Recent studies reported that blood-based microRNAs (miRNAs) could detect cancers and predict prognosis have opened a new field of utilizing circulating miRNAs as cancer biomarkers. In this pilot study, we conducted for the first time, to our knowledge, the evaluation of the applicability of salivary miRNAs as novel biomarkers for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) detection. Microarray miRNA expression profiling was performed on saliva samples from 22 newly diagnosed NPC patients and 25 healthy controls, and 12 significantly down-regulated miRNAs were selected for quantitative real-time-PCR (qRT-PCR) validation and further analysis. Their target genes enriched by gene ontology and pathway analysis were used to construct regulatory and interaction networks. The receiver operating characteristic analyses (ROC) and logistic regression were calculated to assess discriminatory accuracy. Twelve dysregulated miRNAs screened by microarray that showed the same expression patterns with qRT-PCR analysis. Through bioinformatics analysis, the most prominent hub gene probably regulated by the 12 down-regulated miRNAs is found to be TP53. The ROC including the 12 miRNAs separated NPC patients from healthy controls with very high accuracy (areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC] = 0.999, sensitivity = 100.00%, specificity = 96.00%). Furthermore, if only six significantly dysregulated miRNAs were selected for the ROC analysis, the accuracy is still impressive (AUC = 0.941, sensitivity = 95.45%, specificity = 80.00%). This study highlights the potential for salivary miRNAs as biomarkers for the detection of NPC. Meanwhile, differentially expressed miRNAs in saliva might play critical roles in NPC by regulating their target genes, which associated with some significant pathways, such as p53 signaling pathway.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most lethal malignancies, and thus better understanding of its molecular pathology is crucial for us to devise more effective treatment of this deadly disease. As cancer cell line remains a convenient starting point for discovery and proof-of-concept studies, here we report the miRNA expression characteristics of two cell lines, MIA PaCa-2 and PANC-1, and discovered three miRNAs (miR-7-5p, let-7d, and miR-135b-5p) that are involved in cancer stem cells (CSCs) suppression. After transfection of each miRNA’s mimic into PANC-1 cells which exhibits higher stemness feature than MIA-PaCa-2 cells, partial reduction of CSC surface markers and inhibition of tumor sphere formation were observed. These results enlighten us to consider miRNAs as potential therapeutic agents for pancreatic cancer patients via specific and effective inhibition of CSCs.

Background Previous studies have shown that bacterial infections are closely associated with most common biliary diseases, such as biliary tract infection and gallbladder stone formation. Acute cholecystitis usually occurs in patients with acute infections of the biliary system, and severe infections can easily lead to life-threatening sepsis. This study explored the structural differences in the bile microbiome in patients with acute and chronic cholecystitis and the relationship with acute and chronic cholecystitis. Results A total of 18 patients in the acute cholecystitis group and 8 patients in the control group were enrolled in the analysis. The composition of the biliary microbiota significantly differed between acute cholecystitis patients and chronic cholecystitis controls. Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) and principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that the microbial communities obtained from the chronic cholecystitis controls clustered separately from those from the acute cholecystitis patients. We observed that many kinds of bacteria, such as Burkholderia, Bradyrhizobium, Phreatobacter and Comamonas, were significantly higher in chronic cholecystitis controls than in acute cholecystitis patients. Conclusions The diversity of the bile microbiome in patients with acute cholecystitis is lower than that in patients with chronic cholecystitis. Patients with acute cholecystitis may have a bile microbial imbalance that might related to acute infections.