Project description:Introduction Thoracic aortic aneurysms frequently go undetected until serious complications like acute dissections or ruptures arise. Therefore, this study aims to identify potential blood circulating biomarkers enabling an easy and early diagnosis of thoracic aortic disease. Methods Potential biomarker candidates were identified through two different techniques, untargeted and targeted proteomic as well as exosome analyses. The biomarker levels were compared between two patient groups with thoracic aortic aneurysms and two control groups without thoracic aortic disease. In total, 80 patients (TAA group (n=40) vs. control group (n=40)) were matched for untargeted and targeted proteome analysis, and 85 for exosome analysis (TAA group (n=42) vs. control group (n=43)), based on the availability of blood samples and excised aortic tissue. Levels of biomarker candidates were correlated with aortic diameter, patient age, and histological alterations in aortic tissue using linear and logistic regression models. Results The untargeted proteomic and exosome analysis identified 1,037 and 1,077 proteins, respectively, of which 11 and 28 proteins showed significant differences in concentration between the study groups. Of these, 9 proteins correlated with the aortic diameter: ACTN1 (Regression coefficient B=1.633, p<0.001), CRP (B=0.001, p=0.004), TGM3 (B=-0.293, p=0.010), KRT84 (B=-0.477, p=0.010), IGHG3 (-0.267, p=0.018), DPYSL2 (B=0.644, p=0.020), TSPAN8 (B-0.838, p=0.042), IGKV3D-11 (B=-0.242, p=0.046), and VDAC1 (B=-0.491, p=0.047). Moreover, IGKV3D-11 (B=-3.257, p=0.029), IGHG3 (B=-0.003, p=0.034), and APOC3 (B=-2.104, p=0.037) showed significant correlations with the grade of aortic medial layer degeneration. None of the proteins correlated with patient age. Conclusion The study identified 9 biomarker candidates correlating with the aortic diameter. To enable the clinical use for diagnosis and prognostic assessment, these biomarkers need to be validated in larger external cohorts.
Project description:Array CGH analysis was done with 56 primary gastric cancers to elucidate prognostic biomarkers on the BAC basis. Using the extracted genomic DNA from 56 primary gastric cancers, array CGH was done to elucidate the prognostic biomarkers.
Project description:Metabolic syndrome is a common and complicated metabolic disorder and defined as a clustering of metabolic risk factors such as insulin resistance or diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. The identification of accurate and effective biomarkers is beneficial to the early diagnosis and treatment of metabolic syndrome. Our study firstly detected the plasma miRNA expression profile of MetS patients compared with control group by high-throughput sequencing and integrated bioinformatics approaches. To our best knowledge, our study firstly perform high-throughput sequencing to obtain the circulating microRNA expression data in MetS plasma, and identified several potential plasma biomarkers for MetS.
Project description:DNA modifications such as 5-methylcytosines (5mC) and 5-hydroxymethylcytosines (5hmC) are epigenetic marks known to affect global gene expression in mammals. Given their prevalence in the human genome, close correlation with gene expression, and high chemical stability, these DNA epigenetic marks could serve as ideal biomarkers for cancer diagnosis. Taking advantage of a highly sensitive and selective chemical labeling technology, we report here genome-wide 5hmC profiling in circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) and paired tumor/adjacent tissues collected from a cohort of 90 healthy individuals and 260 patients recently diagnosed with colorectal, gastric, pancreatic, liver, or thyroid cancer. 5hmC was mainly distributed in transcriptionally active regions coincident with open chromatin and permissive histone modifications. Robust cancer-specific epigenetic signatures in cfDNA were identified in different cancers. 5hmC-based biomarkers demonstrated highly accurate predictive value for patients with colorectal and gastric cancers versus healthy controls, superior to conventional biomarkers, and comparable to epigenetic biomarkers from tissue biopsies. This new strategy could lead to the development of an effective blood-based, minimally-invasive cancer diagnosis and prognosis approach.
Project description:Analysis of expression changes in prelabeled laser-microdissected thoracic propriospinal neurons at different times after low-thoracic spinal cord transection in adult rats. Propriospinal neurons projecting to the lumbar enlargement were captured at various time points following no lesion or low thoracic spinal cord transection.