BackgroundBreast cancer is one of the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women worldwide and increasing rapidly in developing countries. In the present study, we investigated the potential role and association of HSP70-2 with breast cancer.MethodsHSP70-2 expression was examined in 154 tumor and 103 adjacent non-cancerous tissue (ANCT) specimens and breast cancer cell lines (MCF7, BT-474, SK-BR-3 and MDA-MB-231) by RT-PCR, quantitative-PCR, immunohistochemistry, Western blotting, flow cytometry and indirect immunofluorescence. Plasmid driven short hairpin RNA approach was employed to validate the role of HSP70-2 in cellular proliferation, senescence, migration, invasion and tumor growth. Further, we studied the effect of HSP70-2 protein ablation on signaling cascades involved in apoptosis, cell cycle and Epithelial-Mesenchymal-Transition both in culture as well as in-vivo human breast xenograft mouse model.ResultsHSP70-2 expression was detected in majority of breast cancer patients (83 %) irrespective of various histotypes, stages and grades. HSP70-2 expression was also observed in all breast cancer cells (BT-474, MCF7, MDA-MB-231 and SK-BR-3) used in this study. Depletion of HSP70-2 in MDA-MB-231 and MCF7 cells resulted in a significant reduction in cellular growth, motility, onset of apoptosis, senescence, cell cycle arrest as well as reduction of tumor growth in the xenograft model. At molecular level, down-regulation of HSP70-2 resulted in reduced expression of cyclins, cyclin dependent kinases, anti-apoptotic molecules and mesenchymal markers and enhanced expression of CDK inhibitors, caspases, pro-apoptotic molecules and epithelial markers.ConclusionsHSP70-2 is over expressed in breast cancer patients and was involved in malignant properties of breast cancer. This suggests HSP70-2 may be potential candidate molecule for development of better breast cancer treatment.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13046-016-0425-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

BackgroundColorectal cancer (CRC) is the third leading cause of cancer related deaths worldwide both in men and women. Our recent studies have indicated an association of heat shock protein 70–2 (HSP70-2) with bladder urothelial carcinoma. In the present study, we investigated the association of HSP70-2 with various malignant properties of colorectal cancer cells and clinic-pathological features of CRC in clinical specimens.MethodsHSP70-2 mRNA and protein was investigated expression by RT-PCR, immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, flow cytometry and Western blotting in CRC clinical specimens and COLO205 and HCT116 cell lines. Plasmid-based gene silencing approach was employed to study the association of HSP70-2 with various malignant properties of COLO205 and HCT116 cells in in vitro and with tumor progression in in vivo COLO205 human xenograft mice model.ResultsHSP70-2 expression was detected in 78 % of CRC patients irrespective of various stages and grades by RT-PCR and IHC. Our analysis further revealed that HSP70-2 expression was detected in both COLO205 and HCT116 cell lines. Ablation of HSP70-2 expression resulted in reduced cellular growth, colony forming ability, migratory and invasive ability of CRC cells. In addition, ablation of HSP70-2 expression showed significant reduction in tumor growth in COLO205 human xenograft in in vivo mouse model.ConclusionCollectively, our results indicate that HSP70-2 is associated with CRC clinical specimens. In addition, down regulation of HSP70-2 expression reduces cellular proliferation and tumor growth indicating that HSP70-2 may be a potential therapeutic target for CRC treatment.

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Complete avulsion of the ureter is one of the most serious complications of ureteroscopy. It requires open or laparoscopic intervention for repair. This case report emphasizes its management and presents recommendations for prevention in current urological practice.

IntroductionForeign body in urinary bladder has always been a topic of interest amongst the urologists and surgeon. Foreign body in lower urinary tract is not an unusual finding. Different types of foreign bodies has been retrieved from the lower urinary tract like for example, electric wire, safety pin, hairclip, intrauterine contraceptive device (IUCD), gauze pieces, battery, leech, hairballs and so on.This article presents an unusual case report of the presence of kidney beans in the bladder, self-inflicted by the patient in the middle of the night for the purpose of sexual gratification or autoerotism. A 25 years old male patient, chef by occupation, presented to the outpatient department with history of insertion of 4 kidney beans 3 days back through his penis during the act of masturbation. The patient had complaints of dysuria, one episode, next morning after the act, which was relieved thereafter. Patient came to us only for the purpose of removal of the kidney beans. Attempt was made to remove the beans by non-invasive method by cystoscopy but as the beans were soaked in urine they got swollen and forceps removal was not possible. Hence, the kidney beans were removed by an invasive method by a suprapubic incision.ConclusionThere has been many cases reported in literature about insertion of foreign bodies in bladder but presence of kidney beans in bladder is first of its kind as far as our knowledge is concerned.

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Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most prevalent cancers among men in India. Although studies on PCa have dealt with genetics, genomics, and the environmental influence in the causality of PCa, not many studies employing the Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) approaches of PCa have been carried out. In our previous study, we identified some causal genes and mutations specific to Indian PCa using Whole Exome Sequencing (WES). In the recent past, with the help of different cancer consortiums such as The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC), along with differentially expressed genes (DEGs), many cancer-associated novel non-coding RNAs have been identified as biomarkers. In this work, we attempt to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) including long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) associated with signature pathways from an Indian PCa cohort using the RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) approach. From a cohort of 60, we screened six patients who underwent prostatectomy; we performed whole transcriptome shotgun sequencing (WTSS)/RNA-sequencing to decipher the DEGs. We further normalized the read counts using fragments per kilobase of transcript per million mapped reads (FPKM) and analyzed the DEGs using a cohort of downstream regulatory tools, viz., GeneMANIA, Stringdb, Cytoscape-Cytohubba, and cbioportal, to map the inherent signatures associated with PCa. By comparing the RNA-seq data obtained from the pairs of normal and PCa tissue samples using our benchmarked in-house cuffdiff pipeline, we observed some important genes specific to PCa, such as STEAP2, APP, PMEPA1, PABPC1, NFE2L2, and HN1L, and some other important genes known to be involved in different cancer pathways, such as COL6A1, DOK5, STX6, BCAS1, BACE1, BACE2, LMOD1, SNX9, CTNND1, etc. We also identified a few novel lncRNAs such as LINC01440, SOX2OT, ENSG00000232855, ENSG00000287903, and ENST00000647843.1 that need to be characterized further. In comparison with publicly available datasets, we have identified characteristic DEGs and novel lncRNAs implicated in signature PCa pathways in an Indian PCa cohort which perhaps have not been reported. This has set a precedent for us to validate candidates further experimentally, and we firmly believe this will pave a way toward the discovery of biomarkers and the development of novel therapies.