Abstract P4-08-30: Prognostication of immune related gene expression in patients with triple negative breast cancer

Introduction: To date, the role of immunotherapy with check point inhibitors and/or vaccines in the treatment of breast cancer (BC) is still debating, and the main focus of immunotherapy in BC is on triple negative subtype as a target population in many ongoing clinical trials. Translational research into identifying predictive and prognostic immune biomarkers is of particular clinical relevance, but, there are currently no definite prognostic and predictive immune biomarkers in BC, especially in triple negative breast cancer(TNBC). We investigated the expression profiles of immune genes in patients with TNBC to identify the prognostic value of immune genes in search of clinical implications.

Methods : We investigated expression profiles of 770 pan-cancer immune related genes using the nCounter mRNA expression assay (NanoString®) from paraffin-embedded tumor tissues in 200 patients diagnosed as TNBC who received curative surgery at Samsung Medical Center from 2000 to 2004. We analyzed the relationship between stage adjusted level of gene expressions and patients' survival outcomes using Cox regression model.

Results: Of 770 genes, 186 genes were selected from univariate analysis with clinical stage adjustment. In multivariate analysis using Cox regression, expressions of CD1B, CD45, CD53, CT45A1, GTF3C1, IL11RA, IL1RN, LRRN3, MAPK1, NEFL, PRKCE, SPACA3 and RANKL were associated with distant recurrence free survival (p<0.05, respectively). Among these 13 genes, expression of MAPK1, NEFL, CD45, SPACA3 and RANKL were correlated with favorable outcome in terms of distant recurrence free survival (p<0.05, respectively). In terms of overall survival, C3, IL1RL1, IL1RN, IL7 and PRKCE were associated with poor prognosis (p<0.05, respectively) and expression of SAA1 CXCL9 and RANKL resulted in favorable outcome (p<0.05, respectively).

Table 1ParameterParameter EstimateStandard Errorp-valueHazard Ratio95% Confidence Interval(a) distant recurrence free survival     Stage2.487350.680570.000312.0293.169, 45.661CD1B1.141910.2753<.00013.1331.826, 5.374CD531.531650.34851<.00014.6262.336, 9.159CT45A10.426110.134210.00151.5311.177, 1.992GTF3C11.193110.579720.03963.2971.059, 10.271IL11RA1.671120.461750.00035.3182.151, 13.146IL1RN0.980280.24657<.00012.6651.644, 4.321LRRN31.424170.28742<.00014.1542.365, 7.297MAPK1-0.542740.258240.03560.5810.35, 0.964NEFL-1.12170.335610.00080.3260.169, 0.629PRKCE2.378340.49659<.000110.7874.076, 28.549CD45-2.736780.43154<.00010.0650.028, 0.151SPACA3-0.745930.272270.00610.4740.278, 0.809RANKL-1.288920.2976<.00010.2760.154, 0.494(b) overall survival     Stage1.359280.497810.00633.8931.468, 10.329C30.329830.150350.02831.3911.036, 1.867CXCL9-0.379190.100680.00020.6840.562, 0.834IL1RL10.679360.262940.00981.9731.178, 3.303IL1RN0.437130.172370.01121.5481.104, 2.171IL70.507280.206250.01391.6611.109, 2.488PRKCE0.835340.272910.00222.3061.35, 3.936SAA1-0.564250.13449<.00010.5690.437, 0.74RANKL-0.604990.234510.00990.5460.345, 0.865

Conclusion: High expression of IL1RN, PRKCE were associated with short distant recurrence free survival and overall survival in patients with TNBCs who received curative surgery. In contrast, RANKL expression resulted in prolonged distant recurrence free survival and overall survival.

Citation Format: Kim J-Y, Jung HH, Lim JE, Cho EY, Lee SK, Yu JH, Lee JE, Kim SW, Nam SJ, Park YH, Ahn JS, Im Y-H. Prognostication of immune related gene expression in patients with triple negative breast cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2018 Dec 4-8; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P4-08-30.

CD14 Receptor Gene Promoter Polymorphism: Awakening Maternal Immunity during Pregnancy

We investigated whether monocyte CD14 receptor gene promoter polymorphisms were associated with the development and severity of pre-eclampsia. We genotyped the CD14-260 C/T polymorphism in 36 preeclamptic patients and 52 healthy pregnant controls. A total of 30.6% and 69.4% of pre-eclamptic patients had the C and T alleles, respectively, and 48.0% and 52.0% of the controls, respectively. More pre-eclamptic patients were TT homozygotes compared with controls (50.0% versus 13.5%). In pre-eclamptic patients, the TT homozygotes exhibited a significantly higher mean systolic blood pressure compared with the non-TT homozygotes (173 ± 28 mmHg versus 153 ± 22 mmHg). We also noted a tendency towards increased proteinuria and placental abruption in the TT homozygotes compared with the non-TT homozygotes. We conclude that CD14 gene promoter polymorphisms appear to be a risk factor for pre-eclampsia. With further research, these findings might form the basis of a prognostic tool for pre-eclampsia.

