Our study aimed to clarify the neuroimaging correlates of suicide attempt by comparing differences in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) among depressed suicide attempters, depressed patients without suicide attempt history, and healthy controls through comprehensive and novel fMRI analyses and methods in the same study population. The association between depression severity and aspects of the brain imaging was also discussed. Our study recruited 109 participants who were assigned to three groups: 33 depressed patients with suicide attempt (SA), 32 depressed patients without suicide attempt (NS), and 44 healthy controls (HC). All participants were scanned using a 3 T MRI imaging system to obtain resting-state functional images. In seed-based correlation analysis, we found altered functional connectivity in some brain regions of the SA compared with the NS or HC, especially in the hippocampus and thalamus. In the voxel-based analysis, our results showed differential activation and regional homogeneity of the temporal lobe and several brain regions in the SA compared with the NS and HC. We also found that some brain areas correlated with the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D), anxiety, and depression scores, especially in the frontal and temporal lobes. Graph theoretical analysis (GTA) and network-based statistical (NBS) analyses revealed different topological organization as well as slightly better global integration and worse local segregation of the brain network (i.e., more like a random network) in depressed participants compared with healthy participants. We concluded that the brain function of major depressive disorders with and without suicide attempts changed compared with healthy participants.

The long noncoding RNA, Growth arrest-specific 5 (GAS5) plays a crucial role in the development of oral cancer. However, potential genetic variants in GAS5 that affect the susceptibility and progression of oral cancer have rarely been explored. In this study, two loci of GAS5 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs145204276 and rs55829688) were genotyped by using the TaqMan allelic discrimination in 1125 oral cancer patients and 1195 non-oral-cancer individuals. After statistical analyses, the distribution of both the GAS5 SNP rs145204276 and GAS5 SNP rs55829688 frequencies were similar between the study and control groups. However, the patients with GAS5 SNP rs145204276 variants (Ins/Del or Del/Del) showed a higher tendency of moderate to poor cell differentiation of oral cancer (OR: 1.454, 95% CI: 1.041–2.031, p = 0.028). Moreover, the GAS5 SNP rs145204276 variants (Ins/Del or Del/Del) in the non-alcohol-drinking population were associated with significantly advanced tumor stage (OR: 1.500, 95% CI: 1.081–2.081, p = 0.015) and larger tumor size (OR: 1.494, 95% CI: 1.076–2.074, p = 0.016). Furthermore, individuals with the GAS5 SNP rs145204276 variant were associated with a higher expression of GAS5 in the GTEx database (p = 0.002), and the higher GAS5 level was associated with poor cell differentiation, advanced tumor stage and larger tumor size in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma from the TCGA database (all p < 0.05). In conclusion, the GAS5 SNP rs145204276 variant is related to poor-differentiation cell status in oral cancer. Besides, the presence of the GAS5 SNP rs145204276 variant is associated with a worse tumor stage and tumor size in oral cancer patients without alcohol drinking.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a multifactorial malignancy, and its high incidence and mortality rate remain a global public health burden. Fibroblast growth factor receptor 4 (FGFR4) is a receptor tyrosine kinase that has been shown to play a key role in cancer development and prognosis via the activation of its downstream oncogenic signaling pathways. The present study aimed to explore the impact of FGFR4 gene polymorphisms on the risk and progression of CRC. Three FGFR4 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), including rs1966265, rs351855, and rs7708357, were evaluated in 413 CRC cases and 413 gender- and age-matched cancer-free controls. We did not observe any significant association of three individual SNPs with the risk of CRC between the case and control group. However, while assessing the clinicopathological parameters, patients of rectal cancer possessing at least one minor allele of rs1966265 (AG and GG; AOR, 0.236; p = 0.046) or rs351855 (GA and AA; AOR, 0.191; p = 0.022) were found to develop less metastasis as compared to those who are homozygous for the major allele. Further analyses using the datasets from the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) Portal and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) revealed that rs351855 regulated FGFR4 expression in many human tissues, and increased FGFR4 levels were associated with the occurrence, advanced stage, and distal metastasis of colon adenocarcinoma. These data suggest that the amino acid change in combination with altered expression levels of FGFR4 due to genetic polymorphisms may affect CRC progression.

The aim of the current study was to evaluate the combined effect of the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in long non-coding RNA growth arrest-specific 5 (GAS5) and the phenotypes of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) on the clinicopathological characteristics of lung adenocarcinoma. The present study examined the relationship between the GAS5 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; rs145204276 Ins/Del, rs55829688 T/C) and the clinicopathological factors in 539 lung adenocarcinoma patients with or without EGFR mutations. We found that the genotype distributions of the two GAS5 SNPs between different EGFR genotypes were similar after adjusting for age, gender and smoking history. The GAS5 SNP rs145204276 Ins/Del + Del/Del illustrated a higher distribution with an advanced tumor stage (p = 0.030), larger tumor T status (p = 0.019), positive lymph node status (p = 0.014) and distal metastases (p = 0.011) in the EGFR wild type group. In the subgroup analysis of the EGFR wild type population, the presence of GAS5 SNP rs145204276 Ins/Del + Del/Del was correlated to an advanced tumor stage (p = 0.014) and distal metastases (p = 0.020) in non-smokers. In conclusion, these data indicate that the GAS5 SNP rs145204276 variant may help predict tumor stage, lymph node metastasis and distal metastases in patients with EGFR wild type lung adenocarcinoma.

Patients with pelvic fractures could encounter various complications during or after treatments. This cohort study investigated the risk of mortality and readmissions in patients with pelvic fractures, with or without urinary tract infections (UTIs), within 30 days following the pelvic fractures. This retrospective cohort study examined claim records from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000 (LHID2000). We selected patients hospitalized with pelvic fractures between 1997 and 2013 for study. Patients who had index data before 2000 or after 2010 (n = 963), who died before the index date (n = 64), who were aged <18 years (n = 94), or who had a pelvic injury (n = 31) were excluded. In total, the study cohort comprised 1623 adult patients; 115 had UTIs, and 1508 patients without UTIs were used as a comparison cohort. Multivariate analysis with a multiple Cox regression model and Kaplan–Meier survival analysis were performed to analyze the data. Our results showed that the 1-year mortality rate (adjusted hazard ratio [HR]: 2.32; 95% CI: 1.25–4.29) and readmission rate (adjusted HR: 1.72; 95% CI: 1.26–3.34) of the UTI group were significantly higher than those of the non-UTI group. Moreover, the Kaplan–Meier curve for the 1-year follow-up indicated that the UTI group had a higher cumulative risk of both mortality and hospital readmission compared with the non-UTI group. In conclusion, among patients with pelvic fracture, patients with UTI were associated with increased risks of mortality and readmission. Physicians must pay more attention to such patients to prevent UTIs among patients with pelvic fractures during hospitalization and conduct a follow-up after discharge within at least 1 year.