Genetics and Genomics Commons^™

Unraveling The Prognostic Significance Of Rgs Gene Family In Gastric Cancer And The Potential Implication Of Rgs4 In Regulating Tumor-Infiltrating Fibroblast, Yalan Yang, Siyuan Xing, Xi Luo, Lulu Guan, Yao Lu, Yiting Wang, Feng Wang

Journal Articles

Regulator of G-protein signaling (RGS) proteins are regulators of signal transduction mediated by G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Current studies have shown that some molecules in the RGS gene family are related to the occurrence, development and poor prognosis of malignant tumors. However, the RGS gene family has been rarely studied in gastric cancer. In this study, we explored the mutation and expression profile of RGS gene family in gastric cancer, and evaluated the prognostic value of RGS expression. Then we established a prognostic model based on RGS gene family and performed functional analysis. Further studies showed that RGS4, as an …

Multi-Cancer Early Detection Testing (Mced), Ora K Gordon, Brad Bott, Nanor Parseghian, Paul Psychogios, Kimberly K Childers, Sandra Brown

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

No abstract provided.

Population Screening For High-Risk Patient Identification Partnership With Care-Comprehensive Assessment, Risk, And Education., Ora K Gordon, Brad Bott, Nanor Parseghian, Kimberly K Childers, Sandra Brown

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

No abstract provided.

T-Cell Receptor Beta Variable Gene Polymorphism Predicts Immune-Related Adverse Events During Checkpoint Blockade Immunotherapy, Bettzy Stephen, Joud Hajjar, Shrutii Sarda, Dzifa Yawa Duose, Jeffrey M Conroy, Carl Morrison, Anas Alshawa, Mingxuan Xu, Abdulrazzak Zarifa, Sapna P Patel, Ying Yuan, Evan Kwiatkowski, Linghua Wang, Jordi Rodon Ahnert, Siqing Fu, Funda Meric-Bernstam, Geoffrey M Lowman, Timothy Looney, Aung Naing

Journal Articles

BACKGROUND: Immune checkpoint inhibitors have revolutionized cancer treatment. However, they are associated with a unique spectrum of side effects, called immune-related adverse events (irAEs), which can cause significant morbidity and quickly progress to severe or life-threatening events if not treated promptly. Identifying predictive biomarkers for irAEs before immunotherapy initiation is therefore a critical area of research. Polymorphisms within the T-cell receptor beta (TCRB) variable (TRBV) gene have been implicated in autoimmune disease and may be mechanistically linked to irAEs. However, the repetitive nature of the TCRB locus and incomplete genome assembly has hampered the evaluation of TRBV polymorphisms in the …

A Rare Metastatic Mesenteric Malignant Pecoma With Tsc2 Mutation Treated With Palliative Surgical Resection And Nab-Sirolimus: A Case Report, Luke Meredith, Timothy Chao, Avinoam Nevler, Atrayee Basu Mallick, Rajan Singla, Peter Mccue, Wilbur Bowne, Wei Jiang, Md, Phd

Kimmel Cancer Center Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Malignant perivascular epithelioid cell tumors (PEComas) are exceedingly rare malignant mesenchymal neoplasms with characteristic morphological and immunohistochemical (IHC) patterns. However, some malignant PEComas are poorly differentiated with atypical histopathological features, making a definitive diagnosis difficult. PEComas are most commonly found in females and often show either TSC1 or TSC2 alterations, which result in the activation of the mTOR pathway, or TFE3 fusions. Given these molecular characteristics, mTOR inhibitors have recently been approved by the FDA in the treatment of malignant PEComas, particularly in those with TSC1/2 alterations. Therefore, molecular analyses may be helpful for both the diagnostic workup of …

Amplification Of The Plag-Family Genes-Plagl1 And Plagl2-Is A Key Feature Of The Novel Tumor Type Cns Embryonal Tumor With Plagl Amplification, Michaela-Kristina Keck, Martin Sill, Andrea Wittmann, Piyush Joshi, Damian Stichel, Pengbo Beck, Konstantin Okonechnikow, Philipp Sievers, Annika K. Wefers, Nasir Uddin

