The incidence of prostate cancer ( PCa ) is rising steadily among males in many countries.Serum prostate-specific antigen ( PSA ) is widely applied in clinical diagnosis and screening of PCa.However, the grey area of PSA levels has a low specificity in PCa screening and may lead to a high rate of negative biopsy and overtreatment.The PCA3 gene is strongly and specifically overexpressed in PCa cells and malignant prostate tissue.The gene has been identified as a molecular biomarker for PCa detecting.The diagnostic significance of PCA3, however, is awaiting further researches.In this review, the progress of molecular biological characteristics of PCA3,and its applications in diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer were discussed.

Prostate cancer is one of the most common malignant tumor of male population in the West.Via binding to androgen response element in the genome and interacting with co-regulators,androgen receptor can participate in the development of prostate cancer and the convertion from androgen dependent prostate cancer to androgen independent prostate cancer.Chromatin immunoprecipitation ,coupled with PCR , chip,and high-throughput sequencing ,makes a huge progress in the study on the downstream target genes of androgen receptor and provide a new way to understand the molecular mechanisms of castration -resistant prostate cancer.

Liver cancer has a high morbidity and mortality in China.With new technologies and diagnostic instruments being developed,it is a common goal for researchers to discover some new diagnostic biomarkers of high sensitivity and specificity on liver cancer.The clinical laboratory is responsible to choose and understand the diagnosis value of these laboratory indicators and variation in the liver cancer progress.Then,these new biomarkers in screening for early malignancy,aiding cancer diagnosis,determining prognosis can be used effectively in the clinical laboratory to improve laboratory diagnostic capacity in order to serve the clinic more effectively and better.

Point of care testing (POCT) is a laboratory-medicine discipline that is evolving rapidly in analytical scope and clinical application.Medical-laboratory tests can be performed at the point of care,shortening the time caused by sample transportation and preparation.At present,POCT contains many items,ranging from blood-glucose measurement to coagulation assays.But,errors in results in POCT practical applications are usually caused by personnel and methodology.Management of POCT detection within the hospital should be strengthened to ensure the quality of POCT in order to provide better services for patients.

Affected by many factors such as environment and lifestyle change , prostate cancer has become common malignancy in older men . The introduction and widespread adoption of PSA has revolutionized the way prostate cancer is diagnosed and treated .However , the use of PSA has also led to over-diagnosis and overtreatment of prostate cancer resulting in controversy about its use for screening .PSA also has limited predictive accuracy for predicting outcomes after treatment and for making clinical decisions about adjuvant and salvage therapies .Hence, there is an urgent need for novel biomarkers to supplement PSA for detection and management of prostate cancer .In this review, we discuss the traditional and new relevant molecular markers of early diagnosis and prognosis of prostate cancer for clinical diagnosis and prognosis of prostate cancer providing a reference .

Microfluidics-based digital PCR depends on microfluidic chip to split PCR reaction mixture into many tiny equal-volume units.Quantitative assessment of target DNA template can be obtained by counting the number of fluorescence-positive units after thermocycling.Microfluidics-based digital PCR exhibits many advantages including absolute quantification, high sensitivity and accuracy, and shows great promise in a variety of applications, such as infectious diseases diagnose, early cancer detection and prenatal diagnose. There are already several microfludics-based digital PCR products produced from sereval companies.It is believed that as the technology improves, microfluidics-based digital PCR will find broader applications and become the next-generation tool for genetic tests.

AIM:To investigate the role of imperatorin in reversing the resistance of the PC 9 CD133+cell sub-sets to gefitinib.METHODS:MTT assay was performed to evaluate the viability of PC 9 cells treated with imperatorin and gefitinib.The expression of c-met, activation of caspases and phosphorylation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), PI3K and AKT in the PC9 cells treated with imperatorin and gefitinib were determined by Western blot .The percentage of CD133 +cell subsets population and the apoptotic rate of the PC 9 cells treated with imperatorin and gefitinib were analyzed by flow cytometry .RESULTS:The sensitivity of the PC 9 CD133 +cell subsets to gefitinib was significantly lower than that of the PC9 CD133 -cell subsets.Treatment with gefitinib alone significantly inhibited the protein levels of EGFR /PI3K/AKT in the PC9 CD133 -cell subsets but not the PC 9 CD133 +cell subsets .Treatment with gefitinib alone increased the percentage of CD133 +cell subsets population in the PC9 cells.However, combination of gefitinib with imperatorin signifi-cantly inhibited the enrichment of CD 133 +cell subsets population .Imperatorin down-regulated c-met expression , sugges-ting the c-met was the target of imperatorin in the PC9 CD133 +cell subsets.The results of MTT assay, Western blot analy-sis and flow cytometry indicated that imperatorin increased the gefitinib induced inhibition of PI 3K/AKT protein levels by down-regulating the expression of c-met, which subsequently induced the cleavage of caspases and apoptosis in the PC 9 CD133 +cell subsets.CONCLUSION:Imperatorin increases the sensitivity of lung cancer CD 133 +cell subsets to gefitinib by down-regulating the expression of c-met, and the synergistic anti-tumor effect exists between imperatorin and gefitinib .

