Abstract P4-06-18: Targeting basal-like breast cancer through downstream effectors of oncogene cooperation

Basal-like breast cancer is a highly aggressive and lethal form of cancer, not amenable to treatment by molecularly targeted agents or conventional chemotherapy effective against other forms of breast cancer. Thus, discovery of novel intervention targets regulating tumorigenesis in basal-like breast cancer cells is critical. The success of molecularly targeted therapies against some forms of cancer has led to a search for additional cancer cell-specific targets that will permit effective tumor inhibition with minimal damage to normal cells. These efforts are largely focused on identification of novel oncogenes and tumor suppressors by genome sequencing or synthetic lethalities found via genome-wide RNAi screens. We employ a novel approach to identify cancer cell vulnerabilities among genes disregulated downstream of cooperating oncogenic mutations, which drive malignant transformation in large part through synergistic modulation of non-mutated downstream effector genes, the ‘cooperation response genes’ (CRGs) [McMurray et al., Nature, 19 June 2008]. After assessing how common was CRG disregulation in different epithelial cancers, via comparative genomic analysis of CRG expression patterns in tumor vs. normal tissue, we found that 34 CRGs (∼35%) were significantly disregulated in breast cancer. Because of the need for novel intervention targets in basal-like breast cancer, we focused our functional analysis there. We have tested a subset of CRGs disregulated in breast tumors for their contribution to malignancy in basal-like breast cancer cells, re-setting CRG levels toward normal cell levels by stable cDNA expression or shRNA-mediated knock-down and testing tumor formation capacity of perturbed cells. Our studies reveal that CRGs play an essential role in controlling tumor formation of basal-like breast cancer cells, with significant reductions in tumor volume, and in some cases reduced tumor incidence, upon CRG modulation. Disruption of cell behavior appears to be limited to cancer cells, as non-transformed mammary cells harboring analogous perturbations retain capacity to form acinar structures in 3D culture. Several FDA approved pharmacological agents, identified to reverse the CRG expression pattern, display inhibitory effects on basal-like breast cancer cell lines, with minimal effects on non-transformed cells. CRGs thus represent cancer cell-specific vulnerabilities in basal-like breast cancer, providing novel and unexpected opportunities for intervention against this difficult-to-target disease.

Citation Information: Cancer Res 2012;72(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P4-06-18.

Measurements of B(c)+ production and mass with the B(c)+ → J/ψπ+ decay

Measurements of B(c)(+) production and mass are performed with the decay mode B(c)(+)→J/ψπ(+) using 0.37 fb(-1) of data collected in pp collisions at √[s]=7 TeV by the LHCb experiment. The ratio of the production cross section times branching fraction between the B(c)(+)→J/ψπ(+) and the B(+)→J/ψK(+) decays is measured to be (0.68±0.10(stat)±0.03(syst)±0.05(lifetime))% for B(c)(+) and B(+) mesons with transverse momenta p(T)>4 GeV/c and pseudorapidities 2.5<η<4.5. The B(c)(+) mass is directly measured to be 6273.7±1.3(stat)±1.6(syst) MeV/c(2), and the measured mass difference with respect to the B(+) meson is M(B(c)(+))-M(B(+))=994.6±1.3(stat)±0.6(syst) MeV/c(2).

Tunneling-nanotube direction determination in neurons and astrocytes

A tunneling nanotube (TNT) is a newly discovered structure involved in cell-cell communication and is found in various types of cells. Here we identify S100A4 as an extracellular molecule and describe its role in attracting the growth direction of TNTs. Together with its putative receptor, receptor for advanced glycation end product, we demonstrate their involvement in TNT direction guidance. Our results further suggest a mechanism for direction guidance of TNTs. In TNT-initiating cells, p53 activates caspase-3, which leads to S100A4 cleavage and its subsequent decrease in cellular concentration. The decrease in cellular S100A4 induces the formation of a gradient of S100A4, from a low concentration in initiating cells toward a high concentration in target cells. This concentration gradient of S100A4 induces direction guidance for TNTs.

Knock-down of USP22 by small interfering RNA interference inhibits HepG2 cell proliferation and induces cell cycle arrest

The Ubiquitin--specific protease 22 (USP22) is a new putative cancer stem cell marker, which plays a significant role in tumorigenesis and cell--cycle progression. However, little is known about the impact of USP22 knock--down on the growth of human hepatoma cell lines. In this study, elevated expression of USP22 was observed in the human HepG2 hepatic cancer cell line compared to the normal human hepatocyte Chang liver cell line. Subsequently, we used siRNA specifically suppressing expression of USP22 and observed that the knock--down of USP22 could effectively induce cell cycle arrest and inhibit HepG2 cell proliferation. Furthermore, our results showed that USP22 deletion caused down--regulation of cyclin D2 expression and up--regulation of p15 and p21 expression. Collectively, Our findings indicate that USP22 may be responsible for HepG2 cell growth and USP22 regulates the cell cycle via the c--Myc/cyclin D2 pathway and down--regulating p15 and p21 expression in HepG2 cell.

