Elevated preoperative NLR is an independent predictor of worse RFS for patients with stage IIA colon cancer and a potential biomarker to identify candidates for adjuvant chemotherapy.

Filamentous fungi have been of great interest because of their excellent ability as cell factories to manufacture useful products for human beings. The development of genetic transformation techniques is a precondition that enables scientists to target and modify genes efficiently and may reveal the function of target genes. The method to deliver foreign nucleic acid into cells is the sticking point for fungal genome modification. Up to date, there are some general methods of genetic transformation for fungi, including protoplast-mediated transformation, Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, electroporation, biolistic method and shock-wave-mediated transformation. This article reviews basic protocols and principles of these transformation methods, as well as their advantages and disadvantages.

The nodal regulatory properties of microRNAs (miRNA) in metastatic cancer may offer new targets for therapeutic control. Here, we report that upregulation of miR-483-5p is correlated with the progression of human lung adenocarcinoma. miR-483-5p promotes the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) accompanied by invasive and metastatic properties of lung adenocarcinoma. Mechanistically, miR-483-5p is activated by the WNT/b-catenin signaling pathway and exerts its prometastatic function by directly targeting the Rho GDP dissociation inhibitor alpha (RhoGDI1) and activated leukocyte cell adhesion molecule (ALCAM), two putative metastasis suppressors. Furthermore, we found that downregulation of RhoGDI1 enhances expression of Snail, thereby promoting EMT. Importantly, miR-483-5p levels are positively correlated with b-catenin expression, but are negatively correlated with the levels of RhoGDI1 and ALCAM in human lung adenocarcinoma. Our findings reveal that miR-483-5p is a critical b-catenin-activated prometastatic miRNA and a negative regulator of the metastasis suppressors RhoGDI1 and ALCAM. Cancer Res; 74(11); 3031-42. Ó2014 AACR.

microRNAs (miRNAs) have been proposed to be key regulators of diverse biological processes such as transcriptional regulation, cell growth and tumorigenesis. Wnt signaling plays an important role in the regulation of tumorigenesis and cancer progression. However, little is known about whether miR‐144 regulates bladder cancer cell proliferation by controlling Wnt signaling. In this study, we found that the miR‐144 expression level is significantly decreased in bladder cancer cell lines as well as in clinical cancer tissues. miR‐144 inhibitor blocks the expression of endogenous miR‐144 and promotes cancer cell proliferation, whereas miR‐144 overexpression is sufficient to inhibit cell proliferation. We further demonstrated that enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) is a target gene of miR‐144. miR‐144 downregulation relieves miR‐144‐mediated repression of EZH2, which results in activation of Wnt/β‐catenin signaling and subsequent cell proliferation. These data suggest miR‐144 is an essential mediator of bladder cancer cell proliferation, thus offering a new target for the development of therapeutic agents against bladder cancer.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules that are often located in genomic breakpoint regions and can act as oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes in human cancer. Our previous study showed that microRNA-423 (miR-423), which localized to the frequently amplified region of chromosome 17q11, was upregulated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the potential functions and exact mechanistic roles of miR-423 in hepatic carcinogenesis remain unknown. Here, we demonstrated that miR-423 significantly promotes cell growth and cell cycle progression at the G(1)/S transition in HCC cells. In particular, we found that miR-423-3p contributes to these effects, whereas miR-423-5p does not. Further studies revealed that p21Cip1/Waf1 is a downstream target of miR-423 in HCC cells, as miR-423 bound directly to its 3' untranslated region and reduced both the messenger RNA and protein levels of p21Cip1/Waf1. Moreover, enforced expression of p21Cip1/Waf1 abrogated miR-423-induced effects on HCC cell proliferation and cell cycle progression. These findings indicate that miR-423 exerts growth-promoting effects in hepatic carcinogenesis through the suppression of tumor suppressor p21Cip1/Waf1 expression. The results of this study define miR-423 as a new oncogenic miRNA in HCC.

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BackgroundBreast cancer accounts for nearly a quarter of all cancers in women worldwide, and more than 90% of women diagnosed with breast cancer undergo mastectomy or breast-conserving surgery. Retrospective clinical studies have suggested that use of regional anesthesia leads to improved patient outcomes. Laboratory studies have reported that breast cancer cells are inhibited by some local anesthetics at millimolar concentration. Here, we present a comprehensive analysis of the effects of six common local anesthetics on two human breast cancer cell lines. We used concentrations ranging from those corresponding to plasma levels during regional block by local anesthetic (plasma concentration) to those corresponding to direct infiltration of local anesthetic.MethodsHuman breast cancer cell lines, MDA-MB-231 and MCF7, were incubated with each of six local anesthetics (lidocaine, mepivacaine, ropivacaine, bupivacaine, levobupivacaine, and chloroprocaine) (10 μM ~ 10 mM) for 6 to 72 h. Assays for cell viability, cytotoxicity, migration, and cell cycle were performed.ResultsHigh concentrations (> 1 mM) of local anesthetics applied to either MDA-MB-231 or MCF7 cells for 48 h significantly inhibited cell viability and induced cytotoxicity. At plasma concentrations (~ 10 μM) for 72 h, none of the local anesthetics affected cell viability or migration in either cell line. However, at 10 × plasma concentrations, 72-h exposure to bupivacaine, levobupivacaine or chloroprocaine inhibited the viability of MDA-MB-231 cells by > 40% (p < 0.001). Levobupivacaine also inhibited the viability of MCF7 cells by 50% (p < 0.001). None of the local anesthetics affected the viability of a non-cancerous breast cell line, MCF10A. MDA-MB-231 cell migration was inhibited by 10 × plasma concentrations of levobupivacaine, ropivacaine or chloroprocaine and MCF7 cell migration was inhibited by mepivacaine and levobupivacaine (p < 0.05). Cell cycle analysis showed that the local anesthetics arrest MDA-MB-231 cells in the S phase at both 1 × and 10 × plasma concentrations.ConclusionsLocal anesthetics at high concentrations significantly inhibited breast cancer cell survival. At 10 × plasma concentrations, the effect of local anesthetics on cancer cell viability and migration depended on the exposure time, specific local anesthetic, specific measurement endpoint and specific cell line.

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