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Pediatric central nervous system (CNS) tumors represent the most common cause of cancer-related death in children aged 0-14 years. They differ from their adult counterparts, showing extensive clinical and molecular heterogeneity as well as a challenging histopathological spectrum that often impairs accurate diagnosis. Here, we use DNA methylation-based CNS tumor classification in combination with copy number, RNA-seq, and ChIP-seq analysis to characterize a newly identified CNS tumor type. In addition, we report histology, patient characteristics, and survival data in this tumor type. We describe a biologically distinct pediatric CNS tumor type (n = 31 cases) that is characterized by focal …

Factors Impacting Genomic Testing Rates Among Epithelial Ovarian Cancer Patients Across A Large Community-Based Healthcare System, Nicole M. Kretzer, Christopher J. Darus, Nancy Biery, Roshanthi Weerasinghe, Grace Li, Ann Vita, Shwetha Pindikuri, Amy S. Parrish, Charles W Drescher, Fernanda B. Musa

All Podium Presentations

Background: Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) accounts for the highest mortality of all gynecological cancers. NCCN guidelines recommend germline and somatic testing for all women with invasive EOC. Despite this recommendation, there is a large diversity in the types of testing patients receive even within a single healthcare system. Reported data of genetic testing for epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) patients is largely based on patients treated at academic medical centers or patients who participate in clinical trials.

Purpose: This study sought to determine the rates of germline and somatic testing for epithelial ovarian cancer patients and identify factors that impact testing …

Patterns Of Genomic Testing For Epithelial Ovarian Cancer Across A Large Community-Based Health Care Network- A Real World Experience, Nicole M. Kretzer, Fernanda B. Musa, Christopher Darus, Nancy Biery, Roshanthi Weerasinghe, Grace Li, Ann Vita, Shwetha Pindikuri, Amy S. Parrish, Charles W Drescher

All Podium Presentations

Background: NCCN guidelines recommend germline and somatic tumor testing for all women with invasive epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Despite this recommendation, testing rates remain low and an optimal strategy to achieve the recommended testing has not been defined.

Purpose: We elected to review the patterns of germline and somatic tumor testing for patients with EOC across a large health care network to identify barriers to testing.

Methods: Clinical, pathologic, demographic and genomic testing (GT) information including involvement of a genetic counselor, specific test(s) ordered, test vendor, test turn-around time, and test results were obtained from the diverse dataset within the …

The Immune Microenvironment And Relation To Outcome In Patients With Advanced Breast Cancer Treated With Docetaxel With Or Without Gemcitabine, Elisabeth S. Stovgaard, Karama Asleh, Nazia Riaz, Samuel Leung, Dongxia Gao, Lise B. Nielsen, Anne-Vibeke Lænkholm, Eva Balslev, Maj-Britt Jensen, Dorte Nielsen, Torsten O. Nielsen

Centre for Regenerative Medicine & Stem Cell Research

Preclinical studies suggest that some effects of conventional chemotherapy, and in particular, gemcitabine, are mediated through enhanced antitumor immune responses. The objective of this study was to use material from a randomized clinical trial to evaluate whether patients with preexisting immune infiltrates responded better to treatment with gemcitabine + docetaxel (GD) compared to docetaxel alone. Formalin fixed, paraffin-embedded breast cancer tissues from SBG0102 phase 3 trial patients randomly assigned to treatment with GD or docetaxel were used. Immunohistochemical staining for CD8, FOXP3, LAG3, PD-1, PD-L1 and CD163 was performed. Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and tumor associated macrophages were evaluated. Prespecified …

An Ensemble Of The Icluster Method To Analyze Longitudinal Lncrna Expression Data For Psoriasis Patients, Suyan Tian, Chi Wang

Internal Medicine Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Psoriasis is an immune-mediated, inflammatory disorder of the skin with chronic inflammation and hyper-proliferation of the epidermis. Since psoriasis has genetic components and the diseased tissue of psoriasis is very easily accessible, it is natural to use high-throughput technologies to characterize psoriasis and thus seek targeted therapies. Transcriptional profiles change correspondingly after an intervention. Unlike cross-sectional gene expression data, longitudinal gene expression data can capture the dynamic changes and thus facilitate causal inference.

