BACKGROUND Autophagy has recently been found to play important roles in tumorigenesis and LRPPRC has been identified as an inhibitor that suppresses autophagy and mitophagy and maintains mitochondrial activity. We hypothesized that LRPPRC levels can be used as a biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis of prostate cancer. METHODS We performed immunochemistry analysis to evaluate the levels of LRPPRC in 112 samples collected from patients with prostate adenocarcinomas (PCa) and 38 samples from patients with benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) enrolled in hospitals in Guangzhou city of China that have been followed up for 10 years. RESULTS We found that there were significant higher levels of LRPPRC in PCa than in BPH. More than three quarters of PCa patients showed high levels of LRPPRC while only 10% of BPH patients had similar levels of LRPPRC. The levels of LRPPRC protein were positively correlated with tumor grade, metastasis and serum PSA, but negatively correlated with hormone therapy sensitivity after 2 years of surgery and overall survival. The association of high levels of LRPPRC with late stage of PCa or hormone therapy insensitivity was confirmed in tissue samples collected from prostate-specific PTEN−/− mice or hormone-dependent and independent prostate cancer cell lines. CONCLUSION The levels of LRPPRC may be used as an independent biomarker for PCa patients at late-stage with poor prognosis.

P62 promotes metastasis of PCA by sustaining the level of HDAC6 to inhibit autophagy and promote epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition.

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This study investigated the prevalence of recto-vaginal Group B Streptococcus (GBS) colonization, serotype distribution, and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns among pregnant women in Dongguan, China. Recto-vaginal swabs were collected from pregnant women at gestational age 35-37 weeks between January 1 st 2009 and December 31 st 2014. Isolates were serotyped by latex-agglutination and were tested against seven antimicrobials by disk diffusion. Of 7,726 pregnant women who completed GBS testing, 636 (8.2%) were GBS carriers. Of 153 GBS isolates available for typing, 6 serotypes (Ia, Ib, III, V, VI and VIII) were identified with type III being predominant, while 9 (5.9%) were non-typable isolates. All isolates were sensitive to penicillin, ceftriaxone, linezolid and vancomycin, whereas 52.4% were resistant to clindamycin, 25.9% were resistant to levofloxacin and 64.9% were resistant to erythromycin. This study showed the recto-vaginal colonization prevalence of GBS in Dongguan is significant. Due to 100% susceptibility to penicillin of all GBS samples, penicillin remains the first recommendation for treatment and prevention against GBS infection. Susceptibility testing should be performed for women allergic to penicillin in order to choose the most appropriate antibacterial agents for treatment and prevention of vertical transmission to neonates. In addition, we suggest establishing standard processes for GBS culture and identification in China as early as possible.