Lipidomics analysis of bone marrow in a mouse model of postmenopausal osteoporosis.

Postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMOP) is a major public health problem worldwide, afflicting many postmenopausal women. Although many studies have focused on the biological role of individual lipids in osteoporosis, no studies have systematically elucidated the lipid profile of osteoporosis. In this study, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) technology based on multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) method was used to compare the levels of lipid molecules in bone marrow cells of osteoporotic mice (OVX) group and sham-operation (Sham) group. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used for multivariate statistics. Differential lipids were obtained by bar graph, heatmap and volcano map. A total of 400 lipid molecules were identified. A total of 199 lipid molecules were identified to be associated with PMOP, including 6 phospholipids and 3 sphingolipids. These differential lipid molecules provide a systematic lipid profile for osteoporosis, which helps to discover new candidate osteoporosis biomarkers, and their changes at the molecular level can be used as new targets for diagnosis or prevention.

A disulfidptosis-related lncRNAs signature in hepatocellular carcinoma: prognostic prediction, tumor immune microenvironment and drug susceptibility.

Disulfidptosis, a novel type of programmed cell death, has attracted researchers' attention worldwide. However, the role of disulfidptosis-related lncRNAs (DRLs) in liver hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC) not yet been studied. We aimed to establish and validate a prognostic signature of DRLs and analyze tumor microenvironment (TME) and drug susceptibility in LIHC patients. RNA sequencing data, mutation data, and clinical data were obtained from the Cancer Genome Atlas Database (TCGA). Lasso algorithm and cox regression analysis were performed to identify a prognostic DRLs signature. Kaplan-Meier curves, principal component analysis (PCA), nomogram and calibration curve, function enrichment, TME, immune dysfunction and exclusion (TIDE), tumor mutation burden (TMB), and drug sensitivity analyses were analyzed. External datasets were used to validate the predictive value of DRLs. qRT-PCR was also used to validate the differential expression of the target lncRNAs in tissue samples and cell lines. We established a prognostic signature for the DRLs (MKLN1-AS and TMCC1-AS1) in LIHC. The signature could divide the LIHC patients into low- and high-risk groups, with the high-risk subgroup associated with a worse prognosis. We observed discrepancies in tumor-infiltrating immune cells, immune function, function enrichment, and TIDE between two risk groups. LIHC patients in the high-risk group were more sensitive to several chemotherapeutic drugs. External datasets, clinical tissue, and cell lines confirmed the expression of MKLN1-AS and TMCC1-AS1 were upregulated in LIHC and associated with a worse prognosis. The novel signature based on the two DRLs provide new insight into LIHC prognostic prediction, TME, and potential therapeutic strategies.

High expression of ENPP2 is an independent predictor of poor prognosis in liver cancer.

Ectonucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase 2 (ENPP2) has been identified as a potential biomarker in lung and prostate cancers; however, its expression and clinical relevance in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain incompletely understood. This study comprehensively assessed ENPP2 expression in pan-cancer using bioinformatics. We analyzed the expression of ENPP2 mRNA in primary liver cancer and adjacent tissues of patients with HCC using data from the TCGA database. Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier methods were used to identify clinicopathological factors associated with survival, and the diagnostic value of ENPP2 expression was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. We also validated our findings by performing real-time PCR on clinical liver cancer samples. Furthermore, we conducted gene set enrichment analysis using the Cancer Genome Atlas dataset to gain additional insights into the biological significance of ENPP2 in HCC. High ENPP2 expression in HCC patients is associated with gender and clinical stage, and is a significant prognostic factor for worse outcomes. ENPP2 expression is an independent risk factor for progression-free and disease-specific survival in both cohorts, suggesting its potential as an HCC biomarker. ENPP2's diagnostic value in HCC patients was confirmed by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, which was 0.806. real-time PCR analysis validated the higher expression of ENPP2 in clinical liver cancer tissues. Gene set enrichment analysis identified pathways enriched in HCC patients with high ENPP2 expression, including those related to the cell cycle, MTOR and T cell receptor signaling, and phosphatidylinositol signaling systems. We have demonstrated that ENPP2 is highly expressed in HCC and is a potential independent molecular marker for the diagnosis and prognosis of HCC.

Diagnostic value of long noncoding RNA LINC01485 in patients with colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND: Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) were considered as transcription noise without biological functions. However, accumulated evidence shows that lncRNAs are expressed heterogeneously in tumor tissues. This study aims to identify the specific expression of lncRNAs in colorectal cancer patients and to perform verification analysis. METHODS: The differentially expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs in colorectal cancer and normal tissues were screened by bioinformatics methods. Subsequently, the qRT-PCR method was used to verify the expression of differential lncRNAs in tumor tissues and blood samples. Concurrently ROC curves were used to analyze the diagnostic efficacy of lncRNAs. Moreover, the correlation between lncRNAs and clinicopathological features was also analyzed. Finally, functional annotation analysis was performed for lncRNAs. RESULTS: Eleven lncRNAs differentially expressed in colorectal cancer tissues and normal tissues were screened. In the validation tissue sample set, FOXD3-AS1 was down-regulated in colorectal cancer tissues (P < 0.001), while LINC01485 was up-regulated in colorectal cancer tissues compared with the adjacent tissues (P < 0.05). In a further verification of the whole blood sample set, LINC01485 showed high sensitivity and specificity (sensitivity = 98.33%, specificity = 84.00%) in differentiating colorectal cancer patients from healthy controls (P < 0.001). Simultaneously, there was no difference in the expression of LINC01485 in other gastrointestinal tumors (hepatocellular carcinoma, esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, and pancreatic cancer) and healthy controls. LINC01485 is significantly related to the clinical staging, lymph node metastasis, and distant metastasis of colorectal cancer. CONCLUSIONS: The expression, diagnostic efficiency, and functional analysis of the lncRNA file of colorectal cancer reveals the important role of LINC01485 in colorectal cancer and provides an important clinical reference value for the early diagnosis and targeted therapy of colorectal cancer.

Diagnostic Value of Metagenomic Next Generation Sequencing for Ureaplasma urealyticum Infection: A Case Report.

Ureaplasma urealyticum has high nutritional requirements for culture, and it requires special tools for identification. Theoretically, metagenomic next generation sequencing (mNGS) can be used to detect many pathogens in clinical specimens, especially for complex infectious diseases with rare and atypical causes. Here, our patient developed severe pneumonia caused by U. urealyticum infection after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and the etiology is unclear. After continuous negative culture, U. urealyticum was detected in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid by mNGS, and azithromycin was used. Because of the difficulty in its diagnosis, diagnosis and treatment of extragenital U. urealyticum infection is challenging. In addition, many broad-spectrum antibiotics are ineffective against this pathogen because it lacks a cell wall. Therefore, early diagnosis and treatment are key to preventing further complications and deaths.