METHODS: Using the iCluster method as a building block, an ensemble method was proposed and applied to a longitudinal gene expression dataset for psoriasis, with the …

Neoadjuvant Anti-Ox40 (Medi6469) Therapy In Patients With Head And Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Activates And Expands Antigen-Specific Tumor-Infiltrating T Cells., Rebekka Duhen, Carmen Ballesteros-Merino, Alexandra K Frye, Eric Tran, Venkatesh Rajamanickam, Shu-Ching Chang, Yoshinobu Koguchi, Carlo Bifulco, Brady Bernard, Rom Leidner, Brendan Curti, Bernard A Fox, Walter Urba, Richard Bryan Bell, Andrew D Weinberg

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Despite the success of checkpoint blockade in some cancer patients, there is an unmet need to improve outcomes. Targeting alternative pathways, such as costimulatory molecules (e.g. OX40, GITR, and 4-1BB), can enhance T cell immunity in tumor-bearing hosts. Here we describe the results from a phase Ib clinical trial (NCT02274155) in which 17 patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) received a murine anti-human OX40 agonist antibody (MEDI6469) prior to definitive surgical resection. The primary endpoint was to determine safety and feasibility of the anti-OX40 neoadjuvant treatment. The secondary objective was to assess the effect of …

Integrated Genetic And Metabolic Landscapes Predict Vulnerabilities Of Temozolomide Resistant Glioblastoma Cells., Selva Rupa Christinal Immanuel, Avinash D Ghanate, Dharmeshkumar S Parmar, Ritu Yadav, Riya Uthup, Venkateswarlu Panchagnula, Anu Raghunathan

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Metabolic reprogramming and its molecular underpinnings are critical to unravel the duality of cancer cell function and chemo-resistance. Here, we use a constraints-based integrated approach to delineate the interplay between metabolism and epigenetics, hardwired in the genome, to shape temozolomide (TMZ) resistance. Differential metabolism was identified in response to TMZ at varying concentrations in both the resistant neurospheroidal (NSP) and the susceptible (U87MG) glioblastoma cell-lines. The genetic basis of this metabolic adaptation was characterized by whole exome sequencing that identified mutations in signaling pathway regulators of growth and energy metabolism. Remarkably, our integrated approach identified rewiring in glycolysis, TCA cycle, …

Prognostic Gene Expression Signatures Of Breast Cancer Are Lacking A Sensible Biological Meaning., Kalifa Manjang, Shailesh Tripathi, Olli Yli-Harja, Matthias Dehmer, Galina Glazko, Frank Emmert-Streib

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

The identification of prognostic biomarkers for predicting cancer progression is an important problem for two reasons. First, such biomarkers find practical application in a clinical context for the treatment of patients. Second, interrogation of the biomarkers themselves is assumed to lead to novel insights of disease mechanisms and the underlying molecular processes that cause the pathological behavior. For breast cancer, many signatures based on gene expression values have been reported to be associated with overall survival. Consequently, such signatures have been used for suggesting biological explanations of breast cancer and drug mechanisms. In this paper, we demonstrate for a large …

Pathway‐Extended Gene Expression Signatures Integrate Novel Biomarkers That Improve Predictions Of Patient Responses To Kinase Inhibitors, Ashis Bagchee‐Clark, Eliseos J. Mucaki, Tyson Whitehead, Peter Rogan

Biochemistry Publications

Cancer chemotherapy responses have been related to multiple pharmacogenetic biomarkers, often for the same drug. This study utilizes machine learning to derive multi‐gene expression signatures that predict individual patient responses to specific tyrosine kinase inhibitors, including erlotinib, gefitinib, sorafenib, sunitinib, lapatinib and imatinib. Support vector machine (SVM) learning was used to train mathematical models that distinguished sensitivity from resistance to these drugs using a novel systems biology‐based approach. This began with expression of genes previously implicated in specific drug responses, then expanded to evaluate genes whose products were related through biochemical pathways and interactions. Optimal pathway‐extended SVMs predicted responses in …

Epigenetic Regulation Of Prostate Cancer, Ruixin Wang, Xiaoqi Liu

Toxicology and Cancer Biology Faculty Publications

Prostate cancer is (PCa) the second leading cause of cancer death in males in the United State, with 174,650 new cases and 31,620 deaths estimated in 2019. It has been documented that epigenetic deregulation such as histone modification and DNA methylation contributes to PCa initiation and progression. EZH2 (enhancer of zeste homolog 2), the catalytic subunit of the Polycomb Repressive Complex (PRC2) responsible for H3K27me3 and gene repression, has been identified as a promising target in PCa. In addition, overexpression of other epigenetic regulators such as DNA methyltransferases (DNMT) is also observed in PCa. These epigenetic regulators undergo extensive post-translational …

