Genetic and molecular bases of esophageal Cancer among Iranians: an update

Development of Bio-artificial Esophageal Tissue Engineering Utilization for Circumferential Lesion Transplantation: A Narrative Review

The esophagus is the gastrointestinal tract's primary organ that transfers bolus into the stomach with peristaltic motion. Therefore, its lesions cause a significant disturbance in the nutrition and digestive system. Esophageal disease treatment sometimes requires surgical procedures that involve removal and circumferential full-thickness replacement. Unlike other organs, the esophagus has a limited regeneration ability and cannot be transplanted from donors. There are various methods of restoring the esophageal continuity; however, they are associated with certain flaws that lead to a non-functional recovery. As an exponentially growing science, tissue engineering has become a leading technique for the development of tissue replacement to repair damaged esophageal segments. Scaffold plays a significant role in the process of tissue engineering, as it acts as a template for the regeneration of growing tissue. A variety of scaffolds have been studied to replace the esophagus. Due to the many tissue quality challenges, the results are still inadequate and need to be improved. The success of esophageal tissue regeneration will finally depend on the scaffold's capability to mimic natural tissue properties and provide a qualified environment for regeneration. Thereby, scaffold fabrication techniques are fundamental. This article reviews the recent developments in esophageal tissue engineering for the treatment of circumferential lesions based on scaffold biomaterial engineering approaches.

Synergistic effects of BAY606583 on docetaxel in esophageal cancer through modulation of ERK1/2

Docetaxel (DTX) is a taxane chemotherapy agent used to treat many types of cancers, including esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Adenosine is a purinergic signaling molecule that contributes to cancer cell proliferation via A2B adenosine receptor (A2BAR) activation. Extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK) plays a crucial role in cell proliferation in various types of cancers. Stimulation of A2BAR involves a regulated ERK signaling pathway, and might provide a fascinating approach for treatment, leading to decreased proliferation in certain tumors that express A2BAR. Recent studies demonstrated that DTX and A2BAR have anticancer effects. The current study was designed to investigate the synergistic effect of the A2BAR agonist (BAY606583) on DTX in inducing antiproliferation effects on esophageal squamous cells carcinoma (ESCCs). The cell viability was assessed using the MTT assay in KYSE-30 and Ym-1 cells. In addition, the synergistic effect of DTX on the A2BAR agonist was evaluated. Subsequently, apoptosis was assessed by Annexin-V and propidium iodide staining, and Bcl-2, Bax, and ERK1/2 protein-level expressions were evaluated by Western blot. Use of BAY606583 and cotreatment of DTX and BAY606583 significantly decreased cell proliferation in KYSE-30 and Ym-1 cell lines. The use of BAY606583 and cotreatment of DTX with the A2BAR agonist induced apoptosis in KYSE-30 and Ym-1 cells. Western blot analysis revealed that the use of the A2BAR agonist and cotreatment of DTX with the A2BAR agonist inhibited the expression of apoptotic regulatory proteins as well as the expression of ERK1/2 proteins. Our findings suggested that use of BAY606583 and cotreatment of BAY606583/DTX have an antiproliferative effect on ESCC cell lines through ERK signaling pathway inhibition. BAY606583 has a synergistic effect on DTX, which could be used as an adjuvant for esophageal cancer therapy.

MAEL as a diagnostic marker for the early detection of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Background

Esophageal cancer is one of the most common malignancies among Iranians and is categorized as adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. Various environmental and genetic factors are involved in this malignancy. Despite the recent advances in therapeutic modalities there is still a noticeable mortality rate among such patients which can be related to the late diagnosis. Regarding high ratio of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) in Iran, therefore it is required to assess molecular biology of ESCC to introduce novel diagnostic markers. In present study we assessed the role of Maelstrom (MAEL) cancer testis gene in biology of ESCC among Iranian patients.

