Long noncoding RNA CASC2c inhibited cell proliferation in hepatocellular carcinoma by inactivated ERK1/2 and Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway.

PURPOSE: Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been shown to play important roles in tumorigenesis, but their biological functions and the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Alternative splicing of five exons results in three transcript variants of cancer susceptibility 2 (CASC2): the lncRNAs CASC2a, CASC2b, and CASC2c. CASC2a/b have been found to have crucial regulatory functions in a number of malignancies, but few studies have examined the effects of CASC2c in cancers. The objective of the study was to investigate the role of CASC2c in the proliferation and apoptosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells. METHODS: This study first investigated the expression levels of CASC2c in tumor tissues, corresponding non-tumor tissues and cells using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The function and underlying molecular mechanism of CASC2c in human HCC were investigated in QGY-7703 cell line, as well as in gastric cancer (GC) cell and colorectal cancer (CRC) cell. RESULTS: In the present work, we observed that CASC2c was significantly down-regulated in HCC tissues and cells. Moreover, its overexpression remarkably inhibited the growth, migration, and invasion of HCC cells in vitro and promoted their apoptosis. Furthermore, we demonstrated that CASC2c overexpression decreased p-ERK1/2 levels in HCC, GC, and CRC cells. Interestingly, while overexpression of CASC2c decreased ß-catenin expression in HCC and GC cells, it increased that in CRC cells. CONCLUSION: The lncRNA-CASC2c has a vital role in tumorigenesis and cancer progression, and may serve as a biomarker or therapeutic target in cancer treatment via down-regulation of the ERK1/2 and Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathways.

Effect of premedication on lesion detection rate and visualization of the mucosa during upper gastrointestinal endoscopy: a multicenter large sample randomized controlled double-blind study.

BACKGROUND: Premedication in upper gastrointestinal endoscopy for higher lesions detection rate has not been well studied so far. This study aimed to confirm whether premedication could improve the detection rate of early cancer or precancerous lesions and mucosal visibility. METHOD: From July 2015 to December 2015, 7200 participants from 6 centers were screened by endoscopy with one of the 4 following premedications randomly: (1) water (group D); (2) pronase (group A); (3) simethicone (group B); (4) pronase and simethicone (group C). Early cancer and precancerous lesions detection rates were taken as the primary endpoints, and mucosal visibility was taken as the secondary endpoint. They were compared among four groups to determine different premedication effects in terms of different anatomical sites. Trial was registered at Chinese Clinical Trial Registry; the registration number is ChiCTR-IOR-17010985. RESULTS: The upper gastrointestinal overall precancerous lesion detection rates among four groups were 8.7, 8.4, 10.0, and 10.3%, the overall early cancer detection rates were 1.3, 1.4%, 1.5, and 1.6%, both without significant difference (p = 0.138 and 0.878). However, the visibility score distributions between control group (D) and premedication groups (A, B, and C) were all statistically significant, with all anatomical sites p values < 0.001. Subgroup analyses, from 2 centers without screening before, also showed significant difference in esophageal (3.9, 3.3, 4.5, and 8.4% with p = 0.004) and overall (7.0, 5.5, 7.3, and 12.0% with p = 0.004) precancerous lesion detection rate. CONCLUSIONS: Premedication with pronase and simethicone may not increase lesion detection rates but could significantly increase the upper gastrointestinal mucosal visibility.

Differential expression patterns of growth-related microRNAs in the skeletal muscle of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus).

