Novel missense mutation in the FH gene in familial renal cell cancer patients lacking cutaneous leiomyomas

BACKGROUND: Hereditary leiomyomatosis and renal cell cancer (HLRCC) is a rare tumor predisposition syndrome characterized by cutaneous and uterine leiomyomas and papillary type 2 renal cell cancer. Germline mutation of the fumarate hydratase (FH) gene is known to be associated with HLRCC. CASE PRESENTATION: We describe a 64-year-old father and his 39-year-old son with HLRCC who developed papillary type 2 RCCs lacking cutaneous leiomyomas at any site. A common missense mutation in the FH gene, (c.1021G > A, p.D341N) in exon 7, was detected in the 2 cases. Functional prediction with the bioinformatics programs, SIFT and Polyphen-2, reported “damaging (SIFT score 0.00)” and “probably damaging (PSIC score 1.621)” values, respectively. In 162 healthy individuals, there were no cases of a G transition to any base. Finally, (c.1021G > A) in exon 7, was identified as a point mutation. CONCLUSION: We report a family with HLRCC in which a novel missense mutation was detected. A familial papillary type 2 renal cancer should be considered HLRCC unless typical cutaneous leiomyomas do not occur

Cancer Immunol Immunother

Purpose Through genome-wide expression profile analysis, hypoxia-inducible protein 2 (HIG2) has previously been identified as an oncoprotein involved in development/progression of renal cell carcinoma (RCC). We subsequently identified a highly immunogenic HLA-A*0201/0206-restricted epitope peptide (HIG2-9-4) corresponding to a part of HIG2 and applied it as a therapeutic vaccine. We conducted a phase I clinical trial using the HIG2-9-4 peptide for patients with advanced RCC. Materials and Methods Nine patients having HLA-A*0201 or HLA-A*0206 with metastatic or unresectable RCC after failure of the cytokine and/or tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapies were enrolled in this study. The patients received subcutaneous administration of the peptide as an emulsion form with Montanide ISA-51 VG once a week in a dose-escalation manner (doses of 0.5, 1.0, or 3.0 mg/body, 3 patients for each dose). The primary endpoint was safety, and the secondary endpoints were immunological and clinical responses. Results Vaccinations with HIG2-9-4 peptide could be well tolerated without any serious systemic adverse events. Peptide-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses were detected in eight of the nine patients. Doses of 1.0 or 3.0 mg/body seemed to induce a CTL response better than did a dose of 0.5 mg/body, although the number of patients was too small to draw a firm conclusion. The disease control rate (stable disease for ≥4 months) was 77.8 %, and the median progression-free survival time was 10.3 months. Conclusions HIG2-9-4 peptide vaccine treatment was tolerable and effectively induced peptide-specific CTLs in RCC patients. This novel peptide vaccine therapy for RCC is promising

Overexpression of c-Met/hepatocyte growth factor receptors in human prostatic adenocarcinoma.

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and c-met proto-oncogene product (c-Met) have varied biological functions in different tissues and have been implicated in mitogenic, motogenic and morphogenic responses in both organ regeneration and carcinogenesis. Some studies have suggested that the overexpression of c-Met and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) are associated with growth advantage, while transforming growth factor-beta receptor II (TGF beta R II) is associated with growth disadvantage of human prostatic adenocarcinoma. However, it is unclear if the expression of c-Met correlates with the expression of EGFR and TGF beta R II, and with the proliferative status of human prostatic adenocarcinoma. Using immunohistochemical staining with anti-c-Met (C-12), anti-EGFR (NCL-EGFR) and anti-TGF beta R II (L-21) antibodies, we determined the frequency of expression of c-MET, EGFR, and TGF beta R II respectively in a series of 134 radical prostatectomy specimens. We evaluated the relationship between the expression of these receptors and clinicopathological characteristics. Overall, c-Met immunostaining was detected in 54 of 134 (40.3%) cases, EGFR in 45 (33.6%) and TGF beta R II in 64 (48.4%). The overexpression of c-Met was significantly more common in poorly differentiated (P &#60; 0.0001) and in the diffusely infiltrated specimens (P &#60; 0.0005). In contrast, TGF beta R II was significantly overexpressed in the well differentiated specimens (P &#60; 0.0001) and associated negatively with c-Met (P &#60; 0.0001). Overall, these data suggest that c-Met/HGF receptor and TGF beta R II overexpression may be involved in the differentiation of human prostatic adenocarcinoma, c-Met with de-differentiation and TGF beta R II with differentiation.</p

INTRODUCTION Clinical trials leading to drug approval (registra- tion trials) play a central role in the drug devel- opment process, and clinical trials in the general View and present status of personnel involved in clinical trials : a survey of particip

. Among the support staff, 36 (80% %) had more than 5 years of experience. The most common questionnaire answer selected for participation in the symposium was &quot;willing to contact staff from other medical institutions or organizations&quot; for support staff and &quot;to obtain further knowledge concerning clinical trials&quot; for medical staff. The overall view of the discussion (&quot;Was the discussion satisfactory?&quot;) was favorable for 36 (53% %) respondents. This survey revealed that the group discussion in the present symposium appears to be valuable for participants, using overall satisfaction as a surrogate. Based on the information obtained in the present study, further development of the clinical trial infrastructure, including training opportunities and career development for support staff, is required. Due to the limitations of this study, further analysis is warranted to determine the optimal strategy for training support staff. J. Med. Invest. 58 : 81-85, February, 201

