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A growing body of evidence suggests that long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) is aberrantly expressed in human cancer and linked to cancer initiation and development. We previously identified Homo sapiens PGM5 antisense RNA 1 (PGM5-AS1) as a novel esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC)-related lncRNA by performing high-throughput RNA sequencing. However, its clinical implication and biological function in ESCC are still uncharacterized. In the present study, we found that PGM5-AS1 was frequently downregulated in ESCC tissues, plasma, and cell lines, and low PGM5-AS1 expression was positively correlated with poor differentiation, advanced tumor node metastasis (TNM) stage, and lymph node metastasis. Importantly, PGM5-AS1 was identified to be an effective diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for ESCC patients. Functional experiments revealed that exogenous expression of PGM5-AS1 significantly suppressed the proliferation, migration, and invasion of ESCC cells in vitro as well as tumor growth in vivo. Mechanistically, PGM5-AS1 was transcriptionally activated by p53 and it could directly interact with and sequester miR-466 to elevate PTEN expression, thereby inhibiting ESCC progression. Overall, our data indicate that PGM5-AS1 is a novel tumor suppressor in ESCC and restoration of PGM5-AS1 may be a promising avenue for treatment of ESCC patient.

To explore the technique principle of PCR with confronting two-pair primers (PCR-CTPP) and improve the accuracy of SNP genotyping by taking the 1298 locus of human gene MTHFR as an example, the reliability between conventional PCR-CTPP and improved PCR-CTPP was compared using reconstructed PCR-CTPP detecting system in terms of designing appropriate primers and optimizing annealing temperature and the final concentration of primers. The improved PCR-CTPP detection system proved to be more accurate, which supported the viewpoint on the theoretical defects of conventional PCR-CTPP. The large-scale study verified the reliability of the improved method. It is expected that this improved technique would be widely used in the field of medicine and molecular biology.

Although the incidence rate of lung cancer has declined over the past few years, it remains the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. The Cancer Genome Atlas has provided invaluable resources for cancer research. The development of next generation sequencing technology and evolution of data analysis tools make it possible to interpret the underlying mechanism of oncogenesis. In current study, normalized FPKM data from 572 samples derived from patients with lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) from TCGA was used to do weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) to identify gene modules associated with lung adenocarcinoma. Raw counts data was used to identify differentially expressed genes in LUAD by using DESeq2 in R (version 3.4.2). WGCNA results shows that magenta (r = 0.47, p Keywords: lung adenocarcinoma; TCGA; gene expression analysis; bioinformatics; cancer biomarker Citation Format: Jianxiang Shi, Mengtao Xing, Chenglin Luo, Xiao Wang, Liping Dai, Jianying Zhang. Revisiting TCGA data identifies key genes in lung adenocarcinoma [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3292.

This paper reports two new species of Euryhaliotrema Kritsky & Boeger, 2002 collected from the gills of Lutjanus argentimaculatus (Forsskal). E. xinyingense n. sp. is similar to Euryhaliotrema atlanticum Kritsky & Boeger, 2002 in the structure of copulatory apparatus, but differs from the latter in the shape of anchors and the structure of vagina. E. hainanense n. sp. also closely resembles E. atlanticum Kritsky & Boeger, 2002, but differs from the latter in the structure of haptor and the shape of accessory piece.

Sinomazocraes changjiangensis n. g., n. sp. (Monogenea: Mazocraeidae) is described from the gills of the shortjaw tapertail anchovy Coilia brachygnathus collected from Jiayu and Huanggang Counties (Hubei Province), which are located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. The structure of the clamps and copulatory organ are similar to those of Heteromazocraes Mamaev, 1981. However, although Sinomazocraes also has four pairs of clamps, it is distinguished from other genera in the family by the fact that the three anterior clamps on one side of the body are significantly larger than the others. Variations in the form of the clamps in different species of the Mazocraeidae are discussed.

This paper contains a brief history of studies on monogeneans of Chinese marine fishes and a list of 337 monogenean species, together with their marine hosts and notes on the sea in which they were found. An additional 139 species have been added to the 198 species recorded in 'Monogeneans of Chinese Marine Fishes' published by Zhang, Yang and Liu in 2001.

