Factors Affecting Appropriate Management of Patients with Sexually Transmitted Infections in Japan

Physicians should educate patients with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) on measures to prevent reinfection and should also undertake human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing after diagnosis of STIs. These preventive measures are important, but it is not known to what extent these procedures are followed in Japan. We conducted a cross-sectional study to investigate the proportion of patients with STIs who received appropriate management from physicians, namely recommendation of HIV testing, encouragement of condom use and examination and/or treatment of sexual partners, to elucidate the factors affecting institution of each measure. From a mailshot of 566 physicians, 409 (72.3%) responded, with 176 diagnosing an STI in 967 patients. The proportions applying the 3 measures were low (recommendation of HIV testing:27.0;encouragement of condom use:64.8%;examination of sexual partners:17.5%), and were related to the sex of the patients and numbers of patients diagnosed by the physicians. Female patients received better care than male patients, particularly with respect to recommendation of HIV testing (odds ratio:2.82). Physicians who diagnosed more than 20 STI patients tended not to provide appropriate management. These findings suggest the necessity for better physician management of patients for effective prevention of STIs

Long Noncoding RNA RP11-278A23.1, a Potential Modulator of p53 Tumor Suppression, Contributes to Colorectal Cancer Progression

Recently, many studies revealed that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in cancers. To identify lncRNAs contributing to colorectal cancers, we screened lncRNAs through expression and survival analyses in datasets from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The screen revealed that RP11-278A23.1 expression is significantly increased in colorectal cancer tissues compared with normal tissues and that high RP11-278A23.1 expression correlates with poor prognosis. The knockdown of RP11-278A23.1 inhibited the growth of and promoted apoptosis in colorectal cancer cells. Next, to comprehensively examine differentially expressed genes after RP11-278A23.1 knockdown, RNA sequencing was performed in HCT116 cells. The expression of p21, a p53 target gene, was significantly upregulated, and the expression of several p53 target proapoptotic genes was also altered. RP11-278A23.1 knockdown increased p53 expression at the translational level but not at the transcriptional level. Interestingly, RP11-278A23.1 knockdown also altered the expression of these proapoptotic genes in DLD1 cells with mutated p53 and in p53-knockout HCT116 cells. These results suggest that RP11-278A23.1 modifies the expression of these apoptosis-related genes in p53-dependent and p53-independent manners. In summary, lncRNA RP11-278A23.1 contributes to colorectal cancer progression by promoting cell growth and inhibiting apoptosis, suggesting that this lncRNA may be a useful therapeutic target