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Background: This study aimed to investigate the expression level of X-linked 4 (BEX4) in patients with gastric cancer (GC) and to investigate the prognostic significance of BEX4. Methods: The mRNA expression of BEX4 was analyzed using the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) datasets. The relationship between the expression of BEX4 and GC patient survival was assessed using a Kaplan-Meier plot and Log Rank test. Multivariate cox regression analysis was used to evaluate prognostic factor. The diagnostic value of BEX4 expression in GC tissue was determined through receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to explore BEX-4 related signaling pathways in GC. Furthermore, the Human Protein Atlas (HPA) database and GSE62254 dataset were used for further validation. Results: BEX4 was expressed at lower level in GC tissues than normal gastric tissues. The lower expression of BEX4 was also validated at protein level in HPA database. The area under the ROC curve for BEX4 expression in normal gastric tissue and GC was 0.791, which presented modest diagnostic value. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed that patients in low BEX4 expression group had a worse prognosis than those with high BEX4 expression (P = .009). Multivariate analysis showed that BEX4 is an independent risk factor for overall survival both in TCGA and GSE62254 (P = .0142, .013, respectively). GSEA identified that the expression of BEX4 was related to DNA replication, RNA polymerase, cell cycle, and P53 signaling pathway. Conclusion: BEX4 is expressed at low levels in GC. BEX4 expression independently predicted poor OS for GC. It is a promising independent molecular predictor for the diagnosis and prognosis of GC.

Objective. This study was designed to analyse the clinical efficacy of interventional therapy on lower extremity arteriosclerosis obliterans (LEASO) and prognostic factors. Methods. A total of 122 patients with LEASO diagnosed in our hospital from March 2017 to March 2019 were retrospectively analysed. Among them, 72 patients who received conservative therapy were assigned to a conservative group, and 50 patients who received interventional therapy additionally based on conservative therapy were assigned to an intervention group. The short-term (12 weeks after therapy) and long-term (3 years after therapy) clinical efficacies on the two groups were compared. Death, amputation, and vascular restenosis ( vascular   stenosis > 50 % in computed tomography reexamination) were defined as unfavourable outcomes, and Cox regression was conducted to analyze the factors influencing the prognosis of patients. The incidence of adverse events in the two groups within 3 years was compared and statistically analyzed. Additionally, the hospital stay, therapy cost, claudication distance, and ankle brachial index were compared between the two groups. Results. After therapy, the conservative group showed a notably lower total effective rate than the intervention group ( P < 0.05 ), but the clinical efficacy after 3 years was similar between the two groups ( P > 0.05 ). Additionally, the conservative group experienced notably longer hospital stay than the intervention group ( P < 0.05 ), and cost less in treatment than the intervention group ( P < 0.05 ). However, the conservative group experienced a notably shorter claudication distance and showed a notably lower ankle brachial index than the intervention group ( P < 0.05 ). The two groups were not significantly different in mortality, amputation rate, and vascular restenosis rate ( P > 0.05 ). Moreover, Cox regression analysis revealed that age and conservative therapy were independent risk factors for the prognosis of patients ( P < 0.05 ). Conclusion. Interventional therapy can substantially improve the short-term efficacy and prognosis of patients with LEASO, but the cost is high, so the therapeutic regimen should be selected according to the patient’s economic condition.

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) were aberrantly regulated in cancers, showing their roles as novel classes of oncogenes and tumor suppressors. Hence, an integrated method was introduced in this study to explore miRNA targets for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods:The Borda count election algorithm was applied to combine a correlation method (Pearson's correlation coefficient, PCC), a causal inference method (IDA), and a regression method (Lasso) to generate an integrated method. Subsequently, to confirm the performance of the integrated method, the predicted miRNA targets results were compared with the confirmed database. Finally, pathway enrichment analysis was applied to evaluate the target genes in the top 1,000 miRNA-messenger RNA (mRNA) interactions. Results:The method was confirmed to be an approach to predict miRNA targets. Moreover, 50 highly confident miRNA-mRNA interactions were obtained, including 6 miRNA targets with predicted times ≥10 (for instance, MEG3). The 860 target genes of the top 1,000 miRNA-mRNA interactions were enriched in 26 pathways, of which complement and coagulation cascades were most significant. Conclusions:The results might supply great insights for revealing the pathological mechanism underlying HCC and explore potential biomarkers for the diagnosis and treatment of this tumor. However, these biomarkers have not been confirmed, and the related validations should be performed in future studies.