The zinc-finger transcription factor Snail1 is inappropriately expressed in breast cancer and associated with poor prognosis. While interrogating human databases, we uncovered marked decreases in relapse-free survival of breast cancer patients expressing high Snail1 levels in tandem with wild-type, but not mutant, p53. Using a Snail1 conditional knockout model of mouse breast cancer that maintains wild-type p53, we find that Snail1 plays an essential role in tumour progression by controlling the expansion and activity of tumour-initiating cells in preneoplastic glands and established tumours, whereas it is not required for normal mammary development. Growth and survival of preneoplastic as well as neoplastic mammary epithelial cells is dependent on the formation of a Snail1/HDAC1/p53 tri-molecular complex that deacetylates active p53, thereby promoting its proteasomal degradation. Our findings identify Snail1 as a molecular bypass that suppresses the anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effects exerted by wild-type p53 in breast cancer.

Concurrent hearing and genetic screening of newborns is expected to play important roles not only in early detection and diagnosis of congenital deafness, which triggers intervention, but also in predicting late-onset and progressive hearing loss and identifying individuals who are at risk of drug-induced HL. Concurrent hearing and genetic screening in the whole newborn population in Beijing was launched in January 2012. This study included 180,469 infants born in Beijing between April 2013 and March 2014, with last followup on February 24, 2018. Hearing screening was performed using transiently evoked otoacoustic emission (TEOAE) and automated auditory brainstem response (AABR). For genetic testing, dried blood spots were collected and nine variants in four genes, GJB2, SLC26A4, mtDNA 12S rRNA, and GJB3, were screened using a DNA microarray platform. Of the 180,469 infants, 1,915 (1.061%) were referred bilaterally or unilaterally for hearing screening; 8,136 (4.508%) were positive for genetic screening (heterozygote, homozygote, or compound heterozygote and mtDNA homoplasmy or heteroplasmy), among whom 7,896 (4.375%) passed hearing screening. Forty (0.022%) infants carried two variants in GJB2 or SLC26A4 (homozygote or compound heterozygote) and 10 of those infants passed newborn hearing screening. In total, 409 (0.227%) infants carried the mtDNA 12S rRNA variant (m.1555A>G or m.1494C>T), and 405 of them passed newborn hearing screening. In this cohort study, 25% of infants with pathogenic combinations of GJB2 or SLC26A4 variants and 99% of infants with an m.1555A>G or m.1494C>T variant passed routine newborn hearing screening, indicating that concurrent screening provides a more comprehensive approach for management of congenital deafness and prevention of ototoxicity.

Recent interest in the control of bone metabolism has focused on a specialized subset of CD31 hi endomucin hi vessels, which are reported to couple angiogenesis with osteogenesis. However, the underlying mechanisms that link these processes together remain largely undefined. Here we show that the zinc-finger transcription factor ZEB1 is predominantly expressed in CD31 hi endomucin hi endothelium in human and mouse bone. Endothelial cellspecific deletion of ZEB1 in mice impairs CD31 hi endomucin hi vessel formation in the bone, resulting in reduced osteogenesis. Mechanistically, ZEB1 deletion reduces histone acetylation on Dll4 and Notch1 promoters, thereby epigenetically suppressing Notch signaling, a critical pathway that controls bone angiogenesis and osteogenesis. ZEB1 expression in skeletal endothelium declines in osteoporotic mice and humans. Administration of Zeb1-packaged liposomes in osteoporotic mice restores impaired Notch activity in skeletal endothelium, thereby promoting angiogenesis-dependent osteogenesis and ameliorating bone loss. Pharmacological reversal of the low ZEB1/Notch signaling may exert therapeutic benefit in osteoporotic patients by promoting angiogenesis-dependent bone formation.

Natural killer cells (NK cells) play an important role in innate immunity. NK cells recognize self and nonself depending on the balance of activating receptors and inhibitory receptors. After binding to their ligands, NK cell receptors trigger subsequent signaling conduction and then determine whether NK is activated or inhibited. Furthermore, NK cell response includes cytotoxicity and cytokine release, which is tightly related to the activation of NK cell-activating receptors and the inhibition of inhibitory receptors on the surfaces of NK cells. The expression and function of NK cell surface receptors also alter in virus infection, tumor, and autoimmune diseases and influence the occurrence and development of diseases. So, it is important to understand the mechanism of recognition between NK receptors and their ligands in pathological conditions and the signaling pathways of NK cell receptors. This review mainly summarizes the research progress on NK cell surface receptors and their signal pathways.