Prognostic factors for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: clinical, physiologic, pathologic, and molecular aspects

BACKGROUND

Previous studies identified clinical and physiologic factors of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) that are related to an increased risk of mortality. But there are few studies about histologic and molecular approach.

OBJECTIVE

We investigated whether the C-reactive protein (CRP), fibroblastic foci, phosphorylated Smad2/3 (p-Smad2/3), tumor growth factor-beta (TGF-beta), TGF-beta receptor II (TbetaRII), and the polymorphism of the TGF-beta1 codon 10 are associated with the progression of IPF patients.

DESIGN

Eighty-six IPF patients who underwent surgical lung biopsies were examined. For each patient, clinical and physiologic parameters were investigated, and we performed immunohistochemical staining for p-Smad2/3 and TbetaRII, and genotyping of the TGF-beta1 codon 10 polymorphism.

RESULTS

Age at diagnosis, gender, symptom duration, and smoking status did not show a significant association. However, the amount of smoking (p = 0.002), severe reduction in the percentages of predicted forced vital capacity (p = 0.013) and diffusion lung capacity of carbon monoxide (p = 0.023), CRP (p = 0.009) at diagnosis, and fibroblastic foci (p = 0.026) were associated with a poor prognosis. Cellularity, fibrosis, expression level of p-Smad2/3 and TbetaRII, and genotype of the TGF-beta1 codon 10 polymorphism did not have a statistically significant association with the prognosis.

CONCLUSION

This study confirmed the amount of smoking, abrupt decrease in follow-up pulmonary function parameters, fibroblastic foci, and increased levels of CRP concentration at diagnosis were significantly associated with poor survival. Larger studies are required to confirm all prognostic factors including CRP.

Anxiety and fear in a cross of C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice: mapping overlapping and independent QTL for related traits

Anxiety, like other psychiatric disorders, is a complex neurobehavioral trait, making identification of causal genes difficult. In this study, we examined anxiety-like behavior and fear conditioning (FC) in an F(2) intercross of C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice. We identified numerous quantitative trait loci (QTL) influencing anxiety-like behavior in both open field (OF) and FC tests. Many of these QTL were mapped back to the same chromosomal regions, regardless of behavior or test. For example, highly significant overlapping QTL on chromosome 1 were found in all FC measures as well as in center time measures in the OF. Other QTL exhibited strong temporal profiles over testing, highlighting dynamic relationship between genotype, test and changes in behavior. Next, we implemented a factor analysis design to account for the correlated nature of the behaviors measured. OF and FC behaviors loaded onto four main factors representing both anxiety and fear behaviors. Using multiple QTL modeling, we calculated the percentage variance in anxiety and fear explained by multiple QTL using both additive and interactive terms. Quantitative trait loci modeling resulted in a broad description of the genetic architecture underlying anxiety and fear accounting for 14-37% of trait variance. Factor analysis and multiple QTL modeling showed both unique and shared QTL for anxiety and fear; suggesting a partially overlapping genetic architecture for these two different models of anxiety.

Curcumin interrupts the interaction between the androgen receptor and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in LNCaP prostate cancer cells

Recently, studies have investigated the significance of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway in prostate cancer. The transcriptional activity of the androgen receptor (AR) is modulated by interaction with coregulators, one of which is β-catenin. Curcumin, a dietary yellow pigment of Curcuma longa, has emerged as having a chemopreventive role. Although curcumin has been shown to inhibit AR expression, its molecular mechanism has not been fully elucidated. In this study, whether curcumin mediates the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway with regard to AR/β-catenin interactions was studied. Curcumin was shown to induce significant inhibition of AR expression in a dose-dependent manner. Marked curcumin-induced suppression of β-catenin was shown in the nuclear and cytoplasmic extracts as well as whole cell lysates. Further analysis revealed that phosphorylation of Akt and glycogen synthase kinase-3β were attenuated, but phosphorylated β-catenin was increased after curcumin treatment. Finally, cyclin D1 and c-myc, the target gene of the β-catenin/T-cell factor transcriptional complex, were also decreased. These findings suggest that curcumin modulates the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway and might have a significant role in mediating inhibitory effects on LNCaP prostate cancer cells.

