[(18) F]-Fluorodeoxy-d-glucose uptake-positive seborrhoeic keratosis on positron emission tomography may result from high expression of glucose transporter.

[(18) F]-Fluorodeoxy-d-glucose (FDG) positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) is known to be highly accurate in differentiating benign lesions from malignant lesions. In rare cases, benign tumours, viral infections and sarcoidosis of the skin have been reported to show FDG uptake, but the mechanism remains unclear. Here we report the first documented case of seborrhoeic keratosis (SK) showing increased FDG uptake. FDG PET-CT can be used to detect enhanced glycolysis of tumour cells by measuring increased levels of glucose transporters (GLUTs) indicative of higher glucose uptake. GLUT1 and GLUT3 expression in this case was compared with that in PET-negative SK and two normal skin samples using quantitative polymerase chain reaction with paraffin-embedded tissue. The expression of GLUT1 and GLUT3 was higher in PET-positive SK than in PET-negative SK or normal skin. More specifically, the expression of GLUT3 was observed only in the PET-positive case. This study revealed that high GLUT1 and GLUT3 expression in SK might be associated with the uptake of FDG.

Antitumor efficacy of oncolytic herpes simplex virus adsorbed onto antigen-specific lymphocytes.

Although several studies have reported that locally administering oncolytic viruses effectively targets malignancies, the efficacy of systemically administered oncolytic viruses is restricted. Recently, however, it was reported that systemic administration of oncolytic vesicular stomatitis virus adsorbed onto antigen-specific lymphocytes was effective against malignancies. We hypothesized that intravenously administering such virus might have significant potential in treatment of the malignant tumors. We adsorbed oncolytic herpes simplex virus-1 mutant R3616 onto lymphocytes harvested from mice with acquired antitumor immunity. We administered adsorbed R3616 to peritoneally disseminated tumors and analyzed the efficacy of this treatment. Mice administered adsorbed R3616 survived significantly longer than mice administered R3616 adsorbed onto non-specific lymphocytes, or mice administered either virus or tumor antigen-specific lymphocytes alone. In this context, herpes oncolytic virus is a promising treatment not only for primary lesions, but also for multiple metastasizing lesions. This treatment strategy may become one of the most effective methods for systemic virus delivery.

Impact of novel oncolytic virus HF10 on cellular components of the tumor microenviroment in patients with recurrent breast cancer.

Oncolytic viruses are a promising method of cancer therapy, even for advanced malignancies. HF10, a spontaneously mutated herpes simplex type 1, is a potent oncolytic agent. The interaction of oncolytic herpes viruses with the tumor microenvironment has not been well characterized. We injected HF10 into tumors of patients with recurrent breast carcinoma, and sought to determine its effects on the tumor microenvironment. Six patients with recurrent breast cancer were recruited to the study. Tumors were divided into two groups: saline-injected (control) and HF10-injected (treatment). We investigated several parameters including neovascularization (CD31) and tumor lymphocyte infiltration (CD8, CD4), determined by immunohistochemistry, and apoptosis, determined by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling assay. Median apoptotic cell count was lower in the treatment group (P=0.016). Angiogenesis was significantly higher in treatment group (P=0.032). Count of CD8-positive lymphocytes infiltrating the tumors was higher in the treatment group (P=0.008). We were unable to determine CD4-positive lymphocyte infiltration. An effective oncolytic viral agent must replicate efficiently in tumor cells, leading to higher viral counts, in order to aid viral penetration. HF10 seems to meet this criterion; furthermore, it induces potent antitumor immunity. The increase in angiogenesis may be due to either viral replication or the inflammatory response.

A phase I dose-escalation clinical trial of intraoperative direct intratumoral injection of HF10 oncolytic virus in non-resectable patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.

