Hepatitis B virus (HBV)-derived hepatocellular cancer (HCC) is a serious threat to human health, especially in China. There is no highly sensitive and specific HCC biomarker at present, which makes it difficult to detect HCC at the early stage. Serum exosomal circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been reported as novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of cancers. In the present study, we aimed to explore the diagnostic performance of serum exosomal circRNAs for HBV-derived HCC screening. At first, many circRNAs were found to be differentially expressed in the serum exosomes of HCC individuals by microarray analysis. The validation of dysregulated circRNAs by qRT-PCR revealed that serum exosomal hsa_circ_0028861 was decreased in HCC compared to chronic HBV and cirrhosis. Then, hsa_circ_0028861 was identified as a novel biomarker for HCC diagnosis with an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.79 for discriminating HCC from chronic HBV and cirrhosis individuals. Hsa_circ_0028861 was capable of detecting small (AUC = 0.81), early-stage (AUC = 0.82) and AFP-negative [AFP (−)] (AUC = 0.78) tumors as well. The combination of hsa_circ_0028861 and AFP exhibited better diagnostic ability (AUC = 0.86 for discriminating HCC from chronic HBV and cirrhosis). Moreover, bioinformatics prediction suggested that hsa_circ_0028861 might influence HCC progression by regulating its targeted microRNAs (miRNAs) and downstream tumor-related signaling pathways. Collectively, our study reveals a novel diagnostic tool for HBV-derived HCC.

Gastrointestinal malignancy is a severe public health threat worldwide, and survival for most types of gastrointestinal cancer is very poor. Therefore, finding better cancer biomarkers to diagnose gastrointestinal malignancy and predict patient survival is essential. HDAC1 has been reported to be closely associated with several types of cancer, but the precise role of HDAC1 in gastrointestinal cancer is not clear. Recently, quite a few studies have investigated the correlation between HDAC1 expression and clinical features or prognosis in multiple types of gastrointestinal malignancies, but the results were inconsistent. In this study, we systematically reviewed the association between HDAC1 and gastrointestinal malignancy using meta-analysis methods, and 28 eligible studies were analyzed. We found that the expression level of HDAC1 in gastrointestinal malignancies, especially in colorectal cancer (OR = 10.84, 95% CI = 5.33–22.07, P< 0.00001), was higher than that in noncancerous tissue, and HDAC1 expression was closely associated with some clinical features of gastrointestinal cancer patients, such as tumor stage (OR = 1.62, 95% CI = 1.28–2.05, P < 0.0001) and tumor grade (OR = 1.75, 95% CI = 1.03–2.95, P = 0.04). In addition, we also found that patients with low HDAC1 expression showed better overall survival than those with high HDAC1 expression in gastrointestinal malignancy, especially in gastric cancer (HR = 1.88, 95% CI = 1.14–3.12, P = 0.01). Our results strongly suggest that HDAC1 may serve as a good diagnostic and prognostic marker for gastrointestinal malignancy.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide, and new treatment strategies for CRC are required because of the existing chemotherapy resistance. Iron chelators, which have been used widely for the treatment of iron-overload disease, were reported to exert anti-proliferative effects in cancer. However, the role of iron chelation in CRC was largely unknown. In this study, we found that the iron chelator DFO inhibited CRC cell growth significantly. In addition, the gene expression profile was greatly changed by DFO treatment, and many cell growth-related genes were dysregulated. Further study showed that DFO induced a significant increase in global histone methylation in CRC cells. However, the levels of histone methyltransferases and histone demethylases did not change in response to DFO treatment, implying that the enzymatic activity of these enzymes might be regulated by iron chelation. In conclusion, this study reveals a novel role for DFO in CRC cell growth, and is the first to demonstrate that global histone methylation is modulated by iron chelation in CRC cells.

Background Osteosarcoma (OS) is one of the most common malignant bone tumors. It is essential to explore early diagnostic indicators with high sensitivity and specificity due to the rapid progression and metastasis of OS and the poor survival of metastatic OS patients. However, a few indicators of diagnostic significance have been described. Methods A total of 458 OS patients, 312 healthy individuals, and 228 patients with primary benign bone lesions were included. Logistic regression was performed on 46 clinical laboratory parameters to establish the diagnostic classifiers, which were evaluated by analysis of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Results We established three diagnostic classifiers, called Cos for all ages, Clos for low ages, and Chos for high ages, with clinical laboratory parameters to distinguish OS from healthy individuals. All classifiers showed better diagnostic performances than alkaline phosphatase (ALP) in the independent validation cohort. In addition, these classifiers had better ability than ALP to discriminate OS from primary benign bone lesions. Furthermore, Cos, Clos, and Chos had larger AUC than ALP to identify small‐size and early‐stage OS and could also detect ALP‐negative OS effectively. Conclusion Our study suggests the potential of Cos, Clos, and Chos as non‐invasive biomarkers for early OS.

Under the ongoing COVID-19 prevention and control measures in China, increasing the laboratory severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) nucleic acid testing capacity has become the top priority. Since the COVID-19 outbreak in Xinfadi market in Beijing in June 2020, large-scale screening of key populations has been carried out, challenging the nucleic acid testing capabilities of hospital laboratories. Therefore, within 48 hours, Peking University People's Hospital (PKUPH) transformed a non-nucleic acid testing laboratory into a SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid testing laboratory. Based on the original structure of the building, we adapted measures to local conditions, sorted out a new testing process, and quickly started testing for COVID-19. The nucleic acid testing process has been optimized, including quality control, personal operating specifications, and the timeliness of the release of LIS results to form closed-loop management. This high-throughput COVID-19 testing optimization process provides a reference model for other countries that are fighting the epidemic.