Electroacupuncture alleviates affective pain in an inflammatory pain rat model

Pain has both sensory-discriminative and emotional-affective dimensions. Previous studies demonstrate that electroacupuncture (EA) alleviates the sensory dimension but do not address the affective. An inflammatory pain rat model, produced by a complete Freund adjuvant (CFA) injection into the hind paw, was combined with a conditioned place avoidance (CPA) test to determine whether EA inhibits spontaneous pain-induced affective response and, if so, to study the possibility that rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) opioids underlie this effect. Male Sprague-Dawley rats (250-275 g, Harlan) were used. The rats showed place aversion (i.e. affective pain) by spending less time in a pain-paired compartment after conditioning than during a preconditioning test. Systemic non-analgesic morphine (0.5 and 1.0 mg/kg, i.p.) inhibited the affective reaction, suggesting that the affective dimension is underpinned by mechanisms different from those of the sensory dimension of pain. Morphine at 0.5 and at 1 mg/kg did not induce reward. Rats given EA treatment before pain-paired conditioning at GB 30 showed no aversion to the pain-paired compartment, indicating that EA inhibited the affective dimension. EA treatment did not produce reward or aversive effect. Intra-rACC administration of D-Phe-Cys-Tyr-D-Trp-Orn-Thr-Pen-Thr amide (CTOP), a selective mu opioid receptor antagonist, but not norbinaltorphimine (nor-BNI), a selective kappa opioid receptor antagonist, blocked EA inhibition of the affective dimension. These data demonstrate that EA activates opioid receptors in the rACC to inhibit pain-induced affective responses and that EA may be an effective therapy for both the sensory-discriminative and the affective dimensions of pain.

IL-17 and IFN-γ production in peripheral blood following BCG vaccination and Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in human

BACKGROUND

During Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection, cells of the immune system rely on cytokines to regulate the activity of other immune and structural cells such as IFN-gamma and IL-4. Recent studies suggest that Th17 cells secreting IL-17 may play a potential role in tuberculosis (TB) development.

AIM

To assess the effect of IL-17 on TB development, we provide a systematic review on the production of IL-17, IFN-gamma and IL-4 in infants or children vaccinated with BCG and in TB patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The literature relevant with IL-17 and IFN-gamma production with or without IL-4 on human TB was retrieved from PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, BIOSIS Previews and the China Biomedicine Literature Databases (CBM) using the search terms "Interleukin-17 or Th17 cells" and "Tuberculosis". The information of included studies, the production of IL-17 and IFN-gamma responding to antigens in the peripheral blood in vitro, was independently extracted by the first two researchers and subsequently qualitatively analyzed.

RESULTS

Nine studies from a total of 226 retrieved publications met the criteria. These included studies showed that BCG vaccination induced dramatically high level of IL-17 similar to IFN-gamma; The level of IL-17 and IFN-gamma were low while IL-4 was high in patients with active TB; IL-17 and IFN-gamma had a similar trend of increase during the conversion from active to latent TB while IL-4 inclined to decrease in this process.

CONCLUSIONS

IL-17 acts as an effector molecule similar to IFN-gamma after BCG vaccination and Mtb infection to protect human against TB. The current findings do not support IL-17 as an inducer of tissue damage in TB.

Self-assembly of montmorillonite platelets during drying

This work is prompted by the quest for nanocomposites in which ordered, layered reinforcement preforms similar in structure to the arrangements seen in nacre are achieved without complex automated layer-by-layer assembly. Lamellar structures were obtained in montmorillonite films simply by slow drying without the use of additives. Clay alignment was found in films derived from suspensions of less than 0.9 vol%, ranging over a pH range of 2-11, at low drying rates and with both the natural ionic strength of the clay suspension and adjusted ionic strength. The greatest degree of order was found at the unadjusted pH and ionic strength. This method offers a potentially simple way of preparing clay preforms for polymer-clay nanocomposites at a drying rate at or below 23 nm s(-1).

Retrospective analysis of ten cases of congenital sublingual teratoid cyst

AIM

The aims of this study were to perform clinicopathological analyses of teratoid cysts of the floor of the mouth and to assess the possibility of surgical treatment.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The incidence, manifestations, histogenesis, treatment and prognosis of 10 patients admitted to our department between April 2000 and May 2008 were reviewed.

RESULTS

Teratoid cysts occurred almost exclusively in neonates and children, and appeared as mobile, cystic solid and well-defined lesions. Because of the special location, consequences such as difficulty in feeding, breathing and even impairment in growth and development frequently occur. Results of histological examination indicated that squamous, respiratory and gastrointestinal epithelium composed the basic structure of teratoid cyst. Transonogram, CT and MRI examination were conducted, and complete surgical excision was the only treatment of choice. Usually, immediate treatment is not necessary unless the cyst obstructs the upper airway. There has been no recurrence of the lesion after surgery.

