Hui Ren

Differentially expressed glycosylated patterns of α-1-antitrypsin as serum biomarkers for the diagnosis of lung cancer

Lung cancer is the most common malignancy worldwide. Thus, there is a critical need for diagnostic biomarkers with adequate sensitivity and specificity for lung cancer detection. Glycans in glycoproteins are significantly altered in cancer, and may serve as a tool for identifying potential diagnostic biomarkers. Recent studies have reported changes in α-1-antitrypsin (A1AT) glycosylation in lung cancer serum, tissue and cell lines. In this study, a lectin microarray was used to detect glycosylation changes in serum A1AT from patients with lung adenocarcinoma (ADC), squamous cell lung cancer, small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) and benign pulmonary diseases. Differentially expressed glycosylated patterns of A1AT were identified by lectin arrays and were confirmed by lectin-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We found that galactosylated A1AT could distinguish non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) from benign pulmonary diseases (AUC = 0.834); fucosylated A1AT showed exceptional capability in distinguishing ADC from benign diseases (AUC = 0.919) or other lung cancer subtypes (AUC = 0.844), and A1AT containing poly-LacNAc could detect SCLC from benign diseases (AUC = 0.905) or NSCLC (AUC = 0.707). The present study indicates that glycosylated patterns of A1AT may serve as potential biomarkers for detection of lung cancer. Further studies in larger sample sizes are necessary to validate the clinical utility of these markers.

Polydimethylsiloxane-Paper Hybrid Lateral Flow Assay for Highly Sensitive Point-of-Care Nucleic Acid Testing

In nucleic acid testing (NAT), gold nanoparticle (AuNP)-based lateral flow assays (LFAs) have received significant attention due to their cost-effectiveness, rapidity, and the ability to produce a simple colorimetric readout. However, the poor sensitivity of AuNP-based LFAs limits its widespread applications. Even though various efforts have been made to improve the assay sensitivity, most methods are inappropriate for integration into LFA for sample-to-answer NAT at the point-of-care (POC), usually due to the complicated fabrication processes or incompatible chemicals used. To address this, we propose a novel strategy of integrating a simple fluidic control strategy into LFA. The strategy involves incorporating a piece of paper-based shunt and a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) barrier to the strip to achieve optimum fluidic delays for LFA signal enhancement, resulting in 10-fold signal enhancement over unmodified LFA. The phenomena of fluidic delay were also evaluated by mathematical simulation, through which we found the movement of fluid throughout the shunt and the tortuosity effects in the presence of PDMS barrier, which significantly affect the detection sensitivity. To demonstrate the potential of integrating this strategy into a LFA with sample-in-answer-out capability, we further applied this strategy into our prototype sample-to-answer LFA to sensitively detect the Hepatitis B virus (HBV) in clinical blood samples. The proposed strategy offers great potential for highly sensitive detection of various targets for wide application in the near future.

Diagnostic significance of S100A2 and S100A6 levels in sera of patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

Biochemical markers play a significant role in the diagnosis of lung cancer. Recent studies have demonstrated a link involving S100 Calcium Binding Proteins (S100A2, S100A6) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but the expediency of their serum levels in NSCLC has not been established. In this study, we evaluate the potential of serum S100A2 and S100A6 levels as diagnostic markers for NSCLC. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was performed to detect the levels of S100A2 and S100A6 in 141 NSCLC patients and 150 healthy subjects. Serum levels of the two proteins in patients with NSCLC were higher compared to healthy controls (P = 0.0002 for S100A2 and P < 0.0001 for S100A6). Moreover, the levels of S100A2 and S100A6 were higher in the sera of stage I/II NSCLC patients compared to healthy controls with P = 0.01 and <0.0001, respectively. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis showed that S100A2 could distinguish NSCLC patients from healthy controls (AUC = 0.646), and S100A6 could also identify NSCLC (AUC = 0.668). Meanwhile, these two proteins showed notable capabilities for distinguishing stage I/II NSCLC from healthy controls (AUC = 0.708 for S100A2 and AUC = 0.702 for S100A6). Our results indicate that serum levels of S100A2 and S100A6 are significantly elevated in early stage NSCLC and may have the potential for NSCLC biomarker. Further studies with large sample population would help validate our findings.

miR-382 inhibits tumor progression by targeting SETD8 in non-small cell lung cancer

Previous studies showed that miR-382 plays important roles in several types of cancers. Nevertheless, its expression and function in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains largely unknown. In this study, we found that miR-382 expression was evidently downregulated in NSCLC tissue and cell lines in comparison with the adjacent normal tissues and human bronchial epithelial cell line (16HBE). Moreover, the expression levels of miR-382 were significantly associated with last-stage and tumor metastasis in NSCLC patients. In addition, exogenous miR-382 evidently inhibited NSCLC cell proliferation, migration and invasion in vitro. We also revealed SETD8 as a direct target of miR-382 in NSCLC, and restored SETD8 partially reversed the negative effects miR-382 on NSCLC cells. In total, our study demonstrated that miR-382 dysregulated in NSCLC and involved in NSCLC tumorigenesis and metastasis by suppressing SETD8 expression, which may help to identify effective therapies for NSCLC treatment.

