This study evaluated differences in the clinical appearance of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) based on plasma level and regulation of microRNAs (miRNA-29c, miRNA-21, and miRNA-155). The ...observational-analytical study with a cross-sectional design was conducted on 36 HCC patients and 36 healthy controls. The blood samples were collected from 2 Province Hospitals (Dr. Sardjito Hospital and Prof. Dr. Margono Soekarjo Hospital) for HCC and the Blood Bank Donor of the Indonesian Red Cross for 36 healthy controls. These blood samples were treated as follows: plasma isolation, RNA isolation, cDNA synthesis, quantification by qRT-PCR using a sequence-specific forward primer, and normalization of miRNA using housekeeping-stably miRNA-16. There were only 27 HCC patients with complete clinical variables (neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR), platelet count, albumin, C-reactive protein (CRP), and cholinesterase (ChE)) that were able to analyses for regulation miRNAs based on its fold change expression miRNA target. All 27 HCC subjects were follow-up until 3-years of monitoring for their overall survival. The miRNA plasma expression was analyzed by Bio-Rad CFX 96 Manager software to determine the cycle of quantification, followed by the calculation of expression levels using Livak's methods. Data were analyzed using STATA 11.0, with a significant value of p<0.05. The miRNAs expression of HCC subjects were lower than that healthy control subjects in miRNA-29c (down-regulation 1.83-fold), higher than that healthy control subjects in miRNA 21 and miRNA-155 (up-regulation, 1.74-fold; 1.55-fold) respectively. NLR, CRP, ChE, and platelet count showed a significant difference in miRNA-29c regulation, though neutrophil count showed a significant difference in miRNA-21 and miRNA-155 regulation (p<0.05). Conclusion: Plasma biomarkers: miRNA-21 and miRNA-155 might be potential biomarkers as onco-miR in HCC subjects, while miRNA-29c might act as a tumor suppressor. Significant evidence was identified with clinical progression based on the regulation of miRNAs, which was consistent with miRNA -29c.
Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer among women worldwide with significant disproportionate mortality rates in developing countries. Although clinical management of breast cancer has been ...immensely improved, refinement in the prognostic and recurrent markers is still needed. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNA) HOTAIR has recently been associated with poor outcome and is potentially used as a prognostic marker in breast cancer.
We comprehensively reviewed studies evaluating lncRNA HOTAIR in association with overall and disease-free survivals in breast cancers. Systematic searches were performed in Pubmed, ProQuest, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, Springer, Nature, Sage Journals, and Wiley databases using combination keywords "long non-coding RNA," "lncRNA," "HOX transcript antisense RNA," "HOTAIR," "breast can-cer," "carcinoma mammae," "prognosis," and "survival." Risk of bias score was used to assess quality of studies, I2 test was conducted to assess heterogeneity. Meta-analysis was performed to compare HOTAIR expression with breast cancer survival rates using STATA v.17 software.
Of the total 1,504 screened studies, seven studies were included in the meta-analysis involving 533 patients. High expression of HOTAIR was associated with poor survival rates (pooled HR: 1.69; 95%CI: 1.11-2.59; p=0.015), shorter overall survival (OS) (pooled HR: 1.33; 95%CI: 0.78-2.26; p=0.455), poor disease-free survival (DFS) (pooled HR: 2.40; 95%CI: 1.63-3.53; p<0.001), poor distant metastatic-free survival (MFS) (HR: 1.75; 95%CI: 1.13-2.71; p=0.012). In addition, overexpression of HOTAIR was associated with positive lymph node infiltration (pooled OR: 2.38; 95%CI: 0.53-10.69; p=0.26) and ductal type cancer (pooled OR: 3.27; 95%CI: 1.15-9.30; p=0.03).
Upregulation of lncRNA HOTAIR is associated with worse DFS aand MFS that can potentially be used as a prognostic marker in breast cancer patients.
Identifying the mechanism underlying the initiation and development of castration-resistant prostate cancer remains challenging. Time to castration-resistant prostate cancer is defined by ...prostate-specific antigen progression and may represent a risk factor for developing immune alterations with a negative prognostic role in the overall survival of patients with prostate cancer. This study aimed to evaluate the combined effect of downregulated RB1 and overexpressed SSTR5-AS1 as biomarkers for predicting time to castrationresistant prostate cancer.
