Antibody detection against HPV16 E7 & GP96 fragments as biomarkers in cervical cancer patients.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Cervical cancer is the second most frequent cancer among females worldwide, especially human papilloma viruses (HPV) types 16 and 18. In viral systems the identification of serological markers would facilitate the diagnosis of HPV infections and virus-related disease. The aim of the present investigation was to determine and search for serologic markers in cervical cancer patients associated with HPV. METHODS: A total of 58 Iranian women with invasive cervical carcinoma including adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) were included. Serum antibody response to HPV infections in patients was detected by Western blot and ELISA techniques based on recombinant HPV16E7 and the N-terminal and C-terminal fragments of gp96 (NT-gp96 and CT-gp96) proteins. These recombinant proteins were expressed in Escherichia coli as a His-tag protein and purified using affinity chromatography. RESULTS: The ELISA results indicated that patients with high antibody response to HPV16E7 had significant seroreactivity to CT-gp96 fragment. In Western blot analysis, a strong association between anti-E7, anti-NT-gp96 and anti-CT-gp96 reactivity and cervical cancer was obtained using purified recombinant proteins. In adenocarcinoma cases, no significant difference was observed in seroreactivities between normal and patients. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSION: The evaluation of cervical cancer patients' seroreactivities against three recombinant proteins (rE7, rNT-gp96 and rCT-gp96) showed significantly higher levels of these markers in SCC only, but not in adenocarcinoma and control groups. Also, the usage of both techniques (ELISA and Western blotting) can provide more reliable tools for diagnosis of cervical cancer.

HLA-DRB1,-DQA1 and -DQB1 allele and haplotype frequencies in female patients with early onset breast cancer.

Based on the reports, few HLA class II alleles are associated with susceptibility or protection in breast cancer. Here we investigate the association between HLA class II alleles and breast cancer in Iranian women. 100 patients with pathologically proven breast cancer who referred to Cancer Institute were randomly selected and compared with a group of 80 healthy blood donor subjects. The patients were studied in two groups, group 1 includes patients aging 40 years or younger and group 2 include patients aging over 40 years. HLA class II alleles were determined by amplification of DNA followed by HLA-typing using sequence-specific primer (SSP) for each allele. In group 1, the most frequent alleles were HLA-DQA1*0301 (P = 0.002, OR = 3.3) and HLA-DQB1*0302 (P = 0.04, OR = 2.8). In group 2, the following alleles increased significantly than those in controls including HLA-DQA1*0301 (P = 0.001, OR = 3.4) and HLA-DRB1*0301 (P = 0.04, OR = 2.3). In complete group of patients, the frequency of HLA-DQA1*0301 (P = 0.001, OR = 3.4) and HLA-DRB1*1303 (P = 0.02, OR = 2.3) increased significantly than those in control group. HLA-DQA1*0505, HLA-DQA1*0101, HLA-DRB1*1301and HLA-DRB1*0101 alleles showed negative association with breast cancer. Our findings suggest that HLA-DQA1*0301 allele is mainly associated with increased risk of breast cancer including early-onset of the disease. HLA-DQA1*0505 and HLA-DRB1*1301 are involved in protection. We conclude that specific alleles of HLA class II influence breast cancer risk.

Cytokine response following transthoracic and transhiatal esophagectomy in patients with esophageal cancer.

Curative esophageal resection is usually performed using either a transthoracic (TT) or transhiatal (TH) approach. Forty patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma who underwent esophagectomies (24 TT and 16 TH), 12 patients who underwent surgery for gastric cancer, and 16 healthy individuals were enrolled in this study. Blood samples were taken from the patients, pre- and post-surgery. The levels of synthesis of T-helper 1 and 2 cytokines were assessed in vitro in the presence of mitogen. Our initial data indicated that at admission, 24 h before surgery, blood cells from both groups of esophageal cancer patients produced significantly lower levels of the Th1 cytokines, IFN-gamma and IL-2 than those from cells of healthy donors. Cells collected from gastric cancer patients prior to surgery produced intermediate levels of IFN-gamma and IL-2: significantly lower than healthy donors, and slightly more (non-significant) than esophageal cancer patients. These results contrast with those for the production of Th2 cytokines prior to surgery, which did not differ significantly between any groups: either the esophageal or gastric cancer patients, or healthy donors. Th1 and Th2 cytokine production was then studied using blood cells collected seven days after surgery. Cells from both groups of esophageal cancer patients, undergoing either TT or TH surgery, produced significantly lower levels of the Th1 cytokines, IFN-gamma and IL-2 than those from cells of gastric cancer patients who had undergone surgery. Postoperative and preoperative production was compared. For patients who had undergone TT esophageal resection, we observed that the post-operative production of IL-2, IL-5 and IL-13 was significantly lower than the pre-operative production of those cytokines. Such reduced post-operative compared to pre-operative production was only significant in patients who had undergone TT esophagectomy. A similar, but non-significant trend was observed in patients who had undergone either TH esophagectomy, or gastrectomy. The results indicate that digestive tract cancer patients, both esophageal and gastric, have (prior to surgery), a significantly reduced, basal, mitogen-induced production of Th1 but not of Th2 cytokine. Post-operatively, a significantly reduced production of Th1 and Th2 cytokines, except for IFN-gamma, was observed only in patients who had undergone surgical esophageal resection using the TT method.

HESA-A: new treatment for breast cancer and choroidal metastasis.

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is one of the main causes of mortality among women worldwide. This type of cancer metastasizes to different body tissues, giving rise to many problems. The effect of HESA-A, a drug of herbal-marine origin, on vision, quality of life, and survival of end-stage breast cancer patients was investigated in this study. MATERIAL/METHODS: In a double-blind study, 24 breast cancer patients with choroidal metastasis, aged between 41 and 49 years, were divided into case and control groups, treated with 50 mg/kg/day of HESA-A and placebo, respectively. The patients were evaluated in respect to the intensity of experienced pain, by assessing their rate of narcotic analgesic use. The patients' vision scale was also evaluated. RESULTS: Notable improvement was seen in the vision of patients treated with HESA-A. Patients receiving HESA-A used narcotics at lower doses, owing to reduced experience of pain. No changes were observed in the vision of control group patients, or their pain experience. CONCLUSIONS: The effects of natural compounds with antioxidant and anticancer properties have been emphasized by different studies. HESA-A is a compound of natural origin, consisting of rare elements and organic materials, which in several animal and cellular studies has shown powerful anticancer effects and less toxicity on normal cells. The results of this study showed considerable improvement in the vision of breast cancer patients treated with HESA-A.