The genera Sinineobucephalopsis and Sinogastromyzontrema are diagnosed and placed in the family Urotrematidae. Sinineobucephalopsis macrocirrus is redescribed from Glyptothorax fokiensis in Guangdong and Hunan provinces. Urotrema glyptothoraci is considered synonymous with Sinineobucephalopsis macrocirrus. The new combinations Sinineobucephalopsis postlecitha, Sinineobucephalopsis proeilecitha and Sinineobucephalopsis sinipercae are formed for species originally placed in Urotrema and Urotrematulum. Sinogastromyzontrema guangxiensis is redescribed from Sinogastromyzon wui in Guangxi Province. Urotrema parallelorchis is considered a synonym of Sinogastromyzontrema guangxiensis. A key to the species or species-complexes in the family Urotrematidae is given.

This paper reports two new species of the family Mazocraeidae from the Pearl River Estuary and the Xijiang River, China. Mazocraeoides xijiangensis n. sp. is found on the gills of Macrura reevesi (Richardson) and Heteromazocraes hexacanthus n. sp. on the gills of Coilia grayi Richardson. A new species name, Heteromazocraes lingmueni, is given to replace Paramazocraes sp. of Ling (1973).

This paper reports a new species and two new records of the Tetraonchoididae collected from fishes of the South China and East China Seas. Pseudotetraonchoides halichoeres n. sp. was obtained from the gills of Halichoeres poecilopterus collected at Dongshan (23°42' N, 117°24' E). The new species is similar to P. bleekeriae Bychowsky, Gussev & Nagibina, 1965 in the structure of the haptor, but differs in the sizes of the hamuli, the transverse bar and the supplementary plate, and also in details of the supplementary plate. Both Heteropavlovskioides synodontis Machida, 1978 from Trachinocephalus myops and Tetraonchoides japonicus Bychowsky, 1951 from Uranoscopus japonicus are recorded for the first time off China.

