Evaluation of ERG responsive proteome in prostate cancer

Monoamine oxidase A: An emerging therapeutic target in prostate cancer

Monoamine oxidase A (MAOA), a mitochondrial enzyme degrading biogenic and dietary amines, has been studied in the contexts of neuropsychiatry and neurological disorders for decades, but its importance in oncology, as best exemplified in prostate cancer (PC) to date, was only realized recently. PC is the most commonly diagnosed non-skin cancer and the second deadliest malignancy for men in the United States. In PC, the increased expression level of MAOA is correlated with dedifferentiated tissue microarchitecture and a worse prognosis. A wealth of literature has demonstrated that MAOA promotes growth, metastasis, stemness and therapy resistance in PC, mainly by increasing oxidative stress, augmenting hypoxia, inducing epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, and activating the downstream principal transcription factor Twist1-dictated multiple context-dependent signaling cascades. Cancer-cell-derived MAOA also enables cancer-stromal cell interaction involving bone stromal cells and nerve cells by secretion of Hedgehog and class 3 semaphorin molecules respectively to modulate the tumor microenvironment in favor of invasion and metastasis. Further, MAOA in prostate stromal cells promotes PC tumorigenesis and stemness. Current studies suggest that MAOA functions in PC in both cell autonomous and non-autonomous manners. Importantly, clinically available monoamine oxidase inhibitors have shown promising results against PC in preclinical models and clinical trials, providing a great opportunity to repurpose them as a PC therapy. Here, we summarize recent advances in our understanding of MAOA roles and mechanisms in PC, present several MAOA-targeted strategies that have been nominated for treating PC, and discuss the unknowns of MAOA function and targeting in PC for future exploration.

Proteomic Landscape of Prostate Cancer: The View Provided by Quantitative Proteomics, Integrative Analyses, and Protein Interactomes

Prostate cancer is the second most frequent cancer of men worldwide. While the genetic landscapes and heterogeneity of prostate cancer are relatively well-known already, methodological developments now allow for studying basic and dynamic proteomes on a large scale and in a quantitative fashion. This aids in revealing the functional output of cancer genomes. It has become evident that not all aberrations at the genetic and transcriptional level are translated to the proteome. In addition, the proteomic level contains heterogeneity, which increases as the cancer progresses from primary prostate cancer (PCa) to metastatic and castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). While multiple aspects of prostate adenocarcinoma proteomes have been studied, less is known about proteomes of neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC). In this review, we summarize recent developments in prostate cancer proteomics, concentrating on the proteomic landscapes of clinical prostate cancer, cell line and mouse model proteomes interrogating prostate cancer-relevant signaling and alterations, and key prostate cancer regulator interactomes, such as those of the androgen receptor (AR). Compared to genomic and transcriptomic analyses, the view provided by proteomics brings forward changes in prostate cancer metabolism, post-transcriptional RNA regulation, and post-translational protein regulatory pathways, requiring the full attention of studies in the future.

Classification of Homo sapiens gene behavior using linear discriminant analysis fused with minimum entropy mapping

Classification of Homo sapiens gene behavior employing computational biology is a recent research trend. But monitoring gene activity profile and genetic behavior from the alphabetic DNA sequence using a non-invasive method is a tremendous challenge in functional genomics. The present paper addresses such issue and attempts to differentiate Homo sapiens genes using linear discriminant analysis (LDA) method. Annotated protein coding sequences of Homo sapiens genes, collected from NCBI, are taken as test samples. Minimum entropy-based mapping (MEM) technique assists to extract highest information from the numerical DNA sequences. The proposed LDA technique has successfully classified Homo sapiens genes based on the following features: composition of hydrophilic amino acids, dominance of arginine amino acid, and magnitude and size of individual amino acids. The proposed algorithm is successfully tested on 84 Homo sapiens healthy and cancer genes of the prostate and breast cells. Classification performance of the proposed LDA technique is judged by sensitivity (89.12%), specificity (91.9%), accuracy (90.87%), F1 score (92.03%), Matthews' correlation coefficients (81.04%), and miss rate (9.12%), and it outperforms other four existing classifiers. The results are cross-validated through Rayleigh PDF and mutual information technique. Fisher test, 2-sample T-test, and relative entropy test are considered to verify the efficacy of the present classifier.

