Response

Our plain-English summary of Response, by Y. Xu, M. Zheng, A. Khuong, et al (Chest, 2013).

The study

• Authors: Y. Xu, M. Zheng, A. Khuong, R.E. Merritt, J.B. Shrager, H.A. Wakelee, R.A. Kratzke, C.D. Hoang
• Journal: Chest
• Published: 2013;144(6):1971-1972
• Type of article: Letter, Comment
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This item is not a research study. It is a letter in which the authors replied to criticism of their earlier CHEST article (November 2013), which reported that a microRNA called miR-1 induces growth arrest and apoptosis (programmed cell death) in malignant mesothelioma. A letter from Wright and colleagues at the Asbestos Diseases Research Institute had asked why candidate microRNAs were validated in only four of 26 tumors, why only miR-1 was studied further, and whether enough detail on methods was given. In reply, the authors stated that they chose the validation samples because those tissue specimens were plentiful and would not be exhausted. They described validating a subset as a well-accepted, cost-effective practice. They said they chose miR-1 because of ongoing interest in it. Testing known apoptosis genes was meant to confirm the cell-death effect in treated cell lines. Identifying miR-1's direct gene targets was never a goal of the study. The letter reported no new data. The authors restated that overexpressing miR-1 in mesothelioma cell lines induced apoptosis, and they welcomed independent studies. Asbestos exposure was not discussed.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Letter to the editor (author reply to correspondence about their earlier article); no new data
• Who was studied: No new population. The reply discusses the authors' earlier study of human mesothelioma tissue specimens and mesothelioma cell lines.
• Exposure: No asbestos or fiber exposure is discussed. The subject is microRNA (miR-1) in mesothelioma.
• Main results:
  • The critics' letter questioned why validation of candidate microRNAs was done in only four of 26 tumors profiled by microarray.
  • The authors stated that the validation samples were chosen because the specimens were plentiful, not by cherry-picking.
  • The authors stated that they chose miR-1 for functional analysis because of their ongoing interest in it.
  • The authors argued that correlating miR-1 with its gene targets would not be highly useful.
  • The authors stated that the Kubo et al. article cited by the critics was not a microarray profiling study but a study of miR-34b methylation.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors disagreed that their study did not contribute to knowledge. They restated their earlier report that overexpression of miR-1 in mesothelioma cell lines induces apoptosis, and they welcomed independent studies of miR-1 in mesothelioma.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors stated that identifying and confirming miR-1's direct gene targets was outside the scope of their study.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Lung cancer, Mesothelioma.

Related studies

• miR-1 induces growth arrest and apoptosis in malignant mesothelioma — Y. Xu, M. Zheng, et al. (2013)
• Does miR-1 play a role in malignant pleural mesothelioma development and progression? — C.M. Wright, M.B. Kirschner, et al. (2013)
• miR-193a-3p is a potential tumor suppressor in malignant pleural mesothelioma — M. Williams, M.B. Kirschner, et al. (2015)
• ZIC1 is silenced and has tumor suppressor function in malignant pleural mesothelioma — Y.Y. Cheng, M.B. Kirschner, et al. (2013)
• CDKN2A, NF2, and JUN are dysregulated among other genes by miRNAs in malignant mesothelioma -A miRNA microarray analysis — M. Guled, L. Lahti, et al. (2009)
• MiR-score: a novel 6-microRNA signature that predicts survival outcomes in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma — M.B. Kirschner, Y.Y. Cheng, et al. (2015)

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