Pentraxin-3 is a novel biomarker of lung carcinoma

Systematical identification of key genes and regulatory genetic variants associated with prognosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) stands as a highly lethal malignancy characterized by pronounced recurrence and metastasis, resulting in a bleak 5-year survival rate. Despite extensive investigations, encompassing genome-wide association studies, the identification of robust prognostic markers has remained elusive. In this study, leveraging four independent data sets comprising 404 ESCC patients, we conducted a systematic analysis to unveil pivotal genes influencing overall survival. our meta-analysis identified 278 genes significantly associated with ESCC prognosis. Further exploration of the prognostic landscape involved an examination of expression quantitative trait loci for these genes, leading to the identification of six tag single nucleotide polymorphisms predictive of overall survival in a cohort of 904 ESCC patients. Notably, functional annotation spotlighted rs11227223, residing in the enhancer region of nuclear paraspeckle assembly transcript 1 (NEAT1), as a crucial variant likely exerting a substantive biological role. Through a series of biochemistry experiments, we conclusively demonstrated that the rs11227223-T allele, indicative of a poorer prognosis, augmented NEAT1 expression. Our results underscore the substantive role of NEAT1 and its regulatory variant in prognostic predictions for ESCC. This comprehensive analysis not only advances our comprehension of ESCC prognosis but also unveils a potential avenue for targeted interventions, offering promise for enhanced clinical outcomes.

Pentraxin 3: A Main Driver of Inflammation and Immune System Dysfunction in the Tumor Microenvironment of Glioblastoma

Brain tumors are a heterogeneous group of brain neoplasms that are highly prevalent in individuals of all ages worldwide. Within this pathological framework, the most prevalent and aggressive type of primary brain tumor is glioblastoma (GB), a subtype of glioma that falls within the IV-grade astrocytoma group. The death rate for patients with GB remains high, occurring within a few months after diagnosis, even with the gold-standard therapies now available, such as surgery, radiation, or a pharmaceutical approach with Temozolomide. For this reason, it is crucial to continue looking for cutting-edge therapeutic options to raise patients' survival chances. Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is a multifunctional protein that has a variety of regulatory roles in inflammatory processes related to extracellular matrix (ECM). An increase in PTX3 blood levels is considered a trustworthy factor associated with the beginning of inflammation. Moreover, scientific evidence suggested that PTX3 is a sensitive and earlier inflammation-related marker compared to the short pentraxin C-reactive protein (CRP). In several tumoral subtypes, via regulating complement-dependent and macrophage-associated tumor-promoting inflammation, it has been demonstrated that PTX3 may function as a promoter of cancer metastasis, invasion, and stemness. Our review aims to deeply evaluate the function of PTX3 in the pathological context of GB, considering its pivotal biological activities and its possible role as a molecular target for future therapies.

Benefits and Pitfalls of a Glycosylation Inhibitor Tunicamycin in the Therapeutic Implication of Cancers

The aberrant glycosylation is a hallmark of cancer progression and chemoresistance. It is also an immune therapeutic target for various cancers. Tunicamycin (TM) is one of the potent nucleoside antibiotics and an inhibitor of aberrant glycosylation in various cancer cells, including breast cancer, gastric cancer, and pancreatic cancer, parallel with the inhibition of cancer cell growth and progression of tumors. Like chemotherapies such as doxorubicin (DOX), 5'fluorouracil, etoposide, and cisplatin, TM induces the unfolded protein response (UPR) by blocking aberrant glycosylation. Consequently, stress is induced in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) that promotes apoptosis. TM can thus be considered a potent antitumor drug in various cancers and may promote chemosensitivity. However, its lack of cell-type-specific cytotoxicity impedes its anticancer efficacy. In this review, we focus on recent advances in our understanding of the benefits and pitfalls of TM therapies in various cancers, including breast, colon, and pancreatic cancers, and discuss the mechanisms identified by which TM functions. Finally, we discuss the potential use of nano-based drug delivery systems to overcome non-specific toxicity and enhance the therapeutic efficacy of TM as a targeted therapy.

Pentraxin 3 as an Immune Recovery Marker in HIV Infection After Combination Antiretroviral Therapy

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection causes chronic inflammation in affected individuals. Chronic inflammation may hinder immunological recovery. Treatment with combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) is insufficient to reduce inflammation. Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is an inflammatory marker associated with cardiovascular disease, malignancy, and acute infection. This study evaluated the usefulness of serum PTX3 levels in measuring inflammation levels, which may be associated with the probability of immune recovery in people living with HIV (PLH). In this single-center prospective study, we measured serum PTX3 levels in PLH treated with cART. Clinical information on HIV status, type of cART administered, and CD4+ and CD8+ T cell counts at the initial diagnosis of HIV and at study enrollment was obtained from each participant. PLH were divided into good and poor responder groups according to their CD4+ T cell counts at enrollment. A total of 198 PLH were enrolled in this study. A total of 175 and 23 participants were assigned to the good and poor responder groups, respectively. The poor responder group exhibited higher PTX3 levels (0.53 ng/mL vs. 1.26 ng/mL, p = .032). Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that low body mass index [odds ratio (OR) = 0.8, p = .010], low initial CD4+ T cell counts at diagnosis (OR = 0.994, p = .001), and high PTX3 levels (OR = 1.545, p = .006) are clinical factors that were significantly associated with poor immune recovery in PLH. According to the Youden index, PTX3 levels >1.25 ng/mL are associated with poor immune recovery. PLH should be clinically, virologically, and immunologically evaluated. Serum PTX level is a useful inflammatory marker associated with immune recovery in PLH treated with cART.

Role of long pentraxin PTX3 in cancer

Cancer has become a leading cause of death and disease burden worldwide, closely related to rapid socioeconomic development. However, the fundamental reason is the lack of comprehensive understanding of the mechanism of cancer, accurate identification of preclinical cancer, and effective treatment of the disease. Therefore, it is particularly urgent to study specific mechanisms of cancer and develop effective prediction and treatment methods. Long Pentraxin PTX3 is a soluble pattern recognition molecule produced by various cells in inflammatory sites, which plays a role as a promoter or suppressor of cancer in multiple tumors through participating in innate immune response, neovascularization, energy metabolism, invasion, and metastasis mechanisms. Based on this, this article mainly reviews the role of PTX3 in various cancers.

RNA m6A methylation modulates airway inflammation in allergic asthma via PTX3-dependent macrophage homeostasis

N6-methyladenosine (m6A), the most prevalent mRNA modification, has an important function in diverse biological processes. However, the involvement of m6A in allergic asthma and macrophage homeostasis remains largely unknown. Here we show that m6A methyltransferases METTL3 is expressed at a low level in monocyte-derived macrophages from childhood allergic asthma patients. Conditional knockout of Mettl3 in myeloid cells enhances Th2 cell response and aggravates allergic airway inflammation by facilitating M2 macrophage activation. Loss and gain functional studies confirm that METTL3 suppresses M2 macrophage activation partly through PI3K/AKT and JAK/STAT6 signaling. Mechanistically, m6A-sequencing shows that loss of METTL3 impairs the m6A-YTHDF3-dependent degradation of PTX3 mRNA, while higher PTX3 expression positively correlates with asthma severity through promoting M2 macrophage activation. Furthermore, the METTL3/YTHDF3-m6A/PTX3 interactions contribute to autophagy maturation in macrophages by modulating STX17 expression. Collectively, this study highlights the function of m6A in regulating macrophage homeostasis and identifies potential targets in controlling allergic asthma.