SFRP1 increases TMPRSS2-ERG expression promoting neoplastic features in prostate cancer in vitro and in vivo

Background

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second cause of cancer related death in North American men. Androgens play an important role in its progression by regulating the expression of several genes including fusion ones that results from structural chromosome rearrangements. TMPRSS2-ERG is a fusion gene commonly observed in over 50% of PCa tumors, and its expression can be transcriptionally regulated by the androgen receptor (AR) given its androgen responsive elements. TMPRSS2-ERG could be involved in epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) during tumor development. ERG has been reported as a key transcriptional factor in the AR-ERG-WNT network where five SFRP proteins, structurally similar to WNT ligands and considered to be WNT pathway antagonists, can regulate signaling in the extracellular space  by binding to WNT proteins or Frizzled receptors. It has been shown that over-expression of SFRP1 protein can regulate the transcriptional activity of AR and inhibits the formation of colonies in LNCaP cells. However, the effect of SFRP1 has been controversial since differential effects have been observed depending on its concentration and tissue location. In this study, we explored the role of exogenous SFRP1 protein in cells expressing the TMPRSS2-ERG fusion.

Methods

To evaluate the effect of exogenous SFRP1 protein on PCa cells expressing TMPRSS2-ERG, we performed in silico analysis from TCGA cohort, expression assays by RT-qPCR and Western blot, cell viability and cell cycle measurements by cytometry, migration and invasion assays by xCELLigance system and murine xenografts.

Results

We demonstrated that SFRP1 protein increased ERG expression by promoting cellular migration in vitro and increasing tumor growth in vivo in PCa cells with the TMPRSS2-ERG fusion.

Conclusions

These results suggest the possible role of exogenous SFRP1 protein as a modulator of AR-ERG-WNT signaling network in cells positive to TMPRSS2-ERG. Further, investigation is needed to determine if SFRP1 protein could be a target in against this type of PCa.

Molecular profiling of radical prostatectomy tissue from patients with no sign of progression identifies ERG as the strongest independent predictor of recurrence

BACKGROUND

As a major cause of morbidity and mortality among men, prostate cancer is a heterogenous disease, with a vast heterogeneity in the biology of the disease and in clinical outcome. While it often runs an indolent course, local progression or metastasis may eventually develop, even among patients considered "low risk" at diagnosis. Therefore, biomarkers that can discriminate aggressive from indolent disease at an early stage would greatly benefit patients. We hypothesized that tissue specimens from early stage prostate cancers may harbor predictive signatures for disease progression.

METHODS

We used a cohort of radical prostatectomy patients with longitudinal follow-up, who had tumors with low grade and stage that revealed no signs of future disease progression at surgery. During the follow-up period, some patients either remained indolent (non-BCR) or progressed to biochemical recurrence (BCR). Total RNA was extracted from tumor, and adjacent normal epithelium of formalin-fixed-paraffin-embedded (FFPE) specimens. Differential gene expression in tumors, and in tumor versus normal tissues between BCR and non-BCR patients were analyzed by NanoString using a customized CodeSet of 151 probes.

RESULTS

After controlling for false discovery rates, we identified a panel of eight genes (ERG, GGT1, HDAC1, KLK2, MYO6, PLA2G7, BICD1 and CACNAID) that distinguished BCR from non-BCR patients. We found a clear association of ERG expression with non-BCR, which was further corroborated by quantitative RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry assays.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results identified ERG as the strongest predictor for BCR and showed that potential prognostic prostate cancer biomarkers can be identified from FFPE tumor specimens.

