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MicroRNAs play critical roles in regulating cell survival under multiple pathological conditions of heart diseases. Oxidative stress-induced apoptosis contributes greatly to heart ischemia-reperfusion injury. Herein, we describe a novel regulatory role of miR-28 on the survival of cardiomyocytes. We show that miR-28 was upregulated in cardiomyocytes treated with hydrogen peroxide (HO). MiR-28 gain of function sensitized cell apoptosis, whereas miR-28 loss of function partially rescued cell apoptosis induced by HO. Importantly, we observed a significant reduction in Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling activity after miR-28 treatment. Luciferase activity assay and western blot analysis both revealed that, phosphoinositide-dependent kinase-1 (PDK1), which is critical for Akt activation, was directly and negatively modulated by miR-28. Our results therefore indicate that miR-28 regulates oxidative stress-induced cell apoptosis in heart muscle cells, which possibly involves a PDK1/Akt/mTOR-dependent mechanism. MIR-28 could serve as a critical therapeutic target to diminish oxidative stress-induced cell death in the heart.

Background: To compare the adhesion properties and biofilm-forming capabilities of 27 Candida isolates obtained from catheter-related candidemia patients and to evaluate the inhibitory effects of antifungal agents on different Candida species.Material and Methods: Seven C. albicans, six C. parapsilosis, five C. guilliermondii, five C. tropicalis, and four C. glabrata clinical isolates were investigated. We quantified the adherence of these Candida species by flow cytometric method and evaluated the formation of biofilms by XTT reduction and crystal violet methods. Actions of micafungin (MF), fluconazole (FZ), and N-acetylcysteine (NAC) on the adhesion and biofilm formation of different Candida species were determined.Results: Non-albicans Candida species were demonstrated to have stronger adhesion abilities compared with C. albicans. The biofilm-forming capabilities of different Candida species were varied considerably, and the degree of biofilm formation might be affected by different assay approaches. Interestingly, C. parapsilosis displayed the highest biofilm formation abilities, while C. glabrata exhibited the lowest total biomass and metabolic activity. Furthermore, the inhibitory activities of MF, FZ, and NAC on fungal adhesion and biofilm formation were evaluated, and the results indicated that MF could reduce the adhesion ability and biofilm metabolism more significantly (p < 0.05), and its antifungal activity was elevated in a dose-dependent manner. Conclusion:Non-albicans Candida species, especially C. guilliermondii, C. tropicalis, and C. parapsilosis, exhibited higher adhesion ability in catheter-related candidemia patients. However, these Candida species had varied biofilm-forming capabilities. MF tended to have stronger inhibitory effects against both adhesion and biofilm formation of different Candida species. K E Y W O R D S adhesion, antifungal agents, biofilms, non-albican CandidaThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

As important virulence factors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, EsxA and EsxB not only play a role in phagosome rupture and M. tuberculosis cytosolic translocation but also function as modulators of host immune responses by modulating numerous microRNAs (miRNAs). Recently, we have found that mycobacterial infection downregulated miR-148a-3p (now termed miR-148) in macrophages in an ESX-1-dependent manner. The upregulation of miR-148 reduced mycobacterial intracellular survival. Here, we investigated miR-147-3p (now termed miR-147), a negative regulator of inflammatory cytokines (e.g., interleukin-6 [IL-6] and IL-10), in mycobacterial infection. We infected murine RAW264.7 macrophages with Mycobacterium marinum, a surrogate model organism for M. tuberculosis, and found that the esxBA-knockout strain (M. marinum ΔesxBA) upregulated miR-147 to a level that was significantly higher than that induced by the M. marinum wild-type (WT) strain or by the M. marinum ΔesxBA complemented strain, M. marinum ΔesxBA/pesxBA, suggesting that the ESX-1 system (potentially EsxBA and/or other codependently secreted factors) is the negative regulator of miR-147. miR-147 was also downregulated by directly incubating the macrophages with the purified recombinant EsxA or EsxB protein or the EsxBA heterodimer, which further confirms the role of the EsxBA proteins in the downregulation of miR-147. The upregulation of miR-147 inhibited the production of IL-6 and IL-10 and significantly reduced M. marinum intracellular survival. Interestingly, inhibitors of either miR-147 or miR-148 reciprocally compromised the effects of the mimics of their counterparts on M. marinum intracellular survival. This suggests that miR-147 and miR-148 share converged downstream pathways in response to mycobacterial infection, which was supported by data indicating that miR-147 upregulation inhibits the Toll-like receptor 4/NF-κB pathway.

