Dag-1 carcinoma cell in studying the mechanisms of progression and therapeutic resistance in bladder cancer

Identification of Key Pathways and Genes in Obesity Using Bioinformatics Analysis and Molecular Docking Studies

Obesity is an excess accumulation of body fat. Its progression rate has remained high in recent years. Therefore, the aim of this study was to diagnose important differentially expressed genes (DEGs) associated in its development, which may be used as novel biomarkers or potential therapeutic targets for obesity. The gene expression profile of E-MTAB-6728 was downloaded from the database. After screening DEGs in each ArrayExpress dataset, we further used the robust rank aggregation method to diagnose 876 significant DEGs including 438 up regulated and 438 down regulated genes. Functional enrichment analysis was performed. These DEGs were shown to be significantly enriched in different obesity related pathways and GO functions. Then protein-protein interaction network, target genes - miRNA regulatory network and target genes - TF regulatory network were constructed and analyzed. The module analysis was performed based on the whole PPI network. We finally filtered out STAT3, CORO1C, SERPINH1, MVP, ITGB5, PCM1, SIRT1, EEF1G, PTEN and RPS2 hub genes. Hub genes were validated by ICH analysis, receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis and RT-PCR. Finally a molecular docking study was performed to find small drug molecules. The robust DEGs linked with the development of obesity were screened through the expression profile, and integrated bioinformatics analysis was conducted. Our study provides reliable molecular biomarkers for screening and diagnosis, prognosis as well as novel therapeutic targets for obesity.

A Predictive 7-Gene Assay and Prognostic Protein Biomarkers for Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

PURPOSE

This study aims to develop a multi-gene assay predictive of the clinical benefits of chemotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, and substantiate their protein expression as potential therapeutic targets.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

The mRNA expression of 160 genes identified from microarray was analyzed in qRT-PCR assays of independent 337 snap-frozen NSCLC tumors to develop a predictive signature. A clinical trial JBR.10 was included in the validation. Hazard ratio was used to select genes, and decision-trees were used to construct the predictive model. Protein expression was quantified with AQUA in 500 FFPE NSCLC samples.

RESULTS

A 7-gene signature was identified from training cohort (n = 83) with accurate patient stratification (P = 0.0043) and was validated in independent patient cohorts (n = 248, P < 0.0001) in Kaplan-Meier analyses. In the predicted benefit group, there was a significantly better disease-specific survival in patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy in both training (P = 0.035) and validation (P = 0.0049) sets. In the predicted non-benefit group, there was no survival benefit in patients receiving chemotherapy in either set. The protein expression of ZNF71 quantified with AQUA scores produced robust patient stratification in separate training (P = 0.021) and validation (P = 0.047) NSCLC cohorts. The protein expression of CD27 quantified with ELISA had a strong correlation with its mRNA expression in NSCLC tumors (Spearman coefficient = 0.494, P < 0.0088). Multiple signature genes had concordant DNA copy number variation, mRNA and protein expression in NSCLC progression.

CONCLUSIONS

This study presents a predictive multi-gene assay and prognostic protein biomarkers clinically applicable for improving NSCLC treatment, with important implications in lung cancer chemotherapy and immunotherapy.

2-Arylidenedihydroindole-3-ones: Design, synthesis, and biological activity on bladder carcinoma cell lines

2-Arylidenedihydroindole-3-ones were assayed for their antiproliferative and apoptotic abilities as potential drug candidates to treat bladder tumor. These compounds were tested on cell lines obtained from bladder tumors of various stages [superficial (pTa and pT1) vs. invasive (pT2)]. The most active compound (3c) inhibited the proliferation, induced apoptosis, and decreased the expression of p-Stat5 and p-Pyk2 in DAG-1 and RT112 lines in which the FGFR3 is either mutated or overexpressed. Knowing that FGFR3 is involved in cell proliferation, differentiation, and migration through cell signaling pathways including p-Stat5 way via p-Pyk2, let us assume that compound 3c may probably act through FGFR3 pathway.

Maspin – the most commonly-expressed gene of the 18q21.3 serpin cluster in lung cancer – is strongly expressed in preneoplastic bronchial lesions

Maspin, SCCA1/2 and hurpin were identified by cDNA microarray analyses as dramatically differentially expressed transcripts in primary non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). These sequences are located within a 10-gene serpin cluster on 18q21.3. Using comparative RT-PCR, we have investigated the expression of each of these serpins, including their flanking loci, in an independent NSCLC series. Whereas six of the genes (maspin, SCCA1, SCCA2, hurpin, megsin and pAI-2) were commonly differentially expressed in primary lesions, each significantly more often in squamous cell tumours, maspin was identified as the most frequently over-represented sequence in both squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma. Using a well-characterized monoclonal antibody, we have shown strong maspin expression in tumour protein extracts, detected multiple isoforms of the 42 kDa protein and shown that maspin is localized specifically to the tumour cells within neoplastic lesions. In contrast, most cells in non-neoplastic lung tissue appear not to express the gene, with the exception of the multipotent basal epithelial cells that line the bronchial airway. These reserve cells generally show strong predominantly nuclear localization of maspin. Strong nuclear expression of maspin within primary tumour cells is correlated with increased survival (P=0.05) and a longer remission duration (P=0.02) in resectable-staged patients. However, within the airways of cancer patients and somewhat in contrast to this observation, such expression was more frequently detected in the superficial cells of preneoplastic over non-neoplastic epithelia (P<0.0001), consistent with a role for the protein in early neoplasia.