Minireview: functional roles of tissue kallikrein, kinins, and kallikrein-related peptidases in lung cancer

Despite campaigns and improvements in detection and treatment, lung cancer continues to increase worldwide and represents a major public health problem. One approach to treating patients suffering from lung cancer is to target surface receptors overexpressed on tumor cells, such as GPCR-family kinin receptors, and proteases that control tumor progression, such as kallikrein-related peptidases (KLKs). These proteases have been visualized in recent years due to their contribution to the progression of cancers, such as prostate and ovarian cancer, facilitating the invasive and metastatic capacity of tumor cells in these tissues. In fact, KLK3 is the specific prostate antigen, the only tissue-specific biomarker used to diagnose this malignancy. In lung cancer to date, evidence indicates that KLK5, KLK6, KLK8, KLK11, and KLK14 are the major peptidases regulated and involved in its progression. The expression levels of KLKs in this neoplasm are modulated by the secretome of the different cell types present in the tumor microenvironment, the cancer subtype and the tumor stage, among others. Considering the multiple functions of kinin receptors and KLKs, this review highlights their roles, even considering the SARS-CoV-2 effects. Since lung cancer is often diagnosed in advanced stages, our efforts should focus on early diagnosis, validating for example specific KLKs, especially in high-risk populations such as smokers and people exposed to carcinogenic fumes, oil fields, and contaminated workplaces, unexplored fields to investigate. Furthermore, their modulation could be considered as a promising approach in lung cancer therapeutics.

Plasma extracellular vesicle phenotyping for the differentiation of early-stage lung cancer and benign lung diseases

The development of a minimally invasive technique for early-stage lung cancer detection is crucial to reducing mortality. Phenotyping of tumor-associated extracellular vesicles (EVs) has the potential for early-stage lung cancer detection, yet remains challenging due to the lack of sensitive, integrated techniques that can accurately detect rare tumor-associated EV populations in blood. Here, we integrated gold core-silver shell nanoparticles and nanoscopic mixing in a microfluidic assay for sensitive phenotypic analysis of EVs directly in plasma without EV pre-isolation. The assay enabled multiplex detection of lung cancer-associated markers PTX3 and THBS1 and canonical EV marker CD63 by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, providing a squared correlation coefficient of 0.97 in the range of 10³-10⁷ EVs mL^-1 and a limit of detection of 19 EVs mL^-1. Significantly, our machine learning-based nanostrategy provided 92.3% sensitivity and 100% specificity in differentiating early-stage lung cancer from benign lung diseases, superior to the CT scan-based lung cancer diagnosis (92.3% sensitivity and 71.4% specificity). Overall, our integrated nanostrategy achieved an AUC value of 0.978 in differentiating between early-stage lung cancer patients (n = 28) and controls consisting of patients with benign lung diseases (n = 23) and healthy controls (n = 26), which showed remarkable diagnostic performance and great clinical potential for detecting the early occurrence of lung cancer.

The crossroad between autoimmune disorder, tissue remodeling and cancer of the thyroid: The long pentraxin 3 (PTX3)

Thyroid is at the crossroads of immune dysregulation, tissue remodeling and oncogenesis. Autoimmune disorders, nodular disease and cancer of the thyroid affect a large amount of general population, mainly women. We wondered if there could be a common factor behind three processes (immune dysregulation, tissue remodeling and oncogenesis) that frequently affect, sometimes coexisting, the thyroid gland. The long pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is an essential component of the humoral arm of the innate immune system acting as soluble pattern recognition molecule. The protein is found expressed in a variety of cell types during tissue injury and stress. In addition, PTX3 is produced by neutrophils during maturation in the bone-marrow and is stored in lactoferrin-granules. PTX3 is a regulator of the complement cascade and orchestrates tissue remodeling and repair. Preclinical data and studies in human tumors indicate that PTX3 can act both as an extrinsic oncosuppressor by modulating complement-dependent tumor-promoting inflammation, or as a tumor-promoter molecule, regulating cell invasion and proliferation and epithelial to mesenchymal transition, thus suggesting that this molecule may have different functions on carcinogenesis. The involvement of PTX3 in the regulation of immune responses, tissue remodeling and oncosuppressive processes led us to explore its potential role in the development of thyroid disorders. In this review, we aimed to highlight what is known, at the state of the art, regarding the connection between the long pentraxin 3 and the main thyroid diseases i.e., nodular thyroid disease, thyroid cancer and autoimmune thyroid disorders.

PARP Inhibitor Inhibits the Vasculogenic Mimicry through a NF-κB-PTX3 Axis Signaling in Breast Cancer Cells

Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors (PARPi) are targeted therapies that inhibit PARP proteins which are involved in a variety of cell functions. PARPi may act as modulators of angiogenesis; however, the relationship between PARPi and the vasculogenic mimicry (VM) in breast cancer remains unclear. To determine whether PARPi regulate the vascular channel formation, we assessed whether the treatment with olaparib, talazoparib and veliparib inhibits the vascular channel formation by breast cancer cell lines. Here, we found that PARPi act as potent inhibitors of the VM formation in triple negative breast cancer cells, independently of the BRCA status. Mechanistically, we find that PARPi trigger and inhibit the NF-κB signaling, leading to the inhibition of the VM. We further show that PARPi decrease the expression of the angiogenic factor PTX3. Moreover, PTX3 rescued the PARPi-inhibited VM inhibition. In conclusion, our results indicate that PARPi, by targeting the VM, may provide a new therapeutic approach for triple negative breast cancer.

Pentraxin 3 Facilitates Shrimp-Allergic Responses in IgE-Activated Mast Cells

Background. Since food avoidance is currently the only way to prevent allergic reactions to shrimp, a better understanding of molecular events in the induction and progression of allergy, including food allergy, is needed for developing strategies to inhibit allergic responses. Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is rapidly produced directly from inflammatory or damaged tissues and is involved in acute immunoinflammatory responses. However, the role of PTX3 in the development of immediate IgE-mediated shrimp allergy remains unknown. Methods. Wild-type BALB/c mice were immunized intraperitoneally and were challenged with shrimp extract. Serum IgE and PTX3 levels were analyzed. RBL-2H3 cells were stimulated with either dinitrophenyl (DNP) or serum of shrimp-allergic mice, and markers of degranulation, proinflammatory mediators, and phosphorylation of signal proteins were analyzed. We further examined the effect of PTX3 in shrimp extract-induced allergic responses in vitro and in vivo. Results. Mice with shrimp allergy had increased PTX3 levels in the serum and small intestine compared with healthy mice. PTX3 augmented degranulation, the production of proinflammatory mediators, and activation of the Akt and MAPK signaling pathways in mast cells upon DNP stimulation. Furthermore, the expression of transcription factor CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein delta (CEBPD) was elevated in PTX3-mediated mast cell activation. Finally, the PTX3 inhibitor RI37 could attenuate PTX3-induced degranulation, proinflammatory mediator expression, and phosphorylation of the Akt and MAPK signaling. Conclusions. The results suggested that PTX3 can facilitate allergic responses. Our data provide new insight to demonstrate that PTX3 is a cause of allergic inflammation and that RI37 can serve as a therapeutic agent in shrimp allergy.

Promoting role of pentraxin-3 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is an inflammatory molecule that is closely related to the proliferation, invasion, and metastasis of cancer. In order to explore the role of PTX3 in the occurrence and development of esophageal carcinoma (ESCA), we modified the PTX3 gene in ESCA cell lines to obtain the model of gene knockout and overexpression and studied cell proliferation, cycle, apoptosis, migration ability, energy metabolism, and sensitivity to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. We observed the increase in cell proliferation, cycle, apoptosis, migration ability, and sensitivity to chemotherapy and radiotherapy in the PTX3 knockout model, while in the PTX3 overexpression model, these phenomena were significantly reduced. Knockout of the PTX3 also resulted in decreased cell glycolysis and increased oxidative phosphorylation, which is consistent with other findings that PTX3 affects the tumorigenic ability of cells and their sensitivity to docetaxel. In ESCA, SOX9 directly regulates the expression of PTX3, while human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-system-related genes are significantly up-regulated when lacking PTX3. These results indicate that SOX9 may play a crucial role in regulating PTX3 and affecting the HLA system in ESCA.

