Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and cancer: Role of antioxidative nutraceuticals

The effective and efficient management of cancer patients relies upon early diagnosis and/or the monitoring of treatment, something that is often difficult to achieve using standard tissue biopsy techniques. Biological fluids such as blood hold great possibilities as a source of non-invasive cancer biomarkers that can act as surrogate markers to biopsy-based sampling. The non-invasive nature of these “liquid biopsies” ultimately means that cancer detection may be earlier and that the ability to monitor disease progression and/or treatment response represents a paradigm shift in the treatment of cancer patients. Below, we review one of the most promising classes of circulating cancer biomarkers: microRNAs (miRNAs). In particular, we will consider their history, the controversy surrounding their origin and biology, and, most importantly, the hurdles that remain to be overcome if they are really to become part of future clinical practice.

https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/17/5/627/pdf

New Concepts in Cancer Biomarkers: Circulating miRNAs in Liquid Biopsies

Volatile general anesthetics continue to be an important part of clinical anesthesia worldwide The impact of volatile anesthetics on the immune system has been investigated at both mechanistic and clinical levels, but previous studies have returned conflicting findings due to varied protocols, experimental environments, and subject species While many of these studies have focused on the immunosuppressive effects of volatile anesthetics, compelling evidence also exists for immunoactivation Depending on the clinical conditions, immunosuppression and activation due to volatile anesthetics can be either detrimental or beneficial This review provides a balanced perspective on the anesthetic modulation of innate and adaptive immune responses as well as indirect effectors of immunity Potential mechanisms of immunomodulation by volatile anesthetics are also discussed A clearer understanding of these issues will pave the way for clinical guidelines that better account for the impact of volatile anesthetics on the immune system, with the ultimate goal of improving perioperative management

/pdf/immune-modulation-by-volatile-anesthetics-2whjjhrapr.pdf

Immune Modulation by Volatile Anesthetics

// Ning-Bo Hao 1, * , Ya-Fei He 2, * , Xiao-Qin Li 3 , Kai Wang 4 and Rui-Ling Wang 1 1 Department of Gastroenterology, General Hospital of the PLA Rocket Force, Beijing, China 2 Intensive Medical Center, 302 Hospital of PLA, Beijing, China 3 Department of Ophthalmology, General Hospital of the PLA Rocket Force, Beijing, China 4 New Era Stoke Care and Research Institute, General Hospital of the PLA Rocket Force, Beijing, China * These authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Rui-Ling Wang, email: wang.rui.lin.g@163.com Keywords: gastric cancer, miRNA, lncRNA Received: April 03, 2017      Accepted: June 20, 2017      Published: July 12, 2017 ABSTRACT Gastric cancer is one of the most common cancers and has the highest mortality rate worldwide. It is worthwhile to explore the mechanism of gastric cancer progression. An increasing number of studies have found that non-coding RNAs including miRNA and lncRNA play important roles in gastric cancer progression. This review summarized the role of ectopic miRNA in gastric cancer proliferation, growth, migration, invasion and apoptosis. Meantime, aberrantly expressed miRNA also received a great deal of attention as potential biomarker for gastric cancer diagnosis and therapy. Over the last decade, lncRNA was considered to regulate gastric cancer progression at the transcript and post-transcript level. At the transcript level, lncRNA induced gastric cancer progression by changing chromatin modification and mRNA stabilization to regulate mRNA and miRNA expression. Furthermore, lncRNA regulated gastric cancer progression by completely combining with miRNA to produce ceRNA or promote protein stabilization at the post-transcript level. Greater attention of miRNA and lncRNA in gastric cancer can provide new insight of mechanism of cancer development and may be acted as a new anticancer target.

/pdf/the-role-of-mirna-and-lncrna-in-gastric-cancer-3swuy7ttkh.pdf

The role of miRNA and lncRNA in gastric cancer.

Conventional tumor markers for non-invasive diagnosis of gastric cancer (GC) exhibit insufficient sensitivity and specificity to facilitate detection of early gastric cancer (EGC). We aimed to identify EGC-specific exosomal lncRNA biomarkers that are highly sensitive and stable for the non-invasive diagnosis of EGC. Hence, in the present study, exosomes from the plasma of five healthy individuals and ten stage I GC patients and from culture media of four human primary stomach epithelial cells and four gastric cancer cells (GCCs) were isolated. Exosomal RNA profiling was performed using RNA sequencing to identify EGC-specific exosomal lncRNAs. A total of 79 and 285 exosomal RNAs were expressed at significantly higher levels in stage I GC patients and GCCs, respectively, than that in normal controls. Through combinational analysis of the RNA sequencing results, we found two EGC-specific exosomal lncRNAs, lncUEGC1 and lncUEGC2, which were further confirmed to be remarkably up-regulated in exosomes derived from EGC patients and GCCs. Furthermore, stability testing demonstrates that almost all the plasma lncUEGC1 was encapsulated within exosomes and thus protected from RNase degradation. The diagnostic accuracy of exosomal lncUEGC1 was evaluated, and lncUEGC1 exhibited AUC values of 0.8760 and 0.8406 in discriminating EGC patients from healthy individuals and those with premalignant chronic atrophic gastritis, respectively, which was higher than the diagnostic accuracy of carcinoembryonic antigen. Consequently, exosomal lncUEGC1 may be promising in the development of highly sensitive, stable, and non-invasive biomarkers for EGC diagnosis.

