Immunohistochemical assessment of Survivin and Bcl3 expression as potential biomarkers for NF-κB activation in the Barrett metaplasia-dysplasia-adenocarcinoma sequence

Survivin in lung cancer: a potential target for therapy and prevention-a narrative review

Background and Objective

A versatile biomarker, survivin, is highly expressed in proliferating cells of multiple cancers in humans and animals. It is an apoptosis-regulating protein, engaging in a cascade of reactions that involve several other genes and protein interactions. Currently, researchers are investigating its therapeutic potential due to the evidence linking its overexpression to advanced-stage lung cancer. This review is centered around examining survivin-related molecular mechanisms and its therapeutic role specifically in lung cancer. Our objective is to discuss the role of survivin in prognosis and treatment response, shedding light on immune-targeted therapies, as well as outlining future directions for survivin-based vaccines in lung cancer.

Methods

The PubMed database and the United States National Library of Medicine search engine at the National Institutes of Health were searched on 24 August 2023 to identify published research studies. Searching "((((((airway [Title/Abstract]) OR (lung [Title/Abstract])) OR (pulm[Title/Abstract])) OR (bronch[Title/Abstract])) OR (nslc[Title/Abstract])) AND (((cancer[Title/Abstract]) OR (carcino[Title/Abstract])) OR (oncol[Title/Abstract]))) AND (survivin[Title/Abstract])" gave 728 results. After screening the title and abstracts and excluding the review articles 168 titles were shortlisted and full text studied. The discussions are added to relevant sections.

Key Content and Findings

Survivin is a cell cycle-dependent, inhibitor of apoptosis protein that contributes to carcinogenesis, tumor vascularization, metastasis, and treatment resistance. Several treatments that impact survivin either directly or indirectly have been reported as effective in treating lung cancer. Immunity-based therapy, a novel approach known for its targeted nature and minimal side effects, is currently under investigation for lung cancer treatment. Emerging survivin-centered vaccines exhibit promising attributes in terms of safety, effectiveness, and ability to stimulate an immune response. These factors point towards a significant potential for advancing the future of lung cancer prevention and enhancing overall survival rates.

Conclusions

Nuclear survivin is a potential biomarker for advanced non-small cell lung cancer. It plays a role in determining drug responsiveness and is found to be significantly elevated in cases of resistance to chemotherapy. Multiple compounds and immunization strategies have been identified to impact lung cancer cells; however, they are currently in the early stages of phase I or phase II clinical trials. The substantial promise of survivin-based immunogenicity-focused treatments warrants in-depth investigation and exploration.

Multifaceted roles for BCL3 in cancer: a proto-oncogene comes of age

In the early 1990's a group of unrelated genes were identified from the sites of recurring translocations in B-cell lymphomas. Despite sharing the nomenclature 'Bcl', and an association with blood-borne cancer, these genes have unrelated functions. Of these genes, BCL2 is best known as a key cancer target involved in the regulation of caspases and other cell viability mechanisms. BCL3 on the other hand was originally identified as a non-canonical regulator of NF-kB transcription factor pathways - a signaling mechanism associated with important cell outcomes including many of the hallmarks of cancer. Most of the early investigations into BCL3 function have since focused on its role in NF-kB mediated cell proliferation, inflammation/immunity and cancer. However, recent evidence is coming to light that this protein directly interacts with and modulates a number of other signaling pathways including DNA damage repair, WNT/β-catenin, AKT, TGFβ/SMAD3 and STAT3 - all of which have key roles in cancer development, metastatic progression and treatment of solid tumours. Here we review the direct evidence demonstrating BCL3's central role in a transcriptional network of signaling pathways that modulate cancer biology and treatment response in a range of solid tumour types and propose common mechanisms of action of BCL3 which may be exploited in the future to target its oncogenic effects for patient benefit.

