New Potential MicroRNA Biomarkers in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Elite Controllers, Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infections, and Coinfections with Hepatitis B Virus or Hepatitis C Virus.

INTRODUCTION: This research aimed to evaluate the specific microRNA (miRNA) including miR-17-5p, miRN-140-3p miR-191-5p, miR-200c-3p, and miR-N367 and cellular factors (p21, SDF-1, XCL1, CCL-2, and IL-2) in controlling replication of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in ECs. METHODS: The expression of miRNAs was assessed between healthy control groups and patient groups including ART-naïve HIV, HIV ART, ECs, and coinfection (HIV-HBV and HIV-HCV) via real-time PCR technique. Besides, the expression level of the nef gene and cellular factors were assessed by the ELISA method. The differences in the level of cellular factors and selected miRNAs between study groups were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis H or one-way ANOVA test. In addition, the potential of selected miRNAs as biomarkers for discriminating study groups was assessed by the receiver-operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. RESULTS: Some miRNAs in ECs, HIV ART, and healthy controls have similar expression patterns, whereas a miRNA expression profile of patient groups significantly differed compared to EC and control groups. According to ROC curve analyses, the miR-17-5p, miR-140-3p miR-191-5p, miR-200c-3p, and miR-N367 can be served as biomarkers for discriminating ECs from ART-naïve HIV-infected groups. There was a significant correlation between some miRNAs and cellular factors/the viral load as well. CONCLUSION: This report demonstrated a differentiation in the expression of selected immunological factors and cellular/viral miRNAs in ECs compared to other patient groups. Some miRNAs and cellular factors are involved in the viral replication control, immune response/modulation and can be used as biomarkers for diagnosis of ECs and differentiation with other groups. Differential expression of these miRNAs and cellular factors in different stages of HIV infection can help in finding novel ways for infection control.

Global prevalence and genotype distribution of norovirus infection in children with gastroenteritis: A meta-analysis on 6 years of research from 2015 to 2020.

In the post rotavirus vaccine era, norovirus (NoV) plays an increasingly important role in epidemic and sporadic gastroenteritis among children. This study was designed to provide an updated meta-analytic review of the prevalence of NoV among paediatric patients with gastroenteritis and to clarify the relationship between NoV infection and gastroenteritis. Systematic searches of the literature for potentially relevant studies were carried out from 1 January 2015 to 29 May 2020. The inverse variance method was chosen for weighting of the studies, and the random-effects model was used to analyse data. To determine the association between NoV infection and gastroenteritis in children, pooled odds ratio (OR) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) were computed for case-control studies. The pooled prevalence of NoV infection among 12,0531 children with gastroenteritis from 45 countries across the world was 17.7% (95% CI: 16.3%-19.2%). There were 28 studies with a case-control design, and the pooled prevalence of NoV infection among 11,954 control subjects was 6.7% (95% CI: 5.1%-8.8%). The pooled OR of the association of NoV infection and gastroenteritis was 2.7 (95% CI: 2.2-3.4). The most common NoV genotypes were GII.4 (59.3%) and GII.3 (14.9%). The highest frequency of NoV was found in the age group below 1 year. Our findings indicated a substantial burden of gastroenteritis caused by NoV globally, with GII.4 and GII.3 the major genotypes responsible for the majority of NoV-associated gastroenteritis cases among children. Younger age and male sex can be considered risk factors for NoV-associated gastroenteritis among children.

Candidate Role for Toll-like Receptor 3 L412F Polymorphism and Infection in Acute Exacerbation of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.

