Immunomagnetic detection of cancer cells in pleural effusion of generalized cancer

 Malignant pleural effusions (MPE) are a common clinical problem in patients with neoplastic disease. Pleural fluid cytology is the simplest definitive method for obtaining a diagnosis of MPE. We describe a method that may increase the cancer cell detection rate using immunomagnetic separation in MPE. In comparison to standard MPE cytodiagnostic methods, we report a more streamlined method of isolation living cells that are able to proliferate. These captured cells can then be used for additional downstream analysis e.g. chemosensitivity testing. Several case studies of MPE diagnostics using immunomagnetic separation are presented in the following report. The immunomagnetic separation of cancer cells from MPE could be used for more accurate staging of patients with routine effusions.

Lipid Production From Waste Materials in Seawater-Based Medium by the Yeast Yarrowia lipolytica

The global limitation of fossil fuels impels scientists to search for new energy sources. A good alternative is biodiesel produced from crop plants. However, its production requires huge quantities of farmland, fertilizers and fresh water, which is in conflict with the human demand for water for consumption and land for food production. Thus, production of single cell oil (SCO) by oleaginous microorganisms remains the best solution for the coming years. Whereas most microorganisms require fresh water for proper cell metabolism, in this study we demonstrate that the unconventional yeast Yarrowia lipolytica is able to produce huge quantities of fatty acid in seawater-based medium. Here we shown that Y. lipolytica is able to produce fatty acids in medium based on seawater and crude glycerol as the main carbon source, which allows for low-cost production of SCO, is beneficial for industrial application and is ecologically friendly

Cultivation of circulating tumor cells in esophageal cancer

The presence of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in patients with metastatic carcinoma is generally associated with poor clinical outcome. There have been many investigations showing a possible use of CTCs as minimally invasive predictive and prognostic biomarker in cancer medicine. In this report a size-based method (MetaCell®) for quick and easy enrichment and cultivation of CTCs is presented to enable possible CTCs use in esophageal cancer (EC) management. In total, 43 patients with diagnosed EC, 20 with adenocarcinoma (AdenoCa) and 23 with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), were enrolled into the adaptive prospective-like study .All the patients were candidates for surgery. The CTCs were detected in 27 patients (62.8%), with a higher rate in adenocarcinoma (75%) than SCC (52%). Finally, there were 26 patients with resectable tumors exhibiting CTCs-positivity in 69.2% and 17 patients with non-resectable tumors with 41.7% CTCs-positivity. Interestingly, in the patients undergoing neoadjuvant therapy, the CTCs were detected at time of surgery in 55.5% (10/18). The overall size-based filtration approach enabled to isolate viable CTCs and evaluate to their cytomorphological features by means of vital fluorescent staining. The CTCs were cultured in vitro for further downstream applications including immunohistochemical analysis. This is the first report of the successful culturing of esophageal cancer CTCs. The detection of CTCs presence could help in the future to guide timing of surgical treatment in EC patients

Is it possible for pyruvate kinase to be a non-small cell lung cancer marker?

Background . Lung cancer is the most common cause of morbidity and mortality among all cancers. The dominant type of lung cancer is non-small cell lung cancer. Early diagnosis, rapid and least possible invasive treatment gives the best chance to extend life expectancy. Considering increasing level of NS CLC morbidity it is extremely important to develop cancer diagnostics, which will allow to implement necessary treatment in early stages. Objectives . The main focus of this paper is to establish level of usability for dimeric form of the pyruvate kinase in NS CLC patient plasma using spectrophotometric method. Material and methods . Participants of the study were chosen from patients of the Lower Silesian Lung Disease Centre in Wroclaw. Patients were allocated in to two study groups: first containing patients who were diagnosed with adenocarcinoma, second containing patients who were diagnosed with carcinoma planoepitheliale. The control group was chosen from patients who were not diagnosed with cancer. Material in question was plasma, tested on pyruvate kinase activity. Results . Analysis showed a difference in pyruvate kinase activity between patients in study groups and test group. The highest increase in enzyme activity was found in group of patients diagnosed with carcinoma planoepitheliale (134.5%). In the group of patients diagnosed with adenocarcinoma enzyme activity increase reached 132.1% and in test group, 116%. Conclusions . Testing enzyme activity of pyruvate kinase can be an additional helpful method in NS CLC diagnoses, besides diagnostic imaging. This method is characterised by high sensitivity and low invasiveness

The Overexpression of YALI0B07117g Results in Enhanced Erythritol Synthesis from Glycerol by the Yeast Yarrowia lipolytica

The unconventional yeast Yarrowia lipolytica is used to produce erythritol from glycerol. In this study, the role of the erythrose reductase (ER) homolog YALI0B07117g in erythritol synthesis was analyzed. The deletion of the gene resulted in an increased production of mannitol (308%) and arabitol (204%) before the utilization of these polyols began. The strain overexpressing the YALI0B07117g gene was used to increase the erythritol yield from glycerol as a sole carbon source in batch cultures, resulting in a yield of 0.4 g/g. The specific consumption rate (qs) increased from 5.83 g/g/L for the WT strain to 8.49 g/g/L for the modified strain and the productivity of erythritol increased from 0.28 g/(L h) for the A101 strain to 0.41 g/(L h) for the modified strain. The application of the research may prove positive for shortening the cultivation time due to the increased rate of consumption of the substrate combined with the increased parameters of erythritol synthesis