Associations between essential microelements exposure and the aggressive clinicopathologic characteristics of papillary thyroid cancer

High aggressiveness of papillary thyroid cancer: from clinical evidence to regulatory cellular networks

The global incidence of thyroid cancer has increased over recent decades. Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is the most common type of thyroid cancer and accounts for nearly 90% of all cases. Typically, PTC has a good prognosis. However, some PTC variants exhibit more aggressive behaviour, which significantly increases the risk of postoperative recurrence. Over the past decade, the high metastatic potential of PTC has drawn the attention of many researchers and these studies have provided useful molecular markers for improved diagnosis, risk stratification and clinical approaches. The aim of this review is to discuss the progress in epidemiology, metastatic features, risk factors and molecular mechanisms associated with PTC aggressiveness. We present a detailed picture showing that epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, cancer metabolic reprogramming, alterations in important signalling pathways, epigenetic aberrations and the tumour microenvironment are crucial drivers of PTC metastasis. Further research is needed to more fully elucidate the pathogenesis and biological behaviour underlying the aggressiveness of PTC.

Human Health Effects of Oral Exposure to Chromium: A Systematic Review of the Epidemiological Evidence

The toxicity and carcinogenicity of hexavalent chromium via the inhalation route is well established. However, a scientific debate has arisen about the potential effects of oral exposure to chromium on human health. Epidemiological studies evaluating the connection between ingested chromium and adverse health effects on the general population are limited. In recent years, a wealth of biomonitoring studies has emerged evaluating the associations between chromium levels in body fluids and tissues and health outcomes. This systematic review brings together epidemiological and biomonitoring evidence published over the past decade on the health effects of the general population related to oral exposure to chromium. In total, 65 studies were reviewed. There appears to be an inverse association between prenatal chromium exposure and normal fetal development. In adults, parameters of oxidative stress and biochemical alterations increase in response to chromium exposure, while effects on normal renal function are conflicting. Risks of urothelial carcinomas cannot be overlooked. However, findings regarding internal chromium concentrations and abnormalities in various tissues and systems are, in most cases, controversial. Environmental monitoring together with large cohort studies and biomonitoring with multiple biomarkers could fill the scientific gap.

The effect of micronutrient on thyroid cancer risk: a Mendelian randomization study

Background

The effect of micronutrients on thyroid cancer has been studied in observational studies, however, the cause of relationships has not yet been determined. Thyroid cancer was the subject of a Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis of micronutrients. Aimed to determine whether micronutrient intake has a causal impact on the chance of developing thyroid cancer.

Methods

We used a Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis with two samples. Our circulation levels of Cu, Ir, Zn, Ca, VD, and VC were reflected by genetic variations reported from GWAS in individuals of European ancestry. For the GWAS outcome of thyroid cancer. Sensitivity studies that included MR-Egger, weighted median/mode tests, and a more open selection of variations at a genome-wide sub-significant threshold were added to our inverse-variance weighted (IVW) MR study.

Results

Using the IVW approach, we did not find evidence that any of the micronutrients to thyroid cancer (Cu: odds ratio [OR = 0.88, p = 0.41]; Zn: odds ratio [OR = 0.87, p = 0.40]; Ir: odds ratio [OR = 1.18, p = 0.39]; Ca: odds ratio [OR = 1.12, p = 0.43]; VC: odds ratio [OR = 0.95, p = 0.22]; VD: odds ratio [OR = 0.89, p = 0.04]). The heterogeneity (p > 0.05) and pleiotropy (p > 0.05) testing provided confirmatory evidence for the validity of our MR estimates.

Conclusion

This study does not provide evidence that supplementation with micronutrients including Cu, Ir, Zn, Ca, VD, and VC can prevent thyroid cancer.

Emerging Insights and Global Trends in the Relationship between Selenium and Thyroid Diseases: A Bibliometric Analysis

OBJECTIVE

Selenium, a significant trace element needed by the human body, is closely related to thyroid. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the status of selenium and thyroid diseases, analyze emerging insights, and predict future trends.