Rationale: The Toll-like receptor 3 Leu412Phe (TLR3 L412F) polymorphism attenuates cellular antiviral responses and is associated with accelerated disease progression in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The role of TLR3 L412F in bacterial infection in IPF or in acute exacerbations (AE) has not been reported. Objectives: To characterize the association between TLR3 L412F and AE-related death in IPF. To determine the effect of TLR3 L412F on the lung microbiome and on antibacterial TLR responses of primary lung fibroblasts from patients with IPF. Methods: TLR-mediated antibacterial and antiviral responses were quantitated in L412F wild-type and 412F-heterozygous primary lung fibroblasts from patients with IPF using ELISA, Western blot analysis, and quantitative PCR. Hierarchical heatmap analysis was employed to establish bacterial and viral clustering in nasopharyngeal lavage samples from patients with AE-IPF. 16S ribosomal RNA quantitative PCR and pyrosequencing were used to determine the effect of TLR3 L412F on the IPF lung microbiome. Measurements and Main Results: A significant increase in AE-related death in patients with 412F-variant IPF was reported. We established that 412F-heterozygous IPF lung fibroblasts have reduced antibacterial TLR responses to LPS (TLR4), Pam3CYSK4 (TLR1/2), flagellin (TLR5), and FSL-1 (TLR6/1) and have reduced responses to live Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection. Using 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing, we demonstrated that 412F-heterozygous patients with IPF have a dysregulated lung microbiome with increased frequencies of Streptococcus and Staphylococcus spp. Conclusions: This study reveals that TLR3 L412F dysregulates the IPF lung microbiome and reduces the responses of IPF lung fibroblasts to bacterial TLR agonists and live bacterial infection. These findings identify a candidate role for TLR3 L412F in viral- and bacterial-mediated AE death.

PBMC MicroRNAs: Promising Biomarkers for the Differential Diagnosis of COVID-19 Patients with Abnormal Coagulation Indices.

MicroRNAs, or miRNAs, may involve in coagulation and inflammation pathways caused by severe Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Accordingly, this attempt was made to explore the behavior of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) miRNAs as effective biomarkers to diagnose COVID-19 patients with normal and abnormal coagulation indices. We selected the targeted miRNAs (miR-19a-3p, miR-223-3p, miR-143-5p, miR-494-3p and miR-301a-5p) according to previous reports, whose PBMC levels were then determined by real-time PCR. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was obtained to clarify the diagnostic potency of studied miRNAs. The differentially expressed miRNA profiles and corresponding biological activities were predicted in accordance with bioinformatics data. Targeted miRNAs' expression profiles displayed a significant difference between COVID-19 subjects with normal and abnormal coagulation indices. Moreover, the average miR-223-3p level expressed in COVID-19 cases with normal coagulation indices was significantly lower than that in healthy controls. Based on data from ROC analysis, miR-223-3p and miR-494-3p are promising biomarkers to distinguish the COVID-19 cases with normal or abnormal coagulation indices. Bioinformatics data highlighted the prominent role of selected miRNAs in the inflammation and TGF-beta signaling pathway. The differences existed in the expression profiles of selected miRNAs between the groups introduced miR-494-3p and miR-223-3p as potent biomarkers to prognosis the incidence of COVID-19.

Human papilloma virus (HPV) and prostate cancer (PCa): The potential role of HPV gene expression and selected cellular MiRNAs in PCa development.

BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common and health-threatening cancers in men worldwide. The human papillomavirus (HPV) is considered one of the organisms with the potential to be involved in the progression of this cancer. In the present study, we evaluated the association between the expression levels of HPV genes with the expression of selected cellular miRNAs (miR-19a, miR-21, miR-23b, miR-34a, miR-150-5p, and miR-155) and their targets genes (P53, Rb, c-Myc, TIMP-1, MMP-2, MMP-9, PDCD4, Bcl-2, and Survivin) in PCa tissue samples. METHODS: HPV detection and genotyping were performed on the tissues of 112 PCa patients and 39 healthy individuals. The expression profile of miRNA was evaluated by SYBR Green-based real-time PCR. As well Human Survivin ELISA Kit was utilized to determine the concentrations of Retinoblastoma, P53, survivin, Bcl-2, c-Myc, TIMP-1, MMP-2, MMP-9, and PDCD4 in the prostate tissues. RESULTS: According to our findings, HPV genome was detected in 28.7% (21/73) of PCa tissue specimens and 17.94% (7/39) control samples. There was no significant association between the presence of HPV infection with PCa (OR = 2.01, 95%CI = 0.8-5.68, P = 0.102). We found that mean expression level of miR-19a (3.7 ± 4.3, p-value: 0.0007), and -21 (2.5 ± 2.8, p-value<0.0001) were significantly higher and miR-23b (-2.14 ± 3.08, p-value: 0.003) and -34a (-3.12 ± 3.28, p-value: 0.0001) levels were significantly lower in PCa tissue samples than in control tissue samples. CONCLUSION: Present research indicated that HPV positive PCa has a distinct miRNA profile compared with HPV negative PCa.

