Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is not only an effective solution for primary health care, but also a great resource for drug innovation and discovery. To meet the increasing needs for TCM-related data resources, we developed ETCM, an Encyclopedia of Traditional Chinese Medicine. ETCM includes comprehensive and standardized information for the commonly used herbs and formulas of TCM, as well as their ingredients. The herb basic property and quality control standard, formula composition, ingredient drug-likeness, as well as many other information provided by ETCM can serve as a convenient resource for users to obtain thorough information about a herb or a formula. To facilitate functional and mechanistic studies of TCM, ETCM provides predicted target genes of TCM ingredients, herbs, and formulas, according to the chemical fingerprint similarity between TCM ingredients and known drugs. A systematic analysis function is also developed in ETCM, which allows users to explore the relationships or build networks among TCM herbs, formulas,ingredients, gene targets, and related pathways or diseases. ETCM is freely accessible at http://www.nrc.ac.cn:9090/ETCM/. We expect ETCM to develop into a major data warehouse for TCM and to promote TCM related researches and drug development in the future.

Purpose To investigate the involvement of hsa-microRNA-195-5p (miR-195) in progression and prognosis of human prostate cancer (PCa). Experimental Design qRT-PCR was performed to detect miR-195 expression in both PCa cell lines and clinical tissue samples. Its clinical significance was statistically analyzed. The roles of miR-195 and its candidate target gene ribosomal protein S6 kinase, 70kDa, polypeptide 1 (RPS6KB1) in PCa progression were confirmed based on both in vitro and in vivo systems. Results MiR-195 downregulation in PCa tissues was significantly associated with high Gleason score (P=0.001), positive metastasis failure (P<0.001) and biochemical recurrence (BCR, P<0.001). Survival analysis identified miR-195 as an independent prognostic factor for BCR-free survival of PCa patients (P=0.022). Then, we confirmed the tumor suppressive role of miR-195 through PCa cell invasion, migration and apoptosis assays in vitro, along with tumor xenografts growth, angiogenesis and invasion in vivo according to both gain-of-function and loss-of-function experiments. Additionally, RPS6KB1 was identified as a novel direct target of miR-195 through proteomic expression profiling combined with bioinformatic target prediction and luciferase reporter assay. Moreover, the re-expression and knockdown of RPS6KB1 could respectively rescue and imitate the effects induced by miR-195. Importantly, RPS6KB1 expression was closely correlated with aggressive progression and poor prognosis in PCa patients as opposed to miR-195. Furthermore, we identified MMP-9, VEGF, BAD and E-cadherin as the downstream effectors of miR-195-RPS6KB1 axis. Conclusion The newly identified miR-195-RPS6KB1 axis partially illustrates the molecular mechanism of PCa progression and represents a novel potential therapeutic target for PCa treatment.

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Despite rapid development and application of a wide range of manufactured metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs), the understanding of potential risks of using NPs is less completed, especially at the molecular level. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (C.elegans) has been emerging as an environmental model to study the molecular mechanism of environmental contaminations, using standard genetic tools such as the real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). The most important factor that may affect the accuracy of RT-qPCR is to choose appropriate genes for normalization. In this study, we selected 13 reference gene candidates (act-1, cdc-42, pmp-3, eif-3.C, actin, act-2, csq-1, Y45F10D.4, tba-1, mdh-1, ama-1, F35G12.2, and rbd-1) to test their expression stability under different doses of nano-copper oxide (CuO 0, 1, 10, and 50 µg/mL) using RT-qPCR. Four algorithms, geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper, and the comparative ΔCt method, were employed to evaluate these 13 candidates expressions. As a result, tba-1, Y45F10D.4 and pmp-3 were the most reliable, which may be used as reference genes in future study of nanoparticle-induced genetic response using C.elegans.

Our previous microarray data showed that microRNA-224 (miR-224) was downregulated in human prostate cancer (PCa) tissues compared with adjacent benign tissues. However, the underlying mechanisms by which miR-224 is involved in PCa remain unclear. In this study, we identified TRIB1 as a target gene of miR-224. Forced expression of miR-224 suppressed PCa cell proliferation, invasion and migration, and promoted cell apoptosis by downregulating TRIB1. Moreover, the expression level of miR-224 in PCa tissues was negatively correlated with that of TRIB1. miR-224 downregulation was frequently found in PCa tissues with metastasis, higher PSA level and clinical stage, whereas TRIB1 upregulation was significantly associated with metastasis. Both miR-224 downregulation and TRIB1 upregulation were significantly associated with poor biochemical recurrence-free survival of patients with PCa. In conclusion, these findings reveal that the aberrant expression of miR-224 and TRIB1 may promote PCa progression and have potentials to serve as novel biomarkers for PCa prognosis.

a b s t r a c tWe previously showed that high expression levels of SOX9 correlate with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progression. However, the exact role that SOX9 plays in HCC remains unclear. In this study, we firstly confirmed that miRNA-101 directly targets SOX9 in HCC. Ectopic expression of miR-101 significantly inhibited HCC cell proliferation and tumorigenicity by targeting SOX9. Moreover, the down-regulation of miR-101 in clinical HCC tissues correlates with tumor aggressiveness and poor prognosis. Therefore, miR-101 may suppress HCC tumor progression by down-regulating SOX9. MiR-101 may be a potential prognostic marker and therapeutic target for HCC.

BackgroundEven though aberrant expression of microRNA (miR)-30d has been reported in prostate cancer (PCa), its associations with cancer progression remain contradictory. The aim of this study was to investigate clinical significance, biological functions and underlying mechanisms of miR-30d deregulation in PCa.MethodsInvolvement of miR-30d deregulation in malignant phenotypes of PCa was demonstrated by clinical sample evaluation, and in vitro and in vivo experiments. The mechanisms underlying its regulatory effect on tumor angiogenesis were determined.ResultsmiR-30d over-expression was observed in both PCa cells and clinical specimens. High-miR-30d was distinctly associated with high pre-operative PSA and Gleason score, advanced clinical and pathological stages, positive metastasis and biochemical recurrence (BCR), and reduced overall survival of PCa patients. Through gain- and loss-of-function experiments, we found that miR-30d promoted PCa cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and capillary tube formation of endothelial cells, as well as in vivo tumor growth and angiogenesis in a mouse model. Simulation of myosin phosphatase targeting subunit 1 (MYPT1), acting as a direct target of miR-30d, antagonized the effects induced by miR-30d up-regulation in PCa cells. Notably, miR-30d/MYPT1 combination was identified as an independent factor to predict BCR of PCa patients. Furthermore, miR-30d exerted its pro-angiogenesis function, at least in part, by inhibiting MYPT1, which in turn, increased phosphorylation levels of c-JUN and activated VEGFA-induced signaling cascade in endothelial cells.ConclusionsmiR-30d and/or its target gene MYPT1 may serve as novel prognostic markers of PCa. miR-30d promotes tumor angiogenesis of PCa through MYPT1/c-JUN/VEGFA pathway.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12943-017-0615-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

VX-509 significantly improved the signs and symptoms of RA at weeks 12 and 24 compared with the placebo group when it was administered in combination with methotrexate. Safety signals included infection and increases in liver transaminase and lipid levels.