Three-in-One System Based on Multi-Path Nucleic Acid Amplification for Bioanalysis of Pre-miRNA/miRNA and Dicer Activity.

Today, a lot of attention is being paid to the pre-miRNAs/miRNAs or activity of Dicer due to their important functions in various physiological processes. Especially, the intrinsic relationship among these associated targets is of significant importance for more in-depth research on the mechanism of disease formation and early diagnosis. Herein, a strategy for simultaneous bioanalysis of miRNAs/pre-miRNAs and Dicer enzyme based on the self-designed multi-path nucleic acid amplification technology was proposed. Typically, in the presence of pre-miRNA-155, it can hybridize with Helper to generate a structure with two new toeholds, one of which could react with H1, H2, and H3, performing a modified CHA reaction with obvious fluorescence responses of FAM, and another of which could hybridize with H4, H5, and H6 to construct the [H4-H5-H6]n DNA nanosphere with obvious fluorescence responses of Cy5. Similarly, miRNA-155 could just hybridize with H1, H2, and H3 to generate the same modified CHA reaction with obvious fluorescence responses of FAM. Due to the successful multi-path nucleic acid amplification, the proposed bioanalysis strategy could be successfully employed for miRNA-155 and pre-miRNA-155 analysis in the range from 500 pM to 100 nM and 1 to 300 nM, respectively. The proposed strategy could be applied to explore another inter-related nucleic acid relationship also, providing great potential in bioanalysis of various nucleic acids.

Predicting tall-cell subtype of papillary thyroid carcinomas independently with preoperative multimodal ultrasound.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to explore the differences between tall-cell subtype of papillary thyroid carcinoma (TCPTC) and classical papillary thyroid carcinoma (cPTC) using multimodal ultrasound, and identify independent risk factors for TCPTC to compensate the deficiency of preoperative cytological and molecular diagnosis on PTC subtypes. METHODS: Forty-six TCPTC patients and 92 cPTC patients were included. Each patient received grey-scale ultrasound, colour Dopplor flow imaging (CDFI) and shear-wave elastography (SWE) preoperatively. Clinicopathologic information, grey-scale ultrasound features, CDFI features and SWE features of 98 lesions were compared using univariate analysis to find out predictors of TCPTC, based on which, a predictive model was built to differentiate TCPTC from cPTC and validated with 40 patients. RESULTS: Univariate and multivariate analyses identified that extra-thyroidal extension (odds ratio [OR], 15.12; 95% CI, 2.26-115.44), aspect ratio (≥0.91) (OR, 29.34; 95% CI, 1.29-26.23), and maximum diameter ≥14.6 mm (OR, 20.79; 95% CI, 3.87-111.47) were the independent risk factors for TCPTC. Logistic regression equation: P = 1/1+ExpΣ[-5.099 + 3.004 × (if size ≥14.6 mm) + 2.957 × (if aspect ratio ≥ 0.91) + 2.819 × (if extra-thyroidal extension). The prediction model had a good discrimination performance for TCPTC: the area under the receiver-operator-characteristic curve, sensitivity, and specificity were 0.928, 0.848, and 0.954 in cohort 1, and the corresponding values in cohort 2 were 0.943, 0.923, and 0.926, respectively. CONCLUSION: Ultrasound has the potential for differential diagnosis of TCPTC from cPTC. A prediction model based on ultrasound characteristics (extra-thyroidal extension, aspect ratio ≥0.91, and maximum diameter ≥14.6 mm) was useful in predicting TCPTC. ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE: Multimodal ultrasound prediction of TCPTC was a supplement to preoperative cytological diagnosis and molecular diagnosis of PTC subtypes.

Accuracy of axillary ultrasound after different neoadjuvant chemotherapy cycles in breast cancer patients.

BACKGROUND: This study determined whether axillary ultrasound (AUS) accurately predicted the status of axillary lymph nodes of patients who received different number of cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: From 2008 to 2015, 656 cases of patients with breast cancers who received NAC and had subsequent axillary lymph node dissection were included in this study. The findings of preoperative AUS were tested by pathological examination. We evaluated the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of AUS for patients who received two-, four-, and six-cycle NAC. RESULTS: In the two-cycle subgroup, the sensitivity (Sn), specificity (Sp) and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) were 80.2% (95% CI: 74.3%-86.2%), 61.4% (95% CI: 48.8%-74.0%) and 6.64 (95% CI: 3.36-12.4) respectively. In the four-cycle subgroup, the Sn, Sp and DOR were 69.7% (95% CI: 62.2%-77.1%), 66.1% (95% CI: 53.7%-78.5%) and 4.47 (95% CI: 2.32-8.62), respectively. In the six-cycle subgroup, the Sn, Sp and DOR were 56.7% (95% CI: 49.5%-64.0%), 74.5% (95% CI: 62.8%-87.2%) and 3.83 (95% CI: 1.863-7.86), respectively. Furthermore, the patients with normal AUS findings after six cycles of NAC have few positive nodes than patients with suspicious findings (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Preoperative AUS is a potentially useful imaging modality to predict the pathologic status of the axillary within four cycles of NAC. Although the accuracy is lower for patients who completed six cycles of NAC than that who received four- and two- cycles, the number of positive lymph nodes for patients with normal findings on AUS is low.