Screening of genes related to breast cancer prognosis based on the DO-UniBIC method.

BACKGROUND: Early screening is the most effective way to control breast cancer. Due to the lack of accurate biomarkers, early diagnosis of breast cancer is still very difficult. Therefore, it is necessary to discover new candidate genes of breast cancer and improve the early diagnosis and prognosis. METHODS: A DO-UniBIC gene screening method was proposed. First, Disease Ontology (DO) analysis was used to screen out breast cancer related genes from differentially expressed genes, and then the UniBIC algorithm was used to find all gene clusters with the same changing trend based on the longest common subsequence. In addition, an eight-gene prognostic model was constructed to assess the prognostic risk of breast cancer patients. RESULTS: The prognostic analysis of the candidate genomes based on multivariate Cox proportional regression model revealed eight genes that were significantly related to prognosis. The eight genes were ACSL1, CD24, EMP1, JPH3, CAMK4, JUN, S100B and TP53AIP1. Among them, ACSL1 was a new potential breast cancer related gene screened by the DO-UniBIC method. CONCLUSIONS: More comprehensive cancer-related genes can be screened based on the DO-UniBIC method, which can be used as the candidate gene set for prognostic analysis.

Dissipation Behavior of Three Fungicides during the Industrial Processing of PaeoniaeRadix Alba and Associated Processing Factors.

Before being administered as medicinal products, Chinese herbal medicines (CHMs) must be processed and decocted for human consumption. While the presence of pesticide residues in CHMs is a major concern, pesticide dissipation behavior during CHM processing has rarely been reported. In this study, the dissipation of three pesticide residues in the CHM Paeoniae Radix Alba (PRA) was investigated during each step of industrial processing. The boiling process was found to significantly reduce pesticide residues (61-89%), and the peeling process also contributed to pesticide degradation (29-68%). The high temperature (60 °C) during the drying process led to further pesticide degradation. The processing factors of all three pesticides after each processing step were less than one, and the processing factors for the overall process were lower than 0.027, indicating that industrial processing clearly reduced the amount of pesticide residues (97.3-99.4%). The findings provide guidance for the safe use of fungicides in CHMs and can help establish maximum residue limits for PRA to reduce human exposure to pesticides.

Clinical comparison of the efficacy of three different bowel preparation methods on the infectious complications following transrectal ultrasonography-guided prostate biopsy in nursing practice.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To assess the effects of three different bowel preparation methods on the incidence of infectious complications in patients who underwent transrectal ultrasonography-guided prostate biopsy. BACKGROUND: The standard bowel preparation protocol for prostate biopsy has not been established. DESIGN: A retrospective study in a single centre. METHODS: From January 2013-December 2015, the clinical records of 1,130 patients who underwent prostate biopsy were, respectively, reviewed. All the patients received metronidazole prophylaxis before biopsy. The patients were divided into three groups according to the bowel preparation methods: patients in Group A (n = 402) received only soapy enema; patients in Group B (n = 413) received polyethylene glycol; while patients in Group C (n = 315) received polyethylene glycol plus povidone-iodine enema. Infectious complications were classified as fever (>37.5°C), urinary tract infection and sepsis. The postoperative adverse events were also observed. RESULTS: The overall postbiopsy infectious complications were observed in 48 (4.25%) patients of all the cases, including 23 (5.72%) cases in Group A, 20 (4.84%) cases in Group B and five patients (1.59%) in Group C. There was significant difference among the groups (p = .018). In detail, these infectious complications included 22 (1.95%) cases of fever and 26 (2.30%) cases of urinary tract infection. No sepsis was observed among the total patients. The incidence of adverse events was 14.43% (58/402) occurred in Group A, 25.91% (107/413) in Group B and 26.67% (84/315) in Group C. The difference was statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: Our study confirmed that combined preparation regimens of polyethylene glycol with povidone-iodine enema could significantly reduce the postbiopsy infection rate. Conventional soapy enema is associated with less adverse events. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Findings of this study provide useful evidence-based information for healthcare professionals. The application of combined preparation regimens of polyethylene glycol with povidone-iodine enema resulted in better improvement in the prevention of postbiopsy infection.

Comparative proteomic analysis of anti-cancer mechanism by periplocin treatment in lung cancer cells.

BACKGROUND: Periplocin is used for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, reinforcement of bones and tendons, palpitations or shortness of breath and lower extremity edema in traditional medicine. Our previous findings suggested that periplocin could inhibit the growth of lung cancer both in vitro and in vivo. But the biological processes and molecular pathways by which periplocin induces these beneficial effects remain largely undefined. METHODS: To explore the molecular mechanisms of periplocin involved in anti-cancer activity, in the present study the protein profile changes of human lung cancer cell lines A549 in response to periplocin treatment were investigated using the proteomics approaches (2-DE combined with MS/MS). Western blot was employed to verify the changed proteins. Interactions between changed proteins were analyzed by STRING. RESULTS: 29 down-regulated protein species named GTP-binding nuclear protein Ran (RAN), Rho GDP-dissociation inhibitor 1 (ARHGDIA), eukaryotic translation initiation factor 5A-1 (EIF5A) and Profilin-1(PFN1), and 10 up-regulated protein species named Heat shock cognate 71 kDa protein (HSPA8),10 kDa heat shock protein (HSPE1), and Cofilin-1(CFL-1) were identified. Among them, GTP-binding nuclear protein Ran (RAN) and Rho GDP-dissociation inhibitor 1 (ARHGDIA) were the most significantly changed (over tenfold). The proteasome subunit beta type-6 (PSMB6), ATP synthase ecto-α-subunit (ATP5A1), Aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1) and EIF5A were verified by immunoblot assays to be dramatically down-regulated. By STRING bioinformatics analysis revealing interactions and signaling networks it became apparent that the proteins changed they are primarily involved in transcription and proteolysis. CONCLUSION: Periplocin inhibited growth of lung cancer by down-regulating proteins, such as ATP5A1, EIF5A, ALDH1 and PSMB6. These findings may improve our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the anti-cancer effects of periplocin on lung cancer cells.