Decreased expression of the human carbonyl reductase 2 gene HCR2 in hepatocellular carcinoma

Moonlighting in drug metabolism

Drug metabolizing enzymes catalyze the biotransformation of many of drugs and chemicals. The drug metabolizing enzymes are distributed among several evolutionary families and catalyze a range of detoxication reactions, including oxidation/reduction, conjugative, and hydrolytic reactions that serve to detoxify potentially toxic compounds. This detoxication function requires that drug metabolizing enzymes exhibit substrate promiscuity. In addition to their catalytic functions, many drug metabolizing enzymes possess functions unrelated to or in addition to catalysis. Such proteins are termed 'moonlighting proteins' and are defined as proteins with multiple biochemical or biophysical functions that reside in a single protein. This review discusses the diverse moonlighting functions of drug metabolizing enzymes and the roles they play in physiological functions relating to reproduction, vision, cell signaling, cancer, and transport. Further research will likely reveal new examples of moonlighting functions of drug metabolizing enzymes.

Serum and tissue markers in hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma: clinical and prognostic implications

HCC represents the sixth most common cancer worldwide and the second leading cause of cancer-related death. Despite the high incidence, treatment options for advanced HCC remain limited and unsuccessful, resulting in a poor prognosis. Despite the major advances achieved in the diagnostic management of HCC, only one third of the newly diagnosed patients are presently eligible for curative treatments. Advances in technology and an increased understanding of HCC biology have led to the discovery of novel biomarkers. Improving our knowledge about serum and tissutal markers could ultimately lead to an early diagnosis and better and early treatment strategies for this deadly disease. Serum biomarkers are striking potential tools for surveillance and early diagnosis of HCC thanks to the non-invasive, objective, and reproducible assessments they potentially enable. To date, many biomarkers have been proposed in the diagnosis of HCC. Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is an aggressive malignancy, characterized by early lymph node involvement and distant metastasis, with 5-year survival rates of 5%-10%. The identification of new biomarkers with diagnostic, prognostic or predictive value is especially important as resection (by surgery or combined with a liver transplant) has shown promising results and novel therapies are emerging. However, the relatively low incidence of CCA, high frequency of co-existing cholestasis or cholangitis (primary sclerosing cholangitis –PSC- above all), and difficulties with obtaining adequate samples, despite advances in sampling techniques and in endoscopic visualization of the bile ducts, have complicated the search for accurate biomarkers. In this review, we attempt to analyze the existing literature on this argument.

Novel Gene Expression Signature Predictive of Clinical Recurrence After Radical Prostatectomy in Early Stage Prostate Cancer Patients

BACKGROUND

Current clinical tools have limited accuracy in differentiating patients with localized prostate cancer who are at risk of recurrence from patients with indolent disease. We aimed to identify a gene expression signature that jointly with clinical variables could improve upon the prediction of clinical recurrence after RP for patients with stage T2 PCa.

METHODS

The study population includes consented patients who underwent a radical retropubic prostatectomy (RP) and bilateral pelvic lymph node dissection at the University of Southern California in the PSA-era (1988-2008). We used a nested case-control study of 187 organ-confined patients (pT2N0M0): 154 with no recurrence ("controls") and 33 with clinical recurrence ("cases"). RNA was obtained from laser capture microdissected malignant glands representative of the overall Gleason score of each patient. Whole genome gene expression profiles (29,000 transcripts) were obtained using the Whole Genome DASL HT platform (Illumina, Inc). A gene expression signature of PCa clinical recurrence was identified using stability selection with elastic net regularized logistic regression. Three existing datasets generated with the Affymetrix Human Exon 1.0ST array were used for validation: Mayo Clinic (MC, n = 545), Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (SKCC, n = 150), and Erasmus Medical Center (EMC, n = 48). The areas under the ROC curve (AUCs) were obtained using repeated fivefold cross-validation.

