Unique microRNA-profiles in EGFR-mutated lung adenocarcinomas.

The findings of mutations and the development of targeted therapies have improved lung cancer management. Still, the prognosis remains poor, and we need to know more about the genetic and epigenetic alterations in lung cancer. MicroRNAs are involved in crucial biological processes like carcinogenesis by regulating gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. In this project, we have studied the microRNA expression of lung adenocarcinomas and corresponding normal lung tissue and correlated the expression with clinical data and EGFR- and KRAS-mutational status. Agilent microarrays have been used, examining microRNA expression in 154 surgically resected lung adenocarcinomas and 20 corresponding normal lung tissue samples. Findings were confirmed by RT-qPCR in the same cohort and in an independent cohort of 103 lung cancer patients. EGFR and KRAS mutation analyses were also performed. 129 microRNAs were significantly differentially expressed in lung adenocarcinomas compared with normal lung tissue, and 17 microRNAs were differentially expressed between EGFR-mutated and EGFR wildtype tumors. We identified microRNAs associated with time to progression. We have identified several aberrantly expressed microRNAs that discriminate lung adenocarcinomas from normal lung tissue, and hence may be potential biomarkers for early detection. We have found microRNAs that are differentially expressed between EGFR-mutated and EGFR wildtype lung adenocarcinomas, suggesting that microRNAs can be used as molecular biomarkers in classification. We hypothesize that microRNA expression can be used as biomarkers for clinical course.

Gene expression signature of non-involved lung tissue associated with survival in lung adenocarcinoma patients.

Lung adenocarcinoma patients of similar clinical stage and undergoing the same treatments often have marked interindividual variations in prognosis. These clinical discrepancies may be due to the genetic background modulating an individual's predisposition to fighting cancer. Herein, we hypothesized that the lung microenvironment, as reflected by its expression profile, may affect lung adenocarcinoma patients' survival. The transcriptome of non-involved lung tissue, excised from a discovery series of 204 lung adenocarcinoma patients, was evaluated using whole-genome expression microarrays (with probes corresponding to 28 688 well-annotated coding sequences). Genes associated with survival status at 60 months were identified by Cox regression analysis (adjusted for gender, age and clinical stage) and retested in a validation series of 78 additional cases. RNA-Seq analysis from non-involved lung tissue of 12 patients was performed to characterize the different isoforms of candidate genes. Ten genes for which the loge-transformed hazard ratios expressed the same direction of effect in the discovery (P < 1.0 × 10(-3)) and validation series comprised the gene expression signature associated with survival: CNTNAP1, PKNOX1, FAM156A, FRMD8, GALNTL1, TXNDC12, SNTB1, PPP3R1, SNX10 and SERPINH1. RNA sequencing highlighted the complex expression pattern of these genes in non-involved lung tissue from different patients and permitted the detection of a read-through gene fusion between PPP3R1 and the flanking gene (CNRIP1) as well as a novel isoform of CNTNAP1. Our findings support the hypothesis that individual genetic characteristics, evidenced by the expression pattern of non-involved tissue, influence the outcome of lung adenocarcinoma patients.

Controlled exchange interaction between pairs of neutral atoms in an optical lattice.

Ultracold atoms trapped by light offer robust quantum coherence and controllability, providing an attractive system for quantum information processing and for the simulation of complex problems in condensed matter physics. Many quantum information processing schemes require the manipulation and deterministic entanglement of individual qubits; this would typically be accomplished using controlled, state-dependent, coherent interactions among qubits. Recent experiments have made progress towards this goal by demonstrating entanglement among an ensemble of atoms confined in an optical lattice. Until now, however, there has been no demonstration of a key operation: controlled entanglement between atoms in isolated pairs. Here we use an optical lattice of double-well potentials to isolate and manipulate arrays of paired (87)Rb atoms, inducing controlled entangling interactions within each pair. Our experiment realizes proposals to use controlled exchange coupling in a system of neutral atoms. Although 87Rb atoms have nearly state-independent interactions, when we force two atoms into the same physical location, the wavefunction exchange symmetry of these identical bosons leads to state-dependent dynamics. We observe repeated interchange of spin between atoms occupying different vibrational levels, with a coherence time of more than ten milliseconds. This observation demonstrates the essential component of a neutral atom quantum SWAP gate (which interchanges the state of two qubits). Its 'half-implementation', the root SWAP gate, is entangling, and together with single-qubit rotations it forms a set of universal gates for quantum computation.