Thyroid cancer is associated with one of the most malignant endocrine tumors. However, molecular mechanisms underlying thyroid tumorigenesis and progression remain unclear. In order to investigate these mechanisms, we performed whole-transcriptome sequencing, which indicated that a differentially expressed gene, METTL7B, was highly expressed in thyroid cancers. We analyzed METTL7B expression using TCGA and performed qRT-PCR on tissue samples. Moreover, an analysis of clinicopathological characteristics revealed a positive correlation between METTL7B and lymph node metastasis. A series of in vitro experiments indicated that METTL7B enhanced migration and invasion of thyroid carcinoma cells. Further studies revealed that METTL7B may enhance TGF-β1-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Our results indicate that METTL7B may promote metastasis of thyroid cancer through EMT and may therefore be considered as a potential biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of thyroid carcinoma.

Background Breast cancer (BC) is the most frequent malignancy occurring in women worldwide. Emerging evidence indicates that small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) play a role in tumor development. In the current study, we evaluated expression profiles and functions of snoRNAs associated with BC. Methods We analyzed the expression levels of snoRNAs between breast cancer and normal tissues in TCGA database and found that SNORA7B is upregulated in BC. We confirmed this result in clinical cancer tissues and BC cell lines via qRT-PCR. Then, we investigated clinical significance in public datasets and biological function of SNORA7B using a series of in vitro gain- and loss-of-function experiments. Results SNORA7B expression was significantly upregulated in samples from patients with BC in both public database and our clinical tissues compared to its expression in normal tissues. Meanwhile, patients with high SNORA7B expression have worse prognosis. Inhibition of SNORA7B expression impaired cell growth, proliferation, migration, and invasion via inducing apoptosis. Conclusions SNORA7B functions as an important oncogenic snoRNA in BC and may serve as a potential prognosis biomarker for BC. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12935-019-0830-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Onconase (Onc) is a cytotoxic ribonuclease derived from leopard frog oocytes or early embryos, and has been applied to the treatment of malignant mesothelioma in clinics. Onc also exhibits effective growth suppression of human non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Artemisinin (Art) and its derivatives are novel antimalarial drugs that exhibit antitumor and antivirus activities. In this study, we investigated the antitumor effects of combinations of Onc and an Art derivative, dihydroartemisinin (DHA), both in vitro and in vivo Isobologram analyses showed synergistic effects on the proliferation of NSCLC cells under the treatment with Onc and DHA. In vivo experiments also showed that the antitumor effect of Onc was markedly enhanced by DHA in mouse xenograft models. No obvious adverse effect was observed after the treatment. The density of microvasculature in the tumor tissues treated with Onc/DHA combination was lower than those treated with Onc or DHA alone. The above results are consistent with the results of the matrigel plug test for angiogenesis suppression using the Onc/DHA combination. These results imply that the anti-angiogenesis effects may make important contributions to the in vivo antitumor effects of the Onc/DHA combination treatment. The Onc/DHA combination therapy may have the potential to become a novel regimen for NSCLC and mesothelioma.

Neuroblastoma is the most common abdominal malignant tumor in childhood. Immunotoxin (IT) that targets the tumor cell surface receptor is a new supplementary therapeutic treatment approach. The purpose of this study is to detect the expression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in neuroblastoma cell lines and tissues, and to explore if IT therapy can be used to treat refractory neuroblastoma. The EGFR expression in human neuroblastoma tissue samples was detected by immunohistochemistry staining. The positive rate of EGFR expression was 81.0% in neuroblastoma tissue and 50.0% in gangliocytoma, respectively, but without statistical significance between them (P > 0.05). The positive rate of EGFR expression in favorable type and unfavorable type was 62.5% and 92.3%, respectively, but they were not statistically different (P > 0.05). Results from prechemotherapy and post-chemotherapy samples showed that there was no significant statistical difference (P > 0.05) between them in the EGFR expression. Furthermore, the EGFR expression levels in five neuroblastoma cell lines were measured using cell-based ELISA assay and western blot analysis. The results showed that the expression of EGFR was higher in KP-N-NS and BE(2)-C than those in other cell lines. Our results revealed that there are consistent and widespread expressions of EGFR in neuroblastoma tissues as well as in neuroblastoma cell lines, suggesting that it is possible to develop future treatment strategies of neuroblastoma by targeting at the EGFR.

