Circular RNA, a class of non-coding RNA, is a new group of RNAs and is related to tumorigenesis. Circular RNAs are suggested to be ideal candidate biomarkers with potential diagnostic and therapeutic implications. However, little is known about their expression in human colorectal cancer. In our study, differentially expressed circular RNAs were detected using circular RNA array in paired tumor and adjacent non-tumorous tissues from six colorectal cancer patients. Expression levels of selected circular RNAs (hsa_circRNA_103809 and hsa_circRNA_104700) were measured by realtime polymerase chain reaction in 170 paired colorectal cancer samples for validation. Statistical analyses were conducted to investigate the association between hsa_circRNA_103809 and hsa_circRNA_104700 expression levels and respective patient clinicopathological features. Receiver operating characteristic curve was constructed to evaluate the diagnostic values. Our results indicated that there were 125 downregulated and 76 upregulated circular RNAs in colorectal cancer tissues compared with normal tissues. We also first demonstrated that the expression levels of hsa_circRNA_103809 (p < 0.0001) and hsa_circRNA_104700 (p = 0.0003) were significantly lower in colorectal cancer than in normal tissues. The expression level of hsa_circRNA_103809 was significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis (p = 0.021) and tumor-node-metastasis stage (p = 0.011), and the expression level of hsa_circRNA_104700 was significantly correlated with distal metastasis (p = 0.036). The area under receiver operating characteristic curves of hsa_circRNA_103809 and hsa_circRNA_104700 were 0.699 (p < 0.0001) and 0.616 (p < 0.0001), respectively. In conclusion, these results suggest that hsa_circRNA_103809 and hsa_circRNA_104700 may be potentially involved in the development of colorectal cancer and serve as potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of colorectal cancer.

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BackgroundPrevious studies have demonstrated that the expression of homeobox8 (HOXB8) is higher in colorectal cancer (CRC) tissues than in normal tissues; however, the precise role of HOXB8 in human CRC cells remains to be elucidated.MethodsWe generated lentiviral constructs to overexpress and silence HOXB8 in CRC cell lines, and examined their biological functions through MTT, wound healing, colony and transwell, expression of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) and epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) related factors through western-blot.ResultsHOXB8 knockdown inhibited cellular proliferation and invasion in vitro as well as carcinogenesis and metastasis in vivo. HOXB8 also induced EMT, which is characterized by the down-regulation of E-cadherin and the up-regulation of Vimentin, N-cadherin, Twist, Zeb1 and Zeb2. Moreover, HOXB8 activated STAT3, which is known to play an oncogenic role in diverse human malignancies.ConclusionsOur results indicate that HOXB8 may be an independent prognostic factor in CRC. Therefore, deserved a deeper research.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12935-018-0717-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Laparoscopic and open surgery for middle and lower rectal cancer offer similar long-term outcomes. The continued use of laparoscopic surgery in these patients can be supported.

Background Whether the prognoses of different pathological subtypes of colorectal cancer (CRC) at different stages are distinct is unclear. Methods We extracted data on all cases of CRC from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database between 2004 and 2015. The incidence of different pathological subtypes, clinical characteristics, and five-year overall survival (OS) and cause-specific survival (CSS) were analyzed. Results A total of 384,996 cases diagnosed as adenocarcinoma (AC), mucinous adenocarcinoma (MAC), and signet ring cell carcinoma (SRCC) were included in this analysis. Compared with AC, MAC and SRCC were more likely to reach T4, N2, M1, stages III and IV, and grades III and IV, and patients were generally of a younger age (P < 0.001). Compared with those with AC, patients with MAC and SRCC showed poorer OS (50.6 and 26.8% vs. 60.2%, P < .001), with corresponding HR values of 1.238 (95% CI, 1.213–1.263, P < .001) and 1.592 (95% CI, 1.558–1.627, P < .001), respectively. The MAC and SRCC groups also showed poorer overall CCS (60.9 and 32.5% vs. 67.8%, P < .001), with corresponding HR values of 1.271 (95% CI, 1.242–1.302, P < .001) and 1.724 (95% CI, 1.685–1.765, P < .001), respectively. Compared with patients with AC, those with MAC showed poor OS at every stage and poor CSS at every stage except stage II (P < .05), while patients with SRCC revealed poor OS and CSS at every stage except stage 0 (P < .05). Conclusions Patients of different pathological subtypes minimally differed at early stages. However, patients with AC have significantly better prognoses in advanced CRC (stages III and IV) than those with MAC or SRCC. Distinct treatment strategies should be applied depending on a particular histological subtype in advanced CRC.

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Nanofibers of VO2(A) with the diameter and length averagely at 100 nm and 10-20 μm were prepared via a facile one-step hydrothermal method by reducing NH4VO3 with 1,3-propylene glycol in an acidic solution. The obtained VO2(A) was coated by SiO2 to form VO2(A)@SiO2 core-shell nanocomposites, which were then transformed into VO2(M)@SiO2 by annealing under nitrogen atmosphere. The resulted composites maintained the original fibrous morphology, particularly with a large amount of pores emerging inside the fiber due to the volume shrinkage during the phase transition, which may improve its thermal insulation ability in real applications. The VO2(M)@SiO2 nanofibers were arranged into a self-supporting film by filtration, which shows excellent thermochromic properties.

Our recent study demonstrated that the QKI-5 regulated miRNA, miR-196b-5p, and it functions as an onco-microRNA in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by directly targeting GATA6 and TSPAN12. However, the role of miR-196b-5p in NSCLC progression and metastasis still remains unclear. We found that miR-196b-5p promotes lung cancer cell proliferation and colony formation by directly targeting tumor suppressor, FAS. The expression of FAS was significantly downregulated in NSCLC tissue samples and was negatively correlated with the miR-196b-5p expression. Knocking down FAS activates NFkB signaling and subsequent IL6 secretion, resulting in phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) to promote lung cancer cell growth. Our findings indicated that miR-196b-5p might exhibit novel oncogenic function by FAS-mediated STAT3 activation in NSCLC, and suggested that targeting the miR-196b-5p/FAS/NFkB/IL6/STAT3 pathway might be a promising therapeutic strategy in treating NSCLC.