Disruption of the pentraxin 3/CD44 interaction as an efficient therapy for triple-negative breast cancers

Due to the heterogeneity and high frequency of genome mutations in cancer cells, targeting vital protumour factors found in stromal cells in the tumour microenvironment may represent an ideal strategy in cancer therapy. However, the regulation and mechanisms of potential targetable therapeutic candidates need to be investigated. An in vivo study demonstrated that loss of pentraxin 3 (PTX3) in stromal cells significantly decreased the metastasis and growth of cancer cells. Clinically, our results indicate that stromal PTX3 expression correlates with adverse prognostic features and is associated with worse survival outcomes in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). We also found that transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β1) induces PTX3 expression by activating the transcription factor CCAAT/enhancer binding protein delta (CEBPD) in stromal fibroblasts. Following PTX3 stimulation, CD44, a PTX3 receptor, activates the downstream ERK1/2, AKT and NF-κB pathways to specifically contribute to the metastasis/invasion and stemness of TNBC MDA-MB-231 cells. Two types of PTX3 inhibitors were developed to disrupt the PTX3/CD44 interaction and they showed a significant effect on attenuating growth and restricting the metastasis/invasion of MDA-MB-231 cells, suggesting that targeting the PTX3/CD44 interaction could be a new strategy for future TNBC therapies.

Increased Serum Pentraxin 3 Levels are Associated with Poor Prognosis of Hepatitis B Virus-Related Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Background

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major cause of liver-related mortality. Serum pentraxin 3 (PTX3) has been revealed to be associated with the development of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related HCC. This study evaluated whether serum PTX3 is related to the survival of HBV-related HCC patients.

Methods

One hundred and seven patients with HBV-related HCC were included. Baseline serum PTX3 levels were quantified using quantitative immunoassay. The HCC patients were followed-up for a median of 24 months and divided into high serum PTX3 level and low PTX3 level groups according to the baseline serum PTX3 levels. The overall survivals of the HBV-related HCC patients according to the serum PTX3 levels were compared. Factors potentially influencing the prognosis of the patients with HBV-related HCC were analyzed.

Results

HCC patients with high serum PTX3 levels [PTX3 > 9.25ng/mL (n=85)] had a shorter overall survival time than HCC patients with low serum PTX3 levels [PTX3 ≤ 9.25ng/mL (n=22)] (P = 0.049). HCC patients with serum PTX3 levels between >9.25ng/mL and ≤9.25ng/mL had significant difference in HCC histology grade. Multivariate analysis showed that PTX3 level was an independent risk factor related to the overall survival of HCC patients (hazard ratio: 1.058, 95% confidence interval: 1.031–1.085, P <0.001).

Conclusion

These results support the involvement of PTX3 in the disease progression of HCC and suggest the potential of using serum PTX3 levels as a biomarker for the prognostic prediction of HBV-related HCC patients.

Do pentraxin 3 and neural pentraxin 2 have different facet function in hepatocellular carcinoma?

The long pentraxin (PTX) 3 and the neuronal pentraxin (NPTX) 2 has been found to exert pleiotropic roles in cancers due to their action in inflammation. However, the accurate clinical significance of PTX3 and NPTX2 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), one of the commonest cancers in the world has not been well-defined. The aim of the study was to analyze the expression profile of PTX3 and NPTX2 in liver biopsies of HCV-positive HCC patients (liver recipients, LR, n = 14, age 59.4 ± 1.8 years) undergoing liver transplantation and in donors (LD, n = 14, age 62.1 ± 17.3 years), trying both to identify them as predictive biomarkers of clinical liver severity in HCC patients and to understand if they were mutually substitutable. The PTX3 and NPTX2 transcripts were significantly up regulated in HCC tissues (p = 0.004 and p = 0.02 LD vs. LR, respectively). Dividing patients following MELD score, PTX3 expression increased as a function of liver disease severity, while this trend was not observed for NPTX2, which mRNA level increased similarly in both MELD group, reaching the significance only in patients with MELD score < 9 (p = 0.01). A positive correlation was found between PTX3 and NPTX2 expression (p = 0.001; r = 0.69). This is the first study that concerns PTX3 and NPTX2 as a function of clinical severity from which emerged that both of them are unequivocally involved in HCC, but only PTX3 could be considered a staging marker in these HCV-related HCC patients, unlike NPTX2, which could only play a role as an inflammatory marker.

High PTX3 expression is associated with a poor prognosis in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

Tumor‐associated macrophages (TAMs) are associated with a poor prognosis of diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma (DLBCL). As macrophages are heterogeneous, the immune polarization and their pathological role warrant further study. We characterized the microenvironment of DLBCL by immunohistochemistry in a training set of 132 cases, which included 10 Epstein–Barr virus‐encoded small RNA (EBER)‐positive and five high‐grade B‐cell lymphomas, with gene expression profiling in a representative subset of 37 cases. Diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma had a differential infiltration of TAMs. The high infiltration of CD68 (pan‐macrophages), CD16 (M1‐like), CD163, pentraxin 3 (PTX3), and interleukin (IL)‐10‐positive macrophages (M2c‐like) and low infiltration of FOXP3‐positive regulatory T lymphocytes (Tregs) correlated with poor survival. Activated B cell‐like DLBCL was associated with high CD16, CD163, PTX3, and IL‐10, and EBER‐positive DLBCL with high CD163 and PTX3. Programmed cell death‐ligand 1 positively correlated with CD16, CD163, IL‐10, and RGS1. In a multivariate analysis of overall survival, PTX3 and International Prognostic Index were identified as the most relevant variables. The gene expression analysis showed upregulation of genes involved in innate and adaptive immune responses and macrophage and Toll‐like receptor pathways in high PTX3 cases. The prognostic relevance of PTX3 was confirmed in a validation set of 159 cases. Finally, in a series from Europe and North America (GSE10846, R‐CHOP‐like treatment, n = 233) high gene expression of PTX3 correlated with poor survival, and moderately with CSF1R, CD16, MITF, CD163, MYC, and RGS1. Therefore, the high infiltration of M2c‐like immune regulatory macrophages and low infiltration of FOXP3‐positive Tregs is associated with a poor prognosis in DLBCL, for which PTX3 is a new prognostic biomarker.

Circulating nuclear factor-kappa B mediates cancer-associated inflammation in human breast and colon cancer

BACKGROUND

Inflammation is recognized as a hallmark feature of cancer development and progression. The aim of our study was to investigate the significance of serum nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) levels as a circulating marker in the monitoring of inflammation in breast and colon cancer; to show the relationship between NF-κB with inflammatory parameters as tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), soluble TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (sTRAIL), interleukin-6 (IL-6), pentraxin-3 (PTX-3), procalcitonin (PCT), and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels.

METHODS

Serum NF-κB, TNF-α, sTRAIL, IL-6, PTX-3, PCT, and serum CRP levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 40 patients with breast cancer, 40 patients with colon cancer and 30 healthy controls.

RESULTS

The serum NF-κB, TNF-α, IL-6, PTX-3, PCT, and serum CRP concentration was significantly higher, and the serum sTRAIL concentration was significantly lower in the patients with breast and colon cancer than in healthy controls. NF-κB was positively correlated with CRP and negatively correlated with sTRAIL.

CONCLUSIONS

These results suggest that increased NF-κB may decrease the clinical efficacy of sTRAIL in solid tumour cells. There is a relationship between inflammation and carcinogenesis so that the development of cancer occurs with chronic inflammation in breast and colon. The study results have shown that colon and breast cancer patients have increased systemic inflammation, as measured by increased circulating cytokines, and acute-phase proteins, or by abnormalities in circulating cells. NF-κB may combine with other markers of the systemic inflammatory response in prognostic scores in cancer. In addition to surgical resection of the tumour, and conventional radio and chemotherapy for cancer treatment, the use of sTRAIL or other agonists for cancer therapy appeared a new potential therapy.

Expression Profiling of Primary and Recurrent Glioblastomas Reveals a Reduced Level of Pentraxin 3 in Recurrent Glioblastomas

Glioblastomas (GBM) are highly infiltrative tumors and despite intensive treatment tumor recurrence is inevitable. The immune microenvironment in recurrent GBM is poorly characterized, but it is potentially influenced by therapeutic interventions with surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. The aim of this study was to obtain a deeper insight in the immune microenvironment in primary and recurrent GBM. Primary and recurrent glioblastoma samples from 18 patients were identified and expression profiling of 770 myeloid innate immune-related markers was performed. Leukemia inhibitory factor and pentraxin 3 were expressed at lower levels in recurrent tumors. Using in silico data and immunohistochemical staining, this was validated for pentraxin 3. Both high leukemia inhibitory factor and pentraxin 3 expression appeared to be associated with shorter survival in primary and recurrent GBM using in silico data. In primary GBM, gene set analysis also showed higher expression of genes involved in metabolism, extracellular matrix remodeling and complement activation, whereas genes involved in T cell activation and checkpoint signaling were expressed at higher levels in recurrent GBM. The reduced level of pentraxin 3 in recurrent glioblastomas and the gene set analysis results suggest an altered microenvironment in recurrent GBM that might be more active.

