Rapid detection of immunoglobulin heavy chain gene rearrangement by PCR and melting curve analysis using combined FR2 and FR3 primers

Development and implementation of an automated and highly accurate reporting process for NGS-based clonality testing

B and T cells undergo random recombination of the VH/DH/JH portions of the immunoglobulin loci (B cell) and T-cell receptors before becoming functional cells. When one V-J rearrangement is over-represented in a population of B or T cells indicating an origin from a single cell, this indicates a clonal process. Clonality aids in the diagnosis and monitoring of lymphoproliferative disorders and evaluation of disease recurrence. This study aimed to develop objective criteria, which can be automated, to classify B and T cell clonality results as positive (clonal), No evidence of clonality, or invalid (failed). Using clinical samples with "gold standard" clonality data obtained using PCR/CE testing, we ran NGS-based amplicon clonality assays and developed our own model for clonality reporting. To assess the performance of our model, we analyzed the NGS results across other published models. Our model for clonality calling using NGS-based technology increases the assay's sensitivity, more accurately detecting clonality. In addition, we have built a computational pipeline to use our model to objectively call clonality in an automated fashion. Collectively the results outlined below will have a direct clinical impact by expediting the review and sign-out process for concise clonality reporting.

Downregulation of HOXA3 in lung adenocarcinoma and its relevant molecular mechanism analysed by RT-qPCR, TCGA and in silico analysis

Recent studies have indicated that homeobox A3 (HOXA3) functions as a carcinogen in colon cancer and the methylation level of HOXA3 is significantly increased in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) tissues. However, at least to the best of our knowledge, few studies to date have been performed on HOXA3 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Therefore, further studies on HOXA3 expression in NSCLC and the potential regulatory mechanisms are urgently required. In this study, HOXA3 expression in 55 tissues of cases of NSCLC and corresponding non-lung cancer tissues was detected by reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). In addition, the clinical significance of HOXA3 expression in NSCLC was evaluated using the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Bioinformatics analysis was then performed to elucidate the potential molecular mechanisms of action of HOXA3. Furthermore, the potential target microRNAs (miRNAs or miRs) of HOXA3 were predicted using miRWalk2.0. Based on Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and TGCA databases, standardized mean difference (SMD) and sROC methods were used for meta-analyses of the expression of potential target miRNAs of HOXA3 in NSCLC to evaluate their association with HOXA3. The results revealed that the HOXA3 expression levels in NSCLC, LUAD and lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) were 0.1130±0.1398, 0.1295±0.16890 and 0.0906±0.0846, respectively. These values were all decreased compared with the normal tissues (0.1877±0.1975, 0.2337±0.2405 and 0.1249±0.0873, respectively, P<0.05). The TCGA database also revealed the low expression trend of HOXA3. The downregulation of HOXA3 may play an important role in the progression and the poor prognosis of LUAD. The TCGA database also suggested that HOXA3 in LUAD and LUSC tissues exhibited certain mutational levels. In addition, the methylation levels in the NSCLC, LUAD and LUSC tissues significantly increased [NSCLC: fold change (FC), 1.3226; P<0.001; LUAD: FC, 1.2712; P<0.001; and LUSC: FC, 1.3786; P<0.001]. According to the analyses using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), we found that the co-expression HOXA3 genes were mainly associated with the focal adhesion signalling pathway and the ECM-receptor interaction signalling pathway. Furthermore, the predicted miRNA, miR-372-3p, exhibited a high expression in both the NSCLC and LUAD tissues (P<0.05). On the whole, the findings of this study indicate that low HOXA3 expression may play a certain role in LUAD; however, its association with LUSC still requires further investigation. HOXA3 function may be achieved through different pathways or target miRNAs. However, the specific underlying mechanisms need to be confirmed through various functional studies.