In 2005, we initiated a clinical trial that examined the efficacy of the oncolytic virus HF10 to treat pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer continues to have a high mortality rate, despite multimodal treatments for patients, and new therapeutic methods are greatly needed. The current mainstream methods for cancer treatment include biological therapeutics such as trastuzumab (Herceptin) for breast cancer or erlotinib (Tarceva) for non-small cell lung cancer. Oncolytic virus therapy is a new and promising treatment strategy for cancer. Oncolytic viruses are novel biological therapeutics for advanced cancer that appear to have a wide spectrum of anticancer activity with minimal human toxicity. To examine the efficacy of oncolytic virus therapy for pancreatic cancer, we initiated pilot studies by injecting six patients with non-resectable pancreatic cancer with three doses of HF10. All patients were monitored for 30 days for local and systemic adverse effects and were not administered any other therapeutics during this period. There were no adverse side-effects, and we observed some therapeutic potential based on tumor marker levels, survival, pathological findings and diagnostic radiography. The tumors were classified as stable disease in three patients, partial response in one patient and progressive disease in two patients.

Loss of heterozygosity of nucleotide excision repair factors in sporadic ovarian, colon and lung carcinomas: implication for their roles of carcinogenesis in human solid tumors.

The deficiencies of nucleotide excision repair (NER) factors are genetic diseases, xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) increasing risk of developing cancer on sun-exposed areas of the skin. However, the abnormality of NER factors in human sporadic carcinoma remains unclear. Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) analysis for the XP, XPA, XPB, XPC, XPD, XPE, XPF, XPG and the transcription-coupled repair factor, Cockayne syndrome B (CSB) revealed that NER factors were abnormal in 62.1 % of ovarian tumors (18/29), 16.7% of colon (2/12) and 22.2% lung (2/9) carcinomas. Furthermore, 13.8% of ovarian, 8.3% of colon and 22% of lung carcinomas exhibited LOH for NER factors without LOH for tumor suppressor genes such as p53, FHIT, APC, BRCAI, BRCA2 and DCC. Although both microsatellite instability and LOH of NER factors were observed in some cases, there was no strong association between them in the present study. These observations raise the possibility that alterations of NER factors may be frequent in human sporadic carcinomas. Further study should be needed to find the direct evidence of NER gene abnormalities in human sporadic carcinoma tissues.

Expression and cisplatin sensitivity of copper-transporting P-type adenosine triphosphatase (ATP7B) in human solid carcinoma cell lines.

One of the most important clinical problems in the treatment of human solid carcinoma is the intrinsic/acquired resistance. Cisplatin is a platinum compound that is one of the most effective agents in clinic. Copper-transporting P-type adenosine triphosphate (ATP7B) has been reported to be associated with cisplatin resistance by the experiment of transfection of full cDNA of ATP7B into KB3-1 lacking ATP7B. We examined the relationship between mRNA expression level of ATP7B and sensitivity to cisplatin in nine human ovarian carcinoma cell lines to extend these findings. mRNA expression level of ATP7B was significantly correlated with cisplatin-sensitivity in nine cell lines, raising the possibility that ATP7B could be a chemoresistance marker in some types of human solid carcinoma.

Loss of heterozygosity of nucleotide excision repair factors in sporadic oral squamous cell carcinoma using microdissected tissue.

The deficiencies of nucleotide excision repair (NER) factors are involved in rare genetic diseases such as xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) with increased risk of developing cancer on sun-exposed areas of the skin. However, the abnormality of NER factors in human sporadic carcinoma remains unclear. Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) analysis, using the microdissected tissues, for the XPA, XPB, XPC, XPD, XPE, XPF, XPG and the transcription-coupled repair factor, Cockayne syndrome B (CSB) revealed that NER factors were abnormal in 30.0% (3/10 cases) of oral squamous cell carcinomas. Furthermore, 10.0% of oral carcinomas exhibited LOH for NER factors without LOH for tumor suppressor genes such as p53, FHIT, APC, BRCA1, BRCA2 and DCC. These observations raise the possibility that alterations of NER factors may be involved in carcinogenesis in human oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Antiproliferative activity of ecteinascidin 743 is dependent upon transcription-coupled nucleotide-excision repair.