MicroRNA (miRNA) are a class of small, single-stranded, non-coding RNA that regulate mRNA expression at the post-transcriptional level and play important roles in many fundamental biological processes. There is emerging evidence that miRNA are critical regulators of widespread cellular functions, such as differentiation, proliferation, and migration. At present, little is known about miRNA expression profiles related to skeletal muscle growth in aquatic organisms. This study aimed to investigate the phenotypic variation in the body growth of the Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) and to identify and quantify the differential expression levels of selected growth-related transcriptomic miRNA in the skeletal muscle of this fish. To this end, we performed next-generation sequencing to define the full miRNA transcriptome in muscle tissue from Nile tilapia and to detect differentially expressed miRNA between 2 strains of Nile tilapia. These tilapia strains exhibited significant (P < 0.05) phenotypic variation with respect to growth-related traits (body length and BW), mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotype diversity, and the differential expression of selected growth-related genes. The results obtained from the transcriptome analysis and real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) revealed significant differences in miRNA expression between fast-growing and control strains of tilapia. Digital gene expression (DGE) profiling was performed based on the obtained read abundance, and we identified down-regulated miRNA, including let-7j, miR-140, miR-192, miR-204, miR-218a, miR-218b, miR-301c, and miR-460, and up-regulated miRNA, including let-7b, let-7c, miR-133, miR-152, miR-15a, miR-193a, miR-30b, and miR-34, associated with body growth in tilapia. These results were further validated using real-time qRT-PCR and microarray profiling. In summary, the up- and down-regulation of miRNA involved in the GH/IGF-1 axis signaling pathway suggests that the differential expression levels of growth-related miRNA may serve as molecular markers that are predictive of specific functional and diagnostic implications. The obtained data on genetic polymorphisms in miRNA-target interactions are particularly useful for Nile tilapia breeding programs.

Diagnosis of gastric intestinal metaplasia with confocal laser endomicroscopy in vivo: a prospective study.

BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS: Gastric intestinal metaplasia (GIM) is a risk factor for development of intestinal-type gastric cancer. We aimed to assess the usefulness of confocal laser endomicroscopy (CLE) in diagnosing GIM. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 28 patients with known GIM underwent CLE, and CLE criteria for diagnosis of GIM were developed. In addition, 53 consecutive patients with known or suspected GIM were prospectively evaluated. RESULTS: GIM was identified if any of the following three features were present in an image field: goblet cells, columnar absorptive cells and brush border, and villiform foveolar epithelium. GIM was then classified as complete or incomplete according to the shape of the goblet cells, the presence of absorptive cells or brush border, and the architecture of vessels and crypts. In a prospective study, a total of 13 670 CLE images were obtained. Among 267 sites from 53 patients, 160 from 36 patients were diagnosed histopathologically as GIM. The sensitivities of conventional endoscopy and CLE for GIM were 36.88 % vs. 98.13 %, and the specificities were 91.59 % vs. 95.33 %, respectively. The kappa value for the correlation with histological findings was 0.25 for conventional endoscopy vs. 0.94 for CLE. The sensitivity and specificity of CLE were 68.03 % and 89.66 %, respectively, for the diagnosis of complete GIM, and 68.42 % and 83.41 %, respectively, for incomplete GIM; the kappa value for the correspondence between CLE and histological findings was 0.67. CONCLUSION: CLE is a useful and potentially important method for the diagnosis and classification of GIM in vivo.

[Clinical study of 1949 cases of port wine stains treated with vascular photodynamic therapy (Gu's PDT)]. / Analyse clinique de 1 949 angiomes plans traités par thérapie photodynamique vasculaire (Gu's PDT).

BACKGROUND: Complete fading of port wine stains (PWS) is difficult to achieve with current laser treatments. Photodynamic therapy (Gu's PDT) could offer a very efficient alternative for PWS therapy. PATIENTS AND METHOD: 1949 lesions in 1385 patients were treated by PDT. Each patient received an intravenous injection of hematoporphyrin derivative (HpD) or hematoporphyrin monomethyl ether (HMME) at 3-7 mg/kg. Laser irradiation was performed on a 2 to 8 cm spot size. Different wavelengths (488.0 nm to 578.2 nm) were evaluated with a power density of 50-100 mW/cm2. Fluences ranged from 90 to 540 J/cm2. RESULTS: Among the 1942 lesions, PWS clearance was observed in 99.7% of cases. Excellent results were achieved in 128 lesions (6.6%) (100% clearance), 746 lesions (38.3%) yielded to good results (clearance > 75%), 923 lesions (47.4%) showed moderate results (clearance 50-75%), 145 lesions (7.4%) showed poor results (clearance<50%) and in 7 lesions (0.3%) no visible change was observed. The pink port wine stains revealed better response to Gu's PDT with only one session. Conversely, purple stains in adult patients required 2 sessions or more. CONCLUSION: This new PDT technique is effective and highly selective, with almost no risk of scarring.

Synthesis and photodynamic action of diphenyl-2,3-dihydroxychlorin: a potential tumor photosensitizer.

