Expression of two basic mRNA biomarkers in peripheral blood of patients with non-small cell lung cancer detected by real-time rt-PCR, individually and simultaneously

Emerging ways to treat breast cancer: will promises be met?

BACKGROUND

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer among women and it is responsible for more than 40,000 deaths in the United States and more than 500,000 deaths worldwide each year. In previous decades, the development of improved screening, diagnosis and treatment methods has led to decreases in BC mortality rates. More recently, novel targeted therapeutic options, such as the use of monoclonal antibodies and small molecule inhibitors that target specific cancer cell-related components, have been developed. These components include ErbB family members (HER1, HER2, HER3 and HER4), Ras/MAPK pathway components (Ras, Raf, MEK and ERK), VEGF family members (VEGFA, VEGFB, VEGFC, VEGF and PGF), apoptosis and cell cycle regulators (BAK, BAX, BCL-2, BCL-X, MCL-1 and BCL-W, p53 and PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway components) and DNA repair pathway components such as BRCA1. In addition, long noncoding RNA inhibitor-, microRNA inhibitor/mimic- and immunotherapy-based approaches are being developed for the treatment of BC. Finally, a novel powerful technique called CRISPR-Cas9-based gene editing is emerging as a precise tool for the targeted treatment of cancer, including BC.

CONCLUSIONS

Potential new strategies that are designed to specifically target BC are presented. Several clinical trials using these strategies are already in progress and have shown promising results, but inherent limitations such as off-target effects and low delivery efficiencies still have to be resolved. By improving the clinical efficacy of current therapies and exploring new ones, it is anticipated that novel ways to overcome BC may become attainable.

Molecular epidemiology of lung cancer in Iran: implications for drug development and cancer prevention

Epidemiological studies undertaken over the past decades reveal a gradual but progressive increase in the incidence and mortality attributable to lung cancer in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a sovereign state geographically situated at the crossroads of Central Eurasia and Western Asia. We identified references published in English and Persian through searches of PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Scopus, and the Scientific Information Database (SID)-a specialized Iranian database, which indexes Iranian scientific journals-between inception and 15 September 2017. Of 1475 references identified through electronic searches, we reviewed the full text of 88 studies, and included 38 studies in the review. Potentially druggable NSCLC targets, which have been studied in Iran include EGFR, ALK, ERBB2, and KIT; but no studies were found, which examined the impact of MET, ROS1, BRAF, PIK3CA, and FGFR1 aberrations. We were able to identify some literature on DNA repair genes and xenobiotic metabolism, including TP53, TP63, ERCC2, XRCC2, SIRT1, PTEN, CYP1A1, CYP1B1, GSTT1, and GSTM1. We also found an increasing amount of research performed in relation to the tumor microenvironment and immune contexture, including CTLA4, MAGE, FOXP3, IFN-γ, and various interleukins, chemokines, and transcription factors; but did not identify any publication concerning the expression of PD-1/PD-L1 in lung cancer. Our survey of research performed in Iran has revealed a dearth of studies in topics, which are otherwise highly pursued in developed countries, but nevertheless, has begun to hint at a distinct biology of lung cancer in this part of the world.

Investigating PIK3R3 and ATp2A1 Genes Expressions in Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia Patients Admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of Masih Daneshvari Hospital in 2016

BACKGROUND

Infectious diseases such as ventilator- associated pneumonia (VAP) are one of the serious problems in intensive care units (ICU) of hospitals. To date, there has been no appropriate clinical and diagnostic marker for early detection of this disease. In this study, expression of PIK₃R₃ and ATp₂A₁ genes in patients with VAP were assessed to be used as biomarkers to identify and confirm the disease.

METHODS

This study was conducted by using peripheral blood samples of 60 individuals, including 30 patients with VAP and 30 healthy volunteers. First, the peripheral blood samples were taken and then RNA was extracted and converted into cDNA. Finally, the assessment of genes was performed by Real-time PCR.

