MicroRNA-21 Concentrations in Breast Cancer

MicroRNA-21 Concentrations in Breast Cancer Direct Serum Assay for MicroRNA-21 Concentrations in Early and Advanced Breast Cancer Abstract Background Small noncoding RNA molecules known as microRNAs (miRs) are involved in the regulation of gene expression. The hypothesis was based on the biomarker, miR-21 present in the serum, which related to the presence and stage of breast cancer. The direct application of reverse-transcription quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) in a direct serum assay has been used for the quantification and detection of the miR-21 in breast cancer patients. Methods A total of 102 breast cancer patients with varying stages of breast cancer and 20 healthy female patients were tested by the RT-qPCR applied directly in serum assay for miR-21. Results Detection for RT-qPCR-DS was limited to 0.625 µl of serum. miR-21 levels detected in the healthy donors were comparatively lower with respect to breast cancer patients with different stage of the disease. A significantly higher levels of miR-21 was detected in patients with stage IV breast cancer compared to patients with other stages of the disease. The odds ratio was 1.796 and area under the curve was 0.721 for the distinction of loco regional breast cancers and healthy donors. Multivariate analysis confirmed that a correlation of miR-21 concentrations and stage of breast cancer existed. Conclusion- The novel RT-qPCR-DS serves as a better technique in detecting circulating miR. miR-21 proves to be a significant biomarker for breast cancer, which could also probably detect the progression of the disease. Further research could lead to improved breast cancer care by this serum biomarker as a key tool. EVALUATION Traditional methods Mammography (also known as film mammography) is a traditional method for screening breast cancer (Boyd et al., 2007). Its principle lies in the use of low-dose x-rays. Soft tissue such as fat is radiographically lucent, which appears dark on a mammogram. In contrast, stroma and epithelial tissue are radiographically dense, which is termed mammographic density, appearing light on a mammogram (Boyd et al., 2007). It has been established that the more immense the density, the more association it had with regard to the greater risk of breast cancer. A dense tissue present in 75% or more of the breast poses a risk of breast cancer (Boyd et al., 2007).   A limitation of this method revolves around the fact that expansive mammographic density may be difficult to detect by mammography, thereby indicating a false negative (Boyd et al., 2007). Cancers may be masked by surrounding dense breast tissue, limiting the sensitivity of the screening (Boyd et al., 2007), thereby increasing the risk o f breast cancer (Pisano et al., 2005). High false positive results and costs are drawbacks of mammography (Asaga et al., 2010).   An alternative breast cancer screening technique is the MRI, which is sensitive, but its limitations include the lack of cost-effectiveness and specificity (Esserman et al., 2007). Digital mammography, an upgrade to film mammography allowed the manipulation of the degree of contrast on digital images. This allowed the differentiation of dense breast tissues from malignant cells (Pisano et al., 2005). Women under 50 years of age, with dense breast tissue or those who are pre-menopausal or peri-menopausal were mostly detected by digital mammography (Pisano et al., 2005). In comparison to the film mammography method, digital mammography has an increased cost (1.5-4 times more), but is quicker at developing the image (Pisano et al., 2005). BRCA1 and BRCA2 are tumour markers used to identify individuals who are at risk of developing breast cancer via inheritance (Duffy, 2001). Only 5-10% cases of breast cancers are hereditary. 80-85% risk of developing breast cancer was reported in individuals carrying either the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene (Duffy, 2001). Cancer antigen 15-3 (CA 15-3) is a gene product of the MUC1 gene. Overexpression of MUC1 gene in malignant breast tumours allows CA 15-3 to be used as a tumour marker for breast cancer (Kabel, 2017). False positive results were reported in benign breast and benign liver diseases (Kabel, 2017). The serum concentration of patients with elevated levels of CA 15-3 became more detectable as the size of tumour and severity of the disease increased. Therefore, this is suitable as a prognostic and pharmacokinetic biomarker (Kabel, 2017). The lack of sensitivity for women with early disease have been a main limitation of CA 15-3 biomarker (Duffy et al., 2010). Rising levels of another extensively used biomarker, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) indicated poor treatment or the risk of recurrence following treatment (Kabel, 2017). The lack of disease sensitivity and specificity prevents the use of CEA as predictive biomarker (Kabel, 2017). Estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER-2) serve as pharmacokinetic biomarkers (Kabel, 2017). Relevance to current article Elevated levels of miR-21 was observed in breast cancer patients (N = 102) compared to healthy females (N = 20) in the study done by Asaga et al., (2010). Detection of circulating miR by RT-qPCR-DS was robust and effective (Asaga et al., 2010). The differentiation