Project description:An evaluation of biopsies from patients with in-transit extremity melanoma who have been treated with melphalan in the setting of isolated limb infusion Gene expression profiles were obtained from 52 lesions across 28 patients and evaluated for expression values that correlated with response to melphalan isolated limb infusion
Project description:An evaluation of biopsies from patients with in-transit extremity melanoma who have been treated with melphalan in the setting of isolated limb infusion Gene expression profiles were obtained from 52 lesions across 28 patients and evaluated for expression values that correlated with response to melphalan isolated limb infusion Chemotherapy response analysis: complete response - CR; partial response - PR; stable disease - SD; progressive disease - PD. 52 samples.
Project description:An evaluation of biopsies from patients with in-transit extremity melanoma who have been treated with melphalan in the setting of isolated limb infusion or isolated limb perfusion. Gene expression profiles were obtained from 21 lesions across 19 patients and evaluated for expression that correlated with response to melphalan isolated limb infusion.
Project description:An evaluation of biopsies from patients with in-transit extremity melanoma who have been treated with melphalan in the setting of isolated limb infusion or isolated limb perfusion. Gene expression profiles were obtained from 21 lesions across 19 patients and evaluated for expression that correlated with response to melphalan isolated limb infusion. Chemotherapy response analysis: complete response - CR; partial response - PR; stable disease - SD; progressive disease - PD; not evaluable - n.e.
Project description:An evaluation of biopsies from patients with in-transit extremity melanoma who have been treated with ADH-1 followed by melphalan in the setting of isolated limb infusion Gene expression profiles were obtained from 28 lesions across 15 patients and evaluated for expression values that correlated with ADH-1 treatment given 4-8hrs prior to melphalan isolated limb infusion
Project description:An evaluation of multifocal lesions from patients with in-transit extremity melanoma to determine if all lesions from a patient harbor homogeneous patterns of gene expression; Gene expression profiling studies can help guide treatment for cancer patients by providing tools in the form of gene-expression signatures to characterize a tumor in terms of underlying biology, predicted response to therapy, metastatic progression and/or recurrence. The utility of gene signatures for defining therapeutic strategies in the treatment of extremity in-transit melanoma will be dependent on the genetic relationship between the multifocal lesions typically present in this disease and the extent to which a single lesion is representative of residual tumor burden. Using microarray-based gene expression profiling we examined 43 in-transit melanoma lesions across 17 patients with multifocal disease to determine whether one lesion could accurately characterize the underlying biology and genetic profile of a patient's tumor. Principal component analysis, unsupervised hierarchical clustering, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and gene signatures predictive of chemosensitivity and oncogenic pathway activation showed gene expression patterns to be highly similar (p-values: <0.006; average r = 0.979) between lesions from a single patient but to be significantly different across patients (p<0.05). These findings demonstrate that individual melanoma tumor nodules in patients with multifocal disease are genetically similar and a single lesion can be used to predict response to chemotherapy, evaluate the activation status of oncogenic signaling pathways and characterize other aspects of the biology of an individual patient's disease. These results will facilitate the utilization of gene expression profiling in clinical trials of targeted therapy in melanoma allowing for more rational identification of candidates for specific therapies. Experiment Overall Design: Gene expression profiles were obtained from 43 lesions across 17 patients and evaluated using several different algorithms to determine the degree of correlation across multifocal lesions and to evaluate patterns of gene expression that are different across patients
Project description:Kynureninase is a member of a large family of catalytically diverse but structurally homologous pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP) dependent enzymes known as the aspartate aminotransferase superfamily or alpha-family. The Homo sapiens and other eukaryotic constitutive kynureninases preferentially catalyze the hydrolytic cleavage of 3-hydroxy-l-kynurenine to produce 3-hydroxyanthranilate and l-alanine, while l-kynurenine is the substrate of many prokaryotic inducible kynureninases. The human enzyme was cloned with an N-terminal hexahistidine tag, expressed, and purified from a bacterial expression system using Ni metal ion affinity chromatography. Kinetic characterization of the recombinant enzyme reveals classic Michaelis-Menten behavior, with a Km of 28.3 +/- 1.9 microM and a specific activity of 1.75 micromol min-1 mg-1 for 3-hydroxy-dl-kynurenine. Crystals of recombinant kynureninase that diffracted to 2.0 A were obtained, and the atomic structure of the PLP-bound holoenzyme was determined by molecular replacement using the Pseudomonas fluorescens kynureninase structure (PDB entry 1qz9) as the phasing model. A structural superposition with the P. fluorescens kynureninase revealed that these two structures resemble the "open" and "closed" conformations of aspartate aminotransferase. The comparison illustrates the dynamic nature of these proteins' small domains and reveals a role for Arg-434 similar to its role in other AAT alpha-family members. Docking of 3-hydroxy-l-kynurenine into the human kynureninase active site suggests that Asn-333 and His-102 are involved in substrate binding and molecular discrimination between inducible and constitutive kynureninase substrates.