Endogenous Long Pentraxin 3 Exerts a Protective Role in a Murine Model of Pulmonary Fibrosis

Pulmonary fibrosis is a progressive scarring disease of the lungs, characterized by inflammation, fibroblast activation, and deposition of extracellular matrix. The long pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is a member of the pentraxin family with non-redundant functions in innate immune responses, tissue repair, and haemostasis. The role played in the lungs by PTX3 during the fibrotic process has not been elucidated. In this study, the impact of PTX3 expression on lung fibrosis was assessed in an intratracheal bleomycin (BLM)-induced murine model of the disease applied to wild type animals, transgenic mice characterized by endothelial overexpression and stromal accumulation of PTX3 (Tie2-PTX3 mice), and genetically deficient Ptx3^−/− animals. Our data demonstrate that PTX3 is produced during BLM-induced fibrosis in wild type mice, and that PTX3 accumulation in the stroma compartment of Tie2-PTX3 mice limits the formation of fibrotic tissue in the lungs, with reduced fibroblast activation and collagen deposition, and a decrease in the recruitment of the immune infiltrate. Conversely, Ptx3-null mice showed an exacerbated fibrotic response and decreased survival in response to BLM treatment. These results underline the protective role of endogenous PTX3 during lung fibrosis and pave the way for the study of novel PTX3-derived therapeutic approaches to the disease.

Serum pentraxin 3 as a biomarker of hepatocellular carcinoma in chronic hepatitis B virus infection

Biomarkers for early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are needed in chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, a leading cause of HCC. We evaluated whether measurement of serum pentraxin 3 (PTX3) could improve diagnosis of HCC in chronic HBV infection. Data from patients with HBV-related chronic hepatitis (n = 159), cirrhosis (n = 99) and HCC (n = 107), and healthy controls (n = 151) were analyzed. Serum PTX3 concentration was measured by immunoassay. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was applied to assess diagnostic accuracy. PTX3 levels were significantly higher in HBV patients than in healthy controls (P < 0.001) and in HCC than in chronic hepatitis (P < 0.001) or cirrhosis patients (P < 0.001). PTX3 was an independent risk factor of HCC [odds ratio (OR) 1.617, P < 0.001] and could distinguish HCC in chronic HBV infection [cutoff 9.231 ng/mL, AUC 0.929 with 95% confidence interval (CI) of 0.898-0.953], including α-fetoprotein (AFP) negative [cutoff 8.985 ng/mL, AUC (95%CI) 0.947 (0.908-0.973)] and early-stage HCC [cutoff 9.359 ng/mL, AUC (95%CI) 0.920 (0.885-0.947)]. Combination of PTX3 with AFP improved the discrimination of early HCC from chronic HBV infection [AUC (95%CI) 0.948 (0.918-0.970)]. In short, PTX3 measurement could identify HCC, including AFP-negative and early-stage HCC, in chronic HBV infection.

Modulation of complement activation by pentraxin-3 in prostate cancer

Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is an essential component of the innate immune system and a recognized modulator of Complement cascade. The role of Complement system in the pathogenesis of prostate cancer has been largely underestimated. The aim of our study was to investigate the role of PTX3 as possible modulator of Complement activation in the development of this neoplasia. We performed a single center cohort study; from January 2017 through December 2018, serum and prostate tissue samples were obtained from 620 patients undergoing prostate biopsy. A group of patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) underwent a second biopsy within 12–36 months demonstrating the presence of a prostate cancer (Group A, n = 40) or confirming the diagnosis of BPH (Group B, N = 40). We measured tissue PTX3 protein expression together with complement activation by confocal microscopy in the first and second biopsy in group A and B patients. We confirmed that that PTX3 tissue expression in the first biopsy was increased in group A compared to group B patients. C1q deposits were extensively present in group A patients co-localizing and significantly correlating with PTX3 deposits; on the contrary, C1q/PTX3 deposits were negative in group B. Moreover, we found a significantly increased expression of C3a and C5a receptors within resident cells in group A patient. Interestingly, C1q/PTX3 deposits were not associated with activation of the terminal Complement complex C5b-9; moreover, we found a significant increase of Complement inhibitor CD59 in cancer tissue. Our data indicate that PTX3 might play a significant pathogenic role in the development of this neoplasia through recruitment of the early components of Complement cascade with hampered activation of terminal Complement pathway associated with the upregulation of CD59. This alteration might lead to the PTX3-mediated promotion of cellular proliferation, angiogenesis and insensitivity to apoptosis possible leading to cancer cell invasion and migration.

SH3RF3 promotes breast cancer stem-like properties via JNK activation and PTX3 upregulation

Cancer stem-like cells (CSCs) are the tumorigenic cell subpopulation and contribute to cancer recurrence and metastasis. However, the understanding of CSC regulatory mechanisms remains incomplete. By transcriptomic analysis, we identify a scaffold protein SH3RF3 (also named POSH2) that is upregulated in CSCs of breast cancer clinical tumors and cancer cell lines, and enhances the CSC properties of breast cancer cells. Mechanically, SH3RF3 interacts with the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) in a JNK-interacting protein (JIP)-dependent manner, leading to enhanced phosphorylation of JNK and activation of the JNK-JUN pathway. Further the JNK-JUN signaling expands CSC subpopulation by transcriptionally activating the expression of Pentraxin 3 (PTX3). The functional role of SH3RF3 in CSCs is validated with patient-derived organoid culture, and supported by clinical cohort analyses. In conclusion, our work elucidates the role and molecular mechanism of SH3RF3 in CSCs of breast cancer, and might provide opportunities for CSC-targeting therapy.

PTX3 modulates the immunoflogosis in tumor microenvironment and is a prognostic factor for patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma

Pentraxin-3 (PTX3) belongs to the pentraxine family, innate immune regulators involved in angiogenesis, proliferation and immune escape in cancer. Here, we evaluated PTX3 tissue expression and serum levels as biomarkers of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) and analyzed the possible role of complement system activation on tumor site. A 10-year retrospective cohort study including patients undergoing nephrectomy for ccRCC was also performed. PTX3 expression was elevated in both neoplastic renal cell lines and tissues, while it was absent in both normal renal proximal tubular cells (HK2) and normal renal tissues. Analysis of complement system activation on tumor tissues showed the co-expression of PTX3 with C1q, C3aR, C5R1 and CD59, but not with C5b-9 terminal complex. RCC patients showed higher serum PTX3 levels as compared to non-neoplastic patients (p<0.0001). Higher PTX3 serum levels were observed in patients with higher Fuhrman grade (p<0.01), lymph node (p<0.0001), and visceral metastases (p<0.001). Patients with higher PTX3 levels also showed significantly lower survival rates (p=0.002). Our results suggest that expression of PTX3 can affect the immunoflogosis in the ccRCC microenvironment, by activating the classical pathway of CS (C1q) and releasing pro-angiogenic factors (C3a, C5a). The up-regulation of CD59 also inhibits the complement-mediated cellular lysis.