METHODS

Literature on selenium and thyroid included in the core database of Web of Science from January 1992 to October 2022 was retrieved. CiteSpace and VOSviewer software were used for visual analysis in terms of publication, author, country, institution, co-citation, and keywords.

RESULTS

A total of 1,142 works of literature were included after the screening, and the annual publication showed a fluctuating upward trend. The country and the institution with the highest publication volume were the United States and Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, respectively. In terms of authors, Schomburg L has formed a cooperative network and has published the largest number of papers and made great contributions in this field. The biggest cluster of keywords was trace elements, and the hot keywords in recent years were oxidative stress, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, cadmium, copper, etc. Conclusion: This paper analyzes the current status, insights, and trends of the studies on selenium and thyroid diseases by the method of bibliometrics and delivers ideas and methods for subsequent research in this field. The therapeutic effect of selenium on Hashimoto's thyroiditis is controversial and needs further research, and oxidative stress is also a research hotspot in this field. The crossstudy of multiple trace elements and diseases may be the development trend in the future.

The underexplored links between cancer and the internal body climate: Implications for cancer prevention and treatment

In order to effectively manage and cure cancer we should move beyond the general view of cancer as a random process of genetic alterations leading to uncontrolled cell proliferation or simply a predictable evolutionary process involving selection for traits that increase cell fitness. In our view, cancer is a systemic disease that involves multiple interactions not only among cells within tumors or between tumors and surrounding tissues but also with the entire organism and its internal "milieu". We define the internal body climate as an emergent property resulting from spatial and temporal interactions among internal components themselves and with the external environment. The body climate itself can either prevent, promote or support cancer initiation and progression (top-down effect; i.e., body climate-induced effects on cancer), as well as be perturbed by cancer (bottom-up effect; i.e., cancer-induced body climate changes) to further favor cancer progression and spread. This positive feedback loop can move the system towards a "cancerized" organism and ultimately results in its demise. In our view, cancer not only affects the entire system; it is a reflection of an imbalance of the entire system. This model provides an integrated framework to study all aspects of cancer as a systemic disease, and also highlights unexplored links that can be altered to both prevent body climate changes that favor cancer initiation, progression and dissemination as well as manipulate or restore the body internal climate to hinder the success of cancer inception, progression and metastasis or improve therapy outcomes. To do so, we need to (i) identify cancer-relevant factors that affect specific climate components, (ii) develop 'body climate biomarkers', (iii) define 'body climate scores', and (iv) develop strategies to prevent climate changes, stop or slow the changes, or even revert the changes (climate restoration).

Identification and Validation of Prognostic Related Hallmark ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters Associated With Immune Cell Infiltration Patterns in Thyroid Carcinoma

ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters are a large superfamily of membrane proteins that facilitate the translocation of heterogeneous substrates. Studies indicate that ABC transporters may play important roles in various carcinomas. However, the correlation between ABC transporters and immunomodulation in thyroid carcinoma (TC), as well as the prognoses for this disease, is poorly understood.TC data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database were used to identify prognostic hallmark ABC transporters associated with immune cell infiltration patterns via multiple bioinformatic analyses. Thereafter, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was performed to validate the expression of these selected hallmark ABC transporters in both TC and para-cancerous thyroid tissues. Of a total of 49 ABC transporters, five (ABCA8, ABCA12, ABCB6, ABCB8, and ABCC10) were identified as hallmark ABC transporters. All five were differentially expressed in TC and associated with the relapse-free survival rates of patients with TC. Immunoregulation by these five hallmark ABC transporters involved the modulation of various aspects of immune cell infiltration, such as hot or cold tumor subsets and the abundances of infiltrating immune cells, as well as specific immunomodulators and chemokines. Besides the diverse significantly correlated factors, the five hallmark ABC transporters and correlated genes were most highly enriched in plasma membrane, transporter activity, and transmembrane transport of small molecules. In addition, many chemicals, namely bisphenol A and vincristine, affected the expression of these five transporters. The qRT-PCR results of collected TC and para-cancerous thyroid tissues were consistent with those of TCGA. The findings in this study may reveal the role played by these five hallmark ABC transporters in regulating immune cell infiltration patterns in TC as well as the molecular mechanisms underlying their functions, leading to a better understanding of their potential prognostic and immunotherapeutic values.

