHC significantly increased its potency.     

Alterations of C‐MYC,NKX3.1, and E‐cadherin expression in canine prostate carcinogenesis

The dog (canis lupus familiaris) is the only other species besides humans that develop spontaneous prostatic carcinomas (PCa) at a high frequency. The canine model is primarily utilized for the study of the PCa molecular mechanisms and provides a natural animal model for the study of potential therapies. In humans, the PCa frequently exhibits mutations in the C‐MYC and a reduced expression of the E‐cadherin and NKX3.1 proteins. This study's objective was to evaluate the NKX3.1, C‐MYC, and E‐cadherin expression in the canine normal prostate, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), proliferative inflammatory atrophy (PIA) and PCa and to verify differences in expression and subcellular localization of these proteins in the prostatic carcinogenesis. A tissue microarray (TMA) slide was constructed, and immunohistochemistry with antibodies raised against C‐MYC, NKX3.1, E‐cadherin and p63 was performed using the peroxidase and DAB methods. The C‐MYC protein expression was elevated in the cytoplasm and nuclei of the canine PCa and PIA compared with the normal prostate (P = 0.004. The NKX3.1 protein expression was reduced in 94.75% of the PCa and 100% of the PIA compared with the normal prostate (P = 0.0022). In fact, the expression of E‐cadherin trended towards a decrease in carcinomas when compared to normal prostate and PIA. By immunohistochemistry, more p63‐positive basal cells were observed in the PCa and PIA when compared with the normal prostate (P = 0.0002). This study has demonstrated that the carcinogenesis of canine prostatic tissue may be related to basal cell proliferation, the gain of C‐MYC function and the loss of NKX3.1 protein expression. Microsc. Res. Tech. 76:1250–1256, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A comparison of research data management platforms: architecture,flexible metadata and interoperability

Universal Access in the Information Society - Research data management is rapidly becoming a regular concern for researchers, and institutions need to provide them with platforms to support data...     

Antiacetylcholinesterase and antioxidant activities of Plectranthus barbatus tea,after in vitro gastrointestinal metabolism

This study describes the in vitro metabolism, by the gastrointestinal tract, together with the biological activity of the herbal tea obtained from Plectranthus barbatus leaves. The results showed that there was no appreciable degradation and that the activity was kept constant after gastric juice digestion. In the presence of pancreatic juice, degradations varied from negligible, in the case of flavonoid glucuronides, to almost complete, in the case of the abietane diterpenoid. The digested decoction contained only 50% of its initial biological activity, after pancreatic digestion. The action of Caco-2 cells on the extract revealed that neither rosmarinic acid, the main compound of the extract, nor the other components present in minute quantities were metabolised by the intact cells. Rosmarinic acid could be found inside Caco-2 cells although in trace amount. Glucoronidase from Escherichia coli, a gut bacterium, was able to hydrolyse the flavonoid derivatives, thus the aglycones were formed and permeate the Caco-2 cells.     

Electronic structure and quantum transport properties of trilayers formed from graphene and boron nitride

We report the results of a theoretical study of graphene/BN/graphene and BN/graphene/BN trilayers using the van-der-Waals-corrected density functional theory in conjunction with the non-equilibrium Green's Function method. These trilayer systems formed from graphene and BN exhibit distinct stacking-dependent features in their ground state electronic structure and response to an applied electric field perpendicular to the trilayer planes. The graphene/BN/graphene system shows a negligible gap in the electronic band structure that increases for the AAA and ABA stackings under an external electric field, while the zero-field band gap of BN/graphene/BN remains unaffected by the electric field. When both types of trilayer systems are contacted with gold electrodes, a metal-like conduction is predicted in the low-field regime, which changes to a p-type conduction with an increase in the applied perpendicular bias field.     

Hierarchical scheduling of continuous casters and hot strip mills in the steel industry: a block planning application

This work addresses the joint scheduling of continuous caster and hot strip mill processes in the steel industry. Traditionally, slab yards are used to decouple these two stages. However, the rising importance of energy costs and reduced logistic effort gives motivation for a combined scheduling. For each of the processes, a mixed-integer linear optimisation model based on the block planning principle is presented. This approach develops production schedules that take technological sequences of steel grades and milling programmes into account. We consider the integrated steel plant of an international steel company as a case study. Numerical results demonstrate the practicability of this approach under experimental conditions, which reflect typical settings from an industrial application in the steel industry.