Novel Finding of Paired Box 5 (PAX5) Cytoplasmic Staining in Well-differentiated Rectal Neuroendocrine Tumors (Carcinoids) and Its Diagnostic and Potentially Prognostic Utility

Autoantibodies to PAX5, PTCH1, and GNA11 as Serological Biomarkers in the Detection of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Hispanic Americans

Studies have demonstrated that autoantibodies to tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) may be used as efficient biomarkers with low-cost and highly sensitive characteristics. In this study, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was conducted to analyze autoantibodies to paired box protein Pax-5 (PAX5), protein patched homolog 1 (PTCH1), and guanine nucleotide-binding protein subunit alpha-11 (GNA11) in sera from Hispanic Americans including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients, patients with liver cirrhosis (LC), patients with chronic hepatitis (CH), as well as normal controls. Meanwhile, 33 serial sera from eight HCC patients before and after diagnosis were used to explore the potential of these three autoantibodies as early biomarkers. In addition, an independent non-Hispanic cohort was used to evaluate the specificity of these three autoantibodies. In the Hispanic cohort, at the 95.0% specificity for healthy controls, 52.0%, 44.0%, and 44.0% of HCC patients showed significantly elevated levels of autoantibodies to PAX5, PTCH1, and GNA11, respectively. Among patients with LC, the frequencies for autoantibodies to PAX5, PTCH1, and GNA11 were 32.1%, 35.7%, and 25.0%, respectively. The area under the ROC curves (AUCs) of autoantibodies to PAX5, PTCH1, and GNA11 for identifying HCC from healthy controls were 0.908, 0.924, and 0.913, respectively. When these three autoantibodies were combined as a panel, the sensitivity could be improved to 68%. The prevalence of PAX5, PTCH1, and GNA11 autoantibodies has already occurred in 62.5%, 62.5%, or 75.0% of patients before clinical diagnosis, respectively. In the non-Hispanic cohort, autoantibodies to PTCH1 showed no significant difference; however, autoantibodies to PAX5, PTCH1, and GNA11 showed potential value as biomarkers for early detection of HCC in the Hispanic population and they may monitor the transition of patients with high-risk (LC, CH) to HCC. Using a panel of the three anti-TAA autoantibodies may enhance the detection of HCC.

Composite intestinal adenoma-microcarcinoid: An update and literature review

Composite intestinal adenoma-microcarcinoid (CIAM) is a rare intestinal lesion consisting of conventional adenoma and small, well differentiated carcinoid [microcarcinoid (MC)] at its base. The incidence of CIAM is 3.8% in surgically resected colorectal polyps. While its pathogenesis is unknown, studies support the role of Wnt/β-catenin pathway in the tumorigenesis of CIAM. CIAMs have been primarily reported in the colon wherein they present as polyps with well-defined margins, similar to conventional adenomatous polyps. MC is usually found in adenomatous polyps with high-risk features such as large size, villous architecture, or high grade dysplasia. Histologically, the MC component is often multifocal and spans 3.9 to 5.8 millimeters in size. MC is usually confined within the mucosa but occasional CIAM cases with MC extending to the submucosa have been reported. MC of CIAM demonstrates bland cytology and inconspicuous proliferative activity. The lesional cells are positive for synaptophysin and 60% to 100% of cases show nuclear β-catenin positivity. MC poses a diagnostic challenge with its morphologic and immunohistochemical resemblance to both benign and malignant lesions, including squamous morules/metaplasia, adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, sporadic neuroendocrine tumor and goblet cell adenocarcinoma. CIAM is an indolent lesion with a favorable outcome. Complete removal by polypectomy is considered curative. Awareness and recognition of this rare entity will help arrive at correct diagnosis and improve patient care. Currently, CIAM is not recognized as a subtype of mixed neuroendocrine-non-neuroendocrine neoplasm by WHO.

Construction and analysis of miRNA-mRNA regulatory networks in the radioresistance of nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Radiotherapy has been the major treatment strategy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), while the occurrence of radioresistance may lead to cancer recurrence or progression. This study aimed to identify the key microRNAs (miRNAs) and their target genes in the development of NPC radioresistance. Public microarray data were searched and analyzed to screen the differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) and genes (DEGs) between radioresistant and radiosensitive NPC samples. MiRNA-mRNA networks were constructed. As a result, 5 DEMs and 195 DEGs were screened out. The DEGs were enriched in various signaling pathways, such as Cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, Jak-STAT signaling pathway, and Toll-like receptor signaling pathway. Several hub genes, such as IGF2, OLA1, BBS10, MMP9, and BBS7 were identified. A regulatory miRNA-mRNA network containing 87 miRNA-mRNA pairs was constructed. Then, 14 key miRNA-mRNA pairs that contained the hub genes were further filtered out. In the networks, miR-203a-3p had the largest number of target genes. Afterwards, the candidate pairs (miR-203a-3p/BTK and miR-484/OLA1) have been verified by a qRT-PCR assay. In summary, we identified several miRNAs and hub genes via big data screening. A total of 87 miRNA-mRNA pairs (including 14 key pairs) were predicted to play a crucial role in the development of NPC radioresistance. These data provide a bioinformatics basis for further exploring the molecular mechanism of radiotherapy resistance in NPC. Future studies are needed to validate the results.