The synthesis, photophysical properties of diphenyl-2,3-dihydroxychlorin (DPCOH) and its photocytotoxicity to tumor cells are described. DPCOH exhibits photodynamic activity in terms of type I and type II mechanisms under irradiation. The quantum yield of (1)O(2) in CHCl(3) is 0.7. For the photocytotoxicity to tumor cells, DPCOH proved to be 200 times more potent than HPD, and the dark toxicity is low (dark IC(90)>32 microg/mL).

Molecular and morphological supertrees for eutherian (placental) mammals.

A large body of diverse comparative data now exists for a major phylogenetic synthesis of the higher-level relationships among eutherian (placental) mammals. We present such a phylogenetic synthesis using the composite trees or supertrees from the combined and separate analyses of their published molecular and morphological source phylogenies. Our combined and separate supertrees largely support the same suprafamilial taxa and orders, but different interordinal clades. These similarities and differences reinforce the continuing contributions of morphological studies, while highlighting the growing influence of molecular information on the field. As current summaries of past research, our supertrees emphasize opportunities for future work, while providing a step toward the eventual integration of the data and characters themselves.

Phylogenetic assessment of molecular and morphological data for eutherian mammals.

The interordinal relationships of eutherian (placental) mammals were evaluated by a phylogenetic analysis of four published data sets (three sequences and one morphological). The nature and degree of support and conflict for particular groups were assessed by separate bootstrap and homogeneity tests, which were followed by combined analyses of the sequence and morphological data. Between orders, strong support (i.e., > or = 95% bootstrap scores) was found for a paraphyletic Artiodactyla (relative to Cetacea) and a monophyletic Cetartiodactyla (Artiodactyla and Cetacea) and Paenungulata (Hyracoidea, Proboscidea, and Sirenia). In turn, some reasonable to strong evidence (> or = 85%) was obtained for Hyracoidea with Sirenia, Dermoptera with Scandentia, Glires (Lagomorpha with Rodentia), and Afrotheria (Amblysomus, Macroscelidea, Paenungulata, and Tubulidentata). Otherwise, no other interordinal clades were supported at these reasonable to strong levels. This overall lack of resolution for eutherian interordinal clusters agrees with other studies that suggest further progress will continue to be slow and difficult. Further resolution will require the integration of more recently published data, the continued sampling of taxa and characters, and the use of more powerful methods of data analysis.

[Clinical significance of human basophil releasability in bronchial asthma].

Human basophil releasability (HBR) was determined in 50 patients with asthma by modified human basophil degranulation test (HBDT). The result of HBDT was expressed as degranulation index (DI). 1. Anti-IgE-induced HBR: the mean value of DI in extrinsic asthma, intrinsic asthma and control subjects was 50.1 +/- 2.26(%), 32.2 +/- 2.3(%) and 18 +/- 2.74(%) (x +/- sem) respectively. If a DI of 30% or greater was considered as positive, the positive rate in the above three groups would be 96.9%, 60.0% and 20.0% respectively. There was significant difference between any two of the three groups (P less than 0.01). 2. Allergen-induced HBR: HBDT was performed in the asthmatics with sixteen allergens and in the controls with mite allergen. The positive rates were 68% in the patients and 0% in the controls. The coincident rate of the results between HBDT and skin test reached 82.9%. The results showed that anti-IgE-induced HBR could be regarded as an objective parameter for differentiating extrinsic and intrinsic asthma and allergen-induced HBR could be considered as an useful means for in vitro allergen diagnosis of asthma.

[Relation between cardiomyopathy and ventricular arrhythmias].

Ventricular arrhythmias (VA) with its relevant factors were studied in patients with cardiomyopathy and the relation between late potential (LP) and ventricular tachycardia (VT) was also evaluated. It is shown that the prevalence of VA was high in cardiomyopathy. However, its severity was not related to clinical symptoms, cardiac enlargement, cardiac function and level of plasma electrolytes. The relative risk and relative odds of LP positive were 7.33 and 20 times as high in patients with VT as in those without VT, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of prediction to VT in LP positive patients were 66.2%, 90.9% and 80%, respectively. The patients with sustained VT and positive LP were more susceptible to sudden death. LP was useful to understand the mechanism and prognosis of VT.