Mitochondrial serine hydroxylmethyltransferase 2 (SHMT2) is a key enzyme in the serine/glycine synthesis pathway. SHMT2 has been implicated as a critical component for tumor cell survival. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the prognostic value and efficiency of SHMT2 as a biomarker in patients with breast cancer. Individual and pooled survival analyses were performed on five independent breast cancer microarray datasets. Gene signatures enriched by SHMT2 were also analyzed in these datasets. SHMT2 protein expression was detected using immunohistochemistry (IHC) assay in 128 breast cancer cases. Gene set enrichment analysis revealed that SHMT2 was significantly associated with gene signatures of mitochondrial module, cancer invasion, metastasis and poor survival among breast cancer patients (p<0.05). The clinical relevance of SHMT2 was validated on IHC data. The mitochondrial localization of SHMT2 protein was visualized on IHC staining. Independent and pooled analysis confirmed that SHMT2 expression was associated with breast cancer tumor aggressiveness (TNM staging and Elson grade) in a dose-dependent manner (p<0.05). The prognostic performance of SHMT2 mRNA was comparable to other gene signatures and proved superior to TNM staging. Further analysis results indicated that SHMT2 had better prognostic value for estrogen receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer patients, compared to ER-positive patients. In cases involving stage IIb breast cancer, chemotherapy significantly extended survival time among patients with high SHMT2 expression. These results indicate that SHMT2 may be a valuable prognostic biomarker in ER-negative breast cancer cases. Furthermore, SHMT2 may be a potential target for breast cancer treatment and drug discovery.

A new multiplex real-time PCR assay, the high-risk HPV genotyping real time PCR assay (HR HPV RT-PCR), has been developed to detect 15 high-risk HPV types with respective viral loads. In this report, a total of 684 cervical specimens from women diagnosed with vaginitis were assessed by the HR HPV RT-PCR and the PCR reaction and reverse dot blot (PCR-RDB) assays, using a PCR-sequencing method as a reference standard. A total coincidence of 97.7% between the HR HPV RT PCR and the PCR-RDB assays was determined with a Kappa value of 0.953. The HR HPV RT PCR assay had sensitivity, specificity, and concordance rates (accuracy) of 99.7%, 99.7%, and 99.7%, respectively, as confirmed by PCR-sequencing, while the PCR-RDB assay had respective rates of 98.8%, 97.1%, and 98.0%. The overall rate of HPV infection, determined by PCR-sequencing, in women diagnosed with vaginitis was 49.85%, including 36.26% of single infection and 13.6% of multiple infections. The most common infections among the 15 high-risk HPV types in women diagnosed with vaginitis were HPV-52, HPV-16, and HPV-58, with a total detection rate of 10.23%, 7.75%, and 5.85%, respectively. We conclude that the HR HPV RT PCR assay exhibits better clinical performance than the PCR-RDB assay, and is an ideal alternative method for HPV genotyping. In addition, the HR HPV RT PCR assay provides HPV DNA viral loads, and could serve as a quantitative marker in the diagnosis and treatment of single and multiple HPV infections. . 2 Meta-analyses have shown that there is a positive association between vaginitis and cervical HPV infection, and that the pooled prevalence of vaginitis can be as high as 32%. [3][4] In addition to single infection, cervical co-infections of multiple HPV genotypes is common. 5 J Med Virol. 2018;90:177-183.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jmv

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in diverse biological processes and are emerging as key regulators of tumorigenesis and tumor progression. Among the differentially expressed miRNAs in breast cancer, miR-125b was revealed to be deregulated and associated with poor prognosis and chemoresistance in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), but the mechanism is still unknown. In our study, we showed downregulated expression of miR-125b in TNBC tissues and decreased migration and invasion in miR-125b-expressing Hs578T cells. MAP2K7 was then detected to be a novel target of miR-125b, and downregulation of MAP2K7 by miR-125b was similar to transient knockdown of MAP2K7 which hindered epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) of Hs578T cells. Upregulation of MAP2K7 in miR-125b-overexpressing Hs578T cells partly rescued the migration and invasion suppression of miR-125b. Furthermore, MAP2K7 was overexpressed in TNBC samples compared with normal tissues and negatively correlated with miR-125b expression. In light of these findings, miR-125b emerged as a tumor suppressor in TNBC by targeting MAP2K7 to inhibit EMT.

