Construction of human single-chain variable fragment antibodies of medullary thyroid carcinoma and single photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography imaging in tumor-bearing nude mice

Single-Chain Fragment Variable: Recent Progress in Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy

Simple Summary

Recombinant antibody fragments have shown remarkable potential as diagnostic and therapeutic tools in the fight against cancer. The single-chain fragment variable (scFv) that contains the complete antigen-binding domains of a whole antibody, has several advantages such as a high specificity and affinity for antigens, a low immunogenicity, and the proven ability to penetrate tumor tissues and diffuse. This review provides an overview of the current studies on the principle, generation, and applications of scFvs, particularly in the diagnosis and therapy of cancer, and underscores their potential use in clinical trials.

Abstract

Cancer remains a public health problem worldwide. Although conventional therapies have led to some excellent outcomes, some patients fail to respond to treatment, they have few therapeutic alternatives and a poor survival prognosis. Several strategies have been proposed to overcome this issue. The most recent approach is immunotherapy, particularly the use of recombinant antibodies and their derivatives, such as the single-chain fragment variable (scFv) containing the complete antigen-binding domains of a whole antibody that successfully targets tumor cells. This review describes the recent progress made with scFvs as a cancer diagnostic and therapeutic tool, with an emphasis on preclinical approaches and their potential use in clinical trials.

Preclinical Imaging for the Study of Mouse Models of Thyroid Cancer

Thyroid cancer, which represents the most common tumors among endocrine malignancies, comprises a wide range of neoplasms with different clinical aggressiveness. One of the most important challenges in research is to identify mouse models that most closely resemble human pathology; other goals include finding a way to detect markers of disease that common to humans and mice and to identify the most appropriate and least invasive therapeutic strategies for specific tumor types. Preclinical thyroid imaging includes a wide range of techniques that allow for morphological and functional characterization of thyroid disease as well as targeting and in most cases, this imaging allows quantitative analysis of the molecular pattern of the thyroid cancer. The aim of this review paper is to provide an overview of all of the imaging techniques used to date both for diagnosis and theranostic purposes in mouse models of thyroid cancer.

MiR-375: A prospective regulator in medullary thyroid cancer based on microarray data and bioinformatics analyses

BACKGROUND

This research aims to investigate the prospective molecular mechanism of miR-375 in Medullary Thyroid Cancer (MTC).

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The expression level of miR-375 in MTC was explored with microarray data from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). To gather the putative target genes of miR-375, we selected eligible datasets in GEO, in which antagomir-375 and premir-375 were transfected to provide the miR-375-related genes. Subsequently, we attained the intersection of the results of GEO microarray data and 12 online target genes prediction database as the prospective target genes. Furthermore, we conducted in silico analysis including gene ontology (GO) enrichment analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways annotations and Protein-Protein Interactions (PPI) analysis to provide an overview of the function of miR-375 in MTC. Finally, data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and The Human Protein Atlas (THPA) were used for a validation.

RESULTS

Up-regulation could be confirmed with the data from GSE40807. GEO dataset GSE67742 provided 10,596 miR-375-related genes, while 12 online prediction databases showed that 3352 target genes appeared no less than four times. Finally, the intersection of the two groups of genes included 1132 prospective targets. In aspect of functional annotation, negative regulation of transcription from RNA polymerase II promoter (P=9.83E-06), golgi membrane (P=9.98E-05) and pathway of protein binding (P=3.63E-07) were highlighted as the most enriched terms with GO analysis. With regards to PPI network, 162 hub genes that interacted with no less than 10 other different genes was visualized, among which PI3K/Akt signaling pathway was the most enriched pathway as assessed by KEGG. Furthermore, two genes (JAK2 and NGFR) in PI3K/Akt signaling pathway showed down-regulated patterns in both mRNA and protein levels.

CONCLUSION

The higher expression level of miR-375 might play a pivotal role in the tumorigenesis of MTC via targeting multiple key pathways, especially PI3K/Akt pathway. However, the exact molecular mechanism of miR-375 needs to be verified with in-depth investigation in the future.