• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.14
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• pp.6129-6133
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• 2015

miR-129-2 is frequently downregulated in multiple cancers. However, how it is silenced in cancers remains unclear. Here we investigated the expression profile and potential biological function of miR-129-2 in glioblastoma (GBM), the most common and lethal form of brain tumors in adults. We showed that miR-129-2 is lost in GBM patient specimens and cultured cell lines. miR-129-2 expression could be restored upon treatment with a histone deadetylase inhibitor (trichostatin A) but not a DNA methylation inhibitor (5-Aza-2'-deoxycytidine), and more profound effect was observed with the treatment of these two drugs in combination. Furthermore, forced expression of miR-129-2 repressed the expression of major oncogenic genes such as PDGFRa and Foxp1 in GBMs. Consistently, expression of miR-129-2 significantly inhibits GBM cell proliferation in vitro. These results reveal that miR-129-2 is epigenetically regulated and functions as a tumor suppressor gene in GBMs, suggesting it may serve as a potential therapeutic target for GBM treatment.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.2699-2703
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• 2016

Background: Primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have great HCC diagnostic potential and circulating miRNAs have been reported as promising biomarkers for various pathologic conditions. Aim: To explore the potential benefit of serum miR-126, miR-129, miR-155, miR-203 and miR-223 as non-invasive diagnostic markers of hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related HCC. Materials and Methods: The expression of miRNA was evaluated using real-time quantitative RT-PCR in 78 serum samples (30 $treatment-na{\ddot{i}}ve$ chronic HCV, 25 post-HCV compensated cirrhosis and 23 $treatment-na{\ddot{i}}ve$ HCC cases). Results: Comparing miRNA fold changes in the HCC group vs the non HCC groups, there was significant fold decrease in miR-126 (P= 0.034), miR-129 (P= 0.006), miR-155 (P= 0.011), miR-203 (P<0.001) and miR-223 (P= 0.013). The highest AUC to differentiate HCC patients from non-HCC was 0.76 for miR-203. Conclusions: Among studied miRNAs, serum miR-203 has the highest potential as a non-invasive biomarker of HCC.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.15 no.3 s.70
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• pp.479-485
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• 2005

The 994 throat swabs obtained from 688 adults and 306 children patients with respiratory diseases were examined for Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection by culture method. Antimicrobial susceptibilities of the resulting 123 M. pneumoniae isolates were evaluated by testing minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of erythromycin, minocycline, tetracycline, josamycin, sparfloxacin, ofloxacin, and ciprofloxacin by a broth micro-dilution method. The erythromycin resistant strains of M. pneumoniae was determined above $1.0{\mu}g/ml$ of MIC for erythromycin. The erythromycin resistant strains of M. pneumoniae was confirmed resistant gene mutation of the portions of genes 23S rRNA (domain II and V), and ribosomal protein 14 and L22 by PCR amplified and their nucleotide sequenses were compared to those of the susceptible strain M129. The isolation rate of M. pneumoniae was $12.9\%$ (89/688) for the adults and $11.1\%$ (34/306) for the children. The $MICs_{90}$ of the M. pneumoniae isolates were $0.12{\mu}g/ml$ for minocycline, $0.25{\mu}g/ml$ for sparfloxacin, $0.5{\mu}g/ml$ for ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, and tetracycline, respectively, and $2.0{\mu}g/ml$ for josamycin and erythromycin, respectively. The isolation rate of erythromycin resistant M. pneumoniae from patients was $49.4\%\;(44/89)$ for the adults, $47.1\%\;(16/34)$ for children, and $48.8\%\;(60/123)$ for the total. No mutation could be detected in the ribosomal protein L22 region, but all strains were mutated in the ribosomal protein L4 as two point mutation M144V. Two point mutations in domain V of 23S rRNA were selected in the presense of erythromycin resistant M. pneumoniae isolates, such as one strain was G2057C mutant, two strains were A2059C mutants, three strains were C2611G mutants, four strains were A2058C mutants, five strains were A2058T mutants, twenty strains were A2059G mutants, and twenty-five strains were A2058G mutants, respectively. These results show that erythromycin was not the most active compound against M. pneumoniae infection in Korea and clinical studies of macrolides in human patients are demanded.