Inhibition of miR-664a interferes with the migration of osteosarcoma cells via modulation of MEG3.

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary bone tumor in children and adolescents. Understanding the basic molecular mechanisms in developing cancer can be helpful in developing alternative treatment strategies. The relationship between dysregulated non-coding RNAs' (ncRNA) expression level and osteosarcoma was detected. Among those ncRNAs, the expression levels of miR-664a were detected to be upregulated and MEG3 long non-coding RNA levels were detected to be downregulated in osteosarcoma tissue and cell lines. In this study, miR-664a inhibitor was used in order to investigate the changes in the expression levels of MEG3 gene and miR-664a in osteosarcoma cancer cell line (U2-OS) and human osteoblast cell line (hFOB 1.19). According to our results, the expression level of MEG3 gene was increased while the expression level of miR-664a was decreased, as expected. In addition, changes in expression level of MEG3 and miR-644a interferes with the migration of osteosarcoma cells migration speed of osteosarcoma cells. These results are found to be statistically significant (p < 0.05). As a result of this study, it was shown that the upregulated expression of miR-664a could have an inhibitory effect on MEG3 gene expression and migration of osteosarcoma cells.

The Prevalence of Helicobacter Pylori babA, homB, aspA, and sabA Genes and Its Relationship with Clinical Outcomes in Turkey.

Background and Aims: The cag A and vac A genes of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) are closely associated with the pathogenicity of bacteria. However, the significance of H. pylori babA, homB, aspA, and sabA genes is not clear in phenotypic characteristics of virulence. This study aimed to investigate the frequency and importance of these genes in patients with H. pylori positive peptic ulcer (PU). Materials and Methods: Patients with a PU or nonulcer dyspepsia (NUD) based on the upper gastrointestinal (UGI) endoscopy findings were included in the study. Biopsy samples from antrum and corpus were cultured into Columbia agar. H pylori were characterized by urease, catalase, oxidase test, and gram staining. Genomic DNA was extracted and stored. The babA, homB, aspA, and sabA genes were determined by using polymerase chain reaction analysis. Results: A total 214 patients were included (99 PU and 115 NUD) and H. pylori could be isolated in 82 patients (36 PU and 46 NUD). The frequency of the babA (25% vs. 15.2%, p=0.25), homB (2.7% vs. 4.3%, p=1), aspA (69.4% vs. 73.9%, p=0.2), and sabA (2.7% vs. 10.8%, p=0.88) genotypes was not different between PU and NUD patients. There were some correlations between the presences of these genes. Conclusion: This study managed to determine babA, homB, aspA, and sabA genes of H. pylori by PCR. However, the frequency of these factors was not different in patients with PU and NUD. There is no role of babA, homB, aspA, and sabA genes for the development of peptic ulcer in Turkish population.