Characterization of the ERG-regulated Kinome in Prostate Cancer Identifies TNIK as a Potential Therapeutic Target

Approximately 50% of prostate cancers harbor the TMPRSS2:ERG fusion, resulting in elevated expression of the ERG transcription factor. Despite the identification of this subclass of prostate cancers, no personalized therapeutic strategies have achieved clinical implementation. Kinases are attractive therapeutic targets as signaling networks are commonly perturbed in cancers. The impact of elevated ERG expression on kinase signaling networks in prostate cancer has not been investigated. Resolution of this issue may identify novel therapeutic approaches for ERG-positive prostate cancers. In this study, we used quantitative mass spectrometry-based kinomic profiling to identify ERG-mediated changes to cellular signaling networks. We identified 76 kinases that were differentially expressed and/or phosphorylated in DU145 cells engineered to express ERG. In particular, the Traf2 and Nck-interacting kinase (TNIK) was markedly upregulated and phosphorylated on multiple sites upon ERG overexpression. Importantly, TNIK has not previously been implicated in prostate cancer. To validate the clinical relevance of these findings, we characterized expression of TNIK and TNIK phosphorylated at serine 764 (pS764) in a localized prostate cancer patient cohort and showed that nuclear enrichment of TNIK (pS764) was significantly positively correlated with ERG expression. Moreover, TNIK protein levels were dependent upon ERG expression in VCaP cells and primary cells established from a prostate cancer patient-derived xenograft. Furthermore, reduction of TNIK expression and activity by silencing TNIK expression or using the TNIK inhibitor NCB-0846 reduced cell viability, colony formation and anchorage independent growth. Therefore, TNIK represents a novel and actionable therapeutic target for ERG-positive prostate cancers that could be exploited to develop new treatments for these patients.

Potentiating prostate cancer immunotherapy with oncolytic viruses

The clinical effectiveness of immunotherapies for prostate cancer remains subpar compared with that for other cancers. The goal of most immunotherapies is the activation of immune effectors, such as T cells and natural killer cells, as the presence of these activated mediators positively correlates with patient outcomes. Clinical evidence shows that prostate cancer is immunogenic, accessible to the immune system, and can be targeted by antitumour immune responses. However, owing to the detrimental effects of prostate-cancer-associated immunosuppression, even the newest immunotherapeutic approaches fail to initiate the clinically desired antitumour immune reaction. Oncolytic viruses, originally used for their preferential cancer-killing activity, are now being recognized for their ability to overturn cancer-associated immune evasion and promote otherwise absent antitumour immunity. This oncolytic-virus-induced subversion of tumour-associated immunosuppression can potentiate the effectiveness of current immunotherapeutics, including immune checkpoint inhibitors (for example, antibodies against programmed cell death protein 1 (PD1), programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 (PDL1), and cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA4)) and chemotherapeutics that induce immunogenic cell death (for example, doxorubicin and oxaliplatin). Importantly, oncolytic-virus-induced antitumour immunity targets existing prostate cancer cells and also establishes long-term protection against future relapse. Hence, the strategic use of oncolytic viruses as monotherapies or in combination with current immunotherapies might result in the next breakthrough in prostate cancer immunotherapy.

High BCAR1 expression is associated with early PSA recurrence in ERG negative prostate cancer

BACKGROUND

Breast cancer anti-estrogen resistance 1 (BCAR1/p130cas) is a hub for diverse oncogenic signaling cascades and promotes tumor development and progression.

METHODS

To understand the effect of BCAR1 in prostate cancer, we analyzed its expression on more than 11,000 prostate cancer samples. BCAR1 expression levels were compared with clinical characteristics, PSA recurrence, molecular subtype defined by ERG status and 3p, 5q, 6q and PTEN deletion.

