Glioma is one of the most prevalent types of primary intracranial carcinoma with varying malignancy grades I–IV and histological subtypes, including astrocytomas, glioblastoma multiform (GBM), oligodendrogliomas and mixed tumors. Glioma is characterized by rapid cell proliferation and angiogenesis, and the WHO grade IV glioblastoma, which is highly malignant with poor prognosis because GBM stem-like cells (GSCs) are resistant to conventional therapy and easily recrudescent, accounts for the majority of gliomas. Consequently, investigations exploring the accurate molecular mechanisms and reliable therapeutic targets for gliomas have drawn extensive attention.Based on the increasing amount of functional lncRNAs aberrantly expressed in glioma tissues and cell lines, lncRNAs might be critical for glioma initiation, progression and other malignant phenotypes. This review summarizes the latest insights into the lncRNA field and their functional roles in glioma, therefore evaluating the potential clinical applications of lncRNAs as prospective novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets.

The 5-year survival rate for colorectal cancer is approximately 55 % because of its invasion and metastasis. The epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) is one of the well-defined processes during the invasion and distant metastasis of primary epithelial tumors. miR-429, a member of the miR-200 family of microRNAs, was previously shown to inhibit the expression of transcriptional repressors ZEB1/delta EF1 and SIP1/ZEB2, and regulate EMT. In this study, we showed that miR-429 was significantly downregulated in colorectal carcinoma (CRC) tissues and cell lines. We found that miR-429 inhibited the proliferation and growth of CRC cells in vitro and in vivo, suggesting that miR-429 could play a role in CRC tumorigenesis. We also showed that downregulation of miR-429 may contribute to carcinogenesis and the initiation of EMT of CRC by targeting Onecut2. Further researches indicated that miR-429 inhibited the cells migration and invasion and reversed TGF-β-induced EMT changes in SW620 and SW480 cells. miR-429 could reverse the change of EMT-related markers genes induced by TGF-β1, such as E-cadherin, CTNNA1, CTNNB1, TFN, CD44, MMP2, Vimentin, Slug, Snail, and ZEB2 by targeting Onecut2. Taken together, our data showed that transcript factor Onecut2 is involved in the EMT, migration and invasion of CRC cells; miR-429 inhibits the initiation of EMT and regulated expression of EMT-related markers by targeting Onecut2; and miR-429 or Onecut2 is the important therapy target for CRC. Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11010-013-1950-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

BackgroundMicroRNAs have been considered as a kind of potential novel biomarker for cancer detection due to their remarkable stability in the blood and the characteristics of their expression profile in many diseases.MethodsWe performed microarray-based serum miRNA profiling on the serum of twenty nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients at diagnosis along with 20 non-cancerous individuals as controls. This was followed by a real-time quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-qPCR) in a separate cohort of thirty patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma and thirty age- matched non-cancerous volunteers. A model for diagnosis was established by a conversion of mathematical calculation formula which has been validated by analyzing 74 cases of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma and 57 cases of non-cancerous volunteers.ResultsThe profiles showed that 39 and 17 miRNAs are exclusively expressed in the serum of non-cancerous volunteers and of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma respectively. 4 miRNAs including miR-17, miR-20a, miR-29c, and miR-223 were found to be expressed differentially in the serum of NPC compared with that of non-cancerous control. Based on this, a diagnosis equation with Ct difference method has been established to distinguish NPC cases and non-cancerous controls and validated with high sensitivity and specificity.ConclusionsWe demonstrate that the serum miRNA-based biomarker model become a novel tool for NPC detection. The circulating 4-miRNA-based method may provide a novel strategy for NPC diagnosis.

Background Gut microbiome alterations are closely related to human health and linked to a variety of diseases. Although great efforts have been made to understand the risk factors for multiple myeloma (MM), little is known about the role of the gut microbiome and alterations of its metabolic functions in the development of MM. Results Here, in a cohort of newly diagnosed patients with MM and healthy controls (HCs), significant differences in metagenomic composition were discovered, for the first time, with higher bacterial diversity in MM. Specifically, nitrogen-recycling bacteria such as Klebsiella and Streptococcus were significantly enriched in MM. Also, the bacteria enriched in MM were significantly correlated with the host metabolome, suggesting strong metabolic interactions between microbes and the host. In addition, the MM-enriched bacteria likely result from the regulation of urea nitrogen accumulated during MM progression. Furthermore, by performing fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) into 5TGM1 mice, we proposed a mechanistic explanation for the interaction between MM-enriched bacteria and MM progression via recycling urea nitrogen. Further experiments validated that Klebsiella pneumoniae promoted MM progression via de novo synthesis of glutamine in mice and that the mice fed with glutamine-deficient diet exhibited slower MM progression. Conclusions Overall, our findings unveil a novel function of the altered gut microbiome in accelerating the malignant progression of MM and open new avenues for novel treatment strategies via manipulation of the intestinal microbiota of MM patients.