Autoantibody against WD repeat domain 1 is a novel serological biomarker for screening of thyroid neoplasia

WDR1 promotes prostate cancer progression through Wnt/β-catenin signaling

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most common cancer and the fifth leading cause of cancer-related death among men. A comprehensive understanding of PCa progression is crucial for the development of innovative therapeutic strategies for its treatment. While WDR1 (WD-repeat domain 1) serves as a significant cofactor of actin-depolymerizing factor/cofilin, its role in PCa progression remains unknown. In this study, we demonstrated that knockdown of WDR1 in various PCa cells substantially inhibited cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro, as confirmed at both the cellular and molecular levels. Moreover, the overexpression of WDR1 promoted PCa cell proliferation and metastasis in vitro. Mechanistically, we showed that the application of lithium chloride, an activator of the Wnt/β-Catenin signaling pathway, restored the suppressive effects of WDR1 deficiency on cell proliferation and migration in PCa cells. Our findings suggest that the WDR1-β-Catenin axis functions as an activator of the malignant phenotype and represents a promising therapeutic target for PCa treatment.

The combination of positive anti‑WDR1 antibodies with negative anti‑CFL1 antibodies in serum is a poor prognostic factor for patients with esophageal carcinoma

WD repeat-containing protein 1 (WDR1) regulates the cofilin 1 (CFL1) activity, promotes cytoskeleton remodeling, and thus, facilitates cell migration and invasion. A previous study reported that autoantibodies against CFL1 and β-actin were useful biomarkers for diagnosing and predicting the prognosis of patients with esophageal carcinoma. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the serum levels of anti-WDR1 antibodies (s-WDR1-Abs) combined with serum levels of anti-CFL1 antibodies (s-CFL1-Abs) in patients with esophageal carcinoma. Serum samples obtained from 192 patients with esophageal carcinoma and other solid cancers. And s-WDR1-Ab and s-CFL1-Ab titers were analyzed using the amplified luminescent proximity homogeneous assay-linked immunosorbent assay. Compared with those of healthy donors, the s-WDR1-Ab levels were significantly higher in the 192 patients with esophageal, whereas these were not significantly higher in the samples from patients with gastric, colorectal, lung, or breast cancer. In 91 patients treated with surgery, sex, tumor depth, lymph node metastasis, stage and C-reactive protein levels were significantly associated with overall survival, as determined using the log-rank test, whereas the squamous cell carcinoma antigen, p53 antibody and s-WDR1-Ab levels tended to be associated with a worse prognosis. Although no significant difference was observed in the survival between the positive and negative groups of s-WDR1-Abs or s-CFL1-Abs alone in the Kaplan-Meier test, the patients in the s-WDR1-Ab-positive and s-CFL1-Ab-negative groups exhibited a significantly poorer prognosis in the overall survival analysis. On the whole, the present study demonstrates that the combination of positive anti-WDR1 antibodies with negative anti-CFL1 antibodies in serum may be a poor prognostic factor for patients with esophageal carcinoma.

The Autoantibodies against Tumor-Associated Antigens as Potential Blood-Based Biomarkers in Thyroid Neoplasia: Rationales, Opportunities and Challenges

The Autoantibodies targeting Tumor-Associated Antigens (TAA-AAbs) emerge as a result of a variety of tumor-related immunogenic stimuli and may be regarded as the eyewitnesses to the anti-tumor immune response. TAA-AAbs may be readily detected in peripheral blood to unveil the presence of a particular TAA-expressing tumor, and a fair number of TAAs eliciting the tumor-associated autoantibody response have been identified. The potential of TAA-AAbs as tumor biomarkers has been extensively studied in many human malignancies with a major influence on public health; however, tumors of the endocrine system, and, in particular, the well-differentiated follicular cell-derived thyroid neoplasms, remain understudied in this context. This review provides a detailed perspective on and legitimate rationales for the potential use of TAA-AAbs in thyroid neoplasia, with particular reference to the already established diagnostic implications of the TAA-AAbs in human cancer, to the windows for improvement and diagnostic niches in the current workup strategies in nodular thyroid disease and differentiated thyroid cancer that TAA-AAbs may successfully occupy, as well as to the proof-of-concept studies demonstrating the usefulness of TAA-AAbs in thyroid oncology, particularly for the pre-surgical discrimination between tumors of different malignant potential in the context of the indeterminate results of the fine-needle aspiration cytology.

WD repeat-containing protein 1 maintains β-Catenin activity to promote pancreatic cancer aggressiveness

Background

The molecular signature underlying pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) progression may include key proteins affecting the malignant phenotypes. Here, we aimed to identify the proteins implicated in PDAC with different tumour-node-metastasis (TNM) stages.

Methods

Eight-plex isobaric tags coupled with two-dimensional liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry were used to analyse the proteome of PDAC tissues with different TNM stages. A loss-of-function study was performed to evaluate the oncogenic roles of WD repeat-containing protein 1 (WDR1) in PDAC. The molecular mechanism by which WDR1 promotes PDAC progression was studied by real-time qPCR, Western blotting, proximity ligation assay and co-immunoprecipitation.

Results

A total of 5036 proteins were identified, and 4708 proteins were quantified with high confidence. Compared with normal pancreatic tissues, 37 proteins were changed significantly in PDAC tissues of different stages. Moreover, 64 proteins were upregulated or downregulated in a stepwise manner as the TNM stages of PDAC increased, and 10 proteins were related to tumorigenesis. The functionally uncharacterised protein, WDR1, was highly expressed in PDAC and predicted a poor prognosis. WDR1 knockdown suppressed PDAC tumour growth and metastasis in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, WDR1 knockdown repressed the activity of the Wnt/β-Catenin pathway; ectopic expression of a stabilised form of β-Catenin restored the suppressive effects of WDR1 knockdown. Mechanistically, WDR1 interacted with USP7 to prevent ubiquitination-mediated degradation of β-Catenin.