RESULTS

BCAR1 staining was barely detectable in normal prostate glands but seen in 77.6% of 9472 interpretable cancers, including strong expression in 38.5%, moderate in 23.2% and weak in 15.9% of cases. BCAR1 up regulation was associated with positive ERG status (p < 0.0001), high Gleason score (p < 0.0001), advanced pathological tumor stage (p = 0.0082), lower preoperative PSA level (p < 0.0001), increased cell proliferation (p < 0.0001), early PSA recurrence (p = 0.0008), and predicted prognosis independently from clinico-pathological parameters available at the time of the initial biopsy. However, subset analyses revealed that the prognostic impact of BCAR1 expression was limited to ERG-negative cancer. That BCAR1 up regulation was linked to almost all analyzed deletions (p < 0.0001 each for PTEN, 5q, 6q deletion) may suggest a functional link to genomic instability.

CONCLUSION

The results of our study identify BCAR1 as a prognostic biomarker with potential clinical value for risk stratification of ERG-negative prostate cancer.

Quantitative Mass Spectrometry-Based Proteomic Profiling for Precision Medicine in Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most frequently diagnosed cancer among men in the western societies. Many PCa patients bear tumors that will not threat their lives if left untreated or if treatment is delayed. Our inability for early identification of these patients has resulted in massive overtreatment. Therefore, there is a great need of finding biomarkers for patient stratification according to prognostic risk; as well as there is a need for novel targets that can allow the development of effective treatments for patients that progress to castration-resistant PCa. Most biomarkers in cancer are proteins, including the widely-used prostate-specific antigen (PSA). Recent developments in mass spectrometry allow the identification and quantification of thousands of proteins and posttranslational modifications from small amounts of biological material, including formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues, and biological fluids. Novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers have been identified in tissue, blood, urine, and seminal plasma of PCa patients, and new insights in the ethology and progression of this disease have been achieved using this technology. In this review, we summarize these findings and discuss the potential of this technology to pave the way toward the clinical implementation of precision medicine in PCa.

Gender proteomics II. Which proteins in sexual organs

In continuity with the review dealing with differences by gender in non-sexual organs [1], this review collects data on the proteomes of the sexual organs as involved in human reproduction, under both physiological and pathological conditions. It also collects data on the tissue structures and biological fluids typical of pregnancy, such as placenta and amniotic fluid, as well as what may be tested on preimplantation embryos during medically assisted reproduction. The review includes as well mention to all fluids and secretions connected with sex organs and/or reproduction, including sperm and milk, to exemplify two distinctive items in male and female physiology.

SIGNIFICANCE

The causes of infertility are only incompletely understood; the same holds for the causes, and even the early markers, of the most frequent complications of pregnancy. To these established medical challenges, present day practice adds new issues connected with medically assisted reproduction. Omics approaches, including proteomics, are building the database for basic knowledge to possibly translate into clinical testing and eventually into medical routine in this critical branch of health care.

Distinct outcomes of CRL-Nedd8 pathway inhibition reveal cancer cell plasticity

Inhibition of protein degradation by blocking Cullin-RING E3 ligases (CRLs) is a new approach in cancer therapy though of unknown risk because CRL inhibition may stabilize both oncoproteins and tumor suppressors. Probing CRLs in prostate cancer cells revealed a remarkable plasticity of cells with TMPRSS2-ERG translocation. CRL suppression by chemical inhibition or knockdown of RING component RBX1 led to reversible G0/G1 cell cycle arrest that prevented cell apoptosis. Conversely, complete blocking of CRLs at a higher inhibitor dose-induced cytotoxicity that was amplified by knockdown of CRL regulator Cand1. We analyzed cell signaling to understand how varying degrees of CRL inhibition translated to distinct cell fates. Both tumor suppressor and oncogenic cell signaling pathways and transcriptional activities were affected, with pro-metastatic Wnt/β-catenin as the most upregulated. Suppression of the NF-κB pathway contributed to anti-apoptotic effect, and androgen receptor (AR) and ERG played decisive, though opposite, roles: AR was involved in protective quiescence, whereas ERG promoted apoptosis. These data define AR–ERG interaction as a key plasticity and survival determinant in prostate cancer and suggest supplementary treatments that may overcome drug resistance mechanisms regulated by AR–ERG interaction.

