An actin-binding protein filamin A connects the actin filament network to cell membrane receptors, and acts as a scaffold for various signaling pathways related to cancer growth and progression. ...Recently, it has been reported that filamin A is required for efficient regulation of early stages of DNA repair process. Moreover, some in vitro studies showed that the overexpression of filamin A determines resistance to various cytotoxic drugs, including cisplatin. We aimed to analyse the expression of filamin A protein in resected NSCLC (Non Small Cell Lung Cancer) specimens, to investigate the association of the level of filamin A protein expression and other clinicopathological features, and possible relationship between the expression of filamin A and survival outcome in NSCLC patients, treated with platinum-based combination chemotherapy. We performed filamin A protein immunohistochemistry on formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue sections from 135 NSCLC patients, using EP2405Y antibody against C-terminus of filamin A. Cytoplasmic, membranous and nuclear positivity of filamin A was evaluated semi-quantitatively and correlated with available clinicopathological data. Patients were divided into two groups for survival analysis (I group - patients treated with adjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy, II group - patients with surgical treatment only). We found significant positive correlation between filamin A protein expression and NSCLC stage (r=0.249; p<0,05), presence of lymph node (N)(r=0.205; p<0,05) and distant metastases (M) (r=0.332; P<0.01). Increased filamin A protein expression was significantly related with poor survival outcomes in patients with adjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy: OS (HR=1.005, 95%CI1.000;1.010, p=0.037), DFS (HR=1.004, 95%CI 1.001:1.008, p=0,017). Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis also showed that overexpression of filamin A represents an independent risk factor for disease relapse, in addition to tumor size, stage, and metastases status (HR=1.723, 95%CI 1.021:2.909, p<0.05). Thus, filamin A expression might be a new prognostic marker in patients with NSCLC.
The major advantages of urine-based assays are their non-invasive character and ability to monitor prostate cancer (CaP) with heterogeneous foci. While the test for the prostate cancer antigen 3 ...(PCA3) is commercially available, the aim of our research was to test other putative urine markers in multiplex settings (AMACR (α-methylacyl-CoA racemase), EZH2 (enhancer of zeste homolog 2), GOLM1 (golgi membrane protein 1), MSMB (microseminoprotein, β), SPINK1 (serine peptidase inhibitor) and TRPM8 (transient receptor potential cation channel, subfamily M, member 8)).
Expression of the candidate biomarkers was studied in sedimented urine using quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction in two sets of patients with and without restriction on serum PSA levels.
We confirmed that PCA3 is an independent predictor of cancer in the patients without restriction of serum PSA values (set 1, n=176, PSA=0.1-587 ng ml(-1)). However, AMACR was the only parameter that differentiated CaP from non-CaP patients with serum PSA between 3 and 15 ng ml(-1) (set 2, n=104). The area under curve (AUC) for this gene was 0.645 with both sensitivity and specificity at 65%. Further improvement was achieved by multivariate logistic regression analysis, which identified novel duplex (TRPM8 and MSMB), triplex (plus AMACR) and quadriplex (plus PCA3) models for the detection of early CaPs (AUC=0.665, 0.726 and 0.741, respectively).
Novel quadriplex test could be implemented as an adjunct to serum PSA or urine PCA3 and this could improve decision making for diagnostics in the case of 'PSA dilemma' patients.
We present new experimental data obtained with the FOPI detector at SIS, for the Au + Au heavy-ion collisions at 400
A MeV incident energy. The sideward flow, determined from a method without ...reaction-plane reconstruction, and the nuclear stopping are studied as a function of the centrality of the collisions. In order to study the nuclear in-medium effects, which act on the NN cross sections and potential and hence on experimental observables like the nuclear-matter flow and stopping, these results are compared with the predictions of two different QMD versions. The first one offers a fully microscopic calculation of the cross sections and potential in the G-matrix formalism and naturally includes the in-medium effects (this version is for the first time confronted with experiment). The second one uses a standard Skyrme potential plus a momentum-dependent term in order to mimic the in-medium effects.
Collisions of Au on Au at incident energies of 150, 250 and 400
A·MeV were studied with the FOPI-facility at GSI Darmstadt. Nuclear charge (
Z ⩽ 15) and velocity of the products were detected with ...full azimuthal acceptance at laboratory angles 1° ⩽
θlab ⩽ 30°. Isotope separated light charged particles were measured with movable multiple telescopes in an angular range of 6–90°. Central collisions representing about 1% of the reaction cross section were selected by requiring high total transverse energy, but vanishing side flow. The velocity space distributions and yields of the emitted fragments are reported. the data are analysed in terms of a thermal model including radial flow. A comparison with predictions of the quantum molecular model is presented.
We describe a new high voltage power supply, developed for the leadglass calorimeter of the WA98 experiment at CERN. The high voltage is produced for each of the 10 080 photomultiplier tubes of the ...detector individually, by the same number of active bases with on-board Greinacher voltage multipliers. The full VME-based HV controller system, which addresses each base via bus cables once per second, is miniaturized and fits into a single VME crate. The main advantages of this approach are the low heat dissipation, the considerably reduced amount of cabling and cost, as well as the high stability and low noise of the system.