A bunch of microRNAs (miRNAs) have been demonstrated to be aberrantly expressed in cancer tumor tissue and serum. The miRNA signatures identified from the serum samples could serve as potential noninvasive diagnostic markers for breast cancer. The role of the miRNAs in cancerigenesis is unclear. In this study, we generated the expression profiles of miRNAs from the paired breast cancer tumors, normal, tissue, and serum samples from eight patients using small RNA-sequencing. Serum samples from eight healthy individuals were used as normal controls. We identified total 174 significantly differentially expressed miRNAs between tumors and the normal tissues, and 109 miRNAs between serum from patients and serum from healthy individuals. There are only 10 common miRNAs. This suggests that only a small portion of tumor miRNAs are released into serum selectively. Interestingly, the expression change pattern of 28 miRNAs is opposite between breast cancer tumors and serum. Functional analysis shows that the differentially expressed miRNAs and their target genes form a complex interaction network affecting many biological processes and involving in many types of cancer such as prostate cancer, basal cell carcinoma, acute myeloid leukemia, and more.

The aim of this study was to investigate incidence trend of childhood type 1 diabetes in Shanghai, a megalopolis in east China. We established a population-based retrospective registry for the disease in the city's registered population during 1997-2011 and collected 622 incident type 1 diabetes in children aged 0-14 years. Standardized incidence rates and 95 % CI were estimated by applying the capture-recapture method and assuming Poisson distribution. Incidence trend was analyzed using the Poisson regression model. The mean annual incidence of childhood type 1 diabetes was 3.1 per 100,000 person-years. We did not observe significant difference in incidence between boys and girls. The incidence is unstable and had a mean annual increase 14.2 % per year during the studied period. A faster annual increase was observed in boys, warmer seasons, and in the outer regions of the city. If present trends continue, the number of new type 1 diabetes cases will double from 2016 to 2020, and prevalent cases will sextuple by 2025. Our results showed the incidence of childhood type 1 diabetes was rising rapidly in Shanghai. More studies are needed to analyze incidence changes in other regions of China for appropriate allocation of healthcare resources.

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Abstract. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the serum levels of microRNA (miRNA/miR)-382-3p, -598-3p, -1246 and -184 in breast cancer patients and to assess their feasibility as biomarkers for breast cancer screening. Serum samples were obtained from 100 breast cancer patients and 40 age-matched healthy control subjects in Taizhou Central Hospital (Taizhou, Zhejiang, China) between January 2013 and September 2014. The serum expression levels of miR-382-3p, -598-3p, -1246 and -184 were determined by stem-loop reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Receiver operating characteristic curves were drawn to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of the serum miRNA expression levels for the screening of breast cancer. miR-382-3p and -1246 were significantly upregulated in the serum of the breast cancer patients, while miR-598-3p and -184 were significantly downregulated. The sensitivity and specificity to detect breast cancer were as follows: miR-382-3p, 52.0 and 92.5%; miR-598-3p, 95.0 and 85.0%; miR-1246, 93.0 and 75.0%; and miR-184, 87.5 and 71.0%, respectively. The expression levels of the four serum miRNAs were not correlated with the patients' clinical stage. In summary, miR-382-3p, -598-3p, -1246 and -184 are all involved in the development of breast cancer, and are promising biomarkers for breast cancer detection. IntroductionBreast cancer has become the most common cancer in women in China, accounting for 12.2% of all newly diagnosed breast cancers and 9.6% of all mortalities from breast cancer worldwide (1). Early detection of breast cancer is the key to successful treatment and patient survival. Mammographies, magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound are being used for the screening of breast cancer, but these techniques have limitations such as low sensitivity and specificity (2). Finding effective biomarkers is vital for the screening of breast cancer.MicroRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) are a group of small non-coding RNAs (3), which can bind to the 3' untranslated region (UTR), the 5' UTR (4) or the coding region (5) of target mRNA. miRNAs play important roles in the negative regulation of gene expression in a post-transcriptional manner, and are involved in a number of signal transduction pathways, including cell proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, immune response and angiogenesis (6). Previous studies have revealed the abnormal expression of miRNAs in the development and progression of breast cancer (7), and miRNAs are closely linked with tumor-associated signal transduction pathways (8). In our previous study, 10 miRNAs that were significantly differentially expressed were found by the second generation of high-throughput sequencing technology, Illumina Hiseq2500 (9). In the present study, 4 miRNAs, miR-382-3p, -598-3p, -1246 and -184, were further investigated. The purpose of this study was to investigate the serum levels of these miRNAs in breast cancer patients and to assess their feasibility as biomarkers for breast cancer screening. Materials and methods Subje...

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