Polymorphism rs7214723 in CAMKK1 and lung cancer risk in Chinese population

Prognostic Significance of Methyl-CpG Binding Domain4 Polymorphism rs140693 and Clinical Characteristics in Chinese Lung Cancer Patients

Lung cancer remains the leading cause of death among cancer patients, and the five-year survival rate is less than 25%. However, Methyl-CpG Binding Domain (MBD)4 polymorphism rs140693 predicts the prognosis of lung cancer patients still needs further verification. Primary lung cancer patients (n = 839) were collected from two hospitals, genomic DNA was extracted from blood, and genotyping was performed using SNPcan technology. Kaplan-Meier technique and multivariate Cox proportional hazards model were used to analyze the prognosis association between MBD4 and clinical characteristics. Significantly conferred a poorer prognosis was associated with the CT genotype (CT vs. CC; adjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 1.21, 95% CI: 1.03-1.43, p = 0.023) and dominant CT + TT genotype (CT + TT vs. CC; HR = 1.19, 95% CI: 1.02-1.39, p = 0.029) of MBD4 polymorphism rs140693 for all lung cancer patients, compared with the CC genotype. Stratified analysis showed that polymorphism rs140693 CT and dominant CT + TT genotype conferred a significantly poorer prognosis in female and lung adenocarcinoma (ADC) cancer patients, compared with the CC genotype. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with the CT genotype had a poorer prognosis than those with the CC genotype. Additionally, the allele T of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients compared with the allele C was associated with a poor prognosis, and the CT and recessive TT genotype of SCLC patients conferred a significantly poor prognosis. The MBD4 polymorphism rs140693 is a significant prognostic genetic marker for predicting the prognosis of lung cancer patients.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s43657-024-00171-z.

Calcium Signalling in Heart and Vessels: Role of Calmodulin and Downstream Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinases

Cardiovascular disease is the major cause of death worldwide. The success of medication and other preventive measures introduced in the last century have not yet halted the epidemic of cardiovascular disease. Although the molecular mechanisms of the pathophysiology of the heart and vessels have been extensively studied, the burden of ischemic cardiovascular conditions has risen to become a top cause of morbidity and mortality. Calcium has important functions in the cardiovascular system. Calcium is involved in the mechanism of excitation-contraction coupling that regulates numerous events, ranging from the production of action potentials to the contraction of cardiomyocytes and vascular smooth muscle cells. Both in the heart and vessels, the rise of intracellular calcium is sensed by calmodulin, a protein that regulates and activates downstream kinases involved in regulating calcium signalling. Among them is the calcium calmodulin kinase family, which is involved in the regulation of cardiac functions. In this review, we present the current literature regarding the role of calcium/calmodulin pathways in the heart and vessels with the aim to summarize our mechanistic understanding of this process and to open novel avenues for research.

Polymorphism rs7214723 in CAMKK1: a new genetic variant associated with cardiovascular diseases

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of deaths worldwide. CVDs have a complex etiology due to the several factors underlying its development including environment, lifestyle, and genetics. Given the role of calcium signal transduction in several CVDs, we investigated via PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs7214723 within the calcium/calmodulin-dependent kinase kinase 1 (CAMKK1) gene coding for the Ca²⁺/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase kinase I. The variant rs7214723 causes E375G substitution within the kinase domain of CAMKK1. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 300 cardiac patients. RFLP-PCR technique was applied, and statistical analysis was performed to evaluate genotypic and allelic frequencies and to identify an association between SNP and risk of developing specific CVD. Genotype and allele frequencies for rs7214723 were statistically different between cardiopathic and several European reference populations. A logistic regression analysis adjusted for gender, age, diabetes, hypertension, BMI and previous history of malignancy was applied on cardiopathic genotypic data and no association was found between rs7214723 polymorphism and risk of developing specific coronary artery disease (CAD) and aortic stenosis (AS). These results suggest the potential role of rs7214723 in CVD susceptibility as a possible genetic biomarker.

