IntroductionInflammation and nutrition are considered as two important causes leading to the progression and poor survival of colorectal cancer (CRC). The objective of this study is to investigate the prognostic significance of preoperative albumin-to-fibrinogen ratio (AFR), fibrinogen-to-pre-albumin ratio (FPR), fibrinogen (Fib), albumin (Alb), and pre-albumin (pre-Alb) in CRC individuals.Materials and methodsIn this study, 3 years’ follow-up was carried out in 702 stage I–III resected CRC patients diagnosed between January 2008 and December 2013. The optimal cutoff points and prognostic values of AFR, FPR, Fib, Alb, pre-Alb, and a novel carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)-carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA199)-FPR (CCF) score were assessed by X-tile software, Kaplan–Meier curve, and Cox regression model. We established the CRC prognostic nomogram, and its predictive efficacy was determined by Harrell’s concordance index (c-index).ResultsOur results showed that high FPR was obviously correlated with poor survival of CRC patients. The prognostic predictive efficacy of CCF score was superior to FPR, CEA, CA199, CEA-CA199 (CCI), and CEA-FPR (CFI) score. Moreover, stage II–III patients harboring high FPR or elevated CCF (score≥1) could benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy, rather than those with low FPR or CCF (score=0). Additionally, the c-index (0.728) of the nomogram containing CCF score was significantly higher than that (0.626) without it (p<0.01).ConclusionThese findings illustrated that FPR and CCF score were promising biomarkers to predict the prognosis of CRC and to classify the stage II–III patients who could benefit from the adjuvant chemotherapy.

Our study indicated that preoperative NLR could be a CRC diagnostic biomarker, even for early stage CRC, and the combination of NLR, PLR and CEA could significantly improve the diagnostic efficacy.

Background A severe form of pneumonia, named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by the World Health Organization is widespread on the whole world. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was proved to be the main agent of COVID-19. In the present study, we conducted an in depth analysis of the SARS-COV-2 nucleocapsid to identify potential targets that may allow identification of therapeutic targets. Methods The SARS-COV-2 N protein subcellular localization and physicochemical property was analyzed by PSORT II Prediction and ProtParam tool. Then SOPMA tool and swiss-model was applied to analyze the structure of N protein. Next, the biological function was explored by mass spectrometry analysis and flow cytometry. At last, its potential phosphorylation sites were analyzed by NetPhos3.1 Server and PROVEAN PROTEIN. Results SARS-COV-2 N protein composed of 419 aa, is a 45.6 kDa positively charged unstable hydrophobic protein. It has 91 and 49% similarity to SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV and is predicted to be predominantly a nuclear protein. It mainly contains random coil (55.13%) of which the tertiary structure was further determined with high reliability (95.76%). Cells transfected with SARS-COV-2 N protein usually show a G1/S phase block company with an increased expression of TUBA1C, TUBB6. At last, our analysis of SARS-COV-2 N protein predicted a total number of 12 phosphorylated sites and 9 potential protein kinases which would significantly affect SARS-COV-2 N protein function. Conclusion In this study, we report the physicochemical properties, subcellular localization, and biological function of SARS-COV-2 N protein. The 12 phosphorylated sites and 9 potential protein kinase sites in SARS-COV-2 N protein may serve as promising targets for drug discovery and development for of a recombinant virus vaccine.

Genetic variation within microRNA (miRNA) may result in its abnormal folding or aberrant expression, contributing to colorectal turmorigenesis and metastasis. However, the association of six polymorphisms (miR-608 rs4919510, miR-499a rs3746444, miR-146a rs2910164, pre-miR-143 rs41291957, pre-miR-124-1 rs531564 and pre-miR-26a-1 rs7372209) with colorectal cancer (CRC) risk, therapeutic response and survival remains unclear. A retrospective study was carried out to investigate the association in 1358 0-III stage resected CRC patients and 1079 healthy controls using Sequenom's MassARRAY platform. The results showed that rs4919510 was significantly associated with a decreased susceptibility to CRC in co-dominant, allele and recessive genetic models, and the protective role of rs4919510 allele G and genotype GG was more pronounced among stage 0-II cases; significant association between rs531564 and poor RFS was observed in cases undergoing adjuvant chemo-radiotherapy in co-dominant, allele and dominant models; moreover, there was a positive association between rs7372209 and recurrence-free survival in stage II cases in co-dominant and over-dominant models; additionally, a cumulative effect of rs531564 and rs7372209 at-risk genotypes with hazard ratio at 1.30 and 1.95 for one and two at-risk genotypes was examined in stage II cases, respectively. Our findings indicated that rs4919510 allele G and genotype GG were protective factors for 0-II stage CRC, rs7372209 and rs531564 could decrease RFS in II stage individuals and resected CRC patients receiving adjuvant chemo-radiology.