While investigating the novel anticancer drug ecteinascidin 743 (Et743), a natural marine product isolated from the Caribbean sea squirt, we discovered a new cell-killing mechanism mediated by DNA nucleotide excision repair (NER). A cancer cell line selected for resistance to Et743 had chromosome alterations in a region that included the gene implicated in the hereditary disease xeroderma pigmentosum (XPG, also known as Ercc5). Complementation with wild-type XPG restored the drug sensitivity. Xeroderma pigmentosum cells deficient in the NER genes XPG, XPA, XPD or XPF were resistant to Et743, and sensitivity was restored by complementation with wild-type genes. Moreover, studies of cells deficient in XPC or in the genes implicated in Cockayne syndrome (CSA and CSB) indicated that the drug sensitivity is specifically dependent on the transcription-coupled pathway of NER. We found that Et743 interacts with the transcription-coupled NER machinery to induce lethal DNA strand breaks.

Different features of angiogenesis between ovarian and breast carcinoma.

Angiogenesis assessed by immunohistochemical staining for endothelial cells has been widely accepted as an independent prognostic factor in human breast carcinoma. However, the clinicopathologic significance of angiogenesis is still being argued in ovarian carcinoma. Therefore, we retrospectively analyzed the clinicopathologic significance of angiogenesis in ovarian carcinoma compared with that in breast carcinoma. After vessels were stained with CD34-monoclonal antibody, the areas with the highest number of intratumoral microvessels were assessed in a 200x field in 42 ovarian carcinoma and 41 breast carcinoma. Intratumoral microvessel density (IMD) in ovarian carcinoma was significantly lower than that in breast carcinoma. Further, the difference of IMD from tumor to tumor in ovarian carcinoma was smaller than that in breast carcinoma. IMD was correlated with tumor grade, but not with other clinicopathologic variables in ovarian carcinoma. Although the patients with high-IMD tumor revealed a poorer prognosis than those with low-IMD tumor in breast carcinoma, IMD had no influential effects on the survival of the patients with ovarian carcinoma. Our comparative analysis of IMD in ovarian carcinoma with that in breast carcinoma indicates that angiogenesis may play an important role in the transient of ovarian neoplasms, but not in the progression of ovarian carcinomas, and that the biological roles of angiogenesis might be different, depending on histologic subtype.

Ankyrin gene mutations in japanese patients with hereditary spherocytosis.

We studied mutations of the ankyrin-1 (ANK-1) gene of genomic DNA from Japanese patients with hereditary spherocytosis (HS). Forty-nine patients from 46 unrelated families were included in this study. Of these patients, 19 cases from 16 unrelated families had HS of autosomal-dominant inheritance, and 30 patients had non-autosomal-dominant HS. Fifteen mutations of the ANK-1 gene pathognomonic for HS were identified: 4 nonsense mutations, 7 frameshift mutations, and 4 abnormal splicing mutations. These 15 mutations have not been previously reported. The frameshift mutations were found from exon 1 to exon 26, corresponding particularly to the band 3-binding domain of ankyrin. The nonsense mutations, on the contrary, were present mostly at the 3'-terminal side, especially in the spectrin-binding domain and the regulatory domain. The patients with ankyrin gene mutations tended to be more anemic with a higher level of reticulocytosis than those without these mutations. Fifteen silent mutations of the ANK-1 gene, most of which have previously been detected in HS patients in Western populations, were also found. The allele frequency of these silent mutations in the HS patients was nearly identical to that in normal subjects. There was no difference between the Japanese and Western populations in the allele frequency of these gene polymorphisms in healthy subjects or HS patients.

Expression of multidrug resistance-related transporters in human breast carcinoma.