Functional Genetic Variant of Long Pentraxin 3 Gene Is Associated With Clinical Aspects of Oral Cancer in Male Patients

Long pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is produced by various cell types and is correlated with tumor progression in various tumor types. However, the clinical significance of PTX3 polymorphisms in oral cancer and their correlation with the risk of cancer are still unclear. In this study, we assessed the influence of PTX3 gene polymorphisms and environmental factors on susceptibility to oral tumorigenesis. We recruited 865 cases with oral cancer and 1,189 controls. Four single-nucleotide variations of the PTX3 gene (rs1840680, rs2305619, rs3816527, and rs2120243) were verified using a real-time polymerase chain reaction in control participants and cases with oral cancer. We found that rs3816527 in smokers was correlated with the development of late-stage cancer (odds ratio [OR], 2.328; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.078-5.027) and increased lymph node metastasis (OR, 2.152; 95% CI, 1.047-4.422). Moreover, additional bioinformatics analysis results showed that the rs3816527 C allele variant to the A allele exhibited the strongest exonic splicing enhancer activity. In conclusion, our results suggested that PTX3 rs3816527 plays a role in oral cancer development.

Cancer cell-derived long pentraxin 3 (PTX3) promotes melanoma migration through a toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)/NF-κB signaling pathway

Cutaneous melanoma is one of the most aggressive cancers characterized by a high plasticity, a propensity for metastasis, and drug resistance. Melanomas are composed of phenotypically diverse subpopulations of tumor cells with heterogeneous molecular profiles that reflect intrinsic invasive abilities. In an attempt to identify novel factors of the melanoma invasive cell state, we previously investigated the nature of the invasive secretome by using a comparative proteomic approach. Here, we have extended this analysis to show that PTX3, an acute phase inflammatory glycoprotein, is one such factor secreted by invasive melanoma to promote tumor cell invasiveness. Elevated PTX3 production was observed in the population of MITFlow invasive cells but not in the population of MITFhigh differentiated melanoma cells. Consistently, MITF knockdown increased PTX3 expression in MITFhigh proliferative and poorly invasive cells. High levels of PTX3 were found in tissues and blood of metastatic melanoma patients, and in BRAF inhibitor-resistant melanoma cells displaying a mesenchymal invasive MITFlow phenotype. Genetic silencing of PTX3 in invasive melanoma cells dramatically impaired migration and invasion in vitro and in experimental lung extravasation assay in xenografted mice. In contrast, addition of melanoma-derived or recombinant PTX3, or expression of PTX3 enhanced motility of low migratory cells. Mechanistically, autocrine production of PTX3 by melanoma cells triggered an IKK/NFκB signaling pathway that promotes migration, invasion, and expression of the EMT factor TWIST1. Finally, we found that TLR4 and MYD88 knockdown inhibited PTX3-induced melanoma cell migration, suggesting that PTX3 functions through a TLR4-dependent pathway. Our work reveals that tumor-derived PTX3 contributes to melanoma cell invasion via targetable inflammation-related pathways. In addition to providing new insights into the biology of melanoma invasive behavior, this study underscores the notion that secreted PTX3 represents a potential biomarker and therapeutic target in a subpopulation of MITFlow invasive and/or refractory melanoma.

Kallikrein-related peptidases in lung diseases

Human tissue kallikreins (KLKs) are 15 members of the serine protease family and are present in various healthy human tissues including airway tissues. Multiple studies have revealed their crucial role in the pathophysiology of a number of chronic, infectious and tumour lung diseases. KLK1, 3 and 14 are involved in asthma pathogenesis, and KLK1 could be also associated with the exacerbation of this inflammatory disease caused by rhinovirus. KLK5 was demonstrated as an influenza virus activating protease in humans, and KLK1 and 12 could also be involved in the activation and spread of these viruses. KLKs are associated with lung cancer, with up- or downregulation of expression depending on the KLK, cancer subtype, stage of tumour and also the microenvironment. Functional studies showed that KLK12 is a potent pro-angiogenic factor. Moreover, KLK6 promotes malignant-cell proliferation and KLK13 invasiveness. In contrast, KLK8 and KLK10 reduce proliferation and invasion of malignant cells. Considering the involvement of KLKs in various physiological and pathological processes, KLKs appear to be potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets for lung diseases.

The Long Pentraxin PTX3 as a Link Between Innate Immunity, Tissue Remodeling, and Cancer

The innate immune system comprises a cellular and a humoral arm. Humoral pattern recognition molecules include complement components, collectins, ficolins, and pentraxins. These molecules are involved in innate immune responses by recognizing microbial moieties and damaged tissues, activating complement, exerting opsonic activity and facilitating phagocytosis, and regulating inflammation. The long pentraxin PTX3 is a prototypic humoral pattern recognition molecule that, in addition to providing defense against infectious agents, plays several functions in tissue repair and regulation of cancer-related inflammation. Characterization of the PTX3 molecular structure and biochemical properties, and insights into its interactome and multiple roles in tissue damage and remodeling support the view that microbial and matrix recognition are evolutionarily conserved functions of humoral innate immunity molecules.

Detection of early lung cancer among military personnel (DECAMP) consortium: study protocols

BACKGROUND

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death due in large part to our inability to diagnose it at an early and potentially curable stage. Screening for lung cancer via low dose computed tomographic (LDCT) imaging has been demonstrated to improve mortality but also results in a high rate of false positive tests. The identification and application of non-invasive molecular biomarkers that improve the performance of CT imaging for the detection of lung cancer in high risk individuals would aid in clinical decision-making, eliminate the need for unnecessary LDCT follow-up, and further refine the screening criteria for an already large high-risk population.

METHODS

The Detection of Early Lung Cancer Among Military Personnel (DECAMP) consortium is conducting two multicenter prospective studies with the goals of developing an integrated panel of both airway and blood-based molecular biomarkers that discriminate benign and malignant indeterminate nodules detected on CT scan as well as predict the future development of lung cancer in high-risk individuals. To achieve these goals, DECAMP is compiling an extensive array of biospecimens including nasal brushings, serum, plasma and intrathoracic airway samples (bronchial brushings and bronchial biopsies) from normal-appearing airway epithelium.

DISCUSSION

This bank of samples is the foundation for multiple DECAMP efforts focused on the identification of those at greatest risk of developing lung cancer as well as the discrimination of benign and malignant pulmonary nodules. The clinical, imaging and biospecimen repositories will serve as a resource for the biomedical community and their investigation of the molecular basis of chronic respiratory disease.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

Retrospectively registered as NCT01785342 - DECAMP-1: Diagnosis and Surveillance of Indeterminate Pulmonary Nodules (DECAMP-1). Date of Registration: February 7, 2013. Retrospectively registered as NCT02504697 - DECAMP-2: Screening of Patients With Early Stage Lung Cancer or at High Risk for Developing Lung Cancer (DECAMP-2). Date of Registration: July 22, 2015.

Serum levels and gene expression of pentraxin 3 are elevated in COPD

PURPOSE

Pentraxin 3 (PTX-3) is an acute phase protein that belongs to the pentraxin superfamily. It is synthesized locally at the site of inflammation and its levels are related to the damage of blood vessels. There are only a few studies examining the relationship between PTX-3 and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The aim of this study was to evaluate the serum levels of PTX-3 and relative PTX-3 gene expression in COPD patients and their correlations with cigarette smoking history and lung function.

MATERIALS/METHODS

A total number of 34 participants were enrolled into this study. Only stable patients without comorbidities were recruited. After obtaining written informed consent all planned procedures were performed (pre- and post-bronchodilator spirometry, blood samples for PTX-3 serum levels and PTX-3 gene expression measurements, demographical data, medical history, COPD patients were also asked for CAT and MMRC questionnaires).

RESULTS

PTX-3 serum levels were significantly higher in the COPD group (29.22 (5.47) ng/ml vs. 14.64 (3.64) ng/ml). PTX-3 gene relative quantification (RQ) values were also significantly higher in the COPD group (0.15 (1.33) vs. -2.80 (1.99)). No differences in CRP serum levels were found between the control group and the COPD group.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study demonstrates that serum levels of PTX-3 and the relative expression values of its gene are elevated in COPD, and can be related to cigarette smoking history.

Programmed death ligand 1 expression in prostate cancer cells is associated with deep changes of the tumor inflammatory infiltrate composition

BACKGROUND

The main aim of this study was to investigate the putative correlation between the composition of intratumoral inflammatory infiltrate and the expression of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) by prostate cancer cells. In addition, we evaluated the correlation between the expression of PD-L1 and PTX3.

