No abstract

Etk, also named Bmx, is a member of the Tec tyrosine kinase family, which is characterized by a multimodular structure including a pleckstrin homology (PH) domain, an SH3 domain, an SH2 domain, and a catalytic domain. The signaling mechanisms regulating Etk kinase activity remain largely unknown. To identify factor(s) regulating Etk activity, we used the PH domain and a linker region of Etk as a bait for a yeast two-hybrid screen. Three independent clones encoding protein-tyrosine phosphatase D1 (PTPD1) fragments were isolated. The binding of PTPD1 to Etk is specific since PTPD1 cannot associate with either the Akt PH domain or lamin. In vitro and in vivo binding studies demonstrated that PTPD1 can interact with Etk and that residues 726 -848 of PTPD1 are essential for this interaction. Deletion analysis of Etk indicated that the PH domain is essential for PTPD1 interaction. Furthermore, the Etk-PTPD1 interaction stimulated the kinase activity of Etk, resulting in an increased phosphotyrosine content in both factors. The Etk-PTPD1 interaction also increased Stat3 activation. The effect of PTPD1 on Etk activation is specific since PTPD1 cannot potentiate Jak2 activity upon Stat3 activation. In addition, Tec (but not Btk) kinase can also be activated by PTPD1. Taken together, these findings indicate that PTPD1 can selectively associate with and stimulate Tec family kinases and modulate Stat3 activation.Tyrosine kinases play important roles in a variety of signaling cascades in many cell types. Tec tyrosine kinases, a new class of non-receptor tyrosine kinase, are an emerging family of proteins that are expressed in both hematopoietic and nonhematopoietic tissues. This family consists of the Btk (1, 2), Itk (3, 4), Tec (5), and Etk/Bmx (6, 7) tyrosine kinases with closely homologous structures that include an N-terminal pleckstrin homology (PH) 1 domain, followed by Tec homology (TH), SH3, SH2, and tyrosine kinase domains. These Tec kinases have been implicated in the signaling pathways of a variety of hematopoietic and antigen receptors. For instance, Btk has been found to be activated through B-cell receptor stimulation, the interleukin-5 receptor, gp130, and the mast cell Fc⑀ receptor (8 -12). Mutations in Btk are associated with the human disease X-linked agammaglobulinemia as well as murine X-linked immunodeficiency (1, 13). In both cases, B-cell signaling is defective, and B-cell development is blocked (14, 15). Likewise, Itk plays a central role in T-cell signaling. Itk knockout mice have reduced numbers of mature thymocytes and show alterations in T-cell antigen receptor signaling (16). Tec itself mainly participates in signaling pathways regulating myeloid growth and differentiation. In these cells, Tec is tyrosine-phosphorylated following cell stimulation by a variety of hematopoietic growth factors, such as interleukin-3, stem-cell factor, and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (17-22), as well as lymphocyte surface antigens, such as CD3, CD28, CD38, and CD72 (23). Etk, unlike other members of the Tec...

<b><i>Aims:</i></b> Recent studies indicate that in addition to the construction of nuclear pore complex, nucleoporin (NUP)107 is actively involved in the pathogenesis of numerous cancer types, but the role of NUP107 in cervical carcinoma cells remains unknown. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> We examined the expression of NUP107 in 30 cases of cervical carcinoma using quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and immunoblots. NUP107 stably overexpressing cell line was established to examine the function of NUP107 in cell viability, TUNEL assay, wound healing assay, 5-ethynyl-2’-deoxyuridine incorporation, and oxidative stress. <b><i>Results:</i></b> NUP107 expression was significantly increased in the cervical carcinoma tissues, compared with their corresponding adjacent normal tissues. Overexpression of NUP107 conferred the cervical cancer cells with significant resistance to oxidative insult, but it had no effects on the migration and proliferation. This pro-survival function of NUP107 was associated with the elevated expression of Bcl-2, the activation of Akt signaling, and increased expression of nucleocytoplasmic transport factors. Silencing of NUP107 increased the sensitivity of cervical cancer cells to oxidative challenge, thereby inducing the apoptosis of cervical cancer cells. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> NUP107 is significantly increased in cervical tissues and confers the cervical cancer cells with resistance to oxidative damage. These results provide an important role for specific NUP in mediating cervical cancer.

Cost control is becoming increasingly important in hospital management. Hospital operating rooms have high resource consumption because they are a major part of a hospital. Thus, the optimal use of operating rooms can lead to high resource savings. However, because of the uncertainty of the operation procedures, it is difficult to arrange for the use of operating rooms in advance. In general, the durations of both surgery and anesthesia emergence determine the time requirements of operating rooms, and these durations are difficult to predict. In this study, we used an artificial neural network to construct a surgery and anesthesia emergence duration-prediction system. We propose an intelligent data preprocessing algorithm to balance and enhance the training dataset automatically. The experimental results indicate that the prediction accuracies of the proposed serial prediction systems are acceptable in comparison to separate systems.

Experimental measurements conducted in the laboratory, involving hyperspectral analysis of water samples taken from public water resources, have motivated a re-evaluation of issues concerning the potential application of this type of analysis for water monitoring, treatment and evaluation prior to filtration. One issue concerns hyperspectral monitoring of contaminants with respect to types and relative concentrations. This implies a need to better understand the statistical profiles of water contaminants in terms of spatial-temporal distributions of electromagnetic absorption spectra ranging from the ultraviolet to infrared, which are associated with specific water resources. This issue also implies the need to establish correlations between hyperspectral signatures and types of contaminants to be found within specific water resources. Another issue concerns the use of absorption spectra to determine changes in chemical and physical characteristics of contaminants after application of water treatments, in order to determine levels of toxicity with respect to the environment. This paper presents a prototype spectral analysis showing various aspects relevant to water monitoring and discusses the use of basic theory for the interpretation of spectral features associated with water contaminants, as well as discussing inverse analysis of hyperspectral measurements.