Bacterial and viral coinfection in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients: the prevalence and possible role in disease progression.

BACKGROUND: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive interstitial pneumonia of unknown aetiology with a mean survival rate of less than 3 years. No previous studies have been performed on the role of co-infection (viral and bacterial infection) in the pathogenesis and progression of IPF. In this study, we investigated the role of viral/bacterial infection and coinfection and their possible association with pathogenesis and progression of IPF. METHODS: We investigated the prevalence and impact of bacterial and viral coinfection in IPF patients (n = 67) in the context of pulmonary function (FVC, FEV1 and DLCO), disease status and mortality risk. Using principal component analysis (PCA), we also investigated the relationship between distribution of bacterial and viral co-infection in the IPF cohort. RESULTS: Of the 67 samples, 17.9% samples were positive for viral infection, 10.4% samples were positive for bacterial infection and 59.7% samples were positive coinfection. We demonstrated that IPF patients who were co-infected had a significantly increased risk of mortality compared (p = 0.031) with IPF patients who were non-infected [Hazard ratio: 8.12; 95% CI 1.3-26.9]. CONCLUSION: In this study, we report for the first time that IPF patients who were coinfected with bacterial and viral infection have significantly decreased FVC and DLCO (% predicted). Besides, the results demonstrated the increased AE-IPF, increased incidence of death and risk of mortality in infected/coinfected patients compared to non-infected IPF patients.

Virus, Exosome, and MicroRNA: New Insights into Autophagy.

Autophagy is known as a conserved self-eating mechanism that contributes to cells to degrade different intracellular components (i.e., macromolecular complexes, aggregated proteins, soluble proteins, organelles, and foreign bodies). Autophagy needs formation of a double-membrane structure, which is composed of the sequestered cytoplasmic contents, called autophagosome. There are a variety of internal and external factors involved in initiation and progression of autophagy process. Viruses as external factors are one of the particles that could be associated with different stages of this process. Viruses exert their functions via activation and/or inhibition of a wide range of cellular and molecular targets, which are involved in autophagy process. Besides viruses, a variety of cellular and molecular pathways that are activated and inhibited by several factors (e.g., genetics, epigenetics, and environment factors) are related to beginning and developing of autophagy mechanism. Exosomes and microRNAs have been emerged as novel and effective players anticipated in various stages of autophagy. More knowledge in these pathways and identification of accurate roles of them could help to provide better therapeutic approaches in several diseases such as cancer. We highlighted the roles of viruses, exosomes, and microRNAs in the autophagy processes.

The role of HPV gene expression and selected cellular MiRNAs in lung cancer development.

BACKGROUND: The high mortality rate of lung cancer can be justified that strong need to explore new aspect of tumor biology. Human papillomavirus (HPV) has been detected as risk factor for the development of lung cancer. The aim of this study was to determine the role of HPV and cellular/miRNAs genes expression in the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and development of lung cancer. METHODS: In this case-control study, 109 lung cancer tissue and 52 controls were included. We analyzed the presence of HPV infection, its genotypes (in positive samples) and the expression of viral genes (E2, E6 and E7). Also, We examined the expression of celluar factors including (a) p53 and retinoblastoma (Rb) (as anti-carcinogenic genes), (b) EMT related genes, (c) selected miRNAs. RESULTS: Our results reported 51.4% and 23.1% of HPV genome in tumor tissues and control tissues samples, respectively. There was a significant association between the HPV positive status and lung cancer (OR = 3.26, 95% C.I = 1.47-7.02, P = 0.001). HPV type 16 was the most prevalent genotype in tissues. The expression of p53, RB, TIMP1, CCNG-1, E-cad and PTPN13 were decreased while MMP-2 and N-cad were increased in HPV-positive tumor/control tissues compared to HPV-negative tissues. Also, among miRNAs, let-7, miR-23, miR-34, miR-125, miR-146 were downregulated and miR-20, miR-424 were upregulated in HPV-positve tissues compared to HPV-negative tissues. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that HPV infection and interaction with cellular genes and miRNAs promote EMT which involved in the lung cancer development.