of patients with stage I, stage II or stage III from patients with stage IV breast cancer was possible with the direct assay, but not by the standard RT-qPCR (Asaga et al., 2010). The assay had a sensitivity and specificity of 67% and 75% respectively in distinguishing loco regional breast cancer patients from healthy patients. The specificity and sensitivity in distinguishing patients with stage IV breast cancer from the earlier stages was 86% and 70% respectively (Asaga et al., 2010). The use of the novel RT-qPCR in direct serum assay reduced mechanical and human errors and minimized the time and overall cost (Asaga et al., 2010). CA 15-3 and CEA are low in sensitivity and specificity, therefore cannot be used as a diagnostic marker (Ng et al., 2013). Comparatively, miR-21 shows a better specificity and sensitivity (Asaga et al., 2010). Current methods 3D mammography is an evolution of the mammography technology (Houssami et al., 2017). 3D mammography improves cancer visibility by reducing the images of overlapping breast tissue, leading to the visualization of benign and malignant breast lesions which would have been masked in traditional mammography (Houssami et al., 2016). It may also decrease the false positive recall. Cost and time-taken to read a 3D mammography are limitations of this method (Houssami et al., 2017). A study by Ng et al., (2013) detected elevation in miR-451, miR-16 and miR-21, while a reduction in miR-145 was observed in the plasma of breast cancer patients. The combination of miR-451 and miR-145 served as the best biomarkers for breast cancer with an optimal specificity of 92% and optimal sensitivity of 90% in distinguishing breast cancer patients from control subjects of other types of cancers (gastric cancer, lung cancer) recruited in the study (Ng et al., 2013). This study by Ng et al., (2013) recognized a combination of miRNAs specific to breast cancer and not the other cancers. Drawbacks include the lack of information regarding whether these miRNAs can be used to distinguish between the subtypes of breast cancer and between sporadic and familial forms (Ng et al., 2013). The study done by Asaga et al., (2010) only focused on miR-21 as a predictive marker in breast cancer, but miR-21 has been implicated in other types of cancer too. Comparatively the study done by Ng et al. , (2013) has identified biomarkers specific to breast cancer. In conclusion, the use of miR-21 as a biomarker in breast cancer presented a correlation of circulating miR-21 with the stage of breast cancer. More research is required to establish miR-21 as an important biomarker in breast cancer (Asaga et al., 2010). A combined expression analysis of miR-21 and miR-191 increased the specificity to 100% and sensitivity to 92% (Chen and Wang, 2013). The study done by Chen and Wang (2013) proved that a combination of miRNAs were better as a predictive biomarker for breast cancer. WORD COUNT ABSTRACT 243 EVALUATION 1039 REFERENCES Asaga, S., Kuo, C., Nguyen, T., Terpenning, M., Giuliano, A. and Hoon, D. (2010). Direct Serum Assay for MicroRNA-21 Concentrations in Early and Advanced Breast Cancer. Clinical Chemistry, 57(1), pp.84-91.Boyd, N., Guo, H., Martin, L., Sun, L., Stone, J., Fishell, E., Jong, R., Hislop, G., Chiarelli, A., Minkin, S. and Yaffe, M. (2007). Mammographic Density and the Risk and Detection of Breast Cancer. The New England Journal of Medicine, 356(3), pp.227-236. Chen, J. and Wang, X. (2013). MicroRNA-21 in breast cancer: diagnostic and prognostic potential. Clinical and Translational Oncology, 16(3), pp.225-233. Duffy, M. (2001). Biochemical markers in breast cancer: which ones are clinically useful?. Clinical Biochemistry, 34(5), pp.347-352. Duffy, M., Evoy, D. and McDermott, E. (2010). CA 15-3: Uses and limitation as a biomarker for breast cancer. Clinica Chimica Acta, 411(23-24), pp.1869-1874. Esserman, L., Shieh, Y., Park, J. and Ozanne, E. (2007). A role for biomarkers in the screening and diagnosis of breast cancer in younger women. Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics, 7(5), pp.533-544. Houssami, N., Là ¥ng, K., Bernardi, D., Tagliafico, A., Zackrisson, S. and Skaane, P. (2016). Digital breast tomosynthesis (3D-mammography) screening: A pictorial review of screen-detected cancers and false recalls attributed to tomosynthesis in prospective screening trials. The Breast, 26, pp.119-134. Houssami, N., Bernardi, D., Pellegrini, M., Valentini, M., Fantà ², C., Ostillio, L., Tuttobene, P., Luparia, A. and Macaskill, P. (2017). Breast cancer detection using single-reading of breast tomosynthesis (3D-mammography) compared to double-reading of 2D-mammography: Evidence from a population-based trial. Cancer Epidemiology, 47, pp.94-99. Kabel, A. (2017). Tumor markers of breast cancer: New prospectives. Journal of Oncological Sciences. Ng, E., Li, R., Shin, V., Jin, H., Leung, C., Ma, E., Pang, R., Chua, D., Chu, K., Law, W., Law, S., Poon, R. and Kwong, A. (2013). Circulating microRNAs as Specific Biomarkers for Breast Cancer Detection. PLoS ONE, 8(1), p.e53141. Pisano, E., Gatsonis, C., Hendrick, E., Yaffe, M., Baum, J., Acharyya, S., Conant, E., Fajardo, L., Bassett, L., DOrsi, C., Jong, R. and Rebner, M. (2005). Diagnostic Performance of Digital versus Film Mammography for Breast-Cancer Screening. New England Journal of Medicine, 353(17), pp.1773-1783.

