[Expression of caspase apoptosis pathway genes mRNA in colorectal cancer and polyps].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate mRNA expression of caspase apoptosis pathway genes in colorectal cancer, polyps and normal mucosa. METHODS: Nineteen patients with colorectal cancer, 86 patients with polyps and 10 normal controls were enrolled from 2008 to 2010. Fluorescence quantitative RT-PCR was performed to detect the mRNA expression of caspase apoptosis pathway genes (caspase-2,-3,-6,-7,-8,-9 and -10) in colorectal cancer, polyps and normal mucosa. RESULT: There were no statistically significant differences of demographic characteristics between patients with colorectal cancer, patients with polyps and normal controls. Compared with normal control group, the mRNA expression of all selected genes except for caspase-3 were lower; however, the P values did not reach statistic significance. Highly positive correlations were observed between mRNA expression of all selected genes except caspase-9. CONCLUSION: There are no significant changes in mRNA expression levels of caspase apoptosis pathway genes from normal mucosa to polyps to cancer. The mRNA expressions of most caspase pathway genes are highly correlated with each other.

[Association of miR-605 and miR-149 genetic polymorphisms with related risk factors of lung cancer susceptibility].

OBJECTIVE: To explore association of miR-149 and miR-605 polymorphisms with other risk factors of lung cancer susceptibility among Chinese population. METHODS: Two hundred and forty-four patients with lung cancer and 243 cancer-free controls matched by age and sex were enrolled from 2002 to 2008. Peripheral venous blood samples were collected from all subjects. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of miR-149 and miR-605 were genotyped by PCR-RFLP. Multiple-variable logistic regression model was used to assess the association of SNPs and cancer related risk factors for lung cancer. RESULT: There was not significant association of SNPs of miR-149 and miR-605 with lung cancer. A marginal significance was observed while the males with at least one G allele of miR-605 had higher risk of lung cancer (OR=1.5, 95% CI:1.0-2.3) than those with AA genotype. Increased frequency of smoking was associated with lung cancer risk. Compared with no-smoker, the subjects with <20 and >20 cigarettes/day had higher risk of lung cancer: OR (95%CI)=1.7(1.0-3.0) for <20 cigarettes, OR (95%CI)=4.2(2.3-7.6) for >20 cigarettes. There was no interaction between two genes and smoking on lung cancer. CONCLUSION: miR-149 polymorphisms may not affect lung cancer susceptibility. miR-605 gene mutant might be increase the risk of lung cancer among males. Cigarette smoking increased a risk of lung cancer, but there were not interactive effects between two gene and smoking on lung cancer.

Treatment outcomes of patients with multidrug and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis in Zhejiang, China.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to assess the treatment outcomes of multidrug and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (M/XDR-TB) in Zhejiang, China and to evaluate possible risk factors associated with poor outcomes of M/XDR-TB. METHODS: Two-hundred-and-sixty-two patients having M/XDR-TB who received the diagnosis and treatment at nine referral hospitals from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2016 in Zhejiang, China were included. All patients received second-line regimens recommended by WHO under the DOTS-Plus strategy. RESULTS: Among the 262 patients, the treatment success rate was 55.34% (n = 145) with 53.44% (n = 140) cured and 1.91% (n = 5) who completed treatment, 62 (23.66%) failed, 27 (10.31%) died, 16 (6.11%) defaulted and 12 (4.58%) transferred out. Forty (64.52%) of the 62 M/XDR-TB patients who failed treatment were due to adverse effects in the first 10 months of treatment. Eighteen patients (6.37%) had XDR-TB. Treatment failure was significantly higher among patients with XDR-TB at 50% than that among patients with non-XDR-TB at 21.72% (P = 0.006). Failure outcomes were associated with a baseline weight less than 50 kg (OR, 8.668; 95% CI 1.679-44.756; P = 0.010), age older than 60 years (OR, 9.053; 95% CI 1.606-51.027; P = 0.013), hemoptysis (OR, 8.928; 95% CI 1.048-76.923; P = 0.045), presence of cavitary diseases (OR, 10.204; 95% CI 2.032-52.631; P = 0.005), or treatment irregularity (OR, 47.619; 95% CI 5.025-500; P = 0.001). CONCLUSION: Treatment outcomes for M/XDR-TB under the DOTS-Plus strategy in Zhejiang, China were favorable but still not ideal. Low body weight (< 50 kg), old age (> 60 years), severe symptoms of TB including cavitary disease, hemoptysis and irregular treatment were independent prognostic factors for failure outcomes in patients with M/XDR-TB.

Multidrug-resistant Tuberculosis Burden among the New Tuberculosis Patients in Zhejiang Province: An Observational Study, 2009-2013.

