Focal therapy of prostate cancer is the targeted destruction of cancer within a specific part of the prostate gland, sparing the rest of the prostate and nearby tissue. This procedure could potentially reduce side effects when compared with established standard treatments, such as surgery or radiotherapy, which treat the entire prostate. Studies show that for most men with low-risk cancer, active surveillance is the preferred treatment option. However, the available data regarding all forms of focal therapy are still poor and inconclusive. Consequently, due to both the lack of clear results associated with focal therapy and the difficulties in detecting all cancerous areas of the prostate, focal therapy should be considered an investigational modality only.

Due to heterogeneous multifocal nature of prostate cancer (PCa), there is currently a lack of biomarkers that stably distinguish it from benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), predict clinical outcome and guide the choice of optimal treatment. In this study RNA-seq analysis was applied to formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tumor and matched normal tissue samples collected from Russian patients with PCa and BPH. We identified 3384 genes differentially expressed (DE) (FDR < 0.05) between tumor tissue of PCa patients and adjacent normal tissue as well as both tissue types from BPH patients. Overexpression of four of the discovered genes (ANKRD34B, NEK5, KCNG3, and PTPRT) was validated by RT-qPCR. Furthermore, the enrichment analysis of overrepresented microRNA and transcription factor (TF) recognition sites within DE genes revealed common regulatory elements of which 13 microRNAs and 53 TFs were thus linked to PCa for the first time. Moreover, 8 of these TFs (FOXJ2, GATA6, NFE2L1, NFIL3, PRRX2, TEF, EBF2 and ZBTB18) were found to be differentially expressed in this study making them not only candidate biomarkers of prostate cancer but also potential therapeutic targets.

This paper provides the results of a study evaluating the efficacy and safety of etiotropic therapy in patients hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Objective. Тo evaluate the efficacy and safety of favipiravir (Areplivir) in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and compare it with recommended standard therapy. Patients and methods. Two hundred men and women aged between 18 and 80 years with COVID-19 were randomized into this study. The experimental group included patients who received favipiravir, whereas the control group comprised patients who received causal therapy in accordance with the latest version of the temporary methodical recommendations of the Ministry of Health of Russia ‘Prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of coronavirus infection (COVID-19).’ The efficacy and safety of therapy were evaluated by assessing clinical improvement using the WHO Ordinal Scale for Clinical Improvement, clinical and laboratory parameters, findings of chest computed tomography (CT), and elimination of SARS-CoV-2. We also analyzed the frequency and type of adverse events, need for invasive and non-invasive ventilation, and death rates. Results. Our analysis has demonstrated significant benefits of favipiravir over standard therapy in terms of the time to clinical improvement (in the experimental group it was 4 days shorter on average), time to recovery, frequency of recovery after 10 days (44% of patients from the experimental group and 10% of patients from the control group had no clinical signs of the disease at this time-point), and frequency of virus elimination by day 10 of therapy. Treatment with favipiravir was associated with a significant improvement in the lung condition (according to CT), normalization of laboratory parameters, and saturation level. Favipiravir has demonstrated a good safety profile similar to that of standard therapy. There was no difference in the frequency of adverse events between the experimental and control groups. Conclusion. The use of favipiravir for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection reduced the time to clinical improvement by 4 days on average compared to standard therapy, ensured improvement of the lung condition (according to CT scans), and facilitated virus elimination in more than 90% of patients, thereby promoting faster recovery. Favipiravir had a good safety profile and was well tolerated by patients. This treatment regimen was shown to be effective, sufficient, and clinically reasonable to achieve good outcomes. Timely initiation of therapy with favipiravir (Areplivir) improves disease prognosis and reduces the global socioeconomic burden of the current pandemic. Key words: COVID-19, Areplivir, coronavirus, causal therapy, favipiravir

Current prostate cancer (PCa) diagnostic tests suffer from insufficient sensitivity and specificity. Novel biomarkers that can be detected by minimally invasive methods are of a particular value. Here we provide two datasets. The first one is on the whole transcriptome profiling by RNA-seq of urine and plasma obtained from patients with PCa and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The second one represents targeted sequencing of DNA from urine and plasma of patients with PCa and BPH. Both datasets are available at NCBI Sequence Read Archive under Accession No. SRP093707 and No. SRP093842 respectively.

No abstract