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Archive for the ‘Imaging-based Cancer Patient Management’ Category

Current Advanced Research Topics in MRI-based Management of Cancer Patients

 Author: Dror Nir, PhD

Step forward towards quantitative and reproducible MRI of cancer patients is the combination of structure and morphology based imaging with expressions of typical bio-chemical processes using imaging contrast materials. The following list brings the latest publications on this subject in Radiology magazine.

 The Effects of Applying Breast Compression in Dynamic Contrast Material–enhanced MR Imaging

Abstract

 Purpose: To evaluate the effects of breast compression on breast cancer masses, contrast material enhancement of glandular tissue, and quality of magnetic resonance (MR) images in the identification and characterization of breast lesions.

Materials and Methods: This was a HIPAA-compliant, institutional review board–approved retrospective study, with waiver of informed consent. Images from 300 MR imaging examinations in 149 women (mean age ± standard deviation, 51.5 years ± 10.9; age range, 22–76 years) were evaluated. The women underwent diagnostic MR imaging (no compression) and MR-guided biopsy (with compression) between June 2008 and February 2013. Breast compression was expressed as a percentage relative to the noncompressed breast. Percentage enhancement difference was calculated between noncompressed- and compressed-breast images obtained in early and delayed contrast-enhanced phases. Breast density, lesion type (mass vs non-masslike enhancement [NMLE]), lesion size, percentage compression, and kinetic curve type were evaluated. Linear regression, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, and κ test were performed.

Conclusion: Breast compression during biopsy affected breast lesion detection, lesion size, and dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging interpretation and performance. Limiting the application of breast compression is recommended, except when clinically necessary.

 Localized Prostate Cancer Detection with 18F FACBC PET/CT: Comparison with MR Imaging and Histopathologic Analysis

Abstract

 Purpose: To characterize uptake of 1-amino-3-fluorine 18-fluorocyclobutane-1-carboxylic acid (18F FACBC) in patients with localized prostate cancer, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), and normal prostate tissue and to evaluate its potential utility in delineation of intraprostatic cancers in histopathologically confirmed localized prostate cancer in comparison with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging.

Materials and Methods: Institutional review board approval and written informed consent were obtained for this HIPAA-compliant prospective study. Twenty-one men underwent dynamic and static abdominopelvic 18F FACBC combined positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) and multiparametric (MP) 3-T endorectal MR imaging before robotic-assisted prostatectomy. PET/CT and MR images were coregistered by using pelvic bones as fiducial markers; this was followed by manual adjustments. Whole-mount histopathologic specimens were sliced with an MR-based patient-specific mold. 18F FACBC PET standardized uptake values (SUVs) were compared with those at MR imaging and histopathologic analysis for lesion- and sector-based (20 sectors per patient) analysis. Positive and negative predictive values for each modality were estimated by using generalized estimating equations with logit link function and working independence correlation structure.

Conclusion: 18F FACBC PET/CT shows higher uptake in intraprostatic tumor foci than in normal prostate tissue; however, 18F FACBC uptake in tumors is similar to that in BPH nodules. Thus, it is not specific for prostate cancer. Nevertheless, combined 18F FACBC PET/CT and T2-weighted MR imaging enable more accurate localization of prostate cancer lesions than either modality alone.

Illuminating Radiogenomic Characteristics of Glioblastoma Multiforme through Integration of MR Imaging, Messenger RNA Expression, and DNA Copy Number Variation

 Abstract

Purpose: To perform a multilevel radiogenomics study to elucidate the glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging radiogenomic signatures resulting from changes in messenger RNA (mRNA) expression and DNA copy number variation (CNV).

Materials and Methods: Radiogenomic analysis was performed at MR imaging in 23 patients with GBM in this retrospective institutional review board–approved HIPAA-compliant study. Six MR imaging features—contrast enhancement, necrosis, contrast-to-necrosis ratio, infiltrative versus edematous T2 abnormality, mass effect, and subventricular zone (SVZ) involvement—were independently evaluated and correlated with matched genomic profiles (global mRNA expression and DNA copy number profiles) in a significant manner that also accounted for multiple hypothesis testing by using gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), resampling statistics, and analysis of variance to gain further insight into the radiogenomic signatures in patients with GBM

Conclusion: Construction of an MR imaging, mRNA, and CNV radiogenomic association map has led to identification of MR traits that are associated with some known high-grade glioma biomarkers and association with genomic biomarkers that have been identified for other malignancies but not GBM. Thus, the traits and genes identified on this map highlight new candidate radiogenomic biomarkers for further evaluation in future studies.

PET/MR Imaging: Technical Aspects and Potential Clinical Applications

Abstract

Instruments that combine positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging have recently been assembled for use in humans, and may have diagnostic performance superior to that of PET/computed tomography (CT) for particular clinical and research applications. MR imaging has major strengths compared with CT, including superior soft-tissue contrast resolution, multiplanar image acquisition, and functional imaging capability through specialized techniques such as diffusion-tensor imaging, diffusion-weighted (DW) imaging, functional MR imaging, MR elastography, MR spectroscopy, perfusion-weighted imaging, MR imaging with very short echo times, and the availability of some targeted MR imaging contrast agents. Furthermore, the lack of ionizing radiation from MR imaging is highly appealing, particularly when pediatric, young adult, or pregnant patients are to be imaged, and the safety profile of MR imaging contrast agents compares very favorably with iodinated CT contrast agents. MR imaging also can be used to guide PET image reconstruction, partial volume correction, and motion compensation for more accurate disease quantification and can improve anatomic localization of sites of radiotracer uptake, improve diagnostic performance, and provide for comprehensive regional and global structural, functional, and molecular assessment of various clinical disorders. In this review, we discuss the historical development, software-based registration, instrumentation and design, quantification issues, potential clinical applications, potential clinical roles of image segmentation and global disease assessment, and challenges related to PET/MR imaging.

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A Synthesis of the Beauty and Complexity of How We View Cancer

A Synthesis of the Beauty and Complexity of How We View Cancer

Author: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

Cancer Volume One – Summary

A Synthesis of the Beauty and Complexity of How We View Cancer

 

This document has covered a broad spectrum of the research, translational biology, diagnostics (both laboratory and imaging methodologies), and treatments for a variety of cancers, mainly by organs, and selectively by the most common cancers seen in human populations. A number of observations stand out on review of all the material presented. 1. The most common cancers affecting humans is spread worldwide, with some variation by region. 2. Cancers within geographic regions may be expressed differently in relationship to population migrations, the incidence of specific environmental pollutants, occurrence of insect transmitted and sexually transmitted diseases (HIV, HCV, HPV), and possibly according to age, or relationship to ultraviolet or high dose radiation exposure. 3. Cancers are expressed within generally recognized age timelines. For example, acute lymphocytic leukemia and neuroblastoma in children under 10 years age; malignant giant cell tumor and osteosarcoma in the third and fourth decade; prostate cancer and breast cancer over age 40, and are more aggressive at an earlier age, both having a strong sex hormone dependence. 4. There is dispute about the effectiveness of screening for cancer with respect to what age, excessive risk in treatment modality, and the duration of progression free survival. Despite the evidence of several years potential life extension, a long term survival of 10 years is not the expected outcome. However, the quality of life in the remaining years is a valid point in favor of progress. 5. There has been a significant reduction in toxicity of treatment, but attention has been focused on a patient-centric decision process. 6. There has been a dramatic improvement in surgical approaches, post-surgical surveillance, and in diagnosis by invasive and noninvasive methods, especially in the combination of needle biopsy and imaging techniques. 7. There is significant variation within cancer cell types with respect to disease-free survival.

The work presented has several main components: First, there is the biology and mechanisms involved in carcinogenesis related to (1) mutations; (2) carcinogenesis; (3) cell regulatory mechanisms; (4) cell signaling pathways; (5) apoptosis (6) ubitination (7) mitochondrial dysfunction; (8) cell-cell interactions; (9) cell migration; (10) metastasis. Then there are large portions covering (1) imaging; (2) specific targeted therapy; (3) nanotechology-based therapy; (4) specific organ-type cancers; (5) genomics-based testing; (6) circulating cancer cells; (7) miRNAs; (8) siRNAs; (9) cancer immunology and (10) immunotherapy.

Classically, we refer to cancer development in terms of the germ cell layers – ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm. These are formative in embryonic development. The most active development occurs during embryonic development, with a high growth rate of cells and also a high utilization of energy. The cells utilize oxidation for energy in this period characterized by movement of cells in differentiation and organogenesis. This was observed to be unlike the cell metabolism in carcinogenesis, which is characterized by impaired mitochondrial function and reliance on lactate production for energy – termed anaerobic glycolysis, as investigated by Meyerhof, Embden, Warburg, Szent-Gyorgy, H. Krebs, Theorell, AV Hill, B Chance, P Mitchell, P Boyer, F Lippman, and others.

In addition, the body economy has been divided into two major metabolic compartments: fat and lean body mass (LBM), which is further denoted as visceral and structural. This denotes the gut, kidneys, liver, lung, pancreas, sexual organs, endocrines, brain and fat cells in one compartment, and skeletal muscle, bone and cardiovascular in another. LBM is calculated as fat free mass. Further, brown fat is distinguished from white fat. But this was a first layer of construction of the human body. One peels away this layer to find a second layer. For example, the gut viscera have an inner (outer) epithelial layer, a muscularis, and a deep epithelium, which has circulation and fat. There is also an interstitium between the gut epithelium and muscularis. The lung has an epithelium exposed to the airspaces, then capillaries, and then epithelium, designed for exchange of O2 and CO2, the source of heat generation. The pancreas has an endocrine portion in the islets that are embedded in an exocrine secretory organ. The sexual organs have a combination of glandular structures embedded in a mesothelium.

The structural compartment is entirely accounted for by the force of contraction. If this is purely anatomical, that is not really the case when one goes into the functioning substructures of these tissues – cytoplasm, endoplasmic reticulum (ribosomal), mitochondria, liposomes, chromatin apparatus, cell membrane and vesicles. Within and between these structures are the working and interacting mechanisms of the cell in its unique role. What ties these together was first thought to be found in the dogma following the discovery of the genetic code in 1953 that begat DNA to RNA to protein.

This led to many other discoveries that made it clear that it was only a first approximation. It did not account for noncoding DNA, which became unmasked with the culmination of the Human Genome Project and concurrent advances in genomics (mtDNA, mtRNA, siRNA, exosomes, proteomics, synthetic biology, predictive analytics, and regulatory pathways directed by signaling molecules. Here is a list of signaling pathways: 1. JAK-STAT 2. GPCR 3. Endocrine 4. Cytochemical 5. RTK 6. P13K 7. NF-KB 8. MAPK 9. Ubiquitin 10. TGF-beta 11. Stem cell These signaling pathways have become the basis for the discovery of inhibitors of signaling pathways (suppressors), as well as activators, as these have been considered as specific targets for selective therapy. (.See Figure below) Of course, extensive examination of these pathways has required that all such findings are validated based on the STRENGTH of their effect on the target and in the impact of suppression.

inhibitors of signaling pathways-1

http://www.SelleckChem.com

 

Let us continue this discussion elucidating several major points.  While the early observations that drove the interest in biochemical behavior of cancer cells has been displaced, it has not faded from view.

Bioenergetics of Cancer cells

Michael J. Gonzalez (Bioenergetic_Theory_of_Carcinigenesis. http://www.academia.edu/2224071/ Bioenergetic_Theory_of_Carcinigenesis) maintains that the altered energy metabolism of tumor cells provides a viable target for a non-toxic chemotherapeutic approach.  An increased glucose consumption rate  has been observed in malignant cells. Warburg (NobelLaureate in medicine) postulated that the respiratory process of malignant cells was impaired in the malignant transformation. Szent-Györgyi (Nobel in medicine) also viewed cancer as originating from insufficient oxygen utilization. Oxygen inhibits anaerobic  metabolism (fermentation and lactic acid production). Interestingly, during cell differentiation (where cell energy level is high) there is an increased cellular production of oxidation products that appear to provide physiological stimulation for changes in gene expression that may lead to a terminal differentiated state. The failure to maintain high ATP production (high cell energy levels) may be a consequence of inactivation of key enzymes, especially those related to the Krebs cycle and the electron transport system. A distorted mitochondrial function (transmembrane potential) may result.  This  aspect could be suggestive of an important mitochondrial involvement in the carcinogenic process in addition to presenting it as a possible therapeutic target for cancer. Intermediate metabolic correction of the mitochondria is postulated as a possible non-toxic therapeutic approach for cancer.

Fermentation is the anaerobic metabolic breakdown of glucose without net oxidation. Fermentation does not release all the available energy of glucose or need oxygen as part of its biochemical reactions ;  it merely allows glycolysis  (a process that yields two ATP per mole of glucose) to continue by replenishing reduced coenzymes and yields lactate as its final product. The first step in aerobic and anaerobic energy producing pathways, it occurs in the cytoplasm of cells, not in specialized organelles, and is found in all living organisms.  Cancer cells have a fundamentally different energy metabolism compared to normal cells, that  are obligate aerobes (oxygen-requiring cells)  meeting their energy needs with oxidative metabolic processes., while cancer cells do not  require oxygen for their survival. This increase in glycolytic  flux is a metabolic strategy of tumor cells to ensure growth and    survival  in  environments  with  low   oxygen concentrations.

Radoslav Bozov has commented that the process of genomic evolution cannot be fully revealed through comparative genomicsHe states that DNA would be entropic- favorable stable state going towards absolute ZERO temp. Themodynamics measurement in subnano discrete space would go negative towards negativity. DNA is like a cold melting/growing crystal, quite stable as it appears not due to hydrogen bonding , but due to interference of C-N-O. That force is contradicted via proteins onto which we now know large amount of negative quantum redox state carbon attaches. The more locally one attempts to observe, the more hidden variables would emerge as a consequence of discrete energy spaces opposing continuity of matter/time. But stability emerges out of non-stable states, and never reaches absolute stability, for there would be neither feelings nor freedom.

Membrane potential(Vm)

Membrane potential (Vm), the voltage across the plasma membrane, arises because of the presence of differention channels/transporters with specific ion selectivity and permeability. Vm is a key biophysical signal in non-excitable cells, modulating important cellular activities, such as proliferation and differentiation. Therefore, the multiplicities of various ion channels/transporters expressed on different cells are finely tuned in order to regulate the Vm. (M Yang and WJ Brackenbury.

Membrane potential and cancer progression. Frontiers in Physiol.  2013(4); 185: 1.  http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2013.00185)

It is well-established that cancer cells possess distinct bioelectrical properties. Notably, electrophysiological analyses in many cancer cell types have revealed a depolarized Vm that favors cell proliferation. Ion channels/transporters control cell volume and migration, and emerging data also suggest that the level of Vm has functional roles in cancer cell migration. In addition, yperpolarization is necessary for stem cell differentiation. For example, both osteogenesis and adipogenesis are hindered in human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) under depolarizing conditions. Therefore, in the context of cancer, membrane depolarization might be important for the emergence and maintenance of cancer stem cells (CSCs), giving rise to sustained tumor growth. This review aims to provide a broad understanding of the Vm as a bioelectrical signal in cancer cells by examining several key types of ion channels that contribute to its regulation. The mechanisms by which Vm regulates cancer cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation will be discussed. In the long term, Vm might be avaluable clinical marker for tumor detection with prognostic value, and could even be artificially modified in order to inhibit tumor growth and metastasis.

Perspective beyond Cancer Genomics: Bioenergetics of Cancer Stem Cells

Hideshi Ishii, Yuichiro Doki, and Masaki Mori
Yonsei Med J 2010; 51(5):617-621.  http://dx.doi.org/10.3349/ymj.2010.51.5.617   pISSN: 0513-5796, eISSN: 1976-2437

Although the notion that cancer is a disease caused by genetic and epigenetic alterations is now widely accepted, perhaps more emphasis has been given to the fact that cancr is a genetic disease. It should be noted that in the post-genome sequencing project period of the 21st century, the underlined phenomenon nevertheless could not be discarded towards the complete control of cancer disaster as the whole strategy, and in depth investigation of the factors associated with tumorigenesis is required for achieving it. Otto Warburg has won a Nobel Prize in 1931 for the discovery of tumor bioenergetics, which is now commonly used as the basis of positron emission tomography (PET), a highly sensitive noninvasive technique used in cancer diagnosis. Furthermore, the importance of the cancer stem cell (CSC) hypothesis in therapy-related resistance and metastasis has been recognized during the past 2 decades. Accumulating evidence suggests that tumor bioenergetics plays a critical role in CSC regulation; this finding has opened up a new era of cancer medicine, which goes beyond cancer genomics.

Efficient execution of cell death in non-glycolytic cells requires the generation of ROS controlled by the activity of mitochondrial H+-ATP synthase.

Gema Santamaría1,#, Marta Martínez-Diez1,#, Isabel Fabregat2 and José M. Cuezva1,*
Carcinogenesis 2006 27(5):925-935      http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/carcin/bgi315

There is a large body of clinical data documenting that most human carcinomas contain reduced levels of the catalytic subunit of the mitochondrial H+-ATP synthase. In colon and lung cancer this alteration correlates with a poor patient prognosis. Furthermore, recent findings in colon cancer cells indicate that down-regulation of the H+-ATP synthase is linked to the resistance of the cells to chemotherapy. However, the mechanism by which the H+-ATP synthase participates in cancer progression is unknown. In this work, we show that inhibitors of the H+-ATP synthase delay

staurosporine-induced cell death in liver cells that are dependent on oxidative phosphorylation for energy provision whereas it has no effect on glycolytic cells. Efficient execution of cell death requires the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) controlled by the activity of the H+-ATP synthase in a process that is concurrent with the rapid disorganization of the cellular mitochondrial network. The generation of ROS after staurosporine treatment is highly dependent on the mitochondrial membrane potential and most likely caused by reverse electron flow to Complex I. The generated ROS promote the carbonylation and covalent modification of cellular and mitochondrial proteins. Inhibition of the activity of the H+-ATP synthase blunted ROS production, prevented the oxidation of cellular proteins and the modification of mitochondrial proteins, delaying the release of cyt c and the execution of cell death. The results in this work establish the down-regulation of the H+-ATP synthase, and thus of oxidative phosphorylation, as part of the molecular strategy adapted by cancer cells to avoid reactive oxygen species-mediated cell death. Furthermore, the results provide a mechanistic explanation to understand chemotherapeutic resistance of cancer cells that rely on glycolysis as main energy provision pathway.

see also –

The tumor suppressor function of mitochondria: Translation into the clinics

José M. CuezvaÁlvaro D. OrtegaImke Willers, et al.  
Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) – Molecular Basis of Disease  Dec 2009;  1792(12): 1145–1158  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbadis.2009.01.006

Recently, the inevitable metabolic reprogramming experienced by cancer cells as a result of the onset of cellular proliferation has been added to the list of hallmarks of the cancer cell phenotype. Proliferation is bound to the synchronous fluctuation of cycles of an increased glycolysis concurrent with a restrained oxidative phosphorylation. Mitochondria are key players in the metabolic cycling experienced during proliferation because of their essential roles in the transduction of biological energy and in defining the life–death fate of the cell. These two activities are molecularly and functionally integrated and are both targets of commonly altered cancer genes. Moreover, energetic metabolism of the cancer cell also affords a target to develop new therapies because the activity of mitochondria has an unquestionable tumor suppressor function. In this review, we summarize most of these findings paying special attention to the opportunity that translation of energetic metabolism into the clinics could afford for the management of cancer patients. More specifically, we emphasize the role that mitochondrial β-F1-ATPase has as a marker for the prognosis of different cancer patients as well as in predicting the tumor response to therapy.

Self-Destructive Behavior in Cells May Hold Key to a Longer Life

Carl Zimmer, MY Times  October 5, 2009

In recent years, scientists have found evidence of autophagy in preventing a much wider range of diseases. Many disorders, like Alzheimer’s disease, are the result of certain kinds of proteins forming clumps. Lysosomes can devour these clumps before they cause damage, slowing the onset of diseases.

Lysosomes may also protect against cancer. As mitochondria get old, they cast off charged molecules that can wreak havoc in a cell and lead to potentially cancerous mutations. By gobbling up defective mitochondria, lysosomes may make cells less likely to damage their DNA. Many scientists suspect it is no coincidence that breast cancer cells are often missing autophagy-related genes. The genes may have been deleted by mistake as a breast cell divided. Unable to clear away defective mitochondria, the cell’s descendants become more vulnerable to mutations.

Unfortunately, as we get older, our cells lose their cannibalistic prowess. The decline of autophagy may be an important factor in the rise of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders that become common in old age. Unable to clear away the cellular garbage, our bodies start to fail.

If this hypothesis turns out to be right, then it may be possible to slow the aging process by raising autophagy. It has long been known, for example, that animals that are put on a strict low-calorie diet can live much longer than animals that eat all they can. Recent research has shown that caloric restriction raises autophagy in animals and keeps it high. The animals seem to be responding to their low-calorie diet by feeding on their own cells, as they do during famines. In the process, their cells may also be clearing away more defective molecules, so that the animals age more slowly.

Some scientists are investigating how to manipulate autophagy directly. Dr. Cuervo and her colleagues, for example, have observed that in the livers of old mice, lysosomes produce fewer portals on their surface for taking in defective proteins. So they engineered mice to produce lysosomes with more portals. They found that the altered lysosomes of the old experimental mice could clear away more defective proteins. This change allowed the livers to work better.

 

Essentiality of pyruvate kinase, oxidation, and phosphorylation

We can move to the next level with greater clarity. Yu et al. reported an important relationship between Pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) and the Warburg effect of cancer cells ( M Yu, et al. PIM2 phosphorylates PKM2 and promotes Glycolysis in Cancer Cells. J Biol Chem (PMID: 24142698) http://dx.doi.org10.1074/jbc.M113.508226 ).  They found that PIM2 could directly phosphorylate PKM2 on the Thr454 residue, which resulted in an increase of PKM2 protein levels. PKM2 with a phosphorylation-defective mutation displayed a reduced effect on glycolysis compared to the wild-type, thereby co-activating HIF-1α and β-catenin, and enhanced mitochondria respiration and chemotherapeutic sensitivity of cancer cells. This indicated that PIM2-dependent phosphorylation of PKM2 is critical for regulating the Warburg effect in cancer, highlighting PIM2 as a potential therapeutic target.

In another study of the effect of 3 homoplastic mtDNA mutations on oxidative metabolism of osteosarcoma cells, there was a difference proportional to the magnitude of the defect. (Iommarini L, et al. Different mtDNA mutations modify tumor progression in dependence of the degree of respiratory complex I impairment. Hum Mol Genet. 2013 Nov 11. [Epub ahead of print]; PMID: 24163135 ).   Osteosarcoma cells carrying the most marked impairment of the gene encoding mitochondrial complex I  (CI) of oxidative phosphorylation displayed a reduced tumorigenic potential both in vitro and in vivo, when compared with cells with mild CI dysfunction. The severe CI dysfunction was an energetic defect associated with a compensatory increase in glycolytic metabolism and AMP-activated protein kinase activation.  The result suggested that mtDNA mutations may display diverse impact on tumorigenic potential depending on the type and severity of the resulting oxidative phosphorylation dysfunction. The modulation of tumor growth was independent from reactive oxygen species production but correlated with hypoxia-inducible factor 1α stabilization, indicating that structural and functional integrity of CI and oxidative phosphorylation are required for hypoxic adaptation and tumor progression.

An unrelated finding shares some agreement with what has been identified (Systematic isolation of context-dependent vulnerabilities in NSCLC. Cell, 24 Oct 2013; 155 (3): 552-566, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.cell.2013.09.041). They report  three distinct target/response-indicator pairings that are represented with significant frequencies (6%–16%) in the patient population. These include NLRP3 mutation/inflammasome activation-dependent FLIP addiction, co-occurring KRAS and LKB1 mutation-driven COPI addiction, and selective sensitivity to a synthetic indolotriazine that is specified by a seven-gene expression signature.   This is depicted in the Figure below.  The authors noted a frequency and diversity of somatic lesions detected among lung tumors can confound efforts to identify these targets.

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The forging of a cancer-metabolism link and twists in the chain (Biome 19th April 2013)

Ten years ago, Grahame Hardie and Dario Alessi discovered that the elusive upstream kinase required for the activation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) by metabolic stress that the Hardie lab had been pursuing in their research on the metabolic regulator AMPK was the tumor suppressor, LKB1, that the neighbouring Alessi lab was working on at the time. This finding represented the first clear link between AMPK and cancer.

The resulting paper [1], published in 2003 in what was then Journal of Biology (now BMC Biology), was one [1] of three [2, 3] connecting these two kinases and that helped to swell of a surge of interest in the metabolism of tumor cells that was just beginning at about that time and is still growing. (LKB1 and AMPK and the cancer-metabolism link – ten years after.  D Grahame Hardie, and Dario R Alessi.  BMC Biology 2013, 11:36.   http://dx doi.org.10.1186/1741-7007-11-36.)

 

In September 2003, both groups published a joint paper [1] in Journal of Biology (now BMC Biology) that identified the long-sought and elusive upstream kinase acting on AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) as a complex containing LKB1, a known tumor suppressor. Similar findings were reported at about the same time by David Carling and Marian Carlson [2] and by Reuben Shaw and Lew Cantley [3]; at the time of writing these three papers have received between them a total of over 2,000 citations. These findings provided a direct link between a protein kinase, AMPK, which at the time was mainly associated with regulation of metabolism, and another protein kinase, LKB1, which was known from genetic studies to be a tumor suppressor. While the idea that cancer is in part a metabolic disorder (first suggested by Warburg in the 1920s [4]) is well recognized today [5], this was not the case in 2003, and our paper perhaps contributed towards its renaissance.

The distinctive metabolic feature of tumor cells that enables them to meet the demands of unrestrained growth is the switch from oxidative generation of ATP to aerobic glycolysis – a phenomenon now well known as the Warburg effect. Operating this switch is one of the central functions of the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) that has long been the focus of research in the Hardie lab. AMPK is an energy sensor that is allosterically tuned by competitive binding of ATP, ADP and AMP to sites on its g regulatory subunit (its portrait here, with AMP bound at two sites, was kindly provided by Bing Xiao and Stephen Gamblin). When phosphorylated by LKB1, AMPK responds to depletion of ATP by turning off anabolic reactions required for growth, and turning on catabolic reactions and oxidative phosphorylation – the reverse of the Warburg effect. In this light, it is not surprising that LKB1  is inactivated in some proportion of many different types of tumors.

AMPK as an energy sensor and metabolic switch

AMPK was discovered as a protein kinase activity that phosphorylated and inactivated two key enzymes of fatty acid and sterol biosynthesis: acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) and 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase (HMGR). The ACC kinase activity was reported to be activated by 5’-AMP, and the HMGR kinase activity by reversible phosphorylation, but for many years the two activities were thought to be due to distinct enzymes. However, in 1987 the DGH laboratory showed that both were functions of a single protein kinase, which we renamed AMPK after its allosteric activator, 5’-AMP. It was subsequently found that AMPK regulated not only lipid biosynthesis, but also many other metabolic pathways, both by direct phosphorylation of metabolic enzymes, and through longer-term effects mediated by phosphorylation of transcription factors and co-activators. In general, AMPK switches off anabolic pathways that consume ATP and NADPH, while switching on catabolic pathways that generate ATP (Figure 1).

 

target proteins and metabolic pathways regulated by AMPK 1741-7007-11-36-1_1

 

Summary of a selection of target proteins and metabolic pathways regulated by AMPK. Anabolic pathways switched off by AMPK are shown in the top half of the ‘wheel’ and catabolic pathways switched on by AMPK in the bottom half. Where a protein target for AMPK responsible for the effect is known, it is shown in the inner wheel; a question mark indicates that it is not yet certain that the protein is directly phosphorylated. For original references see [54].

Key to acronyms: ACC1/ACC2, acetyl-CoA carboxylases-1/-2; HMGR, HMG-CoA reductase; SREBP1c, sterol response element binding protein-1c; CHREBP, carbohydrate response element binding protein; TIF-1A, transcription initiation factor-1A; mTORC1, mechanistic target-of-rapamycin complex-1; PFKFB2/3, 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase, cardiac and inducible isoforms; TBC1D1, TBC1 domain protein-1; SIRT1, sirtuin-1; PGC-1α, PPAR-γ coactivator-1α; ULK1, Unc51-like kinase-1.

Regulation of AMPK  1741-7007-11-36-3

 

Regulation of AMPK. AMPK can be activated by increases in cellular AMP:ATP or ADP:ATP ratio, or Ca2+ concentration. AMPK is activated >100-fold on conversion from a dephosphorylated form (AMPK) to a form phosphorylated at Thr172 (AMPK-P) catalyzed by at least two upstream kinases: LKB1, which appears to be constitutively active, and CaMKKβ, which is only active when intracellular Ca2+ increases. Increases in AMP or ADP activate AMPK by three mechanisms: (1) binding of AMP or ADP to AMPK, causing a conformational change that promotes phosphorylation by upstream kinases (usually this will be LKB1, unless [Ca2+] is elevated); (2) binding of AMP or ADP, causing a conformational change that inhibits dephosphorylation by protein phosphatases; (3) binding of AMP (and not ADP), causing allosteric activation of AMPK-P. All three effects are antagonized by ATP, allowing AMPK to act as an energy sensor.

AMPK and AMPK-related kinase (ARK) family  1741-7007-11-36-4

 

Members of the AMPK and AMPK-related kinase (ARK) family. All the kinases named in the figure are phosphorylated and activated by LKB1, although what regulates this phosphorylation is known only for AMPK. Alternative names are shown, where applicable.

AMPK-activating drugs metformin or phenformin might provide protection against cancer 1741-7007-11-36-5

 

 

Three possible mechanisms to explain how the AMPK-activating drugs metformin or phenformin might provide protection against cancer. (a) Metformin acts on the liver and other insulin target tissues by activating AMPK (and probably via other targets), normalizing blood glucose; this reduces insulin secretion from pancreatic β cells, reducing the growth-promoting effects of insulin (and high glucose) on tumor cells. Since metformin does not reduce glucose levels in normoglycemic individuals, this mechanism would only operate in insulin-resistant subjects. (b) Metformin or phenformin activates AMPK in pre-neoplastic cells, restraining their growth and proliferation and thus delaying the onset of tumorigenesis; this mechanism would only operate in cells where the LKB1-AMPK pathway was intact. (c) Metformin or phenformin inhibits mitochondrial ATP synthesis in tumor cells, promoting cell death. If the LKB1-AMPK pathway was down-regulated in the tumor cells, they would be more sensitive to cell death induced by the biguanides than surrounding normal cells.

Metformin and phenformin are biguanides that inhibit mitochondrial function and so deplete ATP by inhibiting its production . AMPK is activated by any metabolic stress that depletes ATP, either by inhibiting its production (as do hypoxia, glucose deprivation, and treatment with biguanides) or by accelerating its consumption (as does muscle contraction). By switching off anabolism and other ATP-consuming processes and switching on alternative ATP-producing catabolic pathways, AMPK acts to restore cellular energy homeostasis.

Findings that AMPK is activated in skeletal muscle during exercise and that it increases muscle glucose uptake and fatty acid oxidation led to the suggestion that AMPK-activating drugs might be useful for treating type 2 diabetes. Indeed, it turned out that AMPK is activated by metformin, a drug that had at that time been used to treat type 2 diabetes for over 40 years, and by phenformin , a closely related drug that had been withdrawn for treatment of diabetes due to side effects of lactic acidosis.

If only it were so simple. Effects of metformin on cancer in type 2 diabetics could be secondary to reduction in insulin levels, and although there is evidence for direct effects of AMPK activation on the development of tumors in mice, there is also recent evidence that tumors that become established without down-regulating LKB1 survive metformin better than those that have lost it – probably because metformin poisons the mitochondrial respiratory chain, depressing ATP levels, and cells in which AMPK can still be activated in response to the challenge do better than those in which it can’t.

In their review, Hardie and Alessi chart these  twists and turns, and point to the explosion of further possibilities opened up by the discovery, since their 2003 publication, of at least one other class of kinase upstream of AMPK (the CaM kinases), and at least a dozen other downstream targets of LKB1 (AMPK-related kinases, or ARKs) – not to mention the innumerable downstream targets of AMPK; all which make half their schematic illustrations look like hedgehogs.

Analysis of respiration  in human cancer

Bioenergetic profiling of cancer cells is of great potential because it can bring forward new and effective

Therapeutic  strategies along with early diagnosis. Metabolic Control Analysis (MCA) is a methodology that enables quantification of the flux control exerted by different enzymatic steps in a metabolic network thus assessing their contribution to the system‘s function.

(T Kaambre,V Chekulayev, I Shevchuk, et al. Metabolic control analysis of respiration  in human cancer tissue.  Frontiers Physiol 2013 (4); 151:  1. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2013.00151)

Our main goal is to demonstrate the applicability of MCA for in situ studies of energy

Metabolism in human breast and colorectal cancer cells as well as in normal tissues .We seek to determine the metabolic conditions leading to energy flux redirection in cancer cells. A main result obtained is that the adenine nucleotide translocator exhibits the highest control of respiration in human breast cancer thus becoming a prospective therapeutic target. Additionally, we present evidence suggesting the existence of mitochondrial respiratory supercomplexes that may represent a way by which cancer cells avoid apoptosis. The data obtained show that MCA applied in situ can be insightful in cancer cell energetic research.

Metabolic control analysis of respiration in human cancer tissue. fphys-04-00151-g001

Metabolic control analysis of respiration in human cancer tissue.

Representative traces of change in the rate of oxygen consumption by permeabilized human colorectal cancer (HCC) fibers after their titration with increasing concentrations of mersalyl, an inhibitor of inorganic phosphate carrier (panel A). The values of respiration rate obtained were plotted vs. mersalyl concentration (panel B) and from the plot the corresponding flux control coefficient was calculated. Bars are ±SEM.

Oncologic diseases such as breast and colorectal cancers are still one of the main causes of premature death. The low efficiency of contemporary medicine in the treatment of these malignancies is largely mediated by a poor understanding of the processes involved in metastatic dissemination of cancer cells as well as the unique energetic properties of mitochondria from tumors. Current knowledge supports the idea that human breast and colorectal cancer cells exhibit increased rates of glucose consumption displaying Warburg phenotype,i.e.,elevated glycolysis even in the presence of oxygen (Warburg and Dickens, 1930; Warburg, 1956 ;Izuishietal., 2012). Notwithstanding,  there are some evidences that in these malignancies mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) is the main source of ATP rather than glycolysis. Cancer cells have been classified according to their pattern of metabolic remodeling depending of the relative balance between aerobic glycolysis and OXPHOS (Bellanceetal.,2012). The first type of tumor cells is highly glycolytic, the second OXPHOS deficient and the third type of tumors dislay enhanced OXPHOS. Recent studies strongly sug gest  that cancer cells can utilize lactate, free fatty acids, ketone bodies, butyrate and glutamine as key respiratory substrate selic iting metabolic remodeling of normal surrounding cells toward aerobic glycolysis—“reverse Warburg”effect (Whitaker-Menezes et al.,2011;Salem et al.,2012;Sotgia et al.,2012;Witkiewicz et al., 2012).

In normal cells,the OXPHOS system is usually closely linked to phosphotransfer systems, including various creatine kinase(CK) isotypes,which ensure a safe operation of energetics over a broad functional range of cellular activities (Dzejaand Terzic,2003).  However, our current knowledge about the function of CK/creatine (Cr) system in human breast and colorectal cancer is insufficient. In some malignancies, for example sarcomas the CK/Cr system was shown to be strongly downregulated (Beraetal.,2008;Patraetal.,2008).  Our previous studies showed  that the mitochondrial-bound CK (MtCK) activity was significantly decreased in HL-1 tumor cells (Mongeetal.,2009), as compared to normal parent cardiac cells where the OXPHOS is the main ATP source of and the CK system is a main energy carrier. In the present study,we estimated the role of MtCK in maintaining energy homeostasis in human colorectal cancer cells. Understanding the control and regulation of energy metabolism requires analytical tools that take into account  the existing interactions between individual network components and their impact on systemic network function. Metabolic Control Analysis(MCA) is a theoretical framework relating the properties of metabolic systems to the kinetic characteristics of their individual enzymatic components (Fell,2005). An experimental approach of MCA has been already successfully applied to the studies of OXPHOS in isolated mitochondria (Tageretal.,1983; Kunzetal.,1999; Rossignoletal.,2000)  and in skinned muscle fibers (Kuznetsovetal.,1997;Teppetal.,2010).

Metabolic control analysis of respiration in human cancer tissue

Values of basal (Vo) and maximal respiration rate (Vmax, in the presence of 2 mM ADP) and apparent Michaelis Menten constant (Km) for ADP in permeabilized human breast and colorectal cancer samples as well as health tissue. – See more at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fphys.2013.00151/full#sthash.VBXPdodj.dpuf

Role of Uncoupling Proteins in Cancer

Adamo Valle, Jordi Oliver and Pilar Roca *
Cancers 2010; 2: 567-591;   http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cancers2020567

Since Otto Warburg discovered that most cancer cells predominantly produce energy by glycolysis rather than by oxidative phosphorylation in mitochondria, much interest has been focused on the alterations of these organelles in cancer cells. Mitochondria have been shown to be key players in numerous cellular events tightly related with the biology of cancer. Although energy production relies on the glycolytic pathway in cancer cells, these organelles also participate in many other processes essential for cell survival and proliferation such as ROS production, apoptotic and necrotic cell death, modulation of oxygen concentration, calcium and iron homeostasis, and certain metabolic and biosynthetic pathways. Many of these mitochondrial-dependent processes are altered in cancer cells, leading to a phenotype characterized, among others, by higher oxidative stress, inhibition of apoptosis, enhanced cell proliferation, chemoresistance, induction of angiogenic genes and aggressive fatty acid oxidation. Uncoupling proteins, a family of inner mitochondrial membrane proteins specialized in energy-dissipation, has aroused enormous interest in cancer due to their relevant impact on such processes and their potential for the development of novel therapeutic strategies.

Uncoupling proteins (UCPs) are a family of inner mitochondrial membrane proteins whose function is to allow the re-entry of protons to the mitochondrial matrix, by dissipating the proton gradient and, subsequently, decreasing membrane potential and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Due to their pivotal role in the intersection between energy efficiency and oxidative stress UCPs are being investigated for a potential role in cancer. In this review we compile the latest evidence showing a link between uncoupling and the carcinogenic process, paying special attention to their involvement in cancer initiation, progression and drug chemoresistance.

The Warburg Effect

Uncoupling the Warburg effect from cancer

A Najafov and DR Alessi
Proc Nat Acad Sci                                      www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1014047107
A remarkable trademark of most tumors is their ability to break down glucose by glycolysis at a vastly higher rate than in normal tissues, even when oxygen is copious. This phenomenon, known as the Warburg effect, enables rapidly dividing tumor cells to generate essential biosynthetic building blocks such as nucleic acids, amino acids, and lipids from glycolytic intermediates to permit growth and duplication of cellular components during  division (1). An assumption dominating research in this area is that the Warburg effect is specific to cancer. Thus, much of the focus has been on uncovering mechanisms by which cancer-causing mutations influence metabolism to stimulate glycolysis.

This has lead to many exciting discoveries. For example, the p53 tumor suppressor can suppress glycolysis through its ability to control expression of key metabolic genes, such as phosphoglycerate mutase (2), synthesis of cytochrome C oxidase-2 (3), and TP53-induced glycolysis and apoptosis regulator (TIGAR) (4). Many cancer-causing mutations lead to activation of the Akt and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway that profoundly influences metabolism and expression of metabolic enzymes to promoteglycolysis (5).

Strikingly, all cancer cells but not nontransformed cells express a specific splice variant of pyruvate kinase, termed M2-PK, that is less active, leading to the build up of phosphoenolpyruvate (6). Recent work has revealed that reduced activity of M2-PK promotes a unique glycolytic pathway in which phosphoenolpyruvate is converted to pyruvate by a histidine-dependent phosphorylation of phosphoglycerate mutase, promoting assimilation of glycolytic products into biomass (7). However, despite these observations, one might imagine that the Warburg effect need not be specific for cancer and that any normal cell would need to stimulate glycolysis to generate sufficient biosynthetic materials to fuel expansion and division.

Recent work by Salvador Moncada’s group published in PNAS (8) and other recent work from the same group (9, 10) provides exciting evidence supporting the idea that the Warburg effect is also required for the proliferation of noncancer cells.

The key discovery was that the anaphase promoting complex/cyclosome-Cdh1(APC/C-Cdh1), a master regulator of the transition of G1 to S phase of the cell cycle, inhibits glycolysis in proliferating noncancer cells by mediating the degradation of two key metabolic enzymes, namely 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/ fructose-2,6-bisphosphatase isoform3 (PFKFB3) (9, 10) and glutaminase-(Fig. 1) (8).

Fig. 1. Mechanism by which APC_C-Cdh1 inhibits glycolysis and glutaminolysis to suppress cell proliferation

 

Fig.  Mechanism by which APC/C-Cdh1 inhibits glycolysis and glutaminolysis to suppress cell proliferation.

APC/C-Cdh1 E3 ligase recognizes KEN-box–containing metabolic enzymes, such as PFKFB3 and glutaminase-1 (GLS1), and ubiquitinates and targets them for proteasomal degradation. This inhibits glycolysis and glutaminolysis, leading to decrease in metabolites that can be assimilated into biomass, thereby suppressing proliferation.

PFKFB3 potently stimulates glycolysis by catalyzing the formation of fructose-2,6-bisphosphate, the allosteric activatorof 6-phosphofructo-1-kinase (11). Glutaminase-1 is the first enzyme in glutaminolysis, converting glutamine to lactate, yielding biosyntheticintermediates required for cell proliferation (12).

APC/C is a cell cycle-regulated E3 ubiquitin ligase that promotes ubiquitination of a distinct set of cell cycle proteins containing either a D-box (destruction box) or a KEN-box, named after the essential Lys-Glu-Asn motif required for APC recognition (13). Among its well-known substrates are crucial cell cycle proteins, such as cyclin B1, securin, and Plk1. By ubiquitinating and targeting its substrates to 26S proteasome-mediated degradation, APC/C regulates processes in late mitotic stage, exit  from mitosis, and several events in G1 (14). The Cdh1 subunit is the KENbox binding adaptor of the APC/C ligase and is essential for G1/S transition.

Importantly, APC/C-Cdh1 is inactivated at the initiation of the S-phase of the cell cycle when DNA and cellular organelles are replicated at the time of the greatest need for generation of biosynthetic materials. APC/C-Cdh1 is reactivated later at the mitosis/G1 phase of the cell cycle when there is a lower requirement for biomassgeneration.