Background Ovarian cancer (OC) is one of the serious threats to the health of women worldwide, and accurate biomarkers are urgently demanded for early diagnosis of OC. We have previously confirmed that miR-205 promotes the invasion and metastasis of OC cells by inhibiting the expression of the tumor suppressor gene TCF21. In this study, we used liquid biopsy technology to detect the expression levels of the four genes, miR-205, CA125, HE4 and TCF21, in the exosomes of plasma of OC patients. Combined with analysis of clinicopathological parameters of OC patients, we aimed to provide efficient and non-invasive laboratory biomarkers for early diagnosis of OC. Methods 36 OC patients who were diagnosed in local hospitals from September 2020 to July 2021 were selected as OC group, 31 cases of surgically diagnosed with ovarian benign lesions were selected as benign group, and 32 healthy people who underwent physical examination during the same period were selected as a control group. We employed transmission electron microscope (TEM), Western blotting (WB), and nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) to identify biomarkers in the exosomes extracted from plasma of the three groups. The RNA levels of miR-205, CA125, HE4 and TCF21 genes in plasma exosomes were detected by real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) method. We used clinical pathological parameters and the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy for the genes detected in plasma exosomes. Results We found that the expression level of miR-205 in plasma exosomes of the OC group was significantly higher than that of the benign and control groups (P <  0.05), and the level of miR-205 was elevated during the III-IV periods of OC and lymph node metastasis. Conclusion The level of miR-205 in plasma exosomes is a valuable tumor biomarker to improve OC diagnosis.

e Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) is one of the most common etiologies of acute otitis media, rhinosinusitis, and pneumonia. Outer membrane proteins (OMPs) are the main focus in new vaccine development against NTHi, as the H. influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine does not cover noncapsulated NTHi. The OMPs P6 and protein D are the most promising candidate antigens for an NTHi vaccine, and low antibody levels against them in serum may be correlated with infection caused by NTHi. In the current study, we measured the antibody titers against P6, protein D, and their T-and B-cell combined peptide epitopes in healthy individuals of different ages. We found that children <1 month old had the lowest antibody levels against NTHi P6, protein D, and their T-and B-cell combined antigenic epitopes. Antibody titers increased at ages 1 to 6 months, peaked at 7 months to 3 years, and remained high at 4 to 6 years. The antibody titers started to decrease after 6 years and were the lowest in the 21-to 30-year group. The geometric mean titers (GMTs) of T-and B-cell combined antigenic epitopes in P6 and protein D were positively correlated with those of the protein antigens. Among 12 peptides tested, P6-61, P6-123, and protein D-167 epitopes were better recognized than others in human serum. These findings might contribute to the development of an effective serotypeindependent vaccine for H. influenzae. Haemophilus influenzae is one of the normal inhabitants of the human nasopharynx and is responsible for pneumonia, acute otitis media (AOM), and acute rhinosinusitis (1-3). The presence or absence of a polysaccharide capsule segregates this bacterial species into two well-defined groups: one group of encapsulated strains and another group of noncapsulated strains, commonly referred to as nontypeable H. influenzae (NTHi) (3). Common infections caused by NTHi include otitis media in children and lower airway infections of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in adults (4, 5). Vaccines composed of polysaccharide capsule conjugated to protein carriers have virtually eliminated infections caused by encapsulated H. influenzae type b, including meningitis and other systemic infections, in regions where the vaccines are widely administered (6, 7). However, these conjugate vaccines have no effect on infections caused by NTHi, and in regions with H. influenzae type b vaccination programs, nontypeable strains are now the most common cause of noninvasive H. influenzae infection, so that the development of the vaccine against NTHi is an urgent and challenging task (8-10).Since NTHi organisms are noncapsulated bacteria, the outer membrane proteins (OMPs) are the main targets for vaccine designers. Several research groups have identified conserved surface proteins and tested them as putative vaccines, and the conserved NTHi antigens with demonstrated preclinical protective capacity have been identified, among which P6 and protein D are the most widely studied (11)(12)(13)(14).Experimental data derived from humans and animal models indicate t...