Research progress on microRNAs as molecular markers in pancreatic cancer: a narrative review.

Background and Objective: The incidence and mortality of pancreatic cancer (PC) have increased in recent years. The current status of PC diagnosis and treatment remains grim in clinical practice because the commonly used early screening tools are not sufficient. Improving the early detection of PC and strengthening standardized comprehensive treatment remain the focus of PC research. Many studies have shown that micro RNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in the occurrence, development, and treatment of PC. It is expected that miRNAs will become new molecular markers of PC. Methods: We extracted and compiled useful information from the PubMed database that met our criteria for analyzing PC diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. Key Content and Findings: In this narrative review, we summarize the mechanism of some miRNAs in the occurrence and development of PC and review them as potential markers for the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of PC. The function of miRNAs in PC has great potential in studying the pathogenesis of PC. The discovery of many important oncogenic miRNAs and their downstream targets will bring new ideas and research paths for the diagnosis and targeted therapy of PC. Conclusions: MiRNAs are expected to provide novel ideas and research directions for the diagnosis and targeted treatment of PC. However, more patient data and clinical trials are needed before miRNAs can become novel molecular markers for PC.

The Key Genes for Perineural Invasion in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Identified With Monte-Carlo Feature Selection Method.

BACKGROUND: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most aggressive form of pancreatic cancer. Its 5-year survival rate is only 3-5%. Perineural invasion (PNI) is a process of cancer cells invading the surrounding nerves and perineural spaces. It is considered to be associated with the poor prognosis of PDAC. About 90% of pancreatic cancer patients have PNI. The high incidence of PNI in pancreatic cancer limits radical resection and promotes local recurrence, which negatively affects life quality and survival time of the patients with pancreatic cancer. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the mechanism of PNI in pancreatic cancer, we analyzed the gene expression profiles of tumors and adjacent tissues from 50 PDAC patients which included 28 patients with perineural invasion and 22 patients without perineural invasion. METHOD: Using Monte-Carlo feature selection and Incremental Feature Selection (IFS) method, we identified 26 key features within which 15 features were from tumor tissues and 11 features were from adjacent tissues. RESULTS: Our results suggested that not only the tumor tissue, but also the adjacent tissue, was informative for perineural invasion prediction. The SVM classifier based on these 26 key features can predict perineural invasion accurately, with a high accuracy of 0.94 evaluated with leave-one-out cross validation (LOOCV). CONCLUSION: The in-depth biological analysis of key feature genes, such as TNFRSF14, XPO1, and ATF3, shed light on the understanding of perineural invasion in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

MiR-139-5p/SLC7A11 inhibits the proliferation, invasion and metastasis of pancreatic carcinoma via PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.

OBJECTIVE: Pancreatic carcinoma (PANC) is one of the important aggressive cancers, with deficiency in effective therapeutics. The study aimed to investigate the effects and molecular mechanism of miR-139-5p/SLC7A11 on the proliferation and metastasis of PANC. METHODS: Bioinformatics was used to analyze the differentially expressed genes in the TCGA database. PANC cell lines with overexpressed miR-139-5p and Solute Carrier Family 7, Member 11 (SLC7A11) was established, and have been used to detect cell proliferation, invasion and metastasis of PANC Subsequently, bioinformatic analysis and dual luciferase reporter assay were performed to confirm that SLC7A11 was a target gene of miR-139-5p. Xenograft mice model was used to explore the functions of miR-139-5p in PANC tumorigenicity. RESULTS: MiR-139-5p could regulate and affect the protein expression of P13K and Akt associated with phosphatidylinositol signaling pathway by inhibiting SLC7A11. MiR-139-5p was found to be lowly expressed in PANC tissues, while SLC7A11 was highly expressed. Low expression of miR-139-5p and high expression of SLC7A11 were positively associated with poor clinical outcomes. PANC cell proliferation, invasion and metastasis could be inhibited by miR-139-5p overexpression and be promoted by SLC7A11 overexpression. MiR-139-5p overexpression could suppress PANC tumor growth and the expressions of SLC7A11, p-PI3K, p-Akt in tumor tissues. Therefore, the inhibitory of miR-139-5p to PANC cell proliferation, invasion and metastasis was partly due to its inhibiting effect on SLC7A11 expression. CONCLUSION: Our study proves that miR-139-5p/SLC7A11 has important functions on PANC, suggesting that miR-139-5p can be used as a biomarker for PANC patients.

Autologous Blood Transfusion and Pringle Maneuver in Laparoscopic Segmental Hepatectomy for Benign Hepatic Neoplasms: A Retrospective Study.

Objectives: To investigate the effect of autologous blood transfusion (ABT) and Pringle maneuver (PM) on postoperative early liver function and short-term postoperative results following laparoscopic liver resection in patients with benign hepatic neoplasms. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data for 125 consecutive patients who underwent laparoscopic segmental hepatectomy from January 2015 to May 2018 (68 in the ABT group versus 57 in the PM group). We compared patients' characteristics and intra- and postoperative short-term outcomes between the groups. Results: The 2 groups were well matched regarding patients' clinical characteristics, types of liver resection, operative time, and histopathological findings (P > .05). Median blood loss was significantly lower in the PM group versus the ABT group (200 mL versus 750 mL, respectively; P < .01), and overall complication rates were similar (n = 12 [17%] versus n = 9 [16%], respectively; P > .05). The ABT group had significantly lower mean levels of total bilirubin, indirect bilirubin, aspartate transaminase, and alanine aminotransferase on postoperative days 1 and 3 (P < .05). The ABT group had a shorter hospital stay compared with the PM group (5.8 days versus 7.7 days, respectively; P < .05) and lower hospitalization costs (55,400 ± 15,400 versus 667,000 ± 21,600 CN dollars, respectively; P < .05). Conclusions: Compared with Pringle's maneuver, laparoscopic hepatectomy with ABT promoted early recovery of liver function and reduced hospitalization costs in select patients with benign hepatic neoplasms.