Both PFKFB3 (9, 10) and glutaminase-1 (8) possess a KEN-box and are rapidly degraded in nonneoplastic lymphocytes during the cell cycle when APC/C-Cdh1 is active. Consistent with destruction being mediated by APC-C-Cdh1, ablation of the KEN-box prevents degradation of PFKFB3 (9, 10) and glutaminase-1 (8). Inhibiting the proteasomal-dependent degradation with the MG132 inhibitor

markedly increases levels of ubiquitinated PFKFB3 and glutaminase-1 (8). Moreover, overexpression of Cdh1 to activate APC/C-Cdh1 decreases levels of PFKFB3 as well as glutmaninase-1 and concomitantly inhibited glycolysis, as judged by decrease in lactate production. This effect is also observed when cells were treated with a glutaminase-1 inhibitor (6-diazo-5- oxo-L-norleucine) (8). The final evidence supporting the authors’ hypothesis is that proliferation and glycolysis is inhibited after shRNA-mediated silencing of either PFKFB3 or glutaminase-1 (8).

These results are interesting, because unlike most recent work in this area, Colombo et al. (8) link the Warburg effect to the machinery of the cell cycle that is present in all cells rather than to cancer driving mutations. Further work is required to properly define the overall importance of this pathway, which has thus far only been studied in a limited number of cells. It would also be of value to undertake a more detailed analysis of how the rate of glycolysis and other metabolic pathways vary during the cell cycle of normal and cancer cells…(see full 2 page article) at PNAS.

 

The Warburg Effect Suppresses Oxidative Stress Induced Apoptosis in a Yeast Model for Cancer

C Ruckenstuhl, S Buttner, D Carmona-Gutierre, et al.
PLoS ONE 2009; 4(2): e4592.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0004592

Colonies of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, suitable for manipulation of mitochondrial respiration and shows mitochondria-mediated cell death, were used as a model. Repression of respiration as well as ROS-scavenging via glutathione inhibited apoptosis, conferred a survival advantage during seeding and early development of this fast proliferating solid cell population. In contrast, enhancement of respiration triggered cell death.

Conclusion/Significance: The Warburg effect might directly contribute to the initiation of cancer formation – not only by enhanced glycolysis – but also via decreased respiration in the presence of oxygen, which suppresses apoptosis.

 

PIM2 phosphorylates PKM2 and promotes Glycolysis in Cancer Cells
Z Yu, L Huang, T Zhang, et al.
J Biol Chem 2013;                               http://dx.doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M113.508226

http://www.jbc.org/cgi/doi/10.1074/jbc.M113.508226

Serine/threonine protein kinase PIM2, a known oncogene is a binding partner of pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2), a key player in the Warburg effect of cancer cells.   PIM2 interacts with PKM2 and phosphorylates PKM2 on the Thr454 residue.

The phosphorylation of PKM2 increases glycolysis and proliferation in cancer cells.

The PIM2-dependent phosphoirylation of ZPKM2 is critical for regulating the Warburg effect in cancer.

 

Genome-Scale Metabolic Modeling Elucidates the Role of Proliferative Adaptation in Causing the Warburg Effect

Shlomi T, Benyamini T, Gottlieb E, Sharan R, Ruppin E
PLoS Comput Biol 2011; 7(3): e1002018.    http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002018
The Warburg effect – a classical hallmark of cancer metabolism – is a counter-intuitive phenomenon in which rapidly proliferating cancer cells resort to inefficient ATP production via glycolysis leading to lactate secretion, instead of relying primarily on more efficient energy production through mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation, as most normal cells do.

The causes for the Warburg effect have remained a subject of considerable controversy since its discovery over 80 years ago, with several competing hypotheses. Here, utilizing a genome-scale human metabolic network model accounting for stoichiometric and enzyme solvent capacity considerations, we show that the Warburg effect is a direct consequence of the metabolic adaptation of cancer cells to increase biomass production rate. The analysis is shown to accurately capture a three phase metabolic behavior that is observed experimentally during oncogenic progression, as well as a prominent characteristic of cancer cells involving their preference for glutamine uptake over other amino acids.

 

The metabolic advantage of tumor cells

Maurice Israël and Laurent Schwartz

Additional article information

Abstract

1- Oncogenes express proteins of “Tyrosine kinase receptor pathways”, a receptor family including insulin or IGF-Growth Hormone receptors. Other oncogenes alter the PP2A phosphatase brake over these kinases.

2- Experiments on pancreatectomized animals; treated with pure insulin or total pancreatic extracts, showed that choline in the extract, preserved them from hepatomas.

Since choline is a methyle donor, and since methylation regulates PP2A, the choline protection may result from PP2A methylation, which then attenuates kinases.

3- Moreover, kinases activated by the boosted signaling pathway inactivate pyruvate kinase and pyruvate dehydrogenase. In addition, demethylated PP2A would no longer dephosphorylate these enzymes. A “bottleneck” between glycolysis and the oxidative-citrate cycle interrupts the glycolytic pyruvate supply now provided via proteolysis and alanine transamination. This pyruvate forms lactate (Warburg effect) and NAD+ for glycolysis. Lipolysis and fatty acids provide acetyl CoA; the citrate condensation increases, unusual oxaloacetate sources are available. ATP citrate lyase follows, supporting aberrant transaminations with glutaminolysis and tumor lipogenesis. Truncated urea cycles, increased polyamine synthesis, consume the methyl donor SAM favoring carcinogenesis.

4- The decrease of butyrate, a histone deacetylase inhibitor, elicits epigenic changes (PETEN, P53, IGFBP decrease; hexokinase, fetal-genes-M2, increase)

5- IGFBP stops binding the IGF – IGFR complex, it is perhaps no longer inherited by a single mitotic daughter cell; leading to two daughter cells with a mitotic capability.

6- An excess of IGF induces a decrease of the major histocompatibility complex MHC1, Natural killer lymphocytes should eliminate such cells that start the tumor, unless the fever prostaglandin PGE2 or inflammation, inhibit them…

Introduction

The metabolic network of biochemical pathways forms a system controlled by a few switches, changing the finality of this system. Specific substrates and hormones control such switches. If for example, glycemia is elevated, the pancreas releases insulin, activating anabolism and oxidative glycolysis, energy being required to form new substance or refill stores. If starvation decreases glycemia, glucagon and epinephrine activate gluconeogenesis and ketogenesis to form nutriments, mobilizing body stores. The different finalities of the system are or oriented by switches sensing the NADH/NAD+, the ATP/AMP, the cAMP/AMP ratios or the O2 supply… We will not describe here these metabolic finalities and their controls found in biochemistry books.

Many of the switches depend of the phosphorylation of key enzymes that are active or not. Evidently, there is some coordination closing or opening the different pathways. Take for example gluconeogenesis, the citrate condensation slows down, sparing OAA, which starts the gluconeogenic pathway. In parallel, one also has to close pyruvate kinase (PK); if not, phosphoenolpyruvate would give back pyruvate, interrupting the pathway. Hence, the properties of key enzymes acting like switches on the pathway specify the finality of the system. Our aim is to show that tumor cells invent a new specific finality, with mixed glycolysis and gluconeogenesis features. This very special metabolism gives to tumor cells a selective advantage over normal cells, helping the tumor to develop at the detriment of the rest of the body.

I Abnormal metabolism of tumors, a selective advantage

The initial observation of Warburg 1956 on tumor glycolysis with lactate production is still a crucial observation [1]. Two fundamental findings complete the metabolic picture: the discovery of the M2 pyruvate kinase (PK) typical of tumors [2] and the implication of tyrosine kinase signals and subsequent phosphorylations in the M2 PK blockade [35].

A typical feature of tumor cells is a glycolysis associated to an inhibition of apoptosis. Tumors over-express the high affinity hexokinase 2, which strongly interacts with the mitochondrial ANT-VDAC-PTP complex. In this position, close to the ATP/ADP exchanger (ANT), the hexokinase receives efficiently its ATP substrate [6,7]. As long as hexokinase occupies this mitochondria site, glycolysis is efficient. However, this has another consequence, hexokinase pushes away from the mitochondria site the permeability transition pore (PTP), which inhibits the release of cytochrome C, the apoptotic trigger [8]. The site also contains a voltage dependent anion channel (VDAC) and other proteins. The repulsion of PTP by hexokinase would reduce the pore size and the release of cytochrome C. Thus, the apoptosome-caspase proteolytic structure does not assemble in the cytoplasm. The liver hexokinase or glucokinase, is different it has less interaction with the site, has a lower affinity for glucose; because of this difference, glucose goes preferentially to the brain.

Further, phosphofructokinase gives fructose 1-6 bis phosphate; glycolysis is stimulated if an allosteric analogue, fructose 2-6 bis phosphate increases in response to a decrease of cAMP. The activation of insulin receptors in tumors has multiple effects, among them; a decrease of cAMP, which will stimulate glycolysis.

Another control point is glyceraldehyde P dehydrogenase that requires NAD+ in the glycolytic direction. If the oxygen supply is normal, the mitochondria malate/aspartate (MAL/ASP) shuttle forms the required NAD+ in the cytosol and NADH in the mitochondria. In hypoxic conditions, the NAD+ will essentially come via lactate dehydrogenase converting pyruvate into lactate. This reaction is prominent in tumor cells; it is the first discovery of Warburg on cancer.

At the last step of glycolysis, pyruvate kinase (PK) converts phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) into pyruvate, which enters in the mitochondria as acetyl CoA, starting the citric acid cycle and oxidative metabolism. To explain the PK situation in tumors we must recall that PK only works in the glycolytic direction, from PEP to pyruvate, which implies that gluconeogenesis uses other enzymes for converting pyruvate into PEP. In starvation, when cells need glucose, one switches from glycolysis to gluconeogenesis and ketogenesis; PK and pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) are off, in a phosphorylated form, presumably following a cAMP-glucagon-adrenergic signal. In parallel, pyruvate carboxylase (Pcarb) becomes active. Moreover, in starvation, much alanine comes from muscle protein proteolysis, and is transaminated into pyruvate. Pyruvate carboxylase first converts pyruvate to OAA and then, PEP carboxykinase converts OAA to PEP etc…, until glucose. The inhibition of PK is necessary, if not one would go back to pyruvate. Phosphorylation of PK, and alanine, inhibit the enzyme.

Well, tumors have a PK and a PDH inhibited by phosphorylation and alanine, like for gluconeogenesis, in spite of an increased glycolysis! Moreover, in tumors, one finds a particular PK, the M2 embryonic enzyme [2,9,10] the dimeric, phosphorylated form is inactive, leading to a “bottleneck “. The M2 PK has to be activated by fructose 1-6 bis P its allosteric activator, whereas the M1 adult enzyme is a constitutive active form. The M2 PK bottleneck between glycolysis and the citric acid cycle is a typical feature of tumor cell glycolysis.

We also know that starvation mobilizes lipid stores from adipocyte to form ketone bodies, they are like glucose, nutriments for cells. Growth hormone, cAMP, AMP, activate a lipase, which provides fatty acids; their β oxidation cuts them into acetyl CoA in mitochondria and in peroxisomes for very long fatty acids; forming ketone bodies. Normally, citrate synthase slows down, to spare acetyl CoA for the ketogenic route, and OAA for the gluconeogenic pathway. Like for starvation, tumors mobilize lipid stores. But here, citrate synthase activity is elevated, condensing acetyl CoA and OAA [1113]; citrate increases, ketone bodies decrease. Consequently, ketone bodies will stop stimulating Pcarb. In tumors, the OAA needed for citrate synthase will presumably come from PEP, via reversible PEP carboxykinase or other sources. The quiescent Pcarb will not process the pyruvate produced by alanine transamination after proteolysis, leaving even more pyruvate to lactate dehydrogenase, increasing the lactate released by the tumor, and the NAD+ required for glycolysis.

Above the bottleneck, the massive entry of glucose accumulates PEP, which converts to OAA via mitochondria PEP carboxykinase, an enzyme requiring biotine-CO2-GDP. This source of OAA is abnormal, since Pcarb, another biotin-requiring enzyme, should have provided OAA. Tumors may indeed contain “morule inclusions” of biotin-enzyme [14] suggesting an inhibition of Pcarb, presumably a consequence of the maintained citrate synthase activity, and decrease of ketone bodies that normally stimulate Pcarb. The OAA coming via PEP carboxykinase and OAA coming from aspartate transamination or via malate dehydrogenase condenses with acetyl CoA, feeding the elevated tumoral citric acid condensation starting the Krebs cycle. Thus, tumors have to find large amounts of acetyl CoA for their condensation reaction; it comes essentially from lipolysis and β oxidation of fatty acids, and enters in the mitochondria via the carnitine transporter. This is the major source of acetyl CoA; since PDH that might have provided acetyl CoA remains in tumors, like PK, in the inactive phosphorylated form. The blockade of PDH [15] was recently reversed by inhibiting its kinase [16,17].

The key question is then to find out why NADH, a natural citrate synthase inhibitor did not switch off the enzyme in tumor cells. Probably, the synthesis of NADH by the dehydrogenases of the Krebs cycle and malate/aspartate shuttle, was too low, or the oxidation of NADH via the respiratory electron transport chain and mitochondrial complex1 (NADH dehydrogenase) was abnormally elevated. Another important point concerns PDH and α ketoglutarate dehydrogenase that are homologous enzymes, they might be regulated in a concerted way; when PDH is off, α ketoglutarate dehydrogenase might be also be slowed. Moreover, this could be associated to an upstream inhibition of aconinase by NO, or more probably to a blockade of isocitrate dehydrogenase, which favors in tumor cells, the citrate efflux from mitochondria, and the ATP citrate lyase route.

Normally, an increase of NADH inhibits the citrate condensation, favoring the ketogenic route associated to gluconeogenesis, which turns off glycolysis. Apparently, this regulation does not occur in tumors, since citrate synthase remains active. Moreover, in tumor cells, the α ketoglutarate not processed by
α ketoglutarate dehydrogenase converts to glutamate, via glutamate dehydrogenase, in this direction the reaction forms NAD+, backing up the LDH production. Other sources of glutamate are glutaminolysis, which increases in tumors [2].

The Figure Figure11 shows how tumors bypass the PK and PDH bottlenecks and evidently, the increase of glucose influx above the bottleneck, favors the supply of substrates to the pentose shunt, as pentose is needed for synthesizing ribonucleotides, RNA and DNA. The Figure Figure11 represents the stop below the citrate condensation. Hence, citrate quits the mitochondria to give via ATP citrate lyase, acetyl CoA and OAA in the cytosol of tumor cells. Acetyl CoA supports the synthesis of fatty acids and the formation of triglycerides. The other product of the ATP citrate lyase reaction, OAA, drives the transaminase cascade (ALAT and GOT transaminases) in a direction that consumes GLU and glutamine and converts in fine alanine into pyruvate and lactate plus NAD+. This consumes protein body stores that provide amino acids and much alanine (like in starvation).

The Figure Figure11 indicates that malate dehydrogenase is a source of NAD+ converting OAA into malate, which backs-up LDH. Part of the malate converts to pyruvate (malic enzyme) and processed by LDH. Moreover, malate enters in mitochondria via the shuttle and gives back OAA to feed the citrate condensation. Glutamine will also provide amino groups for the “de novo” synthesis of purine and pyrimidine bases particularly needed by tumor cells. The Figure Figure11 indicates that ASP shuttled out of the mitochondrial, joins the ASP formed by cytosolic transaminases, to feed the synthesis of pyrimidine bases via ASP transcarbamylase, a process also enhanced in tumor cells. In tumors, this silences the argininosuccinate synthetase step of the urea cycle [1820].

This blockade also limits the supply of fumarate to the Krebs cycle. The latter, utilizes the α ketoglutarate provided by the transaminase reaction, since α ketoglutarate coming via aconitase slows down. Indeed, NO and peroxynitrite increase in tumors and probably block aconitase. The Figure Figure11 indicates the cleavage of arginine into urea and ornithine. In tumors, the ornithine production increases, following the polyamine pathway. Ornithine is decarboxylated into putrescine by ornithine decarboxylase, then it captures the backbone of S adenosyl methionine (SAM) to form polyamines spermine then spermidine, the enzyme controlling the process is SAM decarboxylase. The other reaction product, 5-methlthioribose is then decomposed into methylthioribose and adenine, providing purine bases to the tumor. We shall analyze below the role of SAM in the carcinogenic mechanism, its destruction aggravates the process.

metabolic pathways 1476-4598-10-70-1
Cancer metabolism. Glycolysis is elevated in tumors, but a pyruvate kinase (PK) “bottleneck” interrupts phosphoenol pyruvate (PEP) to pyruvate conversion. Thus, alanine following muscle proteolysis transaminates to pyruvate, feeding lactate dehydrogenase,

In summary, it is like if the mechanism switching from gluconeogenesis to glycolysis was jammed in tumors, PK and PDH are at rest, like for gluconeogenesis, but citrate synthase is on. Thus, citric acid condensation pulls the glucose flux in the glycolytic direction, which needs NAD+; it will come from the pyruvate to lactate conversion by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) no longer in competition with a quiescent Pcarb. Since the citrate condensation consumes acetyl CoA, ketone bodies do not form; while citrate will support the synthesis of triglycerides via ATP citrate lyase and fatty acid synthesis… The cytosolic OAA drives the transaminases in a direction consuming amino acid. The result of these metabolic changes is that tumors burn glucose while consuming muscle protein and lipid stores of the organism. In a normal physiological situation, one mobilizes stores for making glucose or ketone bodies, but not while burning glucose! Tumor cell metabolism gives them a selective advantage over normal cells. However, one may attack some vulnerable points.

Cancer metabolism. Glycolysis is elevated in tumors, but a pyruvate kinase (PK) “bottleneck” interrupts phosphoenol pyruvate (PEP) to pyruvate conversion. Thus, alanine following muscle proteolysis transaminates to pyruvate, feeding lactate dehydrogenase, converting pyruvate to lactate, (Warburg effect) and NAD+ required for glycolysis. Cytosolic malate dehydrogenase also provides NAD+ (in OAA to MAL direction). Malate moves through the shuttle giving back OAA in the mitochondria. Below the PK-bottleneck, pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) is phosphorylated (second bottleneck). However, citrate condensation increases: acetyl-CoA, will thus come from fatty acids β-oxydation and lipolysis, while OAA sources are via PEP carboxy kinase, and malate dehydrogenase, (pyruvate carboxylase is inactive). Citrate quits the mitochondria, (note interrupted Krebs cycle). In the cytosol, ATPcitrate lyase cleaves citrate into acetyl CoA and OAA. Acetyl CoA will make fatty acids-triglycerides. Above all, OAA pushes transaminases in a direction usually associated to gluconeogenesis! This consumes protein stores, providing alanine (ALA); like glutamine, it is essential for tumors. The transaminases output is aspartate (ASP) it joins with ASP from the shuttle and feeds ASP transcarbamylase, starting pyrimidine synthesis. ASP in not processed by argininosuccinate synthetase, which is blocked, interrupting the urea cycle. Arginine gives ornithine via arginase, ornithine is decarboxylated into putrescine by ornithine decarboxylase. Putrescine and SAM form polyamines (spermine spermidine) via SAM decarboxylase. The other product 5-methylthioadenosine provides adenine. Arginine deprivation should affect tumors. The SAM destruction impairs methylations, particularly of PP2A, removing the “signaling kinase brake”, PP2A also fails to dephosphorylate PK and PDH, forming the “bottlenecks”. (Black arrows = interrupted pathways).

 II Starters for cancer metabolic anomaly

1. Lessons from oncogenes

Following the discovery of Rous sarcoma virus transmitting cancer [21], we have to wait the work of Stehelin [22] to realize that this retrovirus only transmitted a gene captured from a previous host. When one finds that the transmitted gene encodes the Src tyrosine kinase, we are back again to the tyrosine kinase signals, similar to those activated by insulin or IGF, which control carbohydrate metabolism, anabolism and mitosis.

An up regulation of the gene product, now under viral control causes tumors. However, the captured viral oncogene (v-oncogene) derives from a normal host gene the proto-oncogene. The virus only perturbs the expression of a cellular gene the proto-oncogene. It may modify its expression, or its regulation, or transmit a mutated form of the proto-oncogene. Independently of any viral infection, a similar tumorigenic process takes place, if the proto-oncogene is translocated in another chromosome; and transcribed under the control of stronger promoters. In this case, the proto-oncogene becomes an oncogene of cellular origin (c-oncogene). The third mode for converting a prot-oncogene into an oncogene occurs if a retrovirus simply inserts its strong promoters in front of the proto-oncogene enhancing its expression.

It is impressive to find that retroviral oncogenes and cellular oncogenes disturb this major signaling pathway: the MAP kinases mitogenic pathways. At the ligand level we find tumors such Wilm’s kidney cancer, resulting from an increased expression of insulin like growth factor; we have also the erbB or V-int-2 oncogenes expressing respectively NGF and FGF growth factor receptors. The receptors for these ligands activate tyrosine kinase signals, similarly to insulin receptors. The Rous sarcoma virus transmits the src tyrosine kinase, which activates these signals, leading to a chicken leukemia. Similarly, in murine leukemia, a virus captures and retransmits the tyrosine kinase abl. Moreover, abl is also stimulated if translocated and expressed with the bcr gene of chromosome 22, as a fusion protein (Philadelphia chromosome). Further, ahead Ras exchanging protein for GTP/GDP, and then the Raf serine-threonine kinases proto-oncogenes are known targets for oncogenes. Finally, at the level of transcription factors activated by MAP kinases, one finds cjun, cfos or cmyc. An avian leucosis virus stimulates cmyc, by inserting its strong viral promoter. The retroviral attacks boost the mitogenic MAP kinases similarly to inflammatory cytokins, or to insulin signals, that control glucose transport and gycolysis.

In addition to the MAP kinase mitogenic pathway, tyrosine kinase receptors activate PI3 kinase pathways; PTEN phosphatase counteracts this effect, thus acting as a tumor suppressor. Recall that a DNA virus, the Epstein-Barr virus of infectious mononucleose, gives also the Burkitt lymphoma; the effect of the virus is to enhance PI3 kinase. Down stream, we find mTOR (the target of rapamycine, an immune-suppressor) mTOR, inhibits PP2A phosphatase, which is also a target for the simian SV40 and Polyoma viruses. Schematically, one may consider that the different steps of MAP kinase pathways are targets for retroviruses, while the different steps of PI3 kinase pathway are targets for DNA viruses. The viral-driven enhanced function of these pathways mimics the effects of their prolonged activation by their usual triggers, such as insulin or IGF; one then expects to find an associated increase of glycolysis. The insulin or IGF actions boost the cellular influx of glucose and glycolysis. However, if the signaling pathway gets out of control, the tyrosine kinase phosphorylations may lead to a parallel PK blockade [35] explaining the tumor bottleneck at the end of glycolysis. Since an activation of enyme kinases may indeed block essential enzymes (PK, PDH and others); in principle, the inactivation of phosphatases may also keep these enzymes in a phosphorylated form and lead to a similar bottleneck and we do know that oncogenes bind and affect PP2A phosphatase. In sum, a perturbed MAP kinase pathway, elicits metabolic features that would give to tumor cells their metabolic advantage.

2. The methylation hypothesis and the role of PP2A phosphatase

In a remarkable comment, Newberne [23] highlights interesting observations on the carcinogenicity of diethanolamine [24] showing that diethanolamine decreased choline derivatives and methyl donors in the liver, like does a choline deficient diet. Such conditions trigger tumors in mice, particularly in the B6C3F1 strain. Again, the historical perspective recalled by Newberne’s comment brings us back to insulin. Indeed, after the discovery of insulin in 1922, Banting and Best were able to keep alive for several months depancreatized dogs, treated with pure insulin. However, these dogs developed a fatty liver and died. Unlike pure insulin, the total pancreatic extract contained a substance that prevented fatty liver: a lipotropic substance identified later as being choline [25]. Like other lipotropes, (methionine, folate, B12) choline supports transmethylation reactions, of a variety of substrates, that would change their cellular fate, or action, after methylation. In the particular case concerned here, the removal of triglycerides from the liver, as very low-density lipoprotein particles (VLDL), requires the synthesis of lecithin, which might decrease if choline and S-adenosyl methionine (SAM) are missing. Hence, a choline deficient diet decreases the removal of triglycerides from the liver; a fatty liver and tumors may then form. In sum, we have seen that pathways exemplified by the insulin-tyrosine kinase signaling pathway, which control anabolic processes, mitosis, growth and cell death, are at each step targets for oncogenes; we now find that insulin may also provoke fatty liver and cancer, when choline is not associated to insulin.

We must now find how the lipotropic methyl donor controls the signaling pathway. We know that after the tyrosine kinase reaction, serine-threonine kinases take over along the signaling route. It is thus highly probable that serine-threonine phosphatases will counteract the kinases and limit the intensity of the insulin or insulin like signals. One of the phosphatases involved is PP2A, itself the target of DNA viral oncogenes (Polyoma or SV40 antigens react with PP2A subunits and cause tumors). We found a possible link between the PP2A phosphatase brake and choline in works on Alzheimer’s disease [26]. Indeed, the catalytic C subunit of PP2A is associated to a structural subunit A. When C receives a methyle, the dimer recruits a regulatory subunit B. The trimer then targets specific proteins that are dephosphorylated [27].

In Alzheimer’s disease, the poor methylation of PP2A is associated to an increase of homocysteine in the blood [26]. The result of the PP2A methylation failure is a hyperphosphorylation of Tau protein and the formation of tangles in the brain. Tau protein is involved in tubulin polymerization, controlling axonal flow but also the mitotic spindle. It is thus possible that choline, via SAM, methylates PP2A, which is targeted toward the serine-threonine kinases that are counteracted along the insulin-signaling pathway. The choline dependent methylation of PP2A is the brake, the “antidote”, which limits “the poison” resulting from an excess of insulin signaling. Moreover, it seems that choline deficiency is involved in the L to M2 transition of PK isoenzymes [28].

3. Cellular distribution of PP2A

In fact, the negative regulation of Ras/MAP kinase signals mediated by PP2A phosphatase seems to be complex. The serine-threonine phosphatase does more than simply counteracting kinases; it binds to the intermediate Shc protein on the signaling cascade, which is inhibited [29]. The targeting of PP2A towards proteins of the signaling pathway depends of the assembly of the different holoenzymes. The carboxyl methylation of C-terminal leucine 309 of the catalytic C unit, permits to a dimeric form made of C and a structural unit A, to recruit one of the many regulatory units B, giving a great diversity of possible enzymes and effects. The different methylated ABC trimers would then find specific targets. It is consequently essential to have more information on methyl transferases and methyl esterases that control the assembly or disassembly of PP2A trimeric forms.

A specific carboxyl methyltransferase for PP2A [30] was purified and shown to be essential for normal progression through mitosis [31]. In addition, a specific methylesterase that demethylates PP2A has been purified [32]. Is seems that the methyl esterase cancels the action of PP2A, on signaling kinases that increase in glioma [33]. Evidently, the cellular localization of the methyl transferase (LCMT-1) and the phosphatase methyl esterase (PME-1) are crucial for controlling PP2A methylation and targeting. Apparently, LCMT-1 mainly localizes to the cytoplasm and not in the nucleus, where PME-1 is present, and the latter harbors a nuclear localization signal [34]. From these observations, one may suggest that PP2A gets its methyles in the cytoplasm and regulates the tyrosine kinase-signaling pathway, attenuating its effects.

A methylation deficit should then decrease the methylation of PP2A and boost the mitotic insulin signals as discussed above for choline deficiency, steatosis and hepatoma. At the nucleus, where PME-1 is present, it will remove the methyl, from PP2A, favoring the formation of dimeric AC species that have different targets, presumably proteins involved in the cell cycle. It is interesting to quote here the structural mechanism associated to the demethylation of PP2A. The crystal structures of PME-1 alone or in complex with PP2A dimeric core was reported [35] PME-1 binds directly to the active site of PP2A and this rearranges the catalytic triad of PME-1 into an active conformation that should demethylate PP2A, but this also seems to evict a manganese required for the phosphatase activity. Hence, demethylation and inactivation would take place in parallel, blocking mitotic actions.

However, another player is here involved, the so-called PTPA protein, which is a PP2A phosphatase activator. Apparently, this activator is a new type of cis/trans of prolyl isomerase, acting on Pro190 of the catalytic C unit isomerized in presence of Mg-ATP [36], which would then cancel the inactivation mediated by PME-1. Following the PTPA action, the demethylated phosphatase would become active again in the nucleus, and stimulate cell cycle proteins [37,38] inducing mitosis. Unfortunately, the ligand of this new prolyl isomerase is still unknown. Moreover, we have to consider that other enzymes such as cytochrome P450 have also demethylation properties.

In spite of deficient methylations and choline dehydrogenase pathway, tumor cells display an enhanced choline kinase activity, associated to a parallel synthesis of lecithin and triglycerides.

The hypothesis to consider is that triglycerides change the fate of methylated PP2A, by targeting it to the nucleus, there a methylesterase demethylates it; the phosphatase attacks new targets such as cell cycle proteins, inducing mitosis. Moreover, the phosphatase action on nuclear membrane proteins may render the nuclear membrane permeable to SAM the general methyl donor; promoters get methylated inducing epigenetic changes.

The relative decrease of methylated PP2A in the cytosol, not only cancels the brake over the signaling kinases, but also favors the inactivation of PK and PDH, which remain phosphorylated, contributing to the metabolic anomaly of tumor cells.

In order to prevent tumors, one should then favor the methylation route rather than the phosphorylation route for choline metabolism. This would decrease triglycerides, promote the methylation of PP2A and keep it in the cytosol, reestablishing the brake over signaling kinases.

Hypoxia is an essential issue to discuss

Many adequate “adult proteins” replace their fetal isoform: muscle proteins utrophine, switches to dystrophine; enzymes such as embryonic M2 PK [39] is replaced by M1. Hypoxic conditions seem to trigger back the expression of the fetal gene packet via HIF1-Von-Hippel signals. The mechanism would depend of a double switch since not all fetal genes become active after hypoxia. First, the histones have to be in an acetylated form, opening the way to transcription factors, this depends either of histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibition or of histone acetyltransferase (HAT) activation, and represents the main switch. Second, a more specific switch must be open, indicating the adult/fetal gene couple concerned, or more generally the isoform of a given gene that is more adapted to the specific situation. When the adult gene mutates, an unbound ligand may indeed indicate, directly or indirectly, the particular fetal copy gene to reactivate [40]. In anoxia, lactate is more difficult to release against its external gradient, leading to a cytosolic increase of up-stream glycolytic products, 3P glycerate or others. These products may then be a second signal controlling the specific switch for triggering the expression of fetal genes, such as fetal hemoglobin or the embryonic M2 PK; this takes place if histones (main switch) are in an acetylated form.

Growth hormone-IGF actions, the control of asymmetrical mitosis

When IGF – Growth hormone operate, the fatty acid source of acetyl CoA takes over. Indeed, GH stimulates a triglyceride lipase in adipocytes, increasing the release of fatty acids and their β oxidation. In parallel, GH would close the glycolytic source of acetyl CoA, perhaps inhibiting the hexokinase interaction with the mitochondrial ANT site. This effect, which renders apoptosis possible, does not occur in tumor cells. GH mobilizes the fatty acid source of acetyl CoA from adipocytes, which should help the formation of ketone bodies, but since citrate synthase activity is elevated in tumors, ketone bodies do not form.

Compounds for correcting tumor metabolism

The figure figure1 indicates interrupted and enhanced metabolic pathways in tumor cells.

In table table1,1, the numbered pathways represent possible therapeutic targets; they cover several enzymes. When the activity of the pathway is increased, one may give inhibitors; when the activity of the pathway decreases, we propose possible activators

Table - metabolic  targets

Table 1 Mol Cancer. 2011; 10 70. Published online Jun 7, 2011. doi  10.1186_1476-4598-10-70

The origin of Cancers by means of metabolic selection

The disruption of cells by internal or external compounds, releases substrates stimulating the tyrosine kinase signals for anabolism proliferation and stem cell repair, like for most oncogenes. If such signals are not limited, there is a parallel blockade of key metabolic enzymes by activated kinases or inhibited phosphatases. The result is a metabolism typical of tumor cells, which gives them a selective advantage; stabilized by epigenetic changes. A proliferation process, in which the two daughter cells divide, increases the tumor mass at the detriment of the body. Inevitable mutations follow.

Maurice Israël, et al. Mol Cancer. 2011;10:70-70.
Transcriptomics and Regulatory Processes

What are lncRNAs?

It was traditionally thought that the transcriptome would be mostly comprised of mRNAs, however advances in high-throughput RNA sequencing technologies have revealed the complexity of our genome. Non-coding RNA is now known to make up the majority of transcribed RNAs and in addition to those that carry out well-known housekeeping functions (e.g. tRNA, rRNA etc), many different types of regulatory RNAs have been and continue to be discovered.

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a large and diverse class of transcribed RNA molecules with a length of more than 200 nucleotides that do not encode proteins. Their expression is developmentally regulated and lncRNAs can be tissue- and cell-type specific. A significant proportion of lncRNAs are located exclusively in the nucleus. They are comprised of many types of transcripts that can structurally resemble mRNAs, and are sometimes transcribed as whole or partial antisense transcripts to coding genes. LncRNAs are thought to carry out important regulatory functions, adding yet another layer of complexity to our understanding of genomic regulation.

lncRNA-s   A summary of the various functions described for lncRNA

 

The evolution of genome-scale models of cancer metabolism
The importance of metabolism in cancer is becoming increasingly apparent with the identification of metabolic enzyme mutations and the growing awareness of the influence of metabolism on signaling, epigenetic markers, and transcription. However, the complexity of these processes has challenged our ability to make sense of the metabolic changes in cancer. Fortunately, constraint-based modeling, a systems biology approach, now enables one to study the entirety of cancer metabolism and simulate basic phenotypes. With the newness of this field, there has been a rapid evolution of both the scope of these models and their applications. (NE Lewis and AM.Abdel-Haleem. frontiers physiol  2013;4(237): 1   http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2013.00237)

Here we review the various constraint-based models built for cancer metabolism and how their predictions are shedding new light on basic cancer phenotypes, elucidating pathway differences between tumors, and discovering putative anti-cancer targets. As the field continues to evolve, the scope of these genome-scale cancer models must expand beyond central metabolism to address questions related to the diverse processes contributing to tumor development and metastasis.

“One of the goals of cancer research is to ascertain the mechanisms of cancer.”These words, penned by Dulbecco (1986), began a treatise on how a mechanistic understanding of cancer requires a sequenced human genome. Now with the abundance of sequence data, we are finding diverse genetic changes among different cancers (Vogelstein et al.,2013). While we are cataloging these mutations, the associated mechanisms leading to phenotypic changes are often unclear since mutations occur in the context of complex biological networks. For example, mutations to isocitrate dehydrogenase lead to oncometabolite synthesis, which alters DNA methylation and ultimately changes gene expression and the balance of normal cell processes (Sasakietal.,2012). Furthermore, many different combinations of mutations can lead to cancer. Since the genetic heterogeneity between tumors can be large, the biomolecular mechanisms underlying tumor physiology can vary substantially.

This is apparent in metabolism, where tumors can differ in serine metabolism  dependence (Possematoetal., 2011) or TCA cycle function (Frezzaetal., 2011b). In addition, diverse mutations can alter NADPH synthesis by differentially regulat ing  signaling pathways, such as the AMPK pathway (Cairnsetal., 2011; Jeonetal., 2012). The challenges regarding complexity and heterogeneity in cancer metabolism are beginning to be addressed with the COnstraint-Based Reconstruction and Analysis (COBRA) approach (Hernández Patiñoetal., 2012; Sharma and König,  2013), an emerging field in systems biology.Specifically, it accounts for the complexity of the perturbed biochemical processes by using genome-scale metabolic network reconstructions (Duarteetal., 2007; Maetal., 2007;Thieleetal., 2013).

In a reconstruction, the stoichiometric chemical reactions in a cell are carefully annotated and stitched together into a large network, often containing thousands of reactions. Genes and enzymes associated with each reaction are also delineated. The networks are converted into computational models and analyzed using many algorithms (Lewisetal., 2012). COBRA approaches are also beginning to address heterogeneity in cancer by integrating experimental data with the reconstructions (Blazier and Papin, 2012; Hydukeetal., 2013)  to tailor the models to the unique gene expression profiles of general cancer tissue, and even individual cell lines and tumors. Here we describe the recent conceptual evolution that has occurred for constraint-based cancer modeling.

Targeting of  gene expression

Tumor Suppressor Genes and its Implications in Human Cancer

Gain-of-function mutations in oncogenes and loss-of-function mutations in tumor suppressor genes (TSG) lead to cancer. In most human cancers, these mutations occur in somatic tissues. However, hereditary forms of cancer exist for which individuals are heterozygous for a germline mutation in a TSG locus at birth. The second allele is frequently inactivated by gene deletion, point mutation, or promoter methylation in classical TSGs that meet Knudson’s two-hit hypothesis. Conversely, the second allele remains as wild-type, even in tumors in which the gene is haplo-insufficient for tumor suppression. (K Inoue, EA Fry and Pj Taneja. Recent Progress in Mouse Models for Tumor Suppressor Genes and its Implications in Human Cancer. Clinical Medicine Insights: Oncology2013:7 103–122). This article highlights the importance of PTEN, APC, and other tumor suppressors for counteracting aberrant PI3K, β-catenin, and other oncogenic signaling pathways. We discuss the use of gene-engineered mouse models (GEMM) of human cancer focusing on Pten and Apc knockout mice that recapitulate key genetic events involved in initiation and progression of human neoplasia.

Targeting cancer metabolism – aiming at a tumour’s sweet-spot
Neil P. Jones and Almut Schulze
Drug Discovery Today   January 2012

Targeting cancer metabolism has emerged as a hot topic for drug discovery. Most cancers have a high demand for metabolic inputs (i.e. glucose/glutamine), which aid proliferation and survival. Interest in targeting cancer metabolism has been renewed in recent years with the discovery that many cancer related (e.g. oncogenic and tumor suppressor) pathways have a profound effect on metabolism and that many tumors become dependent on specific metabolic processes. Considering the recent increase in our understanding of cancer metabolism and the increasing knowledge of the enzymes and pathways involved, the question arises: could metabolism be cancer’s Achilles heel?
During recent years, interest into the possible therapeutic benefit of targeting metabolic pathways in cancer has increased dramatically with academic and pharmaceutical groups actively pursuing this aspect of tumor physiology. Therefore, what has fuelled this revived interest in targeting cancer metabolism and what are the major advances and potential challenges faced in the race to develop new therapeutics in this area? This review will attempt to answer these questions and illustrate why we, and others, believe that targeting metabolism in cancer presents such a promising therapeutic rationale.

Oncogenes and cancer metabolism
Glycolysis  TCA cycle  Pentose phosphate pathway

 FIGURE 1

Schematic representation of the regulation of cancer metabolism pathways. Metabolic enzymes are regulated by signaling pathways involving oncogenes and tumor suppressors. Complex regulatory mechanisms, key pathway interactions and enzymes are shown along with key metabolic endpoints (shown in purple) necessary for proliferation and survival (biosynthetic intermediates and NADPH). Key oncogenic pathways are shown in green and key tumor suppressor pathways are shown in red. Mutant IDH (mIDH) pathway is listed but is only functional in cancers containing mIDH.

FIGURE 2

Schematic representation of key components of the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP). Key enzymes are shown in blue boxes and key intermediates in purple text/box outline. DNA damage can activate ATM which in turn activates G6PDH to upregulate nucleotide synthesis for DNA repair and NAPDH to combat reactive oxygen species. PPP is also regulated by the tumour suppressor p53. The PPP can function as two separate branches (oxidative and non-oxidative) or be coupled into a recycling pathway – the pentose phosphate shunt – for maximum NADPH production.

Serine biosynthesis

Another branch diverting from glycolysis recently implicated in cancer is the serine biosynthesis pathway which converts the glycolytic intermediate 3-phosphoglycerate into serine (Fig. 3). Serine is an amino acid and an important neurotransmitter but can also provide fuel for the synthesis of other amino acids and nucleotides. The serine biosynthesis pathway also provides another key metabolic intermediate, a-KG, from glutamate breakdown via the action of phosphoserine aminotransferase (PSAT1). This pathway couples glycolysis (via 3-phosphoglycerate) with glutaminolysis (via glutamate), thereby linking two metabolic pathways known to be activated in many cancers.

FIGURE 3

Schematic representation of the serine biosynthesis pathway. Synthesis of serine involves integration of metabolites from glycolysis and  glutaminolysis pathways  and generates a-ketoglutarate, a key biosynthetic intermediate, and serine. Serine has many essential uses in the cell including amino acid, phospholipid and nucleotide synthesis.

 

Silencing of tumor suppressor genes by recruiting DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1)

Ubiquitin-like containing PHD and Ring finger 1 (UHRF1) contributes to silencing of tumor suppressorgenes by recruiting DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1) to their hemi-methylated promoters. Conversely,demethylation of these promoters has been ascribed to the natural anti-cancer drug, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG). The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the UHRF1/DNMT1 pair is an important target of EGCG action.  (Mayada Achour, et al. Epigallocatechin-3-gallate up-regulates tumor suppressor gene expression via a reactive oxygen species-dependent down-regulation of UHRF1.  Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 430 (2013) 208–212.    http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2012.11.087)

Here, we show that EGCG down-regulates UHRF1 and DNMT1 expression in Jurkat cells, with subsequent up-regulation of p73 and p16INK4A genes. The down-regulation of UHRF1 is dependent upon the generation of reactive oxygen species by EGCG. Up-regulation of p16INK4A  is strongly correlated with decreased promoter binding by UHRF1. UHRF1 over-expression counteracted EGCG-induced G1-arrested cells, apoptosis, and up-regulation of p16INK4A and p73. Mutants of the Set and Ring Associated (SRA) domain of UHRF1 were unable to down-regulate p16INK4A and p73, either in the presence or absence of EGCG. Our results show that down-regulation of UHRF1 is upstream to many cellular events, including G1 cell arrest, up-regulation of tumor suppressor genes and apoptosis.

