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• The study identified a five-microRNA signature in serum for nasopharyngeal carcinoma diagnosis. The AUC values are impressive with high sensitivity and specificity. • Comprehensive analysis in tissue specimens and exosomes samples were further conducted to bring deeper understanding of the identified miRNAs. • The candidate miRNAs list generated in the screening stage was selected via the application of the Exiqon miRNA qPCR panel, which is more suitable for preliminary screening of miRNA in peripheral blood samples. Circulating microRNAs have become reliable sources of non-invasive biomarkers for cancer diagnosis. miRNA expression analysis in blood circulation for the identification of novel signatures might assist the early detection of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients. In the screening stage, the Exiqon miRNA qPCR panel was applied for the selection of candidate miRNAs. Serum samples taken from 208 NPC patients and 238 healthy donors (as normal controls (NCs)) were assigned to into the following three stages (training (30 NPC VS. 30 NCs), testing (138 NPC VS. 166 NCs) and external validation stage (40 NPC VS. 42 NCs)) for further confirmation of differently expressed miRNAs using qRT-PCR. The identified miRNA signatures were further explored in tissue specimens (48 NPC VS. 32 NCs) and serum-derived exosomes samples (32 NPC VS. 32 NCs). Five miRNAs in serum including let-7b-5p, miR-140-3p, miR-192-5p, miR-223-3p and miR-24-3p were found to be significantly up-regulated in NPC patients compared to NCs. The five identified miRNAs were further combined into one panel and the areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUCs) for three independent stages were 0.910 (training), 0.916 (testing) and 0.968 (external validation), respectively. miR-192-5p and miR-24-3p were consistently up-regulated in NPC tissues while let-7b-5p and miR-140-3p were conversely down-regulated. In serum-derived exosomes samples, no expression difference was observed between NPC patients and NCs. A five-miRNA signature was identified in serum to be potential biomarkers for NPC detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• MiR-188-3p, miR-500a-5p and miR-501-5p in plasma were found to be significantly up-regulated in BC patients. • MiR-188-3p, miR-501-3p, miR-502-3p, miR-532-3p and miR-532-5p in serum were also observed to be up-regulated in BC patients. • The expression levels of miR-188-3p presented a trend of positive correlation between plasma and serum samples. • A three-miRNA panel in plasma and a five-miRNA panel in serum were established. • The two panels showed high diagnostic value in discriminating BC patients at different stages from HCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Whether plasma miRNAs could be used as novel non-invasive biomarkers in diagnosing papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) remains unknown. In this study, we designed a four-phase study to identify differentially expressed plasma miRNAs in Chinese PTC patients. Exiqon panel was initially utilized to conduct plasma miRNA profile (3 PTC pools VS. 1 healthy control (HC) pool; each 10 samples were pooled as 1 sample). The dysregulated miRNAs were then analyzed in the training (30 PTC VS. 30 HCs), testing (57 PTC VS. 54 HCs) and external validation phases (33 PTC VS. 30HCs). The identified miRNAs were further affirmed in benign nodules (2 nodular goiter (NG) pool VS. 1 HC pool). We also verified the expression of identified miRNAs in 17 matched malignant and normal tissue samples, NG plasma samples (29 PTC VS. 29 NG) and plasma exosomes (25 PTC VS. 25 HCs). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed to evaluate the diagnostic value of the identified miRNAs. As a result, the screening phase demonstrated 30 dysregulated plasma miRNAs in PTC patients compared with HCs. After multiphase experiment processes, miR-346, miR-10a-5p and miR-34a-5p were found significantly elevated in PTC plasma samples relative to HCs. The areas under the ROC curve (AUC) of the three-miRNA panel for the training, testing and validation phases were 0.926, 0.811 and 0.816, separately. The panel could also differentiate PTC from NG with the AUC of 0.877. MiR-346 and miR-34a-5p but not miR-10a-5p were up-regulated in PTC tissues. And the three miRNAs showed consistently up-regulation in PTC plasma exosomes. In conclusion, our study established a three-miRNA panel in plasma with considerable clinical value in discriminating PTC from HC or NG. Highlights • Plasma miR-346, miR-10a-5p and miR-34a-5p were elevated in PTC patients relative to HCs. • The three-miRNA panel could differentiate PTC patients from NG patients or HCs. • MiR-346 and miR-34a-5p but not miR-10a-5p were elevated in tumor tissues to normal tissues. • All the three miRNAs were up-regulated in exosomes from PTC plasma samples compared to HCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Honeybees are susceptible to a variety of diseases, including chalkbrood, which is capable of causing huge losses of both the number of bees and colony productivity. This research is designed to characterize the transcriptome profiles of Ascosphaera apis -treated and un-treated larval guts of Apis mellifera ligustica in an attempt to unravel the molecular mechanism underlying the immune responses of western honeybee larval guts to mycosis. In this study, 24, 296 and 2157 genes were observed to be differentially expressed in A. apis -treated Apis mellifera (4-, 5- and 6-day-old) compared with un-treated larval guts. Moreover, the expression patterns of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were examined via trend analysis, and subsequently, gene ontology analysis and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis were conducted for DEGs involved in up- and down-regulated profiles. Immunity-related pathways were selected for further analysis, and our results demonstrated that a total of 13 and 50 DEGs were annotated in the humoral immune-related and cellular immune-related pathways, respectively. Additionally, we observed that many DEGs up-regulated in treated guts were part of cellular immune pathways, such as the lysosome, ubiquitin mediated proteolysis, and insect hormone biosynthesis pathways and were induced by A. apis invasion. However, more down-regulated DEGs were restrained. Surprisingly, a majority of DEGs within the Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, and the MAPK signaling pathway were up-regulated in treated guts, while all but two genes involved in the NF- κ B signaling pathway were down-regulated, which suggested that most genes involved in humoral immune-related pathways were activated in response to the invasive fungal pathogen. This study's findings provide valuable information regarding the investigation of the molecular mechanism of immunity defenses of A. m. ligustica larval guts to infection with A. apis . Furthermore, these studies lay the groundwork for future researches on key genes controlling the susceptibility of A. m. ligustica larvae to chalkbrood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Magnolia polytepala was first reported. • Several mutational hotspots of Yulania were identified as potential DNA markers. • The systematic position of M. polytepala has been clarified. Magnoliaceae is a primitive taxon in the angiosperms, comprising approximately 240 species in 2–17 genera. Many of them have been widely cultivated due to their horticultural and medicinal value. However, there are uncertainties and controversies about the delimitation of the genera except Liriodendron L. in this family. The Yulania taxa is also the focus of dispute at the genus and section levels. In this study, we compared ten Yulania plastomes, including the newly sequenced M. polytepala. The plastome-wide comparative analysis demonstrated that 1) Yulania cp genomes were highly conserved, and the majority differences existed in IR regions with the loss/retention of trnV-GAC or ycf15 gene, 2) mutational hotspots with high levels of nucleotide diversity (Pi > 0.02) existed in both coding (rpoA , and ycf1) and no-coding (ccsA-ndhD , ndhE-ndhG , ndhF-rpl32 , petA-psbJ , rpl32-trnL , rps3-rps19 , and trnH-psbA) regions among the genus Yulania. Combined with other data from Magnoliaceae plastomes, our reconstructed molecular phylogenetic tree revealed that Yulania is monophyletic, separated from the genus Magnolia L. (= Magnolia subg. Magnolia L.), but seems a sister of Michelia L. Moreover, M. polytepala which belongs to the genus Yulania is most closely related to M. liliiflora. All these results indicated that plastome data may contribute to investigating taxonomy, population genetics and phylogeny of Yulania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]