The clinical and pathological data of patients with prostate cancer were collected retrospectively. Between 2015 and 2019, a total of 36 patients who received castration were included. Expressions of mRNA of RB1 and SSTR5-AS1 from primary tumors were quantified using quantitative realtime polymerase chain reaction. Patients were divided into 2 groups: the first group consisted of patients with Rb1 expression lower than the median and expression of SSTRS5-AS1 higher than the median, and the second group consisted of all the other patients. This study was conducted in compliance with the latest Helsinki Declaration and registered on Elsevier International Standard Randomized Controlled trial number registry.
In this study, patients with both downregulated RB1 and overexpressed Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNA) SSTR5-AS1 showed shorter time to castration-resistant prostate cancer (mean 23.6 ± 3.3 months) compared to other groups (mean 38.3 ± 4.9 months) (log-rank test, P=.028).
The combination of downregulation of RB1 and overexpression of SSTR5-AS1 is a strong predictor of shorter time to castration-resistant prostate cancer in the Indonesian population. Additionally, patients with International Society of Urological Pathology (ISUP) score >4 did not demonstrate this predictive value on time to castration-resistant prostate cancer.
The impact of cigarette smoke (CS) on lung diseases and the role of microbiome dysbiosis in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have been previously reported; however, the relationships ...remain unclear.
Our research examined the effects of 20-week cigarette smoke (CS) exposure on the lung and intestinal microbiomes in C57BL/6JNarl mice, alongside a comparison with COPD patients' intestinal microbiome data from a public dataset.
The study found that CS exposure significantly decreased forced vital capacity (FVC), thickened airway walls, and induced emphysema. Increased lung damage was observed along with higher lung keratinocyte chemoattractant (KC) levels by CS exposure. Lung microbiome analysis revealed a rise in Actinobacteriota, while intestinal microbiome showed significant diversity changes, indicating dysbiosis. Principal coordinate analysis highlighted distinct intestinal microbiome compositions between control and CS-exposed groups. In the intestinal microbiome, notable decreases in Patescibacteria, Campilobacterota, Defferibacterota, Actinobacteriota, and Desulfobacterota were observed. We also identified correlations between lung function and dysbiosis in both lung and intestinal microbiomes. Lung interleukins, interferon-ɣ, KC, and 8-isoprostane levels were linked to lung microbiome dysbiosis. Notably, dysbiosis patterns in CS-exposed mice were similar to those in COPD patients, particularly of Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) stage 4 patients. This suggests a systemic impact of CS exposure.
In summary, CS exposure induces significant dysbiosis in lung and intestinal microbiomes, correlating with lung function decline and injury. These results align with changes in COPD patients, underscoring the important role of microbiome in smoke-related lung diseases.
The marine environment provides a rich source of distinct creatures containing potentially revolutionary bioactive chemicals. One of these organisms is Caulerpa racemosa, a type of green algae known ...as green seaweed, seagrapes, or green caviar. This organism stands out because it has great promise for use in medicine, especially in the study of cancer. Through the utilization of computational modeling (in silico) and cellular laboratory experiments (in vitro), the chemical components included in the green seaweed C. racemosa were effectively analyzed, uncovering its capability to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The study specifically emphasized blocking SRC, STAT3, PIK3CA, MAPK1, EGFR, and JAK1 using molecular docking and in vitro. These proteins play a crucial role in the EGFR Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Resistance pathway in NSCLC. The chemical Caulersin (C2) included in C. racemosa extract (CRE) has been identified as a potent and effective agent in fighting against non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), both in silico and in vitro. CRE and C2 showed a level of inhibition similar to that of osimertinib (positive control/NSCLC drug).
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is the most common cancer arising from epithelial cells of the nasopharynx in Indonesia. This study aims to determine the differential level of gene expression in NPC ...patients when compared with normal individuals. Transcriptome profiling analysis was performed using RNA-Seq technology to determine the differential gene expression relate to proliferation aberration that occurs in NPC patients compared with normal individuals. So we get the transcriptomic profile of Indonesia NPC patients.