Human papillomavirus and prostate cancer: The role of viral expressed proteins in the inhibition of anoikis and induction of metastasis.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to address the role of HPV in prostate cancer (PCa) development through the inducement of resistance to anoikis. METHODS: In this case-control study, prostate tissues and blood samples were collected from 116 individuals, including 72 cases with PCa and 44 non-malignant prostate tissue samples as a control group. The expression level of HPV genes (E2, E6, and E7) and cellular genes including anti-apoptotic mediators (Bcl-2 and survivin), tumor suppressor proteins (Rb and p53), and some mediators involved in anoikis resistance and invasiveness (E-cadherin, N-cadherin, Twist, PTPN13 and SLUG) were evaluated. RESULTS: HPV genome was identified in 36.1% cases and 15.9% control samples, additionally there was found to be a statistic significant association between the presence of HPV and PCa (OR = 1.64, 95% C.I = 0.8-1.8, P-value = 0.023). HPV genotype 16 and 18 were the most prevalent genotype in both in the PCa group and the control group. The expression level of the tumor suppressor proteins (Rb and p53) and anti-apoptotic mediators (Bcl-2 and Survivin) were significantly decreased and increased, respectively, in the HPV-positive specimens compared to the HPV-negative specimens. Furthermore, the mean expression level of N-cadherin, SLUG, and TWIST in the HPV-positive specimens was higher than HPV-negative specimens while the mean expression level of PTPN-13 and E-cadherin genes in the HPV-positive specimens was lower than HPV-negative specimens. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that HPV infection may be involved in the development of PCa metastases by modulating anoikis resistance related genes.

The role of viral and bacterial infections in the pathogenesis of IPF: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic progressive lung disease. Several risk factors such as smoking, air pollution, inhaled toxins, high body mass index and infectious agents are involved in the pathogenesis of IPF. In the present study, this meta-analysis study investigates the prevalence of viral and bacterial infections in the IPF patients and any possible association between these infections with pathogenesis of IPF. METHODS: The authors carried out this systematic literature review from different reliable databases such as PubMed, ISI Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar to December 2020.Keywords used were the following "Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis", "Infection", "Bacterial Infection" and "Viral Infection", alone or combined together with the Boolean operators "OR", "AND" and "NOT" in the Title/Abstract/Keywords field. Pooled proportion and its 95% CI were used to assess the prevalence of viral and bacterial infections in the IPF patients. RESULTS: In this systematic review and meta-analyses, 32 studies were selected based on the exclusion/inclusion criteria. Geographical distribution of included studies was: eight studies in American people, 8; in European people, 15 in Asians, and one in Africans. The pooled prevalence for viral and bacterial infections w ere 53.72% (95% CI 38.1-69.1%) and 31.21% (95% CI 19.9-43.7%), respectively. The highest and lowest prevalence of viral infections was HSV (77.7% 95% CI 38.48-99.32%), EBV (72.02%, 95% CI 44.65-90.79%) and Influenza A (7.3%, 95% CI 2.66-42.45%), respectively. Whereas the highest and lowest prevalence in bacterial infections were related to Streptococcus sp. (99.49%, 95% CI 96.44-99.9%) and Raoultella (1.2%, 95% CI 0.2-3.08%), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this review were confirmed that the presence of viral and bacterial infections are the risk factors in the pathogenesis of IPF. In further analyses, which have never been shown in the previous studies, we revealed the geographic variations in the association strengths and emphasized other methodological parameters (e.g., detection method). Also, our study supports the hypothesis that respiratory infection could play a key role in the pathogenesis of IP.