NBM-T-BMX-OS01, an Osthole Derivative, Sensitizes Human Lung Cancer A549 Cells to Cisplatin through AMPK-Dependent Inhibition of ERK and Akt Pathway

Background: Drug combination therapies using cisplatin and natural products are common practice in the treatment of human lung cancer. Osthole is a natural compound extracted from a number of medicinal plants and has been shown to exert strong anticancer activities with low toxicity. Methods: In the present study, NBM-T-BMX-OS01 (BMX), derived from the semi-synthesis of osthole, was evaluated in cisplatin treated A549 cells to investigate its effect on cisplatin resistance in human lung cancer. The anticancer effect of BMX were measured by cell viablity‚ colony formation‚ TUNEL staining‚ flow cytometry and cell cycle assay. The fluorescence staining was performed to detect intracellular and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. Western blot analysis, antagonists pretreatment and small interfering RNA (siRNA) transfection were used to determine the potential mechanism. Results: It was found that, in comparison with single cisplatin treatment, the combination of BMX and cisplatin resulted in greater efficacy in inhibition of proliferation and colony formation, apoptosis induction and cell cycle arrest. The results of fluorescence staining showed that the combination effect of BMX and cisplatin was due to oxidative stress induced by mitochondrial ROS generation. In addition, BMX significantly attenuated the phosphorylation of ERK and Akt, two important pro-survival kinases. In contrast, BMX inhibited the activation of AMPK, and knockdown of AMPK using specific siRNA partially reversed BMX-induced inhibition of ERK and Akt, as well as its synthetic effects on cisplatin induced anticancer activity in A549 cells. Conclusion: Taken together, this study provides that BMX might modulate cisplatin resistance through AMPK-ERK and AMPK-Akt pathways. These results also support the role of BMX as a potential drug candidate for use in combination with cisplatin in the treatment of human lung cancer.

miRNA-204 suppresses human non-small cell lung cancer by targeting ATF2.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play a critical role in cancer development and progression. Deregulated expression of miR-204 has been reported in several cancers, but the mechanism through which miR-204 modulates human non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is largely unknown. In this study, we investigate the expression and functional role of miR-204 in human NSCLC tissues and cell lines. RNA isolation, qRT-PCR, MTT, colony formation assay, cell cycle assay, cell apoptosis assay, cell migration assay, and Western blot were performed. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 18.0 software and statistical significance was accepted at p value <0.05. miR-204 level was significantly reduced in NSCLC tissues as compared to that of non-neoplastic tissues. Transient over-expression of miR-204 by transfecting with miR-204 mimics suppressed NSCLC cell proliferation, migration, and induced apoptosis and G1 arrest, whereas inhibition of miR-204 showed the converse effects. Additionally, activating transcription factor 2 (ATF2), an important transcription factor, was demonstrated as a potential target gene of miR-204. Subsequent investigations found a negative correlation between miR-204 level and ATF2 expression in NSCLC tissue samples. Moreover, we observed that miR-204 expression inversely affected endogenous ATF2 expression at both mRNA and protein levels in vitro. Taken together, miR-204 may act as a tumor suppressor by directly targeting ATF2 in NSCLC.

Blockade efficacy of MEK/ERK-dependent autophagy enhances PI3K/Akt inhibitor NVP-BKM120's therapeutic effectiveness in lung cancer cells

NVP-BKM120 (BKM120) is a new pan-class I phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K) inhibitor and has been tested in clinical trials as an anticancer agent. In this study, we determined whether BKM120 induces autophagy and the impact of autophagy induction on BKM120s growth-inhibitory activity. BKM120 potently induced elevation of autophagosome-bound type II LC3 (LC3-II) protein, predominantly in cell lines insensitive to BKM120, thereby inducing autophagy. The presence of lysosomal protease inhibitor chloroquine further enhanced the levels of LC3-II. BKM120 combined with chloroquine, enhanced growth-inhibitory effects including induction of apoptosis, suggesting that autophagy is a protective mechanism counteracting BKM120s growth-inhibitory activity. Interestingly, BKM120 increased p-ERK1/2 levels. When blocking the activation of this signaling with MEK inhibitors or with knockdown of ERK1/2, the ability of BKM120 to increase LC3-II was attenuated and the growth-inhibitory effects including induction of apoptosis were accordingly enhanced, suggesting that the MEK/ERK activation contributes to BKM120-induced authophagy. In mouse xenograft model, we also found that the combination of BKM120 and PD0325901 synergistically suppressed cell growth in human lung cancer cells. Thus, the current study not only reveals mechanisms accounting for BKM120-induced autophagy, but also suggests an alternative method to enhance BKM120s therapeutic efficacy against non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC) by blocking autophagy with either a lysosomal protease inhibitor or MEK inhibitor.