A Pilot Study Comparing The Efficacy Of Lactate Dehydrogenase Levels Versus Circulating Cell-Free Micrornas In Monitoring Responses To Checkpoint Inhibitor Immunotherapy In Metastatic Melanoma Patients., Matias A Bustos, Rebecca Gross, Negin Rahimzadeh, Hunter Cole, Linh T Tran, Kevin Tran, Ling Takeshima, Stacey L Stern, Steven O'Day, Dave Hoon

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) is a standard prognostic biomarker for stage IV melanoma patients. Often, LDH levels do not provide real-time information about the metastatic melanoma patients' disease status and treatment response. Therefore, there is a need to find reliable blood biomarkers for improved monitoring of metastatic melanoma patients who are undergoing checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy (CII). The objective in this prospective pilot study was to discover circulating cell-free microRNA (cfmiR) signatures in the plasma that could assess melanoma patients' responses during CII. The cfmiRs were evaluated by the next-generation sequencing (NGS) HTG EdgeSeq microRNA (miR) Whole Transcriptome Assay (WTA; 2083 …

Society For Immunotherapy Of Cancer Clinical And Biomarkers Data Sharing Resource Document: Volume I-Conceptual Challenges., Sergio Rutella, Michael A Cannarile, Sacha Gnjatic, Bruno Gomes, Justin Guinney, Vaios Karanikas, Mohan Karkada, John M Kirkwood, Beatrix Kotlan, Giuseppe V Masucci, Els Meeusen, Anne Monette, Aung Naing, Vésteinn Thorsson, Nicholas Tschernia, Ena Wang, Daniel K Wells, Timothy L Wyant, Alessandra Cesano

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

The sharing of clinical trial data and biomarker data sets among the scientific community, whether the data originates from pharmaceutical companies or academic institutions, is of critical importance to enable the development of new and improved cancer immunotherapy modalities. Through data sharing, a better understanding of current therapies in terms of their efficacy, safety and biomarker data profiles can be achieved. However, the sharing of these data sets involves a number of stakeholder groups including patients, researchers, private industry, scientific journals and professional societies. Each of these stakeholder groups has differing interests in the use and sharing of clinical trial …

Epigenetic Targeting Of Mcl-1 Is Synthetically Lethal With Bcl-Xl/Bcl-2 Inhibition In Model Systems Of Glioblastoma, Enyuan Shang, Trang T. T. Nguyen, Chang Shu, Mike-Andrew Westhoff, Georg Karpel-Massler, Markus D. Siegelin

Publications and Research

Apoptotic resistance remains a hallmark of glioblastoma (GBM), the most common primary brain tumor in adults, and a better understanding of this process may result in more efficient treatments. By utilizing chromatin immunoprecipitation with next-generation sequencing (CHIP-seq), we discovered that GBMs harbor a super enhancer around the Mcl-1 locus, a gene that has been known to confer cell death resistance in GBM.We utilized THZ1, a known super-enhancer blocker, and BH3-mimetics, including ABT263, WEHI-539, and ABT199. Combined treatment with BH3-mimetics and THZ1 led to synergistic growth reduction in GBM models. Reduction in cellular viability was accompanied by significant cell death induction …

Inter-Tumor Heterogeneity-Melanomas Respond Differently To Gm-Csf-Mediated Activation., Adi Moshe, Sivan Izraely, Orit Sagi-Assif, Sapir Malka, Shlomit Ben-Menachem, Tsipi Meshel, Metsada Pasmanik-Chor, Dave Hoon, Isaac P Witz

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Granulocyte-monocyte colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) is used as an adjuvant in various clinical and preclinical studies with contradictory results. These were attributed to opposing effects of GM-CSF on the immune or myeloid systems of the treated patients or to lack of optimal dosing regimens. The results of the present study point to inter-tumor heterogeneity as a possible mechanism accounting for the contrasting responses to GM-CSF incorporating therapies. Employing xenograft models of human melanomas in nude mice developed in our lab, we detected differential functional responses of melanomas from different patients to GM-CSF both in vitro as well as in vivo. …