Tumor Suppressor Activity of a Constitutively-Active ErbB4 Mutant

ErbB4 (HER4) is a member of the ErbB family of receptor tyrosine kinases, which includes the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR/ErbB1), ErbB2 (HER2/Neu), and ErbB3 (HER3). Mounting evidence indicates that ErbB4, unlike EGFR or ErbB2, functions as a tumor suppressor in many human malignancies. Previous analyses of the constitutively-dimerized and –active ErbB4 Q646C mutant indicate that ErbB4 kinase activity and phosphorylation of ErbB4 Tyr1056 are both required for the tumor suppressor activity of this mutant in human breast, prostate, and pancreatic cancer cell lines. However, the cytoplasmic region of ErbB4 possesses additional putative functional motifs, and the contributions of these functional motifs to ErbB4 tumor suppressor activity have been largely underexplored.  (Citation: Richard M. Gallo, et al. (2013) Multiple Functional Motifs Are Required for the Tumor Suppressor Activity of a Constitutively-Active ErbB4 Mutant. J Cancer Res Therap Oncol 1: 1-10)

Here we demonstrate that ErbB4 BH3 and LXXLL motifs, which are thought to mediate interactions with Bcl family proteins and steroid hormone receptors, respectively, are required for the tumor suppressor activity of the ErbB4 Q646C mutant. Furthermore, abrogation of the site of ErbB4 cleavage by gamma-secretase also disrupts the tumor suppressor activity of the ErbB4 Q646C mutant. This last result suggests that ErbB4 cleavage and subcellular trafficking of the ErbB4 cytoplasmic domain may be required for the tumor suppressor activity of the ErbB4 Q646C mutant. Indeed, here we demonstrate that mutants that disrupt ErbB4 kinase activity, ErbB4 phosphorylation at Tyr1056, or ErbB4 cleavage by gamma-secretase also disrupt ErbB4 trafficking away from the plasma membrane and to the cytoplasm. This supports a model for ErbB4 function in which ErbB4 tumor suppressor activity is dependent on ErbB4 trafficking away from the plasma membrane and to the cytoplasm, mitochondria, and/or the nucleus.

EGF Receptor

 Initiation of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is definitively linked to activating mutations in the KRAS oncogene. However, PDA mouse models show that mutant Kras expression early in development gives rise to a normal pancreas, with tumors forming only after a long latency or pancreatitis induction.

(CM Ardito,BM Gruner. ,EGF Receptor Is Required for KRAS-Induced Pancreatic Tumorigenesis.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ccr.2012.07.024)

Here, we show that oncogenic KRAS upregulates endogenous EGFR expression and activation, the latter being dependent on the EGFR ligand sheddase, ADAM17. Genetic ablation or pharmacological inhibition of EGFR or ADAM17 effectively eliminates KRAS-driven tumorigenesis in vivo. Without EGFR activity, active RAS levels are not sufficient to induce robust MEK/ERK activity, a requirement for epithelial transformation

The almost universal lethality of PDA has led to the intense study of genetic mutations responsible for its formation and progression. The most common oncogenic mutations associated with all PDA stages are found in the KRAS gene, suggesting it as the primary initiator of pancreatic neoplasia. However, mutant Kras expression throughout the mouse pancreatic parenchyma shows that the oncogene remains largely indolent until secondary events, such as pancreatitis, unlock its transforming potential. We find KRAS requires an inside-outside-in signaling axis that involves ligand-dependent EGFR activation to initiate the signal transduction and cell biological changes that link PDA and pancreatitis. (Cancer Cell (2012); 22: 304–317).

HER4 (EGFR/ErbB, HER2/Neu, HER3)

 ErbB4 (HER4) is a member of the ErbB family of receptor tyrosine kinases, which includes the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR/ErbB1), ErbB2 (HER2/Neu), and ErbB3 (HER3). Mounting evidence indicates that ErbB4, unlike EGFR or ErbB2, functions as a tumor suppressor in many human malignancies. Previous analyses of the constitutively-dimerized and –active ErbB4 Q646C mutant indicate that ErbB4 kinase activity and phosphorylation of ErbB4 Tyr1056 are both required for the tumor suppressor activity of this mutant in human breast, prostate, and pancreatic cancer cell lines. However, the cytoplasmic region of ErbB4 possesses additional putative functional motifs, and the contributions of these functional motifs to ErbB4 tumor suppressor activity have been largely underexplored.

ErbB4 Possesses Multiple Functional Motifs and Mutations Have Been Engineered to Target These Motifs.

The organization of ErbB4 is as indicated in this schematic. The extracellular ligand-binding motifs reside in the amino-terminal region upstream of amino acid residue 651. The singlepass transmembrane domain consists of amino acid residues 652-675. The cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase domain consists of amino acid residues 713-989. The majority of cytoplasmic sites of tyrosine phosphorylation reside in amino acid residues 990-1308, most notably Tyr1056. Additional putative functional motifs include a TACE cleavage site, a gamma-secretase cleavage site, two LXXLL (steroid hormone receptor binding) motifs, a BH3 domain, three WW domain binding motifs, and a PDZ domain binding motif. Mutations that disrupt these motifs are noted. Finally, note the two locations of alternative transcriptional splicing, resulting in a total of four different splicing isoforms.

 

 

 

Here we demonstrate that ErbB4 BH3 and LXXLL motifs, which are thought to mediate interactions with Bcl family proteins and steroid hormone receptors, respectively, are required for the tumor suppressor activity of the ErbB4 Q646C mutant. Furthermore, abrogation of the site of ErbB4 cleavageby gamma-secretase also disrupts the tumor suppressor activity of the ErbB4 Q646C mutant. This last result suggests that ErbB4 cleavage and subcellular trafficking of the ErbB4 cytoplasmic domain may be required for the tumor suppressor activity of the ErbB4 Q646C mutant. Indeed, here we demonstrate that mutants that disrupt ErbB4 kinase activity, ErbB4 phosphorylation at Tyr1056, or ErbB4 cleavage by gamma-secretase also disrupt ErbB4 trafficking away from the plasma membrane and to the cytoplasm. This supports a model for ErbB4 function in which ErbB4 tumor suppressor activity is dependent on ErbB4 trafficking away from the plasma membrane and to the cytoplasm, mitochondria, and/or the nucleus.

(Richard M. Gallo, et al. (2013) Multiple Functional Motifs Are Required for the Tumor Suppressor Activity of a Constitutively-Active ErbB4 Mutant. J Cancer Res Therap Oncol 1: 1-10)

Resistance to Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Inhibition

Receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) are activated by somatic genetic alterations in a subset of cancers, and such cancers are often sensitive to specific inhibitors of the activated kinase. Two well-established examples of this paradigm include lung cancers with either EGFR mutations or ALK translocations. In these cancers, inhibition of the corresponding RTK leads to suppression of key downstream signaling pathways, such as the PI3K (phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase)/AKT and MEK (mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase)/ERK (extracellular signal–regulated kinase) pathways, resulting in cell growth arrest and death. Despite the initial clinical efficacy of ALK (anaplastic lymphoma kinase) and EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) inhibitors in these cancers, resistance invariably develops, typically within 1 to 2 years. (MJ Niederst and JA Engelman. Sci Signal, 24 Sep 2013; 6(294), p. re6 .  http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/scisignal.2004652)

Over the past several years, multiple molecular mechanisms of resistance have been identified, and some common themes have emerged. One is the development of resistance mutations in the drug target that prevent the drug from effectively inhibiting the respective RTK. A second is activation of alternative RTKs that maintain the signaling of key downstream pathways despite sustained inhibition of the original drug target. Indeed, several different RTKs have been implicated in promoting resistance to EGFR and ALK inhibitors in both laboratory studies and patient samples. In this mini-review, we summarize the concepts underlying RTK-mediated resistance, the specific examples known to date, and the challenges of applying this knowledge to develop improved therapeutic strategies to prevent or overcome resistance.

The TGF-β Pathway

Aberrations in the enzymes that modify ubiquitin moieties have been observed to cause a myriad of diseases, including cancer. Therefore a better understanding of these enzymes and their substrates will lead to the identification of prospective druggable targets. Here we discuss the role of ubiquitin modifying enzymes in the canonical TGF-β pathway highlighting the ubiquitin regulating enzymes, which may potentially be targeted by small molecule inhibitors. (Pieter Eichhorn. (DE) -Ubiquitination in The TGF-β Pathway. J Cancer Res Therap Oncol 2013; 1: 1-6).

TGF-β is a multifunctional cytokine that plays a key role in embryogenesis and adult tissue homoeostasis. TGF-β is secreted by a myriad of cell types triggering a varied array of cellular functions including apoptosis, proliferation, migration, endothelial and mesenchymal transition, and extracellular matrix production. Downstream TGFβ responses can also be modulated by other signalling pathways (i.e. PI3K, ERK, WNT, etc.) resulting in a complex web of TGF-β pathway activation or repression depending on the nature of the signal and cellular context. Apart from TGF-β mediated cell autonomous effects TGF-β can further play an important function in regulating tumour microenvironments effecting the interaction between stromal fibroblasts and tumour cells.
Due to the central role of TGF-β in cellular processes it is therefore unsurprising that loss of TGF-β pathway integrity is frequently observed in a variety of human diseases, including cancer. However, the TGF-β pathway plays a complex dual role in cancer. In normal epithelial cells and premalignant cells TGF-β acts a potent tumor suppressor eliciting a cytostatic response inhibiting tumor progression. Supporting this notion, inactivating mutations in members of the TGF-βpathway have been observed in a variety of cancers including pancreatic, colorectal, and head and neck cancer.

In contrast, during tumor progression the TGF-β antiproliferative function is lost, and in certain advanced cancers TGF-β becomes an oncogenic factor inducing cellular proliferation, invasion, angiogenesis, and immune suppression. As a consequence, the TGFβ pathway is currently considered a therapeutic target in advanced cancers and several anti- TGF-β agents in clinical trials have shown promising results. However, due to the complex dichotomous role of TGF-β in oncogenesis a detailed understanding of TGF-β biology is required in order to design successful therapeutic strategies to identify patient populations that will benefit most from these compounds.

G protein receptor

 G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) modulate a vast array of cellular processes. The current review gives an overview of the general characteristics of GPCRs and their role in physiological conditions. In addition, it describes the current knowledge of the physiological and pathophysiological functions of GPR55, an orphan GPCR, and how it can be exploited as a therapeutic target to combat various cancers.

(D Leyva-Illades, S DeMorrow . Orphan G protein receptor GPR55 as an emerging target in cancer therapy and management.  Cancer Management and Research 2013:5 147–155)

Signal transduction is essential for maintaining cellular homeostasis and to coordinate the activity of cells in all organisms. Proteins localized in the cell membrane serve as the interface between the outside and inside of the cell. G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are the largest and most diverse group of membrane receptors in eukaryotes and are encoded by at least 800 genes in the human genome. GPCRs are also known as seven-transmembrane domain receptors, 7TM receptors, heptahelical receptors, serpentine receptors, and G protein-linked receptors. GPCRs can detect an expansive array of extracellular signals or ligands that include photons, ions, odors, pheromones, hormones, and neurotransmitters. Nonsensory GPCRs (excluding light, odor, and taste receptors) have been classified into four families: class A rhodopsin-like, class B secretin-like, class C metabotropic glutamate/pheromone, and frizzled receptors. They have a peculiar structure that has been highly conserved over the course of evolution and are made up of an amino acid chain, the N-terminal of which is localized outside of the cellular membrane and the C-terminal in the cytoplasm. The amino acid chain spans the cellular membrane seven times and has three intracellular and three extracellular loops.

GPCRs are called that because they exert their actions by associating with a family of heterotrimeric proteins (made up of α, β, and γ subunits) that are capable of binding and hydrolyzing guanosine triphosphate (GTP).To date, 16 different α subunits, five β subunits, and 11 γ subunits have been described in mammalian tissues. When activated, these receptors undergo conformational changes that are mechanically transduced to the G proteins, which then initiate a cycle of activation and inactivationassociated with the binding and hydrolysis of GTP. Activated G proteins can then positively or negatively modulate ion channels (mainly potassium and calcium) or the second messenger generating enzymes (ie, adenylate cyclase and phospholipase C [PLC]) that allow the signal to be propagated to the interior of the cell to ultimately affect cell function.

 Matrix Metalloproteinases

Degradation of extracellular matrix is crucial for malignant tumour growth, invasion, metastasis and angiogenesis. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are a family of zinc-dependent neutral endopeptidases collectively capable of degrading essentially all  components of the ECM. Elevated levels of distinct MMPs can be detected in tumour tissue or serumof patients with advanced cancer and their role as prognostic indicators in cancer is studied. In addition, therapeutic intervention of tumour growth and invasion based on inhibition of MMP activity is under intensive investigation and several MMP inhibitors are in clinical trials in cancer. In this review, we discuss the current view on the feasibility of MMPs as prognostic markers and as targets for therapeutic intervention in cancer.

(MATRIX METALLOPROTEINASES IN CANCER: PROGNOSTIC MARKERS AND THERAPEUTIC TARGETS.

Pia Vihinen and Veli-Matti Kahari.  Int. J. Cancer 2002;99: 157–166. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ijc.10329

Common properties of the MMPs include the requirement of zinc in their catalytic site for activity and their synthesis as inactive zymogens that generally need to be proteolytically cleaved to be active. Normally the MMPs are expressed only when and where needed for tissue remodeling accompanies various processes such as during embryonic development, wound healing, uterine and mammary involution, cartilage-to-bone transition during ossification, and trophoblast invasion into the endometrial stoma during placenta development. However, aberrant expression of various MMPs has been correlated with pathological conditions, such as periodontitis, rheumatoid arthritis, and tumor cell invasion and metastasis .

There are now over 20 members of the MMP family, and they can be subgrouped based on their structures. The minimal domain structure consists of a signal peptide, prodomain, and catalytic domain. The propeptide domain contains a conserved cysteine residue (the “cysteine switch”) that coordinates to the catalytic zinc to maintain inactivity. MMPs with only the minimal domain are referred to as matrilysins (MMP-7 and -26). The most common structures for secreted MMPs, including collagenases and stromelysins, have an additional hemopexin-like domain connected by a hinge region to the catalytic domain (MMP-1, -3, -8, -10, -12, -13, -19, and -20).

Terms: 1FN, fibronectin; 2M, 2-macroglobulin; 1PI, 1-proteinase inhibitor; COMP, cartilage oligomeric matrix protein; ND, not determined; TACE, TNF-converting enzyme; OP, osteopontin

FIGURE 1 – Structure of human matrix metalloproteinases

 

FIGURE 1 – Structure of human matrix metalloproteinases. The signal peptide directs the proenzyme for secretion. The propeptide contains a conserved sequence (PRCGxPD), in which the cysteine forms a covalent bond (cysteine switch), with the catalytic zinc (Zn2_) to maintain the latency of proMMPs. Catalytic domain contains the highly conserved zinc binding site (HExGHxxGxxHS) in which Zn2_is coordinated by 3 histidines. The proline-rich hinge region links the catalytic domain to the hemopexin domain, which determines the substrate specificity of specific MMPs. The hemopexin domain is absent in matrilysin (MMP-7) and matrilysin-2 (endometase, MMP-26). Gelatinases  A and B (MMP-2 and MMP-9, respectively) contain 3 repeats of the fibronectin-type II domain inserted in the catalytic domain. MT1-, MT2-, MT3- and MT5-MMP contain a transmembrane domain and MT4- and MT6-MMPs contain a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor in the C-terminus of the molecule, which attach these MMPs to the cell surface. MT-MMPs, MMP-11, MMP-23 and MMP-28 contain a furin cleavage site (RxKR) between the propeptide and catalytic domain, making these proenzymes susceptible to activation by intracellular furin convertases. MMP-23 contains an N-terminal signal anchor, which anchors proMMP-23 to the Golgi complex and has a different C-terminal domain instead of hemopexin-like domain.

The physiologic expression of MMP-13 in vivo is limited to situations, such as fetal bone development and fetal wound repair, in which rapid remodeling of collagenous ECM is required. MMP-13 is expressed in pathologic conditions, such as arthritis, chronic dermal and intestinal ulcers, chronic periodontal inflammation and atherosclerotic plaques. The expression of MMP-13 is detected in vivo in invasive malignant tumours, breast carcinomas, squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) of the head and neck and vulva, malignant melanomas, chondrosarcomas and urinary bladder carcinomas.

Table I. Human MMPS, their chromosomal localization, substrates, exogenous activators, and activating capacity1
Enzyme Chromosomal location Substrates Activated by Activator of
  • FN, fibronectin; 2M, 2-macroglobulin; 1PI, 1-proteinase inhibitor; COMP, cartilage oligomeric matrix protein; ND, not determined; TACE, TNF-converting enzyme; OP, osteopontin.

    …………..

Collagenases
 Collagenase-1 (MMP-1) 11q22.2-22.3 Collagen I, II, III, VII, VIII, X, aggregan, serpins, 2M MMP-3, -7, -10, plasmin kallikrein, chymase MMP-2
 Collagenase-2 (MMP-8) 11q22.2-22.3 Collagen I, II, III, aggregan, serpins, 2M MMP-3, -10, plasmin ND
 Collagenase-3 (MMP-13) 11q22.2-22.3 Collagen I, II, III, IV, IX, X, XIV, gelatin, FN, laminin, large tenascin aggrecan, fibrillin, osteonectin, serpins MMP-2, -3, -10, -14, -15, plasmin MMP-2, -9
Stromelysins
 Stromelysin-1 (MMP-3) 11q22.2-22.3 Collagen IV, V, IX, X, FN, elastin, gelatin, laminin, aggrecan, nidoge fibrillin*, osteonectin*, 1PI*, myelin basic protein*, OP, E-cadherin Plasmin, kallikrein, chymas tryptase MMP-1, -8, -9, -13
 Stromelysin-2 (MMP-10) 11q22.2-3 As MMP-3, except * Elastase, cathepsin G MMP-1, -7, -8, -9, -13
Stromelysin-like MMPs
 Stromelysin-3 (MMP-11) 22q11.2 Serine proteinase inhibitors, 1PI Furin ND
 Metalloelastase (MMP-12) 11q22.2-22.3 Collagen IV, gelatin, FN, laminin, vitronectin, elastin, fibrillin, 1-PI, myelin basic protein, apolipoprotein A ND ND
Matrilysins
 Matrilysin (MMP-7) 11q22.2-22.3 Elastin, FN, laminin, nidogen, collagen IV, tenascin, versican, 1PI, O E-cadherin, TNF- MMP-3, plasmin MMP-9
 Matrilysin-2 (MMP-26) 11q22.2 Gelatin, 1PI, synthetic MMP-substrates, TACE-substrate ND ND
Gelatinases
 Gelatinase A (MMP-2) 16q13 Gelatin, collagen I, IV, V, VII, X, FN, tenascin, fibrillin, osteonectin, Monocyte chemoattractant protein 3 MMP-1, -13, -14, -15, -16, -tryptase? MMP-9, -13
 Gelatinase B (MMP-9) 20q12-13 Gelatin, collagen IV, V, VII, XI, XIV, elastin, fibrillin, osteonectin 2 MMP-2, -3, 7, -13, plasmin, trypsin, chymotrypsin, cathepsin G ND
Membrane-type MMPs
 MT1-MMP (MMP-14) 14q12.2 Collagen I, II, III, gelatin, FN, laminin, vitronectin, aggrecan, tenasci nidogen, perlecan, fibrillin, 1PI, 2M, fibrin Plasmin, furin MMP-2, -13
 MT2-MMP (MMP-15) 16q12.2 FN, laminin, aggrecan, tenascin, nidogen, perlecan ND MMP-2, -13

 

MMP expression and activity are regulated at several levels. In most cases, MMPs are not synthesized until needed. Transcription can be induced by various signals including cytokines, growth factors, and mechanical stress. In certain cases, regulation of mRNA stability and translational efficiencyhave been reported. Because most MMPs are secreted as inactive zymogens, they need to be activated, usually by proteolytic cleavage of their NH2-terminal prodomains. Some MMPs are activated by other serine proteases such as plasmin and furin, whereas some of the MMPs can activate other members of their family. The most well characterized is the activation of pro-MMP-2 by MT1-MMP.

A number of MMPs have been strongly implicated in multiple stages of cancer progression including the acquisition of invasive and metastatic properties. Thus, efforts have been made for the past 20 years to develop MMPIs that can be used to halt the spread of cancer, which is what ultimately kills the person. However, initial clinical trials using first generation MMPIs proved to be disappointing . In the ensuing years, much has been learned about the roles of specific MMPs in the different processes of carcinogenesis and more specific MMPIs are being developed and brought to clinical trials.

However, the dosing and scheduling for optimal efficacy is not the same as required for conventional cytotoxic drugs because the MMPIs do not directly kill cancer cells, but instead target such processes as angiogenesis (the development of new blood vessels), invasion, and metastatic spread. (Matrix Metalloproteinases, Angiogenesis, and Cancer. Joyce E. Rundhaug.  Commentary re: A. C. Lockhart et al., Reduction of Wound Angiogenesis in Patients Treated with BMS-275291, a Broad Spectrum Matrix Metalloproteinase Inhibitor. Clin. Cancer Res., 2003; 9551–554).

 Role of p38 MAP Kinase Signal Transduction in Solid Tumors

HK Koul, M Pal, and S Koul. Genes & Cancer  2013 ; 4(9-10) 342–359.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/ 1947601913507951

Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) mediate a wide variety of cellular behaviors in response to extracellular stimuli. One of the main subgroups, the p38 MAP kinases, has been implicated in a wide range of complex biologic processes, such as cell proliferation, cell differentiation, cell death, cell migration, and invasion. Dysregulation of p38 MAPK levels in patients are associated with advanced stages and short survival in cancer patients (e.g., prostate, breast, bladder, liver, and lung cancer). p38 MAPK plays a dual role as a regulator of cell death, and it can either mediate cell survival or cell death depending not only on the type of stimulus but also in a cell type specific manner. In addition to modulating cell survival, an essential role of p38 MAPK in modulation of cell migration and invasion offers a distinct opportunity to target this pathway with respect to tumor metastasis. The specific function of p38 MAPK appears to depend not only on the cell type but also on the stimuli and/or the isoform that is activated.

Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signal transduction pathways are evolutionarily conserved among eukaryotes and have been implicated to play key roles in a number of biological processes, including cell growth, differentiation, apoptosis, inflammation, and responses to environmental stresses.

They are typically organized in 3-tiered architecture consisting of a MAPK, a MAPK activator (MAPK kinase), and a MAPKK activator (MAPKK kinase). The MAPK pathways can be regulated at multiple levels as well as via multiple mechanisms, of which the regulation of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase (MAPKKK/MAP3K) has been proved to be the most challenging due to the great diversity and versatility between different modules at this level. The complex array of growth factors and other ligands that can initiate intracellular cell signaling requires a very high level of coordination among the different proteins involved.

GTP cyclohydrolase (GCH1)

GTP cyclohydrolase (GCH1) is the key-enzyme to produce the essential enzyme cofactor, tetrahydrobiopterin. The byproduct, neopterin is increased in advanced human cancer and used as cancer-biomarker, suggesting that pathologically increased GCH1 activity may promote tumor growth.

(G Picker, Hee-Young Lim, et al. Inhibition of GTP cyclohydrolase attenuates tumor growth by reducing angiogenesis and M2-like polarization of tumor associated macrophages. Int. J. Cancer 2003; 132: 591–604 (2013)  http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ijc.27706 )

We found that inhibition or silencing of GCH1 reduced tumor cell proliferation and survival and the tube formation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells, which upon hypoxia increased GCH1 and

endothelial NOS expression, the latter prevented by inhibition of GCH1. In nude mice xenografted with HT29-Luc colon cancer cells GCH1 inhibition reduced tumor growth and angiogenesis, determined by in vivo luciferase and near-infrared imaging of newly formed blood vessels. The treatment with the GCH1 inhibitor shifted the phenotype of tumor associated macrophages from the proangiogenic M2 towards M1, accompanied with a shift of plasma chemokine profiles towards tumor-attacking chemokines including CXCL10 and RANTES. GCH1 expression was increased in mouse AOM/DSS-induced colon tumors and in high grade human colon and skin cancer and oppositely, the growth of GCH1-deficient HT29-Luc tumor cells in mice was strongly reduced. The data suggest that GCH1 inhibition reduces tumor growth by (i) direct killing of tumor cells, (ii) by inhibiting angiogenesis, and (iii) by enhancing the antitumoral immune response.

The Role of Stroma in Tumour-Host Co-Existence

Molnár et al.,  The Role of Stroma in Tumour-Host Co-Existence: Some Perspectives in Stroma-Targeted Therapy of Cancer   Biochem Pharmacol 2013, 2:1    http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2167-0501.1000107

 Cancer grows at the expense of the host as a parasite or superparasite following the second law of thermodynamics (conservation of energy). When the cancer cell progresses via replication to the special state called “spheroid”, a new phase begins with its intimate interaction and development of responses from the stroma which together assist in the formation of a full blown cancer. Among the processes involved are the development of blood vessels and lymphatic channels which are essential for maintenance and further growth of the cancer mass. In this way the condition of “parasitism” is completed with simultaneous suppression of the immune response of the host to the histo-incompatability of the tumor mass. Stroma/parenchyma promotes cancer invasion by feeding cancer cells and inducing immune tolerance. The dynamic changes in composition of stroma and biological consequences as feeder of cancer cells and immune tolerance can give a perspective for rational drug design in anti-stromal therapy. There are differences between normal and cancer cells at subcellular level such as compartmentalzation and structure of cytoskeleton and energy distribution (that is low generally, but locally high in normal cells). In cancer cannibalism of normal cells, the growing cancer mass is a factor for progression and invasion.

Cancer cells have been shown to kill normal cells and the products of cell death used for progression of growth of the cancer cell. Serum and growth factors produced by tumor stroma also provide the needed nutrients and conditions for further tumor growth. Cancer cannot feed off other cancer cells and therefore grow poorly. Probably, although not yet proven, the inability of cancer to “parasitise” other cancer cell types is probably due to some kind of competition or interference. The tumor is in charge of its own development due to its induction proteinases, lipid mobilization factors and angiogenetic factors as well as its ability to negate immune responses of the host response to what is in essence a foreign body.

In our review co-existence of normal and cancer cells in tumor with the growth promoting factors, and the immune tolerance mediating factors produced in the stromal and cancer cells/tissues will be discussed with perspective of stroma targeted therapy.

The clinical significance of cell cannibalism is well defined and described in a large number of publications. The direction of process of cancer development is defined as the tumor invades the normal tissue which never occurs in the reverse direction. This suggests that the cancer cell strives to achieve the lowest energy level possible. Therefore the first of the development of a full blown cancer can be considered as the 2nd Thermodynamic principle  that explains, describes and drives the invading cancer into normal surrounding tissue.

From the normal living state, under particular conditions such as hypoxia, where ATP synthesis is decreased resulting in a switch to glycolytic pathways, cancer cells are selected from a fraction of the population [4]. Energetically, in the presence of electron transfer, by using high energy from respiration, the proliferating state is more stable than resting cells where a higher degree of protein stabilization occurs such as that needed for maintainance of the cytoskeleton of the cell. It was proposed that tumor-promotion might be controlled or modulated by small electronic currents originating from reactive oxygen species and transported through the cytoskeletal microfilament network of the cancer cell.

Aerobic glycolysis is the main energy producing process in cancer cells. Among many other aspects, recently the mitochondria have also been regarded as potential targets in the therapy of cancer. Several small molecules have been tested to restore their dysfunctional functions either by direct or indirect effects. Because of poorly functioning mitochondria, the electron transfer component of the respiration cycle is inefficient; therefore, cancer cells have smaller Gibbs energy than healthy cells. This means, that these cancer cells exists in a metastable state and are not able maintain normal cell structure.

Therefore, the cytoskeleton system is collapsed and dielectric bilayers are formed as a lower grade of cellular structure with decreased electron conductivity. Consequently, to halt cancer growth, one has to evaluate the process of cancer cell development in situ, where the primary tumor is growing as well as that of the metastatic cell that is invading surrounding or distal tissues. This affords one to suggest that the stroma is formed first during long term repeated oxidative stress, a process that is initially accompanied with inflammation due to an active immune response to the histoincompatability antigens present on the surface of the cancer cell. If the cancer cell evades the activity of killer T cells (Treg cells) by either secreting agents that reduce the response of the Treg cells or the immune system for whatever reason is ineffective (immunosuppressed states such as HIV/AIDS, pregnancy, transplantation  therapy, etc.), the formed cancer cells have the opportunity to initiate tumor development. Because of the limited capacity of its electron transfer cycle, cancer cells are essentially starving cells that require glycolytically useful substrates. These substrates are obtained from the killing of normal cells by agents secreted by the cancer cell and the products yielded from dead normal cells “eaten” (phagocytosed) by the starving cancer cell which is digested by the cancer cells lysosomal system. This autophagic process of cannibalism keeps the cancer cell alive and thriving and is known as cytophagy, i.e., cannibalism of normal cells. This type of autophagocytosis  results in a parasitic co-existence of tumor cells with normal cells and will determine the main pathway of interaction between the growing cancer tissue (tumor) and normal tissue where the cancer tissue gradually destroys normal tissues. This process obeys the second law of thermodynamics-conservation of energy within a defined system.

Treatments for Cancer

 Bosutinib: a SRC–ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitor for treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia. 

FE Rassi, HJ Khoury. Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine  2013:6 57–62.

Bosutinib is one of five tyrosine kinase inhibitors commercially available in the United States for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia. This review of bosutinib summarizes the mode of action, pharmacokinetics, efficacy and safety data, as well as the patient-focused perspective through quality-of-life data. Bosutinib has shown considerable and sustained efficacy in chronic myeloid leukemia, especially in the chronic phase, with resistance or intolerance to prior tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Bosutinib has distinct but manageable adverse events. In the absence of T315I and V299L mutations, there are no absolute contraindications for the use of bosutinib in this patient population

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a clonal myeloproliferative stem cell disorder characterized by the presence of a signature hybrid oncogene, the BCR–ABL. The Philadelphia chromosome (Ph+) results from a reciprocal translocation between chromosome 9 and chromosome 22 that juxtaposes the two genes BCR and ABL and drives the leukemogenesis in CML. The ABL gene encodes for a nonreceptor tyrosine kinase that becomes deregulated and constitutively active after the juxtaposition of BCR. BCR–ABL is central in controlling downstream pathways involved in cell proliferation, regulation of cellular adhesion, and apoptosis.The understanding of the importance of this kinase activity in the pathophysiology of CML led to the development of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) that specifically target BCR–ABL. These agents became the mainstay of modern therapy in CML. CML has a triphasic clinical course, and the majority of patients (∼80%) are diagnosed during the early phase or the chronic phase (CP). However, and without effective treatment, CML invariably progresses to the advanced phases of the disease – the accelerated phase (AP) and the blast phase (BP). BP CML is a lethal refractory secondary leukemia with a short predicted survival.

Comprehensive molecular portraits of human breast tumors

 The Cancer Genome Atlas Network

Nature. 2012 October 4; 490(7418): 61–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature11412.

We analyzed primary breast cancers by genomic DNA copy number arrays, DNA methylation, exome sequencing, mRNA arrays, microRNA sequencing and reverse phase protein arrays. Our ability to integrate information across platforms provided key insights into previously-defined gene expression subtypes and demonstrated the existence of four main breast cancer classes when combining data from five platforms, each of which shows significant molecular heterogeneity.

Somatic mutations in only three genes (TP53, PIK3CA and GATA3) occurred at  > 10% incidence across all breast cancers; however, there were numerous subtype-associated and novel gene mutations including the enrichment of specific mutations in GATA3, PIK3CA and MAP3K1 with the Luminal A subtype. We identified two novel protein expression-defined subgroups, possibly contributed by stromal/microenvironmental elements, and integrated analyses identified specific signaling pathways dominant in each molecular subtype including a HER2/p-HER2/HER1/p-HER1 signature within the HER2-Enriched expression subtype. Comparison of Basal-like breast tumors with high-grade Serous Ovarian tumors showed many molecular commonalities, suggesting a related etiology and similar therapeutic opportunities. The biologic finding of the four main breast cancer subtypes caused by different subsets of genetic and epigenetic abnormalities raises the hypothesis that much of the clinically observable plasticity and heterogeneity occurs within, and not across, these major biologic subtypes of breast cancer.

Most molecular studies of breast cancer have focused on just one or two high information content platforms, most frequently mRNA expression profiling or DNA copy number analysis, and more recently massively parallel sequencing. Supervised clustering of mRNA expression data has reproducibly established that breast cancers encompass several distinct disease entities, often referred to as the intrinsic subtypes of breast cancer. The recent development of additional high information content assays focused on abnormalities in DNA methylation, microRNA expression and protein expression, provide further opportunities to more completely characterize the molecular architecture of breast cancer.

Synbiology contribution and Nanotechnology

Synthetic RNAs Designed to Fight Cancer

Xiaowei Wang and his colleagues at  Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have designed synthetic molecules that combine the advantages of two experimental RNA therapies against cancer.  They have designed synthetic molecules that combine the advantages of two experimental RNA therapies against cancer.  RNA plays an important role in how genes are turned on and off in the body. Both siRNAs and microRNAs are snippets of RNA known to modulate a gene’s signal or shut it down entirely. Separately, siRNA and microRNA treatment strategies are in early clinical trials against cancer, but few groups have attempted to marry the two.

“We are trying to merge two largely separate fields of RNA research and harness the advantages of both,” said Xiaowei Wang, assistant professor of radiation oncology and a research member of the Siteman Cancer Center.  The study appears in the December issue of the journal RNA.

“We designed an artificial RNA that is a combination of siRNA and microRNA,” Wang said “our artificial RNA simultaneously inhibits both cell migration and proliferation.”  For therapeutic purposes, “small interfering” RNAs, or siRNAs, are designed and assembled in a lab and can be made to shut down– or interfere with– a single specific gene that drives cancer.  The siRNA molecules work extremely well at silencing a gene target because the siRNA sequence is made to perfectly complement the target sequence, thereby silencing a gene’s expression.

Though siRNAs are great at turning off the gene target, they also have potentially dangerous side effects: siRNAs inadvertently can shut down other genes that need to be expressed to carry out tasks that keep the body healthy.  The siRNAs interfere with off-target genesthat closely complement their “seed region,” a section of the siRNA  that governs binding to a gene target. “In the past, we tried to block the seed region in an attempt to reduce the side effects. Until now, we never tried to replace the seed region completely.”

Wang and his colleagues asked whether they could replace the siRNA’s seed region with the seed region from microRNA. Unlike siRNA, microRNA is a natural part of the body’s gene expression. And it can also shut down genes. As such, the microRNA seed region (with its natural targets) might reduce the toxic side effects caused by the artificial siRNA seed region. Plus, the microRNA seed region would add a new tool to shut down other genes that also may be driving cancer.

Wang’s group started with a bioinformatics approach, using a computer algorithm to design siRNA sequences against a common driver of cancer, a gene called AKT1 that encourages uncontrolled cell division. The program also selected siRNAs against AKT1 that had a seed region highly similar to the seed region of a microRNA known to inhibit a cell’s ability to move, thus potentially reducing the cancer’s ability to spread.

A Neutralizing RNA Aptamer

 Nucleic acid aptamers have been developed as high-affinity ligands that may act as antagonists of disease-associated proteins. Aptamers are non immunogenic and characterised by high specificity and low toxicity thus representing a valid alternative to antibodies or soluble ligand receptor traps/decoys to target specific cancer cell surface proteins in clinical diagnosis and therapy. The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) has been implicated in the development of a wide range of human cancers including breast, glioma and lung. The observation that its inhibition can interfere with the growth of such tumors has led to the design of new drugs including monoclonal antibodies and tyrosine kinase inhibitors currently used in clinic. However, some of these molecules can result in toxicity and acquired resistance, hence the need to develop novel kinds of EGFR-targeting drugs with high specificity and low toxicity.

(CL Esposito, D Passaro, et al. A Neutralizing RNA Aptamer against EGFR Causes Selective Apoptotic Cell Death. PLoS ONE 6(9): e24071. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0024071)

Here we generated, by a cell-Systematic Evolution of  Ligands by EXponential enrichment (SELEX) approach, a nuclease resistant RNA-aptamer that specifically binds to EGFR with a binding constant of 10 nM. When applied to EGFR-expressing cancer cells the aptamer inhibits EGFR-mediated signal pathways causing selective cell death. Furthermore, at low doses it induces apoptosis even of cells that are resistant to the most frequently used EGFR-inhibitors, such as gefitinib and cetuximab, and inhibits tumor growth in a mouse xenograft model of human non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Interestingly, combined treatment with cetuximab and the aptamer shows clear synergy in inducing apoptosis in vitro and in vivo. In conclusion, we demonstrate that this neutralizing RNA aptamer is a promising bio-molecule that can be developed as a more effective alternative to the repertoire of already existing EGFR-inhibitors.

In-Silico Molecular Docking Analysis of Cancer Biomarkers

Currently, in the research scenario for cancer, the identification of anti-cancer drugs using immuno-modulatory proteins and other molecular agents to initiate apoptosis in cancer cells and to inhibit the signaling pathways of cancer biomarkers as a drug targeted therapy, for cancer cell proliferation assays by the researchers. In-Silico analysis is used to recognize anticancer compounds as a future prospective for In-Vitro and In-Vivo analysis. A large number of herbal remedies (e.g. garlic, mistletoe) are used by cancer patients for treating the cancer and/or reducing the toxicities of chemotherapeutic drugs. Some herbal medicines have shown potentially beneficial effects on cancer progression and may ameliorate chemotherapy-induced toxicities.  (K. Gowri Shankar et al., In-Silico Molecular Docking Analysis of Cancer Biomarkers with Bioactive Compounds of Tribulus terrestris. Intl J NOVEL TRENDS PHARMAL SCI. 2013; 3(4).

Tribulus terrestris is mentioned in ancient Indian Ayurvedic medical texts dating back thousands of years. Tribulus terrestris has been widely used in the Ayurvedic system of medicine for the treatment of sexualdysfunction and various urinary disorders. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the interactions of some bioactive compounds of Tribulus terrestris for In-Silico anticancer analysis with cancer biomarkers as targets. The targeted biomarkers for analysis include NSE-Lung cancer, Follistatin-Prostrate cancer, GGT Hepatocellular carcinoma, Human Prostasin-Ovarian cancer.

GC-MS analysis of Tribulus terrestris whole plant methanol extract revealed the existence of the major compound like 3,7,11,15-tetramethylhexadec-2-en-1-ol, 1,2-Benzenedicarboxylic acid, disooctyl ester, 9,12,15-Octadecatrienoic acid, (z,z,z)-, 9,12-Octadecadienoic acid (z,z)-, Hexadecadienoic acid, ethyl ester, n-Hexadecadienoic acid, Octadecanoic acid, Phytol, α-Amyrin are chosen as ligands. Hence, by analyzing the minimum binding energy of the ligand binding complex with the receptors by dockinganalysis using AutoDock tools will show effective nature of inhibition of these receptors by the unique ligands. Based on the results low minimum binding energy ligands are identified and used as a future studies can be done for specific receptors  docking.

Anti-Cancerous Effect of4,4′-Dihydroxychalcone ((2E,2′E)-3,3′-(1,4-Phenylene) Bis (1-(4-hydroxyphenyl) Prop-2-en-1-one)) on T47D Breast Cancer Cell Line

Narges Mahmoodi, T Besharati-Seidani, N Motamed, and NO Mahmoodi*
Annual Research & Review in Biology 2014; 4(12): 2045-2052
SCIENCEDOMAIN international    www.sciencedomain.org

Aims: The majority of human breast tumors are estrogen receptor α (ERα) positive. However, not all of the ERα+ breast cancers respond to anti-estrogens drugs for those women who do respond, initial positive responses can be of short duration. Thus, more effective drugs are needed to enhance the efficacy of anti-estrogens drugs or to be used separately in a period of time. In view of potential cytotoxicity associated with silybin as polyhydroxy compounds a synthetic 4-hydroxychalcones (bis-phenol) was considered to explore its anti-carcinogenic effects in comparison to silybin on ERα+ breast cancer cell line.

Methodology: We have studied the inhibitory effect of 4,4′-dihydroxychalcone on the T47D breast cancer cell line by MTT test and the IC50s were estimated using Pharm PCS.

Results: The 4,4′-dihydroxychalcone showed significant dose- and time-dependent cell growth inhibitory effects on T47D breast cancer cells. The IC50 of 4,4′-dihydroxychalcone on T47D cells after 24 and 48 hours was 160.88+/1 μM, 62.20+/1 μM and for silybin was 373.42+/-1 μM,176.98+/1 μM respectively.

Conclusion: Our results strongly suggests that this premade synthetic 4,4′-dihydroxychalcone can promote anti carcinogenic actions on T47D cell line. All 4,4′-dihydroxychalcone doses had a much larger inhibitory effect on cell viability than silybin doses in T47D cells. The ratio of the IC50 of 4,4′-dihydroxychalcone to silybin after 24 and 48 hours was 1: 2.3 and 1: 2.8 respectively.

Anticancer and multidrug resistance-reversal effects of solanidine analogs synthetized from pregnadienolone acetate.

István Zupkó, Judit Molnár, Borbála Réthy, Renáta Minorics, Eva Frank, et al.
Molecules (Impact Factor: 2.43). 01/2014; 19(2):2061-76.  http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules19022061
Source: PubMed

ABSTRACT A set of solanidine analogs  with antiproliferative properties were recently synthetized from pregnadienolone acetate, which occurs in Nature. The aim of the present study was an in vitro characterization of their antiproliferative action and an investigation of their multidrug resistance-reversal activity on cancer cells. Six of the compounds elicited the accumulation of a hypodiploid population of HeLa cells, indicating their apoptosis-inducing character, and another one caused cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase. The most effective agents inhibited the activity of topoisomerase I, as evidenced by plasmid supercoil relaxation assays. One of the most potent analogs down-regulated the expression of cell-cycle related genes at the mRNA level, including tumor necrosis factor alpha and S-phase kinase-associated protein 2, and induced growth arrest and DNA damage protein 45 alpha. Some of the investigated compounds inhibited the ABCB1 transporter and caused rhodamine-123 accumulation in murine lymphoma cells transfected by human MDR1 gene, expressing the efflux pump (L5178). One of the most active agents in this aspect potentiated the antiproliferative action of doxorubicin without substantial intrinsic cytostatic capacity. The current results indicate that the modified solanidine skeleton is a suitable substrate for the rational design and synthesis of further innovative drug candidates with anticancer activities.

Nutrition and Cancer

 Ascorbic Acid and Selenium Interaction: Its Relevance in Carcinogenesis

 Michael J. Gonzalez
Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine 1990; 5(2)

Ascorbic acid and selenium are two nutrients that seem to have a preventive potential in the process of carcinogenesis; because of a possible synergistic action that may produce an enhanced anticarcinogenic effect. Interaction between these nutrients have been reported. Results indicate that the protective effect of the inorganic form of selenium (Na Selenite) was nullified by ascorbic acid, whereas the chemopreventive action of the organic form (seleno-DL-methionine) was not affected.

A possibility exists that Selenite is reduced by ascorbic acid to elemental selenium and is therefore not available for tissue uptake. In experiments using Selenite; plasma and erythrocyte glutathione peroxidase enzyme activity was directly related to the level of ascorbic acid fed.