In this study, we used 9 samples, 7 NPC samples and 2 normal samples as control. Fresh tissue of tumor samples was collected from biopsy, and normal samples were collected brushing technique. The total RNA was isolated from fresh tissue samples and brushing samples using the Rneasy® RNA Extraction Mini Kit. The cDNA library was generated using TruSeq® RNA Library Preparation Kit V2, and its concentration was determined using qPCR. The library was sequenced using the Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) Illumina Next Seq 550 platform. The raw sequence data quality was analyzed using FastQC and interpreted using HISAT2, HTSeq, edgeR, and PANTHER.
From the analysis, 25493 gene transcripts were expressed, with 1956 genes were significantly upregulated, 90 genes were significantly downregulated in NPC samples, and 23897 genes didn't change the expression level significantly (p <0.05), 10 of which genes were associated with cell proliferation. These genes are involved in the regulation of cancer cell proliferation through several signaling pathways, which are the apoptosis signaling pathway, IGF signaling pathway, Notch signaling pathway, and P13K signaling pathway.
There were significant differences in gene expression levels between NPC patients and normal individuals. Each gene that has changed the expression level plays a role in regulating various pathways that lead to cell proliferation aberration in NPC cases.
Abstract
Background
Delay in type II alveolar epithelial cell (AECII) regeneration has been linked to higher mortality in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). However, the ...interaction between Doublecortin-like kinase 1 (DCLK1) and the Hippo signaling pathway in ARDS-associated AECII differentiation remains unclear. Therefore, the objective of this study was to understand the role of the DCLK1/Hippo pathway in mediating AECII differentiation in ARDS.
Materials and methods
AECII MLE-12 cells were exposed to 0, 0.1, or 1 μg/mL of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for 6 and 12 h. In the mouse model, C57BL/6JNarl mice were intratracheally (i.t.) injected with 0 (control) or 5 mg/kg LPS and were euthanized for lung collection on days 3 and 7.
Results
We found that LPS induced AECII markers of differentiation by reducing surfactant protein C (SPC) and p53 while increasing T1α (podoplanin) and E-cadherin at 12 h. Concurrently, nuclear YAP dynamic regulation and increased TAZ levels were observed in LPS-exposed AECII within 12 h. Inhibition of YAP consistently decreased cell levels of SPC, claudin 4 (CLDN-4), galectin 3 (LGALS-3), and p53 while increasing transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) at 6 h. Furthermore, DCLK1 expression was reduced in isolated human AECII of ARDS, consistent with the results in LPS-exposed AECII at 6 h and mouse SPC-positive (SPC
+
) cells after 3-day LPS exposure. We observed that downregulated DCLK1 increased p-YAP/YAP, while DCLK1 overexpression slightly reduced p-YAP/YAP, indicating an association between DCLK1 and Hippo-YAP pathway.
Conclusions
We conclude that DCLK1-mediated Hippo signaling components of YAP/TAZ regulated markers of AECII-to-AECI differentiation in an LPS-induced ARDS model.
Graphical Abstract
Thyroid cancer incidence has steadily increased in Indonesia. However, data on Kirsten rat sarcoma virus (KRAS) and EGFR mutations in thyroid cancer in Indonesia remain unavailable, except for ...BRAF-V600E, the most common BRAF gene mutation. This study aimed to analyze KRAS and EGFR mutation profiles in BRAF-V600E negative thyroid cancer samples.
BRAF-V600E mutations were found in papillary thyroid carcinomas in 40.3% patients with mean age of 53 years old. In BRAF-V600E-negative samples, 41.3% had KRAS mutations with mean age of 55.5 years old. KRAS mutation was found in 52.6% of follicular carcinomas and 47.4% of papillary thyroid carcinomas. Additionally, 45.7% had EGFR mutations in patients with mean age of 50.5 years old. EGFR mutation was found in 71.4% of papillary thyroid carcinoma and 28.6% of follicular carcinoma. Nearly half of the BRAF-V600E negative thyroid carcinoma samples harbored either KRAS or EGFR mutations. This finding suggests that in BRAF-V600E negative thyroid carcinoma samples, testing for RAS and EGFR mutation may be warranted for further therapeutic consideration.