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Ovarian cancer (OC) is the fifth leading cause of cancer‐related death among women. The high mortality rate is due to lack of early symptoms, late diagnosis, limited treatment options, and also emerging of drug resistance. Todays, molecular markers have become promising in tumor‐targeted therapy. Several molecular markers have been known in OC immunotherapy. Identification of the specific molecular markers with prognostic significance is interested. CD24 is a small sialoglycoprotein which is localized in lipid rafts through its glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor. It has been reported that CD24 is overexpressed in many cancers including OC. Also, CD24 is identified as a cancer stem cell marker in OC. The CD24 expression is associated with the development, invasion, and metastasis of cancer cells. The exact role of CD24 in cancer cells is not clearly understood. Recently, CD24 has been identified as an independent prognostic marker of survival in patients with OC. In this study, we reviewed the molecular targets in OC immune‐targeted therapy and also presented an overview of the new molecular marker CD24 and its association with the OC by reviewing the recent literature.

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Background:Uropathogenic Escherichia coli O- Serogroups with their virulence factors are the most prevalent causes of UTIs.Objectives:The present investigation was performed to study the virulence factors and O-Serogroups profiles of UPEC isolated from Iranian pediatric patients.Patients and Methods:This cross sectional investigation was performed on 100 urine samples collected from hospitalized pediatrics of Baqiyatallah Hospital, Tehran, Iran. Midstream urine was collected to decrease potential bacterial, cellular and artifactual contamination. All samples were cultured and those with positive results were subjected to polymerase chain reactions to detect pap, cnf1, afa, sfa and hlyA genes and various O- Serogroups.Results:We found that 37.5% of boys and 75% of girls had positive results for Escherichia coli. We also found that O1 (19.33%), O2 (13.33%), O6 (13.33%), O4 (11.66%), and O18 (11.66 %) were the most commonly detected Serogroups. Totally, the serogroup of 5% of all strains were not detected. In addition, all of these O- Serogroups were pap+, cnf1+, hlyA+, and afa+. Totally, pap (70 %), cnf1 (56.66 %), and hlyA (43.33 %) were the most commonly detected virulence genes in the both studied groups of children. The sfa (30 %) and afa (26.66 %) genes had the lowest incidence rates.Conclusions:Special health care should be performed on UTIs management in Iranian pediatric patients. Extended researches should be performed to evaluate relation between other O-Serogroups and virulent genes.

Context: Multiple drug resistance is the major obstacle to conventional chemotherapy. Silibinin, a nontoxic naturally occurring compound, has anticancer activity and can increase the cytotoxic effects of chemotherapy in various cancer models.Objective: To evaluate the effects of silibinin on enhancing the sensitivity of chemo-resistant human breast cell lines to doxorubicin (DOX) and paclitaxel (PAC).Materials and methods: The cells were treated with silibinin (at 50 to 600 μM concentrations) and/or chemo drugs for 24 and 48 h, then cell viability and changes in oncogenic proteins were determined by MTT assay and Western blotting/RT-PCR, respectively. Flow cytometry was used to study apoptosis in the cells receiving different treatments. The antitumorigenic effects of silibinin (at 200 to 400 μM concentration) were evaluated by mammosphere assay.Results: Silibinin exerted significant growth inhibitory effects with IC50 ranging from 200 to 570 μM in different cell lines. Treatment of DOX-resistant MDA-MB-435 cells with silibinin at 200 μM reduced DOX IC50 from 71 to 10 μg/mL and significantly suppressed the key oncogenic pathways including STAT3, AKT, and ERK in these cells. Interestingly treatment of DOX-resistant MDA-MB-435 cells with silibinin at 400 μM concentration for 48 h induced a 50% decrease in the numbers of colonies as compared with DMSO-treated cells. Treatment of PAC-resistant MCF-7 cells with silibinin at 400 μM concentration generated synergistic effects when it was used in combination with PAC at 250 nM concentration (CI = 0.81).Conclusion: Silibinin sensitizes chemo-resistant cells to chemotherapeutic agents and can be useful in treating breast cancers.