Circulating C1q/TNF-related protein-12 levels are associated with the severity of coronary artery disease.

BACKGROUND: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the world's largest cause of death. The association of CAD with inflammation is well established. Recently, it has been confirmed that the C1q/TNF-related protein 12 (CTRP12) has a great anti-inflammatory effect. However, few data are available regarding the serum CTRP12 concentration levels in CAD patients. OBJECTIVE: The study was performed to evaluate the correlation between the serum levels of CTRP12 and the CAD severity regarding to the number of affected vessels. METHODS: About 200 suspected CAD patients and 50 healthy ones as a control, were evaluated based on case-control study. According to the results of angiography, patients were divided into CAD+ (n = 150) with any major coronary artery stenosis ≥50% and CAD- (n = 50) with <50% stenosis of the arteries. The CAD+patients were categorized into one- (1VD), two- (2VD) and three-vessel disease (3VD) based on the number of stenotic vessels. In the current study, different parameters such as CTRP12, tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), total oxidant status (TOS), total antioxidant capacity (TAC), and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were evaluated, and also lipid profiles, hs-CRP and demographic factors were investigated as well. RESULTS: Data revealed that CTRP12 and TAC levels in CAD + group were significantly lower than control subjects (P < 0.05). CTRP12 levels were found to be significantly lower in the 3VD compared with 1VD and 2VD subgroups (p < 0.01 and p < 0.05, respectively). CONCLUSION: Our results confirmed that serum CTRP12 level is inversely associated with CAD severity. Therefore, it may be used as a prediction marker for CAD.

Exosomal microRNAs and exosomal long non-coding RNAs in gynecologic cancers.

Gynecologic cancer is a group of any malignancies affecting reproductive tissues and organs of women, including ovaries, uterine, cervix, vagina, vulva, and endometrium. Several types of molecular mechanisms are associated with the progression of gynecologic cancers. Among it can be referred to the most widely studied non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), specifically microRNAs (miRNAs) and long ncRNAs (lncRNAs). As yet, lncRNAs are known to serve key biological roles via various mechanisms, such as splicing regulation, chromatin rearrangement, translation regulation, cell-cycle control, genetic imprinting and mRNA decay. Besides, miRNAs govern gene expression by modulation of mRNAs and lncRNAs degradation, suggestive of needing more research in this field. Generally, driving gynecological cancers pathways by miRNAs and lncRNAs lead to the current improvement in cancer-related technologies. Exosomes are extracellular microvesicles which can carry cargo molecules among cells. In recent years, more studies have been focused on exosomal non-coding RNAs (exo-ncRNAs) and exosomal microRNAs (exo-miRs) because of being natural carriers of lnc RNAs and microRNAs via programmed process. In this review we summarized recent reports concerning the function of exosomal microRNAs and exosomal long non-coding RNAs in gynecological cancers.