MiR-204/ZEB2 axis functions as key mediator for MALAT1-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition in breast cancer.

Long non-coding RNAs recently were identified as key mediators of cancer metastasis. This study provided evidence that long non-coding RNA MALAT1 was up-regulated in breast cancer tissues and cell lines. MALAT1 promoted cancer cell invasion through inducing epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Interestingly, we revealed there was a reciprocal repression between MALAT1 and miR-204. ZEB2 was identified as a downstream target of miR-204 and MALAT1 exerted its function mainly through the miR-204/ZEB2 axis. Our findings suggested that MALAT1 may serve as a new diagnostic biomarker and therapy target for breast cancer.

Down-regulation of miR-133a as a poor prognosticator in non-small cell lung cancer.

miR-133a has been demonstrated to play an important role in tumor progression. The aim of present study was to analyze the correlation between miR-133a expression level and clinicopathologic features and its prognostic significance in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The expression of miR-133a in 104 pairs of human lung cancer tissues and adjacent normal lung tissues were analyzed by qRT-PCR. Here we show that miR-133a was down-regulated in NSCLC. The levels of miR-133a were negatively correlated with the status of N classification (N0-N1 vs. N2-N3, P=0.000), clinical stage (I-II vs. III-IV, P=0.010) and MMP-14 expression (High vs. Low, P=0.012). The patients with low miR-133a expression had shorter survival time than those with high miR-133a expression. Multivariate analysis indicated that the level of miR-133a expression was an independent prognostic indicator (P=0.012) for the survival of patients with NSCLC. In conclusion, decreased expression of miR-133a might be a potential unfavorable prognostic factor for patients with NSCLC, and further studies would be needed to prove our findings.

Efficacy of concurrent single-agent chemotherapy using radiotherapy in patients with cervical cancer: a meta-analysis.

Concurrent chemoradiotherapy has proven to be more effective on patients with advanced cervical cancer than radiotherapy alone. Although cisplatin has been recommended to be the standard agent in chemotherapy, it has some limitations in clinical use because of its strong side effects. Moreover, the optimal chemotherapy regimen remains unclear. A comprehensive electronic search was conducted via the Internet retrieval system to identify eligible trials. The ending points included response, overall survival (OS), local recurrent, and distant metastasis rates. Odds ratios and 95% confidence interval were calculated to compare the effects. Fifteen trials with 1142 patients were eligible. With regard to the response rate, only nedaplatin showed a significant improvement compared with cisplatin. Docetaxel, pacitaxel, fluoropyrimidine, paclitaxel liposome, and irinotecan did not show any advantages. When targeted on OS or local recurrent rate, no significant advantage was found when these single-drug regimens were compared with cisplatin. However, when aimed at distant metastasis rate, fluoropyrimidine showed a disadvantage to cisplatin, whereas others showed equal efficacy. Nedaplatin, docetaxel, pacitaxel, and fluoropyrimidine showed a better effect on reducing chemotherapy toxicity than cisplatin. Single-drug chemotherapy concurrent with radiotherapy, except for nedaplatin, may have no advantage on clinical outcomes when compared with cisplatin but showed a better effect on reducing chemotherapy toxicity, which could be used as an alternative to patients who can not tolerate the side effects of cisplatin. Nedaplatin is also effective and safe, and may be highly valuable in clinical applications.

epv, Encoding a hypothetical protein, is regulated by DSF-mediating quorum sensing as well as global regulator Clp and is required for optimal virulence in Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzicola.

Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzicola causes bacterial leaf streak in rice, a destructive disease worldwide. In this study, six putative hypothetical secreted proteins, which were absent in X. oryzae pv. oryzae, were detected from X. oryzae pv. oryzicola strain BLS256. Disruption-based mutagenesis study revealed that one of them, Xoc_15235, named as extracellular polysaccharide and virulence-related gene (epv), was required for the optimal virulence in host rice but not for the induction of a hypersensitive reaction in nonhost tobacco. Sequence analysis revealed that epv was highly conserved in Xanthomonas spp. (except X. oryzae pv. oryzae). In-frame deletion of epv in X. oryzae pv. oryzicola dramatically impaired pathogen virulence and extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) production, one of the important known virulence-associated functions in Xanthomonas spp. Quantitative real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction showed that expression of both gumB (a gene encoding exopolysaccharide xanthan biosynthesis export protein) and a known virulence-related gene, pgk (encoding phosphoglycerate kinase), were obviously reduced in the epv-deletion mutant compared with the wild-type strain Rs105. In addition, we observed that epv was positively regulated by both diffusible signal factor and global regulator Clp in X. oryzae pv. oryzicola. Taken together, the novel roles and genetics of epv of X. oryzae pv. oryzicola in the EPS production and virulence were investigated for the first time.