Various nonthermal processing technologies were applied, including pulsed electric field (PEF) technology, freeze concentration and vacuum freeze‐drying. The black tea was extracted with hot water extraction, cold extraction and PEF extraction. Results indicated that PEF‐assisted extraction had the best extraction efficiency for the main chemical components from tea at lower temperatures. Optimal PEF extraction conditions were achieved (tea leaves/water ratio of 1:16, electric field strengths of 20 kV/cm and pulse frequency of 125 Hz). The effects of PEF‐assisted extraction on the chemical component contents and sensory qualities of the tea infusion were investigated. Results showed that extraction yield (22.7%) of black tea powder could be enhanced over PEF‐assisted extraction, whereas its original flavor could be retained by freeze concentration and vacuum freeze‐drying. It also turned out that a total of 61 major aromatic compounds were identified in the tea powder. Floral and sweet flavor components were high and pure. Practical Applications Instant black tea is presently manufactured through hot water extraction or cold‐water extraction from the tea infusion and by spray/freeze‐drying of the concentrated brew of extracted tea leaves; the drawback of this method is inferior quality. The product obtained from the new method had an excellent quality and good aromatic characteristics to the other ordinary instant black tea powder manufacturing methods. The process developed in this study could be suitable for black tea manufacturers to produce high‐aroma instant black tea powder.

BackgroundPapillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common type of thyroid carcinoma, which is associated with a high incidence of lymph-node metastasis. Multiple biomarkers have been identified for the precise diagnosis of PTC at an early stage. However, their role in PTC remains poorly elucidated. Previously, we reported that lipase H (LIPH), a membrane-bound protein, was highly expressed in PTC. This study aimed to fully elucidate the causal role of LIPH in the development of PTC and investigated its relationship with lymph-node metastasis in PTC.Materials and methodsQuantitative reverse transcription PCR and immunohistochemistry were used to measure the mRNA and protein expression levels of LIPH in 45 and 6 pairs of PTC tissues and adjacent normal tissues, respectively. Clinical tissue data of 504 PTC tissues and 60 normal thyroid tissues from The Cancer Genome Atlas database were used to analyze the correlation between LIPH expression level and clinical features in PTC. siRNAs were used to knock down genes, while plasmids were used to overexpress genes. Two PTC cell lines (KTC-1 and BCPAP) were used in subsequent cytological function studies. In addition, a hypoxia stress model was constructed using cobaltous chloride hexahydrate reagent, and the protein expression level of the corresponding biomarkers was measured by Western blotting.ResultsThis study revealed that high expression of LIPH in PTC was closely associated with lymph-node metastasis. Our cellular function experiments indicated that LIPH positively correlated with the malignant behavior of PTC cell lines. We further confirmed the role of LIPH in hypoxia and its relationship with the epithelial–mesenchymal transition pathway in PTC.ConclusionLIPH plays an important role in PTC oncogenesis and development, especially in lymph-node metastasis. It can be regarded as a biomarker for the diagnosis and treatment of PTC in the near future.

The long noncoding RNA called MIR22 host gene (MIR22HG) was previously identified as a tumor suppressor in several cancers. However, the biological function of MIR22HG in breast cancer remains unknown. In this study, we aimed to determine the function and molecular mechanism of MIR22HG in breast cancer progression using transcriptomics and biotechnological techniques. Our results showed that MIR22HG expression was lower in the cancerous tissues than in the paired adjacent normal breast tissues. Additionally, MIR22HG was found to be mainly located in the cytoplasm and acted as a miR-629-5p sponge. Notably, MIR22HG stabilized the expression of large tumor suppressor 2 (LATS2), which promoted the LATS2-dependent phosphorylation of YAP1 and suppressed the expression of its downstream target oncogenes, thereby inhibiting the proliferation and migration of breast cancer cells. Therefore, our findings reveal the MIR22HG-dependent inhibition of breast cancer cell proliferation and migration via the miR-629-5p/LATS2 pathway, providing new insights and identifying novel therapeutic targets for breast cancer treatment.