A microRNA disease signature associated with lymph node metastasis of lung adenocarcinoma.

Background: Lymph node metastasis (LNM) of lung cancer is an important factor associated with prognosis. Dysregulated microRNAs (miRNAs) are becoming a new powerful tool to characterize tumorigenesis and metastasis. We have developed and validated a miRNA disease signature to predict LNM in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Method: LUAD miRNAs and clinical data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) were obtained and divided randomly into training (n = 259) and validation (n = 83) cohorts. A miRNA signature was built using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) (λ =-1.268) and logistic regression model. The performance of the miRNA signature was evaluated using the area under curve (AUC) of receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC). We performed decision curve analysis (DCA) to assess the clinical usefulness of the signature. We also conducted a miRNA-regulatory network analysis to look for potential genes engaged in LNM in LUAD. Result: Thirteen miRNAs were selected to build our miRNA disease signature. The model showed good calibration in the training cohort, with an AUC of 0.782 (95% CI: 0.725-0.839). In the validation cohort, AUC was 0.691 (95% CI: 0.575-0.806). DCA demonstrated that the miRNA signature was clinically useful. Conclusion: The miRNA disease signature can be used as a noninvasive method to predict LNM in patients with lung adenocarcinoma objectively and the signature achieved high accuracy for prediction.

Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor: A demographic, clinical and therapeutic study of 92 cases.

PURPOSE: Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors (IMT) was a rare kind of tumor defined by WHO since 2012. Little was known about this disease. There were controversies about IMT's behavior, predilection site, age distribution, and the best treatment methods. Here we provided a systematic overview on tumor demographical, clinical, biological features as well as treatment efficacy based on real cases from Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. METHODS: 92 patients diagnosed with IMT by histopathology were drawn from SEER database between 2002 and 2014. Patient demographics, clinical features and treatment information were analyzed. RESULTS: The mean age of onset was 47.4 ± 22.4 years (0 to 83y) and the ages prone to this disease are middle-aged (from 41y to 64y), accounting for 1/3 of all patients. Three peak ages of onsets were 0-4y, 36-40y and more than 50y. 42% of the tumors were located in the soft tissues of limbs, hip, shoulder, head, face and neck. The average tumor sizes were 6.5 ± 5.3cm (1cm to 25cm). Survival in the group of tumor size smaller than 6.5cm was better compared to group of tumor size larger than 6.5cm (P < 0.05). Most of the tumors were malignant or malignant potential (89%), though local and distant metastasis rate were low (5%). Surgery was the most common treatment. However, the survival benefit was still uncertain compared to adjuvant chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Multivariate regression analysis demonstrated that young patients had better survival than old ones. CONCLUSIONS: IMT was a malignant tumor with low risk of local and distant metastasis. The peak ages were 0-4y, 36-40y and more than 50y. The prone sites were the soft tissues of the limbs, hip, shoulder, head, face and neck. Tumor sizes and ages were the factors correlated with survival time.

Cold snare resection for the treatment of benign airway lesions.

The objective was to assess the safety and outcome of cold snare technique used by flexible bronchoscopy in the treatment of airway benign neoplasms. The clinical data of 21 patients, who had airway benign neoplasm and were treated through the cold snare method in Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, affiliated with the Zhejiang University, were retrospectively analyzed. The relief of the symptoms and occurrence of complications were observed and evaluated. All the tumors were benign and removed by cold snare. Postoperatively, we found that the treatment was completely effective in 12 patients, and there was a significant improvement in 7 patients and a moderate improvement in 2 patients, and no recurrence in follow-up visit. In conclusion, the cold snare technique is an economically feasible, safe, and effective method in the treatment of airway neoplasms.

Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway in lung cancer stem cells is a potential target for the development of novel anticancer drugs.

PURPOSE: In the present study, we have analyzed the regulation of Wnt/ß-catenin signaling in lung adenocarcinoma stem cells (CSCs), that are responsible for tumor recurrence. METHODS: Lung cancer samples were studied for the presence of cancer stem like cells and analyzed by flow cytometry. Then, the sorted cells were analyzed for the stem cell surface markers and Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathways. Moreover, the sorted side population (SP) and non-SP cells were also subjected to drug resistance assay. RESULTS: Western blot analysis showed that the protein level of ß-catenin was highly upregulated in fluorescence activated cells (FACs) sorted SP cells which led to elevated expression of stem cell protein Oct-4 that is responsible for SP cells' self-renewal. RT-PCR revealed that the relative mRNA expression level of Wnt target gene cyclin D was significantly higher (p<0.01) in SP cells, enhancing thus the cell proliferation rate and clone formation efficiency. In addition, the matrigel invasion assay revealed that SP cells were highly invasive than non-SP cells. CONCLUSION: In the present study we demonstrated that lung adenocarcinoma samples contain a small population of tumor-initiating SP cells which possess the characteristic features of CSCs. Wnt/ß-catenin mediated increased expression of ß-catenin, Oct-4 and cyclin D in SP cells but not in non-SP cells was also observed. FACs-purified SP cells are resistant to a number of chemotherapeutic drugs. Our data suggest that the use of novel anticancer drugs, targeting Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathways, may help eradicate the lung cancers stem cells.