RESULTS

In peripheral blood samples, 46.6% and 30% were positive for PIK₃R₃ expression in patients and healthy groups, respectively. The ATp₂A₁ expression in patients and healthy controls were found 40% and 23.3%, respectively. Comparing the ΔCT obtained for the PIK₃R₃ and ATp₂A₁ genes showed statistically significant differences between the two groups of patients and healthy subjects (p=0.042, p=0.036).

CONCLUSION

ATp₂A₁ and PIK₃R₃ may be used as biomarkers for early detection of VAP disease. However, further studies are required.

Multi-Gene Expression in Anthracosis of the Lungs as One of the Risk Factors for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Background: Anthracosis of the lung occurs due to the deposition of carbon and silica in the mucosa and submucosa, manifested as black lesions. The association of anthracosis with lung cancer has remained to be clearly elucidated The current study aimed to assess the P16, CDH1 and LUNX genes expression level to evaluate the association of anthracotic lesions in the lungs with the occurrence of non-small cell lung cancer. Methods: Forty biopsy samples were taken from the center and 40 from the margins of black anthracotic lesions in the lungs; RNA was extracted from the samples and cDNA was synthesized. Real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed to assess the expression of P16, CDH1 and LUNX genes. All steps were performed in triplicate. Results: A significant reduction in P16 gene expression was noted at the center compared to the margins of the lesions (P<0.001). expression level of CDH1 at the center of lesions was significantly lower than margins (P<0.001). However, LUNX gene had significantly higher expressionlevel at the center compared to margins (P<0.001). Conclusion: Decreased expression of P16 and CDH1 and increased expression of LUNX tumor genes were noted at the center of anthracotic lesions. Significant increase in expression of LUNX gene in NSCLC indicates an association between anthracosis and NSCLC, according to which, anthracotic patients may carry a high risk for NSCLC.

Unique protein expression signatures of survival time in kidney renal clear cell carcinoma through a pan-cancer screening

Background

In 2016, it is estimated that there will be 62,700 new cases of kidney cancer in the United States, and 14,240 patients will die from the disease. Because the incidence of kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC), the most common type of kidney cancer, is expected to continue to increase in the US, there is an urgent need to find effective diagnostic biomarkers for KIRC that could help earlier detection of and customized treatment strategies for the disease. Accordingly, in this study we systematically investigated KIRC’s prognostic biomarkers for survival using the reverse phase protein array (RPPA) data and the high throughput sequencing data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA).

Results

With comprehensive data available in TCGA, we systematically screened protein expression based survival biomarkers in 10 major cancer types, among which KIRC presented many protein prognostic biomarkers of survival time. This is in agreement with a previous report that expression level changes (mRNAs, microRNA and protein) may have a better performance for prognosis of KIRC. In this study, we also identified 52 prognostic genes for KIRC, many of which are involved in cell-cycle and cancer signaling, as well as 15 tumor-stage-specific prognostic biomarkers. Notably, we found fewer prognostic biomarkers for early-stage than for late-stage KIRC. Four biomarkers (the RPPA protein IDs: FASN, ACC1, Cyclin_B1 and Rad51) were found to be prognostic for survival based on both protein and mRNA expression data.

Conclusions

Through pan-cancer screening, we found that many protein biomarkers were prognostic for patients’ survival in KIRC. Stage-specific survival biomarkers in KIRC were also identified. Our study indicated that these protein biomarkers might have potential clinical value in terms of predicting survival in KIRC patients and developing individualized treatment strategies. Importantly, we found many biomarkers in KIRC at both the mRNA expression level and the protein expression level. These biomarkers shared a significant overlap, indicating that they were technically replicable.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-017-4026-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Unique roles of Akt1 and Akt2 in IGF-IR mediated lung tumorigenesis

