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A correction to the article "Aberrant expression of miR-33a-3p/IGF2 in postmenopausal osteoporosis patients and its role and mechanism in osteoporosis," published online is presented.

Background: Oncolytic virotherapy is an attractive drug platform of cancer gene therapy, but efficacy and specificity are important prerequisites for success of such strategies. Previous studies determined that Apoptin is a p53 independent, bcl-2 insensitive apoptotic protein with the ability to specifically induce apoptosis in tumor cells. Here, we generated a conditional replication-competent adenovirus (CRCA), designated Ad-hTERT-E1a-Apoptin, and investigated the effectiveness of the CRCA a gene therapy agent for further clinical trials. Results: The observation that infection with Ad-hTERT-E1a-Apoptin significantly inhibited growth of the melanoma cells, protecting normal human epidermal melanocytes from growth inhibition confirmed cancer cell selective adenoviral replication, growth inhibition, and apoptosis induction of this therapeutic approach. The in vivo assays performed by using C57BL/6 mice containing established primary or metastatic tumors expanded the in vitro studies. When treated with Ad-hTERT-E1a-Apoptin, the subcutaneous primary tumor volume reduction was not only observed in intratumoral injection group but in systemic delivery mice. In the lung metastasis model, AdhTERT- E1a-Apoptin effectively suppressed pulmonary metastatic lesions. Furthermore, treatment of primary and metastatic models with Ad-hTERT-E1a-Apoptin increased mice survival. Conclusions: These data further reinforce the previously research showing that an adenovirus expressing Apoptin is more effective and advocate the potential applications of Ad-hTERT-E1a-Apoptin in the treatment of neoplastic diseases in future clinical trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report an extremely rare case of Synchronous primary intrapulmonary and mediastinal thymoma in a Chinese patient. We describe the histological and radiological findings, which support the possibility of multicentric thymoma. Resection of the mass in the left anterior superior mediastinum and upper lobectomy of right lung were performed, with lymph Nodes clearance, superior vena cava, left and right brachiocephalic veins resection, reconstruction of left brachiocephalic vein to right auricle and reconstruction of right brachiocephalic vein to superior vena cava. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Platelets are central mediators of thrombosis and hemostasis. At the site of vascular injury, platelet accumulation (i.e. adhesion and aggregation) constitutes the first wave of hemostasis. Blood coagulation, initiated by the coagulation cascades, is the second wave of thrombin generation and enhance phosphatidylserine exposure, can markedly potentiate cell-based thrombin generation and enhance blood coagulation. Recently, deposition of plasma fibronectin and other proteins onto the injured vessel wall has been identified as a new "protein wave of hemostasis" that occurs prior to platelet accumulation (i.e. the classical first wave of hemostasis). These three waves of hemostasis, in the event of atherosclerotic plaque rupture, may turn pathogenic, and cause uncontrolled vessel occlusion and thrombotic disorders (e.g. heart attack and stroke). Current anti-platelet therapies have significantly reduced cardiovascular mortality, however, on-treatment thrombotic events, thrombocytopenia, and bleeding complications are still major concerns that continue to motivate innovation and drive therapeutic advances. Emerging evidence has brought platelet adhesion molecules back into the spotlight as targets for the development of novel anti-thrombotic agents. These potential antiplatelet targets mainly include the platelet receptors glycoprotein (GP) Ib-IX-V complex, β3 integrins (αIIb subunit and PSI domain of β3 subunit) and GPVI. Numerous efforts have been made aiming to balance the efficacy of inhibiting thrombosis without compromising hemostasis. This mini-review will update the mechanisms of thrombosis and the current state of antiplatelet therapies, and will focus on platelet adhesion molecules and the novel anti-thrombotic therapies that target them.

Background: The purpose of this study is to investigate the feasibility, accuracy, and limitations of ultrasound (US)-guided core needle biopsy (CNB) with multiple punches in the diagnosis of lymphoma in the whole body., Methods: From March 2007 to October 2013, US-guided CNB with multiple punches was performed by well-experienced radiologists in 110 patients (CNB group), and surgical biopsy was carried out in 95 patients (surgical group). The differences of accuracy rate between the two groups in the diagnosis of lymphoma and its subtypes were examined with Fisher's exact test., Results: There were no statistical differences between the CNB group and the surgical group in the diagnostic accuracy rate of lymphoma, as well as its subtypes in superficial and deep masses. In addition, in the CNB group, there were no statistical differences between different lengths of lesions in the diagnosis accuracy rate of lymphoma and its subtypes., Conclusions: US-guided CNB with no less than three punches is an accurate, safe, minimally invasive, non-radiological, fast, and cost-effective method in the evaluation of lymphoma and its subtypes as compared with surgical approach. It should be considered as the acceptable alternative to surgical biopsy to obtain histopathological samples in the patients with suspected lymphoma.

Background: MicroRNAs(miRNAs) are 18-25 nt small RNAs playing critical roles in many biological processes. The majority of known miRNAs were discovered by conventional cloning and a Sanger sequencing approach. The next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies enable in-depth characterization of the global repertoire of miRNAs, and different protocols for miRNA library construction have been developed. However, the possible bias between the relative expression levels and sequences introduced by different protocols of library preparation have rarely been explored., Results: We assessed three different miRNA library preparation protocols, SOLiD, Illumina versions 1 and 1.5, using cloning or SBS sequencing of total RNA samples extracted from skeletal muscles from Hu sheep and Dorper sheep, and then validated 9 miRNAs by qRT-PCR. Our results show that SBS sequencing data highly correlate with Illumina cloning data. The SOLiD data, when compared to Illumina's, indicate more dispersed distribution of length, higher frequency variation for nucleotides near the 3'- and 5'-ends, higher frequency occurrence for reads containing end secondary structure (ESS), and higher frequency for reads that do not map to known miRNAs. qRT-PCR results showed the best correlation with SOLiD cloning data. Fold difference of Hu sheep and Dorper sheep between qRT-PCR result and SBS sequencing data correlated well (r = 0.937), and fold difference of miR-1 and miR-206 among SOLiD cloning data, qRT-PCR and SBS sequencing data was similar., Conclusions: The sequencing depth can influence the quantitative measurement of miRNA abundance, but the discrepancy caused by it was not statistically significant as high correlation was observed between Illumina cloning and SBS sequencing data. Bias of length distribution, sequence variation, and ESS was observed between data obtained with the different protocols. SOLiD cloning data differ from Illumina cloning data mainly because of distinct methods of adapter ligation. The good correlation between qRT-PCR result and SOLiD data might be due to the similarities of the hybridization-based methods. The fold difference analysis indicated that methods based on hybridization may be superior for quantitative measurement of miRNA abundance. Because of the genome sequence of the sheep is not available, our data may not explain how the entire miRNA bias in the natural miRNAs in sheep or other mammal miRNA expression, unbiased artificially synthesized miRNA will help on evaluating the methodology of miRNA library preparation.