Background. As a common disease around the world, esophageal cancer (EC) primarily includes two subclasses: esophageal adenocarcinoma and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Mortality has been rising over the years; hence, exploring the mechanism of EC development has become critical. Among the alpha protein kinases, alpha protein kinase 2 (ALPK2) presumably has a connection with EC, but it has never been revealed before. Methods. In this study, IHC analysis was used for ALPK2 expression quantification in ES tissues. TE-1 and Eca-109, which are both human EC cell lines, were used for in vitro analysis of cell proliferation, migration, apoptosis, and colony formation. Results. ALPK2 was found to have an abundant expression within EC tissues ( P < 0.001 ), as well as in the two selected human EC cell lines ( P < 0.05 ). The data showed that ALPK2 depletion suppressed EC cell proliferation, migration, and colony formation, meanwhile stimulating apoptosis ( P < 0.001 ). The in vivo experiments also displayed inhibitory effects caused by ALPK2 depletion on EC tumorigenesis ( P < 0.001 ). It was further validated that ALPK2 depletion made the phosphorylation of Akt and mTOR, as well as CDK6 and PIK3CA levels downregulated ( P < 0.001 ). Mechanistically, we identified integrin alpha 11 (ITGA11) as a downstream gene of ALPK2 regulating EC. More importantly, we found that ITGA11 elevation promoted cell proliferation and migration and rescued the suppression effects caused by ALPK2 depletion ( P < 0.001 ). Conclusions. ALPK2 promotes esophageal cancer via integrin its downstream gene alpha 11; ALPK2 can potentially act as a target for the treatment of EC.
Background. Attitudes towards death are related to different social, cultural and religious backgrounds, including fear of death, anxiety and so on. Doctors are the people most likely to be exposed to death in their professional setting, and negative attitudes to death affect their level of care for dying patients. The COVID-19 pandemic is giving medical students a chance to think about death. The students of medical school are confronting death for the first time, but we know little about their attitudes toward death. Objective. To investigate the death view of medical students and its influencing factors and provide references for death education. Methods. An cross-sectional survey was conducted through a self-designed death attitude questionnaire among 1470 medical students in a medical university in Xinjiang, China. Pearson correlation and constituent ratio were used for statistical analysis. Results. 78.1% of medical students are full of fear of death; 77.0% of medical students could not talk about death openly and naturally in daily life. There were significant differences in the view of death among medical students of different gender (P = 0.002), nationality (P = 0.004), grade (P<0.001) and family environment (P = 0.007). About death education, 82.6% of medical students are willing to accept it, and the most accepted way of death education is the elective course of death education in schools (76.0%). Conclusion. The majority of medical students’ view of death still needs to be improved in China. In the post-epidemic era, it may be the best way to help medical students to establish a positive view of death by carrying out elective courses of death education.
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