Molecular characterisation and expression analysis of SEREX-defined antigen NUCB2 in gastric epithelium, gastritis and gastric cancer

Transcriptomic and proteomic host response to Aspergillus fumigatus conidia in an air-liquid interface model of human bronchial epithelium

Aspergillus fumigatus (A. fumigatus) is a wide-spread fungus that is a potent allergen in hypersensitive individuals but also an opportunistic pathogen in immunocompromised patients. It reproduces asexually by releasing airborne conidiospores (conidia). Upon inhalation, fungal conidia are capable of reaching the airway epithelial cells (AECs) in bronchial and alveolar tissues. Previous studies have predominantly used submerged monolayer cultures for studying this host-pathogen interaction; however, these cultures do not recapitulate the mucocililary differentiation phenotype of the in vivo epithelium in the respiratory tract. Thus, the aim of this study was to use well-differentiated primary human bronchial epithelial cells (HBECs) grown at the air-liquid interface (ALI) to determine their transcriptomic and proteomic responses following interaction with A. fumigatus conidia. We visualized conidial interaction with HBECs using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), and applied NanoString nCounter and shotgun proteomics to assess gene expression changes in the human cells upon interaction with A. fumigatus conidia. Western blot analysis was used to assess the expression of top three differentially expressed proteins, CALR, SET and NUCB2. CLSM showed that, unlike submerged monolayer cultures, well-differentiated ALI cultures of primary HBECs were estimated to internalize less than 1% of bound conidia. Nevertheless, transcriptomic and proteomic analyses revealed numerous differentially expressed host genes; these were enriched for pathways including apoptosis/autophagy, translation, unfolded protein response and cell cycle (up-regulated); complement and coagulation pathways, iron homeostasis, nonsense mediated decay and rRNA binding (down-regulated). CALR and SET were confirmed to be up-regulated in ALI cultures of primary HBECs upon exposure to A. fumigatus via western blot analysis. Therefore, using transcriptomics and proteomics approaches, ALI models recapitulating the bronchial epithelial barrier in the conductive zone of the respiratory tract can provide novel insights to the molecular response of bronchial epithelial cells upon exposure to A. fumigatus conidia.

High NUCB2 expression level represents an independent negative prognostic factor in Chinese cohorts of non-metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma patients

BACKGROUND

This study aimed to investigate the prognostic significance of NUCB2 in clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

The study retrospectively enrolled a training set (182 patients) and a validation set (434 patients) with non-metastasis (pT1-3N0M0) ccRCC from two institutional medical centers of China. NUCB2 protein expression was evaluated by immunohistochemical staining of NUCB2 antibody, and its association with clinicopathological characteristics and clinical outcomes were evaluated. The NUCB2 mRNA transcription level was evaluated through TCGA KIRC cohort (190 patients). Prognostic accuracies were evaluated by C index and Akaike information criterion.

RESULTS

In ccRCC tissues, NUCB2 protein expression level was positively correlated with Fuhrman grade (P = 0.002 and P < 0.001, respectively). Patients with high NUCB2 mRNA transcription level (P = 0.005) and protein expression level (P = 0.024 and P < 0.001, respectively) had shorter cancer-specific survival in Kaplan-Meier survival curve. Moreover, multivariate analysis identified NUCB2 expression level as an independent prognostic factor for cancer-specific survival. Subgroup analysis suggested that NUCB2 expression significantly stratified pT1 stage patients (P < 0.001) rather than higher pT stage patients. Therefore, a new NNF prognosis model was developed to predict the cancer-specific survival in patients with pT1N0M0 stage (C-index = 0.743).

CONCLUSION

NUCB2 expression level is a powerful independent prognostic factor for CSS in patients with non-metastasis (pT1-3N0M0) ccRCC.

Identification of Nucleobindin-2 as a Potential Biomarker for Breast Cancer Metastasis Using iTRAQ-based Quantitative Proteomic Analysis

Metastasis is a lethal step in the progression of breast cancer. None of the metastasis-associated biomarkers identified up to now has a definite prognostic value in breast cancer patients. This study was designed to identify biomarkers for breast cancer metastasis and predictors of the prognosis of breast cancer patients. The differentially expressed proteins between 23 paired primary breast tumor and metastatic lymph nodes were identified by quantitative iTRAQ proteomic analysis. Immunohistochemistry was applied to locate and assess the expression of NUCB2 in paired primary breast tumor and metastatic lymph node tissues (n = 106). The relationship between NUCB2 expression and the clinicopathological characteristics of breast cancer patients (n = 189) were analyzed by χ² test. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox hazard regression analysis were utilized to investigate the relationship between its expression and prognosis of breast cancer patients. The iTRAQ proteomic results showed that 4,837 confidential proteins were identified, 643 of which were differentially expressed in the primary breast cancer tissues and the paired metastatic lymph nodes. NUCB2 protein was found decreased in paired metastatic lymph nodes (P = 0.000), with the positive expression rate being 82% in primary breast cancer tissues and 47% in paired metastatic lymph nodes, respectively. According to Kaplan-Meier analysis, the overall survival time of patients with positive expression of NUCB2 protein were shorter than those with negative NUCB2 expression (P = 0.004). Cox regression model suggested that NUCB2 was a risk factor of breast cancer patients (P = 0.045, RR = 1.854). We conclude that NUCB2 can be used as a potential biomarker for breast cancer metastasis and a prognostic predictor of breast cancer patients.