Objective To analyze the suspicious results of serum HBV DNA by fluorescence quantitative PCR and develop appropriate countermeasures in order to improve the quality of detection of HBV DNA.Methods Blood samples of patients from the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical College from 2008 to 2011 were analyzed for HBV DNA by fluorescence quantitative PCR.1969 cases of suspicious results,judged by the rule of review the results of serum HBV DNA combined with the historical results,PCR amplification curve,HBV serum markers and clinical diagnosis,were analyzed and redetected by using of two different reagents,careHBV PCR Kit and careHBV PCR Kit V2,at the same time.The consistency and inconsistency ratio of the results were evaluated.Both the reasons of inconsistent and the undetected rates of careHBV PCR Kit were analyzed.The two reasons for the inconsistent results included the reagent related factors,e.g,showing no amplification curve caused by the false negative and abnormal low efficiency of amplification curve,and the non reagent related factors such as operating pollution and other sample factors.Results There were 115 154 blood samples were detected for HBV from 2008 to 2011 and 1969 samples (1.71％) with suspicious results were redetected.The consistency and inconsistency results were 1588 (80.65％) and 381 (19.35％),respectively.Every year from 2008 to 2011,the percentage of the inconsistent results caused by the reagent related factors were 18.87％,20.23％,51.33％ and 59.57％ respectively,which showed an increasing trend,and the percentage of inconsistent results caused by the nonreagent related factors were 81.13％,79.77％,48.67％ and 40.43％ respectively,which showed a declining trend year by year.The undetected rates of careHBV PCR Kit were 2.49％,4.08％,10.09％ and 14.47％ respectively,showing an increasing trend.Conclusions The redetection for the specimens with the suspicious results by using of different reagents can avoid the blind detection of HBV DNA and reduce the experimental error.All the clinical samples for quantitative HBV DNA including the mutations of HBV gene can be measured accurately and effectively,which is helpful to hepatitis B patients for antiviral therapy.

Objective To investigate the effects of 5-Aza-2'-deoxycytidine (5-Aza-dc),a methylation inhibitor,on the proliferation of androgen-sensitive prostate cancer line (LNCaP),and on its regulation of methylation on glutathione s transferaseP1 (GSTP1) and retinoic acid receptorβ2 (RARβ2) gene.Methods LNCaP cells were treated with 5-Aza-dc in different concentration,CCK8 method was used to detect the growth of LNCaP cells.The methylation of GSTP1 and RARβ2 gene in LNCaP cell was detected by nested methylation specific polymerase chain reaction (nMSP).Results The proliferation of LNCaP cells was inhibited after exposed to 5-Aza-dc.The methylation of GSTP1 and RARβ2 gene was changed from hypermethylation to demethylation by the 5-Aza-dc.These effects were dose-and time-dependent within certain concentration of 5-Aza-dc,but LNCaP cells grew better after 72 h than within 48 h when exposed to 5 Aza dc below 1.0 μmol/L.Also the methylation of GSTP1 and RARβ2 gene changed from hypermethylation to demethylation by the 5-Aza-dc was not different when exposed to 5-Aza-dc below 1.0 μmol/L within 72 h and 48 h.Conclusions 5-Aza-dc may effectively inhibit the growth of LNCaP cells and reverse the DNA methylation damage in some tumor suppressor genes,but the continuity and stability of low dose 5-Aza-dc is changeable.The study will provide a research basis for clinical treatment.

Objective To observe the effects of vitamin K3(VK3) on cell growth and apoptosis in the cell line SMMC-7721 of human liver cancer and the changes in expression of survivin gene.Methods The inhibitory effect of VK3 on SMMC-7721 cells was examined by CCK-8 (cell counting kit).Morphological evaluation of apoptosis was performed by Hoechst33342 staining.The amount of apoptotic cell was assayed by flowcytometry.The changes of survivin gene expression were detected by RT-PCR.Results The inhibitory rate of VK3 (at concentrations of 2,5,10,20,25 mmol/L for 48 h) on SMMC-7721 growth was 3.8%,50.1%,63.9%,78.5%,84.7% respectively.The cells in apoptosis were strongly stained by Hoechst33342 compared with the cells in control group.The apoptostic rate of cells was 33.28%,63.97%,77.69%,87.30% and 92.40%.Following exposure to VK3 at the concentration of 2,5,10,20 and 25 mmol/L for 48h,the survivin mRNA expression in SMMC-7721 was downregulated.Conclusion VK3 inhibits the proliferation of SMMC-7721 cells and induce apoptosis.The mechanism may related to survivn gene.