Topical Application of Temperature-Sensitive Gel Containing Caerin 1.1 and 1.9 Peptides on TC-1 Tumour-Bearing Mice Induced High-Level Immune Response in the Tumour Microenvironment

The development of topical cream drugs that increase the immune activation of tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes against tumour and chronic viral infection-associated lesions is of great immunotherapeutic significance. This study demonstrates that the topical application of a temperature-sensitive gel containing caerin 1.1 and 1.9 peptides reduces nearly 50% of the tumour weight of HPV16 E6/E7-transformed TC-1 tumour-bearing mice via improving the tumour microenvironment. Confocal microscopy confirms the time-dependent penetration of caerin 1.9 through the epidermal layer of the ear skin structure of mice. Single-cell transcriptomic analysis shows that the caerin 1.1/1.9 gel expands the populations with high immune activation level and largely stimulates the pro-inflammatory activity of NK and dendritic cells. Closely associated with INFα response, Cebpb seems to play a key role in altering the function of all Arg1^hi macrophages in the caerin group. In addition, the caerin gel treatment recruits almost two-fold more activated CD8⁺ T cells to the TME, relative to the untreated tumour, which shows a synergistic effect derived from the regulation of S1pr1, Ccr7, Ms4a4b and Gimap family expression. The TMT10plex-labelling proteomic quantification further demonstrates the activation of interferon-alpha/beta secretion and response to cytokine stimulus by the caerin gel, while the protein contents of several key regulators were elevated by more than 30%, such as Cd5l, Gzma, Ifit1, Irf9 and Stat1. Computational integration of the proteome with the single-cell transcriptome consistently suggested greater activation of NK and T cells with the topical application of caerin peptide gel.

Profile of copper-associated DNA methylation and its association with incident acute coronary syndrome

Background

Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is a cardiac emergency with high mortality. Exposure to high copper (Cu) concentration has been linked to ACS. However, whether DNA methylation contributes to the association between Cu and ACS is unclear.

Methods

We measured methylation level at > 485,000 cytosine-phosphoguanine sites (CpGs) of blood leukocytes using Human Methylation 450 Bead Chip and conducted a genome-wide meta-analysis of plasma Cu in a total of 1243 Chinese individuals. For plasma Cu-related CpGs, we evaluated their associations with the expression of nearby genes as well as major cardiovascular risk factors. Furthermore, we examined their longitudinal associations with incident ACS in the nested case-control study.

Results

We identified four novel Cu-associated CpGs (cg20995564, cg18608055, cg26470501 and cg05825244) within a 5% false discovery rate (FDR). DNA methylation level of cg18608055, cg26470501, and cg05825244 also showed significant correlations with expressions of SBNO2, BCL3, and EBF4 gene, respectively. Higher DNA methylation level at cg05825244 locus was associated with lower high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level and higher C-reactive protein level. Furthermore, we demonstrated that higher cg05825244 methylation level was associated with increased risk of ACS (odds ratio [OR], 1.23; 95% CI 1.02–1.48; P = 0.03).

Conclusions

We identified novel DNA methylation alterations associated with plasma Cu in Chinese populations and linked these loci to risk of ACS, providing new insights into the regulation of gene expression by Cu-related DNA methylation and suggesting a role for DNA methylation in the association between copper and ACS.

Primary intestinal-type adenocarcinoma of the buccal mucosa: A case report and literature review

Intestinal-type adenocarcinoma of the primary salivary glands is extremely rare. So far, only 11 cases of primary intestinal-type adenocarcinoma of the oral cavity and major salivary glands have been reported. Two of those tumors arose in the floor of mouth, 7 in the tongue, and 2 in the major salivary glands. However, it has remained unclear whether these tumors are derived from mature salivary glands, and primary intestinal-type adenocarcinoma of the buccal mucosa has not been reported previously. Here, we present the first documented case of primary intestinal-type adenocarcinoma arising in a minor salivary gland of the buccal mucosa. Histopathologically, the tumor resembled a well-differentiated or mucinous colonic adenocarcinoma. Immunohistochemically, the tumor cells were diffusely positive for AE1/AE3, CAM5.2, CK7, SATB2, β-catenin, p53, Ki-67, MUC2, and MUC5 AC. CK14 and CK20 were positive in some of the tumor cells. CDX2, CA19-9, SP-A, TTF-1, PSA, SMA, p63, and cyclin D1 were negative in the tumor cells. The tumor in the present case may have originated from salivary gland duct epithelium that underwent transformation to phenotypic intestinal-type epithelium. In this very rare case of primary intestinal-type adenocarcinoma of the buccal mucosa, we considered diagnostic markers that could be indicative of mature salivary gland origin.