Gene polymorphisms in calcium-calmodulin pathway: Focus on cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in industrialized countries and affects an increasing number of people. Several risk factors play an important role in the etiology of this disease, such as an unhealthy lifestyle. It is increasingly clear that genetic factors influencing the molecular basis of excitation-contraction mechanisms in the heart could contribute to modify the individual's risk. Thanks to the progress that has been made in understanding calcium signaling in the heart, it is assumed that calmodulin can play a crucial role in the excitation-contraction coupling. In fact, calmodulin (CaM) binds calcium and consequently regulates calcium channels. Several works show how some polymorphic variants can be considered predisposing factors to complex pathologies. Therefore, we hypothesize that the identification of polymorphic variants of proteins involved in the CaM pathway could be important for understanding how genetic traits can influence predisposition to myocardial infarction. This review considers each pathway of the three different isoforms of calmodulin (CaM1; CaM2; CaM3) and focuses on some common proteins involved in the three pathways, with the aim of analyzing the polymorphisms studied in the literature and understanding if they are associated with cardiovascular disease.

Polymorphism rs3819102 in thymidylate synthase and environmental factors: effects on lung cancer in Chinese population

PURPOSE

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide, and the predominant risk factor for its development is smoking. Thymidylate synthase (TYMS) is a key enzyme in DNA synthesis that catalyzes the conversion of deoxyuridine monophosphate to dTMP. Rs931794, a single nucleotide polymorphism located in the TYMS gene, was suggested to be associated with cancer risk.

METHODS

To analyze the interaction between rs3819102 and environmental factors on the risk of lung cancer in a Chinese population, single nucleotide polymorphismscan was used to genotype this polymorphism in 974 lung cancer cases and 1005 control subjects.

RESULTS

The frequencies of TT, CT, and CC genotypes of TYMS rs3819102 were 61.8%, 32.9%, and 5.3% in controls, and 53.8%, 38.4%, and 7.8% in cases, respectively. Compared with the TT genotype, the CT (odds ratio [OR], 1.380; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.131-1.683), and CC (OR, 1.786; 95% CI, 1.213-2.644) genotypes were associated with an increased risk of lung cancer after adjustment for age, gender, smoking status, and family history. The C allele of rs3819102 is the risk allele for lung carcinogenesis in a dominant model (OR, 1.435; 95% CI, 1.188-1.735). In a stratified analysis, the risk effects of both the CT and CC genotypes of rs3819102 were more evident in subgroups of smokers and people without a family history of cancer.

CONCLUSION

The rs3819102 polymorphism in TYMS might increase susceptibility to environmental factors and contribute to the risk of lung cancer. The C allele is a risk allele in lung carcinogenesis.

A systems medicine approach for finding target proteins affecting treatment outcomes in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma

Autoantibody profiling with a systems medicine approach can help identify critical dysregulated signaling pathways (SPs) in cancers. In this way, immunoglobulins G (IgG) purified from the serum samples of 92 healthy controls, 10 pre-treated (PR) non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) patients, and 20 NHL patients who underwent chemotherapy (PS) were screened with a phage-displayed random peptide library. Protein-protein interaction networks of the PR and PS groups were analyzed and visualized by Gephi. The results indicated AXIN2, SENP2, TOP2A, FZD6, NLK, HDAC2, HDAC1, and EHMT2, in addition to CAMK2A, PLCG1, PLCG2, GRM5, GRIN2B, GRIN2D, CACNA2D3, and SPTAN1 as hubs in 11 and 7 modules of PR and PS networks, respectively. PR- and PS-specific hubs were evaluated in the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Reactome databases. The PR-specific hubs were involved in Wnt SP, signaling by Notch1 in cancer, telomere maintenance, and transcriptional misregulation. In contrast, glutamate receptor SP, Fc receptor-related pathways, growth factors-related SPs, and Wnt SP were statistically significant enriched pathways, based on the pathway analysis of PS hubs. The results revealed that the most PR-specific proteins were associated with events involved in tumor development, while chemotherapy in the PS group was associated with side effects of drugs and/or cancer recurrence. As the findings demonstrated, PR- and PS-specific proteins in this study can be promising therapeutic targets in future studies.

