PYCR1, BANF1, and STARD8 Expression in Gastric Carcinoma: A Clinicopathologic, Prognostic, and Immunohistochemical Study.

BACKGROUND: It will be important to understand the molecular pathways of gastric cancer (GC) occurrence and progression, thus detecting predictive and prognostic biomarkers of GC. Pyrroline-5-carboxylate reductase 1 (PYCR1) was upregulated in many cancers, suggesting its possible roles in carcinogenesis and tumor metastases. Barrier-of-autointegration factor 1 (BANF1) is a protein family that plays essential roles in maintaining the integrity of an intact cellular genome. Rho-GTPs are molecular switches that control many signal transduction pathways in normal cells, including 3 subgroups from 1 to 3 (DLC1-3). DLC-3, known as StAR-related lipid transfer domain protein 8 (STARD8), and its role in cancers were not sufficiently studied. The study aimed to investigate the significance of PYCR1, BANF1, and STARD8 protein expression in GC tissues and normal gastric mucosa retrieved from patients with GC to detect prognostic roles of expression. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Specimens were collected from 100 patients with gastric carcinoma. After the application of the inclusion criteria of the study, we prepared 100 paraffin blocks from samples of the 100 included patients; each block included samples from gastric carcinoma and adjacent non-neoplastic gastric mucosa. We assessed the expression of PYCR1, BANF1, and STARD8 using immunohistochemistry in all studied samples. We followed patients for the detection of disease progression and survival rates. We correlate PYCR1, BANF1, and STARD8 expression with clinical, pathologic, and prognostic parameters. RESULTS: Overexpression of PYCR1 and BANF1 and decreased expression of STARD8 was found in gastric carcinoma tissues than adjacent non-neoplastic gastric mucosa ( P <0.001), and was positively associated with high grade ( P =0.006), depth of tumor invasion, presence of lymph nodes metastases and advanced stage ( P =0.001), high incidence of GC progression, recurrence, unfavorable disease-free survival ( P =0.003) and unfavorable overall survival rates ( P <0.001). Thus, it was revealed that; in univariate and multivariate analyses, levels of PYCR1, BANF1, and STARD8 are associated with the overall survival rate of GC patients. CONCLUSIONS: We showed that overexpression of PYCR1 and BANF1 and decreased expression of STARD8 in GC tissues was associated with poor prognosis and GC progression.

Hepatitis C virus infection could be a risk factor for adult-onset vitiligo in Egyptian patients: A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Vitiligo is a common skin disorder resulting from the destruction of melanocytes. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has been linked to a variety of extrahepatic manifestations, including skin diseases. AIM: To measure the prevalence of HCV-seroreactivity among vitiligo patients. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 108 vitiligo patients. Serum anti-HCV antibodies were detected by chemiluminescence immunoassay. RESULTS: Eighteen patients (16.7%) out of 108 were HCV-reactive; all of them had adult-onset vitiligo. They represented approximately 34.6% of the total patients with adult-onset vitiligo (52 patients). On the contrary, all patients with childhood-onset vitiligo were HCV-non-reactive. Moreover, adult-onset vitiligo was significantly associated with HCV-seroreactivity (p < .001). Also, there was a significant difference between HCV-reactive and HCV-non-reactive vitiligo patients regarding the age of patients and their ages at the onset of vitiligo (p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: HCV may be the triggering factor for adult-onset vitiligo, particularly in regions with a high prevalence of HCV. Therefore, patients with adult-onset vitiligo, rather than childhood-onset disease, should be screened for associated HCV infection in HCV-endemic regions.