CDK-associated Cullin 1 promotes cell proliferation with activation of ERK1/2 in human lung cancer A549 cells

Lung cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer-related death in the world, but the mechanisms remain unknown. In this study, we investigated the expression of CDK-associated Cullin 1 (CAC1) in lung cancer, the effect of CAC1 on the proliferation of human lung cancer A549 cells, and the activation of signaling pathways of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs). Results showed that CAC1 expression was higher levels in human lung carcinoma than normal lung tissue, and CAC1 siRNA reduced the proliferation of lung cancer A549 cells by decreasing cell activity and cell division in vitro. The proportion of cells treated with CAC1 siRNA increased in the G1 phase and decreased in the S and G2/M phase, indicative of G1 cell cycle arrest. Furthermore, the proportions of early/late apoptosis in lung cancer A549 cells were enhanced with CAC1 siRNA treatment. It was also found that activation of extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK) and p38 signaling pathways were involved in the proliferation of A549 cells. After CAC1 siRNA treatment, p-ERK1/2 levels decreased, and meanwhile p-p38 level increased, A549 cell proliferation increased when ERK1/2 signaling is activated by PMA. Our findings demonstrated that CAC1 promoted the proliferation of human lung cancer A549 cells with activation of ERK1/2 signaling pathways, suggesting a potential cure target for treatment of human lung cancer.

Overcoming acquired resistance to AZD9291, a third generation EGFR inhibitor, through modulation of MEK/ERK-dependent Bim and Mcl-1 degradation

Purpose: The mechanisms accounting for anticancer activity of AZD9291 (osimertinib or TAGRISSO), an approved third-generation EGFR inhibitor, in EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells and particularly for the subsequent development of acquired resistance are unclear and thus are the focus of this study. Experimental Design: AZD9219-resistant cell lines were established by exposing sensitive cell lines to AZD9291. Protein alterations were detected with Western blotting. Apoptosis was measured with annexin V/flow cytometry. Growth-inhibitory effects of tested drugs were evaluated in vitro with cell number estimation and colony formation assay and in vivo with mouse xenograft models. Protein degradation was determined by comparing protein half-lives and inhibiting proteasome. Gene knockdown were achieved with siRNA or shRNA. Results: AZD9291 potently induced apoptosis in EGFR-mutant NSCLC cell lines, in which ERK phosphorylation was suppressed accompanied with Bim elevation and Mcl-1 reduction likely due to enhanced Mcl-1 degradation and increased Bim stability. Blocking Bim elevation by gene knockdown or enforcing Mcl-1 expression attenuated or abolished AZD9291-induced apoptosis. Moreover, AZD9291 lost its ability to modulate Bim and Mcl-1 levels in AZD9291-resistant cell lines. The combination of a MEK inhibitor with AZD9291 restores the sensitivity of AZD9291-resistant cells including those with C797S mutation to undergo apoptosis and growth regression in vitro and in vivo. Conclusions: Modulation of MEK/ERK-dependent Bim and Mcl-1 degradation critically mediates sensitivity and resistance of EGFR-mutant NSCLC cells to AZD9291 and hence is an effective strategy to overcome acquired resistance to AZD9291. Clin Cancer Res; 23(21); 6567–79. ©2017 AACR.

Expression and clinicopathological significance of S100 calcium binding protein A2 in lung cancer patients of Chinese Han ethnicity

BACKGROUND S100 family of calcium-binding proteins plays a significant role in the process of many kinds of tumors, including lung cancer. As an important member of this family, S100 calcium binding protein A2 (S100A2) has been confirmed to be associated with many biological processes, and has an abnormal expression in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the S100A2 status in lung cancer is still controversial and undefined. METHODS We evaluated the pattern and distribution of S100A2 in 109 cases of lung cancer, including five histological types (47 adenocarcinoma, 46 squamous cell carcinoma, 7 small cell carcinoma, 3 large cell carcinoma, and 6 atypical carcinoid), and 30 cases of paired adjacent normal lung tissues by means of immunohistochemistry. RESULTS Compared with the normal tissues (0/30), S100A2 experienced a dramatically upward trend of positive expression in lung cancer, with a positive rate of 68/109 (P<0.001). Specifically, squamous cell carcinoma, with 34/12, had the highest expression ratio, followed by large cell carcinoma (2/1), adenocarcinoma (31/16), and atypical carcinoid (1/5) respectively, while no S100A2 protein was detected in small cell carcinoma. Meanwhile, we firstly demonstrated that the high expression of S100A2 was significantly associated with the incidence of lymph node metastasis in adenocarcinoma (P=0.013). CONCLUSIONS The association between high S100A2 expression and NSCLC at the level of tissue, and S100A2 may serve as an effective biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of NSCLC in future.