Fine mapping of QTL for prepulse inhibition in LG/J and SM/J mice using F(2) and advanced intercross lines

Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the startle response is a measure of sensorimotor gating, a process that filters out extraneous sensory, motor and cognitive information. Humans with neurological and psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and Huntington's disease, exhibit a reduction in PPI. Habituation of the startle response is also disrupted in schizophrenic patients. In order to elucidate the genes involved in sensorimotor gating, we phenotyped 472 mice from an F(2) cross between LG/J × SM/J for PPI and genotyped these mice genome-wide using 162 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. We used prepulse intensity levels that were 3, 6 and 12 dB above background (PPI3, PPI6 and PPI12, respectively). We identified a significant quantitative trait locus (QTL) on chromosome 12 for all three prepulse intensities as well as a significant QTL for both PPI6 and PPI12 on chromosome 11. We identified QTLs on chromosomes 7 and 17 for the startle response when sex was included as an interactive covariate and found a QTL for habituation of the startle response on chromosome 4. We also phenotyped 135 mice from an F(34) advanced intercross line (AIL) between LG/J × SM/J for PPI and genotyped them at more than 3000 SNP markers. Inclusions of data from the AIL mice reduced the size of several of these QTLs to less than 5 cM. These results will be useful for identifying genes that influence sensorimotor gaiting and show the power of AIL for fine mapping of QTLs.

Fine-mapping of muscle weight QTL in LG/J and SM/J intercrosses

Genetic variation plays a substantial role in variation in strength, but the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. The objective of the present study was to examine the mechanisms underlying variation in muscle mass, a predictor of strength, between LG/J and SM/J strains, which are the inbred progeny of mice selected, respectively, for high and low body weight. We measured weight of five hindlimb muscles in LG/J and SM/J males and females, in F(1) and F(2) intercrosses, and in an advanced intercross (AI), F(34), between the two. F(2) mice were genotyped using 162 SNPs throughout the genome; F(34) mice were genotyped at 3,015 SNPs. A twofold difference in muscle mass between the LG/J and SM/J mouse strains was observed. Integrated genome-wide association analysis in the combined population of F(2) and AI identified 22 quantitative trait loci (QTL; genome-wide P < 0.05) affecting muscle weight on Chr 2 (2 QTL), 4, 5, 6 (7 QTL), 7 (4 QTL), 8 (4 QTL), and 11 (3 QTL). The LG/J allele conferred greater muscle weight in all cases. The 1.5-LOD QTL support intervals ranged between 0.3 and 13.4 Mb (median 3.7 Mb) restricting the list of candidates to between 5 and 97 genes. Selection for body weight segregated the alleles affecting skeletal muscle, the most abundant tissue in the body. Combination of analyses in an F(2) and AI was an effective strategy to detect and refine the QTL in a genome-wide manner. The achieved resolution facilitates further elucidation of the underlying genetic mechanisms affecting muscle mass.

428 PRODUCTION OF GERM-LINEAGE CELL AND FUNCTIONAL GAMETES FROM MULTI-POTENT SPERMATOGONIAL STEM CELLS

Multi-potent spermatogonial stem cells (mSSC), derived from uni-potent SSC, are a type of reprogrammed cells with similar characteristics to embryonic stem cells (ESC). Similar to ESC, mSSC are capable of differentiating into 3-germ layers in vitro and teratoma formation in vivo. Additionally, mSSC proliferate rapidly and can be transfected more easily than SSC. In contrast to previous reports, we have found that mSSC also have germ-cell-specific micro (mi)RNA and gene expression profiles. Therefore, the aims of this study were to compare the efficiency of mSSC v. ESC to differentiate into germ lineage and produce male gametes, as well as to develop a novel system for the production of genetically modified mice. Mouse mSSC were transfected with a lentiviral vector expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) and testis-specific gene and maintained in the ESC-culture medium containing leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF). Embryonic bodies (EB) were formed after the cells were detached from the feeder cells. Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-4 (10 ng mL˜1) and retinoic acid (RA, 0.1 μM) were added to the ESC-culture medium for 3 days in order to induce differentiation into germ lineage cells. Then, these cells were changed to germ cell-culture medium (Stem-Pro™ containing GDNF; Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA) and cultured for 3 days. After 6 days, cultured cells were sorted by magnetic activating cell sorting system using specific marker for germ cells, CD-9. Isolated germ lineage cells were transplanted into a busulfan-treated mouse testis for the production of male germ cells. Three to 6 weeks later, the testis and epididymis were collected, and half of the sample was used to perform histological analysis and the other half for the production of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)-derived embryos. The statistical significance of differences between the 2 groups was evaluated by Student’s t-test Immunocytochemical and flow cytometrical analysis performed 6 days after differentiation showed that the ratio of germ cell-specific markers in EB derived from mSSC was higher than those from ESC. Moreover, after 3 to 6 weeks of transplantation the testis produced sperms and germ cells expressing GFP. We have successfully produced embryos by ICSI and offspring by embryo transfer into uteri of poster mothers. These results demonstrate that mSSC can be easily differentiated into germ lineage cells compared with ESC and have the potential to generate functional gametes. Therefore, the differentiation and transgenesis of mSSC may be a useful model for production of genetically modified mice. This work was supported by a grant of the Korea Healthcare Technology R&D Project, Ministry for Health, Welfare & Family Affairs, Republic of Korea (A084923).

