In Situ Detection of Plasma Exosomal MicroRNA-1246 for Breast Cancer Diagnostics by a Au Nanoflare Probe.

Breast cancer is the second cause of cancer mortality in women globally. Early detection, treatment, and metastasis monitoring are of great importance to favorable prognosis. Although conventional diagnostic methods, such as breast X-ray mammography and image positioning biopsy, are accurate, they could cause radioactive or invasive damage to patients. Liquid biopsy as a noninvasive method is convenient for repeated sampling in clinical cancer prognostic, metastatic evaluation, and relapse monitoring. MicroRNAs encased in exosomes circulating in biofluids are promising candidate cancer biomarkers because of their cancer-specific expression profiles. Here, we report an in situ detection of microRNA-1246 (miR-1246) in human plasma exosomes as breast cancer biomarker by a nucleic acid functionalized Au nanoflare probe. Needing neither time-consuming and costly isolation of exosomes from the plasma sample nor transfection means, the Au nanoflare probe can directly enter the plasma exosomes to generate fluorescent signal quantitatively by specifically targeting miR-1246. Only 40 µL of plasma is needed to incubate 4 h with the probe, giving signal sensitive enough to distinguish samples of breast cancer to normal control. Using plasma miR-1246 level detected by our assay as a marker, we differentiated 46 breast cancer patients from 28 healthy controls with 100% sensitivity and 92.9% specificity at the best cutoff. This simple, accurate, sensitive, and cost-effective liquid biopsy by the Au nanoflare probe is potent to be developed as a noninvasive breast cancer diagnostic assay for clinical adaption.

Parental support for sexual and reproductive health information and services for unmarried youth in Chengdu, China.

The objective of the study was to explore parental perspectives and attitudes towards the provision of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information and services to unmarried youth in Chengdu, China. A representative sample of parents was drawn using multi-stage stratified cluster sampling technique, and information was collected using a structured questionnaire. The eligible respondents were parents (both fathers and mothers) who had at least one unmarried adolescent and/or youth aged 15 to 24 years old. A total of 2,871 fathers and mothers were interviewed. Parents' SRH-related knowledge was poor and dissonant attitudes of tolerance and ambivalence towards provision of SRH information and services to unmarried youth were found. About 80% of parents accepted and understood unmarried youth seeking SRH counseling service, but the percentages of such positive attitude was much lower for premarital contraceptive use. Over half of the parents were supportive of providing SRH education and information to unmarried youth; whereas on the provision of contraceptive services to sexually active unmarried youth, 27% were negative, 25% accepted, 36% indicated an understanding, and the rest 12% had no opinion. Parents' SRH-related knowledge and attitudes were associated with parental social-demographic characteristics. Findings from this study suggest that parent-oriented programs are needed to apprise them of the existing SRH conditions of the unmarried youth in China, to allay fears and misconceptions of parents, and to enhance family-based sex education in terms of increasing parents' SRH knowledge and their capacity and skills of providing such information to unmarried youth.