The expression levels of mRNA for multidrug resistance 1 (MDR1) gene, multidrug resistance protein 1 (MRP1), lung resistance-related protein (LRP) and breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP), which confer multidrug resistance in vitro, were examined in 43 untreated breast carcinoma patients, of whom 38 subsequently received doxorubicin-based chemotherapy after surgery, in order to elucidate the roles of these genes in drug resistance in vivo. The mRNA levels were determined using a semi-quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction method in breast carcinoma tissues including at least 80% carcinoma cells. The expression level of BCRP gene was low and did not vary markedly in comparison with that of MDR1, MRP1 or LRP gene. The expressions of MDR1 and MRP1 genes were correlated with each other, but the expression of BCRP or LRP gene did not correlate with that of other genes. These four gene expressions were independent of age, TNM categories and the status of progesterone or estrogen receptor. The expression levels of these four genes were not related to the relapse or prognosis of the 38 patients treated with doxorubicin-based chemotherapy. P-glycoprotein (P-gp) / MDR1, MRP1 and LRP may play more important roles than BCRP in chemotherapy of human breast carcinoma.

Allelotype analysis of gallbladder carcinoma associated with anomalous junction of pancreaticobiliary duct.

Anomalous junction of pancreaticobiliary duct (AJPBD) patients has an increased risk of gallbladder and bile duct carcinomas. However, the relevance of carcinoma with AJPBD is not fully clarified. We performed analysis of loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at p53 locus and immunohistochemistry of p53 and K-ras gene mutation in five cases of gallbladder carcinoma associated with AJPBD. LOH of p53 locus and overexpression of p53 were detected in two out of five (40%) and five out of five (100%), respectively, in the present study. K-ras gene mutation at codon 12 and 13 was not detected (0%, 0/5). These results suggest that aberrations of p53 are involved in carcinogenesis of gallbladder carcinoma associated with AJPBD. Next, in order to find the genetic events besides K-ras mutation and overexpression of mutant p53 in this disease, LOH analysis was performed using 72 microsatellite markers. High frequency of allelic loss (> 50%) was found on 2p (81.8%), 4p (50%), 4q (50%), 8q (60%), 9q (50%), 10p (50%), 14p (60%), 14q (50%), 16p (60%), 19p (50%), 21p (50%) and Xp (66.6%). The highest deletion regions on chromosome 2p24 (3/3, 100%), 14q22 (3/4, 75%) and 21q22 (3/4, 75%) were found. The present study suggests that gallbladder carcinoma associated with AJPBD has high frequent allelic loss and has two new regions which may harbor putative tumor suppressor genes.

Expression of multidrug resistance associated transporters (MDR1, MRP1, LRP and BCRP) in porcine oocyte.

Transporters such as P-glycoprotein (MDR1), multidrug resistance protein 1 (MRP1), lung resistance-related protein (LRP) and breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) are associated with multidrug resistance in various carcinoma cell lines. The expression of these molecules has been also characterized in human normal tissues. However, the expression of these molecules in oocyte is still unclear. In order to obtain more insight into the physiological role of these transporters, their expression in porcine oocyte were examined by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. MDR1, MRP1 and LRP genes, but not BCRP gene were found to be expressed in porcine oocyte. After the subcloning and sequence analysis of MDR1, MRP1 and LRP genes, the high homology of these transporters were observed between porcine and human gene. These findings suggest that MDR1, MRP1 and LRP play an important physiological role(s) in an oocyte.

Prevalence of homozygous deletions of the parkin gene in a cohort of patients with sporadic and familial Parkinson's disease.

Mutation of the parkin gene is a cause of familial Parkinson's disease of the autosomal recessive form; however, its significance in all Parkinson's disease cases is unclear. Deletions in the parkin gene were found in only 2.2% of 184 Japanese patients with Parkinson's disease. However, deletions were present in 25.0% and 40.0% of the patients with juvenile-onset (< 40 y) and with familiality, respectively. On the other hand, deletions were not found in any adult-onset cases (> 40 y). Half of the patients with parkin gene-related Parkinson's disease lacked both heredity and consanguinity.

