Accumulating evidence have suggested that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) had malfunctioning roles in the development of human cancers. The present study aimed to investigate the role of lncRNA small nucleolar RNA host gene 5 (SNHG5) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progression using human tissues and cell lines. The quantitative real-time PCR results showed that SNHG5 was up-regulated in both HCC tissues and hepatoma cell lines and was closely associated with tumor size, hepatitis B virus infection, histologic grade, TNM stage, and portal vein tumor thrombus (PVTT) in HCC patients. Knockdown of SNHG5 induced apoptosis and repressed cell cycle progression, cell growth, and metastasis in hepatoma cell lines, whereas overexpression of SNHG5 had the opposite effects. In vivo functional assay, xenograft tumors grown from SNHG5-knockdown cells had smaller mean volumes than the tumors grown from negative control cells. Further investigations showed that SNHG5 may act as a competing endogenous RNA by competitively binding miR-26a-5p and thereby modulating the derepression of downstream target GSK3β, which were further confirmed by luciferase reporter assay. Functionally, SNHG5 promotes tumor growth and metastasis by activating Wnt/β-catenin pathway and inducing epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). Taken together, SNHG5 promotes HCC progression by competitively binding miR-26a-5p and regulating GSK3β and Wnt/β-catenin signal pathway.

OBJECTIVES: Although it is widely believed that China is facing a major shortage of pediatricians, the real situation of the current national status of pediatric human resources and their working conditions has not been evaluated to date. METHODS: We administered a survey to 54 214 hospitals from all 31 provinces in mainland China from 2015 to 2016. Hospital directors of all secondary and tertiary hospitals with pediatric services and a random sample (10%) of primary hospitals provided information on number of pediatricians and their educational levels, specialties, workloads, dropout rates, and other hospital characteristics. A data set of medical resources and socioeconomic information regarding each region (1997–2016) was constructed from the Chinese National Statistics Bureau. The Gini coefficient was used to describe the geographical distributions of pediatricians and hospitals. RESULTS: There were 135 524 pediatricians in China or ∼4 pediatricians per 10 000 children. Pediatricians’ average educational level was low, with ∼32% having only 3 years of junior college training after high school. The distribution of pediatricians was extremely skewed (Gini coefficient 0.61), and the imbalance of highly educated pediatricians was even more skewed (Gini coefficient 0.68). The dropout rate of pediatricians was 12.6%. Despite an increase in the Chinese government’s financial investment in health over the last decade, physicians have been burdened with a greater workload. CONCLUSIONS: Uneven development of the pediatric care system, inadequately trained pediatricians, low job satisfaction, and unmet demand for pediatric care are the major challenges facing China’s pediatric health care system.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one commonly diagnosed solid tumor with the fourth morbidity and second mortality all over the world, despite that the technology of detection and treatment for HCC have been greatly advanced in recent years. 1 Multifarious therapies seem not to alleviate the incidence and damage increased year by year,

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creat ive Commo ns Attri bution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. AbstractObjectives: This research aims to verify that the long non-coding RNA differentiation antagonizing nonprotein coding RNA (LncRNA DANCR) could modulate the proliferation and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and it thus may work as a novel biomarker to render new orientation for early diagnosis and clinical therapy of HCC. Materials and methods:Firstly, qRT-PCR was used to detect the expression of genes including LncRNA DANCR and miR-27a-3p. Next, MTT assay, Ethynyldeoxyuridine (EdU) analysis and clone formation assay were used for investigating cell growth and proliferation. Meanwhile, transwell assay and wound healing assay were applied to evaluate the capacity of cell metastasis and motility, respectively. In addition, bioinformatic analysis and dual-luciferase reporter assay were applied to analyse molecular interaction. Next, we conducted immunofluorescence and Western blot for mechanic investigation. Last but not the least, xenograft tumours in nude mice were built by subcutaneously injecting Hep3B cells stably transfected with sh-NC and sh-DANCR to detect proliferation and SMMC-7721 cells stably transfected with sh-NC and sh-DANCR to investigate metastasis. Results:The results of qRT-PCR and bioinformatic analysis revealed the high expression of DANCR in HCC. DANCR accelerated proliferation and metastasis of HCC cells and the knockdown of DANCR had the opposite effect. Meanwhile, xenograft tumours in sh-DANCR group grow slower and have smaller volumes compared with negative control group. Next, the antineoplastic effect of miR-27a-3p on cell growth and motility of HCC was confirmed. In addition, we clarified that DANCR acted as a ceRNA to decoy miR-27a-3p via mediating ROCK1/LIMK1/COFILIN1 pathway. In the end, we validated that DANCR/miR-27a-3p axis regulates EMT progression by cell immunofluorescence and Western blot. Conclusions:In a word, DANCR promotes HCC development and induces EMT by decoying miR-27a-3p to regulate ROCK1/LIMK1/COFILIN1 pathway.

Objective: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) or severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is a global issue. In addition to managing acute cases, post-COVID-19 persisting symptoms/complaints and different hematological values are of great concern. These have an impact on the patient's well-being and are yet to be evaluated. Therefore, clinical and primary diagnosis based on routine laboratory findings bears high importance during the initial period of COVID-19, especially in regions with fewer diagnostic facilities.Methods: Clinical information and associated complaints of the COVID-19 illness confirmed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were collected directly from the patients. Regular follow-ups were obtained on the phone every 2 weeks following recovery for 20 weeks. Initial hematological and radiology findings of the hospitalized patients except for intensive care unit (ICU) and high dependency units (HDUs) and a follow-up evaluation after 4 weeks following recovery were analyzed.Results: The post-COVID-19 persisting symptoms/complaints were found among 21.4% of symptomatic patients, which persisted for ≥20 weeks and had a significant relationship with the duration of COVID-19 illness and the existing comorbidity (p < 0.05). Post-COVID-19 primary type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM, 0.64%) and hypertension (HTN, 1.28%) and unstable DM (54.55%) and HTN (34.78%) to the pre-existing diabetic and hypertensive patients were observed. Post-recovery remarkable changes in the laboratory values included leukocytosis (16.1%), lymphocytosis (14.5%), and an increased prothrombin time (PT, 25.8%). Abnormalities in the D-dimer, serum ferritin, hemoglobin, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) levels were present to an extent. Laboratory findings like chest X-ray, ESR, white blood cell (WBC) count, lymphocyte count, C-reactive protein (CRP), serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase (SGPT), serum ferritin, PT, D-dimer, and serum creatinine are important markers for the diagnosis and prognosis of COVID-19 illness (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Post-COVID-19 persisting symptoms and the changes in the laboratory values need to be considered with importance and as a routine clinical measure. Post-COVID-19 periodic follow-up for evaluating the patient's physical condition and the biochemical values should be scheduled with care and managed accordingly to prevent future comorbidity in patients with the post-COVID-19 syndrome.