CONCLUSION

Although teratoid cyst of the floor of the mouth is a cystic disease, it affects patients to a great extent because of its special location. Therefore, early and complete excision is mandatory for good prognosis.

A comparison of the clinical characteristics of women with recurrent major depression with and without suicidal symptomatology

BACKGROUND

The relationship between recurrent major depression (MD) in women and suicidality is complex. We investigated the extent to which patients who suffered with various forms of suicidal symptomatology can be distinguished from those subjects without such symptoms.

METHOD

We examined the clinical features of the worst episode in 1970 Han Chinese women with recurrent DSM-IV MD between the ages of 30 and 60 years from across China. Student's t tests, and logistic and multiple logistic regression models were used to determine the association between suicidality and other clinical features of MD.

RESULTS

Suicidal symptomatology is significantly associated with a more severe form of MD, as indexed by both the number of episodes and number of MD symptoms. Patients reporting suicidal thoughts, plans or attempts experienced a significantly greater number of stressful life events. The depressive symptom most strongly associated with lifetime suicide attempt was feelings of worthlessness (odds ratio 4.25, 95% confidence interval 2.9-6.3). Excessive guilt, diminished concentration and impaired decision-making were also significantly associated with a suicide attempt.

CONCLUSIONS

This study contributes to the existing literature on risk factors for suicidal symptomatology in depressed women. Identifying specific depressive symptoms and co-morbid psychiatric disorders may help improve the clinical assessment of suicide risk in depressed patients. These findings could be helpful in identifying those who need more intense treatment strategies in order to prevent suicide.

Preoperative T staging of advanced gastric cancer using double contrast-enhanced ultrasound

PURPOSE

To determine the accuracy of double contrast-enhanced ultrasound (DCEUS), in which intravenous microbubbles are used together with an oral contrast agent, in the preoperative T staging of advanced gastric cancer.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This prospective, ethics committee-approved study recruited 350 patients who gave informed consent. All had gastric cancer proved by endoscopic biopsy and underwent preoperative ultrasound staging using the TNM classification (UICC 2002). The results of DCEUS were compared with postoperative pathologic findings. The staging accuracy of oral contrast-enhanced ultrasound (OCEUS) and DCEUS were compared to each other. Sensitivity and specificity for assessing serosal involvement by DCEUS were evaluated, and the concordance of this method was analyzed using Kappa statistics.

RESULTS

The accuracies of OCEUS and DCEUS in determining the T stage of advanced gastric cancer were 75.1 % (70.4 % for T2, 79.5 % for T3, 68.1 % for T4) and 87.4 % (83.3 % for T2, 89.7 % for T3, 87.2 % for T4), respectively, and the difference between the two methods was statistically significant (χ2 = 17.364, p< 0.001). The performance of DCEUS for staging lesions in the cardia (69.81 %), fundus (85.71 %) and body (85.56 %) had lower accuracy than that of other parts (93.94 % for antrum; 92.11 % for pylorus). Sensitivity and specificity for assessing serosal involvement by DCEUS were 98.76 % and 83.33 % respectively. The reliability was almost perfect with Kappa values of 0.89 (p< 0.001) for intra-observer and 0.82 (p< 0.001) for inter-observer agreement.

CONCLUSION

DCEUS could be considered as an accurate, non-invasive, and reliable diagnostic method for preoperative staging of advanced gastric cancer.

Cytokines induced by long-term potentiation (LTP) recording: a potential explanation for the lack of correspondence between learning/memory performance and LTP

The relationship between learning/memory performance and long-term potentiation (LTP) induction is ambiguous. Although a large body of data supports a strong correspondence between learning/memory performance and LTP, many studies have also provided evidence to the contrary. In this study, we found that 2-month-old senescence-accelerated mice/prone 8 (SAMP8 mice) displayed both impaired performance in a Morris Water Maze (MWM) and enhanced LTP compared to senescence-accelerated mice/resistance 1 (SAMR1). BALB/c mice challenged with Complete Freund's Adjuvant (CFA) performed better in the shuttle-box test but displayed impaired LTP compared to intact animals. It is interesting that BALB/c mice challenged with Incomplete Freund's Adjuvant (IFA) performed better than intact animals, with no LTP impairment. Cytokine analysis showed no significant differences between the interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-10 (IL-10) or TNF-α content in the intact hippocampal tissues of either the SAMR1 and SAMP8 mice or the immune-challenged BALB/c and intact animals. Further analysis demonstrated that the increase in cytokine content was higher in the hippocampal tissues used for LTP recording in the SAMR1 and CFA-challenged animals compared to the SAMP8 and intact BALB/c mice. A correlation analysis demonstrated that pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-6 and TNF-α) displayed a negative correlation with LTP, while an anti-inflammatory cytokine (IL-10) displayed a positive correlation with LTP. These results suggest that pro-inflammatory cytokines induced by LTP manipulation in experiments (e.g., via tissue injury caused by electrode insertion) may be one of the factors contributing to the observed lack of correspondence between memory/learning ability and LTP.