View and present status of personnel involved in clinical trials : a survey of participants from the First Symposium of the Shikoku Collaborative Group for Promotion of Clinical Trials

Clinical trials leading to drug approval (registration trials) play a central role in the drug development process. Since the introduction of the Good Clinical Practice (GCP) standard in 1997, the Japanese infrastructure for registration trials has improved. The contribution of support staff, including clinical research coordinators (CRCs), to clinical trials is now widely recognized in Japan. Quality issues and career development for these support staff are being increasingly emphasized. The Shikoku Collaborative Group for Promotion of Clinical Trials was organized in 2008 to address these issues through communication with the personnel involved in clinical trials in regional areas of Japan. To understand the views and present status of personnel involved in clinical trials, we used questionnaires to survey the participants of the First Symposium of the Shikoku Collaborative Group for Promotion of Clinical Trials held in August 2009. Group discussions and special lectures occurred at the symposium. The questionnaire began with questions about basic patient characteristics, followed by practical questions. Of 110 participants, there were 68 respondents (62%), including clinical trial support staff (clinical research coordinators [n=36, 53%], administrative officers [n=9, 13%]), and medical staff [n=23, 34%]). Among the support staff, 36 (80%) had more than 5 years of experience. The most common questionnaire answer selected for participation in the symposium was “willing to contact staff from other medical institutions or organizations” for support staff and “to obtain further knowledge concerning clinical trials” for medical staff. The overall view of the discussion (“Was the discussion satisfactory?”) was favorable for 36 (53%) respondents. This survey revealed that the group discussion in the present symposium appears to be valuable for participants, using overall satisfaction as a surrogate. Based on the information obtained in the present study, further development of the clinical trial infrastructure, including training opportunities and career development for support staff, is required. Due to the limitations of this study, further analysis is warranted to determine the optimal strategy for training support staff

Mitochondrial Localization of ABC Transporter ABCG2 and Its Function in 5-Aminolevulinic Acid-Mediated Protoporphyrin IX Accumulation

Accumulation of protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) in malignant cells is the basis of 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA)-mediated photodynamic therapy. We studied the expression of proteins that possibly affect ALA-mediated PpIX accumulation, namely oligopeptide transporter-1 and -2, ferrochelatase and ATP-binding cassette transporter G2 (ABCG2), in several tumor cell lines. Among these proteins, only ABCG2 correlated negatively with ALA-mediated PpIX accumulation. Both a subcellular fractionation study and confocal laser microscopic analysis revealed that ABCG2 was distributed not only in the plasma membrane but also intracellular organelles, including mitochondria. In addition, mitochondrial ABCG2 regulated the content of ALA-mediated PpIX in mitochondria, and Ko143, a specific inhibitor of ABCG2, enhanced mitochondrial PpIX accumulation. To clarify the possible roles of mitochondrial ABCG2, we characterized stably transfected-HEK (ST-HEK) cells overexpressing ABCG2. In these ST-HEK cells, functionally active ABCG2 was detected in mitochondria, and treatment with Ko143 increased ALA-mediated mitochondrial PpIX accumulation. Moreover, the mitochondria isolated from ST-HEK cells exported doxorubicin probably through ABCG2, because the export of doxorubicin was inhibited by Ko143. The susceptibility of ABCG2 distributed in mitochondria to proteinase K, endoglycosidase H and peptide-N-glycosidase F suggested that ABCG2 in mitochondrial fraction is modified by N-glycans and trafficked through the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus and finally localizes within the mitochondria. Thus, it was found that ABCG2 distributed in mitochondria is a functional transporter and that the mitochondrial ABCG2 regulates ALA-mediated PpIX level through PpIX export from mitochondria to the cytosol

A Comprehensive Peptidome Profiling Technology for the Identification of Early Detection Biomarkers for Lung Adenocarcinoma

The mass spectrometry-based peptidomics approaches have proven its usefulness in several areas such as the discovery of physiologically active peptides or biomarker candidates derived from various biological fluids including blood and cerebrospinal fluid. However, to identify biomarkers that are reproducible and clinically applicable, development of a novel technology, which enables rapid, sensitive, and quantitative analysis using hundreds of clinical specimens, has been eagerly awaited. Here we report an integrative peptidomic approach for identification of lung cancer-specific serum peptide biomarkers. It is based on the one-step effective enrichment of peptidome fractions (molecular weight of 1,000–5,000) with size exclusion chromatography in combination with the precise label-free quantification analysis of nano-LC/MS/MS data set using Expressionist proteome server platform. We applied this method to 92 serum samples well-managed with our SOP (standard operating procedure) (30 healthy controls and 62 lung adenocarcinoma patients), and quantitatively assessed the detected 3,537 peptide signals. Among them, 118 peptides showed significantly altered serum levels between the control and lung cancer groups (p<0.01 and fold change >5.0). Subsequently we identified peptide sequences by MS/MS analysis and further assessed the reproducibility of Expressionist-based quantification results and their diagnostic powers by MRM-based relative-quantification analysis for 96 independently prepared serum samples and found that APOA4 273–283, FIBA 5–16, and LBN 306–313 should be clinically useful biomarkers for both early detection and tumor staging of lung cancer. Our peptidome profiling technology can provide simple, high-throughput, and reliable quantification of a large number of clinical samples, which is applicable for diverse peptidome-targeting biomarker discoveries using any types of biological specimens