Hereditary Red Cell Membrane Disorders in Japan: Their Genotypic and Phenotypic Features in 1014 Cases Studied.

This study describes the characteristic features of the incidence of hereditary red cell membrane disorders in the Japanese population based on studies of 1014 cases of these disorders from 605 kindred. Among them, there were 581 cases of hereditary spherocytosis (HS) from 303 kindred, 137 cases of hereditary elliptocytosis (HE) from 68 kindred, 104 cases of hereditary stomatocytosis (HSt) from 64 kindred, and 34 cases of protein 4.2 (P4.2) anomalies from 20 kindred, and 41 cases of membrane lipid anomalies from 27 kindred. In HS patients, eleven mutations of the band 3 (B3) gene, 15 mutations of the ankyrin gene, and three mutations of the protein 4.2 (P4.2) gene, which are pathognomonic for this disorder, were identified. Most of these mutations had not been reported and, with few exceptions, were specific to the Japanese population. P4.2 abnormalities also appear to be unique to the Japanese population. The biochemical and biophysical functions of P4.2 are associated with stabilization of the cytoskeletal network by anchoring it to integral proteins (especially B3). Biochemical and genetic analyses of the HE patients revealed one family with an α-spectrin (Sp) anomaly (HE [α(1/74)]) and three kindred with ß-spectrin abnormalities (ß-Sp Yamagata, ß-Sp Tokyo, and ß-Sp Nagoya) due to abnormal splicings of the ß-Sp gene. On the basis of these observations, the relationship between the genotypes and phenotypes is reviewed. In addition, the morphogenesis of red cell membranes with regard to the sequential expression of these membrane proteins was also discussed. Finally, from the standpoint of gene expression, a possible role of gene methylation as an epigenetic control was proposed.

Characteristic features of the genotype and phenotype of hereditary spherocytosis in the Japanese population.

Hereditary spherocytosis (HS) is the most common hemolytic anemia of congenital origin in the Japanese population. Among 844 cases of 520 kindred with congenital red cell membrane disorders studied at the Kawasaki Medical School in the last 25 years (1975-1999), 407 cases (48.2%) of 215 kindred had HS. Among the recent 60 kindred with HS, autosomal dominant (AD) transmission was proven in 19. The remaining 41 non-AD HS included 1) homozygous patients with autosomal recessive inheritance, 2) HS patients with de novo gene mutations, and 3) mild HS with AD inheritance. The extent of clinical severity in the non-AD HS cases was nearly identical to that in the AD cases. The incidence of membrane protein abnormalities in our 60 Japanese HS kindred was unique: there were lower ankyrin deficiencies (7%), moderate band 3 deficiencies (20%), and much higher protein 4.2 deficiencies (45%), with 28% of unknown etiology. The incidence of membrane protein deficiencies corresponded to that determined by gene analyses; i.e., mutations mostly in band 3 and/or in protein 4.2 genes and fewer ankyrin gene mutations. In the band 3 gene, 11 mutations pathognomonic for HS were identified (3 frameshift and 8 missense mutations). There were 5 mutations of the protein 4.2 gene (3 missense mutations, 1 nonsense mutation, and 1 splicing mutation) pathognomonic for HS. On the other hand, 2 missense mutations were detected in the ankyrin gene in this study. The genetic abnormalities in our HS patients correlated well with the phenotypic ultrastructural abnormalities of red cell membranes in situ. Ankyrin mutations (ankyrin Marburg and ankyrin Stuttgart with frameshift mutations) were associated mostly with a disrupted cytoskeletal network, and band 3 mutations (band 3 Kagoshima with frameshift mutation) typically demonstrated anomalies of intramembrane particles (IMPs). Protein 4.2 mutations (homozygotes of protein 4.2 Nippon) with complete protein 4.2 deficiency showed abnormalities of both the cytoskeletal network and IMPs.