Using oligonucleotide suspension arrays for laboratory identification of bacteria responsible for bacteremia.

The aim of this study was to develop and validate an oligonucleotide suspension array for rapid identification of 15 bacterial species responsible for bacteremia, particularly prevalent in Chinese hospitals. The multiplexed array, based on the QIAGEN LiquiChip Workstation, included 15 oligonucleotide probes which were covalently bound to different bead sets. PCR amplicons of a variable region of the bacterial 23S rRNA genes were hybridized to the bead-bound probes. Thirty-eight strains belonging to 15 species were correctly identified on the basis of their corresponding species-specific hybridization profiles. The results show that the suspension array, in a single assay, can differentiate isolates over a wide range of strains and species, and suggest the potential utility of suspension array system to clinical laboratory diagnosis.

[A high-throughput diagnostic method for detecting pathogenic microbes].

OBJECTIVE: To develop a high-throughput diagnostic method with suspension array technique for detecting pathogenic microbes. METHODS: The probes and positive controls of 56 kinds of pathogenic microbes were designed, synthesized, and used to detect pathogenic microbes with suspension array technique. RESULTS: Fluorescence signals of 56 positive controls were higher than those of the negative controls, and there was no cross-reaction between the probes and positive controls of different microbes. CONCLUSION: Based on suspension array technique, the high-throughput diagnostic method may be useful in clinical detection of pathogenic microbes.

[Human papillomavirus infection in women with cervical lesion of Huzhou area of Zhejiang province].

OBJECTIVE: To observe human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in women with cervical lesions in Huzhou area of Zhejiang province. METHODS: 720 samples of cervical secretion or exfoliated cells were collected from women with cervical lesion in Huzhou area. Human papillomavirus was detected by suspension array technique. RESULTS: Positive HPV infection was detected in 25.42% cases (183/720), with 135 cases of single HPV type, 33 of dual HPV types and 15 of multiple HPV types. HPV16 and HPV58 were the most prevalent types in 183 HPV positive cases. CONCLUSION: The most prevalent high-risk types of HPV are HPV16 and HPV58 in Huzhou area of Zhejiang province.

Genotyping of human papillomavirus in cervical lesions by L1 consensus PCR and the Luminex xMAP system.

Infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) is the main cause of cervical cancer, the principal cancer in women in most developing countries. Molecular epidemiologic evidence clearly indicates that certain types of HPV are the principal cause of invasive cervical cancer and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. Comprehensive, high-throughput typing assays for HPV, however, are not currently available. By combining L1 consensus PCR and multiplex hybridization using a Luminex xMAP system-based suspension array, the authors developed a rapid high-throughput assay, the HPV DNA suspension array (HPV-SA), capable of simultaneously typing 26 HPVs, including 18 high-risk HPV genotypes and eight low-risk HPV genotypes. The performance of the HPV-SA applied to 26 synthetic oligonucleotide targets was evaluated. The HPV-SA system perfectly discriminated 18 high-risk HPV targets from eight low-risk HPV targets. To assess the clinical applicability of the assay, the HPV-SA was performed with 133 MY09/MY11 primer set-mediated PCR (MY-PCR)-positive clinical specimens; of the 133 samples, 121 were positive by HPV-SA. Both single and multiple types were easily identified. The authors believe that improvement of the assay may be useful for epidemiological studies, cancer-screening programmes, the monitoring of therapeutic interventions, and the evaluation of the efficacy of HPV vaccine trials.

Construction and application of a yeast expression system for thymosin a1

We want to construct a yeast expression system for thymosin a1 (Ta1) to make the orally administered Ta1 preparation possible. The whole Ta1 DNA fragment was obtained by PCR. After being digested with restriction enzymes, it was cloned into pYES2 vector. Sequencing was performed to identify the recombinant. The sequence of Ta1 in recombinant coincided with the original one reported in Genbank. When pYES2-Ta1 plasmid was transformed into yeast, galactose instead of glucose was used to induce Ta1 expression. Western blot was performed to identify the quality of the expressed Ta1. Dried yeast containing pYEST2-Ta1 was fed to Balb/c mice whose immunities were inhibited by cyclophosphamide in advance. Synthesized Ta1 peptide was used as positive control and empty yeast was used as negative control. Compared with the negative control group, both dried yeast containing pYEST2-Ta1 and synthesized Ta1 peptide can significantly increase the CD8+ level (22.74±1.09 and 18.77±4.72 vs 7.49±2.14, p<0.01), while both of them had little effect on the CD4+ lymphocytes (61.86±6.94 and 65.91±4.78 vs 57.93±10.40, p>0.05). We concluded that a high effective yeast expression system for Ta1 was constructed successfully and the Ta1 protein expressed by this system can improve CD8+ level in immune inhibited mice.

