RationaleStrategies to stage and treat cancer rely on a presumption of either localized or widespread metastatic disease. An intermediate state of metastasis termed oligometastasis(es) characterized by limited progression has been proposed. Oligometastases are amenable to treatment by surgical resection or radiotherapy.MethodsWe analyzed microRNA expression patterns from lung metastasis samples of patients with ≤5 initial metastases resected with curative intent.ResultsPatients were stratified into subgroups based on their rate of metastatic progression. We prioritized microRNAs between patients with the highest and lowest rates of recurrence. We designated these as high rate of progression (HRP) and low rate of progression (LRP); the latter group included patients with no recurrences. The prioritized microRNAs distinguished HRP from LRP and were associated with rate of metastatic progression and survival in an independent validation dataset.ConclusionOligo- and poly- metastasis are distinct entities at the clinical and molecular level.

Aptamers are short RNA or DNA oligonucleotides which can bind with different targets. Typically, they are selected from a large number of random DNA sequence libraries. The main strategy to obtain aptamers is systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX). Low efficiency is one of the limitations for conventional PCR amplification of random DNA sequence library in aptamer selection because of relative low products and high by-products formation efficiency. Here, we developed emulsion PCR for aptamer selection. With this method, the by-products formation decreased tremendously to an undetectable level, while the products formation increased significantly. Our results indicated that by-products in conventional PCR amplification were from primer-product and product-product hybridization. In emulsion PCR, we can completely avoid the product-product hybridization and avoid the most of primer-product hybridization if the conditions were optimized. In addition, it also showed that the molecule ratio of template to compartment was crucial to by-product formation efficiency in emulsion PCR amplification. Furthermore, the concentration of the Taq DNA polymerase in the emulsion PCR mixture had a significant impact on product formation efficiency. So, the results of our study indicated that emulsion PCR could improve the efficiency of SELEX.

A systematic investigation of the preparation, characterization, and use of lithium phthalocyanine (LiPc) microcrystalline powder as a probe for electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) oximetry applications has recently been initiated (Ilangovan et al. J. Phys. Chem. B 2000, 104, 4047-4059). Electrochemical preparation of LiPc under potentiostatic conditions (+0.4 V) yielded microcrystalline paramagnetic particles that showed extremely narrow (<10 mG) and oxygen-dependent EPR line width measured at 9.82 GHz (Ilangovan et al. J. Phys. Chem. B 2000, 104, 9404-9410). In this report, we demonstrate the application of this material to measure oxygen concentration in a biochemical (xanthine/xanthine oxidase, X/XO), cellular (human polymorphonuclear neutrophils, PMNs), and in vivo (mice) biological systems. The microcrystalline particles showed high oxygen-sensitivity and stability in aqueous and physiological environments. The particles implanted in the gastrocnemius muscle of living mice were found to be stable enabling repetitive measurements of pO 2 for more than two weeks. Simultaneous measurements of oxygen consumption and oxygen radical generation from X/XO and activated PMNs systems were performed using a combination of the LiPc oximetry probe and DEPMPO spin-trap. The results demonstrated that the LiPc microcrystalline powder could provide accurate and repetitive measurements of oxygen in the medium of its dispersion or in any tissue region of pathophysiological interest.

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