Jun Zhao

To explore the RNA biomolecular marker associated with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) prognosis, we constructed a regulatory network of competitive endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs), which provides favorable conditions for the early diagnosis, prognostic monitoring, and personalized treatment of HCC. In this study, the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of patients with HCC were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus. We identified 574 upregulated genes and 274 downregulated genes relevant to HCC occurrence (p < 0.05). Subsequently, we constructed the protein–protein interaction (PPI) network using these DEGs and identified the hub genes from the PPI. We then determined the expression and prognostic values of the hub genes from the GEPIA and Kaplan–Meier plotter databases. After the upstream microRNAs (miRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) were respectively identified by miRTarBase and miRNet, we validated the expression of the key miRNAs in the serum using qPCR experiments. Moreover, we identified a two-lncRNA (LINC01184 and ADORA2A-AS1) signature from the upstream lncRNA that effectively predicted overall survival and had promotive effects for HCC. To verify the clinical significance of the signature, we validated the expression of the lncRNA in HCC tissues. Finally, we discovered and identified four mRNAs, four miRNAs, and five lncRNAs associated with the prognosis of HCC and constructed a new ceRNA regulatory network, which will be beneficial for the accurate diagnosis and treatment of HCC.

The outbreak of Zika virus (ZIKV) has posed a great challenge to public health in recent years. To address the urgent need of ZIKV RNA assays, we integrate the microfluidic chip embedded with chitosan-modified silicon dioxide capillaries, smartphone-based detection unit to be a C³-system for the rapid extraction and detection of ZIKV RNA. The C³-system is characterized by: (1) four chitosan-modified silicon dioxide capillaries integrated in the microfluidic chip for target ZIKV RNA enrichment and “in situ PCR” (polymerase chain reaction) amplification; (2) smartphone-based point of care (POC) device consisting of a pneumatic subsystem for controlling the nucleic acid extraction processes in the microfluidic chip, a heating subsystem for sample lysis and PCR amplification, and an optical subsystem for signal acquisition. The entire detection processes including sample lysis, ZIKV RNA enrichment, and reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is achieved in the microfluidic chip. Moreover, PCR buffers can be directly loaded into the chitosan-modified silicon dioxide capillaries for “in situ PCR”, in which the captured ZIKV RNA is directly used for downstream PCR without any loss. ZIKV RNA extracted by the C³-system can be successfully recovered at very low concentrations of 50 transducing units (TU)/mL from crude human saliva. This means that our method of detecting viremia in patients infected with ZIKV is reliable.

Molecular breeding of rice is crucial for feeding the world’s rapidly growing population, for limited land resources, superior grain quality, and severe environmental situation[1]. Single nucleotide polymorphism(SNP) is regarded as the third genetic marker, having the potential to increase the speed and cost-effectiveness of genotyping and breeding applications, as well as routine genetic diversity analysis, linkage mapping, and marker-assisted selection in rice[2]. High resolution melting (HRM) analysis is a new methodology for mutation scanning that has gained considerable popularity in recent years[3]. The advantages of HRM for variant scanning include rapid turn-around times, closed-system that greatly reduces contamination risk, directly analysis after PCR, and unconsidering novel variants or genotyping known type[4]. However, due to HRM requiring high temperature resolution during heating process, traditional tube method is difficult to meet the demands for SNP detection in rice molecular breeding. Here we reported a microfluidic chip and a real-time PCR system integrated high precise thermal cycler and online fluorescence detection module (Fig.1/2) [5]. This platform ingeniously utilized the advantage of microfluidic chip, such as heat fast transfered and well-distributed in the chamber. We used Oryza sativa L. and 9311 as the experimental material, and selected a few important SNPs for breeding as our research objects by comparing genomes database of two species. The result demonstrated that this platform can rapidly detected the SNPs through PCR and HRM analysis on the chip (Fig.3/4). It also indicated that the device can be applied widely in applications screening of mutants in molecular breeding.