Immunomodulatory function of orally administered thymosin alpha1.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the immunological function of a yeast expression system for thymosin alpha1 (Talpha1). METHODS: A constructed Talpha1 yeast expression system was used to investigate the immunological function of orally administered Talpha1. Dried yeast containing three different concentration of Talpha1 was fed to normal Balb/c mice and other Balb/c mice whose immunities were inhibited in advance by cyclophosphamide. Synthesized Talpha1 peptide was used as positive control and dried yeast with empty plasmid was used as negative control. CD4(+) and CD8(+) levels were detected by flow cytometry assay. TNF-alpha, IFN-gamma, IL-2, IL-6 and IL-10 levels were detected by liquid chip. RESULTS: In normal Balb/c mice or immune inhibition Balb/c mice, CD8(+) levels were significantly increased. Especially in immune inhibition Balb/c mice, CD8(+) levels in synthesized Talpha1 group (18.77%+/-4.72%), small dose group (13.48%+/-6.17%) and large dose group (22.74%+/-1.09%) were significantly higher than that in empty yeast control group (7.49%+/-2.14%). CONCLUSION: Orally administered Talpha1 has its certain immunomodulatory function.

Construction and application of a yeast expression system for thymosin alpha1.

We want to construct a yeast expression system for thymosin alpha1 (Talpha1) to make the orally administered Talpha1 preparation possible. The whole Talpha1 DNA fragment was obtained by PCR. After being digested with restriction enzymes, it was cloned into pYES2 vector. Sequencing was performed to identify the recombinant. The sequence of Talpha1 in recombinant coincided with the original one reported in Genbank. When pYES2-Talpha1 plasmid was transformed into yeast, galactose instead of glucose was used to induce Talpha1 expression. Western blot was performed to identify the quality of the expressed Talpha1. Dried yeast containing pYEST2-Talpha1 was fed to Balb/c mice whose immunities were inhibited by cyclophosphamide in advance. Synthesized Talpha1 peptide was used as positive control and empty yeast was used as negative control. Compared with the negative control group, both dried yeast containing pYEST2-Talpha1 and synthesized Talpha1 peptide can significantly increase the CD8+ level (22.74 +/- 1.09 and 18.77 +/- 4.72 vs 7.49 +/- 2.14, p < 0.01), while both of them had little effect on the CD4+ lymphocytes (61.86 +/- 6.94 and 65.91 +/- 4.78 vs 57.93 +/- 10.40,p > 0.05). We concluded that a high effective yeast expression system for Talpha1 was constructed successfully and the Talpha1 protein expressed by this system can improve CD8+ level in immune inhibited mice.

Construction and application of a yeast expression system for thymosin alpha1.

We want to construct a yeast expression system for thymosin alpha1 (Talpha1) to make the orally administered Talpha1 preparation possible. The whole Talpha1 DNA fragment was obtained by PCR. After being digested with restriction enzymes, it was cloned into pYES2 vector. Sequencing was performed to identify the recombinant. The sequence of Talpha1 in recombinant coincided with the original one reported in Genbank. When pYES2-Talpha1 plasmid was transformed into yeast, galactose instead of glucose was used to induce Talpha1 expression. Western blot was performed to identify the quality of the expressed Talpha1. Dried yeast containing pYEST2-Talpha1 was fed to Balb/c mice whose immunities were inhibited by cyclophosphamide in advance. Synthesized Talpha1 peptide was used as positive control and empty yeast was used as negative control. Compared with the negative control group, both dried yeast containing pYEST2-Talpha1 and synthesized Talpha1 peptide can significantly increase the CD8+ level (22.74 +/- 1.09 and 18.77 +/- 4.72 vs 7.49 +/- 2.14, p < 0.01), while both of them had little effect on the CD4+ lymphocytes (61.86 +/- 6.94 and 65.91 +/- 4.78 vs 57.93 +/- 10.40,p > 0.05). We concluded that a high effective yeast expression system for Talpha1 was constructed successfully and the Talpha1 protein expressed by this system can improve CD8+ level in immune inhibited mice.