Blood glucose levels and the risk of HPV multiple infections in high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions: A retrospective cross-sectional study of Chinese patients.

Besides the controversy of the association of high glycemic index and glycemic load with precancerous cervical lesions, only a few studies have examined the impact of fasting blood glucose levels on human papillomavirus (HPV) multiple infections. In the present study, we appraised the relationship between blood glucose levels and multiple HPV infections in a population of HPV-positive women with cervical high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL). The present study was designed as a cross-sectional correlative analysis. A total of 560 participants with a pathologically confirmed HSIL with HPV infection were included from a hospital in China during January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2019. The target variables and the outcome variables were the glucose levels at the baseline and HPV multiplicity, respectively. The odds ratio and 95% confidence intervals were calculated to estimate the risk of multiple infections via logistic regression analysis. The average age of the 560 participants was 44.63 ± 10.61 years; the nonlinear relationship was detected between the glucose levels and multiplicity of HPV, with an inflection point at 5.4. After adjusting for the full range of variables, the effect sizes and confidence intervals for the left and right sides of the inflection points were found to be 0.379 (0.196-0.732) and 5.083 (1.592-16.229), respectively. In this cross-sectional study, both high and low blood glucose levels increased the risk of multiple HPV infections, demonstrating a U-shaped relationship between the blood glucose levels and multiple HPV infections.

LncRNA HOTTIP promotes the proliferation and invasion of ovarian cancer cells by activating the MEK/ERK pathway.

Recent studies have revealed that long non­coding RNAs (lncRNAs) serve important roles in carcinogenesis and that this type of gene may be used as biomarkers in cancer. A high level of lncRNA HOXA distal transcript antisense RNA (HOTTIP) is associated with unfavorable prognosis for patients with ovarian cancer (OC), but the mechanism of HOTTIP involved in OC development remains to be elucidated. The present study aimed to investigate the mechanism of HOTTIP in metastasis­associated OC cell behaviors. HOTTIP levels in ovarian cells were quantified by reverse transcription­quantitative PCR, cell proliferation was analyzed by colony formation assay, and apoptosis was assessed by flow cytometry. Cell migratory and invasive abilities were evaluated by wound healing and Transwell assays, respectively. The expression levels of mitogen­activated protein kinase kinase (MEK)/ERK pathway­associated proteins were detected by western blotting. The results demonstrated that knockdown of HOTTIP in OC cells significantly reduced the phosphorylation levels of MEK and ERK, inhibited the proliferation and invasion of OC cells and promoted their apoptosis. Furthermore, the effects of HOTTIP on cell migration and invasion were partly associated with the epithelial­mesenchymal transition (EMT) process. Proliferation, invasion and EMT of OC cells were enhanced following overexpression of HOTTIP; however, these effects were reversed by the MEK/ERK pathway inhibitor U0126. In conclusion, HOTTIP was demonstrated to promote the proliferation, migration and invasion of OC cells by activating the MEK/ERK pathway. Therefore, HOTTIP may serve as a potential therapeutic target for OC.