Possible role of HPV/EBV coinfection in anoikis resistance and development in prostate cancer.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to evaluate the possible role of human papillomavirus (HPV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) coinfection as an etiological factor for prostate cancer (PCa) development. METHODS: This case-control study was conducted on 67 patients with PCa and 40 control subjects. The expression levels of cellular and viral factors involved in inflammation, tumor progression, and metastasis were quantified, using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) assay. RESULTS: The EBV/HPV coinfection was reported in 14.9% of patients in the case group and 7.5% of the control subjects. The high-risk types of HPV, that is, HPV 16 and HPV 18, were responsible for 50 and 30% of HPV/EBV-coinfected PCa cases (n = 10), respectively. No significant relationship was observed between PCa and HPV/EBV coinfection (OR = 2.9, 95% CI: 0.18-45.2, P = 0.31). However, the highest percentage of HPV genome integration was found in the HPV/EBV-coinfected PCa group (8/10; 80%). Also, the mean expression levels of inflammatory factors (IL-17, IL-6, TNF-α, NF-κB, VEGF, ROS, and RNS), anti-apoptotic mediators (Bcl-2 and survivin), and anti-anoikis factors (Twist and N-cadherin) were significantly higher in the HPV/EBV-coinfected PCa group, compared to the non-coinfected PCa cases. Nevertheless, the tumor-suppressor proteins (p53 and pRb) and E-cadherin (inhibitor of anoikis resistance) showed significant downregulations in the HPV/EBV-coinfected PCa group, compared to the non-coinfected PCa cases. CONCLUSION: The HPV/EBV coinfection may be an etiological factor for PCa through modulation of cellular behaviors.

Pathogenic role of exosomes and microRNAs in HPV-mediated inflammation and cervical cancer: A review.

Cervical cancer (CC) is the fourth most common cause of cancer death in women. The most important risk factor for the development of CC is cervical infection with human papilloma virus (HPV). Inflammation is a protective strategy that is triggered by the host against pathogens such as viral infections that acts rapidly to activate the innate immune response. Inflammation is beneficial if it is brief and well controlled; however, if the inflammation is excessive or it becomes of chronic duration, it can produce detrimental effects. HPV proteins are involved, both directly and indirectly, in the development of chronic inflammation, which is a causal factor in the development of CC. However, other factors may also have a potential role in stimulating chronic inflammation. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) (a class of noncoding RNAs) are strong regulators of gene expression. They have emerged as key players in several biological processes, including inflammatory pathways. Abnormal expression of miRNAs may be linked to the induction of inflammation that occurs in CC. Exosomes are a subset of extracellular vesicles shed by almost all types of cells, which can function as cargo transfer vehicles. Exosomes contain proteins and genetic material (including miRNAs) derived from their parent cells and can potentially affect recipient cells. Exosomes have recently been recognized to be involved in inflammatory processes and can also affect the immune response. In this review, we discuss the role of HPV proteins, miRNAs and exosomes in the inflammation associated with CC.

The role of miR-146a in viral infection.

Cellular microRNAs (miRNAs) were identified as a key player in the posttranscriptional regulation of cellular-genes regulatory pathways. They also emerged as a significant regulator of the immune response. In particular, miR-146a acts as an importance modulator of function and differentiation cells of the innate and adaptive immunity. It has been associated with disorder including cancer and viral infections. Given its significance in the regulation of key cellular processes, it is not surprising which virus infection have found ways to dysregulation of miRNAs. miR-146a has been identified in exosomes (exosomal miR-146a). After the exosomes release from donor cells, they are taken up by the recipient cell and probably the exosomal miR-146a is able to modulate the antiviral response in the recipient cell and result in making them more susceptible to virus infection. In this review, we discuss recent reports regarding miR-146a expression levels, target genes, function, and contributing role in the pathogenesis of the viral infection and provide a clue to develop the new therapeutic and preventive strategies for viral disease in the future.

The assessment of selected MiRNAs profile in HIV, HBV, HCV, HIV/HCV, HIV/HBV Co-infection and elite controllers for determination of biomarker.