Functional analysis of keratinocyte and fibroblast gene expression in skin and keloid scar tissue based on deviation analysis of dynamic capabilities

The aim of the present study was to select key genes that are associated with fibroblasts and keratinocytes during keloid scar progression and development. The gene expression profile of GSE44270, which includes 32 samples, was downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in case samples compared with control samples were screened using the Limma R package followed by hierarchical clustering analysis. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks of the total selected DEGs were constructed using Cytoscape. Moreover, the Gene Ontology biological processes and significant Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways of the total selected DEGs were enriched using the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery. Significant pathways that may be associated with keloid scar were analyzed using deviation analysis of dynamic capabilities. There were 658 DEGs in fibroblast keloid vs. normal, 112 DEGs in fibroblast non-lesion vs. normal, 439 DEGs in fibroblast keloid vs. non-lesion, 523 DEGs in keratocyte keloid vs. normal, 186 DEGs in keratocyte non-lesion vs. normal, and 963 DEGs in keratocyte keloid vs. non-lesion groups. HOXA9, BMP4, CDKN1A and SMAD2 in fibroblasts, and HOXA7, MCM8, PSMA4 and PSMB2 in keratinocytes were key genes in the PPI networks. Moreover, the amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism pathway, cell cycle, and extracellular matrix (ECM)-receptor interaction pathway were significant pathways. This study suggests that several key genes (BMP4, HOXA9, SMAD2, CDKN1A, HOXA7, PSMA4 and PSMB2) that participate in some significant pathways (cell cycle and ECM-receptor interaction pathways) may be potential therapeutic targets for keloid scars.

Promoter methylation of the immune checkpoint receptor PD-1 (PDCD1) is an independent prognostic biomarker for biochemical recurrence-free survival in prostate cancer patients following radical prostatectomy

Biomarkers that facilitate the prediction of disease recurrence in prostate cancer (PCa) may enable physicians to personalize treatment for individual patients. In the current study, PD-1 (PDCD1) promoter methylation was assessed in a cohort of 498 PCa patients included in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and a second cohort of 300 PCa cases treated at the University Hospital of Bonn. In the TCGA cohort, the PD-1 promoter was significantly hypermethylated in carcinomas versus normal prostatic epithelium (55.5% vs. 38.2%, p < 0.001) and PD-1 methylation (mPD-1) inversely correlated with PD-1 mRNA expression in PCa (Spearman's ρ = -0.415, p < 0.001). In both cohorts, mPD-1 significantly correlated with preoperative prostate specific antigen (PSA). In univariate Cox Proportional Hazard analysis, mPD-1 served as a significant prognostic factor for biochemical recurrence (BCR)-free survival (Hazard ratio: HR = 2.35 [1.35-4.10], p = 0.003, n = 410) in the TCGA cohort. In multivariate analysis, mPD-1 was shown to add significant independent prognostic information adjunct to pathologic tumor category (pT) and Gleason grading group (HR = 2.08 [1.16-3.74], p = 0.014, n = 350). PD-1 promoter methylation analyses could thus potentially aid the identification of patients which might benefit from adjuvant treatment after radical prostatectomy. Moreover, our data suggest an intrinsic role of PD-1 in PCa carcinogenesis and disease progression, which needs to be addressed in future studies.

