Expression analysis onto microarrays of randomly selected cDNA clones highlights HOXB13 as a marker of human prostate cancer

In a strategy aimed at identifying novel markers of human prostate cancer, we performed expression analysis using microarrays of clones randomly selected from a cDNA library prepared from the LNCaP prostate cancer cell line. Comparisons of expression profiles in primary human prostate cancer, adjacent normal prostate tissue, and a selection of other (nonprostate) normal human tissues, led to the identification of a set of clones that were judged as the best candidate markers of normal and/or malignant prostate tissue. DNA sequencing of the selected clones revealed that they included 10 genes that had previously been established as prostate markers: NKX3.1, KLK2, KLK3 (PSA), FOLH1 (PSMA), STEAP2, PSGR, PRAC, RDH11, Prostein and FASN. Following analysis of the expression patterns of all selected and sequenced genes through interrogation of SAGE databases, a further three genes from our clone set, HOXB13, SPON2 and NCAM2, emerged as additional candidate markers of human prostate cancer. Quantitative RT–PCR demonstrated the specificity of expression of HOXB13 in prostate tissue and revealed its ubiquitous expression in a series of 37 primary prostate cancers and 20 normal prostates. These results demonstrate the utility of this expression-microarray approach in hunting for new markers of individual human cancer types

Human embryonic stem cells: preclinical perspectives

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) have been extensively discussed in public and scientific communities for their potential in treating diseases and injuries. However, not much has been achieved in turning them into safe therapeutic agents. The hurdles in transforming hESCs to therapies start right with the way these cells are derived and maintained in the laboratory, and goes up-to clinical complications related to need for patient specific cell lines, gender specific aspects, age of the cells, and several post transplantation uncertainties. The different types of cells derived through directed differentiation of hESC and used successfully in animal disease and injury models are described briefly. This review gives a brief outlook on the present and the future of hESC based therapies, and talks about the technological advances required for a safe transition from laboratory to clinic

Validation of proposed prostate cancer biomarkers with gene expression data: a long road to travel

# The Author(s) 2014. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract Biomarkers are important for early detection of can-cer, prognosis, response prediction, and detection of residual or relapsing disease. Special attention has been given to diagnostic markers for prostate cancer since it is thought that early detection and surgery might reduce prostate cancer-specific mortality. The use of prostate-specific antigen, PSA (KLK3), has been debated on the base of cohort studies that show that its use in preventive screenings only marginally influences mortality from prostate cancer. Many groups have identified alternative or additional markers, among which PCA3, in order to detect early prostate cancer through screening, to distinguish potentially lethal from indolent prostate cancers, and to guide the treatment decision. The large number of markers proposed has led us to the present study in which we analyze these indicators for their diagnosti