Ovarian cancer (OC) is associated with high mortality in gynecological oncology; this is mainly due to the low diagnosis rate. Exosomal miRNA has demonstrated potential as a tumor biomarker. We aimed to explore the diagnostic potential of serum exosomal miR-1307 and miR-375 for OC. The first six candidate miRNAs were selected from the previous literature. The relative quantification of qRT-PCR was used to screen for the stability of exosomal miRNAs, followed by validation of the cohort. ROC analysis was employed to analyze the specificity and sensitivity of exosomal miRNA. MiR-1307 and miR-375 were confirmed stably existing in serum exosomes of OC. Moreover, miR-1307 and miR-375 were both significantly up-regulated in serum exosomes of OC compared to ovarian benign and healthy groups. The overexpressed miRNAs showed independent diagnostic power and enhanced the diagnostic accuracy of traditional biomarkers when combined with CA-125 and HE4. MiR-1307 was associated with tumor staging, and miR-375 was associated with lymph node metastasis of OC. Our results suggest that serum exosomal miR-1307 and miR-375 could serve as potential tumor biomarkers to improve diagnostic efficiency for OC.

H7N9 avian influenza is an emerging viral disease in China caused by avian influenza A (H7N9) virus. We investigated host cytokine and chemokine profiles in serum samples of H7N9 patients by multiplex-microbead immunoassays. Statistical analysis showed that IP-10, IL-6, IL-17, and IL-2 were increased in H7N9 infected patients. Furthermore, IL-6 and the chemokine IP-10 were significantly higher in severe H7N9 patients compared to nonsevere H7N9 cases. We suggest that proinflammatory cytokine responses, characterized by a combined Th1/Th17 cytokine induction, are partially responsible for the disease progression of patients with H7N9 infection.

A severe disease in humans caused by a novel avian-origin influenza A (H7N9) virus emerged in China recently, which has caused at least 128 cases and 26 deaths. Rapid detection of the novel H7N9 virus is urgently needed to differentiate the disease from other infections, and to facilitate infection control as well as epidemiologic investigations. In this study, a reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification combined with a lateral flow device (RT-LAMP-LFD) assay to rapidly detect H7N9 virus was developed and evaluated. The RT-LAMP primers were designed to target the haemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) genes of H7N9 virus. Results of 10-fold dilution series assays showed that analysis of RT-LAMP products by the LFD method was as sensitive as real-time turbidity detection, and that the analytic sensitivities of the HA and NA RT-LAMP assays were both 10 copies of synthetic RNA. Furthermore, both the assays showed 100% clinical specificity for identification of H7N9 virus. The performance characteristics of the RT-LAMP-LFD assay were evaluated with 80 clinical specimens collected from suspected H7N9 patients. The NA RT-LAMP-LFD assay was more sensitive than real time RT-PCR assay. Compared with a combination of virus culture and real-time RT-PCR, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of the RT-LAMP-LFD assay were all 100%. Overall, The RT-LAMP-LFD assay established in this study can be used as a reliable method for early diagnosis of the avian-origin influenza A (H7N9) virus infection.

A novel avian-origin influenza A (H7N9) virus recently occurred in China and caused 137 human infection cases with a 32.8% mortality rate. Although various detection procedures have been developed, the pathogenesis of this emerging virus in humans remains largely unknown. In this study, we characterized serum microRNA (miRNA) profile in response to H7N9 virus infection using TaqMan Low Density Arrays. Upon infection, a total of 395 miRNAs were expressed in the serum pool of patients, far beyond the 221 in healthy controls. Among the 187 commonly expressed miRNAs, 146 were up-regulated and only 7 down-regulated in patients. Further analysis by quantitative RT-PCR revealed that the serum levels of miR-17, miR-20a, miR-106a and miR-376c were significantly elevated in patients compared with healthy individuals (p < 0.05). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed to show that each miRNA could discriminate H7N9 patients from controls with area under the curve (AUC) values ranging from 0.622 to 0.898, whereas a combination of miR-17, miR-20a, miR-106a and miR-376c obtained a higher discriminating ability with an AUC value of 0.96. Our findings unravel the significant alterations in serum miRNA expression following virus infection and manifest great potential of circulating miRNAs for the diagnosis of viral diseases.