Semaphorin-4C is upregulated in epithelial ovarian cancer.

The present retrospective study aimed to investigate the expression of semaphorin-4C (Sema4C) in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), and to determine the association between Sema4C expression and patient clinicopathological characteristics. Sema4C mRNA expression was detected by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction in the tissues of 74 cases of EOC, 20 cases of ovarian epithelial benign tumor, 20 cases of ovarian borderline epithelial tumor and 15 cases of normal ovarian tissue. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression and localization of Sema4C. The association between Sema4C expression level and patients clinicopathological characteristics was determined by χ2 test. The results demonstrated that Sema4C expression level in ovarian epithelial carcinoma tissues was significantly higher compared with that in benign tumors, borderline epithelial tumors and normal ovarian tissues (P<0.05). In addition, Sema4C expression in ovarian cancer tissues was significantly associated with the clinical and pathological stages of tumors (P<0.05). In conclusion, the present study demonstrated that Sema4C expression was upregulated in EOC.

Nanomedicine-based combination of gambogic acid and retinoic acid chlorochalcone for enhanced anticancer efficacy in osteosarcoma.

In this study, gambogic acid (GA) and retinoic acid chlorochalcone (RACC) co-loaded glycol chitosan nanoparticle was successfully developed and studied for its therapeutic efficacy against osteosarcoma cancer cells. The GA/RACC loaded glycol chitosan nanoparticles (RGNP) was nanosized and exhibited a controlled release of drug in either pH 7.4 and pH 5.0. Owing to the strong positive charge on the RGNP surface, efficiency cellular uptake was observed in cancer cells. Moreover, a synergistic combination of GA and RACC were effectively suppressed the tumor growth progression. The half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values in MG63 cells were 0.89µg/ml and 0.35µg/ml for GA and RGNP after 24h. The results clearly suggest the synergist effect of GA and RACC in effectively inhibiting the cancer cell proliferation. The RGNP as expected induced a remarkably higher apoptosis of cancer cells with ∼28%. Overall, combination of GA and RACC encapsulated in a nanocarrier could be an effective strategy to treat osteosarcoma. Future studies will focus on the in vivo evaluation of GA/RACC-loaded polymeric nanoparticles.

Down-regulation of miR-503 expression predicate advanced mythological features and poor prognosis in patients with NSCLC.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to explore what impact miR-503 has on the prognosis of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHODS: Cancer and matched non-malignant lung tissue specimens were collected from 109 patients who underwent surgery in Tanisha Hospital from Jun 2006 to July 2013. Overall survival (OS) curves were analyzed using the Lapland-Meier method, and the differences were examined using log-rank tests. Cox proportional- hazards regression analysis was applied in order to estimate univariate and multivariate hazard ratios for OS. RESULTS: The relative expression of miR-503 in NSCLC tissues (0.366±0.130) was significantly lower than that in matched noncancerous lung tissues (1.667±1.047, P<0.01). Statistically significant association was observed between miR-503 expression and lymphatic invasion (P=0.005), distant metastasis (P=0.002), TNM stage (P=0.008), and tumor grade (P=0.043). Lapland Meier analysis clearly illustrated that the patients with the lower expression of miR-503 had a worse outcome compared to patients with higher miR-503 expression (P=0.004). Furthermore, multivariate analysis revealed that miR-503 expression level was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival (HR=3.992, 95% CI: 2.276-9.872; P=0.018) in NSCLC. CONCLUSION: In patients with NSCLC, low miR-503 expression is an independent prognostic factor.

MicroRNA-153 expression and prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer.

BACKGROUND: miR-153 has been found to be significantly decreased in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissues; however, its clinical significance has not been investigated. METHODS: The expression patterns of miR-153 in 137 pairs of human lung cancer tissues and adjacent normal lung tissues were analyzed using qRT-PCR. The relationships between miR-153 expression and clinicopathological parameters were examined by chi-square test. Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test were used to determine the difference in overall survival (OS) rates between two groups. RESULTS: The expression of miR-153 was reduced significantly, compared with adjacent normal lung tissues (P<0.05). We observed that the expression level of miR-153 was positively correlated with the clinical stage (P=0.005), lymph node status (P=0.014), distant metastasis (P=0.004), and differentiated degree (P<0.001) in NSCLC patients. According to the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, the patients with low miR-153 expression exhibited evidently poorer overall survival rates than those with high miR-153 expression (P=0.003). Multivariate analysis showed that the expression of miR-153 was an independent and significant factor associated with poor OS rates (P=0.002). CONCLUSION: Decreased expression of miR-153 might be a potential unfavorable prognostic factor for patients with NSCLC, and further studies would be needed to prove our findings.