Project description:Results Platelets in non-diabetic patients demonstrated miRNA expression profiles comparable to previously published data. The miRNA expression profiles of platelets in diabetics were similar. Statistical analysis unveiled only three miRNAs (miR-377-5p, miR-628-3p, miR-3137) with high reselection probabilities in resampling techniques, corresponding to signatures with only modest discriminatory performance. Functional annotation of predicted targets for these miRNAs pointed towards an influence of diabetes mellitus on mRNA processing. Conclusions/interpretation We did not find any major differences in platelet miRNA profiles between diabetics and non-diabetics. Minor differences pertained to miRNAs associated with mRNA processing. Thus, previously described differences in plasma miRNAs between diabetic and nondiabetic patients cannot be explained by plain changes in the platelet miRNA profile. Platelet miRNA profiles were assessed in clinically stable diabetic and nondiabetic patients (each n=30). Platelet miRNA was isolated from leucocyte-depleted platelet-rich plasma, and miRNA profiling was performed using LNA micro-array technology (miRBase 18.0, containing 1,917 human miRNAs). Effects of diabetes mellitus were explored by univariate statistical tests for each miRNA, adjusted for potential confounders, and by developing a multivariable signature, which was evaluated by resampling techniques. Platelet phenotype was assessed by light transmission aggregometry and impedance aggregometry.
Project description:Intra-individual stability of the urine miRNA transcriptome was examined by investigating longitudinal changes over time in a cohort of patients with localized prostate cancer. Using training and validation cohorts, urinary miRNA biomarkers are characterized and validated their utility to identify aggressive prostate cancer.
Project description:Intra-individual stability of the urine miRNA transcriptome was examined by investigating longitudinal changes over time in a cohort of patients with localized prostate cancer. Using training and validation cohorts, urinary miRNA biomarkers are characterized and validated their utility to identify aggressive prostate cancer.
Project description:Intra-individual stability of the urine miRNA transcriptome was examined by investigating longitudinal changes over time in a cohort of patients with localized prostate cancer. Using training and validation cohorts, urinary miRNA biomarkers are characterized and validated their utility to identify aggressive prostate cancer.
Project description:Capitalizing on the massive increase in sample concentrations which are produced by extremely low elution volumes, nano-LC-ESI-MS/MS is currently the most sensitive analytical technology for the comprehensive characterization of complex protein samples. However, despite tremendous technological improvements made in the production and the packing of monodisperse spherical particles for nano-flow HPLC, current state-of-the-art systems still suffer from limits in operation at the maximum potential of the technology. With the recent introduction of the µPAC system, which provides perfectly ordered micro-pillar array based chromatographic support materials, completely new chromatographic concepts for optimization towards the needs of ultra-sensitive proteomics become available. Here we report on a series of benchmarking experiments comparing the performance of a commercially available 50 cm micro-pillar array column to a widely used nano-flow HPLC column for the proteomics analysis of 10 ng tryptic HeLa cell digest. Comparative analysis of LC-MS/MS-data corroborated that micro-pillar array cartridges provide outstanding chromatographic performance and excellent retention time stability, which substantially increase sensitivity in the analysis of low-input proteomics samples, and thus repeatedly yielded almost twice as many unique peptide and unique protein group identifications when compared to conventional nano-flow HPLC columns.
Project description:Circulating tumor cell clusters/micro-emboli (CTM) possess greater metastatic capacity and survival advantage compared to individual circulating tumor cell (CTCs). However, the formation of CTM subtypes and their role in tumor metastasis remain unclear. In this study, we used a microfluidic Cluster-chip with easy operation and high efficiency to isolate CTM from peripheral blood, which confirmed their correlation with clinicopathological features and identified the critical role of CTC-platelet clusters in BC metastasis. The correlation between platelets and CTM function was further confirmed in a mouse model and RNA-seq of CTM identified high-expressed genes related to hypoxia stimulation and platelet activation which possibly suggested the correlation of hypoxia and CTC-platelet cluster formation. In conclusion, we successfully developed the Cluster-chip platform to realize the clinical capture of CTMs and analyze the biological properties of CTC-platelet clusters, which could benefit the design of potential treatment regimens to prevent CTM-mediated metastasis and tumor malignant progression.
Project description:Transcriptional profiling of human lung minimally invasive adenocarcinoma cells comparing control lepidic growth (LG) cell pool with micro-invasion (MI) cell pool. Two-condition experiment, LG vs. MI cell pools. Biological replicates: 1 control LG cancer cell, 1 MI cancer cell in an individual MIA tumor. One replicate per array.
Project description:Results: MiRNA expression profiling of 1281 human miRNAs revealed relevant expression of 221 miRNAs consistently expressed in all samples at all time points. Correlation of platelet miRNA ranks was highly significant with data from other studies. Global distribution of miRNA expression was relatively similar in all subjects. No miRNA exhibited a significant effect of time at level 0.05. This finding was supported by exploratory analysis of predicted time effects from the mixed effects models. Furthermore, no significant effect of ASA could be found. Concerning the functional implication of the 20 most abundantly expressed miRNAs, we found 6 functional themes: nuclear import, cell cycle, transmembrane receptor protein serine/threonine kinase signaling pathway, regulation of kinase activity, pathways in cancer, and leukocyte differentiation. Conclusion: Our study shows that the platelet miRNA profile is remarkably stable in healthy subjects and is not affected by single-dose ASA treatment. For this reason, single-point analysis of platelet miRNA profile is reasonable when inter-individual differences are studied. The functional annotation network points toward additional extra-platelet effects of platelet miRNAs. We assessed the platelet miRNA profile blood in 5 volunteers at five time points over a time course of 10 days; 24 h prior to the last blood sampling, all subjects took 500 mg acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) once. Platelet miRNA was isolated from platelet-rich plasma which was leucocyte-depleted by negative bead separation. Then miRNA array analysis was performed on the isolated platelet miRNA. Temporal patterns and the effect of ASA were explored by a linear mixed effects model for each miRNA. For the 20 most abundantly expressed platelet miRNAs, a target gene search was performed by using miRWalk for validated and predicted targets. To visualize which molecular functions arerelated to those miRNAs, an annotation network was created by ClueGO, a Cytoscape plug-in.