/pdf/tumor-originated-exosomal-lncuegc1-as-a-circulating-3q2z559tzm.pdf

Tumor-originated exosomal lncUEGC1 as a circulating biomarker for early-stage gastric cancer

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most threatening diseases. The symptoms of GC are complex and hard to detect, which also contribute to the poor prognosis of GC. Besides, the current diagnosis for GC is expensive and invasive. Thus, a fast, noninvasive biomarker is urgently needed for GC screening. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs, which are involved in a great variety of pathological processes, particularly carcinogenesis. MiRNAs are stable in gastric juice, plasma as well as serum, which facilitate it to be a promising biomarker for cancer. In this study, we selected three novel miRNAs, i.e., miR-233, miR-16, and miR-100, to investigate their potential diagnostic value in GC screening. A total of 50 GC patients and 47 healthy controls were involved in this study. Blood serum samples were collected; RNAs were extracted and normalized with U6 snRNA as the internal control; qRT-PCR was performed for relative expression of target miRNAs. Levels of miRNAs expression were compared by Student’s t test for the comparison between two groups, and one-way ANOVA was used for multiple comparisons. The expression of miR-223, miR-16, and miR-100 was all significantly higher in GC patients than controls (all P < 0.001). All the tested miRNAs were manifested to be valuable biomarkers for GC. Relative expression of these miRNAs was significantly correlated with clinical characteristics of GC patients, such as TNM stage (P = 0.036 for miR-223; P < 0.001 for miR-100), metastatic status (P = 0.045 for miR-223; P = 0.031 for miR-16; P = 0.006 for miR-100), tumor size (P = 0.042 for miR-223; P = 0.031 for miR-16; P < 0.001 for miR-100), and differentiation grade (P = 0.036 for miR-223; P = 0.030 for miR-16; P = 0.034 for miR-100). However, in T classification, which considered both tumor size and direct extent of primary tumor, the difference in target miRNAs expression was not significant. In summary, we confirmed the diagnostic value of serum miR-223, miR-16, and miR-100 in GC. Significantly elevated expression of the three miRNAs was also observed in advanced GC patients, which suggested their availability in cancer staging.

Three dysregulated microRNAs in serum as novel biomarkers for gastric cancer screening

Volatile anesthetic isoflurane (ISO) has immunomodulatory effects. The fungal component zymosan (ZY) induces inflammation through toll-like receptor 2 or dectin-1 signaling. We investigated the molecular actions of subanesthetic (0.7%) ISO against ZY-induced inflammatory activation in murine Kupffer cells (KCs), which are known as the resident macrophages within the liver. We observed that ISO reduced ZY-induced cyclooxygenase 2 upregulation and prostaglandin E2 release, as determined by western blot and radioimmunoassay, respectively. ISO also reduced the production of tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1β, IL-6, high-mobility group box-1, macrophage inflammatory protein-1α, macrophage inflammatory protein-2, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 as assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. ISO blocked the ZY-induced nuclear translocation and DNA-binding activity of nuclear factor- (NF)-κB p65. Moreover, ISO attenuated ZY-induced p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) activation partly by scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS); the interregulation that ROS activated p38 MAPK followed by NF-κB activation was crucial for the ZY-induced inflammatory responses in KCs. An in vivo study by peritoneal injection of ZY into BALB/C mice confirmed the anti-inflammatory properties of 0.7% ISO against ZY in KCs. These results suggest that ISO ameliorates ZY-induced inflammatory responses in murine KCs by inhibiting the interconnected ROS/p38 MAPK/NF-κB signaling pathways.

/pdf/subanesthetic-isoflurane-reduces-zymosan-induced-4k2y25maht.pdf

Subanesthetic isoflurane reduces zymosan-induced inflammation in murine Kupffer cells by inhibiting ROS-activated p38 MAPK/NF-κB signaling.

Ubiquitin-specific protease 22 (USP22), a novel deubiquitinating enzyme, has been associated with metastasis, therapy resistance, and cell cycle progression. The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression level of USP22 in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) samples and to evaluate its clinical significance in PTC patients. USP22 expression was examined in 30 fresh PTC tissues and paired adjacent noncancerous tissues by real-time quantitative RT-PCR. Immunohistochemistry for USP22 was performed on additional 156 PTC tissues. The clinical significance of USP22 expression was analyzed. We found that the expression levels of USP22 mRNA and protein in PTC tissues were both significantly higher than those in noncancerous tissues. Clinicopathological analysis showed that USP22 expression was significantly correlated with tumor size (p = 0.036), extracapsular invasion (p = 0.012), multifocality (p = 0.014), lymph node metastasis (p = 0.022), distant metastasis (p = 0.005), and TNM stage (p = 0.002). The Kaplan–Meier survival curves revealed that USP22 expression was associated with poor prognosis in PTC patients. USP22 expression was an independent prognostic marker of overall patient survival in a multivariate analysis. Our findings suggest that USP22 is an independent predictor of poor prognosis of PTC patients.

Jun Yi

Papers

Three dysregulated microRNAs in serum as novel biomarkers for gastric cancer screening

Subanesthetic isoflurane reduces zymosan-induced inflammation in murine Kupffer cells by inhibiting ROS-activated p38 MAPK/NF-κB signaling.

Prognostic significance of USP22 as an oncogene in papillary thyroid carcinoma

Enforced expression of hsa-miR-125a-3p in breast cancer cells potentiates docetaxel sensitivity via modulation of BRCA1 signaling

Steroidal saponin of Trillium tschonoskii. Reverses multidrug resistance of hepatocellular carcinoma