Complementary RNA and Protein Profiling Identifies Iron as a Key Regulator of Mitochondrial Biogenesis

J W. Rensvold, Shao-En On, A Jeevananthan, et al.
Cell Rep. 2013 January 31; 3(1): .   http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2012.11.029

Mitochondria are centers of metabolism and signaling whose content and function must adapt to
changing cellular environments. The biological signals that initiate mitochondrial restructuring
and the cellular processes that drive this adaptive response are largely obscure. To better define
these systems, we performed matched quantitative genomic and proteomic analyses of mouse
muscle cells as they performed mitochondrial biogenesis. We find that proteins involved in
cellular iron homeostasis are highly coordinated with this process and that depletion of cellular
iron results in a rapid, dose-dependent decrease of select mitochondrial protein levels and
oxidative capacity. We further show that this process is universal across a broad range of cell
types and fully reversed when iron is reintroduced. Collectively, our work reveals that cellular iron
is a key regulator of mitochondrial biogenesis, and provides quantitative data sets that can be
leveraged to explore posttranscriptional and posttranslational processes that are essential for
mitochondrial adaptation.

Avemar outshines new cancer ‘breakthrough’ drug

by Michael Traub
Townsend Letter / Oct, 2010

Many of us in the cancer research community were happy to hear about progress against metastatic melanoma reported this June at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical
Oncology (ASCO). since there has not been an improvement in overall survival from chemotherapy in over three decades.
Data from a phase III clinical trial of the experimental monoclonal antibody ipilimumab (pronounced “ep-eh-lim-uemab”) showed that patients with melanoma survived longer if they were taking ipilimumab than if they were not, regardless of whether they also were taking the other drug in the study, an experimental cancer vaccine. (1)

A Closer Look: How Big an Improvement, at What Cost to Patients?

Overall Survival: the ‘Gold Standard’ for Judging Cancer Therapies

Overall survival (OS) is the length of time that a patient actuallysurvives a cancer after treatment. It can also be measured as the percentage of patients surviving a specific time. It is the gold
standard by which the usefulness of a cancer treatment should be determined. Many things can help a patient, but the most important goal of doctors and patients is for the cancer patient to live longer, with a decent quality of life (QOL).

Among patients taking ipilimumab with or without the experimental vaccine, median overall survival was about 10 months. That is compared with 6.4 months’ overall survival among patients receiving the vaccine by itself. About 45.6% of patients taking ipilimumab survived one year, an improvement of some 7% over the 38% seen in some earlier studies. This very modest improvement in survival comes at quite a price.

Severe Side Effects in More Than One in Four Ipilimumab Patients Ipilimumab has some side effects that can be “both severe and long-lasting,” according to the study report. Among patients taking ipilimumab by itself (without the vaccine), 19.1% had side effects requiring hospitalization or invasive intervention, 3.8% died from the effects of the drug, and another 33.8% had life-threatening or disabling side effects. All totaled, 26.7% of the patients taking ipilimumab by itself– more than 1 in 4-had side effects that were severe, very severe, or fatal. Severe side effects included diarrhea, nausea, constipation, vomiting, abdominal pain, fatigue, cough, and headache. Vernon Sondak, MD, of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer and Research Institute, said that “using the drug requires the medical team to be on guard to manage toxicity at all times.” But even with its severe side effects, the researchers said that the drug should be welcomed because it can increase median survival from 6.4 months to 10.1 months. That is because any lengthening of lives is welcome in a disease that hasn’t seen a new drug that can do that in many years.

Fermented Wheat Germ (Avemar) Improves Melanoma Survival Without Harsh Side Effects

But what if there already were such a treatment available-not a drug, but a safe, natural substance shown in clinical trials to have a remarkably similar ability to lengthen the lives of melanoma patients, without the severe side effects of the new drug?
What if the other substance had no significant side effects at all?
What if, instead of causing severe and sometimes fatal side effects, that other substance actually helped prevent and reduce serious side effects caused by chemotherapy and radiotherapy?
In fact, there is just such a treatment available. It is known as fermented wheat germ extract (FWGE) and by its trade name Avemar. It has been approved as a medical nutriment for cancer
patients in Europe for years and is available in the US as a dietary supplement. It has been compared to dacarbazine (DTIC), standard melanoma therapy, in a clinical trial with longer
follow-up than the ipilimumab trial. And with better results.

In 2008, data were published in the research journal Cancer Biotherapy and Radiopharmaceuticals from seven years’ follow-up on a trial at the N. N. Blokhin Cancer Center in Moscow,
Russia, involving 52 patients who had taken or not taken Avemar while taking dacarbazine for the year following surgical removal of their stage III melanoma tumors. (2) Patients who got only dacarbazine survived 44.7 months. Those who got Avemar along with their dacarbazine survived 66.2 months. This is an improvement in overall survival time of over 48%. In the Russian study,
just as it has in other studies, Avemar reduced side effects of the chemotherapy. Among those taking only dacarbazine, 11 % experienced severe (grade 3 or grade 4) side effects that required hospitalization or invasive intervention. None of the Avemar patients had grade 3 or 4 side effects. Since it is difficult to compare length of survival between the recent ipilimumab study and the Avemar melanoma study, because the ipilimumab study tested mostly stage 4 melanoma patients and the Avemar study tested mostly stage 3 melanoma patients, it is most instructive to look at
the percentage improvement in overall survival from adding either treatment to the regimen. Ipilimumab and Avemar both produced very similar improvements in OS (56% vs. 48%, respectively),

Avemar Ameliorates Conventional Treatment Side Effects

The improvement of survival and the amelioration of chemotherapy side effects by Avemar seen in the Russian melanoma study is typical of Avemar’s effects when used in treating other cancers, including in combination with chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Among 170 colorectal cancer patients in a 2003 study published in the British journal of Cancer, Avemar improved overall survival
and reduced metastasis and recurrences after surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. (3) Taking Avemar for six months during and after those conventional treatments resulted in a 61.8% reduction in the death rate among those patients, compared with those who received only the conventional treatment. Those taking Avemar experienced lower rates of recurrences and metastases
as well, even though most patients in the Avemar group came into the study with more advanced disease, had more radiation earlier, and had been diagnosed longer. Side effects of Avemar, as in
other Avemar trials., were rare, mild, and transient, with no serious adverse events occurring.

In a 2004 study published in the journal of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, childhood cancer patients taking Avemar during and after conventional therapies had a 42.8% reduction in the
low white blood cell counts and high fever known as febrile neutropenia, which can be a life-threatening consequence of chemotherapy and radiation. (4) This and similar results with
Avemar in other cancers are consistent with animal studies showing that Avemar helps the immune system recover a full white blood cell count after chemotherapy and radiation faster
than would otherwise happen. This study also demonstrated the safety of Avemar for children.

Why Avemar Works in Many Different Kinds of Cancer

Extensive studies in cells and animals have shown how Avemar works. Perhaps its most important action is to restrict cancer cells’ use of glucose. (5) Cancer cells use up to 50 times more glucose
than normal cells, a phenomenon known as the Warburg effect. (6) They use those enormous amounts of glucose to make ribose, the backbone sugar of DNA, much faster than normal cells can. To
do this, they must use a different series of biochemical reactions (“pathway”) than normal cells. Avemar makes this very difficult for cancer cells to do, because it inhibits the activity of the key enzyme in that pathway, transketolase (TK). (7) With the TK pathway blocked, cancer cells cannot use large amounts of glucose to make DNA fast enough to support the proliferation that makes them so dangerous.(8-10)

In experiments in the US and abroad, scientists have learned that Avemar has these additional effects. It:

* lowers the levels of a DNA repair enzyme known as poly (ADPribose) polymerase (PARP).” With this effect, cancer cells are forced to self-destruct, preventing them from proliferating and
producing a synergistic cancer-cell killing effect when given with chemotherapy, which also works to damage cancer cells’ DNA;
* reduces the number of molecules on cancer cells that identify them as originating within the body (MHC-1 molecules). (12) With cancer cells stripped of that protection, the immune system,
which recognizes the cancer cells as abnormal, no longer gives them the pass given to cells originating in the body. The cancer cells are attacked by the immune system’s natural killer (NK)
cells and destroyed;
* increases levels of molecules called intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) on the blood vessels of cancer tumors. (13). The increase helps immune system cells pass through the walls of the blood vessels supplying the tumor blood flow, moving directly into the tumor to attack its cancer cells; increases the activity of the primary anticancer cytokine, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-a), and produces a synergistic effect in interaction with other anticancer cytokines. (14) Cytokines are substances produced by cells to act directly on other cells. TNF-a helps force cancer cells into the programmed death known as apoptosis and inhibits tumorigenesis, the process through which new tumors are formed;
* inhibits the activity of ribonucleotide reductase (RR), a key enzyme that cells must have to make new DNA so that each cancer cell can divide to make two more like it. (15) With DNA
production slowed, increases in cancer cell growth and replication are inhibited.

Antimetastatic and Immune-Boosting Effects Are Key to Survival

Because the biochemical changes listed above have consistently been shown in both animal and human studies to be directly linked to reducing cancer’s ability to metastasize and to
improving the immune system’s ability to fight cancer, scientists count them as among the most likely main causes of improved survival seen in cancer patients when Avemar is used alone or,
more often, as an adjuvant in addition to standard-of-care therapies such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or the combination of the two. (16-23)

Extending Life: How Long, Exactly, and At What Cost in Quality of Life?

Any improvement in advanced melanoma survival, no matter how small, is certainly an achievement. But ipilimumab had severe side effects requiring hospitalization or invasive intervention in
over one-quarter of patients treated with it. And it increased median survival only by 3-plus months. On the other hand, Avemar added to dacarbazine improved survival very markedly, with no severe side effects. If actually improving overall survival substantially without significant side effects means that a drug should be considered as the new standard of care for first-line therapy, then there is no need to wait for further results. Avemar has already demonstrated very significant improvement in survival over chemotherapy alone and has a safety profile unmatched by
conventional therapies.

Michael Traub, ND, FABNO, is in private practice and serves as a member of Oncology Association of Naturopathic Physicians board of examiners.
Notes
(1.) Hodi FS, O’Day SJ, McDermott DF, et al. Improved survival with ipilimumab in patients with metastatic melanoma. N Engl J Med. 2010 Jun 14.
(2.) Demidov LV. Manziuk LV, Kharkevitch GY, Pirogova NA,  Artamonova EV. Adjuvant fermented wheat germ extract (Avemar) nutraceutical improves survival of high-risk skin
melanoma patients; a randomized, pilot, phase ll clinical study with a 7-year follow-up. Cancer Biother Radiopharm. 2008 Aug. 23(4):477-482. Erratum in: Cancer Biother Radiopharm. 2008
Oct;2315):669.
(3.) Jakab F, Shoenfeld Y, Balogh A. et al. A medical nutriment has supportive value in the treatment of colorectal cancer. Br J Cancer. 2001 Aug 4;89(3):465-9.
(4.) Garami M, Schuler D, Babosa M, et al. Fermented wheat germ extract reduces chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia in pediatric cancer patients, J Pediatr Hematol Oncol. 2004
Oct;26(10):631-635.
(5.) Boros I.G, Lapis K, Szende B, et al. Wheat germ extract decreases glucose uptake and RNA ribose formation but increases fatty acid synthesis in MIA pancreatic adenocarcinoma
cells. Pancreas. 2001 Aug:23(2):141-147.
(6.) Warburg, O. On the origin of cancer cells. Science. 1956 Feb 24; 123(31 91):309-314.
(7.) Boros LG, Lee VVN, Go VL., A metabolic hypothesis of cell growth and death in pancreatic cancer, Pancreas. 2002 Jan;
24:(1):26 33.
(8.) Boros LG, Lapis K, Szende B, et al. Op cit.
(9.) Comin-Anduix B, Boros LG, Marin S, et al. Fermented wheat germ extract inhibits glycolysis/pentose cycle enzymes and induces apoptosis through poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase
activation in Jurkat T-cell leukemia tumor cells. J Biol Chem. 2002 Nov 29;277 (48):46408-46414. Epub 2002 Sep 25.
(23.) Garami M, Schuler D, Babosa M, et al. Fermented wheat germ extract reduces chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia in pediatric cancer patients. J Pediatr Hematol Oncol. 2004 Oct;
26(10):631-635.

by Michael Traub, ND, FABNO
COPYRIGHT 2010 The Townsend Letter Group
COPYRIGHT 2010 Gale, Cengage Learning

Nanotechnology in Cancer Drug Delivery and Selective Targeting

Nanoparticles are rapidly being developed and trialed to overcome several limitations of traditional drug delivery systems and are coming up as a distinct therapeutics for cancer treatment. Conventional chemotherapeutics possess some serious side effects including damage of the immune system and other organs with rapidly proliferating cells due to nonspecific targeting, lack of solubility, and inability to enter the core of the tumors resulting in impaired treatment with reduced dose and with low survival rate.

Nanotechnology has provided the opportunity to get direct access of the cancerous cells selectively with increased drug localization and cellular uptake. Nanoparticles can be programmed for recognizing the cancerous cells and giving selective and accurate drug delivery avoiding interaction with the healthy cells. This review focuses on cell recognizing ability of nanoparticles by various strategies having unique identifying properties that distinguish them from previous anticancer therapies. It also discusses specific drug delivery by nanoparticles inside the cells illustrating many successful researches and how nanoparticles remove the side effects of conventional therapies with tailored cancer treatment.

(Kumar Bishwajit Sutradhar and Md. Lutful Amin. Hindawi Publ. Corp.  2014, Article ID 939378, 12 pages

http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/939378)

Cancer, the uncontrolled proliferation of cells where apoptosis is greatly disappeared, requires very complex process of treatment. Because of complexity in genetic and phenotypic levels, it shows clinical diversity and therapeutic resistance. A variety of approaches are being practiced for the treatment of cancer each of which has some significant limitations and side effects. Cancer treatment includes surgical removal, chemotherapy, radiation, and hormone therapy. Chemotherapy, a  very common treatment, delivers anticancer drugs systemically to patients for quenching the uncontrolled proliferation of cancerous cells. Unfortunately, due to nonspecific targeting by anticancer agents, many side effects occur and poor drug delivery of those agents cannot bring out the desired outcome in most of the cases. Cancer drug development involves a very complex procedure which is associated with advanced polymer chemistry and electronic engineering.

The main challenge of cancer therapeutics is to differentiate the cancerous cells and the normal body cells. That is why the main objective becomes engineering the drug in such a way as it can identify the cancer cells to diminish their growth and proliferation. Conventional chemotherapy fails to target the cancerous cells selectively without interacting with the normal body cells. Thus they cause serious side effects including organ damage resulting in impaired  treatment with lower dose and ultimately low survival rates.

Nanotechnology is the science that usually deals with the size range from a few nanometers (nm) to several hundrednm, depending on their intended use. It has been the area of interest over the last decade for developing precise drug delivery systems as it offers numerous benefits to overcome the limitations of conventional formulations . It is very promising both in cancer diagnosis and treatment since it can enter the tissues at molecular level.

Cisplatin-incorporated nanoparticles of poly(acrylic acid-co-methyl methacrylate) copolymer

K Dong Lee, Young-Il Jeong,  DH Kim,  Gyun-Taek Lim,  Ki-Choon Choi.  Intl J Nanomedicine 2013:8 2835–2845.

Although cisplatin is extensively used in the clinical field, its intrinsic toxicity limits its clinical use. We investigated nanoparticle formations of poly(acrylic acid-co-methyl methacrylate) (PAA-MMA) incorporating cisplatin and their antitumor activity in vitro and in vivo.

Methods: Cisplatin-incorporated nanoparticles were prepared through the ion-complex for­mation between acrylic acid and cisplatin. The anticancer activity of cisplatin-incorporated nanoparticles was assessed with CT26 colorectal carcinoma cells.

Results: Cisplatin-incorporated nanoparticles have small particle sizes of less than 200 nm with spherical shapes. Drug content was increased according to the increase of the feeding amount of cisplatin and acrylic acid content in the copolymer. The higher acrylic acid content in the copolymer induced increase of particle size and decrease of zeta potential. Cisplatin-incorporated nanoparticles showed a similar growth-inhibitory effect against CT26 tumor cells in vitro. However, cisplatin-incorporated nanoparticles showed improved antitumor activity against an animal tumor xenograft model.

Conclusion: We suggest that PAA-MMA nanoparticles incorporating cisplatin are promising carriers for an antitumor drug-delivery system.

Researchers Say Molecule May Help Overcome Cancer Drug Resistance
By Estel Grace Masangkay

A group of researchers from the University of Delaware has discovered that a deubiquitinase (DUB) complex, USP1-UAF1, may present a key target in helping fight resistance to platinum-based anticancer drugs. The research team’s findings were published online in Nature Chemical Biology.

Zhihao Zhuang, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UD, and his team studied a DNA damage tolerance mechanism called translesion synthesis (TLS). Enzymes known as TLS polymerases synthesize DNA over damaged nucleotide bases, followed by replication after lesion. The enzymes have been linked with building cancer cell resistance to certain cancer drugs including cisplatin. Cisplatin is used in treatment of ovarian, bladder, and testicular cancers which have spread.

“Cancer drugs like cisplatin work by damaging DNA and thereby preventing cancer cells from replicating the genomic DNA and dividing. However, cancer cells quickly develop resistance to cisplatin, and we and other researchers suspect that a polymerase known as Pol η is involved in overcoming cisplatin-induced lesions,” Professor Zhuang said.

The team found that USP1-UAF1 may play a crucial role in regulating DNA damage response. A new molecule ML323 can be used to inhibit processes such as translesion synthesis. Zhuang said, “Using ML323, we studied the cellular response to DNA damage and revealed new insights into the role of deubiquitination in both the TLS pathway and another one called the Fanconi anemia, or FA, pathway. We’re very encouraged by the fact that a single molecule is effective at inhibiting the USP1-UAF1 DUB complex and disrupting two essential DNA damage tolerance pathways.”

A novel small peptide as an epidermal growth factor receptor targeting ligand for nanodelivery in vitro

Cui-yan Han,  Li-ling Yue, Ling-yu Tai,  Li Zhou  et al.  Intl J Nanomedicine 2013:8 1541–1549

The discovery of suitable ligands that bind to cancer cells is important for drug delivery specifically targeted to tumors. Monoclonal antibodies and fragments that serve as ligands have specific targets. Natural ligands have strong mitogenic and neoangiogenic activities. Currently, small pep­tides are pursued as targeting moieties because of their small size, low immunogenicity, and their ability to be incorporated into certain delivery vectors.

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) serves an important function in the proliferation of tumors in humans and is an effective target for the treatment of cancer. The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a transmembrane protein on the cell surface that is overexpressed in a wide variety of human cancers. EGFR is an effective tumor-specific target because of its significant functions in tumor cell growth, differentiation, and migration. EGFR-targeted small molecule peptides such as YHWYGYTPQNVI have been successfully identified using phage display library screening; by contrast, the peptide LARLLT has been generated using computer-assisted design (CAD).

These peptides can be conjugated to the surfaces of liposomes that are then delivered selectively to tumors by the specific and efficient binding of these peptides to cancer cells that express high levels of EGFR.

In this paper, we studied the targeting characteristics of small peptides (AEYLR, EYINQ, and PDYQQD) These small peptides were labeled with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) and used the peptide LARLLT as a positive control, which bound to putative EGFR selected from a virtual peptide library by computer-aided design, and the independent peptide RALEL as a negative control.

Analyses with flow cytometry and an internalization assay using NCI-H1299 and K562 with high EGFR and no EGFR expression, respectively, indicated that FITC-AEYLR had high EGFR targeting activity. Biotin-AEYLR that was specifically bound to human EGFR proteins demonstrated a high affinity for human non-small-cell lung tumors.

We found that AEYLR peptide-conjugated, nanostructured lipid carriers enhanced specific cellular uptake in vitro during a process that was apparently mediated by tumor cells with high-expression EGFR. Analysis of the MTT assay indicated that the AEYLR peptide did not significantly stimulate or inhibit the growth activity of the cells. These findings suggest that, when mediated by EGFR, AEYLR may be a potentially safe and efficient delivery ligand for targeted chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and gene therapy.

Arginine-based cationic liposomes for efficient in vitro plasmid DNA delivery with low cytotoxicity

SR Sarker  Y Aoshima,   R Hokama  T Inoue  et al. Intl J Nanomedicine 2013:8 1361–1375.

Currently available gene delivery vehicles have many limitations such as low gene delivery efficiency and high cytotoxicity. To overcome these drawbacks, we designed and synthesized two cationic lipids comprised of n-tetradecyl alcohol as the hydrophobic moiety, 3-hydrocarbon chain as the spacer, and different counterions (eg, hydrogen chloride [HCl] salt or trifluoroacetic acid [TFA] salt) in the arginine head group.

 Cationic lipids were hydrated in 4-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-piperazineethanesulfonic acid (HEPES) buffer to prepare cationic liposomes and characterized in terms of their size, zeta potential, phase transition temperature, and morphology. Lipoplexes were then prepared and characterized in terms of their size and zeta potential in the absence or presence of serum. The morphology of the lipoplexes was determined using transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The gene delivery efficiency was evaluated in neuronal cells and HeLa cells and compared with that of lysine-based cationic assemblies and Lipofectamine™ 2000. The cytotoxicity level of the cationic lipids was investigated and compared with that of Lipofectamine™ 2000.

 We synthesized arginine-based cationic lipids having different counterions (ie, HCl-salt or TFA-salt) that formed cationic liposomes of around 100 nm in size. In the absence of serum, lipoplexes prepared from the arginine-based cationic liposomes and plasmid (p) DNA formed large aggregates and attained a positive zeta potential. However, in the presence of serum, the lipoplexes were smaller in size and negative in zeta potential. The morphology of the lipoplexes was vesicular.

Arginine-based cationic liposomes with HCl-salt showed the highest transfection efficiency in PC-12 cells. However, arginine-based cationic liposomes with TFA salt showed the highest transfection efficiency in HeLa cells, regardless of the presence of serum, with very low associated cytotoxicity.

The gene delivery efficiency of amino acid-based cationic assemblies is influ­enced by the amino acids (ie, arginine or lysine) present as the hydrophilic head group and their associated counterions.

Molecularly targeted approaches herald a new era of non-small-cell lung cancer treatment

H Kaneda, T Yoshida,  I Okamoto.   Cancer Management and Research 2013:5 91–101.

The discovery of activating mutations in the epidermal growth-factor receptor (EGFR) gene in 2004 opened a new era of personalized treatment for non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). EGFR mutations are associated with a high sensitivity to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors, such as gefitinib and erlotinib. Treatment with these agents in EGFR-mutant NSCLC patients results in dramatically high response rates and prolonged progression-free survival compared with conventional standard chemotherapy. Subsequently, echinoderm microtubule-associated protein-like 4 (EML4)–anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK), a novel driver oncogene, has been found in 2007. Crizotinib, the first clinically available ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitor, appeared more effective compared with standard chemotherapy in NSCLC patients harboring EML4-ALK. The identification of EGFR mutations and ALK rearrangement in NSCLC has further accelerated the shift to personalized treatmentbased on the appropriate patient selection according to detailed molecular genetic characterization. This review summarizes these genetic biomarker-based approaches to NSCLC, which allow the instigation of individualized therapy to provide the desired clinical outcome.

Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has a poor prognosis and remains the leading cause of death related to cancer worldwide. For most individuals with advanced, metastatic NSCLC, cytotoxic chemotherapy is the mainstay of treatment on the basis of the associated moderate improvement in survival and quality of life. However, the outcome of chemotherapy in such patients has reached a plateau in terms of overall response rate (25%–35%) and overall survival (OS; 8–10 months). This poor outcome, even for patients with advanced NSCLC who respond to such chemotherapy, has motivated a search for new therapeutic approaches.

Recent years have seen rapid progress in the development of new treatment strat­egies for advanced NSCLC, in particular the introduction of molecularly targeted therapiesand appropriate patient selection. First, the most important change has been customization of treatment according to patient selection based on the genetic profile of the tumor. Small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) that target the epidermal growth-factor receptor (EGFR), such as gefitinib and erlotinib, are especially effective in the treatment of NSCLC patients who harbor activating EGFR mutations.

Surgical Nanorobotics using nanorobots made from advanced DNA origami and Synthetic Biology

Ido Bachelet’s moonshot to use nanorobotics for surgery has the potential to change lives globally. But who is the man behind the moonshot?

Ido graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with a PhD in pharmacology and experimental therapeutics. Afterwards he did two postdocs; one in engineering at MIT and one in synthetic biology in the lab of George Church at the Wyss Institute at Harvard.

Now, his group at Bar-Ilan University designs and studies diverse technologies inspired by nature.

They will deliver enzymes that break down cells via programmable nanoparticles.

Delivering insulin to tell cells to grow and regenerate tissue at the desired location.

Surgery would be performed by putting the programmable nanoparticles into saline and injecting them into the body to seek out remove bad cells and grow new cells and perform other medical work.

 

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bnAE6hL2RIE/Uy0wFB8pYPI/AAAAAAAAubM/BeSpFC4vLu0/s1600/screenshot-by-nimbus+(3).png

 

Robots killing and suppressing cancer cells

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LGsE1msGIrw/Uy0vKGoaQ3I/AAAAAAAAubE/2E1_lcAspao/s1600/screenshot-by-nimbus+(2).png

 

Robots delivering payload

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aA-H0L3eEo0

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kkfXlMyPRCI/Uy0wkYPMvBI/AAAAAAAAubU/0AQPpJpM5E4/s1600/screenshot-by-nimbus+(4).png

Molecular building blocks

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aA-H0L3eEo0#t=236

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aA-H0L3eEo0#t=283

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aA-H0L3eEo0#t=287

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aA-H0L3eEo0#t=292

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aA-H0L3eEo0#t=333

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aA-H0L3eEo0#t=397

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gCHiyZ2MBHg/Uy0ySRKw_II/AAAAAAAAubg/BeneEQ5bY-U/s1600/screenshot-by-nimbus+(5).png

 

Robot blocks neuron

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cbYNJnN_w7U/Uy0yrqyqebI/AAAAAAAAubo/b42r4WRMr8k/s1600/screenshot-by-nimbus+(6).png

 

automation of robotic surgery

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aA-H0L3eEo0#t=470

Nanoparticles with computational logic has already been done

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aA-H0L3eEo0#t=501

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aA-H0L3eEo0#t=521

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rSyRzo7p50w/Uy0y5teQkDI/AAAAAAAAubw/8cxZ4t0WNHw/s1600/screenshot-by-nimbus+(7).png

 

 robotic algorithm

 

Load an ensemble of drugs into many particles for programmed release based on situation that is found in the body

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kc99CbOQYLs/Uy0zgUG13KI/AAAAAAAAub4/j6nM7hAVxUg/s1600/screenshot-by-nimbus+(8).png

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aA-H0L3eEo0#t=572

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aA-H0L3eEo0#t=577

 

robotic lung cancer Rx

 

chemotherapy regimen

 

Chemoprevention in Model Experiments

Effects of Two Disiloxanes ALIS-409 and ALIS-421 on Chemoprevention in Model Experiments

H TOKUDA,…. L AMARAL and J MOLNAR.ANTICANCER RESEARCH 33: 2021-2028 (2013).

ALIS

 

Figure 1. Chemical structures of ALIS-409 and ALIS-421.

Morpholino-disiloxane (ALIS-409) and piperazinodisiloxane (ALIS-421) compounds were developed as inhibitors of multidrug resistance of various types of cancer cells. In the present study, the effects of ALIS-409 and ALIS-421 compounds were investigated on cancer promotion and on co-existence of

tumor and normal cells. The two compounds were evaluated for their inhibitory effects on Epstein-Barr virus immediate early antigen (EBV-EA) expression induced by tetradecanoylphorbolacetate (TPA) in Raji cell cultures. The method is known as a primary screening test for antitumor effect, below the (IC50) concentration. ALIS-409 was more effective in inhibiting EBV-EA (100 μg/ml) and tumor promotion, than

ALIS-421, in the concentration range up to 1000 μg/ml. However, neither of the compounds were able to reduce tumor promotion significantly, expressed as inhibition of TPA-induced tumor antigen activation. Based on the in vitro results, the two disiloxanes were investigated in vivo for their effects on mouse skin tumors in a two-stage mouse skin carcinogenesis study.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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“Sudden Cardiac Death,” SudD is in Ferrer inCode’s Suite of Cardiovascular Genetic Tests to be Commercialized in the US

“Sudden Cardiac Death,” SudD is in Ferrer inCode’s Suite of Cardiovascular Genetic Tests to be Commercialized in the US

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Article ID #111: “Sudden Cardiac Death,” SudD is in Ferrer inCode’s Suite of Cardiovascular Genetic Tests to be Commercialized in the US. Published on 2/10/2014

WordCloud Image Produced by Adam Tubman

Uncertainty around reimbursement for targeted NGS tests is faced by Molecular Diagnostic and Genomics Services companies

VIEW VIDEO

Democratization of Genomic Medicine: Michael Bolick @ TEDxTalks

Ferrer inCode’s Suite of Cardiovascular Genetic Tests included the following tests: 

  • SudD inCode (Sudden Cardiac Death)
  • Cardio inCode,
  • Thrombo inCode, and
  • Nutri inCode

Selah Genomics, Ferrer inCode to Offer NGS-based Cardiovascular Test in US

2014/02/06

Selah Genomics, a Greenville, S.C.-based molecular diagnostic and genomics services company, has partnered with Spanish pharmaceutical company Ferrer inCode to commercialize Ferrer inCode’s suite of cardiovascular genetic tests in the US.

Selah will first validate Ferrer’s next-generation sequencing-based test for sudden cardiac death, SudD inCode, on Illumina’s MiSeq system to run out of its CLIA-certified laboratory.

Meantime, Selah plans to validate three other Ferrer inCode PCR-based cardiovascular tests — Cardio inCode, Thrombo inCode, and Nutri inCode — in its own lab using PCR, but may eventually combine the tests into one comprehensive panel to run on an NGS system, Selah CEO Michael Bolick told Clinical Sequencing News.

Selah already offers its PrecisionPath targeted Cancer Test in collaboration with the Greenville Health System’s Institute for Translational Oncology Research. All consenting cancer patients at ITOR receive the PrecisionPath test, which runs on Life Technologies’ Ion Torrent PGM and uses the Ion AmpliSeq technology.

Currently, Selah receives between 10 and 20 samples per week for PrecisionPath, and it plans to roll the test out nationwide later this year.

Bolick said that the company is also developing Hepatitis C and HIV assays for the MiSeq, and that the firm will likely purchase Illumina’s MiSeqDx, which recently received clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration.

Selah also collaborates with pharmaceutical companies to develop companion diagnostic tests. Bolick anticipates that the firm will use the MiSeqDx for those tests since they will “ultimately need [pre-market approval].” Having an FDA-cleared platform on which to develop the tests will be helpful in gaining a PMA designation, he said.

Selah also offers Exome Sequencing Services on the Ion Proton for research use only. In addition, it has a

  • Pacific Biosciences RS II and
  • Roche’s 454 GS FLX in house.

Bolick said that the company is currently using the PacBio machine for discovery work in infectious disease.

Ferrer inCode’s SudD inCode Test

currently assesses 55 genes related to structural heart problems that cause sudden cardiac arrest, Robert Jenkins, who manages Ferrer inCode’s UK and Americas groups, told CSN. However, the company is planning to

  • expand the test to 104 genes and also to include
  • genes related to conductive myopathy,
  • sudden infant death, and
  • aneurysms.

While the test sequences the entire genes, only well-known causative variants are reported, Jenkins said. However, the firm has been collecting all the sequenced variants, so it could potentially add content to the test if enough evidence is gathered to validate any of those variants as clinically significant.

Ferrer inCode currently runs SudD inCode on the MiSeq as an LDT, which is how Selah will validate and market the test in the US.

Jenkins said that for now, Ferrer plans to keep the Cardio, Nutri, and Thrombo inCode tests PCR-based.

  • Cardio inCode looks at around 125 variants involved in genetic risk for cardiac disease.

When it is used with traditional markers such as

  • lipid profiling, an individual’s
  • smoking and drinking habits, and
  • body mass index,

Jenkins said the genetic test helps to reclassify around 20 percent to 25 percent of individuals deemed in the intermediate risk category as either high or low risk.

Thrombo inCode Test

is an approximately 20-variant thrombosis test for individuals that have had a thrombotic event or who have had a history of unsuccessful pregnancies. Often, the cause of thrombosis can go unexplained via testing from serological workups, Jenkins said.

Nutri inCode Test

is a nutrigenomics test that looks at around 90 SNPs. In combination with lifestyle factors, it helps individuals develop a tailored genetics-based plan to reduce obesity, Jenkins said.

Bolick said that while Selah will validate and develop each of these tests individually out of its laboratory, it is also deciding whether to combine the tests into one next-gen sequencing-based test.

Jeremy Stuart, Selah’s VP of genomic services, told CSN that one option would be to incorporate the individual SNPs assessed in the Thrombo, Cardio, and Nutri tests into the SudD test.

Bolick said that the company is now in discussions with third party payors about reimbursement for the tests and is readying a regional pilot program to offer the sequencing-based cardiovascular test as part of a corporate wellness program. The pilot will help Selah figure out a pricing structure and will also demonstrate a “return on investment to the corporation, by allowing for better determination of risk of heart disease,” Bolick said.

Currently, Selah’s other NGS test, PrecisionPath, is being paid for by ITOR. However, Bolick said that initial conversations with third party payors about launching the assay outside of the Greenville Health System have been positive.

Reimbursement success will play a role in determining how the company expands beyond its current tests. For instance, while Selah is interested in moving into

  • clinical exome sequencing,

Stuart said that right now there is a “lot of uncertainty around reimbursement for targeted NGS tests, let alone exome sequencing.” Selah will first “establish reimbursement for those and then may expand into what’s possible for exome sequencing,” Stuart said. But currently, the exome market is research use only.

SOURCE

http://www.ferrerincode.com/en/node/98

Selah Genomics

SELAH GENOMICS: HARNESS THE POWER OF PRECISION FOR MORE PERSONALIZED TREATMENT

Selah Genomics is a clinical diagnostic specialist supporting healthcare providers and the pharmaceutical industry with advanced molecular and genomic diagnostic services. Selah’s services add value to early stage drug development, clinical trials and regulatory processes in the pharmaceutical industry and helps clinicians and healthcare providers treat and monitor patients, thereby improving patient outcomes.

With the Power of Precision, Selah Genomics provides the best in molecular diagnostic testing, assay validation and genomic profiling that all leads to one common goal: to provide better outcomes for patients.

Michael Bolick, CEO

Michael is a serial entrepreneur with 25 years of experience in the life science and healthcare industries. Most recently, he led a management buyout of Lab21 Ltd’s US-based operations to form Selah Genomics Inc. Prior to co-founding Selah Genomics, Michael served as President of Lab21 Inc which was formed following Lab21 Ltd’s acquisition of his prior company, Selah Technologies LLC. He founded Selah Technologies LLC to commercialize nanotechnologies licensed from Clemson University. Selah focused these nanotechnologies to enable doctors to see cancer during surgery. Prior to founding Selah Technologies, Michael’s career included roles of increasing responsibility in the pharmaceutical sector.

Michael is a Fellow in the Liberty Fellowship Class of 2011. Liberty Fellowship is a program designed specifically for emerging state leaders to reinforce values necessary to lead an exemplary life both personally and professionally. Michael serves as Immediate Past Chair of SCBIO, South Carolina’s Life Sciences Industry Association. Michael earned his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University.

  • Selah Genomics specializes in supporting healthcare providers and the pharmaceutical industry with advanced molecular and genomic diagnostic services.

    read more »

    Latest News

    Find out what the buzz is about

    • Greenville Health System, Roswell Park Adopt Targeted Sequencing in Cancer Treatment

      8 May 2013

    • Selah, GHS expand personalized medicine

      2 May 2013

    • The Democratization of Genomic Medicine: Michael Bolick at TEDxGreenville

      21 Apr 2013

    • Greenville Magazine features Selah Genomics

      1 Apr 2013

    • Upstate Biotech Firm Expands to Columbia

      14 Mar 2013

    • Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News; “Selah Genomics Establishes Second Clinical Genomics Center”

      20 Feb 2013

    • Selah Genomics Forms Second Clinical Genomic Center

      19 Feb 2013

  • Clinical Laboratory

    Helping physicians by applying our scientific expertise and skills in advanced molecular diagnostic assay development in a CLIA-certified laboratory.

    read more »

  • PrecisionPath™

    Genomic profiling of solid tumors, identifying actionable targets today and enabling the discovery of clinically relevant genes for tomorrow.

    read more »

  • Genomic Services


    Selah Genomics provides a suite of services focused on support of molecular biomarker discovery, assay validation and prospective/retrospective clinical trial testing in support of companion diagnostic development and commercialization.

    read more »

 SOURCE

THE FAST-TRACK TO DISCOVERY AND CLINICAL UTILIZATION

Selah Genomics provides a suite of services focused on support of molecular biomarker discovery, assay validation and prospective/retrospective clinical trial testing in support of companion diagnostic development and commercialization. Selah operates NGS platforms from Life Technologies, Illumina, Roche and PacBio as well as an array of real time PCR and other supporting instrumentation systems. We help you select the best platform for each Project in support of your particular goals. Our prime focus – to help fast-track the clinical utilization and commercialization of your biomarker.

Selah enjoys a key corporate relationship with the Greenville Health System’s (GHS) Institute of Translational Oncology Research (ITOR) conducting multiple clinical trials and identification of new oncology biomarkers.

GHS is the 13th largest public hospital in the United States and ITOR has the largest Phase 1 clinical trial program in South Carolina, including a track record of 16 first-in-human trials. The close relationship with ITOR is an enormous asset for Selah. Not only does it allow Selah to provide state-of-the-art molecular diagnostics support for ITOR clinical studies but it leads to first-hand daily interaction with cancer physicians. This interaction stimulates early identification and development of new biomarker panels.

Selah’s Clinical Genomics Center at ITOR is physically located within GHS & ITOR. In addition, Selah operates a Clinical Genomics Center at Innovista on the campus of the University of South Carolina.

SOURCE

http://selahgenomics.com/genomic-services/

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Why should Quality Assurance be difficult and awkward? Take a strategic view on achieving compliance (focus on ISO 13485)

Why should Quality Assurance be difficult and awkward? Take a strategic view on achieving compliance (focus on ISO 13485)

 Reporter: Dror Nir, PhD

Converting life-science innovations into useful products involves allocation of significant resources to handling of regulatory processes. A typical approach that makes the management of these processes difficult and awkward is starting your project and later patching it with a QA system. It then becomes a source of sever headaches to many people who need to live and operate according to such patch.
I hope that the following post by Rina will inspire you all.
It is all too easy to dive into the list of requirements contained within the ISO 13485 and achieve compliance by just ticking the boxes: looking at one requirement or one area at a time and making sure you have put in place something to address that requirement. This may easily result in a quality system that feels like a patchwork. Compliant, perhaps, but most certainly awkward and difficult to sustain.
The second most common mistake is to not ask yourself how software tools can help in setting up the quality system. “We already have MS Word, MS Excel, email, and we can always print a document and have it signed.” This is only a solution if you think that the quality system is a one-off activity. In the longer run, the system turns out to be a constant struggle with non-integrated elements that have no cohesion.
A better way to address compliance is to:
  1. Accept the fact that the quality system is a long term commitment and that it is very demanding.
  2. Assume that the right software tools do help.
  3. Think strategically, reviewing the whole standard, and try to identify the different areas, in respect to what type of software would help address those.

Real life example: A company maintains an Excel list of all corrective actions. The date of effectiveness check is filled in manually. A QA engineer needs to review the Excel spreadsheet once a week to identify which effectiveness checks are due. Last audit revealed that in most cases, effectiveness checks were not followed up.
Real life question: Meetings and other events are registered in a calendar and you are reminded when they are due. Wouldn’t it be easier if effectiveness checks due dates were also linked to a calendar? Putting those dates in Excel does not make more sense than putting your meetings in Excel…..

What follows is how we can divide the ISO-13485:2003 in regard to the type of software features which can help us. You do not need to be an IT expert to follow the logic or the explanation – if you know the standard and see my examples hopefully you will get the idea.
In any case, I put here the complete mapping of the ISO into the different categories I describe. I also mention the main Atlassian tools we use to address each area. In future posts we will dive deeper into each of those categories and provide more details on exactly how we achieve easy and sustainable, compliance.
So, as promised, these are the various categories that appear in the ISO 13485:2003:
  1. Document management: These are the various requirements relating to the procedures, manuals, and device related documents you need to have, and how they should be handled within the organization. The ISO elaborates in quite a detailed manner about how the controlled documents needs to be approved, who should access them, etc. Confluence is the key tool we use to handle all these requirements.
  2. Procedures and records are the evidence that the organization lives up to its quality system: The various procedures and work instructions should be followed consistently on a daily basis, forms or other records should be collected as evidence. Some examples (with reference to the standard section):
    • Training( 6.2.2).
    • Customer complaints: (8.5.1).
    • Corrective and preventive actions: (8.5.2, 8.5.3)
    • Subcontractor approvals( 7.4.1)
    • Purchasing forms( 7.4.1).

Those records may be created as electronic or physical paper forms which need to be completed by the authorized person. However, a much better way is to implement an automatic workflow that makes it easier for the team to create, follow, and document all the various tasks they need to do. Such a workflow can automatically schedule tasks, remind and alert, thus triggering better compliance to the quality system and at the same time automatically creating the required records. This is a double win. JIRA® is our tool of choice and it provides a state-of-the-art solution to everything related to forms and workflows.

