Serum tetranectin is a significant prognostic marker in ovarian cancer patients

The relationship between the expression of TN and the efficiency of posterior spinal V osteotomy in patients with traumatic kyphosis

BACKGROUND

This study was conducted with the aim to investigate the relationship between Tetranectin (TN) and efficiency of posterior spinal V osteotomy in patients with traumatic kyphosis.

METHODS

Ninety-two patients with traumatic kyphosis admitted in our hospital from February 2014 to June 2016 were included whose serum TN levels were examined by ELISA. Using the mean level of TN as cut-off value, patients were classified into TN high level group (group I) and TN low level group (group II). The observation indexes, including operation time, intra-operational loss of blood, Cobb angle, postoperative complications and recurrence rate of kyphosis within post-operational 6 months were recorded for comparison.

RESULTS

TN level was significantly higher in group I [(6.19 ± 0.33) μmol/L] than that in group II [(5.29 ± 0.34) μmol/L] (P < .05). There was no significant difference in average age, sex, lesion site and average time from injury to operation between the two groups (all P > 0.05). Compared to group II, operation time in group I was significantly shortened (5.02 ± 1.15 VS 4.58 ± 0.53, P = .023), the intra-operational loss of blood decreased (2418.56 ± 362.06 VS 2235.84 ± 325.63, P = .013), post-operational Cobb angle decreased (11.10 ± 1.31 VS 6.93 ± 1.04, P = .000), and the incidence of postoperative complications (nail-breaking, rod-breaking and looseness) and recurrence rate decreased (18.8% VS 4.5%, P = .036; 10.4% VS 0.0%, P = .028).

CONCLUSION

Serum TN level is proved to be related to the efficiency of posterior spinal V osteotomy in patients with traumatic kyphosis, and may serve as a possible indicator for clinical treatment.

High Intratumoral Expression of Tetranectin Associates with Poor Prognosis of Patients with Gastric Cancer after Gastrectomy

Tetranectin, encoded by the clec3b gene, is a plasminogen kringle-4 binding protein that can be detected in the plasma and the extracellular matrix. In malignancies, tetranectin is thought to enhance proteolytic processes enabling tumor cells to invade and metastasize. Nevertheless, the prognostic value of tetranectin in gastric cancer remains elusive. In this study, we found the expression of tetranectin was decreased in gastric cancer. High intratumoral tetranectin level was positively associated with tumor invasion (P = 0.013), lymph node metastasis (P = 0.005), advanced TNM stage (P = 0.003) and shorter overall survival (OS) (P < 0.001) for patients with gastric cancer. Tetranectin expression was identified as an independent prognostic factor for poor OS, and combining tetranectin expression with other independent prognostic factors generated a predictive nomogram, which showed better prognostic efficiency for OS in patients with gastric cancer. In summary, our study suggests that intratumoral tetranectin is a potential independent unfavorable prognostic biomarker for OS of patients with gastric cancer after gastrectomy.

Tetranectin as a Potential Biomarker for Stable Coronary Artery Disease

This cross-sectional study tested the hypothesis that decreased serum levels of tetranectin (TN), a regulator of the fibrinolysis and proteolytic system, is associated with the presence and severity of CAD. We conducted a systematic serological and immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis to respectively compare the TN levels in serum and artery samples in CAD patients and healthy controls. Our results showed that serum levels of TN were significantly lower in patients with CAD than in healthy controls. Further analysis via trend tests revealed that serum TN levels correlated with the number of diseased arteries. Besides, the multivariate logistic regression model revealed TN as an independent factor associated with the presence of CAD. Additionally, IHC analysis showed that TN expression was significantly higher in atherosclerotic arteries as compared to healthy control tissues. In conclusion, our study suggests that increased serum TN level is associated with the presence and severity of diseased coronary arteries in patients with stable CAD.

Towards an animal model of ovarian cancer: cataloging chicken blood proteins using combinatorial peptide ligand libraries coupled with shotgun proteomic analysis for translational research

Epithelial ovarian cancer is the most deadly gynecological cancer around the world, with high morbidity in industrialized countries. Early diagnosis is key in reducing its morbidity rate. Yet, robust biomarkers, diagnostics, and animal models are still limited for ovarian cancer. This calls for broader omics and systems science oriented diagnostics strategies. In this vein, the domestic chicken has been used as an ovarian cancer animal model, owing to its high rate of developing spontaneous epithelial ovarian tumors. Chicken blood has thus been considered a surrogate reservoir from which cancer biomarkers can be identified. However, the presence of highly abundant proteins in chicken blood has compromised the applicability of proteomics tools to study chicken blood owing to a lack of immunodepletion methods. Here, we demonstrate that a combinatorial peptide ligand library (CPLL) can efficiently remove highly abundant proteins from chicken blood samples, consequently doubling the number of identified proteins. Using an integrated CPLL-1DGE-LC-MSMS workflow, we identified a catalog of 264 unique proteins. Functional analyses further suggested that most proteins were coagulation and complement factors, blood transport and binding proteins, immune- and defense-related proteins, proteases, protease inhibitors, cellular enzymes, or cell structure and adhesion proteins. Semiquantitative spectral counting analysis identified 10 potential biomarkers from the present chicken ovarian cancer model. Additionally, many human homologs of chicken blood proteins we have identified have been independently suggested as diagnostic biomarkers for ovarian cancer, further triangulating our novel observations reported here. In conclusion, the CPLL-assisted proteomic workflow using the chicken ovarian cancer model provides a feasible platform for translational research to identify ovarian cancer biomarkers and understand ovarian cancer biology. To the best of our knowledge, we report here the most comprehensive survey of the chicken blood proteome to date.