Identification of LHFPL3-AS2 as a prognostic biomarker in lung adenocarcinoma.

Background: Deregulation of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) was considered one of the main characteristics of several human cancers. However, detailed genome-wide expression and functional significance studies of lnc RNAs in lung adenocarcinoma are still limited. This study aims to discover a new lncRNA that may play an important role in regulating the pathogenesis of lung adenocarcinoma (ADC). Methods: We conducted a comprehensive analysis of three Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) microarray datasets and TCGA datasets. Differentially expressed lncRNAs between ADC and normal tissues were screened and verified using Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA). Moreover, Kaplan-Meier plotter was used to construct the gene prognosis profile. The downstream targets of miRNA and related functional pathways were predicted and validated. Results: With microarray gene expression analysis, we found that only lncRNAs-PCAT6 was commonly upregulated among four datasets, and four lncRNAs (LINC00968, PGM5-AS1, LHFPL3-AS2 and SFTA1P) were significantly downregulated in the ADC samples as compared to the normal tissues. Meanwhile, for LHFPL3-AS2, high-risk patients showed better overall survival (HR=0.6 or 0.62; P < .0001 or P = 0.0014), overall survival from TCGA datasets (HR=0.72; P = 0.015) and recurrence-free survival (HR=0.72; P = 0.015). Then, LHFPL3-AS2 was predicted to bind to two miRNAs, miR-127-5p and miR-424-5p. Finally, validation and functional enrichment analysis of the downstream key mRNAs showed significant enrichment in some cancer-related pathways, such as cell adhesion in cancer and small cell lung cancer. Conclusions: Taken together, our study indicated that LHFPL3-AS2 was associated with tumorigenesis, and it could be used as a useful biomarker in the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of ADC.

Distribution of serum Thrombospondin-2, a novel tumor marker, in general population and cancer patients in China.

PURPOSE: Distribution of serum thrombospondin-2 in general population and cancer patients in China have not been reported. METHODS: This study evaluated the expression level of serum thrombospondin-2 in general population and various cancer patients, the 95% confidence interval was used for the derivation of reference range. The comparison of the expression levels in controls for age and gender was performed. The associations between candidate biomarkers (thrombospondin-2 [THBS2]) expression and tumor metastasis status were also explored. RESULTS: 125 healthy controls and 193 various cancer patients were enrolled. The mean ± SD in serum THBS2 levels in general population was 42.37 ± 12.24 ng/ml, there was no significant sex and age difference, the reference range is 18.37-66.36 ng/ml. Most cancer patients present a decreased serum THBS2 level except hepatoma and lymphoma which most patients showed a relatively high level of THBS2. There was no statistical difference of serum THBS2 level between metastasis and non-metastasis group in breast, lung, cervical, colorectal cancer, nasopharyngeal carcinoma and hepatoma (P > 0.05) while a significant negative correlation was observed in ovarian cancer (P = 0.0209). CONCLUSIONS: The distribution of serum THBS2 displayed an obvious heterogeneity among various cancers comparing to health controls, ovarian cancer patients detected with low THBS2 expression may be more prone to develop metastasis in China.

MicroRNA-196b promotes cell proliferation and suppress cell differentiation in vitro.

MicroRNA-196b (miR-196b) is frequently amplified and aberrantly overexpressed in acute leukemias. To investigate the role of miR-196b in acute leukemias, it has been observed that forced expression of this miRNA increases proliferation and inhibits apoptosis in human cell lines. More importantly, we show that this miRNA can significantly increase the colony-forming capacity of mouse normal bone marrow progenitor cells alone, as well as partially blocking the cells from differentiation. Taken together, our studies suggest that miRNA-196b may play an essential role in the development of MLL-associated leukemias through inhibiting cell differentiation and apoptosis, while promoting cell proliferation.

Real-time fluorescence Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) for rapid and reliable diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis.

A reliable, simple and rapid diagnostic method that can be helpful in pulmonary tuberculosis diagnosis is urgently needed. Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) allows DNA to be amplified rapidly at a constant temperature. In this study, real-time fluorescence LAMP was evaluated to rapidly detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis in sputum and was compared to the performance of real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (Q-PCR). All the standard MTB strains were successfully detected and limit of detection (LOD) was 10(2)CFU/mL by real-time fluorescence LAMP within 20min. In light of MTB in sputum, the real-time fluorescence LAMP method yielded a sensitivity of 98.0% and a specificity of 78.3%, compared to Q-PCR assay, which yielded a sensitivity of 96.0% and a specificity of 82.6% for PTB diagnosis. There was an excellent overall agreement between LAMP and Q-PCR for PTB (κ=0.315) and non-PTB (κ=0.862). Therefore, the real-time fluorescence LAMP assay is a rapid, sensitive, and specific method to detect pulmonary tuberculosis.