Multimodality MRI-based radiomics for aggressiveness prediction in papillary thyroid cancer

Objective

To investigate the ability of a multimodality MRI-based radiomics model in predicting the aggressiveness of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC).

Methods

This study included consecutive patients who underwent neck magnetic resonance (MR) scans and subsequent thyroidectomy during the study period. The pathological diagnosis of thyroidectomy specimens was the gold standard to determine the aggressiveness. Thyroid nodules were manually segmented on three modal MR images, and then radiomics features were extracted. A machine learning model was established to evaluate the prediction of PTC aggressiveness.

Results

The study cohort included 107 patients with PTC confirmed by pathology (cross-validation cohort: n = 71; test cohort: n = 36). A total of 1584 features were extracted from contrast-enhanced T1-weighted (CE-T1 WI), T2-weighted (T2 WI) and diffusion weighted (DWI) images of each patient. Sparse representation method is used for radiation feature selection and classification model establishment. The accuracy of the independent test set that using only one modality, like CE-T1WI, T2WI or DWI was not particularly satisfactory. In contrast, the result of these three modalities combined achieved 0.917.

Conclusion

Our study shows that multimodality MR image based on radiomics model can accurately distinguish aggressiveness in PTC from non-aggressiveness PTC before operation. This method may be helpful to inform the treatment strategy and prognosis of patients with aggressiveness PTC.

Minerals and Cancer: Overview of the Possible Diagnostic Value

Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide and is expected to increase by one-third over the next two decades, in parallel with the growing proportion of the elderly population. Treatment and control of cancer incidence is a global issue. Since there is no clear way to prevent or cure this deadly malignancy, diagnostic, predictive, and prognostic markers for oncological diseases are of great therapeutic value. Minerals and trace elements are important micronutrients for normal physiological function of the body. They are abundant in natural food sources and are regularly included in dietary supplements whereas highly processed industrial food often contains reduced or altered amounts of them. In modern society, the daily intake, storage pools, and homeostasis of these micronutrients are dependent on certain dietary habits and can be thrown out of balance by malignancies. The current work summarizes the data on minerals and trace elements associated with abnormal accumulation or depletion states in tumor patients and discusses their value as potential tumor-associated biomarkers that could be introduced into cancer therapy.

hZIP1 Inhibits Progression of Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma by Suppressing NF-kB/HIF-1α Pathway

Purpose

Accumulating literature has suggested that hZIP1 and HIF-1α play vital roles in the tumor process of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). However, the functional roles of hZIP1 and HIF-1α in ccRCC remain largely unknown.

Methods

HIF-1α protein level was evaluated by a western blot in ccRCC tissues and cell lines. ccRCC cell lines were transfected with HIF-1α-siRNA to downregulate the expression level of HIF-1α. Then the proliferative, migratory and invasive abilities of ccRCC cells in vitro were detected by real-time cell analysis (RTCA) assay, wound healing assay and transwell assay, respectively. The role of HIF-1α in vivo was explored by tumor implantation in nude mice. Then the effect on glycolysis‐related proteins was performed by western blot after hZIP1 knockdown (overexpression) or HIF-1α knockdown. The effect on NF‐kB pathway was detected after hZIP1 overexpression.

Results

HIF-1α was markedly downregulated in ccRCC tissues compared with normal areas. But HIF-1α presented almost no expression in HK-2 and ACHN cells. Immunofluorescence indicated HIF-1α and PDK1 expression in both the cytoplasm and nucleus in ccRCC cells. Downregulation of HIF-1α suppressed ccRCC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion and resulted in smaller implanted tumors in nude mice. Furthermore, hZIP1 knockdown elevated HIF-1α protein levels and PDK1 protein levels in ccRCC cells. Interestingly, a sharp downregulated expression of HIF-1α was observed after hZIP1 overexpression in OSRC-2 and 786-O cells, which resulted from a downtrend of NF-kB1 moving into the cell nucleus.

Conclusion

Our work has vital implications that hZIP1 suppresses ccRCC progression by inhibiting NF-kB/HIF-1α pathway.