Role of serum matrix metalloproteinase in the diagnosis of gastric cancer

Signal-On Mass Spectrometric Biosensing of Multiplex Matrix Metalloproteinases with a Phospholipid-Structured Mass-Encoded Microplate

The detection of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) is of great importance for diagnosis and staging of cancer. This work proposed a signal-on mass spectrometric biosensing strategy with a phospholipid-structured mass-encoded microplate for assessment of multiplex MMP activities. The designed substrate and internal standard peptides were subsequently labeled with the reagents of isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ), and DSPE-PEG(2000)maleimide was embedded on the surface of a 96-well glass bottom plate to fabricate the phospholipid-structured mass-encoded microplate, which offered a simulated environment of the extracellular space for enzyme reactions between MMPs and the substrates. The strategy achieved multiplex MMP activity assays by dropping the sample in the well for enzyme cleavages, followed by adding trypsin to release the coding regions for ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric (UHPLC-MS/MS) analysis. The peak area ratios of released coding regions and their respective internal standard (IS) peptides exhibited satisfied linear ranges of 0.05-50, 0.1-250, and 0.1-100 ng mL^-1 with the detection limits of 0.017, 0.046, and 0.032 ng mL^-1 for MMP-2, MMP-7, and MMP-3, respectively. The proposed strategy demonstrated good practicability in inhibition analysis and detections of multiplex MMP activities in serum samples. It is of great potential for clinical applications and can be expanded for multiplex enzyme assays.

The effect of short-term intensive insulin therapy on inflammatory cytokines in patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes

BACKGROUND

Diabetes mellitus was a chronic low-grade inflammatory disease and had increased circulating inflammatory cytokines and acute phase proteins. We aimed to identify the changes of inflammatory cytokines in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetic patients after short-term intensive insulin therapy using continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII).

METHODS

Thirty-three newly diagnosed type 2 diabetic patients were enrolled between September 2020 to December 2020. Expression of 40 inflammatory cytokines of the patients were tested with RayBiotech antibody array before and after 1 week of intensive insulin therapy of CSII. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis was carried out to explore the signaling pathway involved in the therapy.

RESULTS

Five inflammatory cytokines were downregulated significantly after 1 week of CSII therapy. They were interleukin-6 receptor (IL-6R), regulated upon activation normal T-cell expressed and secreted (RANTES), intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1), and platelet-derived growth factor type BB (PDGF-BB) (p < 0.05 and foldchange <0.83). Among patients with baseline glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) < 10%, three proinflammatory cytokines were decreased significantly after therapy: IL-6R, RANTES, and ICAM-1. As for the patients with baseline HbA1c ≥ 10%, eight inflammatory cytokines were inhibited significantly after the treatment, including ICAM-1, IL-6R, RANTES, TIMP-1, TIMP-2, macrophage inflammatory protein-1 beta (MIP-1β), PDGF-BB, and tumor necrosis factor receptor type II (TNF RII). No matter which subgroup of baseline HbA1c level was considered, the decreased cytokines after CSII therapy were significantly involved in TNF signaling pathway. Nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) signaling pathway was mainly enriched in patients with baseline HbA1c ≥ 10%.

CONCLUSIONS

A panel of 40 inflammatory cytokines, measured by protein microarray, were evaluated for 1 week of CSII treatment in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetic patients. After treatment, many proinflammatory cytokines decreased. In the higher baseline HbA1c subgroup, more proinflammatory cytokines improved. No matter which subgroup of HbA1c level was considered, IL-6R, RANTES, and ICAM-1, which were involved in TNF signaling pathway, decreased significantly after CSII therapy. This was the first report showing that the cytokines of IL-6R, TIMP-2, PDGF-BB, and TNF RII decreased after the CSII therapy.

hsa_circ_0060975 is highly expressed and predicts a poor prognosis in gastric cancer

Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most common cancer and GC has a high mortality rate worldwide. Circular (circ) RNAs serve an important role in cancer. The present study aimed to investigate the expression level of hsa_circ_0060975 in gastric cancer (GC) and to determine the clinical pathological significance of hsa_circ_0060975 in patients with GC. Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR was used to detect expression level of hsa_circ_0060975 in 192 GC and adjacent non-cancerous gastric tissues, in GC cell lines (MKN-45, HGC27 and AGS) and a human gastric epithelium cell line (GES-1), as well as in plasma samples from 126 patients with GC and 92 healthy volunteers. All plasma and tissue samples of were obtained from The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University (Hefei, China). The relationship between hsa_circ_0060975 expression and clinical pathological factors was analyzed using the χ² test. The diagnostic value of hsa_circ_0060975 was analyzed using the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC curve), while the Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze the relationship of hsa_circ_0060975 expression with the survival of patients with GC as determined by log-rank tests. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to identify the prognostic factors, including hsa_circ_0060975 expression and clinical pathological factors. In addition, the potential function of hsa_circ_0060975 was evaluated via bioinformatics analysis. The expression level of hsa_circ_0060975 was higher in GC tissues compared with adjacent non-cancerous gastric tissues, GC cell lines compared with GES-1 and plasma samples from patients with GC compared with plasma samples from healthy volunteers. In addition, higher hsa_circ_0060975 expression was associated with histological grade, pathological stage and tumor (T) classification in GC tissues and plasma samples (P<0.05). The area under the ROC curves of hsa_circ_0060975, the combination with hsa_circ_0060975 and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) or CEA alone were 0.804 (sensitivity, 0.746; specificity, 0.783; P<0.001); 0.931 (sensitivity, 0.937; specificity, 0.870; P<0.001) and 0.924 (sensitivity, 0.937; sspecificity, 0.804; P<0.001) respectively. The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed that the overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) time of patients with higher hsa_circ_0060975 expression were shorter compared with those in patients with lower hsa_circ_0060975 expression. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses in OS and DFS time determined that the expression level of hsa_circ_0060975, histological grade and pathological stage were independent prognostic factors for patients with GC. In addition, the bioinformatics analysis results suggested that the abnormal expression of hsa_circ_0060975 may serve an important role in tumorigenesis. Hence, hsa_circ_0060975 expression may be an independent prognostic factor for patients with GC and may be a potential marker for biological malignancy.