  1. Design control: Some of the issues covered by section 7 of the ISO 13485 require quite advanced control along several phases of design and development. The risk mitigation measures and the product requirements should be, for example, verified in the product verification stage. This verification, or the test file, could be written as a simple Word or Excel document, but a far better implementation is to create it within JIRA. The advantage of JIRA here is the various reporting that it allows once the data is in and the fact that it can connect directly into the work scheduling of the various team members. JIRA is the principal tool we use for design control. Confluence can be used in some advanced implementations. If the medical device involves software, then the development suite from Atlassian can be implemented to provide a complete software life cycle management suite.
  2. Manufacturing and product traceability: Some requirements relate to your manufacturing setup. Depending on the scale and type of manufacturing, specialized ERP may be the best option. When manufacturing is more basic and does not call for a full blown manufacturing facility, JIRA can handle the requirements of the standard.
  3. Monitoring and improving: A key theme of the standard is the need of the organization to measure and improve (for example, section 8.2.3). The nice thing is that the framework we have put in place to support the other categories, if done correctly, should provide us with the reports, alerts, and statistics we need. Indeed, all the processes we have implemented in JIRA, as well as the various elements we have implemented in Confluence, may easily be collected and displayed in practically endless variations of reports and dashboards.
Requirement (Article) Requirement type
4.Quality management system – 1.General requirements Non specific
4.Quality management system – 2.Documentation requirements – 1.General Document management
4.Quality management system – 2.Documentation requirements – 2.Quality manual Document management
4.Quality management system – 2.Documentation requirements – 3.Control of documents Document management
4.Quality management system – 2.Documentation requirements – 4.Control of records Procedures and records
5.Management responsibility – 1.Management commitment Document management
5.Management responsibility – 2.Customer focus Non specific
5.Management responsibility – 3.Quality policy Monitoring and ongoing improvement
5.Management responsibility – 4.Planning – 1.Quality objectives Monitoring and ongoing improvement
5.Management responsibility – 4.Planning – 2.Quality management system planning Monitoring and ongoing improvement
5.Management responsibility – 5.Responsibility, authority and communication – 1.Responsibility and authority Document management
5.Management responsibility – 5.Responsibility, authority and communication – 2.Management representative Monitoring and ongoing improvement
5.Management responsibility – 5.Responsibility, authority and communication – 3.Internal communication Monitoring and ongoing improvement
5.Management responsibility – 6.Management review – 1.General Monitoring and ongoing improvement
5.Management responsibility – 6.Management review – 2.Review input Monitoring and ongoing improvement
5.Management responsibility – 6.Management review – 3.Review output Monitoring and ongoing improvement
6.Resource management – 1.Provision of resources Non specific
6.Resource management – 2.Human resources – 1.General Procedures and records
6.Resource management – 2.Human resources – 2.Competence, awareness and training Procedures and records
6.Resource management – 3.Infrastructure Manufacturing and product traceability
6.Resource management – 4.Work environment Non specific
7.Product realization – 1.Planning of product realization Design control
7.Product realization – 2.Customer-related processes – 1.Determination of requirements related to the product Design control
7.Product realization – 2.Customer-related processes – 2.Review of requirements related to the product Design control
7.Product realization – 2.Customer-related processes – 3.Customer communication Design control
7.Product realization – 3.Design and development – 1.Design and development planning Design control
7.Product realization – 3.Design and development – 1.Design and development input Design control
7.Product realization – 3.Design and development – 3.Design and development outputs Design control
7.Product realization – 3.Design and development – 4.Design and development review Design control
7.Product realization – 3.Design and development – 5.Design and development verification Design control
7.Product realization – 3.Design and development – 6.Design and development validation Design control
7.Product realization – 3.Design and development – 7.Control of design and development changes Design control
7.Product realization – 4.Purchasing – 1.Purchasing process Procedures and records
7.Product realization – 4.Purchasing – 2.Purchasing information Procedures and records
7.Product realization – 4.Purchasing – 3.Verification of purchased product Procedures and records
7.Product realization – 5.Production and service provision – 1.Control of production and service provision – 1.General requirements Procedures and records
7.Product realization – 5.Production and service provision – 1.Control of production and service provision – 2.Control of production and service provision: Specific requirements – 1.Cleanliness of product and contamination control Manufacturing and product traceability
7.Product realization – 5.Production and service provision – 1.Control of production and service provision – 2.Control of production and service provision: Specific requirements – 2.Installation ativities Procedures and records
7.Product realization – 5.Production and service provision – 1.Control of production and service provision – 2. – 3.Servicing activities Procedures and records
7.Product realization – 5.Production and service provision – 1.Control of production and service provision – 3.Particular requirements for sterile medical devices Manufacturing and product traceability
7.Product realization – 5.Production and service provision – 2.Validation of processes for production and service provision – 1.General requirements Manufacturing and product traceability
7.Product realization – 5.Production and service provision – 2.Validation of processes for production and service provision – 2.Particular requirements for sterile medical devices Manufacturing and product traceability
7.Product realization – 5.Production and service provision – 3. Identification and traceability – 1.Identification Manufacturing and product traceability
7.Product realization – 5.Production and service provision – 3. Identification and traceability – 2.Traceability – 1.General Manufacturing and product traceability
7.Product realization – 5.Production and service provision – 3. Identification and traceability – 2.Particular requirements for active implantable medical devices and implantable medical devices Manufacturing and product traceability
7.Product realization – 5.Production and service provision – 3. Identification and traceability – 3.Status identification Manufacturing and product traceability
7.Product realization – 5.Production and service provision – 4.Customer property Non specific
7.Product realization – 5.Production and service provision – 5.Preservation of product Procedures and records
7.Product realization – 6.Control of monitoring and measuring devices Manufacturing and product traceability
8.Measurement, analysis and improvement – 1.General Monitoring and ongoing improvement
8.Measurement, analysis and improvement – 2.Monitoring and measurement – 1.Feedback Monitoring and ongoing improvement
8.Measurement, analysis and improvement – 2.Monitoring and measurement – 2.Internal audit Procedures and records
8.Measurement, analysis and improvement – 2.Monitoring and measurement – 3.Monitoring and measurement of processes Monitoring and ongoing improvement
8.Measurement, analysis and improvement – 2.Monitoring and measurement – 4.Monitoring and measurement of product – 1. General requirements Design control
8.Measurement, analysis and improvement – 2.Monitoring and measurement – 4.Monitoring and measurement of product – 2.Particular requirement for active implantable medical devices and implantable medical devices Procedures and records
8.Measurement, analysis and improvement – 3.Control of nonconforming product Procedures and records
8.Measurement, analysis and improvement – 4.Aalysis of data Monitoring and ongoing improvement
8.Measurement, analysis and improvement – 5.Improvement – 1.General Monitoring and ongoing improvement
8.Measurement, analysis and improvement – 5.Improvement – 2.Corrective action Procedures and records
8.Measurement, analysis and improvement – 5.Improvement – 3.Preventive action Procedures and records

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The Role of Medical Imaging in Personalized Medicine

Writer & reporter: Dror Nir, PhD

The future of personalized medicine comprise quantifiable diagnosis and tailored treatments; i.e. delivering the right treatment at the right time. To achieve standardized definition of what “right” means, the designated treatment location and lesion size are important factors. This is unrelated to whether the treatment is focused to a location or general. The role of medical imaging is and will continue to be vital in that respect: Patients’ stratification based on imaging biomarkers can help identify individuals suited for preventive intervention and can improve disease staging. In vivo visualization of loco-regional physiological, biochemical and biological processes using molecular imaging can detect diseases in pre-symptomatic phases or facilitate individualized drug delivery. Furthermore, as mentioned in most of my previous posts, imaging is essential to patient-tailored therapy planning, therapy monitoring, quantification of response-to-treatment and follow-up disease progression. Especially with the rise of companion diagnostics/theranostics (therapeutics & diagnostics), imaging and treatment will have to be synchronized in real-time to achieve the best control/guidance of the treatment.

It is worthwhile noting that the new RECIST 1.1 criteria (used in oncological therapy monitoring) have been expanded to include the use of PET (in addition to lymph-node evaluation).

pet

In previous posts I already discussed many examples concerning the use of medical imaging in personalized medicine: e.g. patients’ stratification; Imaging-biomarkers is Imaging-based tissue characterization, the future of imaging-biomarkers in diagnostic; Ultrasound-based Screening for Ovarian Cancer, imaging-based guided therapies; Minimally invasive image-guided therapy for inoperable hepatocellular carcinoma, treatment follow-up; the importance of spatially-localized and quantified image interpretation in cancer management, and imaging-based assessment of response to treatment; Causes and imaging features of false positives and false negatives on 18F-PET/CT in oncologic imaging

Browsing through our collaborative open-source initiative one can find many more articles and discussions on that matter; e.g. Tumor Imaging and Targeting: Predicting Tumor Response to Treatment: Where we stand?, In Search of Clarity on Prostate Cancer Screening, Post-Surgical Followup, and Prediction of Long Term Remission

In this post I would like to highlight the potential contribution of medical imaging to development of companion diagnostics. I do that through the story on co-development of Vintafolide (EC145) and etarfolatide (Endocyte/Merck). Etarfolatide is a folate-targeted molecular radiodiagnostic imaging agent that identifies tumors that overexpress the folate receptor. The folate receptor, a glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchored cell surface receptor, is overexpressed on the vast majority of cancer tissues, while its expression is limited in healthy tissues and organs. Folate receptors are highly expressed in epithelial, ovarian, cervical, breast, lung, kidney, colorectal, and brain tumors. When expressed in normal tissue, folate receptors are restricted to the lungs, kidneys, placenta, and choroid plexus. In these tissues, the receptors are limited to the apical surface of polarized epithelia. Folate, also known as pteroylglutamate, is a non-immunogenic water-soluble B vitamin that is critical to DNA synthesis, methylation, and repair (folate is used to synthesize thymine).

Vintafolide (EC145) delivers a very potent vinca chemotherapy directly to cancer cells by targeting the folate receptor expressed on cancer cells. Approximately 80-90 percent of ovarian and lung cancers express the receptor, as do many other types of cancer. Clinical data have shown that patients with metastases that are all positive for the folate receptor, identified by etarfolatide, benefited the most from the treatment with vintafolide, the corresponding folate-targeted small molecule drug conjugate.

Having both drug and imaging agent rely on folate receptors within the patients body Endocyte’s strategy was to develop the imaging agent and to use it to accelerate R&D and regulation. Endocyte and Merck entered into a partnership for vintafolide in April 2012. Under this partnership Merck was granted an exclusive license to develop, manufacture and commercialize vintafolide. Endocyte is responsible for conducting the PROCEED Phase 3 clinical study in women with platinum resistant ovarian cancer and the Phase 2b second line NSCLC (non-small cell lung cancer) study named TARGET. Merck is responsible for further clinical studies in additional indications. This Co-development of a diagnostic and therapeutic agent, was conducted according to the FDA guidance on personalized medicine and resulted with vintafolide gaining, already in 2012, status of orphan drug in EMA.

 

 The following is an extract from a post by Phillip H. Kuo, MD, PhD, associate professor of medical imaging, medicine, and biomedical engineering; section chief of nuclear medicine; and director of PET/CT at the University of Arizona Cancer Center.

 0213-figure-1

Figure 1 — Targeted Radioimaging Diagnostic and Small Molecule Drug Conjugate

Etarfolatide is comprised of the targeting ligand folic acid (yellow), which has a high folate receptor binding affinity, and a Technetium-99m–based radioimaging agent (turquoise). Etarfolatide identifies metastases that express the folate receptor protein in real time (A). The folic acid-targeting ligand is identical to that found on vintafolide, the corresponding therapeutic small molecule drug conjugate, which also contains a linker system (blue) and a potent chemotherapeutic drug (red) (B).

 

 vinta

Figure 2 — Whole-Body Scan With 111In-DTPA-Folate 

Diagnostic images of whole-body scans obtained following administration of the targeted radioimaging agent 111In-DTPA-folate, which is constructed with the same folic acid ligand as that engineered in etarfolatide. The healthy patient image on the left shows no folate receptor-positive abdominal tumor. Instead, only healthy kidneys (involved in excretion) are revealed. The patient on the right shows folate receptor-positive tumors in the abdomen and pelvis. Patients with metastases, identified with the companion imaging diagnostic etarfolatide as folate receptor-positive are most likely to respond to treatment with the corresponding small molecular drug conjugate vintafolide. Note: Vintafolide currently is being evaluated in a phase 3 clinical trial for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer and a phase 2 trial for non–small-cell lung cancer. Both studies also are using etarfolatide.

0213-figure-3

Figure 3 — Vintafolide’s Mechanism of Action

Folate is required for cell division, and rapidly dividing cancer cells often express folate receptors to capture enough folate to support rapid cell growth. Elevated expression of the folate receptor occurs in many human malignancies, especially when associated with aggressively growing cancers. The folate-targeted small molecule drug conjugate vintafolide binds to the folate receptor (A) and subsequently is internalized by a natural endocytosis process (B). Once inside the cell, vintafolide’s serum-stable linker selectively releases a potent vinca alkaloid compound (C) to arrest cell division and induce cell death.

Epilog

I think that those of you who reached this point in my post deserve a special bonus! So here it is: A medical-imaging initiative that is as ambitious and complex as the initiative to send humans into deep-space.

This is the The European Population Imaging Infrastructure initiative of the Dutch Federation of University Medical Centres (NFU) and the Erasmus University Medical Centre Rotterdam, Department of Radiology, chaired by Professor Gabriel P. Krestin. The NFU has made available initial funding for the development of this initiative.

The European Population Imaging Infrastructure closely cooperates with the European Biomedical Imaging Infrastructure Project EURO-BioImaging which is currently being developed.

The ultimate aim of the infrastructure is to help the development and implementation of strategies to prevent or effectively treat disease. It supports imaging in large, prospective epidemiological studies on the population level. Image specific markers of pre-symptomatic diseases can be used to investigate causes of pathological alterations and for the early identification of people at risk.

More information on this infrastructure and on the role of the European Population Imaging Infrastructure in this can be found in the Netherlands Roadmap for Large-Scale Research Facilities, the applicaton for funding of the Roadmap Large Scale Research Facilities Application form of the Roadmap EuroBioImaging, and on the Euro-BioImaging website.

Certainly, while making progress with this initiative, many lessons will be learned. I recommend to explore this site and Enjoy!

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The importance of spatially-localized and quantified image interpretation in cancer management

Writer & reporter: Dror Nir, PhD

I became involved in the development of quantified imaging-based tissue characterization more than a decade ago. From the start, it was clear to me that what clinicians needs will not be answered by just identifying whether a certain organ harbors cancer. If imaging devices are to play a significant role in future medicine, as a complementary source of information to bio-markers and gene sequencing the minimum value expected of them is accurate directing of biopsy needles and treatment tools to the malignant locations in the organ.  Therefore, the design goal of the first Prostate-HistoScanning (“PHS”) version I went into the trouble of characterizing localized volume of tissue at the level of approximately 0.1cc (1x1x1 mm). Thanks to that, the imaging-interpretation overlay of PHS localizes the suspicious lesions with accuracy of 5mm within the prostate gland; Detection, localisation and characterisation of prostate cancer by prostate HistoScanning(™).

I then started a more ambitious research aiming to explore the feasibility of identifying sub-structures within the cancer lesion itself. The preliminary results of this exploration were so promising that it surprised not only the clinicians I was working with but also myself. It seems, that using quality ultrasound, one can find Imaging-Biomarkers that allows differentiation of inside structures of a cancerous lesions. Unfortunately, for everyone involved in this work, including me, this scientific effort was interrupted by financial constrains before reaching maturity.

My short introduction was made to explain why I find the publication below important enough to post and bring to your attention.

I hope for your agreement on the matter.

Quantitative Imaging in Cancer Evolution and Ecology

Robert A. Gatenby, MD, Olya Grove, PhD and Robert J. Gillies, PhD

From the Departments of Radiology and Cancer Imaging and Metabolism, Moffitt Cancer Center, 12902 Magnolia Dr, Tampa, FL 33612. Address correspondence to  R.A.G. (e-mail: Robert.Gatenby@Moffitt.org).

Abstract

Cancer therapy, even when highly targeted, typically fails because of the remarkable capacity of malignant cells to evolve effective adaptations. These evolutionary dynamics are both a cause and a consequence of cancer system heterogeneity at many scales, ranging from genetic properties of individual cells to large-scale imaging features. Tumors of the same organ and cell type can have remarkably diverse appearances in different patients. Furthermore, even within a single tumor, marked variations in imaging features, such as necrosis or contrast enhancement, are common. Similar spatial variations recently have been reported in genetic profiles. Radiologic heterogeneity within tumors is usually governed by variations in blood flow, whereas genetic heterogeneity is typically ascribed to random mutations. However, evolution within tumors, as in all living systems, is subject to Darwinian principles; thus, it is governed by predictable and reproducible interactions between environmental selection forces and cell phenotype (not genotype). This link between regional variations in environmental properties and cellular adaptive strategies may permit clinical imaging to be used to assess and monitor intratumoral evolution in individual patients. This approach is enabled by new methods that extract, report, and analyze quantitative, reproducible, and mineable clinical imaging data. However, most current quantitative metrics lack spatialness, expressing quantitative radiologic features as a single value for a region of interest encompassing the whole tumor. In contrast, spatially explicit image analysis recognizes that tumors are heterogeneous but not well mixed and defines regionally distinct habitats, some of which appear to harbor tumor populations that are more aggressive and less treatable than others. By identifying regional variations in key environmental selection forces and evidence of cellular adaptation, clinical imaging can enable us to define intratumoral Darwinian dynamics before and during therapy. Advances in image analysis will place clinical imaging in an increasingly central role in the development of evolution-based patient-specific cancer therapy.

© RSNA, 2013

 

Introduction

Cancers are heterogeneous across a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. Morphologic heterogeneity between and within cancers is readily apparent in clinical imaging, and subjective descriptors of these differences, such as necrotic, spiculated, and enhancing, are common in the radiology lexicon. In the past several years, radiology research has increasingly focused on quantifying these imaging variations in an effort to understand their clinical and biologic implications (1,2). In parallel, technical advances now permit extensive molecular characterization of tumor cells in individual patients. This has led to increasing emphasis on personalized cancer therapy, in which treatment is based on the presence of specific molecular targets (3). However, recent studies (4,5) have shown that multiple genetic subpopulations coexist within cancers, reflecting extensive intratumoral somatic evolution. This heterogeneity is a clear barrier to therapy based on molecular targets, since the identified targets do not always represent the entire population of tumor cells in a patient (6,7). It is ironic that cancer, a disease extensively and primarily analyzed genetically, is also the most genetically flexible of all diseases and, therefore, least amenable to such an approach.

Genetic variations in tumors are typically ascribed to a mutator phenotype that generates new clones, some of which expand into large populations (8). However, although identification of genotypes is of substantial interest, it is insufficient for complete characterization of tumor dynamics because evolution is governed by the interactions of environmental selection forces with the phenotypic, not genotypic, properties of populations as shown, for example, by evolutionary convergence to identical phenotypes among cave fish even when they are from different species (911). This connection between tissue selection forces and cellular properties has the potential to provide a strong bridge between medical imaging and the cellular and molecular properties of cancers.

We postulate that differences within tumors at different spatial scales (ie, at the radiologic, cellular, and molecular [genetic] levels) are related. Tumor characteristics observable at clinical imaging reflect molecular-, cellular-, and tissue-level dynamics; thus, they may be useful in understanding the underlying evolving biology in individual patients. A challenge is that such mapping across spatial and temporal scales requires not only objective reproducible metrics for imaging features but also a theoretical construct that bridges those scales (Fig 1).

P1a

Figure 1a: Computed tomographic (CT) scan of right upper lobe lung cancer in a 50-year-old woman.

P1b

Figure 1b: Isoattenuation map shows regional heterogeneity at the tissue scale (measured in centimeters).

 cd

Figure 1c & 1d: (c, d)Whole-slide digital images (original magnification, ×3) of a histologic slice of the same tumor at the mesoscopic scale (measured in millimeters) (c) coupled with a masked image of regional morphologic differences showing spatial heterogeneity (d). 

p1e

Figure 1e: Subsegment of the whole slide image shows the microscopic scale (measured in micrometers) (original magnification, ×50).

p1f

Figure 1f: Pattern recognition masked image shows regional heterogeneity. In a, the CT image of non–small cell lung cancer can be analyzed to display gradients of attenuation, which reveals heterogeneous and spatially distinct environments (b). Histologic images in the same patient (c, e) reveal heterogeneities in tissue structure and density on the same scale as seen in the CT images. These images can be analyzed at much higher definition to identify differences in morphologies of individual cells (3), and these analyses reveal clusters of cells with similar morphologic features (d, f). An important goal of radiomics is to bridge radiologic data with cellular and molecular characteristics observed microscopically.

To promote the development and implementation of quantitative imaging methods, protocols, and software tools, the National Cancer Institute has established the Quantitative Imaging Network. One goal of this program is to identify reproducible quantifiable imaging features of tumors that will permit data mining and explicit examination of links between the imaging findings and the underlying molecular and cellular characteristics of the tumors. In the quest for more personalized cancer treatments, these quantitative radiologic features potentially represent nondestructive temporally and spatially variable predictive and prognostic biomarkers that readily can be obtained in each patient before, during, and after therapy.

Quantitative imaging requires computational technologies that can be used to reliably extract mineable data from radiographic images. This feature information can then be correlated with molecular and cellular properties by using bioinformatics methods. Most existing methods are agnostic and focus on statistical descriptions of existing data, without presupposing the existence of specific relationships. Although this is a valid approach, a more profound understanding of quantitative imaging information may be obtained with a theoretical hypothesis-driven framework. Such models use links between observable tumor characteristics and microenvironmental selection factors to make testable predictions about emergent phenotypes. One such theoretical framework is the developing paradigm of cancer as an ecologic and evolutionary process.

For decades, landscape ecologists have studied the effects of heterogeneity in physical features on interactions between populations of organisms and their environments, often by using observation and quantification of images at various scales (1214). We propose that analytic models of this type can easily be applied to radiologic studies of cancer to uncover underlying molecular, cellular, and microenvironmental drivers of tumor behavior and specifically, tumor adaptations and responses to therapy (15).

In this article, we review recent developments in quantitative imaging metrics and discuss how they correlate with underlying genetic data and clinical outcomes. We then introduce the concept of using ecology and evolutionary models for spatially explicit image analysis as an exciting potential avenue of investigation.

 

Quantitative Imaging and Radiomics

In patients with cancer, quantitative measurements are commonly limited to measurement of tumor size with one-dimensional (Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors [or RECIST]) or two-dimensional (World Health Organization) long-axis measurements (16). These measures do not reflect the complexity of tumor morphology or behavior, and in many cases, changes in these measures are not predictive of therapeutic benefit (17). In contrast, radiomics (18) is a high-throughput process in which a large number of shape, edge, and texture imaging features are extracted, quantified, and stored in databases in an objective, reproducible, and mineable form (Figs 12). Once transformed into a quantitative form, radiologic tumor properties can be linked to underlying genetic alterations (the field is called radiogenomics) (1921) and to medical outcomes (2227). Researchers are currently working to develop both a standardized lexicon to describe tumor features (28,29) and a standard method to convert these descriptors into quantitative mineable data (30,31) (Fig 3).

p2

Figure 2: Contrast-enhanced CT scans show non–small cell lung cancer (left) and corresponding cluster map (right). Subregions within the tumor are identified by clustering pixels based on the attenuation of pixels and their cumulative standard deviation across the region. While the entire region of interest of the tumor, lacking the spatial information, yields a weighted mean attenuation of 859.5 HU with a large and skewed standard deviation of 243.64 HU, the identified subregions have vastly different statistics. Mean attenuation was 438.9 HU ± 45 in the blue subregion, 210.91 HU ± 79 in the yellow subregion, and 1077.6 HU ± 18 in the red subregion.

 

p3

Figure 3: Chart shows the five processes in radiomics.

Several recent articles underscore the potential power of feature analysis. After manually extracting more than 100 CT image features, Segal and colleagues found that a subset of 14 features predicted 80% of the gene expression pattern in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (21). A similar extraction of features from contrast agent–enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) images of glioblastoma was used to predict immunohistochemically identified protein expression patterns (22). Other radiomic features, such as texture, can be used to predict response to therapy in patients with renal cancer (32) and prognosis in those with metastatic colon cancer (33).

These pioneering studies were relatively small because the image analysis was performed manually, and the studies were consequently underpowered. Thus, recent work in radiomics has focused on technical developments that permit automated extraction of image features with the potential for high throughput. Such methods, which rely heavily on novel machine learning algorithms, can more completely cover the range of quantitative features that can describe tumor heterogeneity, such as texture, shape, or margin gradients or, importantly, different environments, or niches, within the tumors.

Generally speaking, texture in a biomedical image is quantified by identifying repeating patterns. Texture analyses fall into two broad categories based on the concepts of first- and second-order spatial statistics. First-order statistics are computed by using individual pixel values, and no relationships between neighboring pixels are assumed or evaluated. Texture analysis methods based on first-order statistics usually involve calculating cumulative statistics of pixel values and their histograms across the region of interest. Second-order statistics, on the other hand, are used to evaluate the likelihood of observing spatially correlated pixels (34). Hence, second-order texture analyses focus on the detection and quantification of nonrandom distributions of pixels throughout the region of interest.

The technical developments that permit second-order texture analysis in tumors by using regional enhancement patterns on dynamic contrast-enhanced MR images were reviewed recently (35). One such technique that is used to measure heterogeneity of contrast enhancement uses the Factor Analysis of Medical Image Sequences (or FAMIS) algorithm, which divides tumors into regions based on their patterns of enhancement (36). Factor Analysis of Medical Image Sequences–based analyses yielded better prognostic information when compared with region of interest–based methods in numerous cancer types (1921,3739), and they were a precursor to the Food and Drug Administration–approved three-time-point method (40). A number of additional promising methods have been developed. Rose and colleagues showed that a structured fractal-based approach to texture analysis improved differentiation between low- and high-grade brain cancers by orders of magnitude (41). Ahmed and colleagues used gray level co-occurrence matrix analyses of dynamic contrast-enhanced images to distinguish benign from malignant breast masses with high diagnostic accuracy (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.92) (26). Others have shown that Minkowski functional structured methods that convolve images with differently kernelled masks can be used to distinguish subtle differences in contrast enhancement patterns and can enable significant differentiation between treatment groups (42).

It is not surprising that analyses of heterogeneity in enhancement patterns can improve diagnosis and prognosis, as this heterogeneity is fundamentally based on perfusion deficits, which generate significant microenvironmental selection pressures. However, texture analysis is not limited to enhancement patterns. For example, measures of heterogeneity in diffusion-weighted MR images can reveal differences in cellular density in tumors, which can be matched to histologic findings (43). Measures of heterogeneity in T1- and T2-weighted images can be used to distinguish benign from malignant soft-tissue masses (23). CT-based texture features have been shown to be highly significant independent predictors of survival in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (24).

Texture analyses can also be applied to positron emission tomographic (PET) data, where they can provide information about metabolic heterogeneity (25,26). In a recent study, Nair and colleagues identified 14 quantitative PET imaging features that correlated with gene expression (19). This led to an association of metagene clusters to imaging features and yielded prognostic models with hazard ratios near 6. In a study of esophageal cancer, in which 38 quantitative features describing fluorodeoxyglucose uptake were extracted, measures of metabolic heterogeneity at baseline enabled prediction of response with significantly higher sensitivity than any whole region of interest standardized uptake value measurement (22). It is also notable that these extensive texture-based features are generally more reproducible than simple measures of the standardized uptake value (27), which can be highly variable in a clinical setting (44).

 

Spatially Explicit Analysis of Tumor Heterogeneity

Although radiomic analyses have shown high prognostic power, they are not inherently spatially explicit. Quantitative border, shape, and texture features are typically generated over a region of interest that comprises the entire tumor (45). This approach implicitly assumes that tumors are heterogeneous but well mixed. However, spatially explicit subregions of cancers are readily apparent on contrast-enhanced MR or CT images, as perfusion can vary markedly within the tumor, even over short distances, with changes in tumor cell density and necrosis.

An example is shown in Figure 2, which shows a contrast-enhanced CT scan of non–small cell lung cancer. Note that there are many subregions within this tumor that can be identified with attenuation gradient (attenuation per centimeter) edge detection algorithms. Each subregion has a characteristic quantitative attenuation, with a narrow standard deviation, whereas the mean attenuation over the entire region of interest is a weighted average of the values across all subregions, with a correspondingly large and skewed distribution. We contend that these subregions represent distinct habitats within the tumor, each with a distinct set of environmental selection forces.

These observations, along with the recent identification of regional variations in the genetic properties of tumor cells, indicate the need to abandon the conceptual model of cancers as bounded organlike structures. Rather than a single self-organized system, cancers represent a patchwork of habitats, each with a unique set of environmental selection forces and cellular evolution strategies. For example, regions of the tumor that are poorly perfused can be populated by only those cells that are well adapted to low-oxygen, low-glucose, and high-acid environmental conditions. Such adaptive responses to regional heterogeneity result in microenvironmental selection and hence, emergence of genetic variations within tumors. The concept of adaptive response is an important departure from the traditional view that genetic heterogeneity is the product of increased random mutations, which implies that molecular heterogeneity is fundamentally unpredictable and, therefore, chaotic. The Darwinian model proposes that genetic heterogeneity is the result of a predictable and reproducible selection of successful adaptive strategies to local microenvironmental conditions.

Current cross-sectional imaging modalities can be used to identify regional variations in selection forces by using contrast-enhanced, cell density–based, or metabolic features. Clinical imaging can also be used to identify evidence of cellular adaptation. For example, if a region of low perfusion on a contrast-enhanced study is necrotic, then an adaptive population is absent or minimal. However, if the poorly perfused area is cellular, then there is presumptive evidence of an adapted proliferating population. While the specific genetic properties of this population cannot be determined, the phenotype of the adaptive strategy is predictable since the environmental conditions are more or less known. Thus, standard medical images can be used to infer specific emergent phenotypes and, with ongoing research, these phenotypes can be associated with underlying genetic changes.

This area of investigation will likely be challenging. As noted earlier, the most obvious spatially heterogeneous imaging feature in tumors is perfusion heterogeneity on contrast-enhanced CT or MR images. It generally has been assumed that the links between contrast enhancement, blood flow, perfusion, and tumor cell characteristics are straightforward. That is, tumor regions with decreased blood flow will exhibit low perfusion, low cell density, and high necrosis. In reality, however, the dynamics are actually much more complex. As shown in Figure 4, when using multiple superimposed sequences from MR imaging of malignant gliomas, regions of tumor that are poorly perfused on contrast-enhanced T1-weighted images may exhibit areas of low or high water content on T2-weighted images and low or high diffusion on diffusion-weighted images. Thus, high or low cell densities can coexist in poorly perfused volumes, creating perfusion-diffusion mismatches. Regions with poor perfusion with high cell density are of particular clinical interest because they represent a cell population that is apparently adapted to microenvironmental conditions associated with poor perfusion. The associated hypoxia, acidosis, and nutrient deprivation select for cells that are resistant to apoptosis and thus are likely to be resistant to therapy (46,47).

p4

Figure 4: Left: Contrast-enhanced T1 image from subject TCGA-02-0034 in The Cancer Genome Atlas–Glioblastoma Multiforme repository of MR volumes of glioblastoma multiforme cases. Right: Spatial distribution of MR imaging–defined habitats within the tumor. The blue region (low T1 postgadolinium, low fluid-attenuated inversion recovery) is particularly notable because it presumably represents a habitat with low blood flow but high cell density, indicating a population presumably adapted to hypoxic acidic conditions.

Furthermore, other selection forces not related to perfusion are likely to be present within tumors. For example, evolutionary models suggest that cancer cells, even in stable microenvironments, tend to speciate into “engineers” that maximize tumor cell growth by promoting angiogenesis and “pioneers” that proliferate by invading normal issue and co-opting the blood supply. These invasive tumor phenotypes can exist only at the tumor edge, where movement into a normal tissue microenvironment can be rewarded by increased proliferation. This evolutionary dynamic may contribute to distinct differences between the tumor edges and the tumor cores, which frequently can be seen at analysis of cross-sectional images (Fig 5).

p5a

Figure 5a: CT images obtained with conventional entropy filtering in two patients with non–small cell lung cancer with no apparent textural differences show similar entropy values across all sections. 

p5b

Figure 5b: Contour plots obtained after the CT scans were convolved with the entropy filter. Further subdividing each section in the tumor stack into tumor edge and core regions (dotted black contour) reveals varying textural behavior across sections. Two distinct patterns have emerged, and preliminary analysis shows that the change of mean entropy value between core and edge regions correlates negatively with survival.

Interpretation of the subsegmentation of tumors will require computational models to understand and predict the complex nonlinear dynamics that lead to heterogeneous combinations of radiographic features. We have exploited ecologic methods and models to investigate regional variations in cancer environmental and cellular properties that lead to specific imaging characteristics. Conceptually, this approach assumes that regional variations in tumors can be viewed as a coalition of distinct ecologic communities or habitats of cells in which the environment is governed, at least to first order, by variations in vascular density and blood flow. The environmental conditions that result from alterations in blood flow, such as hypoxia, acidosis, immune response, growth factors, and glucose, represent evolutionary selection forces that give rise to local-regional phenotypic adaptations. Phenotypic alterations can result from epigenetic, genetic, or chromosomal rearrangements, and these in turn will affect prognosis and response to therapy. Changes in habitats or the relative abundance of specific ecologic communities over time and in response to therapy may be a valuable metric with which to measure treatment efficacy and emergence of resistant populations.

 

Emerging Strategies for Tumor Habitat Characterization

A method for converting images to spatially explicit tumor habitats is shown in Figure 4. Here, three-dimensional MR imaging data sets from a glioblastoma are segmented. Each voxel in the tumor is defined by a scale that includes its image intensity in different sequences. In this case, the imaging sets are from (a) a contrast-enhanced T1 sequence, (b) a fast spin-echo T2 sequence, and (c) a fluid-attenuated inversion-recovery (or FLAIR) sequence. Voxels in each sequence can be defined as high or low based on their value compared with the mean signal value. By using just two sequences, a contrast-enhanced T1 sequence and a fluid-attenuated inversion-recovery sequence, we can define four habitats: high or low postgadolinium T1 divided into high or low fluid-attenuated inversion recovery. When these voxel habitats are projected into the tumor volume, we find they cluster into spatially distinct regions. These habitats can be evaluated both in terms of their relative contributions to the total tumor volume and in terms of their interactions with each other, based on the imaging characteristics at the interfaces between regions. Similar spatially explicit analysis can be performed with CT scans (Fig 5).

Analysis of spatial patterns in cross-sectional images will ultimately require methods that bridge spatial scales from microns to millimeters. One possible method is a general class of numeric tools that is already widely used in terrestrial and marine ecology research to link species occurrence or abundance with environmental parameters. Species distribution models (4851) are used to gain ecologic and evolutionary insights and to predict distributions of species or morphs across landscapes, sometimes extrapolating in space and time. They can easily be used to link the environmental selection forces in MR imaging-defined habitats to the evolutionary dynamics of cancer cells.

Summary

Imaging can have an enormous role in the development and implementation of patient-specific therapies in cancer. The achievement of this goal will require new methods that expand and ultimately replace the current subjective qualitative assessments of tumor characteristics. The need for quantitative imaging has been clearly recognized by the National Cancer Institute and has resulted in formation of the Quantitative Imaging Network. A critical objective of this imaging consortium is to use objective, reproducible, and quantitative feature metrics extracted from clinical images to develop patient-specific imaging-based prognostic models and personalized cancer therapies.

It is increasingly clear that tumors are not homogeneous organlike systems. Rather, they contain regional coalitions of ecologic communities that consist of evolving cancer, stroma, and immune cell populations. The clinical consequence of such niche variations is that spatial and temporal variations of tumor phenotypes will inevitably evolve and present substantial challenges to targeted therapies. Hence, future research in cancer imaging will likely focus on spatially explicit analysis of tumor regions.

Clinical imaging can readily characterize regional variations in blood flow, cell density, and necrosis. When viewed in a Darwinian evolutionary context, these features reflect regional variations in environmental selection forces and can, at least in principle, be used to predict the likely adaptive strategies of the local cancer population. Hence, analyses of radiologic data can be used to inform evolutionary models and then can be mapped to regional population dynamics. Ecologic and evolutionary principles may provide a theoretical framework to link imaging to the cellular and molecular features of cancer cells and ultimately lead to a more comprehensive understanding of specific cancer biology in individual patients.

 

Essentials

  • • Marked heterogeneity in genetic properties of different cells in the same tumor is typical and reflects ongoing intratumoral evolution.
  • • Evolution within tumors is governed by Darwinian dynamics, with identifiable environmental selection forces that interact with phenotypic (not genotypic) properties of tumor cells in a predictable and reproducible manner; clinical imaging is uniquely suited to measure temporal and spatial heterogeneity within tumors that is both a cause and a consequence of this evolution.
  • • Subjective radiologic descriptors of cancers are inadequate to capture this heterogeneity and must be replaced by quantitative metrics that enable statistical comparisons between features describing intratumoral heterogeneity and clinical outcomes and molecular properties.
  • • Spatially explicit mapping of tumor regions, for example by superimposing multiple imaging sequences, may permit patient-specific characterization of intratumoral evolution and ecology, leading to patient- and tumor-specific therapies.
  • • We summarize current information on quantitative analysis of radiologic images and propose future quantitative imaging must become spatially explicit to identify intratumoral habitats before and during therapy.

Disclosures of Conflicts of Interest: R.A.G. No relevant conflicts of interest to disclose. O.G. No relevant conflicts of interest to disclose.R.J.G. No relevant conflicts of interest to disclose.

 

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Mark Lloyd, MS; Joel Brown, PhD; Dmitry Goldgoff, PhD; and Larry Hall, PhD, for their input to image analysis and for their lively and informative discussions.

Footnotes

  • Received December 18, 2012; revision requested February 5, 2013; revision received March 11; accepted April 9; final version accepted April 29.
  • Funding: This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grants U54CA143970-01, U01CA143062; R01CA077575, andR01CA170595).

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Recent comprehensive review on the role of ultrasound in breast cancer management

Writer, reporter and curator: Dror Nir, PhD

Breast Cancer Imaging

Word Cloud Created by Noam Steiner Tomer 8/10/2020

The paper below by R Hooley is a beautifully written review on how ultrasound could (and should) be practiced to better support breast cancer screening, staging, and treatment. The authors went as well into the effort of describing the benefits from combining ultrasonography with the other frequently used imaging modalities; i.e. mammography, tomosynthesis and MRI. Post treatment use of ultrasound is not discussed although this is a major task for this modality.

I would like to recommend giving attention to two very small (but for me very important) paragraphs: “Speed of Sound Imaging” and “Lesion Annotation”

Enjoy…

Breast Ultrasonography: State of the Art

Regina J. Hooley, MDLeslie M. Scoutt, MD and Liane E. Philpotts, MD

Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar St, PO Box 208042, New Haven, CT 06520-8042.

Address correspondence to R.J.H. (e-mail: regina.hooley@yale.edu).

Ultrasonography (US) has become an indispensable tool in breast imaging. Breast US was first introduced in the 1950s by using radar techniques adapted from the U.S. Navy (1). Over the next several decades, US in breast imaging was primarily used to distinguish cystic from solid masses. This was clinically important, as a simple breast cyst is a benign finding that does not require further work-up. However, most solid breast lesions remained indeterminate and required biopsy, as US was not adequately specific in differentiating benign from malignant solid breast masses. However, recent advances in US technology have allowed improved characterization of solid masses.

In 1995, Stavros et al (2) published a landmark study demonstrating that solid breast lesions could be confidently characterized as benign or malignant by using high-resolution grays-cale US imaging. Benign US features include few (two or three) gentle lobulations, ellipsoid shape, and a thin capsule, as well as a homogeneously echogenic echotexture. Malignant US features include spiculation, taller-than-wide orientation, angular margins, microcalcifications, and posterior acoustic shadowing. With these sonographic features, a negative predictive value of 99.5% and a sensitivity of 98.4% for the diagnosis of malignancy were achieved. These results have subsequently been validated by others (3,4) and remain the cornerstone of US characterization of breast lesions today. These features are essential in the comprehensive US assessment of breast lesions, described by the Breast Imaging and Reporting Data System (BI-RADS) (5).

US is both an adjunct and a complement to mammography. Advances in US technology include harmonic imaging, compound imaging, power Doppler, faster frame rates, higher resolution transducers, and, more recently, elastography and three-dimensional (3D) US. Currently accepted clinical indications include evaluation of palpable abnormalities and characterization of masses detected at mammography and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. US may also be used as an adjuvant breast cancer screening modality in women with dense breast tissue and a negative mammogram. These applications of breast US have broadened the spectrum of sonographic features currently assessed, even allowing detection of noninvasive disease, a huge advance beyond the early simplistic cyst-versus-solid assessment. In addition, US is currently the primary imaging modality recommended to guide interventional breast procedures.

The most subtle US features of breast cancers are likely to be best detected by physicians who routinely synthesize findings from multiple imaging modalities and clinical information, as well as perform targeted US to correlate with lesions detected at mammography or MR imaging. Having a strong understanding of the technical applications of US and image optimization, in addition to strong interpretive and interventional US skills, is essential for today’s breast imager.

 

Optimal Imaging Technique

US is operator dependent, and meticulous attention to scanning technique as well as knowledge of the various technical options available are imperative for an optimized and accurate breast US examination. US is an interactive, dynamic modality. Although breast US scanning may be performed by a sonographer or mammography technologist, the radiologist also benefits greatly from hands-on scanning (Fig 1). Berg et al (6) demonstrated that US interpretive performance was improved if the radiologist had direct experience performing breast US scanning, including rescanning after the technologist. Real-time scanning also provides the opportunity for thorough evaluation of lesions and permits detailed lesion analysis compared with analyzing static images on a workstation. Subtle irregular or indistinct margins, artifacts, and architectural distortions may be difficult to capture on static images. Real-time scanning also allows the operator to assess lesion mobility, location, and relationship to adjacent structures and allows direct assessment of palpable lesions and other clinical findings. Moreover, careful review of any prior imaging studies is imperative to ensure accurate lesion correlation.

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The US examination is generally well tolerated by the patient. Gentle but firm transducer pressure and optimal patient positioning are essential, with the patient’s arm relaxed and flexed behind the head. Medial lesions should generally be scanned in the supine position, and lateral lesions, including the axilla, should usually be scanned with the patient in the contralateral oblique position. This allows for elimination of potential artifact secondary to inadequate compression of breast tissue.

 

Gray-Scale Imaging

Typical US transducers used in breast imaging today have between 192 and 256 elements along the long axis. When scanning the breast, a linear 12–5-MHz transducer is commonly used. However, in small-breasted women (with breast thickness < 3 cm) or when performing targeted US to evaluate a superficial lesion, a linear 17–5-MHz transducer may be used. Such high-frequency transducers provide superb spatial and soft-tissue resolution, permitting substantially improved differentiation of subtle shades of gray, margin resolution, and lesion conspicuity in the background of normal breast tissue (Fig 2). However, the cost of such a high insonating frequency is decreased penetration due to attenuation of the ultrasound beam, making visualization of deep posterior tissue difficult (ie, greater than 3 cm in depth by using a linear 17–5-MHz transducer or greater than 5 cm in depth by using a linear 12–5-MHz transducer).

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During the initial US survey of the region of interest in the breast, the depth should be set so that the pectoralis muscle is visualized along the posterior margin of the field of view. Initial gain settings should be adjusted so that fat at all levels is displayed as a midlevel gray. Simple cysts are anechoic. Compared with breast fat, most solid masses are hypoechoic, while the skin, Cooper ligaments, and fibrous tissue are echogenic. Time gain compensation, which adjusts image brightness at different depths from the skin to compensate for attenuation of the ultrasound beam as it penetrates into the breast tissue, may be set manually or, with appropriate equipment, may be adjusted automatically during real-time scanning or even during postprocessing of the image.

When searching for a lesion initially identified at mammography or MR imaging, careful correlation with lesion depth and surrounding anatomic structures is imperative. Lesion location may be affected by the patient’s position, which differs during mammography, US, and MR imaging examinations. Attention to surrounding background tissue may assist in accurate lesion correlation across multiple modalities. If a mass identified at mammography or MR imaging is surrounded entirely by fat or fibroglandular tissue, at US it should also be surrounded by hypoechoic fat or echogenic fibroglandular tissue, respectively. Similarly, careful attention to the region of clinical concern is necessary when scanning a palpable abnormality to ensure that the correct area is scanned. The examiner should place a finger on the palpable abnormality and then place the transducer directly over the region. Occasionally, the US examination may be performed in the sitting position if a breast mass can only be palpated when the patient is upright.

