Frontiers in Laboratory Medicine最新文献

Extracellular matrix (ECM) is one of the essential components of the tumor microenvironment. Increased ECM deposition has been detected in many types of solid tumors including breast cancer, in which the development and progression require extensive reorganization of ECM. The chemical and physical signals induced by ECM are necessary for breast cancer development and progression. Disturbing the fine balance of ECM signaling is very important in the long run to promote breast cancer development and progression. In this review, we summarized recent findings on functions of ECM microenvironment in mammary gland development, tumor growth, invasion, migration and metastasis, focusing on the functions of cancer cell-derived ECM in tumor progression. Our review showed that integrated biophysical and biochemical signals from ECM and soluble factors are crucial for normal mammary gland development and breast cancer progression.

Background

We analyzed respiratory tract bacterial flora in patients with influenza H1N1 virus infection, and investigated the role of H1N1 virus in secondary bacterial infection.

Method

A total of 12,766 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were obtained, of which, 12,127 were identified to phylum level and 10,494 to genus level. We used next-generation sequencing technology to evaluate bacterial abundance in swab specimens from patients infected with influenza H1N1 virus or Non-H1N1 influenza and from healthy controls. Data analysis was carried out by using alpha analysis (Shannon-Wiener index and Rarefaction-Curve), beta analysis [UniFrac(abundance) and Metastats analysis], and Community-and-Phylogenesis analysis.

Results

At phylum level, Proteobacteria in patients with H1N1 virus infection (99.928 ± 0.008%) and common cold (89.019 ± 1.845%) were significantly higher than in healthy controls (26.103 ± 2.495%) (p < 0.01). In contrast, proportions of Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, Candidate division TM7, Fusobacteria and SR1 were down-regulated (p < 0.01) in patients with H1N1 virus infection. At genus level, Pseudomonas increased >500-fold in patients with H1N1 virus infection compared with healthy controls. Ochrobactrum, Brevundimonas, Caulobacter, Aquabacterium and Serratia also increased significantly in H1N1 virus infection, while Neisseria, Prevotella, Veillonella, Actinomyces, Porphyromonas, Streptococcus, Haemophilus and Acinetobacter decreased.

Conclusion

Our data indicated that microbial abundance of the upper respiratory tract decreased in patients with H1N1 virus infection. Pseudomonas was the dominant genus among the upper respiratory tract bacterial flora in H1N1-infected patients. The changes in upper respiratory tract flora probably be closely related to the occurrence and progression of secondary bacterial infection.

The pre-S domain of large surface proteins (LHBs) is thought to be associated with the infectious and sub-infectious particles of hepatitis B virus (HBV), and the quantitative measurement of the LHBs has become the critical serological assay for management of chronic HBV hepatitis. Here, we generated a monoclonal antibody with improved specificity and efficacy for both the native form and the glycosylated, full-length recombinant pre-S large protein, and tested it in clinical applications. We recruited 573 HBV patients and detect HBV large envelope proteins and the circulating viral load. We then studied the relationship between LHBs and HBV DNA in follow-up studies of 78 patients who received Adefovir antiviral treatment. We found that there was no significant difference between the rate of positive HBV DNA and the rate of positive LHBs. The levels of both HBV DNA and LHBs declined during the antiviral treatment, although the levels of LHBS decline later than the level of viremia.do. Furthermore, patients with 18 consecutive months of positive LHBs were able to obtain HBV DNA conversion, even if they continued to receive the antiviral treatment. Our study demonstrates that the level of LHBs can efficiently reflect the replication status of the virus in patients with HBeAg-negative diseases, and the LHB assay support the HBV test. Furthermore, examining the combination of LHBs and HBV DNA has important clinical implications for monitoring the effectiveness of the antiviral treatments.

Objective

Host genetic factors may play important roles in susceptibility to tuberculosis (TB) infection, and different gene polymorphisms in different ethnicity and genetic backgrounds may lead to different effects on tuberculosis risk. This study aimed to investigate the association of four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with susceptibility to tuberculosis in Chinese Uyghur populations.

Methods

Four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) including rs1524107 in interleukin-6 (IL-6) gene, rs1544410 in vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene, rs9373523 in the syntaxin-binding protein 5 (STXBP5) gene, rs4331426 on chromosome 18q11.2 were genotyped by the improved multiplex ligase detection reaction (iMLDR) method in 258 patients with active TB and 291 geographically and ethnically matched healthy controls.

Results

Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that subjects carrying rs1524107 CT genotype had significantly increased risk for TB than individuals carrying TT genotype (OR: 2.144, 95%CI: 1.134–4.054, p = 0.017); Subjects carrying rs1544410 CT genotype had significantly increased risk for TB than individuals carrying CC genotype (OR: 1.612, 95%CI: 1.122–2.315, p = 0.010); Subjects carrying rs9373523 GT genotype had significantly increased risk for TB than individuals carrying TT genotype (OR: 1.847, 95%CI: 1.123–3.040, p = 0.015). In addition, an age-specific effect in rs1544410 and a sex-specific effect in rs9373523 were detected after stratified by age and sex. Carrying T allele of rs1544410 exhibited increased TB risk (OR: 1.897, 95% CI: 1.070–3.365) in subjects less than 30 years old. Carrying the T allele of rs9373523 exhibited decreased TB risk (OR: 0.888, 95%CI: 0.634–1.242) in female group.

Conclusions

Host genetic factors may play a significant role in susceptibility to TB in Chinese Uyghur population.