Establishment and Validation of a Blood Test-based Nomogram to Diagnose Patients with AFP-negative HCC.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fourth leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Alpha-protein (AFP) is the most widely used blood biomarker for HCC. However, elevated serum AFP is only observed in part of HCC.

A Microfluidic System for Detecting Tumor Cells Based on Biomarker Hexaminolevulinate (HAL): Applications in Pleural Effusion.

Malignant pleural effusion is a common clinical problem, which often occurs in cases of malignant tumors, especially in lung cancer. In this paper, a pleural effusion detection system based on a microfluidic chip, combined with specific tumor biomarker, hexaminolevulinate (HAL), used to concentrate and identify tumor cells in pleural effusion was reported. The lung adenocarcinoma cell line A549 and mesothelial cell line Met-5A were cultured as the tumor cells and non-tumor cells, respectively.

Nesprin-1: novel regulator of striated muscle nuclear positioning and mechanotransduction.

Nesprins (nuclear envelope spectrin repeat proteins) are multi-isomeric scaffolding proteins. Giant nesprin-1 and -2 localise to the outer nuclear membrane, interact with SUN (Sad1p/UNC-84) domain-containing proteins at the inner nuclear membrane to form the LInker of Nucleoskeleton and Cytoskeleton (LINC) complex, which, in association with lamin A/C and emerin, mechanically couples the nucleus to the cytoskeleton. Despite ubiquitous expression of nesprin giant isoforms, pathogenic mutations in nesprin-1 and -2 are associated with tissue-specific disorders, particularly related to striated muscle such as dilated cardiomyopathy and Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy.

Identifying Mitochondrial Transcription Factor A As a Potential Biomarker for the Carcinogenesis and Prognosis of Prostate Cancer.

Mitochondrial functional transformation contributes to the carcinogenesis of the prostate by meeting the metabolic needs of cancer cells. Mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM) is a pivotal regulator that maintains homeostasis of mitochondrial function. However, its role in prostate carcinogenesis has not been well elucidated.

Identification of Cancer Cell Stemness-Associated Long Noncoding RNAs for Predicting Prognosis of Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are emerging as crucial contributors to the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and are involved in the stemness regulation of liver cancer stem cells (LCSCs). However, cancer cell stemness-associated lncRNAs and their relevance in prediction of clinical prognosis remain largely unexplored. In this study, through the transcriptome-wide screen, we identified a total of 136 LCSC-associated lncRNAs.

HCV core antigen is a useful predictor during pegylated-interferon/ribavirin therapy in patients with hepatitis C virus genotype 1b.

Enzyme immunoassays for quantifying hepatitis C virus (HCV) core antigen (Ag) have been proposed as an alternative to HCV RNA detection. The present study aimed to investigate the early kinetics of serum HCVcAg and its usefulness in predicting virological responses.The clinical data of 135 patients with chronic hepatitis C treated with pegylated interferon alpha (PEG-IFN-α) and ribavirin was retrospectively collected.

[High-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry-based serum metabolic profiling in patients with HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma].

Objective: To explore the diagnostic value of the serum metabolites identified by high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS) for hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Methods: A total of 126 patients admitted to Tianjin Third Central Hospital were enrolled, including 27 patients with HBV-related hepatitis with negative viral DNA (DNA-N), 24 with HBV-related hepatitis with positive viral DNA, 24 with HBV-related liver cirrhosis, 27 with HBV-related HCC undergoing surgeries or radiofrequency ablation, and 24 with HBV-related HCC receiving interventional therapy, with 25 healthy volunteers as the normal control group. Serum samples were collected from all the subjects for HPLC/MS analysis, and the data were pretreated to establish an orthogonal partial least- squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) model.

Relation between high density lipoprotein particles concentration and cardiovascular events: a meta-analysis.

Background: Trails aimed at raising high density lipoprotein(HDL) cholesterol concentration failed to make better cardiovascular outcomes. HDL particles may be better biomarkers reflecting properties of HDL. This meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the relation between blood HDL particles level and cardiovascular events.

Metabolomics research on potential role for 9-cis-retinoic acid in breast cancer progression.

Deciphering the molecular networks that discriminate organ-confined breast cancer from metastatic breast cancer may lead to the identification of critical biomarkers for breast cancer invasion and aggressiveness. Here metabolomics, a global study of metabolites, has been applied to explore the metabolic alterations that characterize breast cancer progression. We profiled a total of 693 metabolites across 87 serum samples related to breast cancer (46 clinically localized and 41 metastatic breast cancer) and 49 normal samples.

Metabolic profiling of hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma with diverse differentiation grades.

The most effective diagnostic tool for the majority of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients is determining the differentiation grade of their tumors. However liver biopsies, which are currently the most effective way of determining tumor differentiation grade, have several limitations. The present study was designed to select serum characteristic metabolites that correlate with the differentiation grades of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related HCC, and so could be used in the clinic as a non-invasive method of differentiating patients with different grades of HCC.

A novel and selective inhibitor of PKC ζ potently inhibits human breast cancer metastasis in vitro and in mice.

Cell motility and chemotaxis play pivotal roles in the process of tumor development and metastasis. Protein kinase C ζ (PKC ζ) mediates epidermal growth factor (EGF)-stimulated chemotactic signaling pathway through regulating cytoskeleton rearrangement and cell adhesion. The purpose of this study was to develop anti-PKC ζ therapeutics for breast cancer metastasis.

Cytotoxicity effect of graphene oxide on human MDA-MB-231 cells.

Context: The use of graphene oxide (GO) in biomedicine and cancer therapy has increased significantly owing to its unique physical and chemical properties. As a consequence, the toxicity of GO in the environment and in humans has garnered more and more attention.

Objective: In this paper, we studied the potential cytotoxicity of GO nanosheets via examining the effect of GO on the viability, cellular colony formation and proliferation of a human breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cell line, which was an ideal model used to study breast disease in vitro.

Human liver tissue metabolic profiling research on hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma.

Aim: To select characteristic endogenous metabolites in hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients and to identify their molecular mechanism and potential clinical value.

Methods: An ultra performance liquid chromatography and linear trap quadrupole-Orbitrap XL-mass spectrometry platform was used to analyze endogenous metabolites in the homogenate of central tumor tissue, adjacent tissue and distant tissue obtained from 10 HBV-related HCC patients. After pretreatment with Mzmine software, including peak detection, alignment and normalization, the acquired data were treated with Simca-P+software to establish multivariate statistical analysis based on a pattern recognition technique and characteristic metabolites highly correlated with changing trends in metabolic profiling were selected and further identified.