Women with endometriosis have higher comorbidities: Analysis of domestic data in Taiwan

AbstractEndometriosis, defined by the presence of viable extrauterine endometrial glands and stroma, can grow or bleed cyclically, and possesses characteristics including a destructive, invasive, and metastatic nature. Since endometriosis may result in pelvic inflammation, adhesion, chronic pain, and infertility, and can progress to biologically malignant tumors, it is a long-term major health issue in women of reproductive age. In this review, we analyze the Taiwan domestic research addressing associations between endometriosis and other diseases. Concerning malignant tumors, we identified four studies on the links between endometriosis and ovarian cancer, one on breast cancer, two on endometrial cancer, one on colorectal cancer, and one on other malignancies, as well as one on associations between endometriosis and irritable bowel syndrome, one on links with migraine headache, three on links with pelvic inflammatory diseases, four on links with infertility, four on links with obesity, four on links with chronic liver disease, four on links with rheumatoid arthritis, four on links with chronic renal disease, five on links with diabetes mellitus, and five on links with cardiovascular diseases (hypertension, hyperlipidemia, etc.). The data available to date support that women with endometriosis might be at risk of some chronic illnesses and certain malignancies, although we consider the evidence for some comorbidities to be of low quality, for example, the association between colon cancer and adenomyosis/endometriosis. We still believe that the risk of comorbidity might be higher in women with endometriosis than that we supposed before. More research is needed to determine whether women with endometriosis are really at risk of these comorbidities

Genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma in East Asia and comparison with a European population.

Lung adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer. Known risk variants explain only a small fraction of lung adenocarcinoma heritability. Here, we conducted a two-stage genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma of East Asian ancestry (21,658 cases and 150,676 controls; 54.5% never-smokers) and identified 12 novel susceptibility variants, bringing the total number to 28 at 25 independent loci. Transcriptome-wide association analyses together with colocalization studies using a Taiwanese lung expression quantitative trait loci dataset (n = 115) identified novel candidate genes, including FADS1 at 11q12 and ELF5 at 11p13. In a multi-ancestry meta-analysis of East Asian and European studies, four loci were identified at 2p11, 4q32, 16q23, and 18q12. At the same time, most of our findings in East Asian populations showed no evidence of association in European populations. In our studies drawn from East Asian populations, a polygenic risk score based on the 25 loci had a stronger association in never-smokers vs. individuals with a history of smoking (Pinteraction = 0.0058). These findings provide new insights into the etiology of lung adenocarcinoma in individuals from East Asian populations, which could be important in developing translational applications

Genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma in East Asia and comparison with a European population

Lung adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer. Known risk variants explain only a small fraction of lung adenocarcinoma heritability. Here, we conducted a two-stage genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma of East Asian ancestry (21,658 cases and 150,676 controls; 54.5% never-smokers) and identified 12 novel susceptibility variants, bringing the total number to 28 at 25 independent loci. Transcriptome-wide association analyses together with colocalization studies using a Taiwanese lung expression quantitative trait loci dataset (n = 115) identified novel candidate genes, including FADS1 at 11q12 and ELF5 at 11p13. In a multi-ancestry meta-analysis of East Asian and European studies, four loci were identified at 2p11, 4q32, 16q23, and 18q12. At the same time, most of our findings in East Asian populations showed no evidence of association in European populations. In our studies drawn from East Asian populations, a polygenic risk score based on the 25 loci had a stronger association in never-smokers vs. individuals with a history of smoking (P interaction  = 0.0058). These findings provide new insights into the etiology of lung adenocarcinoma in individuals from East Asian populations, which could be important in developing translational applications

Ablation of ATG4B Suppressed Autophagy and Activated AMPK for Cell Cycle Arrest in Cancer Cells

Background/Aims: ATG4B is a cysteine protease required for autophagy, which is a cellular catabolic pathway involved in energy balance. ATG4B expression is elevated during tumor growth in certain types of cancer, suggesting that ATG4B is an attractive target for cancer therapy. However, little is known about the mechanisms through which ATG4B deprivation suppresses the growth of cancer cells. Methods: Cancer cells were transfected with either siRNA against ATG4B or an expression vector encoding wild-type ATG4BWT or encoding catalytic mutant ATG4BC74A to determine cell cycle progression by propidium iodide staining or by BrdU incorporation assay using flow cytometry. The GFP-MAP1LC3-II puncta and protein levels in the cells were determined by immunofluorescence and immunoblotting, respectively. Results: Knockdown of ATG4B blocked cell proliferation, particularly at the G1-S phase transition, in various cancer cells. Moreover, knockdown of ATG4B or overexpression of the ATG4BC74A catalytic mutant reduced both autophagic flux and ATP levels and increased AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) phosphorylation in the cancer cells. Nevertheless, knockdown of ATG4B had only a minor effect on AMPK activation and G1 phase arrest in liver kinase B1 (LKB1)-deficient or AMPK-inhibited cancer cells. Conclusion: These results imply that targeting ATG4B might inhibit autophagy and trigger the LKB1-AMPK energy-sensing pathway, resulting in tumor growth suppression

SDF-1/CXCR4 Signaling Maintains Stemness Signature in Mouse Neural Stem/Progenitor Cells

SDF-1 and its primary receptor, CXCR4, are highly expressed in the embryonic central nervous system (CNS) and play a crucial role in brain architecture. Loss of SDF-1/CXCR4 signaling causes abnormal development of neural stem/progenitor cells (NSCs/NPCs) in the cerebellum, hippocampus, and cortex. However, the mechanism of SDF-1/CXCR4 axis in NSCs/NPCs regulation remains unknown. In this study, we found that elimination of SDF-1/CXCR4 transduction caused NSCs/NPCs to lose their stemness characteristics and to encounter neurogenic differentiation. Moreover, Notch and RE1 silencing transcription factor (REST) both play an essential role in NSCs/NPCs maintenance and neuronal differentiation and were dramatically downregulated following SDF-1/CXCR4 cascade inhibition. Finally, we demonstrated that the expression of achaete-scute homolog 1 (Ascl1), a proneural gene, and p27, an antiproliferative gene, were significantly increased after genetic elimination of SDF-1 alleles. Our results support that the loss of functional SDF-1/CXCR4 signaling pathway in NSCs/NPCs induces exit of cell cycle and promotes premature neural differentiation