Conclusion

Our study identifies several previous functional unknown proteins implicated in the progression of PDAC, and provides new insight into the oncogenic roles of WDR1 in PDAC development.

Novel TG-FGFR1 and TRIM33-NTRK1 transcript fusions in papillary thyroid carcinoma

Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is most common among all thyroid cancers. Multiple genomic alterations occur in PTC, and gene rearrangements are one of them. Here we screened 14 tumors for novel fusion transcripts by RNA‐Seq. Two samples harboring RET/PTC1 and RET/PTC3 rearrangements were positive controls whereas the remaining ones were negative regarding the common PTC alterations. We used Sanger sequencing to validate potential fusions. We detected 2 novel potentially oncogenic transcript fusions: TG‐FGFR1 and TRIM33‐NTRK1. We detected 4 novel fusion transcripts of unknown significance accompanying the TRIM33‐NTRK1 fusion: ZSWIM5‐TP53BP2, TAF4B‐WDR1, ABI2‐MTA3, and ARID1B‐PSMA1. Apart from confirming the presence of RET/PTC1 and RET/PTC3 in positive control samples, we also detected known oncogenic fusion transcripts in remaining samples: TFG‐NTRK1, ETV6‐NTRK3, MKRN1‐BRAF, EML4‐ALK, and novel isoform of CCDC6‐RET.

Immunoproteomics Methods and Techniques

The varied landscape of the adaptive immune response is determined by the peptides presented by immune cells, derived from viral or microbial pathogens or cancerous cells. The study of immune biomarkers or antigens is not new, and classical methods such as agglutination, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, or Western blotting have been used for many years to study the immune response to vaccination or disease. However, in many of these traditional techniques, protein or peptide identification has often been the bottleneck. Recent progress in genomics and mass spectrometry have led to many of the rapid advances in proteomics approaches. Immunoproteomics describes a rapidly growing collection of approaches that have the common goal of identifying and measuring antigenic peptides or proteins. This includes gel-based, array-based, mass spectrometry-based, DNA-based, or in silico approaches. Immunoproteomics is yielding an understanding of disease and disease progression, vaccine candidates, and biomarkers. This review gives an overview of immunoproteomics and closely related technologies that are used to define the full set of protein antigens targeted by the immune system during disease.

Functions of actin-interacting protein 1 (AIP1)/WD repeat protein 1 (WDR1) in actin filament dynamics and cytoskeletal regulation

Actin-depolymerizing factor (ADF)/cofilin and actin-interacting protein 1 (AIP1), also known as WD-repeat protein 1 (WDR1), are conserved among eukaryotes and play critical roles in dynamic reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton. AIP1 preferentially promotes disassembly of ADF/cofilin-decorated actin filaments but exhibits minimal effects on bare actin filaments. Therefore, AIP1 has been often considered to be an ancillary co-factor of ADF/cofilin that merely boosts ADF/cofilin activity level. However, genetic and cell biological studies show that AIP1 deficiency often causes lethality or severe abnormalities in multiple tissues and organs including muscle, epithelia, and blood, suggesting that AIP1 is a major regulator of many biological processes that depend on actin dynamics. This review summarizes recent progress in studies on the biochemical mechanism of actin filament severing by AIP1 and in vivo functions of AIP1 in model organisms and human diseases.

Serum Immunoproteomics Combined With Pathological Reassessment of Surgical Specimens Identifies TCP-1ζ Autoantibody as a Potential Biomarker in Thyroid Neoplasia

CONTEXT

Current methods of preoperative diagnostics frequently fail to discriminate between benign and malignant thyroid neoplasms. In encapsulated follicular-patterned tumors (EnFPT), this discrimination is challenging even using histopathological analysis. Autoantibody response against tumor-associated antigens is a well-documented phenomenon with prominent diagnostic potential; however, autoantigenicity of thyroid tumors remains poorly explored.

OBJECTIVES

Objectives were exploration of tumor-associated antigen repertoire of thyroid tumors and identification of candidate autoantibody biomarkers capable of discrimination between benign and malignant thyroid neoplasms.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS

Proteins isolated from FTC-133 cells were subjected to two-dimensional Western blotting using pooled serum samples of patients originally diagnosed with either papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) or EnFPT represented by apparently benign follicular thyroid adenomas, as well as healthy individuals. Immunoreactive proteins were identified using liquid chromatography-tandem mass-spectrometry. Pathological reassessment of EnFPT was performed applying nonconservative criteria for capsular invasion and significance of focal PTC nuclear changes (PTC-NCs). Recombinant T-complex protein 1 subunitζ (TCP-1ζ) was used to examine an expanded serum sample set of patients with various thyroid neoplasms (n = 89) for TCP-1ζ autoantibodies. All patients were included in tertiary referral centers.

RESULTS

A protein demonstrating a distinct pattern of EnFPT-specific seroreactivity was identified as TCP-1ζ protein. A subsequent search for clinicopathological correlates of TCP-1ζ seroreactivity revealed nonclassical capsular invasion or focal PTC-NC in all TCP-1ζ antibody-positive cases. Further studies in an expanded sample set confirmed the specificity of TCP-1ζ autoantibodies to malignant EnFPT.

CONCLUSIONS

We identified TCP-1ζ autoantibodies as a potential biomarker for presurgical discrimination between benign and malignant encapsulated follicular-patterned thyroid tumors. Our results suggest the use of nonconservative morphological criteria for diagnosis of malignant EnFPT in biomarker identification studies and provide a peculiar example of uncovering the diagnostic potential of a candidate biomarker using incorporation of pathological reassessment in the pipeline of immunoproteomic research.