Association of TGIFLX/Y mRNA expression with prostate cancer

Genetic and molecular determinants of prostate cancer among Iranian patients: An update

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common age-related cancers among men. Various environmental and genetic factors are involved in the development and progression of PCa. In most cases, the primary symptoms of disease are not severe. Therefore, it is common for patients to be referred with severe clinical manifestations at advanced stages of disease. Since this malignancy is age related and Iran will face a significant increase in the number of seniors, it is expected that the prevalence of PCa among Iranian men will rise. PCa progression has been observed to be associated with genetic and ethnic factors. It may therefore be clinically useful to determine a panel of genetic markers, in addition to routine diagnostic methods, to detect tumors in the early stages. In the present review, we have summarized the reported genetic markers in PCa Iranian patients to pave the way for the determination of an ethnic specific genetic marker panel for the early detection of PCa. To understand the genetic and molecular biology of PCa among Iranians, we have categorized these genetic markers based on their cellular functions.

Y-chromosomal genes affecting male fertility: A review

The mammalian sex-chromosomes (X and Y) have evolved from autosomes and are involved in sex determination and reproductive traits. The Y-chromosome is the smallest chromosome that consists of 2-3% of the haploid genome and may contain between 70 and 200 genes. The Y-chromosome plays major role in male fertility and is suitable to study the evolutionary relics, speciation, and male infertility and/or subfertility due to its unique features such as long non-recombining region, abundance of repetitive sequences, and holandric inheritance pattern. During evolution, many holandric genes were deleted. The current review discusses the mammalian holandric genes and their functions. The commonly encountered infertility and/or subfertility problems due to point or gross mutation (deletion) of the Y-chromosomal genes have also been discussed. For example, loss or microdeletion of sex-determining region, Y-linked gene results in XY males that exhibit female characteristics, deletion of RNA binding motif, Y-encoded in azoospermic factor b region results in the arrest of spermatogenesis at meiosis. The holandric genes have been covered for associating the mutations with male factor infertility.

Profiling cancer testis antigens in non-small-cell lung cancer

Cancer testis antigens (CTAs) are of clinical interest as biomarkers and present valuable targets for immunotherapy. To comprehensively characterize the CTA landscape of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), we compared RNAseq data from 199 NSCLC tissues to the normal transcriptome of 142 samples from 32 different normal organs. Of 232 CTAs currently annotated in the Caner Testis Database (CTdatabase), 96 were confirmed in NSCLC. To obtain an unbiased CTA profile of NSCLC, we applied stringent criteria on our RNAseq data set and defined 90 genes as CTAs, of which 55 genes were not annotated in the CTdatabase, thus representing potential new CTAs. Cluster analysis revealed that CTA expression is histology dependent and concurrent expression is common. IHC confirmed tissue-specific protein expression of selected new CTAs (TKTL1, TGIF2LX, VCX, and CXORF67). Furthermore, methylation was identified as a regulatory mechanism of CTA expression based on independent data from The Cancer Genome Atlas. The proposed prognostic impact of CTAs in lung cancer was not confirmed, neither in our RNAseq cohort nor in an independent meta-analysis of 1,117 NSCLC cases. In summary, we defined a set of 90 reliable CTAs, including information on protein expression, methylation, and survival association. The detailed RNAseq catalog can guide biomarker studies and efforts to identify targets for immunotherapeutic strategies.

Mitochondrial D-Loop polymorphism and microsatellite instability in prostate cancer and benign hyperplasia patients

In this study mitochondrial D-Loop variations in Iranian prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) patients were investigated. Tumour samples and corresponding non-cancerous prostate tissue from 40 prostate cancer patients and 40 age-matched BPH patients were collected. The entire mtD-loop region (16024-576) was amplified using the PCR method and products were gel-purified and subjected to direct nucleotide sequencing. A total of 129 variations were found, the most frequent being 263A-G and 310T-C among both BPH and prostate cancer patients. Variation of 309 C-T was significantly more frequent in prostate cancer patients (P value<0.05). Four novel variations were observed on comparison with the MITOMAP database. Novel variations were np16154delT, np366G-A, np389G-A and 56insT. There was no correspondence between the different variations and the age of subjects. Considering that D-loop variations were frequent in both BPH and prostate cancer patients in our study, the fact that both groups had high average age can be a possible contributing factor. D-loop polymorphisms and microsatellite instability can influence cell physiology and result in a benign or malignant phenotype. Significantly higher frequency of 309 C-T variation in cancer patients is a notable finding and must be a focus of attention in future studies.

Expression of two testis-specific genes, SPATA19 and LEMD1, in prostate cancer

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Screening methods for early detection of prostate cancer have some limitations regarding specificity and sensitivity, so there is a continuing search to find new cancer biomarkers. Cancer-testis genes are a group of genes with expression almost limited to testis and different kinds of tumors. Since testis is an immune privileged site, if these genes are expressed in tumors, they can be immunogenic. We undertook this study to find new members of the cancer-testis gene family appropriate for cancer immunotherapy

METHODS

We analyzed the expression of six testis-specific genes called ODF1, ODF2, ODF3, ODF4, LEMD1 and SPATA19 in 30 prostate cancer and 25 benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) samples by RT-PCR and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP).

RESULTS

Of the prostate cancer samples, 10, 10, 23 and 40% showed ODF1, ODF2, LEMD1 and SPATA19 specific bands, respectively, but none of the BPH samples expressed any of these genes. The difference between prostate cancer and BPH groups for LEMD1 and SPATA19 expression was significant. Mean serum PSA level was significantly higher in patients expressing ODF2 than in the other patients.

CONCLUSIONS

ODF1, ODF2, SPATA19 and LEMD1 are members of cancer-testis gene family. In addition, LEMD1 and SPATA19 are putative cancer biomarkers and promising targets for active immunotherapy.