Exploring Spatial Trends and Influencing Factors for Gastric Cancer Based on Bayesian Statistics: A Case Study of Shanxi, China

FIP-nha, a fungal immunomodulatory protein from Nectria haematococca, induces apoptosis and autophagy in human gastric cancer cells via blocking the EGFR-mediated STAT3/Akt signaling pathway

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FIP-nha, a new FIP discovered beyond Basidiomycota, has been demonstrated a broad spectrum of antitumor activity and cell selectivity against human cancers.

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FIP-nha inhibited the growth, induced apoptosis and autophagy of gastric cancer cells through competitively binding to EGFR with EGF to blocking the EGFR-mediated STAT3/Akt pathway.

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FIP-nha may be a potential chemotherapy drug that targeted EGFR to treat human gastric cancer.

FIP-nha, a fungal immunomodulatory protein from Nectria haematococca, has been demonstrated a broad spectrum of antitumor activity and cell selectivity against human cancers in our previous study. However, the effect and mechanism of FIP-nha on gastric cancer remains unclear. In this study, we systematically observed the cytotoxicity, biological effect, regulatory mechanism and interaction target of FIP-nha on human gastric cancer cell lines, AGS and SGC7901. Our results demonstrated that FIP-nha inhibited the growth of AGS and SGC7901 cells in a dose-dependent manner and exerted proapoptotic effects on both cells as confirmed by flow cytometry, DAPI staining and western blot analysis. Additionally, the exposure of AGS and SGC7901 to FIP-nha induced autophagy as indicated by western blot analysis, GFP-LC3 and mCherry-GFP-LC3 transfection and acridine orange staining. Furthermore, we found that FIP-nha decreased the phosphorylation of EGFR, STAT3 and Akt and inhibited activation effect of ligand factor EGF to EGFR and its downstream signal molecule STAT3 and Akt. Finally, we proved that FIP-nha located on the surface of gastric cancer cells and bound directly to the transmembrane protein of EGFR by immunoprecipitation, cellular localization, molecular docking, microscale thermophoresis assay. The above findings indicated that FIP-nha inhibited the growth of gastric cancer and induced apoptosis and autophagy through competitively binding to EGFR with EGF to blocking the EGFR-mediated STAT3/Akt pathway. In summary, our study provided novel insights regarding the activity of FIP-nha against gastric cancer and contributed to the clinical application of FIP-nha as a potential chemotherapy drugs that targeted EGFR for human gastric cancer.

Risk factors for gastric cancer and related serological levels in Fujian, China: hospital-based case-control study

OBJECTIVE

To explore the relationships between gastric cancer and serum pepsinogen I (PG I), PG II, PG I/II ratio, gastrin 17 (G-17) and Helicobacter pylori infection, and to investigate dietary and lifestyle risk factors for gastric cancer in Fujian Province, China.

DESIGN

A hospital-based, 1:1 matched case-control study.

SETTING

Patients with newly diagnosed gastric cancer were recruited from the Fujian Provincial Hospital and the No. 900 Hospital of the Joint Support Force of the Chinese People's Liberation Army between July 2014 and December 2016.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 180 pairs of patients with gastric cancer and control subjects were recruited in the study, including 134 (74.4%) male pairs and 46 (25.6%) female pairs.

INVESTIGATION AND ANALYSIS MEASURES

Serological indicators were tested with ELISA kits. Dietary, lifestyle and psychological factors were investigated through face-to-face questionnaire. Relationships between gastric cancer and these influencing factors were examined by Χ2 test and conditional logistic regression.

RESULTS

Serum PG II and G-17 levels and H. pylori infection rate were higher in patients with gastric cancer than in control subjects (p<0.05), while PG I/II ratio was lower in patients with gastric cancer (p<0.05). Serum G-17 levels were higher in patients with corpus gastric cancer than in patients with antral gastric cancer (p<0.05). Serum PG II levels were higher in patients with advanced gastric cancer than in patients with early-stage cancer (p<0.05), however, PG I/II ratio was lower in patients with advanced-stage gastric cancer than in patients with early-stage cancer (p<0.05). Eating hot food (OR=2.32), eating pickled vegetables (OR=4.05) and often feel troubled (OR=2.21) were found to significantly increase the risk of gastric cancer (all p<0.05), while consuming onion or garlic (OR=0.35), drinking tea (OR=0.26), eating fresh fruits (OR=0.55), and high serum PG I (OR=0.99) or PG I/II ratio (OR=0.73) were found to be protective against gastric cancer.

CONCLUSION

Study results showed that serum PG, G-17 and H. pylori antibodies could be useful indicators for early diagnosis of gastric cancer. Increase in serum G-17 level might indicate the location of gastric cancer. Increase in serum PG II level and decrease in PG I/II ratio might imply the clinical stage. Eating hot food, eating pickled vegetables and often feel troubled may be risk factors for gastric cancer, while eating fresh fruits, eating onion or garlic, and drinking tea may be protective factors against the disease.