Hepatitis-associated aplastic anemia (HAAA) is a variant of severe aplastic anemia (SAA) in which bone marrow failure follows an acute attack of hepatitis. Its pathogenesis is poorly understood. We investigated the prevalence of HAAA among cases of newly diagnosed SAA presenting to our hospital between January 1998 and February 2013, and analyzed the clinical and immune characteristics of HAAA and non-hepatitis-associated SAA (non-HASAA) patients. The prevalence of HAAA among cases of SAA was 3.8% (36/949), and the majority of patients (33/36) were seronegative for a known hepatitis virus. Compared with non-HASAA patients, HAAA patients had a larger proportion of CD8+ T cells, a lower ratio of CD4+/CD8+ T cells, and a smaller proportion of CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells. There was no significant difference in peripheral blood count, bone marrow cellularity, or the number of blood transfusions received between HAAA and non-HASAA patients. HAAA patients had a higher early infection rate and more infection-related mortality in the first 2 years after diagnosis than non-HASAA patients, and their 2-year survival rate was lower. The results demonstrate that HAAA patients have a more severe T cell imbalance and a poorer prognosis than non-HASAA patients.

The gut microbiota of vertebrates play a crucial role in shaping the health of their hosts. However, knowledge of the avian intestinal microbiota has arguably lagged behind that of many other vertebrates. Here, we examine the intestinal bacterial communities of the hooded crane and the greater white-fronted goose at the Shengjin Lake of China, using high-throughput sequencing (Illumina Mi-Seq), and infer the potential pathogens associated with each species. Intestinal bacterial alpha-diversity in the greater white-fronted goose was significantly higher than that in hooded crane. The intestinal bacterial community compositions were significantly different between the two hosts, suggesting that host interactions with specific communities might have profound implications. In addition, potential pathogens were detected in both guts of the two hosts, suggesting that these wild birds might be at risk of disease and probably spread infectious disease to other sympatric vertebrates. The gut of hooded crane carried more potential pathogens than that of the greater white-fronted goose. The potentially pathogenic community compositions were also significantly different between the two hosts, suggesting the divergence of potentially pathogenic communities between hooded crane, and greater white-fronted goose. Finally, bacterial and potentially pathogenic structures showed strong evidence of phylogenic clustering in both hosts, further demonstrating that each host was associated with preferential and defined bacterial and potentially pathogenic communities. Our results argue that more attention should be paid to investigate avian intestinal pathogens which might increase disease risks for conspecifics and other mixed species, and even poultry and human beings.

The zinc finger transcription factor Snail is aberrantly activated in many human cancers and associated with poor prognosis. Therefore, targeting Snail is expected to exert therapeutic benefit in patients with cancer. However, Snail has traditionally been considered “undruggable,” and no effective pharmacological inhibitors have been identified. Here, we found a small-molecule compound CYD19 that forms a high-affinity interaction with the evolutionarily conserved arginine-174 pocket of Snail protein. In aggressive cancer cells, CYD19 binds to Snail and thus disrupts Snail’s interaction with CREB-binding protein (CBP)/p300, which consequently impairs CBP/p300-mediated Snail acetylation and then promotes its degradation through the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. Moreover, CYD19 restores Snail-dependent repression of wild-type p53, thus reducing tumor growth and survival in vitro and in vivo. In addition, CYD19 reverses Snail-mediated epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and impairs EMT-associated tumor invasion and metastasis. Our findings demonstrate that pharmacologically targeting Snail by CYD19 may exert potent therapeutic effects in patients with cancer.

We demonstrated here the growth-suppressing effects of sodium butyrate (NaB) on human endometrial and ovarian cancer cells. The arrest of cells at the G1 checkpoint accounted for this effect. NaB-mediated p21 might arrest endometrial and ovarian cancer cells at the G0/G1 phase by eliciting pRb unphosphorylation. To demonstrate the role of pRb regulation by p21, we measured the sensitivity to NaB of cervical cancer cells in which pRb had been inactivated by HPV E7. The cervical cancer cells displayed a sensitivity in NaB-mediated G2/M arrest in addition to their sensitivity in G0/G1 arrest. Arrest at G0/G1 and G2/M accompanied induction of senescence-like phenotypes (SLPs). Most importantly, the effect of NaB on senescence induction was not coupled with the predominance of hypophosphorylated pRb forms in the cervical cancer cells. This suggested that NaB had the potential to elicit SLPs through p21-mediated withdrawal from cell cycle progression. The consequences of p21 induction were manifold. The effects of NaB on gynecologic cancer cell growth indicated its potential use in cancer treatment. NaB was effective even in the cancer cells with mutant p53 and/or Rb genes by eliciting cell senescence.