Evaluation of TGF-β1, CCL5/RANTES and sFas/Apo-1 urine concentration in children with ureteropelvic junction obstruction

Integrating single-cell RNA sequencing with spatial transcriptomics reveals immune landscape for interstitial cystitis

Interstitial cystitis (IC) is a severely debilitating and chronic disorder with unclear etiology and pathophysiology, which makes the diagnosis difficult and treatment challenging. To investigate the role of immunity in IC bladders, we sequenced 135,091 CD45⁺ immune cells from 15 female patients with IC and 9 controls with stress urinary incontinence using single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq). 22 immune subpopulations were identified in the constructed landscape. Among them, M2-like macrophages, inflammatory CD14⁺ macrophages, and conventional dendritic cells had the most communications with other immune cells. Then, a significant increase of central memory CD4⁺ T cells, regulatory T cells, GZMK⁺CD8⁺ T cells, activated B cells, un-switched memory B cells, and neutrophils, and a significant decrease of CD8⁺ effector T cells, Th17 cells, follicular helper T cells, switched memory B cells, transitional B cells, and macrophages were noted in IC bladders. The enrichment analysis identified a virus-related response during the dynamic change of cell proportion, furthermore, the human polyomavirus-2 was detected with a positive rate of 95% in urine of patients with IC. By integrating the results of scRNA-seq with spatial transcriptomics, we found nearly all immune subpopulations were enriched in the urothelial region or located close to fibroblasts in IC bladders, but they were discovered around urothelium and smooth muscle cells in control bladders. These findings depict the immune landscape for IC and might provide valuable insights into the pathophysiology of IC.

Urinary biomarkers in pelvic-ureteric junction obstruction: a systematic review

Antenatal hydronephrosis is a common finding detected on prenatal ultrasound. Although hydronephrosis will spontaneously resolve in the majority of newborns, there is a significant amount of cases that will worsen with the risk of a progressive and permanent loss of renal function. There is an increasing concern among experts that the current criteria for evaluation of clinically significant obstructions are limited. Our aim is to provide a systematic review of the available literature on biomarkers of renal injury, potential targets for diagnosis and prognosis of children with hydronephrosis. The main search was conducted in the electronic databases from inception through March 2019 using various combinations of the keywords: pelvic-ureteric [All Fields] AND junction [All Fields] AND obstruction [All Fields] AND “biomarkers” [MeSH Terms] OR “biomarkers” [All Fields] OR “biomarker” [All Fields]. To broaden the research, additional articles were identified through hand-searching review of the references reported in each study previously selected. Histopathological studies, studies with no control group or with participants suffering from concomitant urological diseases and articles published in language other than English were excluded. Data on study design, sample size, average patient age, hydronephrosis definition used, surgical indication, duration and pattern of follow-up, details on biomarker studied, diagnostic test characteristics, area under the curve (AUC) on receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis with the best cut-off (BCO) values, sensitivity, specificity and outcomes were all collected. 38 articles analysing 41 biomarkers were selected. The most frequent proteins investigated were neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) (n=9; 23.7%), monocyte chemotactic peptide-1 (MCP1) (n=8; 21.1%), transforming growth factor β1 (TGFβ1) (n=7; 18.4%), epidermal growth factor (EGF) (n=6; 15.8%) and kidney injury molecule 1 (KIM 1) (n=6; 15.8%). Twenty-seven (71.1%) studies evaluated the effect of pyeloplasty on voided urine biomarker concentrations, comparing their values before and after surgery. Twelve (31.6%) studies investigated the correlation between preoperative biomarker concentration and the anterior posterior renal pelvis diameter (DAP) while 20 (52.6%) studies investigated the correlation between preoperative biomarker concentration with the split renal function (SRF) measured on nuclear medicine assessments. ROC curves were used to investigate the performance of urinary biomarkers in the total patient data set in 27 (71.1%) studies. Some biomarkers offer promising results. However, a critic analysis of the published studies demonstrates bias and lack of consistency suggesting that larger multicentre and carefully designed prospective studies are still needed to evaluate the clinical usefulness of urinary biomarkers in the diagnosis and follow-up of children with congenital obstructive hydronephrosis.

Urinary biomarkers for renal tract malformations

INTRODUCTION

Renal tract malformations (RTMs) are congenital anomalies of the kidneys and urinary tract, which are the major cause of end-stage renal disease in children. Using immunoassay-based approaches (ELISA, western blot), individual urinary proteins including transforming growth factor β, tumor necrosis factor and monocyte attractant proteins 1 were found to be associated to RTMs. However, only mass spectrometry (MS) based methods leading to the identification of panels of protein-based markers composed of fragments of the extracellular matrix allowed the prediction of progression of RTMs and its complications. Areas covered: In this review, we summarized relevant studies identified in "Pubmed" using the keywords "urinary biomarkers" and "proteomics" and "renal tract malformations" or "hydronephrosis" or "ureteropelvic junction obstruction" or "posterior urethral valves" or "vesicoureteral reflux". These publications represent studies on potential protein-based biomarkers, either individually or combined in panels, of RTMs in human and animal models. Expert commentary: Successful use in the clinic of these protein-based biomarkers will need to involve larger scale studies to reach sufficient power. Improved performance will potentially come from combining immunoassay- and MS-based markers.

Identification of differentially expressed genes in salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma cells associated with metastasis

INTRODUCTION

Salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma (SACC) is a frequent type of salivary gland cancer which is characterized by slow growth but high incidence of distant metastasis. We aimed to identify therapeutic targets which are associated with metastasis of SACC.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Total RNA was isolated from a low metastatic SACC cell line (ACC-2) and a highly metastatic SACC cell line (ACC-M), which was screened from ACC-2 by combination of in vivo selection and cloning in vitro. Then the total RNA was subjected to microarray analysis. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened from ACC-M compared with ACC-2, followed by Gene Ontology function and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis. Function annotation for DEGs also was performed. A protein-protein interaction network (PPI) was constructed for DEGs.

RESULTS

A total of 1128 DEGs were identified from ACC-M cells compared with ACC-2 cells. Both up- and down-regulated DEGs were enriched in different functions in biological process (BP), cellular component (CC) and molecular function (MF). Additionally, down-regulated DEGs were mainly enriched in "Apoptosis" and "Cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction" pathways which involved IFN-α1, NTRK1 and TGF-β1. In the PPI network, PIK3CA, PTPN11 and PIK3R1 had a number of nodes greater than 10.

CONCLUSIONS

Transforming growth factor β1 might play a pivotal role during lung metastasis of SACC and be selected as a candidate target for treatment of metastatic SACC. IFNA1, NTRK1 and PIK3CA were also associated with tumor metastasis.