Purpose Prostate cancer (PCa) is a common tumor disease in western countries and a leading cause of cancer-driven mortality in men. Current methods for prostate cancer detection, like prostate-specific antigen screening, lead to significant overtreatment. The purpose of the study was to analyze circulating microRNAs in serum as non-invasive biomarkers in patients with diagnosis of prostate cancer and healthy individuals. Methods This preliminary study included a population of 20 patients with mean age of 68.6 years and mean PSA of 21.3 ng/ml. Eight healthy patients were used as control. MiRNAs were quantified in the total RNA fraction extracted from serum and levels of five microRNAs (miR-106b, miR-141, miR-21, mir-34a, and miR-375) were quantified by RT-qPCR. Statistical analyses evaluated correlation between clinicopathological data and miRNAs expression levels. Results Relative expression ratios of miR-106b, miR-141-3p, miR-21, and miR-375 were significantly increased (1.8-, 1.9-, 2.4-, and 2.6-fold, respectively) in the PCa group compared to healthy control. Using receiver operating characteristics, the highest area under the curve equal to 0.906 was obtained for miR-357 and indicates a very good diagnostic properties of this biomarker. We found expression level of mir-34a not related with PCa. Conclusions Our results support previous findings on the possibility of discriminating prostate cancer patients from healthy controls by detecting miRNA (miR-141-3p, miR-21, and miR-375). Further insights into miRNA abundance and characteristics are necessary to validate the panel of miRNA as surrogate markers in diagnosis of prostate cancer.

The coordination modes of copper(II) complexes of Schiff base-derived coumarin ligands, which had previously shown good anti-Candida activity, were investigated by pH-potentiometric and UV-Vis spectroscopic methods. These studies confirmed the coordination mode of the ligands to be through the N of the imine and deprotonated phenol of the coumarin-derived ligand in solution. In addition, the more active complexes and their corresponding ligands were investigated in the presence of copper(II) in liquid and frozen solution by ESR spectroscopic methods. A series of secondary amine derivatives of the Schiff base ligands, were isolated with good solubility characteristics but showed little anti-Candida activity. However, cytotoxicity studies of the secondary amines, together with the copper complexes and their corresponding ligands, against human colon cancer and human breast cancer cells identified the chemotherapeutic potential of these new ligands.