Ecosystemic Psychology Essay

Ecosystemic Psychology – Definitions Definition Epistemology Epistemology is â€Å"the study of the origin, nature and methods, as well as the limits, of knowledge; it is also how things can be known, thus a framework for describing and conceptualizing what is being observed and experienced and it also specifies the nature of the relationship between the researcher (knower) and what can be known† (Terre Blanche & Durrheim, 2006, p. 6; Terre Blanche, Durrheim & Painter, 2006, p. 559; Goldenberg & Goldenberg, 2004, p. 507). Theory is â€Å"a general principle or a collection of interrelated general principles that is put forward as an explanation of a set of known facts and empirical findings† (Reber, 1985). Example If for example the researcher needs to rely on people’s subjective experiences of day to day living in an old age home, the researcher could adopt an interactional epistemological stance and make use of interviewing as a method of enquiry. This is reflective of the interpretive approach, â€Å"which aims to explain the subjective reasons and meanings that lie behind social action† (Terre Blanche & Durrheim, 2006, p. 7). Thus, epistemologically the observer needs to be empathetic and subjective in his/her approach. Theory The theory of psychosocial development by Erikson (1963) â€Å"holds that psychosexual growth and psychosocial growth take place together and that at each stage of life we face the task of establishing equilibrium between ourselves and our social world† (cited in Corey, 2009, p. 66). For example, very early in life the infant learns to trust or mistrust. If a baby has a careless parent, that does not meet the babies basic needs the baby can easily develop mistrust. Model A model is â€Å"an ideal, a standard, an example set up as worthy of imitation or copying† (Reber, 1985). Bandura’s social learning theory is well known in the discipline of psychology. Bandura did an experiment with a ‘Bobo Doll’ in which he used a live model of observational learning where children observed adults acting violently toward the doll. In the end the children imitated similar behaviour toward the Bobo Doll (http://psychology.about.com/od/ developmentalpsychology/a/sociall earning.htm). Technique A technique is â€Å"a fairly specific, learned procedure or set of procedures for accomplishing some specific goal† (Reber, 1985). Systematic sampling is an example of a technique. In systematic sampling a â€Å"fixed distance between elements is calculated† (Durrheim & Painter, 2006, p. 135). For example 100 out of a sampling frame of 1000, the interval will be calculated as follow: 1000/100 = 10. Thus every 10th element will be selected until there is a sample of 100.