METHODS

We enrolled 100 patients from which we collected one surgical sample each. Paraffin serial sections were obtained to perform histological classifications and tissues microarray construction. Serial tissues microarray paraffin sections were also used for PD-L1 analysis and intratumoral inflammatory infiltrate characterization (CD4, CD8, CD57, CD3, PD1, PSGL-1, TIGIT, CD20, CD38, CD68, CD163, and PTX3) by immunohistochemistry .

RESULTS

Our result showed a significant increase of the number of both PD-L1 and PTX3 positive cells in prostate tumors respect to benign lesions. Inflammatory infiltrate of PD-L1 positive prostate cancer lesions was characterized by a decrease of both PD1 positive lymphocytes and tumor-infiltrated macrophages, mainly M2 subpopulation. Also, PTX3 expression showed an inverse correlation with the number of PD-L1 positive prostate cancer cells.

CONCLUSIONS

If confirmed, our data could be useful to predict the variations of the inflammatory population related to PD-L1 expression in prostate cancer. This can lay the foundation to establish therapeutic protocols able to inhibit the PD-L1 activity and, at the same time, to reactivate the antitumor inflammatory process.

Pentraxin-3 and inflammatory biomarkers related to posterolateral thoracotomy in Thoracic Surgery

Objective:

Posterolateral thoracotomy is the most frequently used operation in thoracic surgery, and may initiate an inflammatory process. We aimed to evaluate inflammatory response of the body to posterolateral thoracotomy.

Methods:

This study was conducted between January 2013 and June 2014. Blood samples were drawn from 36 patients who underwent posterolateral thoracotomy preoperatively, and on postoperative days one, three and seven The levels of PTX-3, CRP and WBC in the serums of the patients were identified. All the results were recorded and analyzed.

Results:

PTX-3 levels were found statistically significantly higher in patients with lung cancer and/or aged above 65 years. There were significant differences in WBC and CRP levels between preoperative levels and on those on postoperative days one, three and seven but not for PTX-3. The area under the curve(AUC) levels in the receiver operating characteristics(ROC) analysis, which was performed to estimate the strength of PTX-3 in the differentiation of malignant and benign patients was found statistically significant(p<0.05).

Conclusions:

The present study suggests that the novel inflammatory marker PTX-3 may be used in the diagnosis and follow-up of prognosis as a biomarker of inflammatory response in patients with lung cancer. However, it showed that PTX-3 levels are insignificant to identify the levels of inflamatuar response due to posterolateral thoracotomy in thoracic surgery.

Rg3 inhibits gemcitabine-induced lung cancer cell invasiveness through ROS-dependent, NF-κB- and HIF-1α-mediated downregulation of PTX3

PTX3, a member of the long pentraxin subfamily, associated with innate immunity is indispensable for resistance to some cancer. Gemcitabine, an analog of cytosine arabinoside, has shown restrained benefits because of profound chemoresistance. The PTX3 expression on GEM in human lung cancer cells have not yet been clarified; the present study aimed to show reactive oxygen species (ROS) mediatory PTX3 expression through distinct mechanisms. Whereas ginsenoside Rg3 is a herbal medicine with strong antitumor activity. Furthermore, we tested the hypothesis; Rg3 abrogates GEM-induced production of ROS-mediated activation of Akt and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) pathways and inhibits nuclear piling-up of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) and HIF-1α. On the basis of time and dose-dependent manner, our data demonstrated that GEM-induced PTX3 expression was dependent on ROS generation as it was abrogated by pretreatment of lung cancer cells with the free radical scavenger N-acetyl-l-cysteine. Our data demonstrated that PTX3 upregulation by GEM correlated with the time-dependent escalation of NF-κB and HIF-1α in the nucleus resulted from phosphorylation-induced degradation of IκBα, whereas HIF-1α upregulation was NF-κB-dependent. Increase in ROS expression in lung cancer cells on GEM treatment preceded the nuclear accumulation of NF-κB and HIF-1α and suppression of ROS diminished these effects. ERK1/2 and Akt activation mediated the effect of ROS on NF-κB and HIF-1α and their pharmacological inhibition suppressed GEM-induced PTX3. Our study findings reinforced the role regarding PTX3 signaling in GEM-induced resistance and pointed toward an unintended and undesired effect of chemotherapy and to get an active regimen; the synergy was associated with NF-κB downregulation in lung cancer.

Tunicamycin enhances the suppressive effects of cisplatin on lung cancer growth through PTX3 glycosylation via AKT/NF-κB signaling pathway

Long pentraxin-3 (PTX3) is an inflammatory molecule related to cancer proliferation, invasion, and metastasis. Many studies have highlighted the significance of glycosylated molecules in immune modulation, inflammation and cancer progression. Moreover, aberrant glycosylation of cancer cells is linked to chemoresistance. This study aimed to develop effective therapeutic strategies for deglycosylation of PTX3 (dePTX3) in order to enhance chemosensitivity to cisplatin (Cis) in lung cancer treatment. The A549 and SPCA1 cells were used to determine the role of PTX3 glycosylation in lung cancer growth. Our results revealed that PTX3 was higher in both human lung cancer tissues and serum in comparison with control. Furthermore, we found that deglycosylated PTX3 (dePTX3) by tunicamycin (TM), which is N-glycan precursor biosynthesis blocker, and PNGase F significantly reduced the survival and migration of lung cancer cells. To further confirm this, we also generated glycosylation-site mutant of PTX3 (mPTX3) to characterize the loss of glyco-function. dePTX3 and TM enhanced the suppressive effects of Cis on lung cancer cell growth, migration and invasion compared to individual treatment. Treatment with a combination of TM and Cis significantly inactivated AKT/NF-κB signaling pathway and induced apoptosis. In conclusion, these findings suggest that PTX3 is an important mediator of lung cancer progression, and dePTX3 by TM enhances the anticancer effects of Cis. The deglycosylation in chemotherapy may represent a potential novel therapeutic strategy against lung cancer.

Increased serum pentraxin-3 level predicts poor prognosis in patients with colorectal cancer after curative surgery, a cohort study

Pentraxin-3 (PTX3) is a glycoprotein involved in inflammation and immune regulation of cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the serum PTX3 level in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) and analyze its prognostic significance.A total of 263 consecutive patients underwent radical resection for primary CRC and 126 healthy controls were enrolled in this study. Serum PTX3 level was measured within the day before surgery though enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, comparing with the level of healthy control. Baseline demographic and clinical characteristics were recorded. The association between serum PTX3 level and survival outcome was analyzed by the Kaplan-Meier with Log-Rank test and Cox regression methods.Mean serum PTX3 level in CRC patients was higher than that of healthy control (13.8 ± 3.2ng/mL versus 3.3 ± 1.2ng/mL, P < .001). Finally, 55 (20.9%) patients out of all 263 patients studied had died during following-up period. All patients were divided into 2 groups using the optimal cutoff value (12.6 ng/mL) of PTX3 level using a sensitivity of 68.0% and a specificity of 71.7% as optimal conditions from receiver operating curve analysis. Patients with a PTX3≥12.6ng/mL had poorer 5 years overall survival rate (76.6% versus 67.8%, P = .025) patients with a PTX3 < 12.6ng/mL in univariate analysis and serum PTX3 level also been confirmed as an independent predictor for survival for CRC in multivariate analysis (Hazard ratio, 1.468; 95% [confidence interval] CI, 1.081-1.976; P < .001).Serum PTX3 level can serve as an independent prognostic biomarker for CRC patients after curative resection.

