Mycorrhizal fungi regulate daily rhythm of circadian clock in trifoliate orange under drought stress.

The circadian rhythm of plants is associated with stress responses; however, it is not clear whether increased host plant drought tolerance by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) is associated with changes in the circadian clock. The present study aimed to analyze the effect of Funneliformis mosseae (Nicol. & Gerd.) Schüßler & Walker on the circadian clock gene expression patterns in trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata L. Raf.) along with gas exchange, abscisic acid (ABA) levels and antioxidant enzyme gene expression under well-watered (WW) and drought stress (DS) conditions. Plant growth, net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance and ABA levels were significantly higher in AMF- than in non-AMF-inoculated plants regardless of soil water regimes. Six circadian clock genes, including PtPRR7, PtLHY, PtCCA1, PtGI, PtPIF3 and PtSRR1, were identified and showed rhythmic expression patterns over the course of the day. The AMF inoculation reduced the expression of most circadian clock genes in different time periods. However, AMF treatment significantly increased PtPRR7 and PtGI expression at 5:00 p.m. under WW and DS conditions, PtLHY expression at 1:00 a.m. and PtSRR1 expression at 9:00 p.m. At 1:00 a.m., AMF inoculation up-regulated the expression of the circadian clock genes PtPRR7, PtCCA1, PtLHY and PtPIF3 and the antioxidant enzyme genes PtFe-SOD, PtMn-SOD, PtCu/Zn-SOD, PtPOD and PtCAT1. Correlation analysis revealed that these changes in circadian clock gene expression were associated with antioxidant enzyme gene expression, root ABA and gas exchange. We concluded that mycorrhizal fungi have the ability to regulate the daily rhythm of the circadian clock in trifoliate orange plants in response to drought.

Statin uses and mortality in colorectal cancer patients: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains one of the most common types of cancer and a leading cause of death worldwide. Previous studies indicated that statins may have a potential protective effect on CRC. METHODS: We conducted this meta-analysis to systematically assess the overall and cancer-specific survival benefit of statin uses on CRC patients. Related references were identified through PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, EMBASE, and SCOPUS from inception to August 2017. Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) were adopted to calculate summary hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs), using a random-effects model. RESULTS: Total fourteen studies involving 130 994 patients were included in this meta-analysis. Six studies reported the association between pre-diagnosis statin uses and CRC mortality, while 11 studies investigated mortality in patients using statins after CRC diagnosis. For pre-diagnosis statin uses, the pooled HR of all-cause mortality (ACM) was 0.85 (95% CI, 0.79-0.92) and the pooled HR of cancer-specific mortality (CSM) was 0.82 (95% CI, 0.79-0.86). In terms of post-diagnosis statin uses, the pooled HR of ACM was 0.86 (95% CI, 0.76-0.98), and the pooled HR of CSM was 0.79 (95% CI, 0.70-0.89). For post-diagnosis statin uses, there is no difference in ACM when stratified by KRAS gene (KRAS) mutation status. Results of ACM and CSM did not markedly alter in other subgroup analyses. CONCLUSION: Our meta-analysis demonstrates that both pre-diagnosis and post-diagnosis statin uses are associated with reduced ACM and CSM for CRC patients.

Impact of Barrett's esophagus surveillance on the prognosis of esophageal adenocarcinoma: A meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Whether endoscopic surveillance would improve the outcomes of esophageal adenocarcinoma in patients previously diagnosed with Barrett's esophagus remains unclear. This meta-analysis aimed to assess the survival advantages of endoscopic surveillance for patients with Barrett's esophagus. METHODS: Databases including PubMed, the Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library were examined systematically from their inception to July 2017, for articles related to the survival outcomes of esophageal adenocarcinoma in patients with Barrett's esophagus under endoscopic surveillance. Adjusted hazard estimates were adopted to determine overall results with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), using the fixed-effect model. We conducted subgroup and sensitivity analyses using the "metan" command in Stata software to assess the stability of the overall results. Begg's test, Egger's test and the funnel plot were used to evaluate the presence of publication bias. RESULTS: A total of eight studies (two case-control and six cohort studies) were finally included in our current study. Compared with patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma that was not detected by surveillance, a significant 29% reduction in mortality from esophageal adenocarcinoma was observed among patients under endoscopic surveillance (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 0.71, 95% CI 0.66-0.77). This effect was presented in both the USA (adjusted HR 0.71, 95% CI 0.65-0.78) and Europe (adjusted HR 0.71, 95% CI 0.60-0.83). We found no evidence of publication bias. CONCLUSIONS: Our meta-analysis supports the concept that endoscopic surveillance for patients with Barrett's esophagus could improve the prognosis of esophageal adenocarcinoma. More well-designed prospective studies are needed to confirm this association.

Different Anatomical Subsites of Colon Cancer and Mortality: A Population-Based Study.

BACKGROUND: In terms of incidence and pathogenesis, right-sided colon cancer (RCC) and left-sided colon cancer (LCC) exhibit several differences. However, whether existing differences could reflect the different survival outcomes remains unclear. Therefore, we aimed to ascertain the role of location in the prognosis. METHODS: We identified colon cancer cases from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database between 1973 and 2012. Differences among subsites of colon cancer regarding clinical features and metastatic patterns were compared. The Kaplan-Meier curves were conducted to compare overall and disease-specific survival in relation to cancer location. The effect of tumour location on overall and cancer-specific survival was analysed by Cox proportional hazards model. RESULTS: A total of 377,849 patients from SEER database were included in the current study, with 180,889 (47.9%) RCC and 196,960 (52.1%) LCC. LCC was more likely to metastasize to the liver and lung. Kaplan-Meier curves demonstrated that LCC patients had better overall and cancer-specific survival outcomes. Among Cox multivariate analyses, LCC was associated with a slightly reduced risk of overall survival (HR, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.92-0.93) and cancer-specific survival (HR, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.91-0.93), even after adjusted for other variables. However, the relationship between location and prognosis was varied by subgroups defined by age, year at diagnosis, stage, and therapies. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated that LCC was associated with better prognosis, especially for patients with distant metastasis. Future trails should seek to identify the underlying mechanism.

Excessive risk of second primary cancers in young-onset colorectal cancer survivors.

With an increasing trend of patients with young-onset colorectal cancer (CRC), risks of second primary cancers (SPCs) among them become a concerning issue. We aimed to define the detailed risk and site-distributed patterns of SPCs in young CRC individuals (age ≤50). A population-based cohort were identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database between 1973 and 2013. Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) and absolute excess risk (AER) were calculated to assess the risk for SPCs compared with the general population. A total of 44,106 patients, including 3245 (7.4%) the young and 40,861 (92.6%) the old, developed 50,679 secondary malignancies subsequently. With increased age, the risk of secondary cancers gradually decreased. A significant 44% excess risk of SPCs was observed in the young (SIR = 1.44, AER = 34.23), while a slightly increased risk was noted in the old (SIR = 1.02, AER = 4.29). For young survivors, the small intestine (SIR = 8.49), bile ducts (SIR = 3.77), corpus, and uterus (SIR = 2.45) were the most common sites of SPCs. Significantly, excess SIRs in the young were persisted regardless of other factors. For the young, secondary cancer-related deaths were responsible for 51.2% of overall deaths and secondary stomach, liver and bile, pancreas cancers were top three causes. An excessive risk of SPCs existed in young CRC survivors, and this trend was consistent among different subgroups. We hope our findings may inform future targeted screening strategies among young-onset CRC survivors.