Impact of atomic structure on the magnon dispersion relation: a comparison between Fe(111)/Au/W(110) and Fe(110)/W(110)

We present a combined experimental and theoretical study of the interplay between the atomic structure and the magnon excitations in low dimensional ferromagnets. Two monolayer thick Fe films on W(110) with and without a Au buffer layer are investigated. Our experiments show that adding the Au layer leads to a significant softening of the magnons. First-principles calculations confirm the experimental results revealing a strong dependency of exchange interactions on the atomic structure. It is observed that the intralayer exchange interactions increase with increasing distance between Fe layers. This unusual relationship is attributed to the complexity of the electronic structure and the contribution of different orbitals to the hybridization and exchange interaction. Our results suggest a way of tailoring magnetic excitations in low-dimensional magnetic structures.

Elevated serum concentrations of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines in patients with haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome

OBJECTIVE

Prospective case-control study, undertaken to investigate serum cytokine and chemokine concentrations during all clinical phases and in different clinical types of haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS).

METHODS

Serum was collected at various disease phases from patients with HFRS (n = 35) and healthy control subjects (n = 10). Tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-6, IL-4, interferon (IFN)-γ, IL-8, interferon inducible protein-10 (IP-10) and chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 5 (also known as 'regulated upon activation, normal T-cell expressed and secreted' [RANTES]) were quantified using commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits.

RESULTS

Serum concentrations of TNF-α, IL-6, IFN-γ, IL-8, IP-10 and RANTES (but not IL-4) were significantly higher in patients compared with controls. Highest concentrations were generally found during the febrile, hypotensive and oliguric disease phases, as well as in clinically severe and critical cases.

CONCLUSION

Serum concentrations of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines increased in line with disease severity in HFRS patients.

Spin fluctuations of paramagnetic Rh clusters revealed by x-ray magnetic circular dichroism

The magnetic moment induced on Rh atoms, forming 1.6 nm average diameter clusters, embedded in an Al(2)O(3) matrix, has been determined using x-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurements. The magnetic moment varies linearly with the applied magnetic field. At 2.3 K and under 17 T, the spin magnetic moment amounts to 0.067(2) μ(B)/Rh atom. The orbital moment does not exceed 2% of the spin moment. The susceptibility is highly temperature dependent. This is in agreement with a prediction due to Moriya and Kawabata, that in itinerant electron systems, close to the onset of magnetism, the renormalization of the magnetic susceptibility by electron correlations, leads to a Curie-like behavior.

Severity of portal hypertension and prediction of postoperative liver failure after liver resection in patients with Child–Pugh grade A cirrhosis

Background

Patients with Child–Pugh grade A cirrhosis and clinical evidence of portal hypertension are likely to develop posthepatectomy liver failure (PHLF). Whether such patients are suitable candidates for partial hepatectomy is controversial. This study explored the impact of portal venous pressure (PVP) on PHLF and the possibility of stratifying patients with Child–Pugh grade A cirrhosis for risk of PHLF using clinical data alone.

Methods

Between April 2009 and May 2011, consecutive patients who underwent partial hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma and intraoperative measurement of PVP were included in this prospective study. Using signs of clinically significant portal hypertension (CSPH), patients with Child–Pugh grade A cirrhosis were subclassified into three groups: no, mild and severe CSPH. Risk factors for PHLF were subjected to univariable and multivariable analysis, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.

Results

Sixty-seven (35·3 per cent) of 190 patients developed PHLF, which was persistent in 12 patients (6·3 per cent). Four patients (2·1 per cent) died from PHLF within 3 months of surgery. Multivariable analysis showed both PVP and CSPH to be independent predictors of PHLF (P &lt; 0·001). PVP values, incidence of PHLF and persistent PHLF were significantly higher in the severe CSPH group than in the other two groups (P &lt; 0·001). Severe CSPH (odds ratio 27·68, P = 0·005) and a preoperative neutrophil : lymphocyte ratio (NLR) of 2·8 or above (odds ratio 49·75, P = 0·002) were independent factors affecting the incidence of persistent PHLF.

Conclusion

The severity of CSPH, corresponding to different PVP levels, could be used to stratify patients with Child-Pugh grade A cirrhosis and to predict the incidence of PHLF. Patients with severe CSPH or a NLR of 2·8 or above were more likely to develop persistent PHLF after partial hepatectomy.