Association of Interleukin-18 Gene Promoter -607C>A Polymorphism with Increased Risk of Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Multiple studies indicate that interleukin-18 (IL-18) promoter-607C>A polymorphism has been associated with an increased risk of breast cancer (BC); however, conflicting results were yielded. Therefore, the present meta-analysis was conducted to provide a comprehensive assessment of the association of IL-18 gene polymorphisms with the risk of BC. MATERIALS: Following electronic databases searches and study screening, six eligible studies including 1,952 subjects were selected for the meta-analysis. RESULTS: The results suggested a significant association of IL-18 promoter-607C>A polymorphism with risk of BC. They also demonstrated that IL-18 gene promoter-607C>A polymorphism may confer increased risk to BC under the allelic model (OR, 1.167; 95% CI, 1.028-1.326; p=0.017), homozygote model (OR, 1.371; 95% CI, 1.062-1.770; p=0.015), and recessive model (OR, 1.348; 95% CI, 1.081-1.683; p=0.008). Furthermore, the sub-group analysis revealed no significant association of the -607C>A gene polymorphism with BC risk in Asian. CONCLUSION: The present meta-analysis provided evidence for the association of IL-18-607C>A polymorphism with increased risk of developing BC, particularly, women exhibiting AA genotype at IL-18 promoter-607 C>A polymorphism showed a significantly higher risk for BC.

Identification of the Signature Associated With m6A RNA Methylation Regulators and m6A-Related Genes and Construction of the Risk Score for Prognostication in Early-Stage Lung Adenocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND: N6-methyladenosine (m6A) RNA modification is vital for cancers because methylation can alter gene expression and even affect some functional modification. Our study aimed to analyze m6A RNA methylation regulators and m6A-related genes to understand the prognosis of early lung adenocarcinoma. METHODS: The relevant datasets were utilized to analyze 21 m6A RNA methylation regulators and 5,486 m6A-related genes in m6Avar. Univariate Cox regression analysis, random survival forest analysis, Kaplan-Meier analysis, Chi-square analysis, and multivariate cox analysis were carried out on the datasets, and a risk prognostic model based on three feature genes was constructed. RESULTS: Respectively, we treated GSE31210 (n = 226) as the training set, GSE50081 (n = 128) and TCGA data (n = 400) as the test set. By performing univariable cox regression analysis and random survival forest algorithm in the training group, 218 genes were significant and three prognosis-related genes (ZCRB1, ADH1C, and YTHDC2) were screened out, which could divide LUAD patients into low and high-risk group (P < 0.0001). The predictive efficacy of the model was confirmed in the test group GSE50081 (P = 0.0018) and the TCGA datasets (P = 0.014). Multivariable cox manifested that the three-gene signature was an independent risk factor in LUAD. Furthermore, genes in the signature were also externally validated using the online database. Moreover, YTHDC2 was the important gene in the risk score model and played a vital role in readers of m6A methylation. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study suggested that associated with m6A RNA methylation regulators and m6A-related genes, the three-gene signature was a reliable prognostic indicator for LUAD patients, indicating a clinical application prospect to serve as a potential therapeutic target.

Prognostic significance of LncRNA GHET1 expression in various cancers: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Dysregulated expression of long non-coding RNA gastric carcinoma high expressed transcript 1 (lncRNA GHET1) has been observed in several cancers, however, definite conclusion on the prognostic value of lncRNA GHET1 expression in human cancers has not been determined. The aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the prognostic significance of lncRNA GHET1 expression in cancers. METHODS: PubMed, Web of Science and Embase were comprehensively searched for relevant studies. Meta-analyses of overall survival (OS) and clinicopathological features were conducted. RESULTS: Ten studies were finally analyzed in the present study. High lncRNA GHET1 expression was associated with shorter OS than low lncRNA GHET1 expression in cancers (hazard ratio (HR) = 2.59, 95% CI = 1.93-3.47, P<0.01). Online cross-validation using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data observed similar results (HR = 1.10, P<0.05). When compared with low lncRNA GHET1 expression, high lncRNA GHET1 expression was related to larger tumor size (P<0.01), worse differentiation (P<0.01), earlier distant metastasis (P=0.02), earlier lymph node metastasis (P<0.01) and more advanced clinical stage (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: High lncRNA GHET1 expression is associated with worse cancer prognosis and can serve as a promising prognostic factor of human cancers.

[Rapid enrichment and cultivation of denitrifying phosphate-removal bacteria and its identification by fluorescence in situ hybridization technology].

The present work focused on a rapid enrichment and cultivation of denitrifying phosphate-removal bacteria (DPB) in a membrane bio-reactor(MBR) by using A2/O anaerobic sludge from a wastewater treatment plant as seed, as well as providing an identification method. In the experiments, sodium acetate was used as the carbon source and a certain amount of nitrate was added to the MBR in the anoxic stage. Results showed that, with the efficient trap of the hollow-fiber membrane module, the proportion of DPB in all the phosphate-accumulating organisms (PAOs) increased from 24% to 93% within 35 days after two-stage's cultivation including anaerobic/aerobic and anaerobic/anoxic, during which the removal efficiency of nitrogen and phosphorus reached more than 90%. The activated sludge was identified by combining a regular method and the fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) technique, which demonstrated that Pseudomonas sp. and Rhodocyclus sp. were the dominant bacteria in the used bioreactor.