After a lesion is identified, or while searching for a subtle finding, the depth or field of view may be adjusted as needed. The depth should be decreased to better visualize more superficial structures or increased to better visualize deeper posterior lesions. The use of multiple focal zones also improves resolution at multiple depths simultaneously and should be used, if available. Although this reduces the frame rate, the reduction is typically negligible when scanning relatively superficial structures within the breast. If a single focal zone is selected to better evaluate a single lesion, the focal zone should be centered at the same level as the area of interest or minimally posterior to the area of interest, for optimal visualization.

 

Spatial Compounding, Speckle Reduction, and Harmonic Imaging

Spatial compound imaging and speckle reduction are available on most high-end US units and should be routinely utilized throughout the breast US examination. Unlike standard US imaging, in which ultrasound pulses are transmitted in a single direction perpendicular to the long axis of the transducer, spatial compounding utilizes electronic beam steering to acquire multiple images obtained from different angles within the plane of imaging (79). A single composite image is then obtained in real-time by averaging frames obtained by ultrasound beams acquired from these multiple angles (10). Artifactual echoes, including speckle and other spurious noise, as well as posterior acoustic patterns, including posterior enhancement (characteristic of simple cysts) and posterior acoustic shadowing (characteristic of some solid masses), are substantially reduced. However, returning echoes from real structures are enhanced, providing improved contrast resolution (9) so that ligaments, edge definition, and lesion margins, including spiculations, echogenic halos, posterior and lateral borders, as well as microcalcifications, are better defined. Speckle reduction is a real-time postprocessing technique that also enhances contrast resolution, improves border definition, is complementary to spatial compounding, and can be used simultaneously.

When a lesion is identified, harmonic imaging may also be applied—usually along with spatial compounding—to better characterize a cyst or a subtle solid mass. The simultaneous use of spatial compounding and harmonic imaging may decrease the frame rate, although this usually does not impair real-time evaluation. Harmonic imaging relies on filtering the multiple higher harmonic frequencies, which are multiples of the fundamental frequencies. All tissue is essentially nonlinear to sound propagation and the ultrasound pulse is distorted as it travels through breast tissue, creating harmonic frequencies (9). The returning ultrasound signal therefore contains both the original fundamental frequency and its multiples, or harmonics. Harmonic imaging allows the higher harmonic frequencies to be selected and used to create the gray-scale images (89). Lower-frequency superficial reverberation echoes are thereby reduced, allowing improved characterization of simple cysts (particularly if small) through the elimination of artifactual internal echoes often seen in fluid. Harmonic imaging also improves lateral resolution (10) and may also improve contrast between fatty tissue and subtle lesions, allowing better definition of subtle lesion margins and posterior shadowing (Fig 3).

 

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Speed of Sound Imaging

Conventional US systems set the speed of sound in tissue at a uniform 1540 m/sec (10). However, the speed of sound in tissues of different composition is variable and this variability may compromise US image quality. Breast tissue usually contains fat, and the speed of sound in fat, of approximately 1430–1470 m/sec, is slower than the assumed standard (11). Accurate speed of sound imaging, in which the US transducer may be optimized for the presence of fat within breast tissue, has been shown to improve lateral resolution (12). Additionally, it can be used to better characterize tissue interfaces, lesion margins, and microcalcifications (13) and may also be useful to identify subtle hypoechoic lesions surrounded by fatty breast tissue. Speed of sound imaging is available on most high-end modern US units and is an optional adjustment, depending on whether predominately fatty, predominately dense, or mixed breast tissue is being scanned.

 

 Lesion Annotation

When a mass is identified and the US settings are optimized, the mass should be scanned with US “sweeps” through the entire lesion in multiple planes. Images of the lesion in the radial and antiradial views should be captured and annotated with “right” or “left,” clock face position, and centimeters from the nipple. Radial and anti-radial scanning planes are preferred over standard transverse and sagittal scanning planes because scanning the breast along the normal axis of the mammary ducts and lobar tissues allows improved understanding of the site of lesion origin and better visualization of ductal extension and helps narrow the differential diagnosis (14). Images should be captured with and without calipers to allow margin assessment on static images. Lesion size should be measured in three dimensions, reporting the longest horizontal diameter first, followed by the anteroposterior diameter, then the orthogonal horizontal.

 

 Extended-Field-of-View Imaging

Advanced US technology permits extended-field-of-view imaging beyond the footprint of the transducer. By using a freehand technique, the operator slides the transducer along the desired region to be imaged. The resultant images are stored in real-time and, by applying pattern recognition, a single large-field-of-view image is obtained (7). This can be helpful in measuring very large lesions as well as the distance between multiple structures in the breast and for assessing the relationship of multifocal disease (located in the same quadrant as the index cancer or within 4–5 cm of the index cancer, along the same duct system) and/or multicentric disease (located in a different quadrant than the index cancer, or at a distance greater than 4–5 cm, along a different duct system).

 

 Doppler US

Early studies investigating the use of color, power, and quantitative spectral Doppler US in the breast reported that the presence of increased vascularity, as well as changes in the pulsatility and resistive indexes, showed that these Doppler findings could be used to reliably characterize malignant lesions (15,16). However, other investigators have demonstrated substantial overlap of many of these Doppler characteristics in both benign and malignant breast lesions (17). Gokalp et al (18) also demonstrated that the addition of power Doppler US and spectral analysis to BI-RADS US features of solid breast masses did not improve specificity. While the current BI-RADS US lexicon recommends evaluation of lesion vascularity, it is not considered mandatory (5).

Power Doppler is generally more sensitive than color Doppler to low-flow volumes typical of breast lesions. Light transducer pressure is necessary to prevent occlusion of slow flow owing to compression of the vessel lumen. Currently both power and color Doppler are complementary tools to gray-scale imaging, and power Doppler may improve sensitivity in detecting malignant breast lesions (18,19). Demonstration of irregular branching central or penetrating vascularity within a solid mass raises suspicion of malignant neovascularity (20). Recently, the parallel artery and vein sign has been described as a reliable feature that has the potential to enable prediction of benignity in solid masses so that biopsy may be avoided. In a single study, a paired artery and vein was present in 13.2% of over 1000 masses at US-guided CNB and although an infrequent finding, the specificity for benignity was 99.3% and the false-negative rate was only 1.4%, with two malignancies among 142 masses in which the parallel artery and vein sign was identified (21).

Color and power Doppler US are also useful to evaluate cysts and complex cystic masses that contain a solid component. High-grade invasive cancer and metastatic lymph nodes may occasionally appear anechoic. Demonstration of flow within an otherwise simple appearing cyst, a complicated cyst, or a complex mass confirms the presence of a suspicious solid component, which requires biopsy. In addition, twinkle artifact seen with color Doppler US is useful to identify a biopsy marker clip or subtle echogenic microcalcifications (Fig 4). This Doppler color artifact occurs secondary to the presence of a strong reflecting granular surface and results in a rapidly changing mix of color adjacent to and behind the reflector (22). Care must be taken to avoid mistaking twinkle artifact for true vascular flow and, if in doubt, a spectral Doppler tracing can be obtained, as a normal vascular waveform will not be seen with a twinkle artifact.

 

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Elastography

At physical examination, it has long been recognized that malignant tumors tend to feel hard when compared with benign lesions. US elastography can be used to measure tissue stiffness with the potential to improve specificity in the diagnosis of breast masses. There are two forms of US elastography available today: strain and shear wave. With either technique, acoustic information regarding lesion stiffness is converted into a black-and-white or color-scaled image that can also be superimposed on top of a B-mode gray-scale image.

Strain elastography requires gentle compression with a US probe or natural motion (such as heart beat, vascular pulsation, or respiration) and results in tissue displacement, or strain. Strain (ie, tissue compression and motion) is decreased in hard tissues compared with soft tissue (23). The information obtained with strain elastography provides qualitative information, although strain ratios may be calculated by comparing the strain of a lesion to the surrounding normal tissue. Benign breast lesions generally have lower ratios in comparison to malignant lesions (24,25).

Shear-wave elastography is based on the principle of acoustic radiation force. With use of light transducer pressure, transient automatic pulses can be generated by the US probe, inducing transversely oriented shear waves in tissue. The US system captures the velocity of these shear waves, which travel faster in hard tissue compared with soft tissue (26). Shear-wave elastography provides quantitative information because the elasticity of the tissue can be measured in meters per second or in kilopascals, a unit of pressure.

Elastography features such as strain ratios, size ratios, shape, homogeneity, and maximum lesion stiffness may complement conventional US in the analysis of breast lesions. Malignant masses evaluated with elastography tend to be more irregular, heterogeneous, and typically appear larger at elastography than at grayscale imaging (Fig 5) (27,28). Although malignant lesions generally also exhibit maximum stiffness greater than 80–100 kPa (28,29), caution is necessary when applying these numerical values to lesion analysis. Berg et al (28) reported three cancers among 115 masses with maximum stiffness between 20 and 30 kPa, for a 2.6% malignancy rate; 25 cancers among 281 masses with maximum stiffness between 30 and 80 kPa, for an 8.9% malignancy rate; and 61 cancers among 153 masses with maximum stiffness between 80 and 160 kPa, for a 39.9% malignancy rate (28). Invasive cancers with high histologic grade, large tumor size, nodal involvement, and vascular invasion have also been shown to be significantly correlated with high mean stiffness at shear-wave elastography (30).

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Elastography may be useful in improving the specificity of US evaluation of BI-RADS 3 and 4A lesions, including complicated cysts. Berg and colleagues (28) showed that by using qualitative shear-wave elastography and color assessment of lesion stiffness, oval shape, and a maximum elasticity value of less than 80 kPa, unnecessary biopsy of low-suspicion BI-RADS 4A masses could be reduced without a significant loss in sensitivity. Several investigators have proposed a variety of imaging classifications using strain elastography, mostly based on the color pattern (27,31,32). A “bull’s eye” artifact has also been described as a characteristic feature present in benign breast cysts, which may appear as a round or oval lesion with a stiff rim associated with two soft spots, one located centrally and the other posteriorly (33).

Despite these initial promising studies regarding the role of US elastography in the analysis of breast lesions, limitations do exist. Strain and shear-wave elastography are quite different methods of measuring breast tissue stiffness, and the application of these methods varies across different commercial manufacturers. Inter- and intraobserver variability may be relatively high because the elastogram may be affected by differences in degree and method of compression. With strain elastography, a quality indicator that is an associated color bar or numerical value may be helpful to ensure proper light compression. Shear-wave elastography has been shown to be less operator-dependent, as tissue compression is initiated by the US probe in a standard, reproducible fashion (34) and only light transducer pressure is necessary. In addition, there is currently no universal color-coding standard and, depending on the manufacturer and/or operator preference, stiff lesions may be arbitrarily coded to appear red while soft lesions appear blue, or vice versa. Some elastography features such as the “bull’s eye” artifact are only seen on specific US systems. Lesions deeper than 2 cm are less accurately characterized by means of elastography. Moreover, one must be aware that soft cancers and hard benign lesions exist. Therefore, careful correlation of elastography with B-mode US features and mammography is essential. Future studies and further technical advances, including the creation of more uniformity across different US manufacturers, will ultimately determine the usefulness of elastography in clinical practice.

Three-dimensional US

Both handheld and automated high-resolution linear 3D transducers are now available for use in breast imaging. With a single pass of the ultrasound beam, a 3D reconstructed image can be formed in the coronal, sagittal, and transverse planes, potentially allowing more accurate assessment of anatomic structures and tumor margins (Fig 6). Few studies regarding the performance of 3D US in the breast exist, but a preliminary study demonstrated improved characterization of malignant lesions (35). Automated supine whole-breast US using 3D technology is now widely available for use in the screening setting (see section on screening breast US). Three-dimensional US may also be used in addition to computed tomography for image-guided radiation therapy (36) and has a potential role in assessing tumor response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

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US Features of Benign and Malignant Breast Lesions

Cysts

Although for many years the main function of breast US was to differentiate cysts from solid masses, this differentiation can at times be problematic, particularly if the lesion is small or located deep in the breast. Simple cysts are defined as circumscribed, anechoic masses with a thin imperceptible wall and enhanced through transmission (provided spatial compounding is not used). By convention, simple cysts may also contain up to a single thin septation. Simple cysts are confidently characterized with virtually 100% accuracy at US (14,37), provided that they are not very small (< 5 mm in size) or not located in deep tissue. Complicated cysts are hypoechoic with no discernable Doppler flow, contain internal echoes, and may also exhibit indistinct margins, and/or lack posterior acoustic enhancement. Clustered microcysts consist of a cluster of tiny (<2–3 mm in size) anechoic foci with thin (< 0.5 mm in thickness) intervening septations.

Complicated cysts are very common sonographic findings and the majority are benign. In multiple studies, which evaluated over 1400 complicated cysts and microcysts, the malignancy rate ranged from 0% to 0.8% (3844). Most complicated cysts and clustered microcysts with a palpable or mammographic correlate are classified as BI-RADS 3 and require short-interval imaging follow-up or, occasionally, US-guided aspiration. However, in the screening US setting, if multiple and bilateral complicated and simple cysts are present (ie, at least three cysts with at least one cyst in each breast), these complicated cysts can be assessed as benign, BI-RADS 2, requiring no additional follow-up (38).

Complicated cysts should never demonstrate internal vascularity at color Doppler interrogation. The presence of a solid component, mural nodule, thickened septation, or thickened wall within a cystic mass precludes the diagnosis of a benign complicated cyst. These complex masses require biopsy, as some cancers may have cystic components. The application of compound imaging and harmonics, color Doppler, and potentially elastography may help differentiate benign complicated cysts from malignant cystic-appearing masses and reduce the need for additional follow-up or biopsy.

Solid Masses

Sonographic features of benign-appearing solid masses include an oval or ellipsoid shape, “wider-than-tall” orientation parallel to the skin, circumscribed margins, gentle and smooth (less than three) lobulations, as well as absence of any malignant features (2,45) (Fig 2b). Lesions with these features are commonly fibroadenomas or other benign masses and can often be safely followed, even if the mass is palpable (4648). Malignant features of solid masses include spiculations, angular margins, marked hypoechogenicity, posterior acoustic shadowing, microcalcifications, ductal extension, branching pattern, and 1–2-mm microlobulations (2,45) (Figs 1b,56). These are also often taller-than-wide lesions with a nonparallel orientation to the skin and may occasionally be associated with thickened Cooper ligaments and/or or skin thickening. Most cancers have more than one malignant feature, spiculation being the most specific and angular margins the most common (2).

There is, however, considerable overlap between these benign and malignant US features and careful scanning technique, as well as direct correlation with mammography, is essential. For example, some high-grade invasive ductal carcinomas with central necrosis, as well as the well-differentiated mucinous and medullary subtypes, may present as circumscribed, oval, hypoechoic masses that may look like complicated cysts with low-level internal echoes at US. Benign focal fibrous breast tissue or postoperative scars can appear as irregular shadowing masses on US images. Furthermore, while echogenic lesions are often benign and frequently represent lipomas or fibrous tissue, echogenic cancers do rarely occur (Figs 78) (49,50). The presence of a single malignant feature, despite the presence of multiple benign features, precludes a benign classification and mandates biopsy, with the exception of fat necrosis and postoperative scars exhibiting typical benign mammographic features. Likewise, a mass with a benign US appearance should be biopsied if it exhibits any suspicious mammographic features.

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 Ductal Carcinoma in Situ

Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is characteristically associated with microcalcifications detected at mammography, but may also be detected at US since they are often associated with a subtle hypoechoic mass, which may indicate an invasive mammographically occult component. US features associated with DCIS most commonly include a hypoechoic mass with an irregular shape, microlobulated margins, no posterior acoustic features, and no internal vascularity. Ductal abnormalities, intracystic lesions, and architectural distortions may also be present (5153). Noncalcified DCIS manifesting as a solid mass at US is more frequently found in non–high-grade than high-grade DCIS, which is more often associated with microcalcifications and ductal changes (54). US can depict microcalcifications, particularly those in clusters greater than 10 mm in size and located in a hypoechoic mass or a ductlike structure (Fig 9) (55). Malignant calcifications are more likely to be detected sonographically than are benign calcifications, which may be obscured by surrounding echogenic breast tissue (55,56). Although US is inferior to mammography in the detection of suspicious microcalcifications, the main benefit of US detection of DCIS is to identify the invasive component and guide biopsy procedures.

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Breast US in Clinical Practice

Current indications for breast US as recommended by the American College of Radiology Practice Guidelines include the evaluation of palpable abnormalities or other breast symptoms, assessment of mammographic or MR imaging–detected abnormalities, and evaluation of breast implants (57). Additionally, US is routinely used for guidance during interventional procedures, treatment planning for radiation therapy, screening in certain groups of women, and evaluation of axillary lymph nodes. Much literature has been written on these uses and a comprehensive discussion is beyond the scope of this article. A few important and timely topics, however, will be reviewed.

 

 

BI-RADS US

The BI-RADS US lexicon was introduced in 2003, and subsequently, there have been several studies assessing the accuracy of BI-RADS US classification of breast lesions. Low to moderate interobserver agreement has been found in the description of margins (especially noncircumscribed margins), echogenicity, and posterior acoustic features. Abdullah et al (58) reported low interobserver agreement especially for small masses and for malignant masses. Given the importance of margin analysis in the characterization of benign and malignant lesions, this variability is potentially problematic. Studies have also shown variable results in the use of the final assessment categories. In clinical settings, Raza et al (46) showed inconsistent use of the BI-RADS 3 (probably benign) category in 14.0% of cases when biopsy was recommended. Abdullah et al also demonstrated fair and poor interobserver agreement for BI-RADS 4 (suspicious for malignancy) a, b, and c subcategories (58). However, Henig et al (59) reported more promising results, with malignancy rates in categories 3, 4, and 5 to be similar to those seen with mammographic categorization (1.2%, 17%, and 94%, respectively).

 

 Evaluation of Mammographic Findings

Targeted US is complementary to diagnostic mammography because of its ability to differentiate cystic and solid lesions.US is also useful in the work up of subtle asymmetries, as it can help identify or exclude the presence of an underlying mass. True hypoechoic lesions can often be differentiated from prominent fat lobules by scanning in multiple planes, because true lesions usually do not blend or elongate into adjacent tissue. With the introduction of digital breast tomosynthesis for mammographic imaging, US will play yet another important role. As mammographic lesions can often be detected, localized, and have adequate margin assessment on 3D images, patients with lesions detected on digital breast tomosynthesis images at screening may often be referred directly to US, avoiding additional mammographic imaging and its associated costs and radiation exposure (Fig 10). This will place an even greater importance on high-quality US.

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Evaluation of the Symptomatic Patient:Palpable Masses, Breast Pain, and Nipple Discharge

US is essential in the evaluation of patients with the common clinical complaint of either a palpable mass or focal persistent breast pain. Unlike focal breast pain, which may be occasionally associated with benign or malignant lesions, diffuse breast pain (bilateral or unilateral), as well as cyclic breast pain, requires only clinical follow-up, as it is usually physiologic with an extremely low likelihood of malignancy (60,61). In patients with isolated focal breast pain, the role of sonography may be limited to patient reassurance (61). In women younger than 30 years of age, with a palpable lump or focal breast pain, US is the primary imaging test, with a sensitivity and negative predictive value of nearly 100% (62). Symptomatic women older than 30 years usually require both US and mammography, and in these patients, the negative predictive value approaches 100% (63,64). Lehman et al (65) demonstrated that in symptomatic women aged 30–39 years, the risk of malignancy was 1.9% and the added value of adjunct mammography in addition to US was low. Identification of a benign-appearing solid lesion at US in a symptomatic woman can negate the need for needle biopsy, as many of these masses can safely be monitored with short-interval follow-up US (4648), usually performed at 6 months. A suspicious mass identified at US can promptly undergo biopsy with US guidance.

US can also be used as an alternative or an addition to ductography in patients who present with unilateral, spontaneous bloody, clear, or serosanguinous nipple discharge (66). Among women with worrisome nipple discharge, ductography can demonstrate an abnormality in 59%–82% of women (67,68), MR imaging may demonstrate a suspicious abnormality in 34% of women (68), and US has been shown to demonstrate a subareolar mass or an intraductal mass or filling defect in up to 14% of women (67). If US can be used to identify a retroareolar mass or an intraductal mass, US-guided biopsy can be performed and ductography may be avoided (Fig 11). US may be limited, however, as small peripherally located intraductal masses or masses without an associated dilated duct may not be identified. Therefore, galactography, MR imaging, and/or major duct excision may still be necessary in the symptomatic patient with a negative US examination.

Picture11

Finally, in the pregnant or lactating patient who presents with a palpable breast mass, focal breast pain, or bloody nipple discharge, US is also the initial imaging modality of choice. Targeted US examination in these patients can be used to identify most benign and malignant masses, including fibroadenomas, galactocoeles, lactating adenomas, abscesses, and invasive carcinomas. In a recent study by Robbins et al (69), a negative predictive value of 100% was found among 122 lesions evaluated with US in lactating, pregnant, or postpartum women. This is much higher than the pregnancy-associated breast cancer sensitivity of mammography, which has been reported in the range of 78%–87% (70,71). The diminished sensitivity of mammography is likely due to increased parenchymal density seen in these patients. However, since lactating breast parenchyma is more echogenic than most breast masses, hypoechoic breast cancers are more readily detected at US in pregnant patients.

 

 

Supplemental Screening Breast US

Because of the known limitations of mammography, particularly in women with dense breast tissue, supplemental screening with whole-breast US, in addition to mammography, is increasingly gaining widespread acceptance. Numerous independent studies have demonstrated that the addition of a single screening or whole-breast US examination in women with dense breast tissue at mammography will yield an additional 2.3–4.6 mammographically occult cancers per 1000 women (7280). Mammographically occult cancers detected on US images are generally small node-negative invasive cancers (Fig 12) (81). However, few studies have investigated the performance of incident screening breast US, and the optimal screening US interval is unknown. Berg and colleagues (82) recently demonstrated that incident annual supplemental screening US in intermediate- and high-risk women with mammographically dense breast tissue enabled detection of an additional 3.7 cancers per 1000 women screened.

Picture12

Handheld screening breast US is highly operator-dependent and the majority of screening breast US studies have relied on physician-performed examinations. As per the ACRIN 6666 protocol, a normal screening US examination should consist of a minimum of one image in each quadrant and one behind the nipple (83). Two studies have also demonstrated that technologist-performed handheld screening breast US can achieve similar cancer detection rates (76,78).

Automated whole-breast US is a recently developed alternative to traditional handheld screening breast US, in which standardized, uniform image sets may be readily obtained by a nonradiologist. Automated whole-breast US systems may utilize a standard US unit and a linear-array transducer attached to a computer-guided mechanical arm or a dedicated screening US unit with a 15-cm wide transducer (84,85). With these systems, over 3000 overlapping sagittal, transverse, and coronal images are obtained and available for later review by the radiologist, with associated 3D reconstruction. The advantages include less operator dependence, increased radiologist efficiency, and increased reproducibility, which could aid in follow-up of lesions.

A multi-institutional study has shown that supplemental automated whole-breast US can depict an additional 3.6 cancer per 1000 women screened, similar to physician-performed handheld screening US (85). However, disadvantages include the limited ability to scan the entire breast, particularly posterior regions in large breasts, time-consuming review of a large number of images by the radiologist, and the need to recall patients for a second US examination to re-evaluate indeterminate findings. Moreover, few investigators have compared the use of handheld with automated breast US screening. A single small recent study by Chang et al (86) demonstrated that of 14 cancers initially detected at handheld screening, only 57%–79% were also detected by three separate readers on automated whole-breast US images, with the two cancers missed by all three readers at automated whole-breast US, each less than 1 cm in size.

The use of supplemental screening breast US, performed in addition to mammography, remains controversial despite proof of the ability to detect small mammographically occult cancers. US has limited value for the detection of small clustered microcalcifications without an associated mass lesion. Low positive predictive values of biopsies performed of less than 12% have been consistently reported (77,87). No outcome study has been able to demonstrate a direct decrease in patient mortality due to the detection of these additional small and mammographically occult cancers. This would require a long, randomized screening trial, which is not feasible. Rationally, however, the early detection and treatment of additional small breast cancers should improve outcomes and reduce overall morbidity and mortality. Many insurance companies will not reimburse for screening breast US and historically, this examination has not been widely accepted in the United States.

Nevertheless, because of both the known efficacy of supplemental screening breast US and overall increased breast cancer awareness, more patients and clinicians are requesting this examination. In fact, some states now mandate that radiologists inform women of their breast density and advise them to discuss supplemental screening with their doctors. Although supplemental screening breast MR imaging is usually preferred for women who are at very high risk for breast cancer (ie, women with a lifetime risk of over 20%, for example those women who are BRCA positive or have multiple first-degree relatives with a history of premenopausal breast cancer), screening breast US should be considered in women at very high risk for breast cancer who cannot tolerate breast MR imaging, as well as those women with dense breast tissue and intermediate risk (ie, lifetime risk of 15%–20%, for example those women whose only risk factor is a personal history of breast cancer or previous biopsy of a high-risk lesion), or even average risk. Future studies are needed to establish strategies to reduce false-positive results and continue to optimize both technologist-performed handheld screening US and automated whole-breast US in women with mammographically dense breast tissue.

 

 Use of US for MR Imaging–depicted Abnormalities

MR imaging of the breast is now an integral part of breast imaging, most commonly performed to screen high-risk women and to further assess the stage in patients with newly diagnosed breast cancers. While MR has a higher sensitivity than mammography for detecting breast cancer, the specificity is relatively low (88). Lesions detected on MR images are often mammographically occult, but many can be detected with targeted US (Fig 13). Besides further US characterization of an MR imaging–detected lesion, US may be used to guide intervention for lesions initially detected at MR imaging. US-guided biopsies are considerably less expensive, less time consuming, and more comfortable for the patient than MR imaging–guided biopsies.

Picture13a

Picture13b

Some suspicious lesions detected at MR imaging will represent invasive ductal or lobular cancers, but many may prove to be intraductal disease, which can be challenging to detect at US. Meticulous scanning technique is required for an MR imaging–directed US examination, with knowledge of subtle sonographic signs and close correlation with the MR imaging findings and location. Precontrast T1 images are helpful to facilitate localization of lesions in relation to fibroglandular tissue (89). Because MR imaging abnormalities tend to be vascular, increased vascularity may also assist in detection of a subtle sonographic correlate (90). Having the MR images available for simultaneous review while performing the US examination will ideally permit such associative correlation. At the authors’ facility, computer monitors displaying images from the picture archiving and communication system are available in all US rooms for this purpose.

Recent studies have shown that 46%–71% of lesions at MR imaging can be detected with focused US (9094). Enhancing masses detected on MR images are identified on focused US images in 58%–65% of cases compared with nonmass enhancement, which is identified on focused US images in only 12%–32% of cases (9092). Some studies have shown that US depiction of an MR imaging correlate was independent of size (91,93,95). However, Meissnitzer et al (92) showed that size dependence is also important: For masses 5 mm or smaller, only 50% were seen, versus 56% for masses 6–10 mm, 73% for masses 11–15 mm, and 86% for masses larger than 15 mm. Likewise, this study also demonstrated that for nonmass lesions, a US correlate was found for 13% of those measuring 6–10 mm, 25% of those 11–15 mm, and 42% of those larger than 15 mm (92). In addition, many of these studies determined that when a sonographic correlate was discovered, the probability of malignancy was increased (9092). Since typical US malignant features such as spiculation and posterior shadowing may be absent and the pretest probability is higher for MR imaging–detected lesions, a lower threshold for biopsy should be considered when performing MR imaging–directed US compared with routine targeted US (90) or screening US.

Because lesions are often very subtle at MR-directed US examination and because of differences in patient positioning during the two examinations, careful imaging–histologic correlation is required when performing US-guided biopsy of MR imaging–detected abnormalities. For lesions sampled with a vacuum-assisted device and US guidance, Sakamoto et al (96) found a higher rate of false-negative biopsy results for MR imaging–detected lesions than for US-detected lesions, suggesting that precise US-MR imaging correlation may not have occurred. Meissnitzer et al (92) showed that although 91% of MR imaging–detected lesions had an accurate US correlate, 9% were found to be inaccurate. With ever-improving techniques and experience in breast US, the US visualization of MR imaging–detected abnormalities will likely continue to improve. Nevertheless, if a suspicious lesion is not identified sonographically, MR imaging–guided biopsy should still be performed, because the malignancy rate of sonographically occult MR imaging–detected lesions has been shown to range from 14% to 22% (91,95).

 

 

Preoperative Staging of Cancer with US

Breast MR imaging has been shown to be more sensitive than US in the detection of additional foci of mammographically occult disease in women with newly diagnosed breast cancer (9799). Nevertheless, when a highly suspicious mass is identified at mammography and US, immediate US evaluation of the remainder of the ipsilateral breast, the contralateral breast, and the axilla should be considered. If additional lesions are identified, preoperative staging with MR imaging can be avoided and US-guided biopsy can be promptly performed, saving the patient valuable time and expense (100). In a study by Moon et al (101), of 201 patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer, staging US demonstrated mammographically occult multifocal or multicentric disease in 28 patients (14%) and contralateral breast cancers in eight patients (4%), resulting in a change in therapy in 32 patients (16%).

US can also be used to identify abnormal axillary, supraclavicular, and internal mammary lymph nodes. Abnormal lymph nodes characteristically demonstrate focal or diffuse cortical thickening (≥3 mm in thickness), a round (rather than oval or reniform) shape, loss of the echogenic fatty hilum and/or nonhilar, disorganized, irregular blood vessels (102,103) (Fig 14). A positive US-guided CNB or fine-needle aspiration of a clinically abnormal axillary lymph node in a patient with a known breast cancer can aid patient management, by avoiding the need for sentinel node biopsy and allowing the patient instead to proceed directly to axillary lymph node dissection or neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Picture14

 

 Interventional Breast US

US-guided interventional procedures have increased in volume in recent years and US is now the primary biopsy guidance technique used in many breast imaging centers. Most palpable lesions, as well as lesions detected at mammography, MR imaging, or screening US, can be sampled with US. With current high-resolution transducers, even suspicious intraductal microcalcifications may be detected and sampled.

While US-guided procedures require technical skills that must be developed and can be challenging, once mastered this technique allows precise real-time sampling of the lesion, which is not possible with either stereotactic or MR imaging–guided procedures. US-guided procedures do not require ionizing radiation or intravenous contrast material. US procedures are more tolerable for patients than stereotactic (104) or MR imaging–guided procedures because US-guided procedures are faster and more comfortable, as breast compression and uncomfortable biopsy coils or tables are not necessary and the procedure may be performed with the patient supine (104106).

Most literature has shown that automated 14-gauge CNB devices are adequate for the majority of US-guided biopsies (107115). Image-guided CNB is preferable to fine-needle aspiration cytology of breast masses because of superior sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic accuracy (116). DCIS, malignant invasion, and hormone receptor status of invasive breast cancers can be determined with CNB samples, but not with fine-needle aspiration cytology. Fine-needle aspiration may be performed, however, in complicated cysts and symptomatic simple cysts. In these cases, the cyst aspirate fluid can often be discarded; cytology is usually only necessary if the fluid is frankly bloody (117).

The choice of performing fine-needle aspiration or CNB of a suspicious axillary lymph node depends on radiologist preference and the availability of an experienced cytopathologist, although CNB is usually more accurate than fine-needle aspiration biopsy (118,119). Fine-needle aspiration may be preferred for suspicious deep lymph nodes in proximity to the axillary vessels, whereas CNB may be preferred in large nodes with thickened cortices, particularly if determination of hormone receptor status or immunohistochemistry is desired, since more tissue is required for these assays. If lymphoma is suspected, a core should be placed in saline and also in conventional formalin.

While the underestimation rate of malignancy can be considerable for high-risk lesions such as atypical hyperplasia, such histology is not commonly found in lesions undergoing US-guided CNB. Multiple studies have shown a false-negative rate for US CNB biopsy of around 2%–3% (107115). Although the contiguous and larger samples obtained with a vacuum-assisted biopsy device undoubtedly reduce sampling error, the vacuum-assisted biopsy is a more expensive and more invasive procedure (109). In the authors’ experience, vacuum-assisted US biopsy is to be considered for small masses, intraductal or intracystic lesions, or lesions with subtle microcalcifications. These may be difficult to adequately sample with a spring-loaded automatic firing device. Alternatively, for more accurate sampling of such challenging cases, as well as some axillary lymph nodes and masses smaller than 1 cm in size, automated CNB needles designed to place the inner trough of the needle within a lesion before firing can be utilized (Fig 15). With this technique, the sampling trough of the CNB needle can be clearly visualized within the lesion before the overlying outer sheath is fired. Regardless of needle choice, a postbiopsy clip marker should be placed followed by a postbiopsy mammogram to document clip position. This will assist with follow-up imaging, facilitating mammography and/or MR imaging correlation.

Picture15a

 

Picture15b

There has been recent interest in the percutaneous removal of benign breast lesions by using US-guided vacuum-assisted biopsy. While in general, proved benign concordant lesions can safely remain in the breast, some patients desire removal. Percutaneous US-guided removal with a vacuum-assisted biopsy device can replace surgical removal in some cases, particularly for small lesions (1 cm in size or less). Several reports have shown promising results demonstrating rates of complete lesion excision, varying from 61% to 94% (120124). Dennis et al (125) demonstrated that vacuum-assisted US-guided biopsy could be used to excise intraductal lesions resulting in resolution of problematic nipple discharge in 97% of patients. Even on long-term follow-up, most studies show low rates of residual masses, more commonly observed in larger fibroadenomas.

 

 Intraoperative Breast US

The use of two-dimensional and 3D intraoperative US may decrease the incidence of positive margins and decrease re-excision rates (126130) particularly in the setting of lumpectomy for palpable cancers, when US is used to assess the adequacy of surgical margins to determine the need for additional tissue removal. Similarly, intraoperative US has also been utilized to improve detection and removal of metastatic lymph nodes during sentinel lymph node assessment (131).

 

Future Directions

Intravenous US microbubble contrast agents have been used to enhance US diagnosis by means of analysis, enhancement patterns, the rates of uptake and washout, and identification of tumor angiogenesis. In addition, preliminary research has shown that intravenous US contrast agents may be able to depict tissue function with the potential to deliver targeted gene therapy to selected tumor cells (132). However, there are currently no intravenous US contrast agents approved for use in breast imaging by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Other potential advances in breast US include fusion imaging, which involves the direct overlay of correlative MR imaging with targeted US. Another evolving area is that of US computer-aided detection, which may be of particular benefit when combined with automated whole-breast screening US.

 

 Summary

Technical advances in US now allow comprehensive US diagnosis, management, and treatment of breast lesions. Optimal use of US technology, meticulous scanning technique with careful attention to lesion morphology, and recognition and synthesis of findings from multiple imaging modalities are essential for optimal patient management. In the future, as radiologists utilize US for an ever-increasing scope of indications, become aware of the more subtle sonographic findings of breast cancer, and apply newly developing tools, the value of breast US will likely continue to increase and evolve.

 

Essentials

  • • Breast US is operator dependent; knowledge and understanding of the various technical options currently available are important for image optimization and accurate diagnosis.
  • • US is an interactive, dynamic modality and real-time scanning is necessary to assess subtle findings associated with malignancy.
  • • Ability to synthesize the information obtained from the breast US examination with concurrent mammography, MR imaging, and clinical breast examination is necessary for accurate diagnosis.
  • • The use of screening breast US in addition to mammography, particularly in women with dense breast tissue, is becoming more widely accepted in the United States.
  • • Breast US guidance is the primary biopsy method used in most breast imaging practices, and the radiologist should be familiar with various biopsy devices and techniques to adequately sample any breast mass identified at US.

 

Disclosures of Conflicts of Interest: R.J.H. No relevant conflicts of interest to disclose. L.M.S. Financial activities related to the present article: none to disclose. Financial activities not related to the present article: educational consultant in vascular US to Philips Healthcare; payment for lectures on breast US from Educational Symposia; payment for development of educational presentations from Philips Healthcare. Other relationships: none to disclose. L.E.P. Financial activities related to the present article: none to disclose. Financial activities not related to the present article: consultant to Hologic. Other relationships: none to disclose.

Abbreviations:

BI-RADS = Breast Imaging and Reporting Data System

CNB = core needle biopsy

DCIS = ductal carcinoma in situ

3D = three dimensional

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    . Sonographic, mammographic, and histopathologic correlation of symptomatic ductal carcinoma in situ. AJR Am J Roentgenol2004;182(1):101–110.

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Following (or not) the guidelines for use of imaging in management of prostate cancer.

Writer and curator: Dror Nir, PhD

Over diagnosis and over treatment is a trend of the last two decades. It leads to increase in health-care costs and human-misery.

The following headline on Medscape; Swedes Show That We Can Improve Imaging in Prostate Cancer elicited my curiosity.

I was expecting “good news” – well, not this time!

In spite the “general language” the study that the above mentioned headline refers to is not addressing the global use of imaging in prostate cancer patients’ pathway but is specific to use of radionuclide bone-scans as part of patients’ staging.  The “bad-news” are that realization that the Swedish government had to invest many man-years to achieve “success” in reducing unnecessary use of such imaging in low risk patients. Moreover, the paper reveals under-use of such imaging technology for staging high risk prostate cancer patients.

Based on this paper, one could come to the conclusion that in reality, we are facing long lasting non-conformity with established guidelines related to the use of “full-body” imaging as part of the prostate cancer patients’ pathway in Europe and USA.

Here is a link to the original paper:

Prostate Cancer Imaging Trends After a Nationwide Effort to Discourage Inappropriate Prostate Cancer Imaging, Danil V. MakarovStacy LoebDavid UlmertLinda DrevinMats Lambe and Pär Stattin Correspondence to: Pär Stattin, MD, PhD, Department of Surgery and Perioperative Sciences, Urology and Andrology, Umeå University, SE- 901 87 Umeå, Sweden (e-mail:par.stattin@urologi.umu.se).

JNCI J Natl Cancer Inst (2013)doi: 10.1093/jnci/djt175

 

For convenience, here are the highlights:

  • Reducing inappropriate use of imaging to stage incident prostate cancer is a challenging problem highlighted recently as a Physician Quality Reporting System quality measure and by the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Urological Association in the Choosing Wisely campaign.

 

  • Since 2000, the National Prostate Cancer Register (NPCR) of Sweden has led an effort to decrease national rates of inappropriate prostate cancer imaging by disseminating utilization data along with the latest imaging guidelines to urologists in Sweden.

  • Results Thirty-six percent of men underwent imaging within 6 months of prostate cancer diagnosis. Overall, imaging use decreased over time, particularly in the low-risk category, among whom the imaging rate decreased from 45% to 3% (P < .001), but also in the high-risk category, among whom the rate decreased from 63% to 47% (P < .001). Despite substantial regional variation, all regions experienced clinically and statistically (P < .001) significant decreases in prostate cancer imaging.

 

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  • These results may inform current efforts to promote guideline-concordant imaging in the United States and internationally.

  • In 1998, the baseline low-risk prostate cancer imaging rate in Sweden was 45%. Per the NCCN guidelines (7), none of these men should have received bone imaging unless they presented with symptoms suggestive of bone pain (8,24). In the United States, the imaging rate among men with low-risk prostate cancer has been reported to be 19% to 74% in a community cohort and 10% to 48% in a Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER)–Medicare cohort (10–13,16). It is challenging to compare these rates directly across the two countries because the NPCR aggregates all staging imaging into one variable. However, our sampling revealed that 88% of those undergoing imaging had at least a bone scan, whereas only 11% had any CTs and 10% had any MRI. This suggests that baseline rates of bone scan among low-risk men in Sweden were similar to those among their low-risk counterparts in the United States, whereas rates of axial imaging were likely much lower. During the study period, rates of prostate cancer imaging among low-risk men in Sweden decreased to 3%, substantially lower than those reported in the United States at any time.

  • Miller et al. describe a decline in imaging associated with a small-scale intervention administered in three urology practices located in the United States participating in a quality-improvement consortium. Our study’s contribution is to demonstrate that a similar strategy can be applied effectively at a national scale with an associated decline in inappropriate imaging rates, a finding of great interest for policy makers in the United States seeking to improve health-care quality.

  • In 1998, the baseline high-risk prostate cancer imaging rates in Sweden were 63%, and decreased by 43% in 2008 (rising slightly to 47% in 2009). Based on our risk category definitions and the guidelines advocated in Sweden, all of these men should have undergone an imaging evaluation (8,24). Swedish rates of prostate cancer imaging among men with high-risk disease are considerably lower than those reported from the SEER–Medicare cohort, where 70% to 75% underwent bone scan and 57% to 58% underwent CT (13,16). These already low rates of imaging among men with high-risk prostate cancer only decreased further during the NPCR’s effort to promote guideline-concordant imaging. Clearly in both countries, imaging for high-risk prostate cancer remains underused despite the general overuse of imaging and numerous guidelines encouraging its appropriate use (3–9).

Similar items I have covered on this this Open Access Online Scientific Journal:

Not applying evidence-based medicine drives up the costs of screening for breast-cancer in the USA.

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The immune response

The immune response (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Confined Indolamine 2, 3 dioxygenase (IDO) Controls the Hemeostasis of Immune Responses for Good and Bad

Curator: Demet Sag, PhD, CRA, GCP

ABSTRACT:

The immune response mechanism is the holy grail of the human defense system for health.   IDO, indolamine 2, 3-dioxygenase, is a key gene for homeostasis of immune responses and producing an enzyme catabolizing the first rate-limiting step in tryptophan degradation metabolism. The hemostasis of immune system is complicated.  In this review we will discuss properties of IDO such as basic molecular genetics, biochemistry and genesis. IDO belongs to globin gene family to carry oxygen and heme.

The main function and genesis of IDO comes from the immune responses during host-microbial invasion and choice between tolerance and immunegenity. In addition IDO has a role in vascular tone as well.  In human there are three kinds of IDOs, which are IDO1, IDO2, and TDO, with distinguished mechanisms and expression profiles. , IDO mechanism includes three distinguished pathways: enzymatic acts through IFNgamma, non-enzymatic acts through TGFbeta-IFNalpha/IFNbeta and moonlighting acts through AhR/Kyn. These mechanisms and their relation with various health and disease will be presented. Overall our purpose is to find a method to manipulate IDO to correct/fix/modulate immune responses for clinical applications.

