[Expression of pepsin in nasopharyngeal carcinoma and its correlation with quality of life after radiotherapy].

Objective: By analyzing the expression of pepsin in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) tissues, to investigate the correlation between laryngeal reflux (LPR) and NPC, as well as the effect of LPR on the quality of life of patients with NPC after radiotherapy. Methods: A total of 133 patients with NPC who underwent radiotherapy at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology of the Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University and the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Guizhou Medical University from 2005 to 2019 were enrolled consecutively, including 90 males and 43 females, aged (44.32±7.47) years old. At the same period, 58 patients with chronic nasopharyngitis who underwent nasopharyngeal biopsy were selected as the control group. Immunohistochemical method was used to detect the expression of pepsin in nasopharyngeal specimens of the two groups. In addition, 188 normal individuals were selected as the normal group in the same period. NPC patients before and within 6 months after radiotherapy were inverstigated by the General Information Questionnaire and the Quality of Life Scale, and the pepsin levels in saliva of NPC patients before and after radiotherapy and the individuals in normal group were measured. SPSS 21.0 software was used for statistical analysis. Results: Pepsin expression in 133 specimens of NPC patients was strongly positive in 24 cases (18.05%), positive in 21 cases (15.79%), weakly positive in 69 cases (51.88%), and negative in 19 cases (14.29%). The specimens of control group had 10 cases of weakly positive (17.24%), 48 cases of negative (82.76%), but no strong positive or positive pepsin expression. The rate of positive pepsin expression in the NPC group was higher than that in the control group, with a statistically significant (χ2=83.15, P<0.001). The pepsin content in the saliva of NPC patients after radiotherapy ((30.31±7.82) ng/ml) was higher than that before radiotherapy ((20.47±8.21) ng/ml) and the normal group (5.11±2.13) ng/ml), and the pepsin content in saliva before radiotherapy was higher than that in the normal group, and all differences were statistically significant (all P<0.05). After radiotherapy, the five functional domains of quality of life and overall quality of life of NPC patients decreased, while the related symptom scores increased (all P<0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that pepsin content in saliva was the influential factor of five functional domains of quality of life, related symptoms and overall quality of life in NPC patients after radiotherapy (all P<0.05). Conclusion: The positive rate of pepsin expression in NPC tissues is high, and the pepsin in saliva before and after radiotherapy of NPC patients is significantly higher than that in normal, suggesting that LPR may be involved in the process of NPC and affect the quality of life after radiotherapy in NPC patients.

Preliminary results indicate increased expression of miR-184 in patients with renal carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE: Renal carcinoma is the second most common cancer in the urinary system with an increasing trend. The major treatment for renal carcinoma is surgery, which results in unfavorable prognosis at times. As a tissue-specific marker for tumor, microRNA (miR) exerts its functions via facilitating oncogenic gene expression or suppressing tumor suppressor gene. MiR-184 is known to be abnormally expressed in various tumors. There are few studies about the lack of miR-184 expression in renal carcinoma. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Real time-Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) was used to measure the expression of miR-184 in 38 renal carcinoma and adjacent tissues. The in vitro cultured renal carcinoma cell line ACHN was transfected with miR-184 mimic or inhibitor. The expression of miR-184 was measured by real time-PCR, and the cell proliferation was measured by MTT assay. The cell colony formation was examined, and the cell invasion potency was assessed by transwell assay. The apoptotic activity was measured by flow cytometry, and the Western blot detected protein expression change of ß-catenin/TCF3 pathway. RESULTS: Compared to tumor-adjacent tissues, miR-184 and ß-catenin/TCF3 showed an elevated expression in renal carcinoma tissues which were further increased with elevated RC stages (p<0.05). The transfection of miR-184 mimic into ACHN cells increased its expression, enhanced ACHN cell proliferation, colony formation, inhibited apoptosis, promoted tumor cell invasion, and increased the expression of ß-catenin and TCF4 proteins (p<0.05 compared to NC control group). CONCLUSIONS: MiR-184 is up-regulated in renal carcinoma tissues. The downregulation of miR-184 in renal carcinoma cells could facilitate cell apoptosis and inhibited tumor proliferation or invasion possibly via modulating ß-catenin/TCF4 pathway.