Comprehensive circular RNA profiling reveals the regulatory role of circRNA_0007694 in papillary thyroid carcinoma.

PURPOSE: The present study aimed to identify differentially expressed circRNAs in thyroid cancer and verify their potential functions. METHODS: Next-generation sequencing was used to identify differentially expressed circRNAs between papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) tissues and paired pericarcinomatous tissues. Polymerase chain reaction and Sanger sequencing methods successfully identified hsa_circ_0007694. A hsa_circ_0007694 over-expression vector was prepared to determine the effect of this circRNA on proliferation, migration, invasion, apoptosis, and the cell cycle in PTC cells. An in vivo animal assay was conducted by injecting PTC cells into the chests of mice. Further, RNA-seq was performed, followed by Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis, to verify the regulatory mechanism of hsa_circ_0007694. Western blotting was used to verify the genes thought to be involved in the hsa_circ_0007694 regulatory pathways based on KEGG analysis. RESULTS: We identified a circRNA, hsa_circ_0007694 that was down-regulated in PTC tissues compared to pericarcinomatous tissues. Over-expression of hsa_circ_0007694 promoted apoptosis and inhibited proliferation, migration, and invasion in PTC cells in vitro, and decreased tumor growth in vivo. Transcriptome sequence analysis suggested 129 differentially expressed genes between PTC tissue and paired pericarcinomatous tissue. KEGG analysis and western blotting indicated that the PI3K/AKT/mTOR and Wnt signaling networks are most likely to be related to hsa_circ_0007694 in thyroid cancer. CONCLUSION: The circRNA hsa_circ_0007694 is down-regulated in PTC and is therefore a potential therapeutic target.

International normalized ratio on admission predicts the 90-day mortality of critically ill patients undergoing endarterectomy.

The association of the international normalized ratio (INR) with the long-term clinical outcome of patients who undergo endarterectomy has not yet been studied. The present study therefore primarily aimed to evaluate the association of INR on admission with the 90-day mortality of critically ill patients who underwent endarterectomy during hospitalization. The Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care III database was queried for patients undergoing endarterectomy. The 90-day mortality of patients was selected as a primary endpoint. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves were plotted to present the accuracy of predictions. Kaplan-Meier curves and multivariate Cox regression analysis were performed to analyse associations. Propensity score matching (PSM) was also conducted to reduce confounding bias. A total of 230 patients were included, with 36 90-day non-survivors. Patients with a high INR (≥1.5) on admission exhibited a higher 90-day mortality than those with a low INR (<1.5; 29.09 vs. 11.43%; P=0.003). The ROC area under the curve value was 0.687 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.571-0.780]. Kaplan-Meier plots identified divergence in survival between patients with different INR levels (log-rank test, P=0.0013). The results of the multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that a high INR level was significantly associated with 90-day mortality (hazard ratio, 2.19; 95% CI, 1.08-4.45; P=0.0305). Analysis of the PSM cohort presented similar results. In conclusion, the INR levels of critically ill patients who undergo endarterectomy may be used to stratify their risk of 90-day mortality.

Effect of neurological monitoring in postoperative 5-15 days residual thyroidectomy after primary thyroid cancer surgery.

AIM: To explore the application of intraoperative neurological monitoring in residual thyroidectomy 5-15 days after thyroid cancer operation and the influence on postoperative serum thyroglobulin (Tg), recurrent laryngeal nerve and function of parathyroid glands. METHODS: Material of patients receiving thyroid surgery from January 2010 to December 2016 was retrospectively analyzed. Cases meeting with standards were enrolled for analysis and the patients were divided into neurological monitoring group and non-neurological monitoring group in line with the use of neurological monitoring during the operation. Recurrent laryngeal nerve-injured hoarseness, hypoparathyroidism and concentration of serum Tg before and after the surgery were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: Four-hundred and thirty-five patients met with standards, among which 227 from neurological monitoring group and 208 from non-neurological monitoring group. Temporary hoarseness rate of non-neurological monitoring group and neurological monitoring group was 8.67% and 2.2%. Permanent hoarseness rate of non-neurological monitoring group and neurological monitoring group was 1.92% and 0.44%. Temporary hypoparathyroidism rate of non-neurological monitoring group and neurological monitoring group was 18.75% and 7.48%. Permanent hypoparathyroidism rate of non-neurological monitoring group and neurological monitoring group was 1.92% and 0.88%. Average Tg concentration 1 month after the surgery in non-neurological monitoring group and neurological monitoring group was 2.82 and 1.37 ng/mL, respectively. Rate of average Tg concentration less than 1 ng/mL 1 month after the surgery in non-neurological monitoring group and neurological monitoring group was 45.06% and 67.4%. CONCLUSION: Intraoperative neurological monitoring can be adopted in residual thyroidectomy in postoperative 5-15 days after primary thyroid cancer surgery, as to reduce incidence rate of recurrent laryngeal nerve injury and hypoparathyroidism and to enhance thorough removal of thyroid tissues and cancer tissues.

Linc00675 is a novel marker of short survival and recurrence in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

AIM: To detect linc00675 expression in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), to analyze the relationship between the expression level of linc00675 and the clinical pathological characteristics, to explore the biological functions of linc00675, and to determine whether linc00675 has independent prognostic value in PDAC. METHODS: We studied linc00675 expression among eight histologically confirmed PDAC tissue samples and four chronic pancreatitis tissue samples through microarray screening. RT-qPCR was conducted to further investigate linc00675 expression in PDAC cell lines as well as archived tissues from a large cohort of PDAC patients. The correlations between the level of lnc00675 and clinicopathological characteristics and survival in patients with pancreatic cancer were evaluated using Correlation analysis. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to predict whether lnc00675 expression is an independent prognostic and recurrence factor in patients with pancreatic cancer. After downregulating the expression of linc00675 through siRNA, MTT assay, flow cytometry, transwell assay and Western blot were used to explore the biological function of linc00675 in proliferation, invasion, and cell cycle progression of pancreatic cancer cells. The relative molecular expression levels of epithelial-mesenchymal transition were determined by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot. RESULTS: The expression of Linc00675 in PDAC tissue samples was shown to be 672 times that in chronic pancreatitis tissue samples by microarray screening (P = 3.69 × 10(-5)). This finding was confirmed in tumor tissues from 90 patients with PDAC compared with adjacent normal tissue samples by quantitative RT-PCR. We found that linc00675 overexpression positively correlated with lymph node metastasis (P = 0.005), perineural invasion (P = 0.006), and poor survival (P < 0.001). Univariate and multivariate analyses showed that linc00675 expression served as an independent predictor of overall survival (P = 0.009). Additionally, receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that high linc00675 might serve as a predictor of tumor progression within 6 mo to a year after surgery. In vitro functional analysis demonstrated that knockdown of linc00675 attenuated pancreatic cancer cell proliferation and invasion as well as induced S phase arrest. Suppression of linc00675 in pancreatic cancer cells resulted can reverse the progress of epithelial-mesenchymal transition. CONCLUSION: Linc00675 may function as an oncogene during PDAC development, and its expression is an independent predictor of unfavorable prognosis in patients with PDAC.