Correction To: Small Molecule Kras Agonist For Mutant Kras Cancer Therapy., Ke Xu, Dongkyoo Park, Andrew T Magis, Jun Zhang, Wei Zhou, Gabriel L Sica, Suresh S Ramalingam, Walter J Curran, Xingming Deng

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Comparative Lipidomics Of 5-Fluorouracil-Sensitive And -Resistant Colorectal Cancer Cells Reveals Altered Sphingomyelin And Ceramide Controlled By Acid Sphingomyelinase (Smpd1)., Jae Hun Jung, Kohei Taniguchi, Hyeong Min Lee, Min Young Lee, Raju Bandu, Kazumasa Komura, Kil Yeon Lee, Yukihiro Akao, Kwang Pyo Kim

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is a chemotherapeutic drug widely used to treat colorectal cancer. 5-FU is known to gradually lose its efficacy in treating colorectal cancer following the acquisition of resistance. We investigated the mechanism of 5-FU resistance using comprehensive lipidomic approaches. We performed lipidomic analysis on 5-FU-resistant (DLD-1/5-FU) and -sensitive (DLD-1) colorectal cancer cells using MALDI-MS and LC-MRM-MS. In particular, sphingomyelin (SM) species were significantly up-regulated in 5-FU-resistant cells in MALDI-TOF analysis. Further, we quantified sphingolipids including SM and Ceramide (Cer) using Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM), as they play a vital role in drug resistance. We found that 5-FU resistance in …

Potential Use Of Biotherapeutic Bacteria To Target Colorectal Cancer-Associated Taxa, Gareth Lawrence, Maire Begley, Paul D. Cotter, Caitríona M. Guinane

Department of Biological Sciences Publications

The role of the gut microbiome in human health and disease is the focus of much attention. It has been widely agreed upon that our gut bacteria play a role in host immunity, nutrient absorption, digestion, metabolism, and other key drivers of health. Furthermore, certain microbial signatures and specific taxa have also been associated with the development of diseases, such as obesity; inflammatory bowel disease; and, indeed, colorectal cancer (CRC), which is the focus of this review. By extension, such taxa represent potential therapeutic targets. In particular, the emerging human pathogen Fusobacterium nucleatum represents an important agent in CRC development …

Machine Learning Prediction Of Glioblastoma Patient One-Year Survival, Andrew Du '20, Warren Mcgee, Jane Y. Wu

Student Publications & Research

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a grade IV astrocytoma formed primarily from cancerous astrocytes and sustained by intense angiogenesis. GBM often causes non-specific symptoms, creating difficulty for diagnosis. This study aimed to utilize machine learning techniques to provide an accurate one-year survival prognosis for GBM patients using clinical and genomic data from the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas. Logistic regression (LR), support vector machines (SVM), random forest (RF), and ensemble models were used to identify and select predictors for GBM survival and to classify patients into those with an overall survival (OS) of less than one year and one year or greater. With …

A Look At Gene Control: Tracking The Ccnd1 Gene, Bryan Anders

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Cancer occurs when the cell does not properly control its own cell cycle. It then replicates in an out of control fashion leading to the death of various organs and then the demise of the organism as a whole. As it seems to have always been a problem for cell-based life, certain safeguards against cancer have been evolved over time. One such method comes in the form of prevention via cyclin proteins, which are encoded from cyclin genes. The gene that is the focus of this research is the CCND1, or cyclin D1, gene that controls the progression through various …

Cri Iatlas: An Interactive Portal For Immuno-Oncology Research., James A Eddy, Vésteinn Thorsson, Andrew E Lamb, David L Gibbs, Carolina Heimann, Jia Xin Yu, Verena Chung, Yooree Chae, Kristen Dang, Benjamin G Vincent, Ilya Shmulevich, Justin Guinney

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

The Cancer Research Institute (CRI) iAtlas is an interactive web platform for data exploration and discovery in the context of tumors and their interactions with the immune microenvironment. iAtlas allows researchers to study immune response characterizations and patterns for individual tumor types, tumor subtypes, and immune subtypes. iAtlas supports computation and visualization of correlations and statistics among features related to the tumor microenvironment, cell composition, immune expression signatures, tumor mutation burden, cancer driver mutations, adaptive cell clonality, patient survival, expression of key immunomodulators, and tumor infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) spatial maps. iAtlas was launched to accompany the release of the TCGA …