Association of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase kinase1 rs7214723 polymorphism with lung cancer risk in a Chinese population

Calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase (CAMK) kinase1 (CAMKK1) could specifically recognize and activate CAMK I and IV. Furthermore, the activation of CAMK showed positive correlation in proliferation of lung cancer (LC). In addition, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) has identified rs7214723 (E375G) in the CAMKK1 gene as a susceptibility locus for LC in the U.K. population. Therefore, we conducted a case–control study involving 320 LC patients and 320 controls to validate this conclusion in a Chinese population. Genotyping was performed using a custom-by-design 48-Plex single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) Scan™ Kit. Our results indicated that the individuals with CC genotype of rs7214723 polymorphism had the higher risk of LC than those who carried TT genotype. Moreover, CAMKK1 rs7214723 polymorphism showed positive correlation with the elevated risk of LC in the allelic model and recessive model, but not in the dominant model. Stratified analysis further confirmed this significant association in male groups and smokers. In conclusion, CAMKK1 rs7214723 polymorphism may be associated with the increased risk of LC. However, larger studies with more diverse ethnic populations are needed to confirm these results.

A Novel Role for CAMKK1 in the Regulation of the Mesenchymal Stem Cell Secretome

Transplantation of adult stem cells into myocardial tissue after acute myocardial infarction (AMI), has been shown to improve tissue recovery and prevent progression to ischemic cardiomyopathy. Studies suggest that the effects of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are due to paracrine factors released by MSC, as the benefits of MSC can be achieved through delivery of conditioned media (CM) alone. We previously demonstrated that downregulation of Dab2 enhances MSC cardiac protein expression and improves cardiac function after AMI following MSC engraftment. In order to define the molecular mechanisms that regulate MSC secretome, we analyzed gene arrays in MSC following downregulation of Dab2 via TGFβ1 pretreatment or transfection with Dab2:siRNA or miR‐145. We identified 23 genes whose expressions were significantly changed in all three conditions. Among these genes, we have initially focused our validation and functional work on calcium/calmodulin‐dependent protein kinase kinase‐1 (CAMKK1). We quantified the effects of CAMKK1 overexpression in MSC following injection of CM after AMI. Injections of CM from MSC with CAMKK1 over‐expression correlated with an increase in vascular density (CAMKK1 CM: 2,794.95 ± 44.2 versus Control: 1,290.69 ± 2.8 vessels/mm²) and decreased scar formation (CAMKK1 CM 50% ± 3.2% versus Control: 28% ± 1.4%), as well as improved cardiac function. Direct overexpression of CAMKK1 in infarcted tissue using a CAMKK1‐encoding plasmid significantly improved ejection fraction (CAMKK1: 83.2% ± 5.4% versus saline: 51.7% ± 5.8%. Baseline: 91.3% ± 4.3%) and decreased infarct size after AMI. Our data identify a novel role for CAMKK1 as regulator of the MSC secretome and demonstrate that direct overexpression of CAMKK1 in infarcted cardiac tissue, results in therapeutic beneficial effects. Stem Cells Translational Medicine2017;6:1759–1766

Association of vitamin D receptor gene polymorphisms with metabolic syndrome: a case-control design of population-based cross-sectional study in North China

Background

Metabolic syndrome (MS) increases a risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The Vitamin D Receptor gene (VDR) may be important for developing MS. The aim of this study is to investigate the correlation between the VDR gene polymorphisms and MS in North China.

Methods

A case–control study included 391 participants with MS according to the MS diagnostic criteria of International Diabetes Federation 2005 (IDF2005) and 400 controls was conducted on the basis of a cross sectional study which was performed from 2008 to 2012 in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China. Anthropometric data, blood pressure and blood samples were collected in the field investigation. Blood biochemistry analyses were carried out in the laboratory. Two single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the VDR gene, BsmI (rs1544410 A > G) and FokI (rs 2228570 C > T), were genotyped.

Results

The difference in the occurrence of genotypes in BsmI between individuals with MS and the control group was significant. Compared with genotype Bb/bb and allele b, genotype BB and allele B showed higher frequencies in MS cases than controls, which suggested they were risk factors. In addition, the genotype BB carriers with MS presented a higher waist circumference, while genotype FF for the FokI polymorphism was correlated with lower BMI in subjects with MS.

Conclusion

Our study suggests that the VDR gene polymorphisms appear to be associated with MS in the Northern Chinese population. Allele B and BB genotype for BsmI are risk factors for MS. The BsmI polymorphism seems to influence waist circumference, while the FokI polymorphism influence BMI in subjects with MS.