Evaluation of the methods to identify patients who may benefit from PARP inhibitor use

The effectiveness of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors (PARPi) in treating cancers associated with BRCA1/2 mutations hinges upon the concept of synthetic lethality and exemplifies the principles of precision medicine. Currently, most clinical trials are recruiting patients based on pathological subtypes or have included BRCA mutation analysis (germ line and/or somatic) as part of the selection criteria. Mounting evidence, however, suggests that these drugs may also be efficacious in tumors with defects in other genes involved in the homologous recombination repair pathway. Advances in molecular profiling techniques together with increased research efforts have led to a better understanding of the molecular aberrations underlying this BRCA-like phenotype and helped broaden the concept of BRCAness. Hence, it is likely that the list of predictive biomarkers for PARPi therapy will increase in future. There is currently no gold standard method of testing for PARPi response and no universal guidelines are in place on how to incorporate biomarker testing into routine clinical diagnostics. In this review, we explore the concept of BRCAness and highlight the different methods that have been used to identify patients who may benefit from the use of these anticancer agents. The identification of predictive biomarkers is crucial in improving patient selection and expanding the clinical applications of PARPi therapy.

The Proteome of Primary Prostate Cancer

BACKGROUND

Clinical management of the prostate needs improved prognostic tests and treatment strategies. Because proteins are the ultimate effectors of most cellular reactions, are targets for drug actions and constitute potential biomarkers; a quantitative systemic overview of the proteome changes occurring during prostate cancer (PCa) initiation and progression can result in clinically relevant discoveries.

OBJECTIVES

To study cellular processes altered in PCa using system-wide quantitative analysis of changes in protein expression in clinical samples and to identify prognostic biomarkers for disease aggressiveness.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS

Mass spectrometry was used for genome-scale quantitative proteomic profiling of 28 prostate tumors (Gleason score 6-9) and neighboring nonmalignant tissue in eight cases, obtained from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded prostatectomy samples. Two independent cohorts of PCa patients (summing 752 cases) managed by expectancy were used for immunohistochemical evaluation of proneuropeptide-Y (pro-NPY) as a prognostic biomarker.

RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS

Over 9000 proteins were identified as expressed in the human prostate. Tumor tissue exhibited elevated expression of proteins involved in multiple anabolic processes including fatty acid and protein synthesis, ribosomal biogenesis and protein secretion but no overt evidence of increased proliferation was observed. Tumors also showed increased levels of mitochondrial proteins, which was associated with elevated oxidative phosphorylation capacity measured in situ. Molecular analysis indicated that some of the proteins overexpressed in tumors, such as carnitine palmitoyltransferase 2 (CPT2, fatty acid transporter), coatomer protein complex, subunit alpha (COPA, vesicle secretion), and mitogen- and stress-activated protein kinase 1 and 2 (MSK1/2, protein kinase) regulate the proliferation of PCa cells. Additionally, pro-NPY was found overexpressed in PCa (5-fold, p<0.05), but largely absent in other solid tumor types. Pro-NPY expression, alone or in combination with the ERG status of the tumor, was associated with an increased risk of PCa specific mortality, especially in patients with Gleason score ≤ 7 tumors.

CONCLUSIONS

This study represents the first system-wide quantitative analysis of proteome changes associated to localized prostate cancer and as such constitutes a valuable resource for understanding the complex metabolic changes occurring in this disease. We also demonstrated that pro-NPY, a protein that showed differential expression between high and low risk tumors in our proteomic analysis, is also a PCa specific prognostic biomarker associated with increased risk for disease specific death in patients carrying low risk tumors.

PATIENT SUMMARY

The identification of proteins whose expression change in prostate cancer provides novel mechanistic information related to the disease etiology. We hope that future studies will prove the value of this proteome dataset for development of novel therapies and biomarkers.

