Circulating Noncoding RNAs Have a Promising Future Acting as Novel Biomarkers for Colorectal Cancer.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignant tumors worldwide, causing a large number of cancer-related deaths each year. Patients are usually diagnosed at advanced and incurable stages due to the lack of suitable screening methods for early detection. Noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs), including small and long noncoding RNAs (lncRNA), are known to have significant regulatory functions, and accumulating evidence suggests that circulating ncRNAs have potential applications as noninvasive biomarkers for diagnosing CRC, evaluating its prognosis, or predicting chemosensitivity in the general population. In this review, we summarize the origins of circulating ncRNAs and provide details of single and multiple circulating ncRNAs that might have roles as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in CRC. We end by discussing circulating ncRNAs that may distinguish patients with resistance to chemotherapy.

Non-coding RNAs participate in the regulatory network of CLDN4 via ceRNA mediated miRNA evasion.

Thousands of genes have been well demonstrated to play important roles in cancer progression. As genes do not function in isolation, they can be grouped into "networks" based on their interactions. In this study, we discover a network regulating Claudin-4 in gastric cancer. We observe that Claudin-4 is up-regulated in gastric cancer and is associated with poor prognosis. Claudin-4 reinforce proliferation, invasion, and EMT in AGS, HGC-27, and SGC-7901 cells, which could be reversed by miR-596 and miR-3620-3p. In addition, lncRNA-KRTAP5-AS1 and lncRNA-TUBB2A could act as competing endogenous RNAs to affect the function of Claudin-4. Our results suggest that non-coding RNAs play important roles in the regulatory network of Claudin-4. As such, non-coding RNAs should be considered as potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets against gastric cancer.Non-coding RNAs can modify the expression of proteins in cancer networks. Here the authors reveal a regulatory network in gastric cancer whereby claudin-4 expression is reduced by specific miRNAs, which are in turn bound by specific lncRNAs acting as competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs), resulting in increased claudin-4 expression.

The T Allele of rs8075977 in the 5'-Flanking Region of the PEDF Gene Is Associated with Reduced Risk of Coronary Artery Disease in Elderly Chinese Men.

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a multifactorial disease with a genetic component. Pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) exerts anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-thrombotic, and anti-angiogenic effects and thus has received increasing attention as a sensitive biomarker of atherosclerosis and CAD. To explore the potential association between PEDF single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and CAD, we performed this case-control study of consecutive elderly Chinese Han male patients (n = 416) and age-matched male controls (n = 528) without a history of CAD or electrocardiographic signs of CAD. The enrolled CAD patients (age ≥ 60 years) are not biologically related. A tag approach was used to examine 100% of common variations in the PEDF gene (r2 ≥ 0.8, minor allele frequency > 0.1). PEDF tag SNPs (tSNPs) were selected using the HapMap Data-CHB which describes the common patterns of human DNA sequence variation and Tagger program. SNPs were genotyped using ligase detection reaction (LDR). Seven tSNPs (rs8075977, rs11658342, rs1136287, rs12603825, rs12453107, rs6828 and rs11078634) were selected. Among them, only one SNP, rs8075977 (C/T) located in the 5'-flanking region, showed the significant effect on the susceptibility to CAD. The frequency of its T allele was significantly higher in the controls (52.7%) than that in the CAD group (46.2%) (adjusted OR = 0.88, 95% CI: 0.80-0.96; P = 0.005). In conclusion, the T allele of rs8075977 in the 5'-flanking region of the PEDF gene may be protective for CAD. Conversely, the C allele at this variation site is associated with CAD in elderly Chinese Han men.