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We analyzed the clinical features and risk factors of candidemia due to C. parapsilosis (n=104) in the intensive care unit of a tertiary hospital over six years. This was a monocentric, retrospective study of candidemia, conducted from January 2013 to March 2019. Epidemiological characteristics, clinical features, invasive procedures, laboratory data and outcomes of 267 patients with candidemia were analyzed to determine risk factors of candidemia due to C. parapsilosis. Sixty-three cases of C. albicans and 204 cases of non- C. albicans Candida (NCAC) species were included, the latter was composed of 104 cases of C. parapsilosis and 100 cases of non- C. albicans species (46 cases of C. tropicalis , 22 cases of C. glabrata , 23 cases of C. guilliermondii, 5 cases of C. krusei and 4 cases of C. lusitaniae ), suggesting that C. parapsilosis was the predominant Candida s pecies isolated from cases of candidemia. A binary multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that APACHE II scores, central venous catheterization and the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics were closely related to C. parapsilosis candidemia, with OR values of 1.159, 3.913 and 2.217, respectively. In conclusion, we found that C. parapsilosis was the main pathogen among the NCAC candidemia in the ICU patients. APACHE II scores, central venous catheterization and the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics were independent risk factors for the occurrence of C. parapsilosis candidemia, which may provide data to support the early introduction of anti-fungal therapy.

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Strongest dose-response relationship was observed for smoking. Conclusion: The comparison between cases and controls showed that main lung cancer determinants in Pakistan are smoking, second hand smoking, diesel exhaust, family history and previous lung disease. Less exposure to above mentioned factors can decrease the incidence of lung cancer in Pakistani population. Cooking and lung cancer association was not found.Background: Tobacco smoke is a well-known strong mutagen. However, as EGFR mutations (EGFRmut) in lung cancer were predominantly enriched in never smokers, people used to consider tobacco smoke is mutually exclusive of EGFRmut. We believed that the reason for the relatively lower EGFRmut rates in smokers was the confounding effect from the greater population of known smoke-directing lung cancers. Therefore, it remained interesting to know whether environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure will influence EGFRmut rate. Method: We searched relevant studies from electronic databases. Different ETS exposure groups of non-smokers and the corresponding EGFRmut rates were extracted from eligible studies. The ETS exposure was measured by the duration (pack-years). A weighted linear regression model was used to examine the correlation by adjusting the sample size of each group. Result: A total of 7 studies involving 1,447 patients were included. Although no difference was observed between patients with any level ETS exposure and those without any ETS exposure (OR¼1.01, 0.94-1.08, P¼0.787), we found a positive correlation between ETS exposure duration and occurrence of EGFRmut (R 2 ¼0.436, P<0.001; Figure 1). Conclusion: The current results suggested that tobacco smoke exposure might also be an inducing factor for EGFR mutations. The true impact of tobacco on EGFR mutations should be calculated based on general population rather than lung cancer population to avoid enrichment bias in the future studies.Background: Low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) lung cancer screening is recommended by US guidelines. Women are commonly underrepresented in lung cancer screening trials and evidence is derived from a predominantly male population. New solid nodules that develop after baseline screening have a high lung cancer probability. There is very limited evidence concerning the potential differences of October 2018Abstracts S779