BACKGROUND: The emerging relationship between microRNAs (miRNA) and viral-control is a topic of interest in the field of HIV. Host-genome might play an important role in the control of viremia. The aim of this study was to assess the specific miRNA profile that could contribute to the control of HIV replication in Elite Controllers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The expression level of miRNAs was evaluated in 6 group patients, Elite Controller (EC), HIV, HBV, HCV, HIV-HBV-HIV-HCV, and healthy controls using real-time PCR assays. Also, liver enzymes (ALT and AST) and CD4 T cell count was assessed. RESULTS: After adequate normalization, expression level of miRNAs was determined. The expression level of miR-146 in HIV/HCV co-infected patients was the highest in all groups. The miRNAs expression profile was significantly different in patient groups compared to control and EC. Some miRNA was significantly correlated with viral load and CD4 T cell count. CONCLUSIONS: The involvement of the mentioned miRNAs and correlation of these with viral and cellular parameters can justify the clinical outcome of all patient groups. The differentially expressed miRNA profile in patients suggests that miRNAs can be serve as biomarkers for risk of disease progression and differentiation of infections. Moreover, determining the profiles of miRNAs due to involvement of these in the pathogenesis of infection and manipulating these miRNAs could lead to opening a new gate to infection control.

The association between HPV gene expression, inflammatory agents and cellular genes involved in EMT in lung cancer tissue.

BACKGROUND: Lung cancer is a leading cause of cancer morbidity and mortality worldwide. Several studies have suggested that Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is an important risk factor in the development of lung cancer. In this study, we aim to address the role of HPV in the development of lung cancer mechanistically by examining the induction of inflammation and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) by this virus. METHODS: In this case-control study, tissue samples were collected from 102 cases with lung cancer and 48 controls. We examined the presence of HPV DNA and also the viral genotype in positive samples. We also examined the expression of viral genes (E2, E6 and E7), anti-carcinogenic genes (p53, retinoblastoma (RB)), and inflammatory cytokines in HPV positive cases. RESULTS: HPV DNA was detected in 52.9% (54/102) of the case samples and in 25% (12/48) of controls. A significant association was observed between a HPV positive status and lung cancer (OR = 3.37, 95% C.I = 1.58-7.22, P = 0.001). The most prevalent virus genotype in the patients was type 16 (38.8%). The expression of p53 and RB were decreased while and inflammatory cytokines were increased in HPV-positive lung cancer and HPV-positive control tissues compared to HPV-negative lung cancer and HPV-negative control tissues. Also, the expression level of E-cad and PTPN-13 genes were decreased in HPV- positive samples while the expression level of SLUG, TWIST and N-cad was increased in HPV-positive samples compared to negative samples. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that HPV infection drives the induction of inflammation and EMT which may promote in the development of lung cancer.

Bacterial infections in acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Due to the importance of Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as the fourth cause of mortality worldwide and the lack of studies evaluating the prevalence of bacterial infections in disease exacerbation, this systematic review and meta-analysis was performed to determine the prevalence rate of bacterial infections in COPD patients. METHODS: PubMed, ISI Web of Science, and Scopus databases were systematically searched for population-based prevalence studies (1980-2018). MeSH terms for "Bacterial infections" and "AECOPD" were used as search keywords. The selected studies were filtered according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Fixed and random-effects models were used for estimation of summary effect sizes. Between-study heterogeneity, as well as publication bias, were calculated. RESULTS: Finally, 118 out of 31,440 studies were selected. The overall estimation of the prevalence of bacterial infection was 49.59% [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.4418-0.55]. The heterogeneity in estimating the pooled prevalence of bacterial infections was shown in the studies (Cochran Q test: 6615, P < 0.0001, I2 = 98.23%). In addition, S. pneumoniae, H. influenzae, M. catarrhalis, A. baumannii, P. aeruginosa, and S. aureus were the most prevalent reported bacteria. CONCLUSIONS: Our results as the first meta-analysis for the issue demonstrated that bacterial infections are an important risk factor for AECOPD. Further studies must be performed for understanding the exact role of bacterial agents in AECOPD and help physicians for more applicable preventive and therapeutic measurements.

