Revista de diagnóstico y biomarcadores moleculares

Metabolic profiles of hydrophilic and lipophilic cell extracts from three cancer cell lines, Miapaca-2, Panc-1 and AsPC-1, and a non-cancerous pancreatic ductal epithelial cell line, H6C7, were examined by proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Over twenty five hydrophilic metabolites were identified by principal component and statistical significance analyses as distinguishing the four cell types. Fifteen metabolites were identified with significantly altered concentrations in all cancer cells, e.g. absence of phosphatidylgrycerol and phosphatidylcholine, and increased phosphatidylethanolamine and cholesterols. Altered concentrations of metabolites involved in glycerophospholipid metabolism, lipopolysaccharide and fatty acid biosynthesis indicated differences in cellular membrane composition between non-cancerous and cancer cells. In addition to cancer specific metabolites, several metabolite changes were unique to each cancer cell line. Increased N-acetyl groups in AsPC-1, octanoic acids in Panc-1, and UDP species in Miapaca-2 indicated differences in cellular membrane composition between the cancer cell lines. Induced glutamine metabolism and protein synthesis in cancer cells were indicated by absence of glutamine other metabolites such as acetate, lactate, serine, branched amino acids, and succinate. Knowledge of the specifically altered metabolic pathways identified in these pancreatic cancer cell lines may be useful for identifying new therapeutic targets and studying the effects of potential new therapeutic drugs.

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of serum biomarkers HE4 and CA72.4 at diagnosis and in the follow-up of patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC).Seventy-eight patients with EOC were included and 40 of them were monitored during the follow-up. Serum levels of HE4 and CA72.4 were determined for all patients at diagnosis. Among these patients, the number of cases with an elevated level of each individual marker HE4 and CA72.4 was 85% and 72% respectively. A statistically significant difference was observed between the positivity of HE4 in comparison with Ca72.4 (p<0.02). In the follow-up period, we observed that tumor marker levels showed fluctuations during chemotherapy. As we combined the individual biomarkers, we observed increased values in 75% of the patients for HE4 with CA 72.4. In conclusion, our study has shown that the association of the biomarkers HE4 and CA72.4 provides a valuable contribution to the follow-up of EOC.

Objectives: The pathways involved in the carcinogenesis of bladder urothelial carcinoma have been well established and are used for the development of new diagnostic and prognostic markers for the disease. The main genetic pathway for the development of low-grade pTa urothelial carcinomas is related to FGFR3 mutation. MicroRNAs have been related to processes involved in carcinogenesis in many organs, and miR-100 was recently shown to target FGFR3 messenger RNA. Our aim was to study the profile of expression of miR-100 and FGFR3 in low-grade, pTa bladder urothelial carcinoma.
Methods and Materials: Using qRT-PCR, we studied the expression of miR-100 and FGFR3 in 30 patients who had undergone transurethral resection of low-grade, pTa bladder urothelial carcinoma.
Results and Conclusion: There was under-expression of miR-100 and over-expression of FGFR3 in 100% of the specimens. Under-expression of miR-100 might be an alternative pathway for low-grade pTa urothelial bladder carcinogenesis and the identification of this molecular alteration may constitute a new diagnostic and prognostic marker for the disease.