Hepatoblastoma (HB) is the most common liver tumor in the pediatric population, with typically poor outcomes for advanced-stage or chemotherapy-refractory HB patients. The objective of this study was to identify genes involved in HB pathogenesis via microarray analysis and subsequent experimental validation. We identified 856 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between HB and normal liver tissue based on two publicly available microarray datasets (GSE131329 and GSE75271) after data merging and batch effect correction. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis and weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) were conducted to explore HB-related critical modules and hub genes. Subsequently, Gene Ontology (GO) analysis was used to reveal critical biological functions in the initiation and progression of HB. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis showed that genes involved in cell cycle phase transition and the PI3K/AKT signaling were associated with HB. The intersection of hub genes identified by both PPI and WGCNA analyses revealed five potential candidate genes. Based on receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and reports in the literature, we selected CCNA2, CDK1, and CDC20 as key genes of interest to validate experimentally. CCNA2, CDK1, or CDC20 small interfering RNA (siRNA) knockdown inhibited aggressive biological properties of both HepG2 and HuH-6 cell lines in vitro. In conclusion, we identified CCNA2, CDK1, and CDC20 as new potential therapeutic biomarkers for HB, providing novel insights into important and viable targets in future HB treatment.
  Increasing pieces of evidence suggest that abnormal brain connectivity plays an important role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. As an essential strategy in psychiatric neuroscience, the research of brain connectivity-based neuroimaging biomarkers has gained increasing attention. Most of previous studies focused on a single modality of the brain connectomics. Multimodal evidence will not only depict the full profile of the brain abnormalities of patients but also contribute to our understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms of this disease.
 
  In the current study, 99 schizophrenia patients, 69 sex- and education-matched healthy controls, and 42 unaffected first-degree relatives of patients were recruited and scanned. The brain was parcellated into 246 regions and multimodal network analyses were used to construct brain connectivity networks for each participant.
 
  Using the brain connectomics from three modalities as the features, the multi-kernel support vector machine method yielded high discrimination accuracies for schizophrenia patients (94.86%) and for the first-degree relatives (95.33%) from healthy controls. Using an independent sample (49 patients and 122 healthy controls), we tested the model and achieved a classification accuracy of 64.57%. The convergent pattern within the basal ganglia and thalamus-cortex circuit exhibited high discriminative power during classification. Furthermore, substantial overlaps of the brain connectivity abnormality between patients and the unaffected first-degree relatives were observed compared to healthy controls.
 
  The current findings demonstrate that decreased functional communications between the basal ganglia, thalamus, and the prefrontal cortex could serve as biomarkers and endophenotypes for schizophrenia.
 The current findings demonstrate that decreased functional communications between the basal ganglia, thalamus, and the prefrontal cortex could serve as biomarkers and endophenotypes for schizophrenia.The NLRP3 inflammasome represents a critical inflammatory machinery driving pathology in many acute (e. g., myocardial infarction or stroke) and chronic (Alzheimer's disease, atherosclerosis) human disorders linked to the activity of IL-1 cytokines. Although the therapeutic potential of NLRP3 is undisputed, currently no clinically approved therapies exist to target the NLRP3 inflammasome directly. The recent discovery of BTK as a direct and positive regulator of the NLRP3 inflammasome has, however, raised the intriguing possibility of targeting the NLRP3 inflammasome via existing or future BTK inhibitors. Here, I review the mechanistic basis for this notion and discuss the molecular and cellular role of BTK in the inflammasome process. Specific attention will be given to cell-type dependent characteristics and differences that may be relevant for targeting approaches. Furthermore, I review recent (pre-)clinical evidence for effects of BTK inhibitors on NLRP3 activity and highlight and discuss open questions and future research directions. Collectively, the concept of targeting BTK to target NLRP3-dependent inflammation will be explored comprehensively at the molecular, cellular and therapeutic levels.Oral cancer constitutes approximately 2% of all cancers, while the most common type, oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) represents 90% of oral cancers. Although the treatment of OSCC has improved recently, it still has a high rate of local recurrence and poor prognosis, with a 5-year survival rate of only 50%. Advanced stage OSCC tends to metastasize to lymph nodes. Thus, exploring new therapeutic strategies for OSCC is therefore an urgent priority. Exosomes, the small membrane vesicles derived from endosomes, have been detected in a wide array of bodily fluids.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/FK-506-(Tacrolimus).html  Exosomes contain a diversity of proteins, mRNAs, and non-coding RNAs, including microRNAs, long non-coding RNAs, piRNAs, circular RNAs, tsRNAs, and ribosomal RNAs, which are delivered to neighboring cells or even transported to distant sites. Exosomes have been associated with the tumorigenesis of OSCC, promote the proliferation, colonization, and metastasis of OSCC by transferring their contents to the target cells. Furthermore, exosomes are involved in the regulation of the tumor microenvironment to transform conditions favoring cancer progression in vivo. In this review, we summarize the crucial role of exosomes in the tumorigenesis and progression of OSCC and discuss the potential clinical application of exosomes in OSCC treatment.