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Objective. Studies have demonstrated that zinc finger protein 488 (ZNF488) is highly expressed in pancreatic carcinoma (PC), but its effect on PC and its molecular mechanism remains unclear. Methods. Real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) was employed to detect the ZNF488 expression in PC patients’ cancer tissues and cell lines. After interfering with or overexpressing ZNF488 in PANC-1 and AsPC-1 cells, respectively, the CCK-8, cell cloning, Transwell, and scratch assays were performed to detect cell proliferation, cell viability, invasion ability, and migration ability. In addition, Western blot was applied to assess the protein expression of Akt, p-Akt, mTOR, and p-mTOR in the Akt-mTOR pathway. Results. The ZNF488 expression was evidently raised in PC tissues and cell lines, and the starBase V3.0 database indicated that the higher the ZNF488 expression, the lower the survival rate of PC patients. Furthermore, we discovered that overexpressing ZNF488 can markedly promote the proliferation, invasion, and migration of PC cells. At the same time, highly expressed ZNF488 distinctly increased the p-Akt and p-mTOR expressions and the p-Akt/Akt and p-mTOR/mTOR ratios. However, after knocking down the ZNF488 expression, it had the opposite results. In addition, the Akt agonist SC79 can alleviate the effect of ZNF488 knockdown on Akt/mTOR pathway-related proteins, while Akt inhibitor AZD5363 had the opposite effect. Conclusion. ZNF488 could promote the proliferation, invasion, and migration of PC cells, and its mechanism may be related to the activation of the Akt/mTOR pathway. This study demonstrated that ZNF488 could be used as a molecular target for diagnosing and treating PC.

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play an important role in tumor development. With the development of sequencing technology, many new lncRNAs have been discovered. lncRNA TP73-AS1 is abnormally expressed in many cancers. A summary of the current literature related to TP73-AS1 reveals that TP73-AS1 mainly regulates the occurrence and development of tumors through the mechanism of competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA). In addition, the abnormal expression of TP73-AS1 can regulate the malignant function of tumor cells through a variety of possible mechanisms. All evidence suggests that TP73-AS1 may be a potential diagnostic biomarker or a new cancer therapeutic target.

Previous studies have identified a number of microRNAs (miRNAs) that were aberrantly expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues. Nevertheless, their diagnostic and prognostic value in serum has not been fully evaluated. Herein, the levels of five serum miRNAs, namely, miR-182, miR-331-3p, miR-197, miR-492, and miR-581, were detected in 103 HCC patients, 95 benign liver diseases, and 40 healthy controls using real-time PCR technique. The results showed that, compared with benign liver diseases and healthy controls, the levels of serum miR-182 and miR-331-3p were significantly increased in HCC patients, both P