ERG oncoprotein inhibits ANXA2 expression and function in prostate cancer

Overexpression of ERG in the prostate epithelium, due to chromosomal translocations, contributes to prostate tumorigenesis. Here, genomic analysis of ERG siRNA-treated prostate cells harboring the endogenous TMPRSS2-ERG fusion revealed an inverse relationship between ERG and Annexin A2 (ANXA2) expression at both the RNA and protein level. ANXA2, a Ca(2+)-dependent and phospholipid-binding protein, is involved in various cellular functions, including maintenance of epithelial cell polarity. Mechanistic studies defined the prostate-specific transcription start site of ANXA2 and showed that the recruitment of ERG to the ANXA2 promoter is required for transcriptional repression by ERG. Knockdown of ERG enhanced the apical localization of ANXA2, the bundling of actin filaments at cell-cell junctions and formation of a polarized epithelial phenotype. ERG overexpression disrupted ANXA2-mediated cell polarity and promoted epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) by inhibiting CDC42 and RHOA, and by activating cofilin. Immunohistochemistry demonstrated a reciprocal relationship of ANXA2 and ERG expression in a large fraction of primary prostate cancer clinical specimens. ANXA2 was absent or markedly reduced in ERG(+) tumors, which were mostly well differentiated. ERG(-) tumors, meanwhile, expressed moderate to high levels of ANXA2, and were either poorly differentiated or displayed subsets of poorly differentiated cells. Taken together, the transcriptional repression of ANXA2 by ERG in prostate epithelial cells plays a critical role in abrogating differentiation, promoting EMT, and in the reciprocal correlation of ERG and ANXA2 expression observed in human prostate cancer.

IMPLICATIONS

ANXA2 is a new component of the ERG network with potential to enhance biologic stratification and therapeutic targeting of ERG-stratified prostate cancers.

A behavioral study of healthy and cancer genes by modeling electrical network

In recent years, gene network modeling is gaining popularity in genomics to monitor the activity profile of genes. More specifically, the objective of the network modeling concept is to study the genetic behavior associated with disease. Previous researchers have designed network model at nucleotide level which produces more complexity for designing circuits mostly in case of gene expression studies. Whereas the authors have designed the present network model, based on amino acid level which is simpler as well as more appropriate for prediction of the genetic abnormality. In the present concept, SISO continuous and discrete system models of genes are realized using Foster network. The model is designed based on hydropathy index value of amino acids to study the biological system behavior. The time and phase response in continuous (s) domain and pole-zero distribution in discrete (z) domain are used as measurement metric in the present study. The simulated responses of the system show genetic instability for cancer genes which truly reflects the medical reports. The proposed modeling concept can be used, to accurately identify or separate out the diseased genes from healthy genes.

New concepts concerning prostate cancer screening

Prostate Cancer (CaP) is rapidly becoming a worldwide health issue. While CaP mortality has decreased in recent years, coincident with the widespread use of Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) screening, it remains the most common solid tumor in men and is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States. The frequency of CaP is growing not only in western cultures, but also its incidence is dramatically increasing in eastern nations. Recently, examination of data from long-term trials and follow up has cast a shadow on the effectiveness of employing PSA as a primary screening tool for CaP. In this review, we not only summarize opinions from this examination and synthesize recommendations from several groups that suggest strategies for utilizing PSA as a tool, but also call for research into biomarkers for CaP diagnosis and disease progression. We also describe our recent work that identified a smooth muscle contractile protein in prostate epithelia, namely smooth muscle gamma actin, and indicate the potential for this molecule as a new unique footprint and as a CaP marker.

Beyond Breast and Ovarian Cancers: PARP Inhibitors for BRCA Mutation-Associated and BRCA-Like Solid Tumors

Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors (PARPi) have shown clinical activity in patients with germline BRCA1/2 mutation (gBRCAm)-associated breast and ovarian cancers. Accumulating evidence suggests that PARPi may have a wider application in the treatment of cancers defective in DNA damage repair pathways, such as prostate, lung, endometrial, and pancreatic cancers. Several PARPi are currently in phase I/II clinical investigation, as single-agents and/or combination therapy in these solid tumors. Understanding more about the molecular abnormalities involved in BRCA-like phenotype in solid tumors beyond breast and ovarian cancers, exploring novel therapeutic trial strategies and drug combinations, and defining potential predictive biomarkers are critical to expanding the scope of PARPi therapy. This will improve clinical outcome in advanced solid tumors. Here, we briefly review the preclinical data and clinical development of PARPi, and discuss its future development in solid tumors beyond gBRCAm-associated breast and ovarian cancers.