Cytokine Gene Polymorphisms Associated With Symptom Clusters in Oncology Patients Undergoing Radiation Therapy

ContextMost of the reviews on the biological basis for symptom clusters suggest that inflammatory processes are involved in the development and maintenance of the symptom clusters. However, no studies have evaluated for associations between genetic polymorphisms and common symptom clusters (e.g., mood disturbance, sickness behavior).ObjectivesExamine the associations between cytokine gene polymorphisms and the severity of three distinct symptom clusters (i.e., mood-cognitive, sickness-behavior, treatment-related) in a sample of patients with breast and prostate cancer (n = 157) at the completion of radiation therapy.MethodsSymptom severity was assessed using the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale. Symptom clusters were created using exploratory factor analysis. The associations between cytokine gene polymorphisms and the symptom cluster severity scores were evaluated using regression analyses.ResultsPolymorphisms in C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 8 (CXCL8), interleukin (IL13), and nuclear factor kappa beta 2 (NFKB2) were associated with severity scores for the mood-cognitive symptom cluster. In addition to interferon gamma (IFNG1), the same polymorphism in NFKB2 (i.e., rs1056890) that was associated with the mood-cognitive symptom cluster score was associated with the sickness-behavior symptom cluster. Polymorphisms in interleukin 1 receptor 1 (IL1R1), IL6, and NFKB1 were associated with severity factor scores for the treatment-related symptom cluster.ConclusionOur findings support the hypotheses that symptoms that cluster together have a common underlying mechanism and the most common symptom clusters in oncology patients are associated polymorphisms in genes involved in a variety of inflammatory processes

Total Synthesis of a Functional Designer Eukaryotic Chromosome

Designer Chromosome One of the ultimate aims of synthetic biology is to build designer organisms from the ground up. Rapid advances in DNA synthesis has allowed the assembly of complete bacterial genomes. Eukaryotic organisms, with their generally much larger and more complex genomes, present an additional challenge to synthetic biologists. Annaluru et al. (p. 55 , published online 27 March) designed a synthetic eukaryotic chromosome based on yeast chromosome III. The designer chromosome, shorn of destabilizing transfer RNA genes and transposons, is ∼14% smaller than its wild-type template and is fully functional with every gene tagged for easy removal. </jats:p