Comparison of cortical bone thickness and root proximity at maxillary and mandibular interradicular sites for orthodontic mini-implant placement

OBJECTIVES

To compare maxillary and mandibular cortical bone thickness and rootic proximity for optimal mini-implant placement.

SETTING AND SAMPLE POPULATION

CT images from 14 men and 14 women were used to evaluate buccal interradicular cortical bone thickness and root proximity from mesial of the central incisor to the 2nd molar. Cortical bone thickness was measured at 0 degrees , 15 degrees , 30 degrees , and 45 degrees angles relative to the root surface using three-dimensional images.

RESULTS

For the cortical bone thickness, there was no statistically significant difference between the maxilla and the mandible in the anterior area; however, there was a significant difference in the posterior area. Cortical bone in the maxilla, mesial and distal to canine interradicular sites, was thickest while thickness in the mandible exhibited a gradual anterior to posterior increase. Cortical bone thickness in the maxilla increased as both level and angle increased, while the cortical bone thickness in the mandible was greatest at 4 mm from the alveolar crest. Root proximity mesial and distal to 2nd premolar interradicular sites was greatest.

CONCLUSION

Based on our results, cortical bone thickness depends on the interradicular site rather than sex or individual differences.

A recombinant human enzyme for enhanced interstitial transport of therapeutics

Subcutaneously injected therapeutics must pass through the interstitial matrix of the skin in order to reach their intended targets. This complex, three-dimensional structure limits the type and quantity of drugs that can be administered by local injection. Here we found that depolymerization of the viscoelastic component of the interstitial matrix in animal models with a highly purified recombinant human hyaluronidase enzyme (rHuPH20) increased the dispersion of locally injected drugs, across a broad range of molecular weights without tissue distortion. rHuPH20 increased infusion rates and the pattern and extent of appearance of locally injected drugs in systemic blood. In particular, rHuPH20 changed the pharmacokinetic profiles and significantly augmented the absolute bioavailability of locally injected large protein therapeutics. Importantly, within 24 h of injection, the interstitial viscoelastic barriers were restored without histologic alterations or signs of inflammation. rHuPH20 may function as an interstitial delivery enhancing agent capable of increasing the dispersion and bioavailability of coinjected drugs that may enable subcutaneous administration of therapeutics and replace intravenous delivery.

Evaluation of Pentoxifylline in the Prevention of Haze after Photorefractive Keratectomy in the Rabbit

BACKGROUND

Pentoxifylline (PTX) is a methylxanthine derivative that, besides its hemorrheologic properties, possesses multiple physiologic effects at the cellular level. It has been used in keloid prevention due to its ability to inhibit the secretion of collagen and glycosaminoglycans from activated fibroblasts.

METHODS

Ten New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits underwent a -7.00 diopters, 6.0 mm diameter photorefractive keratectomy after laser ablation of the epithelium with a VISX 20/20 excimer laser. The bare stroma was stained with fresh 0.5% dichlorotriazinyl aminofluorescein (DTAF). The procedure was performed on both eyes, 4 days apart. One eye received 1% Pentoxifylline qid and the other balanced salt solution qid as a control for 4 weeks, starting the same day of surgery. Two masked observers graded the amount of haze at 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks after surgery using slit-lamp biomicroscopy. Three rabbits were sacrificed at 2 and 4 weeks followed by two rabbits at 6 and 8 weeks. The area between the DTAF-stained collagen to the base of the epithelium was measured using a digital image analyzer.

RESULTS

There was no statistically significant difference in the amount of haze either by slit-lamp microscopy or by histological analysis between the pentoxifylline-treated eyes and the controls at any time interval (Student's t-test: 0.16 to 0.92)

CONCLUSION

Pentoxifylline did not seem to affect haze formation in a PRK rabbit model. As no signs of toxicity were observed, further studies might examine higher concentrations or dose frequencies.