Recently, a new spin-1/2 fermionic quantum field with mass dimension one in four dimensions-Elko field λ was introduced as a candidate of dark matter. In this paper, we investigate the localization of 5D Elko spinors on Minkowski branes by presenting the equation of the Elko KK modes. For the 5D free massless Elko field, the zero mode can be localized on Randall-Sundrum thin brane but can not be localized on the majority of thick branes. There do not exist bound massive KK modes on all these branes. If the 5D mass term is introduced, there will exist bound Elko zero mode in Randall-Sundrum brane model. And when we introduce the Yukawa type coupling ηφ 2 ¬ λ λ with φ the background scalar field, the Elko zero mode can be localized on some special thick branes with a particular coupling constant η. Nevertheless, the massive KK modes still can not be localized on these branes. These results are very different from that of the conventional Dirac spinor field and the scalar field.

Lung adenocarcinoma is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death worldwide. We showed transcriptomic profiles in three pairs of tumors and adjacent non-tumor lung tissues using next-generation sequencing (NGS) to screen protein-coding RNAs and microRNAs. Combined with meta-analysis from the Oncomine and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases, we identified a representative genetic expression signature in lung adenocarcinoma. There were 9 upregulated genes, and 8 downregulated genes in lung adenocarcinoma. The analysis of the effects from each gene expression on survival outcome indicated that 6 genes (AGR2, SPDEF, CDKN2A, CLDN3, SFN, and PHLDA2) play oncogenic roles, and 7 genes (PDK4, FMO2, CPED1, GNG11, IL33, BTNL9, and FABP4) act as tumor suppressors in lung adenocarcinoma. In addition, we also identified putative genetic interactions, in which there were 5 upregulated microRNAs with specific targets - hsa-miR-183-5p-BTNL9, hsa-miR-33b-5p-CPED1, hsa-miR-429-CPED1, hsa-miR-182-5p-FMO2, and hsa-miR-130b-5p-IL33. These 5 microRNAs have been shown to be associated with tumorigenesis in lung cancer. Our findings suggest that these genetic interactions play important roles in the progression of lung adenocarcinoma. We propose that this molecular change of genetic expression may represent a novel signature in lung adenocarcinoma, which may be developed for diagnostic and therapeutic strategies in the future.

The anticancer effects of ceramide have been reported in many types of cancers but less in lung cancer. In this study, we used C2-ceramide to further investigate its possible anticancer effects and mechanisms on non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) H1299 cells. The result of cell proliferation in terms of trypan blue assay showed high dose of C2-ceramide inhibited cell survival after 24 h treatment. The flow cytometry-based assays indicated the effect of apoptosis, chromatin condensation, and G1 arrest in terms of Annexin V/propidium iodide (PI), DAPI, and PI stainings, respectively. Moreover, the decreased protein level of p-Akt, p-NFκB, survivin and cyclin A2 were detected by Western blot assay. Taken together, these results indicated the antiproliferative effect of C2-ceramide is majorly responsible for cell apoptosis in lung cancer H1299 cells.

It is known that by introducing the Yukawa coupling between the fermion and the background scalar field, a bulk spin-half fermion can be localized on general Randall-Sundrum braneworlds generated by a kinklike background scalar. However, this localization mechanism does not work anymore for Randall-Sundrum braneworlds generated by a scalar whose configuration is an even function of the extra dimension. In this paper, we present a new localization mechanism for spin-half fermions for such a class of braneworld models, in which extra dimension has the topology $S^1/Z_2$. By two examples, it is shown that the new localization mechanism produces interesting results. In the first model with the brane generated by two scalars, the zero mode of the left-handed fermion is localized on the brane and there is a mass gap between the fermion zero mode and excited KK modes. In the second model with the brane generated by a dilaton scalar, the zero mode of the left- or right-chiral fermion can be localized on the brane and there is no mass gap.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure