ABSTRACT
Gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (GEP-NENs) are neoplasms that develop from neuroendocrine cells and exhibit neuroendocrine functions. The lack of specific clinical symptoms and biological behaviors for NENs cause early misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis in a majority of cases. However, the molecular biology of GEP-NENs vary greatly in different primary sites and grades, contributing to the high heterogeneity in such type of tumors. Currently, the diagnosis of GEP-NENs mainly depends on traditional methods such as imaging and tissue biopsy, leading to imperfect diagnostics by only reflecting genetic information about the location of the biopsy sample in the overall neoplasm. With the rapid development of genome sequencing technology in recent years, the exploration of circulating biomarkers and liquid biopsy technology have compensated for the limitations of tissue biopsy, thereby creating new opportunities to improve the diagnostic rate of GEP-NENs and the realization of precise treatment. This review summarizes and compares the status of liquid biopsy applications in investigating GEP-NENs.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE@#To survey the residents for their understanding of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) in two hard hit provinces of China to facilitate the governmental decisions on strategies against the disease.@*METHODS@#We invited the participants from Hubei and Henan Provinces of China for an internetbased survey starting from 12:00 on February 21, 2020 to 12:00 on February 23. The survey included the general conditions, KAP of COVID-19, psychological status and living conditions of the residents.@*RESULTS@#The effective response rate of the questionnaire was 98.9%. The mean (P25, P75) age of the participants was 19 (16, 40) years, and 54.3% of them were students. Social media were the most important source of information concerning the pandemic of the respondents. The respondents had a high awareness of person-to-person transmission of the virus through the respiratory tract or droplets but showed a relatively low level of awareness of the population susceptible to COVID-19 and its specific symptoms. The results of multivariate analysis showed that women, undergraduate students (including college students) and higher degree holders had better knowledge of COVID-19 ( < 0.05); the proportion of respondents who expressed to have different levels of psychological stressed such as worry, anxiety and panic reached 77.2%; 16.7% of the responders considered psychological interventions necessary for their psychological conditions; 63.6% of the respondents confessed a bias against the people returning from Hubei and Henan provinces, while 22.4% worried that they might be biased because of their residence in Hubei and Henan. The rate of personal protective equipment shortage was as high as 69.4%; the rates of the responders who would "covering the mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing", "properly use masks in accordance with regulations", "maintain proper hand hygiene ", "avoid gatherings with relatives and friends" and "refrain from going to public places" were 92.4%, 95.9%, 93.5%, 88.8% and 93.1%, respectively. Women and groups with good knowledge of the disease reported better protective behaviors against the diseases ( < 0.05).@*CONCLUSIONS@#The residents in Hubei and Henan Provinces have generally good KAP related to COVID-19, and the online platforms plays a positive role to in circulating epidemic-related information. It is essential to further increase the supply of the protective materials and pay more attention to the mental health of the residents during the pandemic, and psychological counseling and psychological protection should be provided if necessary.
Subject(s)
Female , Humans , Attitude , Betacoronavirus , Coronavirus Infections , Pandemics , Pneumonia, ViralABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE@#To explore the molecular mechanism underlying the inhibitory effects of aspirin against human breast cancer cell proliferation through bioinformatics analysis.@*METHODS@#Drug Bank 5.1.3 was searched to identify direct protein targets (DPTs) of aspirin, and the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of the DPTs was constructed online using STRING and the signaling pathways involved were identified. The genetic alterations of 6 DPTs associated with human breast cancer was analyzed and visualized by cBio Portal and OncoPrint, respectively. The transcriptomic data of breast cancer and normal tissues were downloaded from TCGA database, and the overexpressed genes were analyzed by DECenter. The intersection between the genes associated with the DPTs obtained by STRING analysis and the differentially over-expressed genes in TCGA was determined to confirm the candidate DPTs as a potential target of aspirin, and GO functional enrichment analysis was performed using Gene Ontology. The potential targets of aspirin against the proliferation of human breast cancer cells were verified by Western blotting.@*RESULTS@#Eleven DPTs of aspirin were identified. KEGG pathway enrichment indicated that 6 genes (EDNRA, IKBKB, NFKB2, NFKBIA, PTGS2 and TP53) were associated with the occurrence and development of cancer. A total of 10 220 differentially expressed genes were identified from the TCGA database, and among them 4 genes (, , , ) were found to be the potential targets for aspirin. These genes were involved mostly in the regulation of cell cycle and cell division. Western blotting showed that aspirin could down-regulate the expression levels of several pivotal proteins that regulated cell cycle and cell division, including , , and .@*CONCLUSIONS@#, , and may be potential targets for aspirin to inhibit the proliferation of human breast cancer cells, by affecting the progress of cell cycle and cell division.