BACKGROUND: Screening on multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) has been limited to the serious TB subpopulations excluding the new TB patients. This study aimed to examine MDR-TB burden among the new TB patients. METHODS: We conducted a study in Zhejiang Province during 2009-2013 to screen for MDR-TB patients among the low MDR-TB risk patients and five subpopulations of high MDR-TB risk patients. The number, prevalence, and trend of MDR-TB were compared while the logistic regression model was used to examine risk factors related to MDR-TB. RESULTS: A total of 200 and 791 MDR-TB cases were, respectively, identified from the 9830 new TB cases and 2372 high-risk suspects who took MDR-TB screening from 2009 to 2013. The MDR-TB rates went down in both of the new TB patients and five MDR-TB high-risk groups over the study time, but the percentage of MDR-TB patients identified from the new TB patients in all diagnosed MDR-TB cases kept stable from 28.3% in 2011 to 27.0% in 2012 to 26.0% in 2013. CONCLUSIONS: The study indicated that MDR-TB burden among new TB patients was high, thus screening for MDR-TB among the new TB patients should be recommended in China as well as in the similar situation worldwide.

Association of CASP9, CASP10 gene polymorphisms and tea drinking with colorectal cancer risk in the Han Chinese population.

The initiators caspase-9 (CASP9) and caspase-10 (CASP10) are two key controllers of apoptosis and play important roles in carcinogenesis. This study aims to explore the association between CASPs gene polymorphisms and colorectal cancer (CRC) susceptibility in a population-based study. A two-stage designed population-based case-control study was carried out, including a testing set with 300 cases and 296 controls and a validation set with 206 cases and 845 controls. A total of eight tag selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in CASP9 and CASP10 were chosen based on HapMap and the National Center of Biotechnology Information (NCBI) datasets and genotyped by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) assay. Multivariate logistic regression models were applied to evaluate the association of SNPs with CRC risk. In the first stage, from eight tag SNPs, three polymorphisms rs4646077 (odds ratio (OR)(AA+AG): 0.654, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.406-1.055; P=0.082), rs4233532 (OR(CC): 1.667, 95% CI: 0.967-2.876; OR(CT): 1.435, 95% CI: 0.998-2.063; P=0.077), and rs2881930 (OR(CC): 0.263, 95% CI: 0.095-0.728, P=0.036) showed possible association with CRC risk. However, none of the three SNPs, rs4646077 (OR(AA+AG): 1.233, 95% CI: 0.903-1.683), rs4233532 (OR(CC): 0.892, 95% CI: 0.640-1.243; OR(CT): 1.134, 95% CI: 0.897-1.433), and rs2881930 (OR(CC): 1.096, 95% CI: 0.620-1.938; OR(CT): 1.009, 95% CI: 0.801-1.271), remained significant with CRC risk in the validation set, even after stratification for different tumor locations (colon or rectum). In addition, never tea drinking was associated with a significantly increased risk of CRC in testing set together with validation set (OR: 1.755, 95% CI: 1.319-2.334). Our results found that polymorphisms of CASP9 and CASP10 genes may not contribute to CRC risk in Chinese population and thereby the large-scale case-control studies might be in consideration. In addition, tea drinking was a protective factor for CRC.

Prevalence of overweight and obesity and their associations with socioeconomic status in a rural Han Chinese adult population.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to describe the prevalence of overweight, general obesity, and abdominal obesity and examine their associations with socioeconomic status in a rural Chinese adult population. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was performed on 15,236 participants ≥ 35 years of age (6,313 men [41.4%] and 8,923 women [58.6%]). Each participant's weight, height, waist circumference (WC), and hipline circumference (HC) were measured, and demographic and socioeconomic data were collected using questionnaires. RESULTS: The mean body mass index (BMI) values were 23.31 ± 2.96 and 23.89 ± 3.23 kg m(-2) and the mean WC values were 79.13 ± 8.43 and 79.54 ± 8.27 cm for men and women, respectively. The age-standardized prevalence rates of overweight (BMI ≥ 24.0 kg m(-2)), general obesity (BMI ≥ 28.0 kg m(-2)), and abdominal obesity (WC ≥ 85 cm for men and ≥ 80 cm for women) were 32.0%, 6.7%, and 27.0% for men and 35.1%, 9.7%, and 48.3% for women, respectively. All gender differences were statistically significant (p < 0.001). In addition, the age-specific prevalence rates of general and abdominal obesity slowly decreased among men but sharply increased among women as age increased (p < 0.001). In subsequent logistic regression analysis, educational level was negatively associated with both general obesity and abdominal obesity among women but positively associated with abdominal obesity among men. No significant correlation was found between obesity and income. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest a high prevalence of obesity which might differ by gender and age, and an inverse association among women and a mixed association among men noted between education and obesity in our locality. Preventive and therapeutic programs are warranted to control this serious public health problem. The gender-specific characteristics of populations at high-risk of developing obesity should be taken into consideration when designing interventional programs.