Evaluation of antibody detection against the NDO-BSA, LID-1 and NDO-LID antigens as confirmatory tests to support the diagnosis of leprosy in Yunnan province, southwest China.

Although multidrug therapy (MDT) has been widely used for the treatment of leprosy for nearly 40 y, the disease remains a public health concern in some areas. The early detection of leprosy cases is vital to interrupt Mycobacterium leprae transmission, but currently diagnosis is typically achieved during the recognition of clinical symptoms by professional staff performing physical examinations in conjunction with microbiological assessment of slit skin smears (SSSs) and histopathology. In the last 10 y, serum antibody detection tests have emerged to aid leprosy diagnosis. Here we evaluated the ability of antigens NDO-BSA and LID-1 (ML0405 and ML2331) and the conjugate of these, NDO-LID, to detect antibodies in the sera of 113 leprosy patients and 166 control individuals in Yunnan province in southwest China. We found that each antigen was readily detected by sera from multibacillary (MB) patients, with sensitivities of 97.3%, 97.3% and 98.6% for NDO-BSA, LID-1 and NDO-LID, respectively. Even among paucibacillary (PB) patients the antigens detected antibodies in 74.4%, 56.4% and 69.2% of serum samples, respectively. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analysis indicated that, irrespective of the leprosy case classification as MB or PB, the detection efficiency obtained with NDO-LID was better than that obtained with the other two antigens (with LID-1 being a slightly better than NDO-BSA). Our results indicate the utility of NDO-LID in assisting in the diagnosis of PB and MB leprosy patients and that these antibody detection assays represent powerful diagnostic tools. We suggest that could be implemented into the procedures of local health centres in leprosy-endemic regions to assist in earlier diagnosis.

Distribution and characteristics on species of Mycobacterium leprae in China / 临床检验杂志

Objective To realize the distribution and characteristics of Mycobacterium leprae (M.leprae) species and its single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) spreading currently in China.Methods A total of 171 cutaneous lesion specimen of leprosy patients from 22 provinces were collected.The 16S rRNA conservative region of Mycobacterium leprae was amplified by nest PCR and the positive products were sequenced directly and aligned by BLAST.The SNPs of M.leprae were genotyped by restricted fragment length polymorphism for the PCR products.Results The 171 specimen were all Mycobacterium leprae since the amplified fragments of DNA samples were 99％ similar to the Br4923 of M.leprae from Brazil.No new species (M.lepromatosis) was found.Among the 85 samples genotyped for SNPs,SNP3,SNP1 and SNP2 accounted for 78.8％ (67/85),20％ (17/85) and 1.2％ (1/85) respectively.There was no sample with SNP4 genotype to be detected.Among the 171 sequencing specimen,130 showed mutation C-T at 251 bp of 16S rRNA.There was no difference for mutant rate of 16S rRNA gene and SNP genotype among the samples with different clinical pathological types.Certain associations between 16S rRNA C251T mutation and SNP genotype were found.Most of the samples with C251T mutations of 16S rRNA sequence were SNP3,only a few were SNP1 but not SNP2.There was significant difference of SNP genotype distribution among the patients from different regions.The distribution rate of SNP3 genotype in the samples from inland region (97.1％,34/35)was significantly higher than that from coastal region (66％,33/50) (x2 =11.96,P ＜ 0.01) . There was significant difference of the gene mutation rate of 16S rRNA sequence among the patients from different regions.The mutation rate of 16S rRNA in the samples from inland region (94.8％,92/97) was significantly higher than that from coastal region (51.4％,38/74) (x2 =43.56,P ＜0.01).Conclusion C251T mutation in 16S rRNA gene sequence of M.leprae may associate with SNP type suggesting that the characteristics of geographical distribution presented in different genotypes of M.leprae.No new species of M.leprae was found in this study.

The potential of osteopontin as a therapeutic target for human colorectal cancer.

OBJECTIVE: Osteopontin (OPN), a phosphorylated glycoprotein, is involved in tumor progression and metastasis. Previously, we have reported that high OPN mRNA expression level possessed clinicopathological or prognostic significance in human colorectal cancer (CRC). The aim of this study is to investigate whether OPN can serve as a novel molecular target for CRC therapy. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Western Blot assay was performed to detect the expression of OPN protein in 18 CRC and corresponding nontumor colon tissue samples. RNA interference (RNAi) was employed to knockdown endogenous OPN expression in CRC cell line (LoVo). MTT, colony formation, and tumorigenicity assays were performed to analyze the effect of OPN downregulation on the in vitro and in vivo proliferation of CRC cells. Wound healing and Matrigel invasion assays were performed to analyze the effect of OPN downregulation on migration and invasion of CRC cells. A clonogenic cell survival assay after radiation was performed to analyze the effect of OPN downregulation on the radiosensitivity of CRC cells. RESULTS: The relative level of OPN protein expression in CRC tissues was significantly higher than that in corresponding nontumor colon tissues (P < 0.05). We found that RNAi-mediated OPN downregulation could inhibit not only in vitro proliferation but also in vivo tumorigenicity of CRC cells. In addition, OPN downregulation could suppress in vitro invasion capacity and enhance in vitro radiosensitivity of CRC cells, which might be associated with decreased levels of MMP-2 and -9 expression. CONCLUSION: RNAi-targeting OPN could inhibit proliferation, invasion and enhance radiosensitivity of human CRC cells. Therefore, OPN could serve as a novel molecular target for gene therapy of CRC.

Breast cancer and tumor markers / 国际外科学杂志

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in women and has been increasing in the last few years. Tumor markers are usually substances occurring in blood or tissue which might be clinically usable in patients with cancer. Owing to a lack of sensitivity for early disease and lack of specificity, none of the a-vailable markers is of much value for the early detection of breast cancer. To identify potential early-stage markers for breast cancer is a difficult problem. Here we summarizes the application of tumor markers in the diagnosis and prognostic prediction in breast cancer, which include CA153 ,CEA, PR and AR, and recently defined markers such as miRNA, hMAM, Midkine.