Methods

Forty-five freshly normal and tumor tissues were enrolled to evaluate the levels of MAEL mRNA expression using Real time polymerase chain reaction.

Results

MAEL under and over expressions were observed in 12 (26.7%) and 9 (20%) of patients, respectively. MAEL fold changes were ranged between -4.33 to -1.87 (mean SD: -2.90± 0.24) and 1.92 to 7.72 (mean SD: 3.97± 0.69) in under and over expressed cases, respectively. There was a significant association between stage and MAEL expression in which majority of MAEL over expressed tumors (8/9, 88.9%) were in stage I/II (p<0.001). There was also a significant correlation between MAEL expression and depth of invasion in which tumor with T1/2 had higher levels of MAEL expression compared with T3/4 tumors (p=0.017). Moreover, there were significant correlations between MAEL expression, tumor size (p=0.028), and grade (p=0.003) among male patients.

Conclusions

Our data showed that the MAEL was mainly involved in primary stages of tumor progression and it has a declining expression levels toward the advanced stages and higher depth of tumor invasions. Therefore, MAEL can be efficiently introduced as an early detection marker among Iranian ESCC patients.

MicroRNA-301b and its target gene synaptosome-associated protein 91 as important modulators in esophageal cancer: functional experiments

The aim of this study was to probe the influence of microRNA-301b (miR-301b) in esophageal cancer pathogenesis. Based on the data acquired from The Cancer Genome Atlas database, we found that miR-301b was highly expressed in esophageal cancer tissues and high expression of miR-301b was related to worse prognosis in patients with esophageal cancer. Quantitative real-time PCR revealed that the expression of miR-301b was higher in all examined esophageal cancer cell lines (ECA109, KY-SE150, TE-1, and NEC) than that in a human esophageal epithelial cell line (HEEC). Upregulation/downregulation of miR-301b facilitated/suppressed the growth, migration, and invasion of ECA109/KY-SE150 cells. Synaptosome-associated protein 91 (SNAP91) was proved to be one of the target genes of miR-301b and was negatively modulated by miR-301b. Besides, SNAP91 was lowly expressed in human esophageal cancer tissues and cell lines. Meanwhile, low expression of SNAP91 was concerned with poor prognosis in patients with esophageal cancer. Furthermore, we discovered that overexpression/depletion of SNAP91 suppressed/facilitated the proliferation of KY-SE150/ECA109 cells. MiR-301b and SNAP91 had little impact on HEEC cell proliferation and this degree of influence was negligible compared with their impacts on esophageal cancer cell proliferation. By rescue assay, we showed that overexpression of SNAP91 restrained the growth, migration, and invasion of ECA109 cells with overexpressed miR-301b while knockdown of SNAP91 showed the contrary effects on KY-SE150 cells with downregulated miR-301b. These consequences indicated that miR-301b played an important effect on esophageal cancer cells through regulating SNAP91, insinuating that miR-301b/SNAP91 might be novel potential targets for esophageal cancer therapy and prognosis.

Long non-coding RNAs as the critical factors during tumor progressions among Iranian population: an overview

BACKGROUND

Cancer is associated with various genetic and environmental risk factors. Beside the mutations or aberrant expression of protein-coding genes, the genetic deregulation of non-coding RNAs has also an important role during tumor progression and metastasis. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a class of ncRNAs larger than 200 nucleotides that may function as tumor-suppressor or oncogene.

MAIN BODY

There is a raising trend of cancer incidence among Iranian population during the last decades. Therefore, it is required to prepare a general population specific panel of genetic markers for the early detection of cancer in this population. The tissue-specific expression characteristics and high stability in body fluids highlight the lncRNAs as efficient diagnostic and prognostic noninvasive biomarkers in cancer. In present review we summarized all of the lncRNAs which have been reported until now in different tumors among Iranian patients.

CONCLUSIONS

This review paves the way of introducing a population based noninvasive diagnostic panel of lncRNAs for the early detection of tumor cells among Iranian population.