Chinese patent medicine (Jinlong Capsule) for gastric cancer: Protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

JLC has been widely applied as a promising adjunctive drug for GC. However, the exact effects and safety of JLC have yet to be systematically investigated. We aimed to summarize the efficacy and safety of JLC for the treatment of advanced GC through the meta-analysis, in order to provide scientific reference for the design of future clinical trials.

METHODS

The protocol followed Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocols. Relevant randomized controlled trials were searched from Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of Science (WOS), Excerpt Medica Database (Embase), Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), China Scientific Journal Database (VIP), and Wanfang Database. Papers in English or Chinese published from their inception to January 2020 will be included without any restrictions.Study selection and data extraction will be performed independently by 2 investigators. The clinical outcomes including overall response rate, complete response rate, overall survival, Disease-free survival, quality of life (QoL), immune function, and adverse events, were systematically evaluated. Review Manager 5.3 and Stata 14.0 were used for data analysis, and the quality of the studies was also evaluated.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

The findings of this research will be published in a peer-reviewed journal, and provide more evidence-based guidance in clinical practice. INTERNATIONAL PLATFORM OF REGISTERED SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS PROTOCOLS (INPLASY) REGISTRATION NUMBER:: INPLASY202040105. URL: https://inplasy.com/inplasy-2020-4-0105/.

Identification of novel biomarkers, MUC5AC, MUC1, KRT7, GAPDH, CD44 for gastric cancer

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in the world, and it is also the third largest cause of cancer-related death in the world. As far as we know, no biomarker has been widely accepted for early diagnosis and prognosis prediction of gastric cancer. The purpose of this study is to find potential biomarkers to predict the prognosis of GC. The gene expression profiles of GSE2685 were downloaded from GEO database. Morpheus was used to calculate the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between primary advanced gastric cancer tissues and noncancerous gastric tissues. The gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway (KEGG) enrichment analyses were performed, and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of DEGs was constructed. Kaplan-Meier Plotter was used to determine the overall survival (OS) outcomes of UC5AC, MUC1, KRT7, GAPDH, CD44, and GEPIA was used to determine the Pearson correlation analysis. In total, 710 DEGs were identified in GC, including 396 upregulated genes and 314 downregulated genes. GO enrichment revealed that they were mainly enriched in binding, catalytic activity, cellular process and cell. KEGG pathway revealed that they were mainly enriched in metabolic pathways, pathways in cancer and PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. MUC5AC, MUC1, KRT7, GAPDH, CD44 were identified from the PPI network. MUC5AC, MUC1, KRT7, GAPDH, CD44 were demonstrated to have prognostic value for patients with GC. MUC5AC, MUC1 exhibited low expression levels in GC tissues, KRT7, GAPDH, CD44 presented high expression levels in GC tissues. In particular, KRT7 is hardly expressed in normal gastric tissues. MUC5AC and MUC1 were negatively correlated with GAPDH, CD44, respectively; and GAPDH was positively correlated with CD44 and KRT7, respectively. Moreover. MUC5AC, MUC1, KRT7, GAPDH, and CD44 are not only related to GC but also to apoptosis pathway. Results from the present study suggested that MUC5AC, MUC1, KRT7, GAPDH, CD44 may represent novel prognostic biomarkers for GC.

Penicilazaphilone C, a New Azaphilone, Induces Apoptosis in Gastric Cancer by Blocking the Notch Signaling Pathway

Penicilazaphilone C (PAC) is a novel azaphilonidal derivative isolated by our group that demonstrates good anticancer activities. Considering that its molecular mechanisms remain largely unknown, here we explore the molecular mechanisms of the anticancer activities of PAC against gastric cancer. The in vitro effects of PAC on cell growth, proliferation, and apoptosis were evaluated by MTT, BrdU, MTS, colony formation assays, Hoechst 33258 staining, and flow cytometry. Related proteins were examined by western blotting. Notch receptor expression was analyzed by RT-PCR. In vivo antitumor activities of PAC were observed in a nude mouse model. We found that compared to the controls, PAC treatment suppressed cell proliferation and promoted apoptosis in MGC-803 and SGC-7901 cells, and the Notch/PTEN/AKT axis was involved in the activating PAC-induced apoptosis. PAC treatment led to decreased levels of Notch (NTM), NICD, pPTEN, and pAKT compared to controls. PAC-induced inhibition of Notch-related protein expression levels and the resulting apoptosis were reversed by overexpression of Notch1 (NTM) or/and Notch2 (NTM). Moreover, PAC treatment clearly inhibited tumor growth in mice both bearing tumors derived from both MGC-803 and SGC-7901 cells. This work reveals that PAC induces the apoptosis by suppressing activation of Notch receptor proteolytic cleavage and subsequently blocking the PTEN/AKT signaling axis in gastric cancer cells. Thus, PAC is a potential alternative agent for the treatment of gastric cancer.