Retroreflection-based sandwich type affinity sensing of isothermal gene amplification product for foodborne pathogen detection

Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) is an outstanding method for molecular diagnostics, as the rapid, specific, and sensitive amplification of target genes is possible. However, it is necessary to measure fluorescence...

Trends in incidence, molecular diagnostics, and treatment of patients with breast cancer in Kazakhstan, 2014-2019

Relevance: Globocan reported 4,390 new breast cancer cases and 1,654 deaths from breast cancer in the Republic of Kazakhstan (RK) in 2020. Molecular diagnostics of breast cancer includes the determination of Hormone Receptor (HR), HER2, and Ki-67 status to detect patients with HR-positive tumors and administer effective treatment. Methods: This observational study included a retrospective analysis of incidence, molecular diagnostics, and treatment regimens in women with a confirmed breast cancer diagnosis aged 18 years old and older, registered in the RK Electronic Registry of Cancer Patients (ERCP) from 1 January 2014 till 31 December 2019. Results: In the study period (2014 to 2019), the number of breast cancer cases registered annually has doubled. The incidence increased by 46.9%. The share of locally advanced and advanced forms of breast cancer has decreased. The proportion of Luminal type A (HR+/HER2-) among newly diagnosed patients ranged from 17.9% to 30%. Chemotherapy and endocrine therapy with goserelin, buserelin, leuprorelin, and fulvestrant are standard first- and second-line treatments for HR+ breast cancer. Since fulvestrant indications have been expanded, more than 50% of patients with HR-positive advanced breast cancer receive fulvestrant as the first-line therapy. Conclusion: Breast cancer incidence growth and a decrease in the share of locally advanced and advanced breast cancer cases in the RK could be attributed to increased coverage of eligible women aged 40 to 70 with breast cancer mammographic screening. Although international guidelines support the administration of hormone therapy with or without targeted therapy in women with HR-positive, HER2-metastatic breast cancer, upfront use of chemotherapy remains common in the RK even in the absence of visceral crisis. The use of CDK4/6 inhibitor palbociclib in combination with hormone therapy has become routinely available since 2019.

The World of Pseudogenes: New Diagnostic and Therapeutic Targets in Cancers or Still Mystery Molecules?

Pseudogenes were once considered as “junk DNA”, due to loss of their functions as a result of the accumulation of mutations, such as frameshift and presence of premature stop-codons and relocation of genes to inactive heterochromatin regions of the genome. Pseudogenes are divided into two large groups, processed and unprocessed, according to their primary structure and origin. Only 10% of all pseudogenes are transcribed into RNAs and participate in the regulation of parental gene expression at both transcriptional and translational levels through senseRNA (sRNA) and antisense RNA (asRNA). In this review, about 150 pseudogenes in the different types of cancers were analyzed. Part of these pseudogenes seem to be useful in molecular diagnostics and can be detected in various types of biological material including tissue as well as biological fluids (liquid biopsy) using different detection methods. The number of pseudogenes, as well as their function in the human genome, is still unknown. However, thanks to the development of various technologies and bioinformatic tools, it was revealed so far that pseudogenes are involved in the development and progression of certain diseases, especially in cancer.

Use of rapid molecular tuberculosis diagnostics across Brazil’s incarcerated population

BackgroundIncarcerated individuals in Brazil are at high-risk of tuberculosis (TB), but their access to World Health Organization recommended diagnostics is poorly understood.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study of newly diagnosed TB cases in Brazil’s notifiable disease registry, which includes information on diagnostic tests performed, from January 2015 through December 2018. We quantified reported use of TB diagnostics across incarcerated and non-incarcerated populations and tested for municipality-level factors associated with diagnostic usage among the incarcerated population with generalized linear regression.ResultsBetween 2015 and 2018, 258,014 individuals were newly diagnosed with TB, including 27,400 (10.6%) incarcerated individuals. Among these, 27.5% had an Xpert MTB/RIF test reported; 71.5% had sputum smear; 34.1% had culture; 70.9% had chest radiography. Xpert MTB/RIF use was greater among incarcerated than non-incarcerated individuals (36.2% vs 26.5%, p<0.001). However, we found spatial heterogeneity in state-level use of both Xpert MTB/RIF (range: 4.7-72.4% cases diagnosed) and chest radiography (range: 11.7-88.4%) in prisons. We identified seven municipalities with large incarcerated populations (>5000) with rates of Xpert MTB/RIF usage below the national average in incarcerated individuals.ConclusionPrioritizing expansion of rapid molecular diagnostics in prisons, particularly in regions with limited current usage of molecular diagnostics, will be an essential component of TB control.

Tetrahedral DNA nanostructures for effective treatment of cancer: advances and prospects

Recently, DNA nanostructures with vast application potential in the field of biomedicine, especially in drug delivery. Among these, tetrahedral DNA nanostructures (TDN) have attracted interest worldwide due to their high stability, excellent biocompatibility, and simplicity of modification. TDN could be synthesized easily and reproducibly to serve as carriers for, chemotherapeutic drugs, nucleic acid drugs and imaging probes. Therefore, their applications include, but are not restricted to, drug delivery, molecular diagnostics, and biological imaging. In this review, we summarize the methods of functional modification and application of TDN in cancer treatment. Also, we discuss the pressing questions that should be targeted to increase the applicability of TDN in the future. Graphical Abstract