Career Comes Before Marriage

CAREER COMES BEFORE MARRIAGE Everyone must have own chosen a career as they grow up. There are many types of career that can be found in the society. For example, doctor, lawyer, engineer, teacher, police and so on. A lot of people claim that career should come before marriage. Is it right to put career first before marriage? Some people may say yes, some people may say no. From my view, I think career should come before marriage. There are some reasons why I feel that career should come before marriage. Firstly, I think everyone must have his own career before marriage.Before marriage, we would not have too many family problems as we do not have too many family members before we build our own small family. Therefore, we can concentrate in our career. As we focus on our career, it will become easier to achieve success in our career. For instant, a person who is not yet married or does not yet have any children can put more effort into his career. As he concentrates in his career, he may be able to perform as best as he can. Hence, I truly think career should come before marriage.Other than that, we will have a stable income when we have our own career even if we are successful or not. A stable income enables us to take care of ourselves or our family. As an example, we need money to buy daily requirement, food, clothes, books and many. When we have our own career, we must have income. Maybe this income will only be enough for our spending. When we achieve success in our own career, we must have earn more and have a stable income. Indirectly, we will have the ability to take care of our family.Then, that is a suitable time for marriage. Therefore, that is why many people claim that career might to come before marriage. On the other hand, we should also look into the effects of marriage on career. After marriage, we cannot put in all of our effort into career alone. We must take care of our family too. Incidently, we cannot concentrate in our career and do as wel l as we hope to. For those who do not yet have children, this may not be a problem. But when we have children after marriage, we have to spend more time on our children and family.Hence, there are many women who do not go to work after having children as they have to take care of their children. Therefore, career is adversely affected by the marriage and children. Other than that, we often face many problems when we stent up our own family, such as rebelliansand disobediant children, sibling rivalry among the kid and so on. This family problems will affect our emotion and mind. Hence, we cannot concentrate in our career and will also make mistakes when we work. For an instant, our children are so naughty and do not listen to us, we will feel angry and scold them.When we go to work, we will still be in the state of anger then we may make mistakes as we are still thinking of our children. Therefore, our career will be affected by that. In a nutshell, we will face many problems after m arriage that will make us unable to concentrate in our career and do well in career. Therefore, many people think career must come before marriage. Maybe some person will disagree as they are not affected by the marriage. They can arrange the career and family very well. But, in my view, I think it is better to have successful career before marriage.

Renewable Energy And Solar Energy Essay - 1564 Words

Memorandum Statement of Purpose For this report, I will conduct extensive research pertaining to the idea of solar renewable energy. Within the research, I will look to inform the reader on advantages and disadvantages of solar energy. Also, how solar energy will affect human in later years in the universe. Once research is conducted the report will then be organized into an informational report. The informational report will be shared with U.S solar marketers, John Barbour, and others whom are interested in knowing more information about solar energy. The main objective of this report is to inform the reader on specific advantages and disadvantages of solar energy. Background Solar energy is energy that is produced by the sun in the form of heat and light (â€Å"Solar Energy†). Solar energy is said to be one of the most widely available sources of energy. Solar energy is also said to be one of the best renewable energy sources to choose from. Solar energy is said to be the greatest of all renewable energy sources because it is plentiful and, solar energy is free economically. Solar energy scientifically can be used to convert the sun’s energy into either heat energy or the energy can be converted into electricity. If solar energy is converted to electricity, it goes through either two processes. The first process is solar thermal energy. Solar thermal energy is a form of energy in which the sun is used to produce heat, that then the energy can be used in a variety of waysShow MoreRelatedRenewable Energy And Solar Energy921 Words   |  4 Pagesforms of renewable energy . Most of these renewable energies depend in one way or another on sunli ght. Wind and hydroelectric power are the direct result of differential heating of the Earth s surface which leads to air moving about (wind) and precipitation forming as the air is lifted. Solar energy is the direct conversion of sunlight using panels or collectors. 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