The Airway Transcriptome as a Biomarker for Early Lung Cancer Detection

Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related death due to its advanced stage at diagnosis. Early detection of lung cancer can be improved by better defining who should be screened radiographically and determining which imaging-detected pulmonary nodules are malignant. Gene expression biomarkers measured in normal-appearing airway epithelium provide an opportunity to use lung cancer-associated molecular changes in this tissue for early detection of lung cancer. Molecular changes in the airway may result from an etiologic field of injury and/or field cancerization. The etiologic field of injury reflects the aberrant physiologic response to carcinogen exposure that creates a susceptible microenvironment for cancer initiation. In contrast, field cancerization reflects effects of "first-hit" mutations in a clone of cells from which the tumor ultimately arises or the effects of the tumor on the surrounding tissue. These fields might have value both for assessing lung cancer risk and diagnosis. Cancer-associated gene expression changes in the bronchial airway have recently been used to develop and validate a 23-gene classifier that improves the diagnostic yield of bronchoscopy for lung cancer among intermediate-risk patients. Recent studies have demonstrated that these lung cancer-related gene expression changes extend to nasal epithelial cells that can be sampled noninvasively. While the bronchial gene expression biomarker is being adopted clinically, further work is necessary to explore the potential clinical utility of gene expression profiling in the nasal epithelium for lung cancer diagnosis, lung cancer risk assessment, and precision medicine for lung cancer treatment and chemoprevention. Clin Cancer Res; 24(13); 2984-92. ©2018 AACR.

Pentraxin 3 overexpression accelerated tumor metastasis and indicated poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma via driving epithelial-mesenchymal transition

As a pattern recognition receptor, pentraxin 3 (PTX3) has been found to exert the pleiotropic roles on a variety of cancers. However, the accurate clinical significance of PTX3 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has not been well defined. The aim of the present investigation was to determine the expression characteristics, prognostic significance, and the relevant biological effect of PTX3 in HCC. The expression of PTX3 was evaluated in tumor and adjacent liver tissues from 210 HCC patients using immunohistochemistry staining. And it was found that a marked up-regulation in the expression of PTX3 in the HCC specimens, which was remarkably correlated with high serum AFP level (P = 0.006), larger tumor size (P <0.001), liver cirrhosis (P = 0.004), advanced TNM stage (P = 0.022), PVTT (P = 0.010), intra-hepatic metastases (P = 0.019), and MVI (P <0.001). PTX3 was identified as an independent predictive factor of poor prognosis by multivariate analysis. Ectopic expression of PTX3 enhanced proliferation, migration, invasion capacities of Huh7 cells and induced EMT phenotype. Silencing PTX3 obtained the opposite results. Moreover, the in vivo experiments confirmed PTX3 induced EMT and promoted proliferation and growth of HCC cells. Collectivelly, these data indicated that PTX3 could accelerate HCC progression through activating EMT and served as a potential predictive factor and therapeutic target for HCC.

Oleate-induced PTX3 promotes head and neck squamous cell carcinoma metastasis through the up-regulation of vimentin

The association between metabolic diseases and the risk of developing cancer is emerging. However, the impact of long pentraxin-3 (PTX3) on dyslipidemia-associated tumor metastasis remains unknown. In this study, we found that oleate induced PTX3 expression and secretion through the activation of Akt/NF-κB pathway in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs). The activation of NF-κB was essential for the oleate-induced stabilization of PTX3 mRNA. In addition, both the depletion of PTX3 and the inhibition of NF-κB significantly inhibited oleate-induced tumor cell migration and invasion. The enhancement of binding between tumor and endothelial cells was observed in oleate-treated cells but not in the depletion and neutralization of PTX3 with siPTX3 and anti-PTX3 antibodies, respectively. The levels of oleate-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers, such as vimentin and MMP-3, were significantly reduced in PTX3-depleted cells. Knocking down vimentin also repressed oleate-induced HNSCC invasion. Furthermore, the depletion of PTX3 blocked the oleate-primed metastatic seeding of tumor cells in the lungs. These results demonstrate that oleate enhances HNSCC metastasis through the PTX3/vimentin signaling axes. The inhibition of PTX3 could be a potential strategy for the treatment of dyslipidemia-mediated HNSCC metastasis.

Upregulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in advanced gastric cancer contributes to bone metastatic osteolysis by inducing long pentraxin 3

The brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) activates its receptor, tropomyosin receptor kinase B (TrkB; also called NTRK2) that has been shown to promote the malignant progression of several cancers. In this study, we investigated the clinical and biological significance of the BDNF/TrkB axis in the progression of human gastric cancer. The increased co-expression of the BDNF/TrkB axis was significantly correlated with bone metastatic properties in advanced gastric cancers. BDNF acting via TrkB receptors increased the levels of long pentraxin 3 (PTX3) that was related to bone metastatic status of gastric cancer by enhancing gastric cancer–osteoblastic niche interactions. In bone metastatic gastric cancer, PTX3 knockdown using small interfering RNA significantly inhibited BDNF-induced interactions of cancer cells with osteoblasts. Moreover, BDNF-derived PTX3 induction supported subsequent osteoclastogenesis, and this effect was significantly reversed by PTX3 silencing. These findings suggest that a functional interaction between BDNF/TrkB and PTX3 enhances the osteolysis of bone metastatic gastric cancer, thereby providing potential prognostic factors for the development of bone metastasis of gastric cancer.

Long pentraxin 3: A novel multifaceted player in cancer

Since its discovery in 1992, long pentraxin 3 (PTX3) has been characterized as soluble patter recognition receptor, a key player of the innate immunity arm with non-redundant functions in pathogen recognition and inflammatory responses. As a component of the extra-cellular matrix milieu, PTX3 has been implicated also in wound healing/tissue remodeling, cardiovascular diseases, fertility, and infectious diseases. Consequently, PTX3 levels in biological fluids have been proposed as a fluid-phase biomarker in different pathological conditions. In the last decade, experimental evidences have shown that PTX3 may exert a significant impact also on different aspects of cancer biology, including tumor onset, angiogenesis, metastatic dissemination and immune-modulation. However, it remains unclear whether PTX3 acts as a good cop or bad cop in cancer. In this review, we will summarize and discuss the scientific literature data focusing on the role of PTX3 in experimental and human tumors, including its putative translational implications.

Current and Prospective Protein Biomarkers of Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is a malignant lung tumor with various histological variants that arise from different cell types, such as bronchial epithelium, bronchioles, alveoli, or bronchial mucous glands. The clinical course and treatment efficacy of lung cancer depends on the histological variant of the tumor. Therefore, accurate identification of the histological type of cancer and respective protein biomarkers is crucial for adequate therapy. Due to the great diversity in the molecular-biological features of lung cancer histological types, detection is impossible without knowledge of the nature and origin of malignant cells, which release certain protein biomarkers into the bloodstream. To date, different panels of biomarkers are used for screening. Unfortunately, a uniform serum biomarker composition capable of distinguishing lung cancer types is yet to be discovered. As such, histological analyses of tumor biopsies and immunohistochemistry are the most frequently used methods for establishing correct diagnoses. Here, we discuss the recent advances in conventional and prospective aptamer based strategies for biomarker discovery. Aptamers like artificial antibodies can serve as molecular recognition elements for isolation detection and search of novel tumor-associated markers. Here we will describe how these small synthetic single stranded oligonucleotides can be used for lung cancer biomarker discovery and utilized for accurate diagnosis and targeted therapy. Furthermore, we describe the most frequently used in-clinic and novel lung cancer biomarkers, which suggest to have the ability of differentiating between histological types of lung cancer and defining metastasis rate.

Pentraxins in the activation and regulation of innate immunity

Humoral fluid phase pattern recognition molecules (PRMs) are a key component of the activation and regulation of innate immunity. Humoral PRMs are diverse. We focused on the long pentraxin PTX3 as a paradigmatic example of fluid phase PRMs. PTX3 acts as a functional ancestor of antibodies and plays a non-redundant role in resistance against selected microbes in mouse and man and in the regulation of inflammation. This molecule interacts with complement components, thus modulating complement activation. In particular, PTX3 regulates complement-driven macrophage-mediated tumor progression, acting as an extrinsic oncosuppressor in preclinical models and selected human tumors. Evidence collected over the years suggests that PTX3 is a biomarker and potential therapeutic agent in humans, and pave the way to translation of this molecule into the clinic.

