[Relationship between valve ablation and bladder function in children with posterior urethral valves disorder]

This study is to investigate the effect of valve ablation on bladder function in patients with posterior urethral valves. The clinical data of patients with posterior urethral valves who received urodynamic examination before and after valve ablation were retrospectively analyzed.The bladder compliance improved during urine storage after operation, and the maximum detrusor pressure decreased during micturition. The postoperative urinary system ultrasound showed that the residual urine volume of the group with significantly improved upper urinary tract hydrocephalus was significantly less than that of the group with no improvement. The bladder compliance was significantly higher than that of the group with no improvement, and the maximum urine flow rate was significantly higher than that of the group with no improvement (all P<0.05). Valve ablation has limited effect on improving bladder function in patients with PUV. Valve incision can help improve the maximum bladder volume, residual urine volume and maximum urinary flow rate. It has a certain effect on bladder compliance and maximum detrusor pressure.

Cell-free DNA from bile outperformed plasma as a potential alternative to tissue biopsy in biliary tract cancer

BACKGROUND

Biliary tract cancers (BTCs) are rare and highly heterogenous malignant neoplasms. Because obtaining BTC tissues is challenging, the purpose of this study was to explore the potential roles of bile as a liquid biopsy medium in patients with BTC.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Sixty-nine consecutive patients with suspected BTC were prospectively enrolled in this study. Capture-based targeted sequencing was performed on tumor tissues, whole blood cells, plasma, and bile samples using a large panel consisting of 520 cancer-related genes.

RESULTS

Of the 28 patients enrolled in this cohort, tumor tissues were available in eight patients, and plasma and bile were available in 28 patients. Somatic mutations were detected in 100% (8/8), 71.4% (20/28), and 53.6% (15/28) of samples comprising tumor tissue DNA, bile cell-free DNA (cfDNA), and plasma cfDNA, respectively. Bile cfDNA showed a significantly higher maximum allele frequency than plasma cfDNA (P = 0.0032). There were 56.2% of somatic single-nucleotide variant (SNVs)/insertions and deletions (indels) shared between bile and plasma cfDNA. When considering the genetic profiles of tumor tissues as the gold standard, the by-variant sensitivity and positive predictive value for SNVs/indels in bile cfDNA positive for somatic mutations were both 95.5%. The overall concordance for SNVs/indels in bile was significantly higher than that in plasma (99.1% versus 78.3%, P < 0.0001). Moreover, the sensitivity of CA 19-9 combined with bile cfDNA achieved 96.4% in BTC diagnosis.

CONCLUSION

We demonstrated that bile cfDNA was superior to plasma cfDNA in the detection of tumor-related genomic alterations. Bile cfDNA as a minimally invasive liquid biopsy medium might be a supplemental approach to confirm BTC diagnosis.

MiR-129-2 weakens proliferation and promotes apoptosis of liver cancer cells by suppressing the Wnt signaling pathway

OBJECTIVE

To explore the effects of micro ribonucleic acid-129-2 (miR-129-2) on proliferation and migration of liver cancer cells and its possible mechanism.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

The expression level of miR-129-2 was measured in liver cancer tissues and adjacent tissues from patients with liver cancer. Its level in liver cancer HepG2 cells and normal liver cells L-02 was also detected via quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). MiR-192-2 overexpression model was established in the HepG2 cell line. The proliferation and apoptosis levels of cells were determined by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay and flow cytometry, respectively. Wound healing assay was performed to detect the migration ability of cells. The expressions level of genes in the Wnt signaling pathway were measured through Western blotting. Xenograft tumor model was conducted in nude mice for exploring the in vivo effects of miR-129-2 on liver cancer growth.

RESULTS

The expression level of miR-129-2 was significantly lower in liver cancer tissues than that in adjacent tissues (p<0.01), and it was overtly lower in HepG2 cells than that in L-02 cells (p<0.01). Overexpression of miR-129-2 weakened proliferation and migration abilities of liver cancer cells (p<0.01), and evidently increased apoptosis level (p<0.01). Sex-determining region Y-related HMG-box 4 (Sox4) and matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) were downregulated, while phosphorylated glycogen synthase kinase-3β (p-GSK3β) was upregulated in liver cancer cells overexpressing miR-129-2. Besides, the weight and volume of tumors in nude mice bearing liver cancer were significantly smaller after overexpression of miR-129-2.

CONCLUSIONS

MiR-129-2 weakens proliferation and migration and stimulates apoptosis in liver cancer cells mainly by downregulating Sox4 and inactivating the Wnt signaling pathway.

Clinical efficacy of different side branch protection techniques on patients receiving coronary intervention and prognostic analysis

OBJECTIVE

To investigate and analyze the clinical efficacy of different side branch protection techniques on patients receiving coronary intervention and the patient's prognosis.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

A total of 80 patients with coronary heart disease treated in Jiangmen Central Hospital from January 2014 to January 2017 were collected. According to different side branch protection strategies selected during operation, they were divided into jailed wire technique (JWT) group (n=20), jailed balloon technique (JBT) group (n=20), balloon-stent kissing technique (BSKT) group (n=20), and BSKT+RW group (n=20). The relevant operation parameters and the prevalence of adverse reactions at 1 month and 6 months after operation were compared among the four groups.

RESULTS

The success rate of operation and relevant operation parameters in BSKT+RW group were slightly superior to those in the other three groups, but there were no significant differences among the four groups (p>0.05). Besides, the prevalence rates of adverse reactions at 1 month and 6 months after the operation had no significant differences among the four groups, but they were slightly lower in BSKT+RW group than those in the other three groups.

CONCLUSIONS

There are no significant differences in the clinical efficacy and postoperative recovery of patients receiving coronary intervention among the four kinds of different side branch protection techniques. However, BSKT+RW is slightly superior to the other three treatment methods, which, therefore, is a preferred choice if the patient's economic conditions permit.

Orange-spotted grouper Epinephelus coioides Tak1: molecular identification, expression analysis and functional study

In this study, the complementary (c)DNA sequence encoding orange-spotted grouper Epinephelus coioides Tak1 (ectak1) was cloned, which has an open reading frame of 1728 bp that encodes 575 amino acids (aa). Sequence analysis indicated that Ectak1 contains two characteristic conserved domains, i.e. an N-terminal serine-threonine protein kinase catalytic domain (27-275 aa) and a C-terminal coiled-coil region (499-562 aa). Ectak1 shares high sequence identity with Tak1 from other fish species, especially those of Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus (96%) and zebra mbuna Maylandia zebra (96%). ectak1 transcripts were expressed broadly in all of the tissues tested, but ectak1 expression was reduced mainly in the local infection sites (skin and gill) after infection with Cryptocaryon irritans. Intracellular localization analysis showed that Ectak1 was distributed mainly in the cytoplasm. A luciferase reporter assay showed that Ectak1 significantly impaired the NF-κB activity induced by E. coioides Myd88 and Traf6. Overall, these results suggest that Ectak1 functions to reduce the activity of NF-κB induced by toll-like receptor (TLR) signal molecules in HEK-293T cells, and it might have an important role in host defences against parasitic infections.