PCAT6 may be a new prognostic biomarker in various cancers: a meta-analysis and bioinformatics analysis.

BACKGROUND: LncRNA prostate cancer-associated transcript 6 (PCAT6) has been reported to be dysregulated in several cancers and is associated with tumor progression. Here, we have performed a meta-analysis to assess the general prognostic role of PCAT6 in malignancies. METHODS: Four public databases (Embase, Pubmed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library) were used to identify eligible studies, then data was extracted and associations between prognostic indicators and clinical characteristics were combined to estimate hazard ratio (HR) or odds ratio (OR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI). Publication bias was measured using the Begg's test, and the stability of the combined results was measured using sensitivity analysis. Subsequently, results were validated using Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA) and the National Genomics Data Center (NGDC). RESULTS: Ten studies were considered eligible for inclusion. In total, 937 patients and eight types of cancer were included. Our results revealed that overexpression of PCAT6 was significantly associated with a shorter OS (HR = 1.82; 95% CI, [1.40, 2.38]; P < 0.0001) and progression-free survival (PFS) (HR = 1.66; 95% CI, [1.22, 2.25]; P < 0.0001) in cancer patients, and that PCAT6 overexpression was significantly associated with individual tumor clinicopathological parameters, including TNM stage (OR = 0.29; 95% CI, [0.09, 0.94]; P = 0.04), gender (OR = 1.84; 95% CI, [1.31, 2.59]; P = 0.0005), and whether the tumor was metastatic (OR = 5.02; 95% CI, [1.36, 18.57]; P = 0.02). However, PCAT6 overexpression was not correlated with patient age and tumor differentiation. PCAT6 expression was significantly up-regulated in four types of cancer, which was validated using the GEPIA cohort. Combining OS and disease-free survival (DFS) of these four types of cancer revealed a shorter OS and DFS in patients with PCAT6 overexpression. PCAT6 expression in various types of cancer was also validated in NGDC. A total of eight cancers were analyzed and PCAT6 was highly expressed in all eight cancers. Further functional predictions suggest that PCAT6 is correlated with tumor prognosis, and that PCAT6 may be useful as a new tumor-specific marker. CONCLUSIONS: LncRNA PCAT6 is highly expressed in multiple cancer types and its upregulation was significantly associated with patient prognosis and poorer clinical features, thereby suggesting that PCAT6 may be a novel prognostic factor in multiple cancer types.

circRNA_0006393 promotes osteogenesis in glucocorticoid­induced osteoporosis by sponging miR­145­5p and upregulating FOXO1.

Glucocorticoids are the most common cause of glucocorticoid­induced osteoporosis (GIOP). Moreover, the role of circular RNAs (circRNAs) in the regulation of bone metabolism remains unclear. Therefore, in the present study, it was hypothesized that hsa_circ_0006393 may play an important role in GIOP. To investigate the role of circRNAs in GIOP, treatment with dexamethasone or transfection with a vector overexpressing hsa_circ_0006393 were performed using in vitro cell and in vivo mouse models. Reverse transcription­quantitative PCR, fluorescence in situ hybridization and western blotting were performed to investigate the function of hsa_circ_0006393 in vitro. In addition, the effects of hsa_circ_0006393 on osteogenesis were investigated. Dual­energy X­ray absorptiometry analysis was performed to examine the osteogenic potential of hsa_circ_0006393 in vivo. Moreover, the mechanism underlying hsa_circ_0006393­mediated bone metabolism regulation via the microRNA (miR)­145­5p/forkhead box O1 (FOXO1) pathway was investigated. The present results suggested that the expression level of hsa_circ_0006393 was decreased in patients with GIOP. Furthermore, the overexpression of hsa_circ_0006393 increased the expression level of genes associated with osteogenesis. Moreover, hsa_circ_0006393 was identified to be localized mainly in the cytoplasm and nucleus of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. miR­145­5p was found to be directly targeted by hsa_circ_0006393. Collectively, hsa_circ_0006393 increases the expression levels of osteogenic genes during bone remodeling by sponging miR­145­5p and upregulating FOXO1.

Efficacy of intravenous acetaminophen in multimodal management for pain relief following total knee arthroplasty: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: The efficacy of intravenous acetaminophen in multimodal pain management in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is controversial. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to compare the efficacy of intravenous acetaminophen versus placebo in TKA. METHODS: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or retrospective cohort studies (RCSs) concerning related topics were retrieved from PubMed (1996-June 2018), Embase (1980-June 2018), and the Cochrane Library (CENTRAL June 2018). Any studies comparing intravenous acetaminophen with a placebo were included in this meta-analysis. Meta-analysis results were collected and analyzed by Stata 12.0. Subgroup analysis was performed according to the general characteristics of the patients. RESULTS: In total, the patients from six studies met the inclusion criteria. Our meta-analysis results indicated that compared with a control group, intravenous acetaminophen was associated with reductions in total morphine consumption and visual analogue scale (VAS) score at postoperative day (POD) 3. However, there was no significant difference in morphine consumption at POD 1 or in VAS at POD 1 or POD 2. Moreover, there was no significant difference in the length of hospital stay. CONCLUSIONS: Based on our results, intravenous acetaminophen in multimodal management has shown better efficacy in pain relief at POD 3 and has morphine-sparing effects. High-quality studies with more patients are needed in the future.