Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) poses one of the serious health problems in southern Chinese, with an incidence rate ranging from 15 to 50/100,000. Chromosome translocation t(1;3) and frequent loss of heterogeneity on short arms of chromosome 3 and 9 have been reported to be associated with NPC, and a genome-wide scan identified an NPC susceptibility locus on chromosome 4p15.1-q12 recently. In our study, we collected samples from 18 families at high risk of NPC from the Hunan province in southern China, genotyped with a panel of polymorphic markers on short arms of chromosomes 3, 9, and 4p15.1-q12. A locus on 3p21 was identified to link to NPC with a maximum logarithm of odds for linkage score of 4.18. Fine mapping located the locus to a 13.6-cM region on 3p21.31-21.2, where a tumor suppressor gene cluster resided. Our findings identified a novel locus for NPC and provided a map location for susceptibility genes candidates. In contrast to a recent study, no significant evidence for NPC linkage to chromosomes 4 and 9 was observed.

AIM:To investigate possibility and clinical application of fecal calprotectin in determining disease activity of ulcerative colitis (UC). METHODS:The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to measure the concentrations of calprotectin in feces obtained from 66 patients with UC and 20 controls. C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), acid glycoprotein (AGP) were also measured and were compared with calprotectin in determining disease activity of UC. The disease activity of UC was also determined by the Sutherland criteria. RESULTS:The fecal calprotectin concentration in the patients with active UC was signifi cantly higher than that in the inactive UC and in the controls (402.16 ± 48.0 μg/g vs 35.93 ± 3.39 μg/g, 11.5 ± 3.42 μg/g, P < 0.01).The fecal calprotectin concentration in the inactive UC group was signifi cantly higher than that in the control group (P < 0.05). A signifi cant difference was also found in the patients with active UC of mild, moderate and severe degrees. The area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristics (AUC ROC ) was 0.975, 0.740, 0.692 and 0.737 for fecal calprotectin, CRP, ESR and AGP, respectively. There was a strong correlation between the fecal calprotectin concentration and the endoscopic gradings for UC (r = 0.866, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION:Calprotectin in the patient's feces can refl ect the disease activity of UC and can be used as a rational fecal marker for intestinal infl ammation in clinical practice. This kind of marker is relatively precise, simple and noninvasive when compared with other commonlyused markers such as CRP, ESR and AGP.

How mutations or dysfunction of CFTR may increase the risk of malignancies in various tissues remains an open question. Here we report the interaction between CFTR and an adherens junction molecule, AF-6/afadin, and its involvement in the development of colon cancer. We have found that CFTR and AF-6/afadin are co-localized at the cell-cell contacts and physically interact with each other in colon cancer cell lines. Knockdown of CFTR results in reduced epithelial tightness and enhanced malignancies, with increased degradation and reduced stability of AF-6/afadin protein. The enhanced invasive phenotype of CFTR-knockdown cells can be completely reversed by either AF-6/afadin over-expression or ERK inhibitor, indicating the involvement of AF-6/MAPK pathway. More interestingly, the expression levels of CFTR and AF-6/afadin are significantly downregulated in human colon cancer tissues and lower expression of CFTR and/or AF-6/afadin is correlated with poor prognosis of colon cancer patients. The present study has revealed a previously unrecognized interaction between CFTR and AF-6/afadin that is involved in the pathogenesis of colon cancer and indicated the potential of the two as novel markers of metastasis and prognostic predictors for human colon cancer.

Potential feedback: Metallic electrodes with controlled gap widths ranging from about 10 nm down to several angstroms (as determined by SEM measurements) can be fabricated electrochemically by using a simple potential feedback system with a unique electrode configuration (see picture). The working principle is based on the potential distribution in the electric double‐layer. The process is simple, controllable, and reproducible.

A facile one-step strategy for anchoring defective CoN single clusters on partly reduced graphene oxide (RGO) is constructed to significantly improve the catalytic performance of non-noble metal complexes toward oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Sequent loading with trace amounts of metal-free porphyrin and Co in RGO can dramatically enhance both the half-wave potential and the peak current density. Intriguingly, the RGO/P/2Co single cluster exhibits the best ORR catalytic performance with the half-wave potential of 0.834 V, extremely approaching that of commercial Pt/C (0.836 V). This half-wave potential surpasses most of the reported half-wave potentials of RGO supported non-noble metal ORR catalysts through low-temperature synthesis. Furthermore, the as-prepared RGO/P/2Co delivers a peak current density of 1.3 times higher than that of Pt/C at the same loading, together with a high mass activity of 2.76 A mg. During the durability test, a cathodic current loss less than 10% is recorded after 8000 continuous potential cycles. Insights into this successful example will be conducive to the development of elegant routes for constructing metal nitrogen (MN)-based ORR catalysts with high efficiency, outstanding stability, and excellent selectivity.