Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors throughout the world. However, its mortality rate remains very high due to the absence of early diagnostic modalities and effective treatments, and its specific pathogenesis remains unclear. Here, we investigated the role of PNMA1 in the tumorigenesis of HCC. We found that PNMA1 was significantly upregulated in HCC. Clinically, higher expression of PNMA1 was associated with aggressive phenotypes and poor prognosis. Functionally, silencing of PNMA1 repressed proliferation in vitro and in vivo, and knockdown of PNMA1 suppressed tumor cell migration and invasion. Via GSEA analysis, we predicted that PNAM1 may be related to the epithelial-mesenchymal-transition and the Wnt signaling pathway. Both these assumptions were confirmed in our study. Furthermore, we proved that miR-33a-5p participated in the posttranscriptional regulation of PNMA1. Together, our findings suggested that PNMA1 participated in HCC progression and may be a potential biomarker and therapeutic target for HCC.

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Multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays are mainly used to simultaneously detect or identify multiple pathogenic microorganisms. To achieve high specificity for detecting foodborne pathogenic bacteria, specific primers need to be designed for the target strains. In this study, we designed and achieved a multiplex PCR system for detecting eight foodborne pathogenic bacteria using specific genes: toxS for Vibrio parahaemolyticus, virR for Listeria monocytogenes, recN for Cronobacter sakazakii, ipaH for Shigella flexneri, CarA for Pseudomonas putida, rfbE for Escherichia coli, vvhA for Vibrio vulnificus, and gyrB for Vibrio alginolyticus. The sensitivity of the single system in this study was found to be 20, 1.5, 15, 15, 13, 14, 17, and 1.8 pg for V. parahaemolyticus, L. monocytogenes, E. coli O157:H7, C. sakazakii, S. flexneri, P. putida, V. vulnificus, and V. alginolyticus, respectively. The minimum detection limit of the multiplex system reaches pg/μL detection level; in addition, the multiplex system exhibited good specificity and stability. Finally, the assays maintained good specificity and sensitivity of 104 CFU/mL for most of the samples and we used 176 samples of eight aquatic foods, which were artificially contaminated to simulate the detection of real samples. In conclusion, the multiplex PCR method is stable, specific, sensitive, and time-efficient. Moreover, the method is well suited for contamination detection in these eight aquatic foods and can rapidly detect pathogenic microorganisms.

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