AKT is a serine-threonine kinase that becomes hyperactivated in a number of cancers including lung cancer. Based on AKT's association with malignancy, molecules targeting AKT have entered clinical trials for solid tumors including lung cancer. However, the AKT inhibitors being evaluated in clinical trials indiscriminately inhibit all three AKT isoforms (AKT1-3) and it remains unclear whether AKT isoforms have overlapping or divergent functions. Using a transgenic mouse model where IGF-IR overexpression drives lung tumorigenesis, we found that loss of Akt1 inhibited while loss of Akt2 enhanced lung tumor development. Lung tumors that developed in the absence of Akt2 were less likely to appear as discrete nodules and more frequently displayed a dispersed growth pattern. RNA sequencing revealed a number of genes differentially expressed in lung tumors lacking Akt2 and five of these genes, Actc1, Bpifa1, Mmp2, Ntrk2, and Scgb3a2 have been implicated in human lung cancer. Using 2 human lung cancer cell lines, we observed that a selective AKT1 inhibitor, A-674563, was a more potent regulator of cell survival than the pan-AKT inhibitor, MK-2206. This study suggests that compounds selectively targeting AKT1 may prove more effective than compounds that inhibit all three AKT isoforms at least in the treatment of lung adenocarcinoma.

Plasma LUNX mRNA, a non-invasive specific biomarker for diagnosis and prognostic prediction of non-small cell lung cancer

Lung cancer is the most common cancer worldwide. However, no specific biomarker has been found in diagnosis and evaluation of therapeutic efficacy for lung cancer. The human lung-specific X protein gene (LUNX) was recently identified with a feature of lung tissue specificity. We applied the fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction method to examine LUNX mRNA in plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), benign lung diseases, extrapulmonary tumors, and healthy subjects. The results showed that LUNX mRNA in both of plasma and PBMC were significantly higher in lung cancer patients compared to other groups. In plasma, there were higher sensitivity and negative predictive value of LUNX mRNA than in PBMC. Patients with III~IV stages of lung cancer had more LUNX mRNA in plasma than the early stage of lung cancer sufferers. After a period of therapy, significant reductions of plasma LUNX mRNA in patients with I and II stages of lung cancer were found. Levels of plasma LUNX mRNA in patients who had succeeded to respond to therapy decreased compared to prior treatment. On the other hand, the post-treatment level was obviously increased in patients that had failed to respond to therapy. Patients with negative plasma LUNX mRNA after therapy displayed a favorable prognosis and survival rate. These preliminary data suggested that cell-free LUNX mRNA in plasma as a non-invasive biomarker, is superior to peripheral intracellular LUNX mRNA, and plays a critical role in specific diagnosis and prognostic prediction of non-small cell lung cancer.

A brief review on long noncoding RNAs: a new paradigm in breast cancer pathogenesis, diagnosis and therapy

With the development of technologies such as microarrays and RNA deep sequencing, long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have become the focus of cancer investigations. LncRNAs, nonprotein-coding RNA molecules longer than 200 nucleotides, are dysregulated in many human diseases, especially in cancers. Recent studies have demonstrated that lncRNAs play a key regulatory role in gene expression and cancer biology through diverse mechanisms, including chromosome remodeling and transcriptional and post-transcriptional modifications. The expression levels of specific lncRNAs are attributed to prognosis, metastasis, and recurrence of cancer. LncRNAs are often involved in various biological processes, such as regulation of alternative splicing of mRNA, protein activity, and epigenetic modulation or silencing of the microRNAs, via discrete mechanisms. Deregulated levels of lncRNAs are shown in diverse tumors, including breast cancer. Based on latest research data, the tissue-specific expression signature of lncRNAs may represent the potential to discriminate normal and tumor tissue or even the different stages of breast cancer, which makes them clinically beneficial as possible biomarkers in the diagnosis and prognosis or therapeutic targets. In this brief review, we summarize some recent researches in the context of lncRNAs' roles in breast cancer pathogenesis and their potential to serve as diagnostic, predictive, and prognostic biomarkers and novel targets for breast cancer treatment.