Project description:Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) followed by surgery is one of the standard therapeutic approaches for patients with locally advanced esophageal carcinoma in Japan. Recently, JCOG1109 study revealed that NAC with docetaxel, cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) (DCF-NAC) is superior to NAC with cisplatin and 5-FU, and has become the standard preoperative chemotherapy. By using microarray, we have previously investigated expression profiles of endoscopic biopsies of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) before DCF-NAC (preNAC) and identified 17 molecules as predictive biomarkers for pathologically complete response to DCF-NAC. Here, we re-grouped our previous dataset based on the histopathological response grade with an addition of several microarray profiles (altogether 5 non-tumors, 12 highly resistant cancers and 27 sensitive cancers) and re-analyzed by bioinformatic web tools, including DAVID, GSEA, UALCAN and CIBERSORTx. We identified 204 genes as differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between highly resistant and sensitive groups. A number of DEGs were related to immune response and expressed higher in sensitive group. By UALCAN, 28 of the top 50 DEGs showed that their high expression were associated with favorable prognosis (p<0.25). Among them, 18 DEGs reached significance (p<0.05), suggesting that patients with high expression of these genes might have benefited from chemotherapy and thus had better outcome. We further showed distribution of the cells expressing CXCL9 mRNA, one of the prognosis related DEGs, in preNAC biopsy tissues of DCF-sensitive case. In conclusion, our data may provide useful information to establish predictive and effective methods for DCF-NAC in ESCC.
Project description:Microbial reductive dechlorination of trichloroethene (TCE) in groundwater often results in the accumulation of dichloroethenes (DCEs). Dehalococcoides mccartyi (Dhc) are the only known bacteria capable of dechlorination beyond DCE to non-toxic ethene. In this study, two newly isolated Dhc strains (11a and 11a5) with dissimilar functional abilities are described. Strain 11a reductively dechlorinates TCE, 1,1-DCE, cis-DCE, trans-DCE, and vinyl chloride (VC) to ethene, while strain 11a5 dechlorinates TCE and all three DCE isomers only to VC. Each of these dechlorination reactions are coupled to growth by these strains. The VC dechlorination rate of strain 11a occurs at a rate of 258 nmol per min per mg of protein, about two times faster than previously reported stains. Strain 11a possesses the vcrA gene while strain 11a5 contains the tceA gene. Strains 11a and 11a5 share 100% 16S rRNA gene sequence identity with previously sequenced Dhc strains BAV1 and CBDB1, placing it within the Pinellas subgroup, and 85.4% and 89.5% of all genes present in the CBDB1 and BAV1 genomes were detected in strains 11a and 11a5, respectively, using a custom-designed microarray targeting four sequenced Dhc strains. Genes that were not detected in strains 11a and 11a5 are mostly within the high plasticity regions or integrated elements of the sequenced strains. This study reports the functional description and comparative genomics of two additional Dhc isolates and provides evidence that the observed functional incongruence between the activity and core genome phylogenies of Dhc strains is likely driven by the horizontal transfer of key reductive dehalogenase-encoding genes.
Project description:The syntrophic growth of strain 195 with Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough (DVH) and/or Methanobacterium congolense (MC) enhanced TCE dechlorination process by faster dechlorination rate and more robust growth. Transcriptomes of strain 195 grown in isolation, co- and tri-cultures were obtained by microarray experiments to find out the differential expressed genes corresponding to the syntrophic growth. Thus we can better understand the role of DVH and MC within this syntrophy.