Our focus is on cancer prevention with DCvax.  The first study proving the connection between IDO and immune response came from, a very natural event, a protection of pregnancy in human. This led to discover that high IDO expression is a common factor in cancer tumors. Thus, attention promoted investigations on IDO’s role in various disease states, immune disorders, transplantation, inflammation, women health, mood disorders.  Many approaches, vaccines and adjuvants are underway to find new immunotherapies by combining the power of DCs in immune response regulation and specific direction of siRNA.  As a result, with this unique qualities of IDO, DCs and siRNA, we orchestrated a novel intervention for immunomodulation of IDO by inhibiting with small interference RNA, called siRNA-IDO-DCvax.  Proven that our DCvax created a delay and regression of tumor growth without changing the natural structure and characterization of DCs in melanoma and breast cancers in vivo.

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IDO is a key homeostatic regulator and confined in immune system mechanism for the balance between tolerance and immunity.  This gene encodes indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase (IDO) – a heme enzyme (EC=1.13.11.52) that catalyzes the first rate-limiting step in tryptophan catabolism to N-formyl-kynurenine and acts on multiple tryptophan substrates including D-tryptophan, L-tryptophan, 5-hydroxy-tryptophan, tryptamine, and serotonin (1; 2; 3; 4).

The basic genetic information describes indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1, IDO, INDO) as an enzyme located at Chromosome 8p12-p11 (5; 6) that active at the first step of the Tryptophan catabolism.    The cloned gene structure showed that IDO contains 10 exons ad 9 introns (7; 8) producing 9 transcripts.  After alternative splicing only five of the transcripts encode a protein but the other four does not make protein products, three of transcripts retain intron and one of them create a nonsense code (7).  Based on IDO related studies 15 phenotypes of IDO is identified, of which, twelve in cancer tumor models of lung, kidney, endometrium, intestine, two in nervous system, and one HGMD- deletion.

The specific cellular location of IDO is in cytosol, smooth muscle contractile fibers and stereocilium bundle. The expression specificity shows that IDO is present very widely in all cell types but there is an elevation of expression in placenta, pancreas, pancreas islets, including dendritic cells (DCs) according to gene atlas of transcriptome (9).  Expression of IDO is common in antigen presenting cells (APCs), monocytes (MO), macrophages (MQs), DCs, T-cells, and some B-cells. IDO present in APCs (10; 11), due to magnitude of role play hierarchy and level of expression DCs are the better choice but including MOs during establishment of three DC cell subset, CD14+CD25+, CD14++CD25+ and CD14+CD25++ may increase the longevity and efficacy of the interventions.

IDO is strictly regulated and confined to immune system with diverse functions based on either positive or negative stimulations. The positive stimulations are T cell tolerance induction, apoptotic process, and chronic inflammatory response, type 2 immune response, interleukin-12 production (12).  The negative stimulations are interleukin-10 production, activated T cell proliferation, T cell apoptotic process.  Furthermore, there are more functions allocating fetus during female pregnancy; changing behavior, responding to lipopolysaccharide or multicellular organismal response to stress possible due to degradation of tryptophan, kynurenic acid biosynthetic process, cellular nitrogen compound metabolic process, small molecule metabolic process, producing kynurenine process (13; 14; 15).   IDO plays a role in a variety of pathophysiological processes such as antimicrobial and antitumor defense, neuropathology, immunoregulation, and antioxidant activity (16; 17; 18; 19).

Active site of IDO–PI complex. (A) Stereoview of the residues around the heme of IDO viewed from the side of heme plane. The proximal ligand H346 is H-bonded to wa1. The 6-propionate of the heme contacts with wa2 and R343 Nε. The wa2 is H-bonded to wa1, L388 O, and 6-propionate. Mutations of F226, F227, and R231 do not lose the substrate affinity but produce the inactive enzyme. Two CHES molecules are bound in the distal pocket. The cyclohexan ring of CHES-1 (green) contacts with F226 and R231. The 7-propionate of the heme interacts with the amino group of CHES-1 and side chain of Ser-263. The mutational analyses for these distal residues are shown in Table 1. (B) Top view of A by a rotation of 90°. The proximal residues are omitted. (http://www.pnas.org/content/103/8/2611/F3.expansion.html)

Active site of IDO–PI complex. (A) Stereoview of the residues around the heme of IDO viewed from the side of heme plane. The proximal ligand H346 is H-bonded to wa1. The 6-propionate of the heme contacts with wa2 and R343 Nε. The wa2 is H-bonded to wa1, L388 O, and 6-propionate. Mutations of F226, F227, and R231 do not lose the substrate affinity but produce the inactive enzyme. Two CHES molecules are bound in the distal pocket. The cyclohexan ring of CHES-1 (green) contacts with F226 and R231. The 7-propionate of the heme interacts with the amino group of CHES-1 and side chain of Ser-263. The mutational analyses for these distal residues are shown in Table 1. (B) Top view of A by a rotation of 90°. The proximal residues are omitted. (http://www.pnas.org/content/103/8/2611/F3.expansion.html)

Molecular genetics data from earlier findings based on reporter assay results showed that IDO promoter is regulated by ISRE-like elements and GAS-sequence at -1126 and -1083 region (20).

Two cis-acting elements are ISRE1 (interferon sequence response element 1) and interferon sequence response element 2 (ISRE2).    Analyses of site directed and deletion mutation with transfected cells demonstrated that introduction of point mutations at these elements decreases the IDO expression. Removing ISRE1 decreases the effects of IFNgamma induction 50 fold and deleting ISRE1 at -1126 reduced by 25 fold (3). Introducing point mutations in conserved t residues at -1124 and -1122 (from T to C or G) in ISRE consensus sequence NAGtttCA/tntttNCC of IFNa/b inducible gene ISG4 eliminates the promoter activity by 24 fold (21).

ISRE2 have two boxes, X box (-114/1104) and Y Box 9-144/-135), which are essential part of the IFNgamma response region of major histocompatibility complex class II promoters (22; 23).  When these were removed from ISRE2 or introducing point mutations at two A residues of ISRE2 at -111 showed a sharp decrease after IFNgamma treatment by 4 fold (3).  The lack of responses related to truncated or deleted IRF-1 interactions whereas IRF-2, Jak2 and STAT91 levels were similar in the cells, HEPg2 and ME180 (3). Furthermore, 748 bp deleted between these elements did not affect the IDO expression, thus the distance between ISRE1 and ISRE2 elements have no function or influence on IDO (3; 24)

There are three types of IDO in human genome:

IDO was originally discovered in 1967 in rabbit intestine (25). Later, in 1990 the human IDO gene is cloned and sequenced (7).  However, its importance and relevance in immunology was not created until prevention of allocation of fetal rejection and founding expression in wide range of human cancers (26; 27).  There are three types of IDO, pro-IDO like, IDO1, and IDO2.  In addition, another enzyme called TDO, tryptophan 2, 3, dehydrogenase solely degrade L-Trp at first-rate limiting mechanism in liver and brain.

 

IDO1 mechanism is the target for immunotherapy applications. The initial discovery of IDO in human physiology is protection of pregnancy (1) since lack of IDO results in premature recurrent abortion (28; 26; 29).   The initial rate-limiting step of tryptophan metabolism is catalyzed by either IDO or tryptophan 2, 3-dioxygenase (TDO).

Structural studies of IDO versus TDO presenting active site environments, conserved Arg 117 and Tyr113, found both in TDO and IDO for the Tyr-Glu motif, but His55 in TDO replaced by Ser167b in IDO (30; 2). As a result, they are regulated with different mechanisms (1; 2) (30).

 The short-lived TDO, about 2h, responds to level of tryptophan and its expression regulated by glucorticoids (31; 32).  Thus, it is a useful target for regulation and induced by tryptophan so that increasing tryptophan induces NAD biosynthesis. Whereas, IDO is not activated by the level of Trp presence but inflammatory agents with its interferon stimulated response elements (ISRE1 and ISRE2) in its (33; 34; 35; 36; 3; 10) promoter.

TDO promoter contains glucorticoid response elements (37; 38) and regulated by glucocorticoids and other available amino acids for gluconeogenesis. This is how IDO binds to only immune response cells and TDO relates to NAD biosynthesis mechanisms.

Furthermore, TDO is express solely in liver and brain (36).  NAD synthesis (39) showed increased IDO ubiquitous and TDO in liver and causing NAD level increase in rat with neuronal degeneration (40; 41).  NAM has protective function in beta-cells could be used to cure Type1 diabetes (40; 42; 43). In addition, knowledge on NADH/NAD, Kyn/Trp or Trp/Kyn ratios as well as Th1/Th2, CD4/CD8 or Th17/Threg are equally important (44; 40).

The third type of IDO, called IDO2 exists in lower vertebrates like chicken, fish and frogs (45) and in human with differential expression properties. The expression of IDO2 is only in DCs, unlike IDO1 expresses on both tumors and DCs in human tissues.  Yet, in lower invertebrates IDO2 is not inhibited by general inhibitor of IDO, D-1-methyl-tryptophan (1MT) (46).

Recently, two structurally unusual natural inhibitors of IDO molecules, EXIGUAMINES A and B, are synthesized (47).  LIP mechanism cannot be switch back to activation after its induction in IDO2 (46). Crucial cancer progression can continue with production of IL6, IL10 and TGF-beta1 to help invasion and metastasis.  Inclusion of two common SNPs affects the function of IDO2 in certain populations.  SNP1 reduces 90% of IDO2 catalytic activity in 50% of European and Asian descent and SNP2 produce premature protein through inclusion of stop-codon in 25% of African descent lack functional IDO2 (Uniport).

The Origin of IDO:

A: Structure of human IDO2 gene and transcripts. Complete coding region is 1260 bps encoding a 420 aa polypeptide. Alternate splice isoforms lacking the exons indicated are noted. Hatch boxes represent a frameshift in the coding region to an alternate reading frame leading to termination. Black boxes represent 3' untranslated regions. Nucleotide numbers, intron sizes, and positioning are based on IDO sequence files NW_923907.1 and GI:89028628 in the Genbank database. (reference: http://atlasgeneticsoncology.org/Genes/IDO2ID44387ch8p11.html)

A: Structure of human IDO2 gene and transcripts. Complete coding region is 1260 bps encoding a 420 aa polypeptide. Alternate splice isoforms lacking the exons indicated are noted. Hatch boxes represent a frameshift in the coding region to an alternate reading frame leading to termination. Black boxes represent 3′ untranslated regions. Nucleotide numbers, intron sizes, and positioning are based on IDO sequence files NW_923907.1 and GI:89028628 in the Genbank database.
(reference: http://atlasgeneticsoncology.org/Genes/IDO2ID44387ch8p11.html)

Knowing the evolutionary steps will helps us to identify how we can manage the regulator function to protect human health in cancer, immune disorders, diabetes, and infectious diseases.   Bacterial IDO has two types of IDOs that are group I and group II IDO (48)These are the earliest version of the IDO, pro-IDO like, proteins with a quite complicated function.  Each microorganism recognized by a specific set of receptors, called Toll-Like Receptors (TLR), to activate the IDO-like protein expression based on the origin of the bacteria or virus (49; 35).  

Thus, the genesis of human IDO originates from gene duplication of these early bacterial versions of IDO-like proteins after their invasion interactions with human host.  IDO1 only exists in mammals and fungi.  Fungi also has three types of IDO; IDOa, IDO beta, and IDO gamma (50) with different properties than human IDOs, perhaps multiple IDO is necessary for the world’s decomposers.

All globins, haemoglobins and myoglobins, destined to evolve from a common ancestor that is only 14-16kDa (51) length. Binding of a heme and being oxygen carrier are central to the enzyme mechanism of this family.  Globins are classified under three distinct origins; a universal globin, a compact globin, and IDO-like globin (52).  IDO like globin widely distributed among gastropodic mollusks (53; 51).

The indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase 1–like “myoglobin” (Myb) was discovered in 1989 in the buccal mass of the abalone Sulculus diversicolor (54).  The conserved region between Myb and IDO-like Myb existed for at least 600 million years (53).  Even though the splice junction of seven introns was kept intact, the overall homolog region between Myb and IDO is only about 35%.  No significant evolutionary relationship is found between them after their amino acid sequence of each exon is compared to usual globin sequences. This led the hint that molluscan IDO-like protein must have other functions besides carrying oxygen, like myoglobin.   Alignment of S. cerevisiae cDNA, mollusk and vertebrate IDO–like globins show the key regions for controlling IDO or myoglobin function (55). These data suggest that there is an alternative pathways of myoglobin evolution.  In addition, understanding the diversity of globin may help to design better protocols for interventions of diseases.

B: Amino acid alignment of IDO and IDO2. Amino acids determined by mutagenesis and the crystal structure of IDO that are critical for catalytic activity are positioned below the human IDO sequence. Two commonly occurring SNPs identified in the coding region of human IDO2 are shown above the sequence which alter a critical amino acid (R248W) or introduce a premature termination codon (Y359stop).

B: Amino acid alignment of IDO and IDO2. Amino acids determined by mutagenesis and the crystal structure of IDO that are critical for catalytic activity are positioned below the human IDO sequence. Two commonly occurring SNPs identified in the coding region of human IDO2 are shown above the sequence which alter a critical amino acid (R248W) or introduce a premature termination codon (Y359stop).

The Immune Cells and IDO in DCs:

DCs are the orchestrator of the immune response (56; 57; 58) with list of functions in uptake, processing, and presentation of antigens; activation of effector cells, such as T-cells and NK-cells; and secretion of cytokines and other immune-modulating molecules to direct the immune response. The differential regulation of IDO in distinct DC subsets is widely studied to delineate and correct immune homeostasis during autoimmunity, infection and cancer and the associated immunological outcomes.

Genesis of antigen presenting cells (APCs), eventually the immune system, require migration of monocytes (MOs), which is originated in bone marrow. Then, these MOs move from bloodstream to other tissues to become macrophages and DCs (59; 60). Initiation of immune response requires APCs to link resting helper T-cell with the matching antigen to protect body. DCs are superior to MQs and MOs in their immune action model. When DCs are first described (61) and classified, their role is determined as a highly potent antigen-presenting cell (APC) subset with 100 to 1000-times more effective than macrophages and B-cells in priming T-cells. Both MQs and monocytes phagocytize the pathogen, and their cell structure contains very large nucleus and many internal vesicles. However, there is a nuance between MQ and DCs, since DCs has a wider capacity of stimulation, because MQs activates only memory T cells, yet DCs can activate both naïve and memory T cells.

DCs are potent activators of T cells and they also have well controlled regulatory roles. DC properties determine the regulation regardless of their origin or the subset of the DCs.  DCs react after identification of the signals or influencers for their inhibitory, stimulatory or regulatory roles, before they express a complex repertoire of positive and negative cytokines, transmembrane proteins and other molecules. Thus, “two signal theory” gains support with a defined rule.

The combination of two signals, their interaction with types of cells and time are critical. In short, specificity and time are matter for a proper response.  When IDO mRNA expression is activated with CTL40 ligand and IFNgamma, IDO results inhibition of T cell production (4).  However, if DCs are inhibited by 1MT, an inhibitor of IDO, the response stop but IgG has no affect (10).  In addition, if the stimulation is started by a tryptophan metabolite, which is downstream of IDO, such as 3-hydroxyantranilic or quinolinic acids, it only inhibits Th1 but not Th2 subset of T cells (62). Furthermore, inclusion of signal molecules, such as Fas Ligand, cytochrome c, and pathways also differ in the T cell differentiation mechanisms due to combination, time and specificity of two-signals.  The co-culture experiments are great tool to identify specific stimuli in disease specific microenvironment (63; 12; 64) for discovering the mechanism and interactions between molecules in gene regulation, biochemical mechanism and physiological function during cell differentiation.

As a result, the simplest differential cell development from the early development of DCs impact the outcome of the data. For example, collection of MOs from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) with IL4 and GM-CSF leads to immature DCs (iDCs). On next step, treatment of iDCs with tumor necrosis factor (TNF) or other plausible cytokines (TGFb1, IFNgamma, IFNalpha,  IFNbeta, IL6 etc.) based on the desired outcome differentiate iDCs  into mature DCs (mDCs). DCs live only up to a week but MOs and generated MQs can live up to a month in the given tissue. B cells inhibit T cell dependent immune responses in tumors (65).

Mechanisms of IDO:

IDO mechanism for immune response

The dichotomy of IDO mechanism lead the discovery that IDO is more than an enzyme as a versatile regulator of innate and adaptive immune responses in DCs (66; 67; 68). Meantime IDO also involve with Th2 response and B cell mediated autoimmunity showing that it has three paths, short term (acute) based on enzymatic actions, long term (chronic) based on non-enzymatic role, and moonlighting relies of downstream metabolites of tryptophan metabolism (69; 70).

IFNgamma produced by DC, MQ, NK, NKT, CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells, after stimulation with IL12 and IL8.  Inflammatory cytokine(s) expressed by DCs produce IFNgamma to stimulate IDO’s enzymatic reactions in acute response.  Then, TDO in liver and tryptophan catabolites act through Aryl hydrocarbon receptor induction for prevention of T cell proliferation. This mechanism is common among IDO, IDO2 (expresses in brain and liver) and TDO (expresses in liver) provide an acute response for an innate immunity (30). When the pDCs are stimulated with IFNgamma, activation of IDO is go through Jak, STAT signaling pathway to degrade Trp to Kyn causing Trp depletion. The starvation of tryptophan in microenvironment inhibits generation of T cells by un-read t-RNAs and induce apoptosis through myc pathway.  In sum, lack of tryptophan halts T cell proliferation and put the T cells in apoptosis at S1 phase of cell division (71; 62).

 T-reg, regulatory T cells; Th, T helper; CTLA-4, cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4; TCR, T cell receptor; IDO, indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase. (refernece: http://www.pnas.org/content/101/28/10398/suppl/DC)

T-reg, regulatory T cells; Th, T helper; CTLA-4, cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4; TCR, T cell receptor; IDO, indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase. (refernece: http://www.pnas.org/content/101/28/10398/suppl/DC)

The intermediary enzymes, functioning during Tryptophan degradation in Kynurenine (Kyn) pathway like kynurenine 3-hydroxylase and kynureninase, are also induced after stimulation with liposaccaride and proinflammatory cytokines (72). They exhibit their function in homeostasis through aryl-hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) induction by kynurenine as an endogenous signal (73; 74).  The endogenous tumor-promoting ligand of AhR are usually activated by environmental stress or xenobiotic toxic chemicals in several cellular processes like tumorigenesis, inflammation, transformation, and embryogenesis (Opitz ET. Al, 2011).

Human tumor cells constitutively produce TDO also contributes to production of Kyn as an endogenous ligand of the AhR (75; 27).  Degradation of tryptophan by IDO1/2 in tumors and tumor-draining lymph nodes occur. As a result, there are animal studies and Phase I/II clinical trials to inhibit the IDO1/2 to prevent cancer and poor prognosis (NewLink Genetics Corp. NCT00739609, 2007).

Systemic inflammation (like in sepsis, cerebral malaria and brain tumor) creates hypotension and IDO expression has the central role on vascular tone control (63).  Moreover, inflammation activates the endothelial coagulation activation system causing coagulopathies on patients.  This reaction is namely endothelial cell activation of IDO by IFNgamma inducing Trp to Kyn conversion. After infection with malaria the blood vessel tone has decreases, inflammation induce IDO expression in endothelial cells producing Kyn causing decreased trp, lower arterial relaxation, and develop hypotension (Wang, Y. et. al 2010).  Furthermore, existing hypotension in knock out Ido mice point out a secondary mechanism driven by Kyn as an endogenous ligand to activate non-canonical NfKB pathway (63). Another study also hints this “back –up” mechanism by a significant outcome with a differential response in pDCs against IMT treatment.  Unlike IFN gamma conditioned pDC blocks T cell proliferation and apoptosis, methyl tryptophan fails to inhibit IDO activity for activating naïve T cells to make Tregs at TGF-b1 conditioned pDCs (77; 78).

The second role of the IDO relies on non-enzymatic action as being a signal molecule. Yet, IDO2 and TDO are devoid of this function. This role mainly for maintenance of microenvironment condition. DCs response to TGFbeta-1 exposure starts the kinase Fyn induce phosphorylation of IDO-associated immunoreceptor tyrosine–based inhibitory motifs (ITIMs) for propagation of the downstream signals involving non-canonical (anti-inflammatory) NF-kB pathway for a long term response.

When the pDCs are conditioned with TGF-beta1 the signaling (68; 77; 78) Phospho Inositol Kinase3 (PIK-3)-dependent and Smad independent pathways (79; 80; 81; 82; 83) induce Fyn-dependent phosphorylation of IDO ITIMs.  A prototypic ITIM has the I/V/L/SxYxxL/V/F sequence (84), where x in place of an amino acid and Y is phosphorylation sites of tyrosines (85; 86).  Smad independent pathway stimulates SHP and PIK3 induce both SHP and IDO phosphorylation. Then, formed SHP-IDO complex can induce non-canonical (non-inflammatory) NF-kB pathway (64; 79; 80; 82) by phosphorylation of kinase IKKa to induce nuclear translocation of p52-Relb towards their targets.  Furthermore, the SHP-IDO complex also may inhibit IRAK1 (68).  SHP-IDO complex activates genes through Nf-KB for production of Ido1 and Tgfb1 genes and secretion of IFNalpha/IFNbeta.  IFNa/IFNb establishes a second short positive feedback loop towards p52-RelB for continuous gene expression of IDO, TGFb1, IFNa and IFNb (87; 68).  However, SHP-IDO inhibited IRAK1 also activates p52-RelB.  Nf-KB induction at three path, one main and two positive feedback loops, is also critical.  Finally, based on TGF-beta1 induction (76) cellular differentiation occurs to stimulate naïve CD4+ T cell differentiation to regulatory T cells (Tregs).  In sum, TGF-b1 and IFNalpha/IFNbeta stimulate pDCs to keep inducing naïve T cells for generation of Treg cells at various stages, initiate, maintain, differentiate, infect, amplify, during long-term immune responses (67; 66).

Moonlighting function of Kyn/AhR is an adaptation mechanism after the catalytic (enzymatic) role of IDO depletes tryptophan and produce high concentration of Kyn induce Treg and Tr1 cell expansion leading Tregs to use TGFbeta for maintaining this environment (67; 76). In this role, Kyn pathway has positive-feedback-loop function to induce IDO expression.

TABLE 3- Kyn induced Genes

Table 2: Kyn induced genes based on the only microarray analysis (based on Opitz et. al 2011 data)
  Upregulators Phenotype Location
 Upregulators MYC Oncogene myc
avian myelocytomatosis viral oncogene homolog
protooncogene homologous to myelocytomatosis virus
INDIRECTLY MANIPULATED TARGET
NfKB complex Inappropriate activation of NF-kappa-B has been linked to inflammatory events associated with autoimmune arthritis, asthma, septic shock, lung fibrosis, glomerulonephritis, atherosclerosis, and AIDS. In contrast, complete and persistent inhibition of NF-kappa-B has been linked directly to apoptosis, inappropriate immune cell development, and delayed cell growth. 10q24.32POSSIBLE INDIRECTLY MANIPULATEDTARGET   4q24 
  Downregulators
       

 

ALDH1A3(ALDEHYDE DEHYDROGENASE 1 FAMILY, MEMBER A3) An unique ALDH isozyme in human saliva 15q26.3
ARNT2,ARYL HYDROCARBON RECEPTOR NUCLEAR TRANSLOCATOR 2 Member of a novel transcription factor family consisting of a conserved basic helix-loop-helix (bhlh) structural motif contiguous with a PAS domain. Members of this family include PER, the aryl hydrocarbon receptor,SIM1,and HIF1A. 15q25.1
C2CD2 Myogenesis in C2C12 mouse myoblasts by DUX4 and inhibited zebrafish development past gastrulation or caused severe developmental abnormalities in the surviving embryos. 4q35.2
CDC42EP2,CDC42 EFFECTOR PROTEIN 2 A small RHO gtpase, regulates the formation of F-actin-containing structures through its interaction with several downstream effector proteins.  11q13.1
 CDH1,CADHERIN 1;  Uvomorulin, a specific calcium ion-dependent cell adhesion molecule, expresses its adhesive function during the preimplantation stage of development and in epithelial cells,Endometrial carcinoma, somatic, Ovarian carcinoma, somatic, Gastric cancer, familial diffuse, with or without cleft lip and/or palate, Breast cancer, lobular, Prostate cancer, susceptibility to. 16q22.1
CENPACENTROMERIC PROTEIN A;  Centromeric proteins, see CENPB 2p23.3
CREB3L2cAMP RESPONSE ELEMENT-BINDING PROTEIN 3-LIKE 2; Member of the old astrocyte specifically induced substance (OASIS) DNA binding and basic leucine zipper dimerization (bzip) family of transcription factors, which includes CREB3 and CREB4. 7q33
CYP1B1,CYTOCHROME P450, SUBFAMILY I, POLYPEPTIDE 1
Glaucoma 3A, primary open angle, congenital, juvenile,Or adult onset, Peters anomaly 231300
2p22.2
EGR; Discovered first as a putative G0/G1 switch regulatory gene in human blood lymphocyte cultures and named G0S30 (Forsdyke, 1985). Sequence analysis of the murine gene predicted a protein with 3 DNA-binding zinc fingers POSSIBLE TARGET
EGR1;EARLY GROWTH RESPONSE 1 Displays FOS-like induction kinetics in fibroblasts, epithelial cells, and lymphocyte. EGR1 is also known as KROX24. Or nerve growth factor-induced clone A (NGFIA). 5q31.2(Sukhatme et al., 1988).
EREG;EPIREGULIN Functions as a tumor growth-inhibitory factor inducing morphologic changes and exhibits low affinity for the EGF receptor. Found on hela,on human epidermoid carcinoma A431 cells. Toyoda et al. (1995), Toyoda et al. (1997)
GPR115; G PROTEIN-COUPLED RECEPTOR 115 Expression in pregnant uterus, breast, and genitourinary tract. 6p12.3fredriksson et al. (2002) POSSIBLE target
HK2; HEXOKINASE 2 Hexokinase (EC 2.7.1.1) catalyzes the first step in glucose metabolism, using ATP for the phosphorylation of glucose to glucose-6-phosphate. Four different types of hexokinase, designated HK1, HK2, HK3, and HK4 (encoded by different genes, are present in mammalian tissues. 2p12
HTT; HUNTINGTON DISEASE  Huntington disease (HD) is caused by an expanded trinucleotide repeat (CAG)n, encoding glutamine, in the gene encoding Huntington. An autosomal dominant progressive neurodegenerative disorder with a distinct phenotype characterized by chorea, dystonia, incoordination, cognitive decline, and behavioral difficulties. 4p16.3
IGFBP4; INSULIN-LIKE GROWTH FACTOR-BINDING PROTEIN 4 Insulin-like growth factor binding proteins (igfbps), such as IGFBP4, are involved in the systemic and local regulation of IGF activity. Igfbps contain 3 structurally distinct domains each comprising approximately one-third of the molecule.). 17q21.2(Kiefer et al., 1992
IL1A; INTERLEUKIN 1-ALPHA IL1A is 1 of 2 structurally distinct forms of IL1, the other being IL1B (147720). The IL1A and IL1B proteins are synthesized by a variety of cell types, including activated macrophages, keratinocytes, stimulated B lymphocytes, and fibroblasts, and are potent mediators of inflammation and immunity 2q13(Lord et al., 1991).
IL1B; INTERLEUKIN 1-BETA {Gastric cancer risk after H. Pylori infection} 2q13
IL6INTERFERON, BETA-2; IFNB2
B-
CELL DIFFERENTIATION FACTOR, B-CELL STIMULATORY FACTOR 2; BSF2,  HEPATOCYTE STIMULATORY FACTOR; HSF,HYBRIDOMA GROWTH FACTOR; HGF 
Crohn disease-associated growth, failure}, {Diabetes, susceptibility to}, {Kaposi sarcoma, susceptibility to}, {Intracranial hemorrhage in brain, Cerebrovascular malformations, susceptibility to}, {Rheumatoid arthritis, systemic juvenile}. 7p15.3 POSSIBLE COSTIMULATION TARGET
IL8SMALL INDUCIBLE CYTOKINE SUBFAMILY B, MEMBER 8; SCYB8, MONOCYTE-DERIVED NEUTROPHIL CHEMOTACTIC FACTOR,
NEUTROPHIL-ACTIVATING PEPTIDE 1;
NAP1
GRANULOCYTE CHEMOTACTIC PROTEIN 1; GCP1
CHEMOKINE, CXC MOTIF, LIGAND 8; CXCL8
 
A member of the CXC chemokine family. These small basic heparin-binding proteins are proinflammatory and primarily mediate the activation and migration of neutrophils into tissue from peripheral blood. 4q13.3 (Hull et al., 2001). POSSIBLE  COSTIMULATION TARGET
ITGAE;INTEGRIN, ALPHA-ECD103 ANTIGEN
HUMAN MUCOSAL LYMPHOCYTE ANTIGEN 1, ALPHA SUBUNIT
Integrins are a family of cell surface adhesion molecules that play a major role in diverse cellular and developmental processes including morphogenesis, hemostasis, leukocyte activation, cellular adhesion, and homing.Immune responses at mucosal sites are mediated by lymphocytes associated with mammary glands and the gastrointestinal, genitourinary, and respiratory tracts. Cerf-Bensussan et al. (1987),Parker et al. (1992)
JUN
kiaa1644;TRIL;  TLR4 INTERACTOR WITH LEUCINE-RICH REPEATS TRIL is a component of the TLR4 complex and is induced in a number of cell types by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) 7p14.3(Carpenter et al., 2009).
LDO C1LLEUCINE ZIPPER, DOWNREGULATED IN CANCER 1; LDOC1 Contains a leucine zipper-like motif in its N-terminal region and a proline-rich region that shares marked similarity to an SH3-binding domain.  Northern blot analysis detected ubiquitous expression of LDOC1 in normal tissues, with high expression in brain and thyroid and low expression in placenta, liver, and leukocytes.  LDOC1 was expressed in 6 of 7 human breast cancer cell lines examined, but, with only 1 exception, was not expressed in any pancreatic or gastric cancer cell lines examined.  Fluorescence microscopy analysis demonstrated that the LDOC1 protein is located predominantly in the nucleus. Xq27.1 Nagasaki et al. (1999) COSTIMULATION TARGET
MID1; MIDLINE 1 Midline 1 ring finger gene
midin
finger on x and y, mouse, homolog of; fxyOpitz gbbb syndrome, type I
 xp22.2
mir-124; MICRO RNA 124-1 Lagos-Quintana et al. (2002) cloned mouse mir124a.Northern blot analysis showed that mir124a was highly expressed in mouse brain, but not in any other mouse tissues examined.Suh et al. (2004) cloned human mirna124a from embryonic stem cells. The mature mirna124a sequence is UUAAGGCACGCGGUGAAUGCCA.Sempere et al. (2004) found that mirna124 was preferentially expressed in brain. Chromosome 8
mir-290 Both of the major editing sites in pri-mir-376 rnas (+4 and +44) are located within the functionally critical 5-prime-proximal ‘seed’ sequences, critical for the hybridization of mirnas to targets, of mir-376, suggesting that edited mature mir-376 rnas may target genes different from those targeted by the unedited mir-376 rnas. Their results suggested that a single A-I base change is sufficient to redirect silencing mirnas to a new set of targets.Editing of mir-376 appears to be one of the mechanisms that ensure tight regulation of uric acid levels in select tissues such as the brain cortex. MICRO RNA 376-B; MIRN376B Kawahara et al. (2007)POSSIBLE COSTIMULATION TARGET
mir548
RB1;RB1 GENE Bladder cancer, somatic, Osteosarcoma, somatic, Retinoblastoma, Retinoblastoma, trilateral, Small cell cancer of the lung, somatic. 13q14.2Dryja et al. (1984)
RELA; V-REL AVIAN RETICULOENDOTHELIOSIS VIRAL ONCOGENE HOMOLOG A NUCLEAR FACTOR KAPPA-B, SUBUNIT 3; NFKB3
TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR NFKB3
NFKB, p65 SUBUNIT
NUCLEAR FACTOR OF KAPPA LIGHT CHAIN
GENE ENHANCER IN B CELLS 3Activated NFKB complex translocates into the nucleus and binds DNA at kappa-B-binding motifs such as 5-prime GGGRNNYYCC 3-prime or 5-prime HGGARNYYCC 3-prime (where H is A, C, or T; R is an A or G purine; and Y is a C or T pyrimidine). 
11q13.1   POSSIBLE CO-TIMULATION TARGET
SERPINB2;SERPIN PEPTIDASE INHIBITOR,Clade B (Ovalbumin), Member 2Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor, Type 2; Pai2
Planh2
Monocyte Arginine-Serpin
Monocyte-Derived Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor
Urokinase Inhibitor
The specific inhibitors of plasminogen activators have been classified into 4 immunologically distinct groups: PAI1 type PA inhibitor from endothelial cells; PAI2 type PA inhibitor from placenta, monocytes, and macrophages; urinary inhibitor; and protease-nexin-I.Plasminogen activator inhibitor-2 is also known as monocyte arg-serpin because it belongs to the superfamily of serine proteases in which the target specificity of each is determined by the amino acid residue located at its reactive center; i.e., met or val for elastase, leu for kinase, and arg for thrombin. 18q21.33
SH3RF1; SH3 DOMAIN-CONTAINING RING FINGER PROTEIN 2 Chen et al. (2010) cloned SH3RF2, which they called HEPP1. The deduced 186-amino acid protein contains a PP1-binding motif (KTVRFQ). Northern blot analysis detected 1.24- and 0.68-kb HEPP1 transcripts in heart and testis only. 5q32
STC2;STANNIOCALCIN-RELATED PROTEIN Northern blot analysis revealed that STC2 is expressed as multiple transcripts in several human tissues, with the strongest expression in skeletal muscle and heart. No entry??
TAF9; TAF9 RNA POLYMERASE II, TATA BOX-BINDING PROTEIN-ASSOCIATED FACTOR, 32-KD The tafs are required for activated rather than basal transcription and serve to mediate signals between various activators and the basal transcriptional machinery. 5q13.2
TGFB1; TRANSFORMING GROWTH FACTOR, BETA-1
Camurati-Engelmann disease 131300
{Cystic fibrosis lung disease, modifier of}TGFB is a multifunctional peptide that controls proliferation, differentiation, and other functions in many cell types. TGFB acts synergistically with TGFA (190170) in inducing transformation. It also acts as a negative autocrine growth factor. Dysregulation of TGFB activation and signaling may result in apoptosis. Many cells synthesize TGFB and almost all of them have specific receptors for this peptide. TGFB1, TGFB2 (190220), and TGFB3 (190230) all function through the same receptor signaling systems.
19q13.2
  TIPARP; TCDD-INDUCIBLE POLY(ADP-RIBOSE) POLYMERASE Amplified and upregulated in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). The N-terminal part of the TPH domain contains a CCCH-type zinc finger. 3q25.31Katoh and Katoh (2003)  Redon et al. (2001)
TOP2A DNA topoisomerase II, resistance to inhibition of, by amsacrine.  DNA topoisomerases (EC 5.99.1.3) are enzymes that control and alter the topologic states of DNA in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes.There are about 100,000 molecules of topoisomerase II per hela cell nucleus, constituting about 0.1% of the nuclear extract. In a human leukemia cell line, HL-60/AMSA, Hinds et al. (1991) found that resistance to inhibition of topoisomerase II by amsacrine and other intercalating agents was dueTo a single base change, AGA (arginine) to AAA (lysine). 17q21.2
TP53; P53
TRANSFORMATION-RELATED PROTEIN 53;
TRP53Osteosarcoma, Choroid plexus papilloma, Breast cancer,Adrenal cortical carcinoma, Colorectal cancer, Hepatocellular carcinoma, Li-Fraumeni syndrome, Nasop haryngeal carcinoma, Pancreatic cancer, {Glioma susceptibility 1}, {Basal cell carcinoma 7} 
The transcription factor p53 responds to diverse cellular stresses to regulate target genes that induce cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, senescence, DNA repair, or changes in metabolism. In addition, p53 appears to induce apoptosis through nontranscriptional cytoplasmic processes.Activity of p53 is ubiquitously lost in human cancer either by mutation of the p53 gene itself or by loss of cell signaling upstream or downstream 17p13.1 POSSIBLE TARGET FOR CO-STIMULATION
TP73; p53-RELATED PROTEIN p73; p73
TRP73, MOUSE, HOMOLOG OF
The p53 gene (TP53; 191170) is the most frequently mutated tumor suppressor in human cancers. The ability of p53 to inhibit cell growth is due, at least in part, to its ability to bind to specific DNA sequences and activate transcription of target genes, such as that encoding cell cycle inhibitor p21(Waf1/Cip1) 1p36.32
ZIC2; ZIC FAMILY MEMBER 2  Brown et al. (1998) reported that the human ZIC2 gene, a homolog of the Drosophila ‘odd-paired’ (opa) gene, maps to the region of chromosome 13 associated with holoprosencephaly (HPE5; 609637). Have zinc finger domain.Holoprosencephaly-5Holoprosencephaly is the most common structural anomaly of the human brain and is one of the anomalies seen in patients with deletions and duplications of chromosome 13 13q32.3

In T cells, tryptophan starvation induces Gcn2-dependent stress signaling pathway, which  initiates uncharged Trp-tRNA binding onto ribosomes. Elevated GCN2 expression stimulates elF2alfa phosphorylation to stop translation initiation (88). Therefore, most genes downregulated and LIP, an alternatively initiated isoform of the b/ZIP transcription factor NF-IL6/CEBP-beta (89).  This mechanism happens in tumor cells based on Prendergast group observations. As a result, not only IDO1 propagates itself while producing IFNalpha/IFNbeta, but also demonstrates homeostasis choosing between immunegenity by production of TH17or tolerance by Tregs. This mechanism acts like a see-saw. Yet, tolerance also can be broken by IL6 induction so reversal mechanism by SOC-3 dependent proteosomal degradation of the enzyme (90).  All proper responses require functional peripheral DCs to generate mature DCs for T cells to avoid autoimmunity (91)

Niacin (vitamin B3) is the final product of tryptophan catabolism and first molecule at Nicotinomic acid (NDA) Biosynthesis.  The function of IDO in tryptophan and NDA metabolism has a great importance to develop new clinical applications (40; 42; 41).  NAD+, biosynthesis and tryptophan metabolisms regulate several steps that can be utilize pharmacologically for reformation of healthy physiology (40).

IDO for protection in Microbial Infection with Toll-like Receptors

The mechanism of microbial response and infectious tolerance are complex and the origination of IDO based on duplication of microbial IDO (49).  During microbial responses, Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play a role to differentiate and determine the microbial structures as a ligand to initiate production of cytokines and pro-inflammatory agents to activate specific T helper cells (92; 93; 94; 95). Uniqueness of TLR comes from four major characteristics of each individual TLR by ligand specificity, signal transduction pathways, expression profiles and cellular localization (96). Thus, TLRs are important part of the immune response signaling mechanism to initiate and design adoptive responses from innate (naïve) immune system to defend the host.

TLRs are expressed cell type specific patterns and present themselves on APCs (DCs, MQs, monocytes) with a rich expression levels (96; 97; 98; 99; 93; 100; 101; 102; 87). Induction signals originate from microbial stimuli for the genesis of mature immune response cells.  Co-stimulation mechanisms stimulate immature DCs to travel from lymphoid organs to blood stream for proliferation of specific T cells (96).  After the induction of iDCs by microbial stimuli, they produce proinflammatory cytokines such as TNF and IL-12, which can activate differentiation of T cells into T helper cell, type one (Th1) cells. (103). Specific TLR stimulation links innate and acquired responses through simple recognition of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) or co-stimulation of PAMPs with other TLR or non-TLR receptors, or even better with proinflammatory cytokines.   Some examples of ligand- TLR specificity shown in Table1, which are bacterial lipopeptides, Pam3Cys through TLR2 (92; 104; 105), double stranded (ds) RNAs through TLR3 (106; 107), lipopolysaccharide (LPS) through TLR4, bacterial flagellin through TLR5 (108; 109), single stranded RNAs through TLR7/8 (97; 98), synthetic anti-viral compounds imiquinod through TLR 7 and resiquimod through TLR8, unmethylated CpG DNA motifs through TLR9 (Krieg, 2000).

The specificity is established by correct pairing of a TLR with its proinflammatory cytokine(s), so that these permutations influence creation and maintenance of cell differentiation. For example, leading the T cell response toward a preferred Th1 or Th2 response possible if the cytokines TLR-2 mediated signals induce a Th2 profile when combined with IL-2 but TLR4 mediated signals lean towards Th1 if it is combined with IL-10 or Il-12, (110; 111)  (112).

TLR ligand TLR Reference
Lipopolysaccharide, LPS TLR4 (96).  (112).
Lipopeptides, Pam3Cys TLR2 (92; 104; 105)
Double stranded (ds) RNAs TLR3 (106; 107)
Bacterial flagellin TLR5 (108; 109)
Single stranded RNAs TLR7/8 (97; 98)
Unmethylated CpG DNA motifs TLR9 (Krieg, 2000)
Synthetic anti-viral compounds imiquinod and resiquimod TLR7 and TLR8 (Lee J, 2003)

Furthermore, IL6 stimulated DCs relieve the suppression of effector T cells by regulatory T cells (113).  The modification of IDO+ monocytes towards specific subset of T cell activation with specific TLRs are significantly important (94).  The type of cell with correct TLR and stimuli improves or decreases the effectiveness of stimuli. Induction of IDO in monocytes by synthetic viral RNAs (isRNA) or CMV was possible but not in monocyte derived DCs or TLR2 ligand lipopeptide Pam3Cys.  Single- stranded RNA ligands target TLR7/8 in monocytes derive DCs only (Lee J, 2003).  These futures of TLRs important during design of experiments to target and improve the efficacy.

Double-Edged Sword of IDO: The Good and The Bad for Clinical intervention and Developments

High expression level of IDO has a positive impact during pregnancy (29; 28; 114), transplants (115; 116; 117; 118; 119), infectious diseases (96). On the other hand, high IDO expression leads the system to a tolerance state is negative during autoimmune-disorders (120; 121; 122), tumors of cancer (123; 124; 117; 121; 125; 126; 127) (127), and mood disorders (46).

Prevention of allogeneic fetal rejection is possible by tryptophan metabolism (26) by rejecting at lack of IDO but allocating with abundant IDO  (29; 28; 114). The plasticity of  mammary and uterus during reproduction may hold some more answers to prevent GVHD and tumors of cancer with good understanding of IDO and tryptophan mechanism (129; 130). These studies lead to find “the natural regulation mechanism” for protecting the transplants from graft versus host disease GVHD (128) and getting rid of tumors. After allogeneic bone marrow transplants the risk of solid tumor development increased about 80% among 19,229 patients,  even with a greater risk if patients are under 18 years old (117).  The adaptation of tolerance against host mechanism is connected to the IDO expression (131).   During implantation and early pregnancy IDO has a role by making CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) and expressing in DCs and  MQs  (114; 132; 133).  Clonal deletion mechanism prevents mother to react with paternal products since female mice accepted the paternal MHC antigen-expressing tumor graft during pregnancy and rejected three weeks after delivery (134). CTLA-4Ig gene therapy alleviates abortion through regulation of apoptosis and inhibition of spleen lymphocytes (135).

