Alterations in Plasma Lipid Profiles Associated with Melanoma and Therapy Resistance

Dysfunctions of lipid metabolism are associated with tumor progression and treatment resistance of cutaneous melanoma. BRAF/MEK inhibitor resistance is linked to alterations of melanoma lipid pathways. We evaluated whether a specific lipid pattern characterizes plasma from melanoma patients and their response to therapy. Plasma samples from patients and controls were analyzed for FASN and DHCR24 levels and lipidomic profiles. FASN and DHCR24 expression resulted in association with disease condition and related to plasma cholesterol and triglycerides in patients at different disease stages (n = 144) as compared to controls (n = 115). Untargeted lipidomics in plasma (n = 40) from advanced disease patients and controls revealed altered levels of different lipids, including fatty acid derivatives and sphingolipids. Targeted lipidomics identified higher levels of dihydroceramides, ceramides, sphingomyelins, ganglioside GM3, sphingosine, sphingosine-1-phosphate, and dihydrosphingosine, saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. When melanoma patients were stratified based on a long/short-term clinical response to kinase inhibitors, differences in plasma levels were shown for saturated fatty acids (FA 16:0, FA18:0) and oleic acid (FA18:1). Our results associated altered levels of selected lipid species in plasma of melanoma patients with a more favorable prognosis. Although obtained in a small cohort, these results pave the way to lipidomic profiling for melanoma patient stratification.

Plasma Lipid Profiling of Three Types of Drug-Induced Liver Injury in Japanese Patients: A Preliminary Study

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is a major adverse event caused by drug treatment, which can be categorized into three types: hepatocellular, mixed, and cholestatic. Although nearly every class of drugs can cause DILI, an overall understanding of lipid profiles in DILI patients is lacking. We used lipidomics to analyze the plasma lipid profiles of patients to understand their hepatic pathophysiology and identify DILI biomarkers. We identified 463 lipids and compared their levels between the acute and recovery phases of the three types of DILI patients. Mixed and cholestatic types demonstrated specific plasma lipid alterations between the phases, but the hepatocellular type did not. Moreover, as specific indicators of mixed-type DILI, levels of several ceramides increased in the acute phase, while those of arachidonic acid-containing ether-linked phosphoglycerolipids decreased. In contrast, as specific indicators of cholestatic-type DILI, levels of palmitic acid-containing saturated or monounsaturated phosphatidylcholines increased in the acute phase, while those of arachidonic acid- or docosahexaenoic acid-containing ether-linked phosphoglycerolipids and phosphatidylinositols decreased. We also identified lipids with a relatively high capacity to discriminate the acute phase from the recovery phase and healthy subjects. These findings may help with understanding the pathophysiology of different DILI types and identify candidate biomarkers.

Alterations of Plasma lipid profile patterns in oral leukoplakia

BACKGROUND

Oral cancer is associated initially by the presence of pre-malignant lesions or pre-malignant conditions. Oral Leukoplakia is one of the best-known pre-malignant lesions in the oral cavity that have the highest rate of malignant transformation. Numerous studies have shown an altered lipid profile in various cancers including head and neck cancers. An inverse relationship between plasma lipid profiles has been seen in oral cancer and pre-cancerous subjects. The present study evaluated the plasma lipid profiles in oral leukoplakia and controls.

MATERIALS & METHODS

This study was done in department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Sibar dental College and Konacc diagnostics. 30 patients were included in the study (15 patients with oral leukoplakia (histo-pathologically proven) and 15 patients for comparison of results as controls). Patients with cardiovascular diseases, uncontrolled diabetes mellitus, acute hepatitis and nephrosis were excluded from the sample and lipid profile assay was done by fully automated biochemistry analyser (EM-360). Paired-t and Scheffe tests were used to find statistical significance between two groups.

RESULTS

The plasma lipid levels were estimated in between the two groups by arithmetic mean along with standard deviation. The lipid parameters included were Total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, VLDL, Triglycerides. The lipid parameters of the patients in between the two groups were compared and analysed.

CONCLUSION

In this study TC, HDL, LDL, Triglyceride level analysis showed slightly lower levels in oral leukoplakia patients than that of the controls. Higher VLDL levels were observed in leukoplakia than the control group. How to cite the article: Mahesh N, Rahamthullah SA, Naidu GM, Rajesh A, Babu PR, Reddy JM. Alterations of Plasma lipid profile patterns in oral leukoplakia. J Int Oral Health 2014;6(1):78-84.