Identification of ubiquitin markers for survival and prognosis of ovarian cancer.

Ovarian cancer (OC) is one of the most common malignancies and a leading cause of death among women worldwide. The ubiquitin pathway plays an important role in OC development. Using the single nucleotide polymorphism data obtained using the prevalence and dominance strategies, four ubiquitin marker genes were identified according to their expression levels: BARD1, BRCA2, FANCA, and BRCA1. Based on these four genes, a consensus clustering of OC expression data was performed. The significant differences in the survival analysis, ESTIMATE, and CIBERSORT results among the clusters indicated the pivotal role of these four genes in OC development. Of the ubiquitin-representative genes in each cluster, two ubiquitin genes, TOP2A and MYLIP, were identified in the survival risk model after univariate survival, Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator regression, and multivariate survival analyses. The reliability and robustness of both the training and validation data were confirmed by comparing the significant survival difference between high- and low-risk patients. We further explored the association between our risk model and clinical outcomes as well as predicted potentially interacting drugs. The co-expression network showed clear interactions among the four marker genes and two model genes and between high- and low-risk differentially expressed genes. Significantly enriched genes were found in pathways associated with ion channels, channel activity, and neuroactive ligand-receptor interactions. Therefore, suggesting the involvement of ubiquitin genes in the survival and development of OC through neurohumoral regulation. Our results will provide valuable reference or supplementary information for studies investigating OC diagnosis and therapies.

The impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic on abortion access and pre-abortion mental health in Shanghai.

OBJECTIVE: To understand the barriers to abortion in Shanghai during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to compare pre-abortion mental health status before and during the crisis. METHODS: In this case-control study, two groups of women seeking abortion (age ≥18 years, pregnancy duration <98 days) were recruited from March to September, 2021 (n = 1070) and from February to April 2022 (n = 625). The evaluation included COVID-19-related abortion stress questions, the Symptom Checklist-90 Revised questionnaire, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and the Family Environment Scale Chinese version. The researchers conducted interviews and collected questionnaires. RESULTS: The median pregnancy duration at abortion among women during the pandemic was 65 days, compared with 51 days in the pre-pandemic group (P < 0.001). Anxiety and depression symptoms increased during the crisis (P < 0.001). Sleep disturbances were more common. Higher PSQI scores were related to increased anxiety and depression symptoms. A more negative family climate was described during the pandemic. CONCLUSION: During the COVID-19 pandemic, abortion access was delayed and pre-abortion mental disorders increased. More attention should be paid to the mental health of women seeking abortions, and innovations should be promoted to ensure abortion services without delay.

Elevated expression of protein-L-isoaspartate O-methyltransferase-1 (PCMT1) in cervical cancer.

Background: Protein-L-isoaspartate O-methyltransferase-1 (PCMT1) is a protein carboxyl methyltransferase enzyme, which has been found to play roles in cancers. However, no clinical information about the correlation between cervical cancer and PCMT1 expression has been reported. Methods: We used immunohistochemistry (IHC) to characterize the protein level of PCMT1 in human cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and cervical cancer specimens. The mRNA expression profile of PCMT1 in cervical cancer was also analyzed by using Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases. The prognostic value of PCMT1 in patients with cervical cancer was evaluated by using the Kaplan-Meier plotter. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was conducted by using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cervical cancer dataset. Results: The protein level of PCMT1 was increased in cervical high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) (7.40±0.42) and cervical cancer tissues (10.70±0.54), compared to normal cervix (5.00±0.86) and low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL) (6.22±0.57) (P<0.05). the immunoreactivity score (IRS) of PCMT1 was also higher in cervical cancer tissues than in paired adjacent non-cancerous cervical tissues (9.03±0.52 vs. 6.32±0.46) (P<0.05). High expression of PCMT1 was associated with decreased overall survival (OS) of patients with cervical cancer (P=0.0022). GSEA demonstrated that cervical cancer patients with high expression of PCMT1 were enriched in the various cancer-related signaling pathways. Conclusions: These results suggest that PCMT1 might be a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for cervical cancer, and further validation studies should be performed.