Nesfatin-1: a new energy-regulating peptide with pleiotropic functions. Implications at cardiovascular level

Nesfatin-1 is a new energy-regulating peptide widely expressed at both central and peripheral tissues with pleiotropic effects. In the last years, the study of nesfatin-1 actions and its possible implication in the development of different diseases has created a great interest among the scientific community. In this review, we will summarize nesfatin-1 main functions, focusing on its cardiovascular implications.

Prognostication of prostate cancer based on NUCB2 protein assessment: NUCB2 in prostate cancer

BACKGROUND

Nucleobindin 2 (NUCB2) protein, a novel oncoprotein, is overexpressed in breast cancer. To date, there have been no published data regarding the role of NUCB2 protein expression in prostate cancer (PCa). Therefore, this study was performed to investigate the correlations between NUCB2 protein expression and prognosis in patients with PCa.

METHODS

Through immunohistochemistry, NUCB2 protein expression was evaluated in 60 benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) specimens and 180 PCa specimens. The correlation of NUCB2 protein expression with clinicopathological parameters was assessed using χ2 analysis. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to investigate the correlation between NUCB2 protein expression and prognosis of PCa patients.

RESULTS

The immunohistochemistry results showed that the expression level of NUCB2 in PCa cases was significantly higher than that in BPH tissues (P < 0.001). Moreover, statistical analysis also showed that high NUCB2 protein expression was positively related to seminal vesicle invasion, lymph node metastasis, angiolymphatic invasion, higher Gleason score, biochemical recurrence (BCR), and higher preoperative prostate-specific antigen (PSA). Furthermore, it was also shown that patients with high NUCB2 protein expression had significantly poorer overall survival and BCR- free survival compared with patients with low expression of NUCB2 protein. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that high NUCB2 protein expression level was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival and BCR-free survival of patients with PCa.

CONCLUSIONS

NUCB2 protein expression showed a strong association with the potencies of BCR and progression of PCa, and that may be applied as a novel biomarker for the prediction of BCR, and helpful for improving the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of PCa.

Clinical significance of NUCB2 mRNA expression in prostate cancer

Background

Nucleobindin 2 (NUCB2) abnormal expression has been reported in gastric cancer and breast cancer. However, the role of NUCB2 in prostate cancer (PCa) remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to investigate the NUCB2 expression in PCa tissues and adjacent non-cancerous tissues and its potential relevance to clinicopathological variables and prognosis.

Methods

NUCB2 mRNA expression was determined by real-time quantitative real time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction in 180 pairs of fresh frozen PCa tissues and corresponding non-cancerous tissues. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to investigate the correlation between NUCB2 expression and prognosis of PCa patients.

Results

Our results showed that the expression level of NUCB2 mRNA in PCa tissues was significantly higher than those in non-cancerous tissues. Our results indicated that the high expression of NUCB2 in PCa was associated with lymph node metastasis, preoperative PSA, Gleason score, and angiolymphatic invasion. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis showed that patients with high NUCB2 expression have shorter biochemical recurrence (BCR)-free survival time compared to patients with low NUCB2 expression. Multivariate analysis revealed that NUCB2 expression was an independent predictor of BCR-free survival.

Conclusions

NUCB2 might play a positive role in PCa development and could serve as an independent predictor of BCR-free survival.

Identifying pathological biomarkers: histochemistry still ranks high in the omics era

In recent years, omic analyses have been proposed as possible approaches to diagnosis, in particular for tumours, as they should be able to provide quantitative tools to detect and measure abnormalities in gene and protein expression, through the evaluation of transcription and translation products in the abnormal vs normal tissues. Unfortunately, this approach proved to be much less powerful than expected, due to both intrinsic technical limits and the nature itself of the pathological tissues to be investigated, the heterogeneity deriving from polyclonality and tissue phenotype variability between patients being a major limiting factor in the search for unique omic biomarkers. Especially in the last few years, the application of refined techniques for investigating gene expression in situ has greatly increased the diagnostic/prognostic potential of histochemistry, while the progress in light microscopy technology and in the methods for imaging molecules in vivo have provided valuable tools for elucidating the molecular events and the basic mechanisms leading to a pathological condition. Histochemical techniques thus remain irreplaceable in pathologist's armamentarium, and it may be expected that even in the future histochemistry will keep a leading position among the methodological approaches for clinical pathology.

Histochemistry through the years, browsing a long-established journal: novelties in traditional subjects

Histochemical journals represent a traditional forum where methodological and technological improvements can be presented and validated in view of their applications to investigate not only cytology and histology in normal and diseased conditions but to test as well hypotheses on more basic issues for life sciences, such as comparative and evolutionary biology. The earliest scientific journals on histochemistry began their publication in the first half of the ‘50s of the last century, and their readership did not probably change over the years; rather, the authors’ interests may have progressively been changing as well as the main topics of their articles. This hypothesis is discussed, based on the subjects of the article published in the first and last ten years in the European Journal of Histochemistry, as an example of old journal which started publication in 1954, being since then the official organ of the Italian Society of Histochemistry. This survey confirmed that histochemistry has provided and still offers unique opportunities for studying the structure, chemical composition and function of cells and tissues in a wide variety of living organisms, especially when the topological distribution of specific molecular components has diagnostic or predictive significance, as it occurs in human and veterinary biology and pathology. Some subjects (e.g. histochemistry applied to muscle cells or to mineralized tissues) have recently become rather popular, whereas a wider application of the histochemical approach may be envisaged for plant cells and tissues.