Clinical significance of microRNA 138 and cyclin D3 in hepatocellular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: MicroRNA 138 (miR-138) is recently shown to inhibit tumor growth and block cell cycle arrest of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by targeting cyclin D3 (CCND3). The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical significance of miR-138 and CCND3 in human HCC, which remains unclear. METHODS: Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis was performed to detect the expression levels of miR-138 and CCND3 messenger RNA (mRNA) in 180 self-pairs of HCC and noncancerous liver tissues. RESULTS: Compared with noncancerous liver tissues, the expression levels of miR-138 in HCC tissues were significantly downregulated (P < 0.001), whereas the expression levels of CCND3 mRNA in HCC tissues were significantly upregulated (P < 0.001). There was a negative correlation between miR-138 and CCND3 mRNA expression in HCC tissues (r = -0.56, P = 0.02). Additionally, statistical analysis showed that the combined miR 138 downregulation and CCND3 upregulation (miR-138-low-CCND3-high) was significantly associated with the advanced tumor-node-metastasis stage (P = 0.008) and the presence of portal vein invasion (P = 0.008) and lymph node metastasis (P = 0.01). More importantly, a significant trend was identified between the combined expression of miR-138-low-CCND3-high in HCC and worsening clinical prognosis. Multivariate survival analysis further recognized miR-138-low-CCND3-high expression as an independent prognostic factor for patients with HCC. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that the combined expression of miR-138 and its direct target CCND3 may be correlated with significant characteristics of HCC. MiR-138 downregulation and CCND3 upregulation maybe concurrently associated with prognosis in patients with HCC.

Optimization Algorithm for Ideological and Political Curriculum Environment in Colleges Using Data Analysis and Neighborhood Search Operator.

In the context of the new era, the distinctive function of BD (big data) analysis and prediction also introduces a new way of thinking to university IPE (ideological and political education), broadens the domain of university IPE, and enhances the curricular offerings of IPE universities. In order to enhance the intelligence and personalization of the intelligent teaching system, this paper describes in detail the design and implementation processes for each component of the system. It also uses the association mining rule algorithm of data mining. To maintain population diversity, a population initialization method and a neighborhood-based search operator are used, both of which are based on a thorough consideration of the characteristics of complex networks. The neighborhood search strategy enhances the local search capability of the TLBO (Teaching-Learning Based Optimization) algorithm. The optimized TLBO algorithm presented in this paper achieves the highest average modularity value of 0.5238 through testing on real-world data sets. The outcomes demonstrate that the algorithm performs well and is successful in identifying problems in the community.

[Corrigendum] FOXO3a­mediated suppression of the self­renewal capacity of sphere­forming cells derived from the ovarian cancer SKOV3 cell line by 7­difluoromethoxyl­5,4'­di­n­octyl genistein.

Subsequently to the publication of this paper, an interested reader drew to the authors' attention that strikingly similar western blot data were shown in Fig. 2 (to portray the Nagon data in Fig. 2A and the CD133 data in Fig. 2B), and the same data also appeared to have been included in Fig. 4 (to show the p­FOXO3a data). After having examined their original data, the authors have realized that these figures were inadvertently assembled incorrectly. The corrected versions of Figs. 2 and 4, showing the correct data for the CD133 experiment in Fig. 2B and the p­FOXO3a experiment in Fig. 4, are shown opposite. Note that these errors did not significantly affect the results or the conclusions reported in this paper, and all the authors agree to this Corrigendum. Furthermore, the authors apologize to the readership for any inconvenience caused. [the original article was published in Molecular Medicine Reports 9: 1982­1988, 2014; DOI: 10.3892/mmr.2014.2012].

Long non-coding RNA ASMTL-AS1 inhibits tumor growth and glycolysis by regulating the miR-93-3p/miR-660/FOXO1 axis in papillary thyroid carcinoma.

Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) is emerging as an essential player in cancer progression. However, its biological function and clinical implication in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) remain poorly understood. In the current study, we found that a novel lncRNA, ASMTL antisense RNA 1 (ASMTL-AS1), was significantly downregulated in PTC. And its downregulation was positively linked to larger tumor size, advanced clinical stage and unfavorable outcome. Overexpression of ASMTL-AS1 evidently inhibited PTC cell proliferation and glycolysis, while knockdown of ASMTL-AS1 resulted in the opposite effect. Regarding the mechanism, ASMTL-AS1 was capable of sponging miR-93-3p and miR-660 to elevate FOXO1 expression, leading to repressing glycolysis and tumorigenesis. In turn, FOXO1 could also increase ASMTL-AS1 expression via directly binding to ASMTL-AS1 promoter, which formed a positive feedback regulation loop. Importantly, the regulatory axis of ASMTL-AS1/miR-93-3p/miR-660/FOXO1 was also identified in vivo. Collectively, our data clearly indicate that ASMTL-AS1 functions as a novel tumor suppressor in PTC through regulation of miR-93-3p/miR-660/FOXO1 pathway. Targeting ASMTL-AS1 and its downstream pathway may be an effective therapeutic approach for patients with PTC.

FOXO3a-mediated suppression of the self-renewal capacity of sphere-forming cells derived from the ovarian cancer SKOV3 cell line by 7-difluoromethoxyl-5,4'-di-n-octyl genistein.

Carcinogenesis is predominantly dependent on the cancer stem cells (CSCs) residing or populating within the cancer. We previously demonstrated that the novel synthetic genistein analogue, 7-difluoromethoxyl-5,4'-di-n-octylgenistein (DFOG), induced apoptotic cell death of ovarian and gastric cancer cells. The present study demonstrated that sphere­forming cells (SFCs) derived from the ovarian cancer cell-line SKOV3 possessed ovarian cancer stem-like cell (OCSLC) properties, including self-renewal and high tumorigenicity. DFOG may be effective in inhibiting the self­renewal capacity of SFCs derived from the SKOV3 cell line. DFOG decreased the level of phosphorylated FOXO3a protein in SKOV3 cell­derived SFCs. The inhibition of FOXO3a expression by siRNA significantly attenuated the ability of DFOG to inhibit the self-renewal capacity of SKOV3-derived SFCs. Our results suggested that DFOG has been demonstrated to significantly inhibit the self-renewal capacity of ovarian cancer stem cells (OCSCs) through a mechanism partly dependent on the activation of FOXO3a.