Project description:The present study explores the potential of compound-specific gene-upregulation profiles in the ubiquitous purple nonsulfur bacterium Rhodospirillum rubrum S1H as biomarkers for exposure to surface water contaminants, i.e. high production-volume pharmaceuticals. Even though the pharmaceuticals [i.e., acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), diclofenac (DCF), and 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2)] did not affect the bacterial growth kinetics at environmentally-relevant concentrations (86nM), whole-genome microarray analyses revealed the upregulation of 128, 49, and 47 genes upon exposure to DCF, ASA, and EE2, respectively. A strong overlap (27-48%) was observed between transcriptional responses, but a total of 93 genes were found to be upregulated in a compound-specific manner. Hence, we were able to identify 74 and 15 potential biomarker genes for DCF and ASA, respectively. DCF specifically induced genes involved mainly in stress response, signal transduction, response regulation, the electron transport chain, and transcription, while ASA specifically induced genes predominantly involved in signal transduction, response regulation, and trans-membrane translocation. Moreover, our findings validated triclosan-specific biomarker genes that were identified previously. As only 4 genes were specifically-upregulated for EE2, no representative biomarker profile was identified. This study illustrates that a pollutant-specific molecular response can be generated in R. rubrum S1H, which could become a relevant model-microorganism to screen for the ecological impact of surface water contaminants in situ. KEYWORDS: environmental impact studies, risk assessment, biosensor, wastewater, micropollutant, aspirin
Project description:Background Recently, neoadjuvant chemotherapy with docetaxel/cisplatin/5-fluorouracil (NAC-DCF) was identified as a novel strong regimen with a high rate of pathological complete response (pCR) in advanced esophageal cancer in Japan. Predicting pCR will contribute to the therapeutic strategy and the prevention of surgical invasion. However, a predictor of pCR after NAC-DCF has not yet been developed. The aim of this study was to identify a novel predictor of pCR in locally advanced esophageal cancer treated with NAC-DCF. Patients and Methods A total of 32 patients who received NAC-DCF followed by esophagectomy between June 2013 and March 2016 were enrolled in this study. We divided the patients into the following 2 groups: pCR group (9 cases) and non-pCR group (23 cases), and compared gene expressions between these groups using DNA microarray data and KeyMolnet. Subsequently, a validation study of candidate molecular expression was performed in 7 additional cases. Results Seventeen molecules, including transcription factor E2F, T-cell-specific transcription factor, Src (known as “proto-oncogene tyrosine-protein kinase of sarcoma”), interferon regulatory factor 1, thymidylate synthase, cyclin B, cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4, CDK, caspase-1, vitamin D receptor, histone deacetylase, MAPK/ERK kinase, bcl-2-associated X protein, runt-related transcription factor 1, PR domain zinc finger protein 1, platelet-derived growth factor receptor, and interleukin 1, were identified as candidate molecules. The molecules were mainly associated with pathways, such as transcriptional regulation by SMAD, RB/E2F, and STAT. The validation study indicated that 12 of the 17 molecules (71%) matched the trends of molecular expression. Conclusions A 17-molecule set that predicts pCR after NAC-DCF for locally advanced esophageal cancer was identified.
Project description:The present study explores the potential of compound-specific gene-upregulation profiles in the ubiquitous purple nonsulfur bacterium Rhodospirillum rubrum S1H as biomarkers for exposure to surface water contaminants, i.e. high production-volume pharmaceuticals. Even though the pharmaceuticals [i.e., acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), diclofenac (DCF), and 17M-NM-1-ethinylestradiol (EE2)] did not affect the bacterial growth kinetics at environmentally-relevant concentrations (86nM), whole-genome microarray analyses revealed the upregulation of 128, 49, and 47 genes upon exposure to DCF, ASA, and EE2, respectively. A strong overlap (27-48%) was observed between transcriptional responses, but a total of 93 genes were found to be upregulated in a compound-specific manner. Hence, we were able to identify 74 and 15 potential biomarker genes for DCF and ASA, respectively. DCF specifically induced genes involved mainly in stress response, signal transduction, response regulation, the electron transport chain, and transcription, while ASA specifically induced genes predominantly involved in signal transduction, response regulation, and trans-membrane translocation. Moreover, our findings validated triclosan-specific biomarker genes that were identified previously. As only 4 genes were specifically-upregulated for EE2, no representative biomarker profile was identified. This study illustrates that a pollutant-specific molecular response can be generated in R. rubrum S1H, which could become a relevant model-microorganism to screen for the ecological impact of surface water contaminants in situ. KEYWORDS: environmental impact studies, risk assessment, biosensor, wastewater, micropollutant, aspirin Two-condition experiments. Comparing samples after induction of three pharmaceuticals each with a non-induced samples. Biological triplicate. Each array contains 3 technical replicates.