Prevalence and genotype distribution of genital human papillomavirus infection in female sex workers in the world: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Female sex workers (FSWs) are amongst the most susceptible groups to acquire human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and consequently, to develop cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and cervical cancer. This is the first systematic review and meta-analysis to provide estimates of the pooled prevalence of HPV infection and the distribution of HPV types among FSWs across the world. METHODS: Five computerized databases were searched for relevant studies published since the inception date of databases to September 2019. The pooled HPV prevalence was calculated by the random effect model described by DerSimonian-Laird. Subgroup analysis was performed to identify the probable sources of heterogeneity. The meta-analysis was performed using the "Metaprop" function in the R package Meta. RESULTS: Sixty-two studies involving 21,402 FSWs from 33 countries were included in this meta-analysis, and the pooled HPV prevalence was 42.6% (95% confidence interval (CI): 38.5-46.7%). HPV-16 (10.1, 95% CI: 8.2-12.5%), HPV-52 (7.9, 95% CI: 5.9-10.7%), and HPV-53 (6.0, 95% CI: 4.4-8.1%) were the most common high-risk HPV types identified among FSWs. The pooled estimated prevalence of HPV infection among FSWs before and after 2010 were slightly different, 43.6% (95% CI: 36.1-51.4%) and 41.9% (95% CI: 37.2-46.8%), respectively. CONCLUSION: Due to the high prevalence of HPV infection, particularly with high-risk types, FSWs have a great susceptibility to the development of cervical and vaginal cancers. Furthermore, they can transmit their infection to their clients, which may result in a high prevalence of HPV and the incidence of HPV-associated malignancies among the general population.

Epstein-Barr virus and thyroid cancer: The role of viral expressed proteins.

BACKGROUND: Thyroid cancer is a common endocrine malignancy whose incidence has increased in recent years. Several internal and external risk factors are involved in the development of this cancer, such as infectious agents. Evidence supporting the role of viral infection as an etiology for the invasiveness of thyroid cancer is increasing. The aim of this study was to determine the presence of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and the association between viral gene products and thyroid tumor development. METHODS: Fifty-seven thyroid cancer specimens were collected from the same number of patients as well as 18 samples from healthy controls. The presence of the EBV genome and the genotyping was examined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Also, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and real-time PCR were used to measure the expression levels of viral and cellular genes. RESULTS: The EBV DNA was detected in 71.9% of the samples, and it was also found that the presence of the EBV was associated with increasing development of thyroid tumor. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrated that EBV infection may play a role in the development of thyroid tumor.

microRNAs: New prognostic, diagnostic, and therapeutic biomarkers in cervical cancer.

Cervical cancer is as a kind of cancer beginning from the cervix. Given that cervical cancer could be observed in women who infected with papillomavirus, regular oral contraceptives, and multiple pregnancies. Early detection of cervical cancer is one of the most important aspects of the therapy of this malignancy. Despite several efforts, finding and developing new biomarkers for cervical cancer diagnosis are required. Among various prognostic, diagnostic, and therapeutic biomarkers, miRNA have been emerged as powerful biomarkers for detection, treatment, and monitoring of response to therapy in cervical cancer. Here, we summarized various miRNAs as an employable platform for prognostic, diagnostic, and therapeutic biomarkers in the treatment of cervical cancer.

microRNAs: Key players in virus-associated hepatocellular carcinoma.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is known as one of the major health problems worldwide. Pathological analysis indicated that a variety of risk factors including genetical (i.e., alteration of tumor suppressors and oncogenes) and environmental factors (i.e., viruses) are involved in beginning and development of HCC. The understanding of these risk factors could guide scientists and clinicians to design effective therapeutic options in HCC treatment. Various viruses such as hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) via targeting several cellular and molecular pathways involved in HCC pathogenesis. Among various cellular and molecular targets, microRNAs (miRNAs) have appeared as key players in HCC progression. miRNAs are short noncoding RNAs which could play important roles as oncogenes or tumor suppressors in several malignancies such as HCC. Deregulation of many miRNAs (i.e., miR-222, miR-25, miR-92a, miR-1, let-7f, and miR-21) could be associated with different stages of HCC. Besides miRNAs, exosomes are other particles which are involved in HCC pathogenesis via targeting different cargos, such as DNAs, RNAs, miRNAs, and proteins. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge of the role of miRNAs and exosomes as important players in HCC pathogenesis. Moreover, we highlighted HCV- and HBV-related miRNAs which led to HCC progression.