Natural killer (NK) cells are innate lymphocytes that can rapidly eradicate tumor cells, especially those lacking MHC Class I molecules. NK cells can also rapidly eradicate herpes virus-infected cells. We designed an oncolytic herpes virus (oHSV) to selectively infect, replicate within, and lyse glioblastoma (GBM), a devastating brain tumor with a median survival of only 15 months following diagnosis. We have shown that the rapid influx of NK cells limits oHSV efficacy in GBM as they impede oHSV replication and spread [Alvarez-Breckenridge et al., Nat Med, 2012, 18(12):1827-34]. In the current study, we developed NK cell-based novel GBM therapies by decreasing the brain influx of NK cells to enhance the efficacy of oHSV, while arming NK cells in the brain with a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) that targets both the wild-type EGFR and its mutant form EGFRvIII, two GBM tumor-associated antigens. We then investigated the synergistic effects between EGFR-CAR NK cells and oHSV. Transforming growth factor (TGF)-β is a potent immunosuppressive cytokine of NK cells [Yu et al, Immunity, 2006, 24(5):575-90]. We first determined if oHSV efficacy for treatment of GBM would be augmented by inhibiting anti-oHSV activity of NK cells with TGF-β pre-treatment. In vitro, NK cells pre-treated with TGF-β displayed less cytolytic capacity against oHSV-infected GBM cell lines and patient-derived GBM stem-like cells. In viral replication assays, co-culturing oHSV-infected GBM cells with NK cells pre-treated with TGF-β significantly increased virus titers. In an immunocompetent syngeneic GBM mouse model,administration of TGF-β to GBM-bearing mice prior to oHSV injection significantly inhibited intracranial infiltration and activation of NK cells (P < 0.05). In orthotopic human GBM xenograft mouse models and in syngeneic GBM mouse models, TGF-β treatment in vivo prior to oHSV therapy resulted in inhibition of NK cell infiltration, suppression of tumor growth and significantly prolonged survival of GBM-bearing mice (P < 0.05). Furthermore, depletion of NK cells incompletely blocked the positive effects of in vivo treatment of GBM with TGF-β on survival, suggesting that TGF-β may also directly act on other innate immune cells such as macrophages/microglia. These data demonstrate a single dose of TGF-β prior to oHSV administration enhances anti-tumor efficacy for GBM at least in part through the transient inhibition of the innate immune responses to oHSV infection. We next investigated whether NK cell activity could be enhanced to more directly target brain tumors while sparing eradication of oHSV. We therefore infected both human NK-92 cells and primary human NK cells to express the second generation CAR targeting both EGFR and EGFRvIII that we designed. Further, we asked if the treatment with EGFR-CAR NK cells plus oHSV could create a therapeutic synergy for the treatment to brain tumors. In vitro, compared with mock-transduced CAR-NK-cells, EGFR-CAR NK cells exhibited significantly higher cytotoxicity and IFN-γ production when co-cultured with tumor cells, for both NK-92 and primary NK cells (P < 0.01). Further, significantly higher cytolytic activity against tumor cells was obtained when CAR NK cells were combined with oHSV-1 infection of tumor cells, compared to either of the monotherapies alone (P < 0.05). In mice, to avoid oHSV clearance by the EGFR-CAR NK cells following the inoculation of the mouse with tumor cells, we administered these two agents sequentially; administering EGFR-CAR NK cells directly into the tumor first as a single injection of 2 × 106 cells, followed by intracranial infection with 2 × 105 plaque-forming units oHSV five days later, presumably after EGFR-CAR NK survival has diminished. Compared to vehicle controls, intracranial administration of either EGFR-CAR NK cells or oHSV blunted tumor growth. However, the combination of EGFR-CAR NK cells followed by oHSV infection resulted in significantly more efficient killing of tumor cells (P < 0.05) and significantly longer survival for tumor-bearing mice when compared to either monotherapy alone. Collectively, our studies demonstrate that in animal tumor models, we can combine novel NK cell and oHSV therapies to significantly improve survival. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Four species of the Monogenoidea, Laticola lingaoensis n. sp., L. latesi (Tripathi, 1957) n. comb. [previously Pseudorhabdosynochus latesi (Tripathi, 1957) Kritsky & Beverley-Burton, 1986], L. paralatesi (Nagibina, 1976) n. comb. [previously Diplectanum paralatesi Nagibina, 1976] and Diplectanum penangi Liang & Leong, 1991, are reported from the gills of Lates calcarifer (Centropomidae) from the South China Sea (new geographical records for L. latesi and D. penangi). Collections from off Bathurst Island, Northern Territory, Australia, represent a new geographic record for L. paralatesi; Chilka Lake, Orissa, India, is established as the type-locality for L. latesi. Laticola n. g. (Diplectanidae) is proposed for species with a spoon-shaped copulatory organ with two to four concentric incomplete ridges in the base. Laticola lingaoensis, the type-species of Laticola, is described, and L. latesi and L. paralatesi are redescribed based on specimens from the South China Sea. Pseudorhabdosynochus monosquamodiscusi Balasuriya & Leong, 1995 and Pseudorhabdosynochus yangjiangenesis Wu & Li, 2005 are considered junior subjective synonyms of L. latesi and L. paralatesi, respectively.

An experimental animal model with cystathioninuria was obtained by the injection of D,L-propargylglycine into rats. The concentrations of D,L-propargylglycine in urine, several tissues and serum at different times after the injection were measured by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. The propargylglycine accumulated rapidly in several tissues and serum of the rats, and reached its maximum level at about 2 h after the injection. Approximately 21.2% of the administered propargylglycine was excreted in urine. N-Acetylpropargylglycine was identified as a new metabolite of propargylglycine in urine. The concentration of propargylglycine was 100 times that of N-acetylpropargylglycine in urine.

Iminodipeptides containing C-terminal proline or hydroxyproline were determined in sera from patients with prolidase deficiency, in their mother's serum, and in the sera of unrelated controls, using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry with an atmospheric pressure ionization interface system. The separation was carried out on a reversed phase column using 1 g/l aqueous trifluoroacetic acid-methanol (75 + 25, by vol.). The quasi-molecular ions ([M + H])+ of various iminodipeptides containing C-terminal proline and hydroxyproline were observed in the sera of patients with prolidase deficiency, using selected ion monitoring. The quasi-molecular ions ([M + H])+ of iminodipeptides containing C-terminal proline were not observed in the sera of normal subjects or the patients' mother, but the latter did contain various iminodipeptides with C-terminal hydroxyproline. This method proved useful for the determination of iminodipeptides in the sera of patients with prolidase deficiency.