AutoImmune Disorders:

The balance of IDO expression becomes necessary to prevent overactive immune response self-destruction, so modulation in tryptophan and NDA metabolisms maybe essential.  When splenic IDO-expressing CD11b (+) DCs from tolerized animals applied, they suppressed the development of arthritis, increased the Treg/Th17 cell ratio, and decreased the production of inflammatory cytokines in the spleen (136).   The role of Nicotinamide prevention on type 1 diabetes and ameliorates multiple sclerosis in animal model presented with activities of  NDAs stimulating GPCR109a to produce prostaglandins to induce IDO expression, then these PGEs and PGDs converted to the anti-inflammatory prostaglandin, 15d-PGJ(2) (137; 138; 139).  Thus, these events promote endogenous signaling mechanisms involving the GPCRs EP2, EP4, and DP1 along with PPARgamma. (137).

IDO (indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase) and IDO2 control a tryptophan catabolism signaling pathway. (a) From tryptophan starvation to LIP activation. By catabolizing the essential amino acid tryptophan, IDO and IDO2 generate kynurenines and other reaction products that can modulate T-cell immunity as well as a local microenvironment that is starved for tryptophan. Little is known as yet of the precise mechanistic effects of the tryptophan catabolites generated. Elaboration of the starvation condition triggers a stress response in local T cells through Gcn2, which responds to amino-acid deprivation by phosphorylating the translation initiation factor eIF2alpha, leading to a blockade of most translation initiation with the exception of certain factors such as LIP involved in mediating responses to the stress. (b) LIP is a dominant negative isoform of the immune regulatory b/ZIP transcription factor NF-IL6, also known as CEBPbeta. LIP is an alternately translated isoform of the transcription factor NF-IL6/CEBPbeta implicated in regulating proliferation and immune response. Starvation responses switch NF-IL6/CEBPbeta expression from LAP isoforms to the LIP isoform through the use of a downstream translation start site in the mRNA. Encoding only a b/ZIP dimerization domain, LIP functions as a 'natural' dominant negative molecule that disrupts NF-IL6/CEBPbeta function by competing with LAP isoforms for binding to target gene promoters. Both IDO and IDO2 can switch on LIP, but subsequent restoration of tryptophan levels will only switch it off in the case of IDO, offering a possible mechanism for distal propagation of immune suppression away from the local tumor microenvironment (Figure 5). NF-IL6/CEBPbeta target genes with relevance to the function of IDO include the immune suppressive cytokines IL-6, IL-10 and TGF-beta, which may be upregulated as a result of LIP induction. (http://www.nature.com/onc/journal/v27/n28/fig_tab/onc200835f3.html)

IDO (indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase) and IDO2 control a tryptophan catabolism signaling pathway. (a) From tryptophan starvation to LIP activation. By catabolizing the essential amino acid tryptophan, IDO and IDO2 generate kynurenines and other reaction products that can modulate T-cell immunity as well as a local microenvironment that is starved for tryptophan. Little is known as yet of the precise mechanistic effects of the tryptophan catabolites generated. Elaboration of the starvation condition triggers a stress response in local T cells through Gcn2, which responds to amino-acid deprivation by phosphorylating the translation initiation factor eIF2alpha, leading to a blockade of most translation initiation with the exception of certain factors such as LIP involved in mediating responses to the stress. (b) LIP is a dominant negative isoform of the immune regulatory b/ZIP transcription factor NF-IL6, also known as CEBPbeta. LIP is an alternately translated isoform of the transcription factor NF-IL6/CEBPbeta implicated in regulating proliferation and immune response. Starvation responses switch NF-IL6/CEBPbeta expression from LAP isoforms to the LIP isoform through the use of a downstream translation start site in the mRNA. Encoding only a b/ZIP dimerization domain, LIP functions as a ‘natural’ dominant negative molecule that disrupts NF-IL6/CEBPbeta function by competing with LAP isoforms for binding to target gene promoters. Both IDO and IDO2 can switch on LIP, but subsequent restoration of tryptophan levels will only switch it off in the case of IDO, offering a possible mechanism for distal propagation of immune suppression away from the local tumor microenvironment (Figure 5). NF-IL6/CEBPbeta target genes with relevance to the function of IDO include the immune suppressive cytokines IL-6, IL-10 and TGF-beta, which may be upregulated as a result of LIP induction. (http://www.nature.com/onc/journal/v27/n28/fig_tab/onc200835f3.html)

Modulating the immune response at non-canonical at canonocal pathway while keeping the non-canonical Nf-  KB intact may help to mend immune disorders. As a result, the targeted blocking in canonical at associated  kinase IKKβ and leaving non-canonocal Nf-kB pathway intact, DCs tips the balance towards immune supression.  Hence, noncanonical NF-κB pathway for regulatory functions in DCs required effective IDO induction, directly or  indirectly by endogenous ligand Kyn and negative regulation of proinflammatory cytokine production.

As a result, this may help to treat autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes,        inflammatory bowel disease, and multiple sclerosis, or allergy or transplant rejection. While the opposite action  needs to be taken during prevention of tumors, that is inhibition of non-canonical pathway.  Inflammation    induces not only relaxation of veins and lowering blood pressure but also stimulate coagulopathies that worsen  the microenvironment and decrease survival rate of patients after radio or chemotherapies .

Viable tumor environment. Tumor survival is dependent upon an exquisite interplay between the critical functions of stromal development and angiogenesis, local immune suppression and tumor tolerance, and paradoxical inflammation. TEMs: TIE-2 expressing monocytes; “M2” TAMs: tolerogenic tumor-associated macrophages; MDSCs: myeloid-derived suppressor cells; pDCs: plasmacytoid dendritic cells; co-stim.: co-stimulation; IDO: indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase; VEGF: vascular endothelial growth factor; EGF: epidermal growth factor; MMP: matrix metaloprotease; IL: interleukin; TGF-β: transforming growth factor-beta; TLRs: toll-like receptors.  (reference: http://www.hindawi.com/journals/cdi/2012/937253/fig1/)

Viable tumor environment. Tumor survival is dependent upon an exquisite interplay between the critical functions of stromal development and angiogenesis, local immune suppression and tumor tolerance, and paradoxical inflammation. TEMs: TIE-2 expressing monocytes; “M2” TAMs: tolerogenic tumor-associated macrophages; MDSCs: myeloid-derived suppressor cells; pDCs: plasmacytoid dendritic cells; co-stim.: co-stimulation; IDO: indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase; VEGF: vascular endothelial growth factor; EGF: epidermal growth factor; MMP: matrix metaloprotease; IL: interleukin; TGF-β: transforming growth factor-beta; TLRs: toll-like receptors. (reference: http://www.hindawi.com/journals/cdi/2012/937253/fig1/)

Cancer:

Generating tumor vaccines and using adjuvants underway (140).   Comparison of clinical correlation and genetic responses in several studies hopes to diagnose and target the system for cancer therapies (127; 141; 131).  The recent surveys on IDO expression and human cancers show that IDO targeting is a candidate for cancer therapy since IDO expression recruiting Tregs, downregulating MHC class I and creating negative immune microenvironment for protection of development of tumors (125; 27; 142).  Inhibition of IDO expression can make advances in immunotherapy and chemotherapy fields (143; 125; 131; 144).  IDO has a great importance on prevention of cancer development (126).    There are many approaches to create the homeostasis of immune response by Immunotherapy.  However, given the complexity of immune regulations, immunomodulation is a better approach to correct and relieve the system from the disease.  Some of the current IDO targeted immunotherapy or immmunomodulations are with RNA technology for cancer prevention (145; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150) or applied on human or animals  (75; 151; 12; 115; 152; 9; 125) or chemical, (153; 154) or  radiological (155).  The targeted cell type in immune system generally DCs, monocytes (94), T cells (110; 156) and neutrophils (146; 157). On this paper, we will concentrate on DCvax on cancer treatments.

IDO and the downstream enzymes in tryptophan pathway produce a series of immunosuppressive tryptophan     metabolites that may lead into Tregs proliferation or increase in T cell apoptosis (62; 16; 27; 158), and some can   affect NK cell function (159).  The interesting part of the mechanism is, even without presence of IDO itself,    downstream enzymes of IDO in the kynurenine tryptophan degradation still show immunosuppressive outcome   (160; 73) due to not only Kyn but also TGFbeta stimulated long term responses. DC vaccination with IDO is    plausible (161) due to its power in immune response changes and longevity in the bloodstream for reversing  the system for Th17 production (162).

Taking advantage of the DC’s central role and combining with enhancing molecules for induction of immunity may overcome tolerogenic DCs in tumors of cancers (163; 164). The first successful application of DC vaccine used against advanced melanoma after loading DCs with tumor peptides or autologous cell lysate in presence of adjuvants keyhole limpet hematocyanin (KLH) (165).  Previous animal and clinical studies show use of DCs against tumors created success (165; 166; 167) as well as some problems due to heterogeneity of DC populations in one study supporting tumor growth rather than diminishing (168).

DC vaccination applied onto over four thousand clinical trial but none of them used siRNA-IDO DC vaccination method. Clinical trials evaluating DCs, loaded ex vivo with purified TAAs as anticancer immunotherapeutic interventions, also did not include IDO (Table from (169). This data is coming from 30 clinical trials, 3 of which discontinued, evaluating DCs loaded ex vivo with TAAs as an anticancer immunotherapy for 12 types of cancer [(AML(1), Breast cancer (4), glioblastoma (1), glioma (2), hepatocellular carcinoma (1), hematological malignancies (1), melanoma (6), neuroblastoma sarcoma (2), NSCLC (1), ovarian cancer (3), pancreatic cancer (3), prostate cancer (10)] at phase I, II or I/II.

Tipping the balance between Treg and Th17 ratio has a therapeutic advantage for restoring the health.  This is shown in ovarian cancer by DC vaccination with adjuvants (161).  Rebalancing of the immune system towards immunogenicity may restore Treg/Th17 ratio (162; 170) but it is complicated. The stimulation of IL10 and IL12 induce Tregs produce less Th17 while inhibiting CTL activation and its function (76; 171; 172).  When animals were pre-treated with anti-TGFbeta before vaccination, elevation in the plasma levels of IL-15 for tumor specific T cell survival in (173; 174) ovarian cancer studies was observed.   After human papilloma virus infection, the system present an increase of IL12 (175).  Opposing signal mechanism downregulates the TGFbeta to activate CTL and Th1 population with IL12 and IL15 expression (162; 173).  The effects of IL17 on antitumor properties observed by unique subset of CD4+ T cells (176) called also CD8+ T cells secrete even more IL17 (177).

Use of cytokines as adjuvants during vaccination may improve the efficacy of vaccination, since cancer vaccines, unlike infections vaccines, applied after the infection or disease started against the established adoptive immune response.  It is an almost common practice to use adjuvants to improve efficacy in immunotherapy as a combination therapy (178). Enhancing cancer vaccine efficacy via modulation of the microenvironment is another solution, if only know who are the players.  For example, changing intercellular Ca signaling in T cells is necessary to convert them to Tregs.    Several molecules can be used to initiate and lengthen the activity of intervention to stimulate IDO expression without compromising the mechanism (179) because of the positive feedback loops.  The system is complicated so generally induction is completed ex-vivo stimulation of DCs in cell lysates, or in whole tumor lysates, to create the microenvironment and natural stimulatory agents. Introduction of molecules as an adjuvants on genetic regulation on modulation of DCs are critical, because order and time of the signals, specific location/ tissue, and heterogeneity of personal needs (174; 138; 180). These studies demonstrated that IL15 with low TGFb stimulates CTL and Th1, whereas elevated TGFb with IL10 increases Th17 and Tregs in cancer microenvironments.

For example Ret-peptide antitumor vaccine contains an extracellular fragment of Ret protein and Th1 polarized immunoregulator CpG oligonucleotide (1826), with 1MT, a potent inhibitor of IDO, brought a powerful as well as specific cellular and humoral immune responses in mice (152).  The main idea of choosing Ret is to produce vaccine in ret related carcinomas because ret fulfilled two requirements, first choosing patients self-antigens for cancer therapy with a non-mutated gene, and second, there is no evidence of genetic mutations in Ret amino acids 64-269.

Table 2- IDO Clinical Trials

1

Clinical Trials From Clinicaltrials.Gov

Title And Details Of The Study

NCT Number Recruitment Condition Primary Completion Date Sponsor/Collaborator Phase orObservation. Intervention Type
2 IDO Inhibitor Study For Relapsed Or Refractory Solid Tumors NCT00739609

Terminated

Breast Cancer|Lung Cancer|Melanoma|Pancreatic Cancer|Solid Tumors October 2012 NewlLink enetics Corp. 1 CHEM
3  IDO2 Genetic Status Informs The Neoadjuvant Efficacy Of Chloroquine (CQ) In Brain Metastasis Radiotherapy NCT01727531

Recruiting

Brain Metastasis Dec. 2020 Main Line Health NA CHEM
4 Peptide Vaccine And Temozolomide For Metastatic Melanoma Patients NCT01543464

Recruiting

Malignant Melanoma September 2014 Newlink Genetics Corporation 2 CHEM
5 A Phase 1/2 Randomized, Blinded, Placebo Controlled Study Of Ipilimumab In Combination With INCB024360 Or Placebo In Subjects With Unresectable Or Metastatic Melanoma NCT01604889

Recruiting

Metastatic Melanoma August 2014 Incyte Corporation 1/2 BIOLINH+CHEM
6 A Phase 2 Study Of The IDO Inhibitor INCB024360 Versus Tamoxifen For Subjects With Biochemical-Recurrent-Only EOC, PPC Or FTC Following Complete Remission With First-Line Chemotherapy NCT01685255

Recruiting

April 2014 Incyte Corporation 2 CHEM
7   Different Injection Number Of The Same Dose Of Botulinum Toxin A On Overactive Bladder Syndrome NCT01657409

Recruiting

Overactive Bladder March 2014 Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital 2 CHEM
8  Study On The Effect Of Intravenous Ascorbic Acid On Intraoperative Blood Loss In Women With Uterine MyomaInterventions: Drug: Ascorbic Acid NCT01715597

Recruiting

Uterine Leiomyoma January 2014 Seoul National University Hospital 3 CHEM
9 1-Methyl-D-Tryptophan In Treating Patients With Metastatic Or Refractory Solid Tumors That Cannot Be Removed By Surgery NCT00567931

Recruiting

Unspecified Adult Solid Tumor, Protocol Specific September 2013 National Cancer Institute (NCI) 1 CHEM
10  Properties Of Mesenchymal Stem Cells In Lung Transplant NCT01668576

Recruiting

Lung Transplantation August 2013 Emory University OBS BIOL
11  The Effects Of Medical Clowns In Children Undergoing Blood Tests NCT01396876

Recruiting

Pain And Anxiety Reduction July 2012 Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center NA BIOL
12   Saline Injection – Assisted Anesthesia In Eyelid Surgery NCT01239498

Recruiting

Blepharoptosis October 2011 Sheba Medical Center 4 CHEMBIOL
13   Effects Of The Consumption Of California Walnuts On Cardiovascular HealthInterventions:            Dietary Supplement: Walnuts NCT01235390

Recruiting

Cardiovascular Disease|Immune Health October 2011 University Of California, Davis|California Walnut Commission 1 FOODALERGY-WALNUT
14  Pomegranate To Reduce Maternal And Fetal Oxidative Stress And Improve Outcome In Pregnancies Complicated With Preterm Premature Rupture Of The Membranes NCT01584323

Recruiting

Preterm Premature Rupture Of Membranes|Pregnant State 2013 Rambam Health Care Campus NA FOODSUP
1 Phase II INCB024360 Study For Patients With Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS) NCT01822691

Not Yet Recruiting

Myelodysplastic Syndromes September 2015 H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center And Research Institute|Incyte Corporation 2 CHEM-BIOL?
2   Title:  Schizophrenia Imaging NCT01655472

Not Yet Recruiting

Foetal Differences Between Healthy And Schizophernic Parents July 2014 Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center IMAGEN
3  C11 AMT Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Imaging In Patients With Metastatic Invasive Breast Cancer NCT01302821

Not Yet Recruiting

Breast Cancer April 2014     H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center And Research Institute|National Cancer Institute (NCI) NA BIOLDCAV-P53MTRADIA
4   Sonographic Evaluation Of Visceral Fat After Bariatric Surgery NCT01285791

Not Yet Recruiting

Morbid Obesity April 2012 Hadassah Medical Organization OBS BIOL CELL
5 How Our Immune System Can Help Fight Cancer NCT01042847

Not Yet Recruiting

Ovarian Cancer January 2011 Winthrop UniversityHospita EVALNA POLY.BIOL
6  Title: Study Of The Long-Term Effect Of Frequent Anti-VEGF Dosing On Retinal Function In Patients With Neovascular AMD NCT00533689

Not Yet Recruiting

Electrophysiology 2013 NA  Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center NAEYE BIOL
7  Microbial Surveillance In Children Hospitalized For Cardiovascular Surgery NCT00426894

Not Yet Recruiting

Cardiac Surgery|Perioperative Prophylaxis 2013 NA Hadassah Medical Organization OBS
8 Study Of Chemotherapy In Combination With IDO Inhibitor In Metastatic Breast Cancer NCT01792050

Not Recruitinbut  Active  G

Metastatic Breast Cancer January 2015 Newlink Genetics Corporation 2 CHEM
9 A Dose-Escalation Study In Subjects With Advanced Malignancies NCT01195311

Not BUT  Active Recruiting

Advanced Malignancies November 2012 Incyte Corporation 1 CHEM DOSE
SP  Title:   Mesalamine To Reduce T Cell Activation In HIV Infection NCT01090102

Enrolling By Invitation

HIV Infections|Sexually Transmitted Diseases|Immune System Diseases|Lentivirus Infections|Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome January 2013 UC, San Francisco|California HIV/AIDS Research Program|Salix Pharmaceuticals 4 CHEM
1 Study Of Indoleamine 2,3-Dioxygenase Activity, Serum Levels Of Cytokines, BDNF, BH4 And NCT00919295

Completed

Fibromyalgia Syndrome October 2011 Mahidol University|University Of Texas|University Of Wuerzburg 2 CHEM.
2 Diagnosis Of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Following Primary Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment NCT01233908

Completed

Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic|Retinal Detachment September 2010 Sheba Medical Center OBSEYE BIOL
3 Comparison Of DCT, ORA And GAT In Eyes After Penetrating Keratoplasty NCT00834782

Completed

Corneal Transplantation December 2009 Sheba Medical Center 4
4 Disturbances Of Kynurenine Pathway Of Trytophan Metabolism In Schizophrenia: A Quantitative Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) Study NCT00573300

Completed

Schizophrenia May 2009 North Suffolk Mental Health Association OBSV. BIOL
5 Effect Of Biological Therapy On Biomarkers In Patients With Untreated Hepatitis C, Metastatic Melanoma, Or Crohn Disease NCT00897312

Completed

Melanoma August 2008 Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center|National Cancer Institute (NCI) OBSV.  BIOL-CHEM
6 A Prospective Comparative Study Of Induction Of Labor With A Cervical Ripening Double Balloon Vs Foley Catheter NCT00501033

Completed

Induction Of Labor|Cesarean|Endometritis February 2008 Western Galilee Hospital-Nahariya NA DEVICE
7 Tryptophan, Serotonin And Kynurenine In Septic Shock NCT00684736

Completed

Shock, Septic April 2007 Central Hospital, Versailles OBS KYN
8 Imatinib Mesylate In Treating Patients With Metastatic Breast Cancer NCT00045188

Completed

Male Breast Cancer|Recurrent Breast Cancer|Stage IV Breast Cancer July 2004 National Cancer Institute (NCI) 2 CHEM
9 IDO Peptid Vaccination For Stage III-IV Non Small-Cell Lung Cancer Patients. NCT01219348

Completed

NSCLC|Lung Cancer NA IDO Peptide Vaccinantio 1
10  Indoleamine 2,3-Dioxygenase (IDO) Activity In Patients With Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) NCT01397916

Completed

CLL NA Tampere University Hospital NA
11   Tryptophan Metabolism In Kidney Disease NCT00758537

Completed

Chronic Kidney Disease NA Charite University, Berlin, Germany OBS BIOLTRP LEVELS
12 Observational To Investigate The Efficacy Of CRESTOR 5mg In Reaching LDL-C Target Goals In Patients Who Are At High Risk For A Cardiovascular Event NCT00347217

Completed

HypercholesteremiaCardiovascular NA Astrazeneca 4 CHEM
13 The Association Between Delivery Method And Maternal Rehospitalization NCT00501501

Completed

Hospitalization NA Western Galilee Hospital-Nahariya OBS BIOL
14 Uterine Flora During Elective And Urgent Cesarean Sections NCT00500019

Completed

Endometritis NA Western Galilee Hospital-Nahariya OBS BIOL
15   Title: Pilot, Proof-Of-Concept Study Of Sublingual Tizanidine In Children With Chronic Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) NCT00287157

Completed

 Traumatic Brain Injury NA Teva GTC 1B CHEM

Another example came from demonstration of proliferating hemangiomas, benign endothelial tumors and often referred as hemangiomas of infancy appearing at head or neck, expresses IDO and slowly regressed as a result of immune mediated process. Large scale of genomic analysis shows insulin like growth factor 2 as the key regulator of hematoma growth (Ritter et al. 2003).

We set out to develop new technology with our previous expertise in immunotherapy and immunomodulation (181; 182; 183; 184), correcting Th17/Th1 ratio (185), and siRNA technology (186; 187).  We developed siRNA-IDO-DCvax. Patented two technologies “Immunomodulation using Altered DCs (Patent No: US2006/0165665 A1) and Method of Cancer Treatments using siRNA Silencing (Patent No: US2009/0220582 A1). In melanoma cancer DCs were preconditioned with whole tumor lysate but in breast cancer model pretreatment completed with tumor cell lysate before siRNA-IDO-DCvax applied. Both of these studies presented a success without modifying the autanticity of DCs but decreasing the IDO expression to restore immunegenity by delaying tumor growth in breast cancer (147) and in melanoma (188).  Thus, our DCvax specifically interfere with IDO without disturbing natural structure and content of the DCs in vivo.  Thus, we showed that DCvax can carry on this technology to clinical applications.   Furthermore, our method of intervention is more sophisticated since it has a direct interaction mechanism with ex-vivo DC modulation without creating long term metabolism imbalance in Trp/Kyn metabolite mechanisms with corrective and non-invasive actioins.

There are several reasons for us to combine DCs with siRNA technology for making DCvax.  First, prevention of tumor development studies targeting non-enzymatic pathway initiated by pDCs conditioned with TGFbeta is specific to IDO1 (189). Second, IDO upregulation in antigen presenting cells allowing metastasis show that most human tumors express IDO at high levels (123; 124).  Third, tolerogenic DCs secretes several molecules some of them are transforming growth factor beta (TGFb), interleukin IL10), human leukocyte antigen G (HLA-G), and leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), and non-secreted program cell death ligand 1 (PD-1 L) and IDO, indolamine 2.3-dioxygenase, which promote tumor tolerance. Thus, we took advantage of DCs properties and IDO specificity to prevent the tolerogenicity with siRNA-IDO DC vaccine in both melanoma and breast cancer.  Fourth, IDO expression in DCs makes them even more potent against tumor antigens and create more T cells against tumors. IDOs are expressed at different levels by both in broad range of tumor cells and many subtypes of DCs including monocyte-derived DCs (10), plasmacytoid DCs (142), CD8a+ DCs (190), IDO compotent DCs (17), IFNgamma-activated DCs used in DC vaccination.  These DCs suppress immune responses through several mechanisms for induction of apoptosis towards activated T cells (156) to mediate antigen-specific T cell anergy in vivo (142) and for enhancement of Treg cells production at sites of vaccination with IDO-positive DCs+ in human patients (142; 191; 192; 168; 193; 194).  If DCs are preconditioned with tumor lysate with 1MT vaccination they increase DCvax effectiveness unlike DCs originated from “normal”, healthy lysate with 1MT in pancreatic cancer (195).  As a result, we concluded that the immunesupressive effect of IDO can be reversed by siRNA because Treg cells enhance DC vaccine-mediated anti-tumor-immunity in cancer patients.

Gene silencing is a promising technology regardless of advantages simplicity for finding gene interaction mechanisms in vitro and disadvantages of the technology is utilizing the system with specificity in vivo yet improved(186; 196).  siRNA technology is one of the newest solution for the treatment of diseases as human genomics is only producing about 25,000 genes by representing 1% of its genome. Thus, utilizing RNA opens the doors for more comprehensive and less invasive effects on interventions. Thus this technology is still improving and using adjuvants.  Silencing of K-Ras inhibit the growth of tumors in human pancreatic cancers (197), silencing of beta-catenin in colon cancers causes tumor regression in mouse models (198), silencing of vascular endothelial growth factor (VGEF) decreased angiogenesis and inhibit tumor growth (199).   Combining siRNA IDO and DCvax from adult stem cell is a novel technology for regression of tumors in melanoma and breast cancers in vivo. Our data showed that IDO-siRNA reduced tumor derived T cell apoptosis and tumor derived inhibition of T cell proliferation.  In addition, silencing IDO made DCs more potent against tumors since treated or pretreated animals showed a delay or decreased the tumor growth (188; 147).

Clinical Trials:

First FDA approved DC-based cancer therapies for treatment of hormone-refractory prostate cancer as autologous cellular immunotherapy (163; 164).  However, there are many probabilities to iron out for a predictive outcome in patients.  Clinical trials report shows 38 total studies specifically IDO related function on cancer (16), eye (3), surgery (2), women health (4), obesity (1), Cardiovascular (2), brain (1), kidney (1), bladder (1), sepsis shock (1), transplant (1),  nervous system and behavioral studies (4), HIV (1).  Among these only 22 of which active, recruiting or not yet started to recruit, and 17 completed and one terminated. Most of these studies concentrated on cancer by the industry, Teva GTC ( Phase I traumatic brain injury), Astra Zeneca (Phase IV on efficacy of CRESTOR 5mg for cardiovascular health concern), Incyte corporation (Phase II ovarian cancer), NewLink Genetics Corporation (Phase I breast/lung/melanoma/pancreatic solid tumors that is terminated; Phase II malignant melanoma recruiting, Phase II active, not recruiting metastatic breast cancer, Phase I/II metastatic melanoma, Phase I advanced malignancies), and Salix Corp-UC, San Francisco and HIV/AIDS Research Programs (for HIV Phase IV enrolling by invitation).  Most of these studies based on chemotherapy but there are few that use biological methods completed study with  IDO vaccine peptide vaccination for Stage III-IV non-small-cell lung cancer patients (NCT01219348), observational study on effect of biological therapy on biomarkers in patients with untreated hepatitis C, metastasis melanoma, or Crohn disease by IFNalpha and chemical (ribavirin, ticilimumab (NCT00897312), polymorphisms of patients after 1MT drug application in treating patients with metastatic or unmovable refractory solid tumors by surgery (NCT00758537), IDO expression analysis on MSCs (NCT01668576), and not yet recruiting intervention with adenovirus-p53 transduced dendric cell vaccine , 1MT , radiation, Carbon C 11 aplha-methyltryptophan (NCT01302821).

Among the registered clinical trials some of them are not interventional but  observational and evaluation studies on Trp/Kyn ratio (NCT01042847), Kyn/Trp ratio (NCT01219348), Kyn levels (NCT00897312, NCT00573300),  RT-PCR analysis for Kyn metabolism (NCT00573300, NCT00684736, NCT00758537), and intrinsic IDO expression of mesenchymal stem cells in lung transplant with percent inhibition of CD4+ and CD8+ T cell proliferation toward donor cells (NCT01668576), determining polymorphisms (NCT00426894). These clinical trials/studies are immensely valuable to understand the mechanism and route of intervention development with the data collected from human populations.

 

Future Actions for Molecular Diagnosis and Targeted Therapies:

Current survival or response rate is around 40 to 50 % range.  By using specific cell type, selected inhibition/activation sequence based on patient’s genomic profile may improve the efficacy of clinical interventions on cancer treatments.

Targeted therapies for specific gene regulation through signal transduction are necessary but there are few studies with genomics based approach.  On the other hand, there are surveys, observational or evaluations (listed in clinical trials section) registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov that will provide a valuable short-list of molecules.  Preventing stimulation of Ido1 as well as Tgfb-1gene expression by modulating receptor mediated phosphorylation between TGFb/SMAD either at Mad-Homology 1 (MH1) or Mad-Homology 1 (MH2) domains is possible (79; 82; 80). Within Smads there is a conserved Mad-Homology 1 (MH1) domain, which is a DNA binding module contains tightly bound Zinc atom. So the zinc can be targeted with a small molecule adjuvant.  Smad MH2 domain is also well conserved as one the most diverse protein-signal interacting molecule during signal transduction due to two important Serine residues located extreme distal C-termini at Ser-Val-Ser in Smad 2 or at pSer-X-PSer in RSmads (80).  Kyn activated orphan G protein–coupled receptor, GPR35 with unknown function with a distinct expression pattern that collides with IDO sites since its expression at high levels of the immune system and the gut (63) (200; 63).

 

The first study to connect IDO with cancer shows that group (75) so direct targeting to regulate IDO expression is another method.  It is best to act through modulating ISREs in its promoter with RNA-peptide combination technology. Indirectly, IDO can be regulated through Bin1 gene expression control over IDO since Bin1 is a negative regulator of IDO and prevents IDO expression.  IDO is under negative genetic control of Bin1, BAR adapter–encoding gene Bin1 (also known as Amphiphysin2). Bin1 functions in cancer suppression, because attenuation of Bin1 observed in many human malignancies (141; 201; 202; 203; 204; 205; 206).  Absence of Bin1, null Bin1-/- mice studies, upregulates IDO through STAT1- and NF-kB-dependent in tumor cells to escape from T cell–dependent antitumor immunity.   Detailed molecular genetics studies showed that alternative spicing of Bin1 creates tumor suppressor affect.  Its activities also depends on these spliced outcome, such as Exon 10, in muscle. On the other hand, alternative spliced Exon12A contributes brain cell differentiation (209; 210).  In turn Exon 13 in mice has importance in role for regulating growth. When Bin1 is deleted or mutated C2C12 myoblasts interrupted due to its missing Myc, cyclinD1, or growth factor inhibiting genes like p21WAF1 (207; 208).  Thus, myc becomes a natural target and biomarker as well.

Myc is a target at the junction between IDO gene interaction and Trp metabolism.  Bin1 interacts with Myc either early-dependent on Myc or late-independent on Myc, meaning Myc is not present. This gene regulation also interfered by the long term signaling mechanism related to moonlighting pathway (73; 74).  Hence, Trp/Kyn, Kyn/Trp, Th1/Th17 ratios are important to be observed in patients peripheral blood. These direct and indirect gene interactions place Bin1 to function in cell differentiation (211; 212; 205).

Moonlighting maintains the tolerance. The key factor is in this pathway is Kyn so by reviewing one of the microarray analysis for Kyn affect is critical. This data showed that there are 25 genes affected by Kyn, two of which are upregulated and 23 of them downregulated (100). The list of genes and additional knowledge based on previous intervention methods are a good place to start creating a diagnostics panel as a biomarker to monitor outcomes of given immunotherapies. The short list of candidates are as an adjuvant or co-stimulation agents are myc, NfKB at IKKA, C2CD2, CREB3L2, GPR115, IL2, IL8, IL6, and IL1B, mir-376 RNA, NFKB3, TGFb, RelA, and SH3RF1. From the preivos studies we can also add LIP, Fox3P, CTLA-4, Bin1 and IMPACT to the list.  In addition, specific use of TLR, conserved sequences of IDO across its homologous structures and ISREs of IDO or glucorticoid response elements of TDO are great direct targets to modulate the mechanism. Furthermore, some of the signaling pathway molecules CCR6, CCR5, RORgammat, Jak, STAT, IRFs, MH1 and MH2 domains of Smads may add a value.

Endothelial cell coagulation activation mechanism and pDC maturation or immigration from lymph nodes to bloodstream should marry to control not only IDO expression but also genesis of preferred DC subsets. Stromal mesenchymal cells are activated by this modulation at vascular system and interferes with metastasis of cancer. First, thrombin (human factor II) is a well regulated protein in coagulation hemostasis has a role in cell differentiation and angiogenesis. Protein kinase activated receptors (PARs), type of GPCRs, moderate the actions. Second, during hematopoietic response endothelial cells produce hematopoietic growth factors (213; 214) to revise the vascular structure.  Third, components of bone marrow stroma cells include monocytes, adipocytes, and mesenchymal stem cells (215), which are addressing occurrence of coagulapathologies, DIC, bleeding, thrombosis, and penalizing patients response rate towards therapies and decreasing survival rates specially in breast, lung, prostate cancers.

Both silencing IDO in DCs and reinstallinig antitumor immunity by inhibiting tumor-derived immunosupressive molecule IDO through RNA inference combined with our specialization in stem cell technology created a novel method with a success in vivo.  This data suggests that IDO siRNA DCvax can provide a clinical intervention to increase survival rate and prevention of cancer.

Personal genomic profiles are powerful tool to improve efficacy in immunotherapies so considering the influence of age (young vs. adult) and state of immune system (innate vs. adopted or acquired immunity) are important as well.

CONCLUSION


IDO has a confined function in immune system through complex interactions to maintain hemostasis of immune responses. The genesis of IDO stem from duplication of bacterial IDO-like genes.  Inhibition of microbial infection and invasion by depleting tryptophan limits and kills the invader but during starvation of tryptophan the host may pass the twilight zone since tryptophan required by host’s T cells.  Thus, the host cells in these small pockets adapt to new microenvironment with depleted tryptophan and oxygen poor conditions. Hence, the cell metabolism differentiates to generate new cellular structures, like nodules and tumors under the protection of constitutively expressed IDO in tumors, DCs to inhibit T cell proliferation. On the other hand, having a dichotomy in IDO function can be a potential limiting factor that means is that IDO’s impact on biological system could be variable at many levels based on target cells, IDO’s capacity, pathologic state of the disease and conditions of the microenvironment.  This complexity requires a very close monitoring to analyze the outcome and to prevent conspiracies over the data since some previous studies generated paradoxical results.  Healthcare cost of current therapies through chemotherapies, radiotherapies is very high and provide low efficacy.  Clinical interventions of immunotherapies require control of more than one system, such as coagulation and vascular biology manipulations for a higher efficacy and survival rate in cancer patients. Our siRNA and DC technologies based on stem cell modulation will provide at least prevention of cancer development and hopefully prevention in cancer.

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Author: Tilda Barliya PhD

Photoacoustic Tomography (PAT), also called the optoacoustic or thermoacoustic (TA), is a materials analysis technique based on the reconstruction of an internal photoacoustic source distribution from measurements acquired by scanning ultrasound detectors over a surface that encloses the source under study. Moreover, it is non-ionizing and non-invasive, and is the fastest growing new biomedical method, with clinical applications on the way.

Dr. Lihong Wang, a Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis, summarizes the state of the art in photoacoustic imaging (1).

The photoacoustic (PA) effect:

The fundamental principle of the PA effect can be simply described: an object absorbs EM radiation energy, the absorbed energy converts into heat and the temperature of the object increases. As soon as the temperature increases, thermal expansion takes place, generating acoustic pressure in the medium. However, a steady thermal expansion (time invariant heating) does not generate acoustic waves; thus, the heating source is required to be time variant.

Dr. Wang explains that “the trick of photoacoustic tomography is to convert light absorbed at depth to sound waves, which scatter a thousand times less than light, for transmission back to the surface. The tissue to be imaged is irradiated by a nanosecond-pulsed laser at an optical wavelength”.

Absorption by light by molecules beneath the surface creates a thermally induced pressure jump that launches sound waves that are measured by ultrasound receivers at the surface and reassembled to create what is, in effect, a photograph.

When comparing to other modalities, PAT has several great advantages:

Table 1 Comparison of imaging modalities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Wang is already working with physicians at the Washington University School of Medicine to move four applications of photoacoustic tomography into clinical trials (2).

  • One is to visualize the sentinel lymph nodes that are important in breast cancer staging;
  • A second to monitor early response to chemotherapy;
  • A third to image melanomas;
  • The fourth to image the gastrointestinal tract.

Sentinel node biopsy provides a good example of the improvement photoacoustic imaging promises over current imaging practice. Sentinel nodes are the nodes nearest a tumor, such as a breast tumor, to which cancerous cells would first migrate.

Currently, sentinel node biopsy, includes injection of  a radioactive substance, a dye or both near a tumor. The body treats both substances as foreign, so they flow to the first draining node to be filtered and flushed from the body. A gamma probe or a Geiger counter is used to locate the radioactive particles and the surgeon must cut open the area and follow the dye visually to the sentinel lymph node.

Dr. Wang however, offers a simpler method: injecting an optical dye that shows up so clearly in photoacoustic images that a hollow needle can be guided directly to the sentinel lymph node and a sample of tissue taken through the needle.

Contrast agents:

Most photoacoustic (PA) contrast agents are designed for absorbing laser, especially in the NIR spectral range. However, RF contrast agents are also desirable due to the superior penetration depth of RF in the body (1).  A typical example is indocyanine green (ICG), a dye approved by FDA. ICG has high absorption in the NIR spectral region, and it has already been proved to increase the PA signal when it is injected in blood vessels. Most recently, methyline blue was used as the contrast agent to detect the sentinel lymph node (SLN) (4).

Compared with dyes, nanoparticles possess a high and tunable absorption spectrum, and longer circulation time (1). The absorption peak is tunable by changing the shape and size of the particle. In addition, nanoparticles can be used to target certain diseases by bio-conjugating them with proteins, such as antibodies.  Among different nanoparticles, gold nanoparticles are favored in optical imaging due to their exceptional optical properties in the visible and NIR spectral ranges, including scattering, absorption and photoluminescence. So far, none of the gold nanoparticles have been approved by FDA (1).

One exciting aspect of photoacoustic tomography is that images contain functional as well as structural information because color reflects the chemical composition and chemistry determines function. Photoacoustic tomography, for example, can detect the oxygen saturation of hemoglobin, which is bright red when it is carrying oxygen and turns darker red when it releases it (3), that is important, since almost all diseases, especially cancer and diabetes, cause abnormal oxygen metabolism.  For example see image 1.

Image courtesy of Junjie Yao/Lihong Wang

Image 1: melanoma tumor (MT) cells were injected into a mouse ear on day 1. By day 7, there were noticeable changes in the blood flow rate (top graph, right) and the metabolic rate of oxygen usage (bottom graph, right). Counterintuitively, the tumor did not increase the oxygen extraction fraction (middle graph). The colors correspond to depth, with blue being superficial and red deep (3).

Wang’s team demonstrated that oxygen metabolism betrayed the presence of a melanoma within few days of injections in animal models, where as Oxygen use doubled in a week.

In this aspect: photoacoustic images,  can offer several parameters such as;

  • Vessel cross-section,
  • Concentration of hemoglobin and blood flow speed,
  • and The gradient of oxygen saturation can be used to calculate the oxygen use by a region of tissue.

Analysis of oxygen use is not necessarily new and is frequently measured by positron emission tomography (PET), which requires the injection or inhalation of a radioactively labeled tracer and undesirable radiation exposure.

Photoacoustic Tomography is currently being investigated for (5):

  1. Breast cancer (microvascular).  Additionally, for further information on photoacoustic tomography please read the article by Dr. Venkat Karra (I).
  2. Skin cancer (melanin)
  3. Brain tumors
  4. Cardiac disease – myocardial infraction (6)
  5. Ophthalmology – retinal disease (7)
  6. Ostheoarthrities (8)

Summary

photoacoustic tomography perfectly complements other biomedical imaging modalities by providing unique optical absorption contrast with highly scalable spatial resolution, penetration depth, and imaging speed. In light of its capabilities and flexibilities, PAT is expected to play a more essential role in biomedical studies and clinical practice.

Reference:

1.  Changhui Li and Lihong V Wang. Photoacoustic tomography and sensing in biomedicine. Phys. Med. Biol. 2009 54 R59 doi:10.1088/0031-9155/54/19/R01  http://iopscience.iop.org/0031-9155/54/19/R01 http://iopscience.iop.org/0031-9155/54/19/R01/pdf/0031-9155_54_19_R01.pdf

2. Jiecheny Yin. Photoacoustic tomography in cancer detection. http://bme240.eng.uci.edu/students/08s/jiecheny/index.htm

3. Jim Goodwin. NEW IMAGING TECHNIQUE COULD SPEED CANCER DETECTION. http://www.siteman.wustl.edu/ContentPage.aspx?id=5788

4.  Song K H, Stein E W, Margenthaler J A and Wang L V. Noninvasive photoacoustic identification of sentinel lymph nodes containing methylene blue in vivo in a rat model J. Biomed. Opt. 2008: 13 054033–6.  http://oilab.seas.wustl.edu/epub/SongK_2008_J_Biomed_Opt_13_054033.pdf

5. Junjie Yao and Lihong V Wang.  Photoacoustic tomography: fundamentals, advances and prospects. Contrast Media Mol Imaging. 2011 September; 6(5): 332–345. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3205414/

6. Holotta M, Grossauer HKremser CTorbica PVölkl JDegenhart GEsterhammer RNuster RPaltauf GJaschke W. Photoacoustic tomography of ex vivo mouse hearts with myocardial infarction. J. Biomed Opt. 2011 Mar;16(3):036007. doi: 10.1117/1.3556720. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21456870

7. Hao F. ZhangCarmen A. Puliafito, and Shuliang Jiao, Photoacoustic Ophthalmoscopy for In Vivo Retinal Imaging: Current Status and Prospects.  Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging. 2011 July; 42(0): S106–S115.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3291958/

8. Yao Sun, Eric S. Sobel, and Huabei Jiang. First assessment of three-dimensional quantitative photoacoustic tomography for in vivo detection of osteoarthritis in the finger joints.  Med. Phys. 38, 4009 (2011); http://dx.doi.org/10.1118/1.3598113 . http://online.medphys.org/resource/1/mphya6/v38/i7/p4009_s1?isAuthorized=no

Other articles from our Open Access Journal:

I. By : Venkat Karra. Visualizing breast cancer without X-rays. http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/05/08/visualizing-breast-cancer-without-x-rays/

II. By: Dr. Dror Nir. Ultrasound in Radiology – Results of a European Survey. http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/07/21/ultrasound-in-radiology-results-of-a-european-survey/

III.  By: Dr. Dror Nir. Causes and imaging features of false positives and false negatives on 18F-PET/CT in oncologic imaging. http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/05/18/causes-and-imaging-features-of-false-positives-and-false-negatives-on-18f-petct-in-oncologic-imaging/

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