RESULTS

A 28-gene expression signature was identified that jointly with key clinical variables (age, Gleason score, pre-operative PSA level, and operation year) was predictive of clinical recurrence (AUC of clinical variables only was 0.67, AUC of clinical variables, and 28-gene signature was 0.99). The AUC of this gene signature fitted in each of the external datasets jointly with clinical variables was 0.75 (0.72-0.77) (MC), 0.90 (0.86-0.94) (MSKCC), and 0.82 (0.74-0.91) (EMC), whereas the AUC for clinical variables only in each dataset was 0.72 (0.70-0.74), 0.86 (0.82-0.91), and 0.76 (0.67-0.85), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

We report a novel gene-expression based classifier identified using agnostic approaches from whole genome expression profiles that can improve upon the accuracy of clinical indicators to stratify early stage localized patients at risk of clinical recurrence after RP. Prostate 76:1239-1256, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Tissue- and Serum-Associated Biomarkers of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), one of the leading causes of cancer deaths in the world, is offering a challenge to human beings, with the current modes of treatment being a palliative approach. Lack of proper curative or preventive treatment methods encouraged extensive research around the world with an aim to detect a vaccine or therapeutic target biomolecule that could lead to development of a drug or vaccine against HCC. Biomarkers or biological disease markers have emerged as a potential tool as drug/vaccine targets, as they can accurately diagnose, predict, and even prevent the diseases. Biomarker expression in tissue, serum, plasma, or urine can detect tumor in very early stages of its development and monitor the cancer progression and also the effect of therapeutic interventions. Biomarker discoveries are driven by advanced techniques, such as proteomics, transcriptomics, whole genome sequencing, micro- and micro-RNA arrays, and translational clinics. In this review, an overview of the potential of tissue- and serum-associated HCC biomarkers as diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic targets for drug development is presented. In addition, we highlight recently developed micro-RNA, long noncoding RNA biomarkers, and single-nucleotide changes, which may be used independently or as complementary biomarkers. These active investigations going on around the world aimed at conquering HCC might show a bright light in the near future.

RNA sequencing identifies upregulated kyphoscoliosis peptidase and phosphatidic acid signaling pathways in muscle hypertrophy generated by transgenic expression of myostatin propeptide

Myostatin (MSTN), a member of the transforming growth factor-β superfamily, plays a crucial negative role in muscle growth. MSTN mutations or inhibitions can dramatically increase muscle mass in most mammal species. Previously, we generated a transgenic mouse model of muscle hypertrophy via the transgenic expression of the MSTN N-terminal propeptide cDNA under the control of the skeletal muscle-specific MLC1 promoter. Here, we compare the mRNA profiles between transgenic mice and wild-type littermate controls with a high-throughput RNA sequencing method. The results show that 132 genes were significantly differentially expressed between transgenic mice and wild-type control mice; 97 of these genes were up-regulated, and 35 genes were down-regulated in the skeletal muscle. Several genes that had not been reported to be involved in muscle hypertrophy were identified, including up-regulated myosin binding protein H (mybph), and zinc metallopeptidase STE24 (Zmpste24). In addition, kyphoscoliosis peptidase (Ky), which plays a vital role in muscle growth, was also up-regulated in the transgenic mice. Interestingly, a pathway analysis based on grouping the differentially expressed genes uncovered that cardiomyopathy-related pathways and phosphatidic acid (PA) pathways (Dgki, Dgkz, Plcd4) were up-regulated. Increased PA signaling may increase mTOR signaling, resulting in skeletal muscle growth. The findings of the RNA sequencing analysis help to understand the molecular mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy caused by MSTN inhibition.

Biomarkers for hepatocellular carcinoma

The hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors and carries a poor survival rate. The management of patients at risk for developing HCC remains challenging. Increased understanding of cancer biology and technological advances have enabled identification of a multitude of pathological, genetic, and molecular events that drive hepatocarcinogenesis leading to discovery of numerous potential biomarkers in this disease. They are currently being aggressively evaluated to establish their value in early diagnosis, optimization of therapy, reducing the emergence of new tumors, and preventing the recurrence after surgical resection or liver transplantation. These markers not only help in prediction of prognosis or recurrence but may also assist in deciding appropriate modality of therapy and may represent novel potential targets for therapeutic interventions. In this paper, a summary of most relevant available data from published papers reporting various tissue and serum biomarkers involved in hepatocellular carcinoma was presented.