Cancer Cell Population Growth Kinetics At Low Densities Deviate From The Exponential Growth Model And Suggest An Allee Effect., Kaitlyn E Johnson, Grant Howard, William Mo, Michael K Strasser, Ernesto A B F Lima, Sui Huang, Amy Brock

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Most models of cancer cell population expansion assume exponential growth kinetics at low cell densities, with deviations to account for observed slowing of growth rate only at higher densities due to limited resources such as space and nutrients. However, recent preclinical and clinical observations of tumor initiation or recurrence indicate the presence of tumor growth kinetics in which growth rates scale positively with cell numbers. These observations are analogous to the cooperative behavior of species in an ecosystem described by the ecological principle of the Allee effect. In preclinical and clinical models, however, tumor growth data are limited by the …

Cancer Cell Population Growth Kinetics At Low Densities Deviate From The Exponential Growth Model And Suggest An Allee Effect., Kaitlyn E Johnson, Grant Howard, William Mo, Michael K Strasser, Ernesto A B F Lima, Sui Huang, Amy Brock

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Most models of cancer cell population expansion assume exponential growth kinetics at low cell densities, with deviations to account for observed slowing of growth rate only at higher densities due to limited resources such as space and nutrients. However, recent preclinical and clinical observations of tumor initiation or recurrence indicate the presence of tumor growth kinetics in which growth rates scale positively with cell numbers. These observations are analogous to the cooperative behavior of species in an ecosystem described by the ecological principle of the Allee effect. In preclinical and clinical models, however, tumor growth data are limited by the …

Survivin Is A Prognostic Marker And Therapeutic Target For Extranodal, Nasal-Type Natural Killer/T Cell Lymphoma., Li Zhang, Yi Wei, Xiaowei Yan, Na Li, Haolan Song, Li Yang, Yang Wu, Yu-Feng Xi, Hua-Wei Weng, Jian-Hua Li, Edward H Lin, Li-Qun Zou

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Background: The relationship between survivin and extranodal, nasal-type natural killer/T cell lymphoma (ENKTCL) was unclearly established yet. We here studied the potential prognostic roles of survivin and its implication as a target in ENKTCL therapy.

Methods: ENKTCL patients' peripheral blood were collected and tested by ELISA. ENKTCL cell lines were cultured with or without survivin inhibitor and tested by MTT and Flow cytometry. According to the gene expression profiles from the ArrayExpress Archive under E-TABM-702, survivin co-regulated cluster was established by Coupled Two-way Clustering Algorithm.

Results: Seventeen point six percent of total 17 ENKTCL patients were serum survivin-positive. These patients …

Phospholipases D: Making Sense Of Redundancy And Duplication, Andrew J. Morris

Internal Medicine Faculty Publications

Why have two genes when one would suffice? Evolutionary pressure means that biology, unlike government, is generally intolerant of wasted effort. Therefore, when multiple genes exist presumably they are there to provide some benefit to the organism even if that benefit is not immediately obvious to us scientists. A recent report from Raghu and colleagues (Biosci. Rep. (2018) 38, pii: BSR20181690) [1] sheds some light on one possible reason for the existence of two Phospholipases D genes in chordates when only one is present in invertebrates.

Microrna Regulation Of Epigenetic Modifiers In Breast Cancer, Brock Humphries, Zhishan Wang, Chengfeng Yang

Toxicology and Cancer Biology Faculty Publications

Epigenetics refers to the heritable changes in gene expression without a change in the DNA sequence itself. Two of these major changes include aberrant DNA methylation as well as changes to histone modification patterns. Alterations to the epigenome can drive expression of oncogenes and suppression of tumor suppressors, resulting in tumorigenesis and cancer progression. In addition to modifications of the epigenome, microRNA (miRNA) dysregulation is also a hallmark for cancer initiation and metastasis. Advances in our understanding of cancer biology demonstrate that alterations in the epigenome are not only a major cause of miRNA dysregulation in cancer, but that miRNAs …