Pentraxin-3 is a PI3K signaling target that promotes stem cell-like traits in basal-like breast cancers

Basal-like breast cancers (BLBCs) exhibit hyperactivation of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling pathway because of the frequent mutational activation of the PIK3CA catalytic subunit and the genetic loss of its negative regulators PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homolog) and INPP4B (inositol polyphosphate-4-phosphatase type II). However, PI3K inhibitors have had limited clinical efficacy in BLBC management because of compensatory amplification of PI3K downstream signaling loops. Therefore, identification of critical PI3K mediators is paramount to the development of effective BLBC therapeutics. Using transcriptomic analysis of activated PIK3CA-expressing BLBC cells, we identified the gene encoding the humoral pattern recognition molecule pentraxin-3 (PTX3) as a critical target of oncogenic PI3K signaling. We found that PTX3 abundance is stimulated, in part, through AKT- and nuclear factor κB (NF-κB)-dependent pathways and that presence of PTX3 is necessary for PI3K-induced stem cell-like traits. We further showed that PTX3 expression is greater in tumor samples from patients with BLBC and that it is prognostic of poor patient survival. Our results thus reveal PTX3 as a newly identified PI3K-regulated biomarker and a potential therapeutic target in BLBC.

Pentraxin 3, a Predicator for 28-Day Mortality in Patients With Septic Shock

BACKGROUND

Useful biomarkers that can serve as prognostic predictors are of great value in clinical practice because of the complex individual response to sepsis. Pentraxin 3 (PTX3), as a multifunctional pattern-recognition molecule, has been reported to be closely associated with the severity of infectious diseases in intensive care units (ICU). The aim of this study was to investigate whether PTX3 could serve as a potential prognostic biomarker in patients with septic shock.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This single-center prospective observational study was conducted during May 2012-May 2015 in the ICU of Taizhou People׳s Hospital. We compared the clinical data and laboratory tests in surviving and deceased patients with septic shock within 28 days from admission. Potential independent prognostic factors for septic shock were analyzed by using univariate and multiple Cox proportional hazards regression analyses.

RESULTS

A total of 112 patients admitted to the ICU with septic shock were enrolled in our study with an overall 28-day mortality of 25.9% (29 of 112 patients). PTX3 level was the only independent risk factor for the 28-day mortality by univariate and multivariate Cox analysis (hazard ratio = 3.87; 95% CI: 1.66-8.81, P = 0.004). The deceased patients had significant higher levels of PTX3 at the 4 different points (baseline, day 1, day 2 and day 3) versus the survivors (P < 0.001). Results from Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank test revealed that high PTX3 level (above the median value) was statistically associated with a lower 28-day survival rate (P = 0.014).

CONCLUSIONS

The baseline PTX3 level was an independent predictor for 28-day mortality in patients with septic shock.

Inflammatory F2-isoprostane, prostaglandin F2α, pentraxin 3 levels and breast cancer risk: The Swedish Mammography Cohort

INTRODUCTION

Breast cancer is a common cancer among women. Identifying cellular participation of F₂-isoprostane, prostaglandin F_2α (PGF_2α) and pentraxin 3 (PTX3) in cancer we evaluated whether their prediagnostic systemic levels that originate from different inflammatory pathways were associated with breast cancer risk.

METHODS

Seventy-eight breast cancer cases diagnosed after blood collection and 797 controls from the Swedish Mammography Cohort were analysed for urinary F₂-isoprostane, PGF_2α and plasma PTX3 levels.

RESULTS

None of the biomarkers investigated were significantly associated with breast cancer risk. However, there was the suggestion of an inverse association with PTX3 with multivariable adjusted ORs (95% CI) of 0.56 (95% CI=0.29-1.06) and 0.67 (95% CI=0.35-1.28) for the second and third tertiles, respectively (p_trend=0.20). No associations were observed between F₂-isoprostane (OR=0.87; 95% CI=0.48-1.57; p_trend=0.67) and PGF_2α metabolite (OR=1.03; 95% CI=0.56-1.88; p_trend=0.91) comparing the top to bottom tertiles.

CONCLUSIONS

The systemic levels of F₂-isoprostane, PGF_2α and PTX3 witnessed in women who later developed breast cancer may not provide prognostic information regarding tumor development in spite of their known involvement in situ cellular context. These observations may indicate that other mechanisms exist in controlling cellular formation of F₂-isoprostane, PGF_2α and PTX3 and their systemic availability in breast cancer patients.

Knockdown of Pentraxin 3 suppresses tumorigenicity and metastasis of human cervical cancer cells

Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) as an inflammatory molecule has been shown to be involved in immune response, inflammation, and cancer. However, the effects of PTX3 on the biological features of cervical cancer cells in vitro and in vivo have not been delineated. Immunohistochemical staining showed that increased PTX3 expression was significantly associated with tumor grade (P < 0.011) and differentiation (P < 0.019). Knocking down PTX3 with lentivirus-mediated small hairpin RNA (shRNA) in cervical cancer cell lines resulted in inhibited cell viability, diminished colony-forming ability, and induced cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase of the cell cycle, along with downregulated expression of cyclin B1, cdc2, and cdc25c, and upregulated expression of p-cdc2, p-cdc25c, p21, and p27. Furthermore, knockdown of PTX3 significantly decreased the potential of migration and invasion of cervical cancer cells by inhibiting matrix metalloproteidase-2 (MMP-2), MMP-9, and urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA). Moreover, in vivo functional studies showed PTX3-knockdown in mice suppressed tumorigenicity and lung metastatic potential. Conversely, overexpression of PTX3 enhanced proliferation and invasion both in vitro and in vivo. Our results demonstrated that PTX3 contributes to tumorigenesis and metastasis of human cervical cancer cells. Further studies are warranted to demonstrate PTX3 as a novel therapeutic biomarker for human cervical cancer.

The pentraxins PTX3 and SAP in innate immunity, regulation of inflammation and tissue remodelling

Pentraxins are a superfamily of fluid phase pattern recognition molecules conserved in evolution and characterized by a cyclic multimeric structure. C-reactive protein (CRP) and serum amyloid P component (SAP) constitute the short pentraxin arm of the superfamily. CRP and SAP are produced in the liver in response to IL-6 and are acute phase reactants in humans and mice respectively. In addition SAP has been shown to affect tissue remodelling and fibrosis by stabilizing all types of amyloid fibrils and by regulating monocyte to fibrocyte differentiation. Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is the prototype of the long pentraxin arm. Gene targeted mice and genetic and epigenetic studies in humans suggest that PTX3 plays essential non-redundant roles in innate immunity and inflammation as well as in tissue remodelling. Recent studies have revealed the role of PTX3 as extrinsic oncosuppressor, able to tune cancer-related inflammation. In addition, at acidic pH PTX3 can interact with provisional matrix components promoting inflammatory matrix remodelling. Thus acidification during tissue repair sets PTX3 in a tissue remodelling and repair mode, suggesting that matrix and microbial recognition are common, ancestral features of the humoral arm of innate immunity.

The Dual Complexity of PTX3 in Health and Disease: A Balancing Act?

The humoral arm of innate immunity is complex and includes various molecules that serve as markers of inflammation with complementary characteristics, such as the short pentraxins C-reactive protein (CRP) and serum amyloid P (SAP) and the long pentraxin PTX3. There is a growing amount of evidence – including mouse and human genetics – that suggests that PTX3 is essential in conferring host resistance against selected pathogens and, moreover, that it plays a dual antagonistic role in the regulation of inflammation. Dissection of such a yin-and-yang role of pentraxins in immunity and inflammation is timely and significant as it may pave the way for better clinical exploitation against various diseases.

The long pentraxin PTX3 is an essential component of humoral innate immunity and plays a role in the regulation of inflammation.

PTX3 has complex effects on the vasculature, including an interaction with the angiogenic growth factor FGF2 and the regulation of vessel wall tone.

By modulating complement-driven inflammation, PTX3 acts as an oncosuppressor gene in mice and selected human tumors.

By interacting with provisional matrix components, PTX3 contributes to the orchestration of wound healing and tissue repair/remodeling.

PTX3 and the related pentraxins C-reactive protein (CRP) and serum amyloid P (SAP) can exert dual roles in inflammation and antimicrobial resistance, by either exerting a protective function or amplifying tissue damage.

Dissection of the yin–yang role of pentraxins in immunopathology may pave the way towards better exploitation of these molecules as envisaged disease markers and candidate therapeutic agents.