Connection Between Epigenome, Selective Mutability, Evolution, and Human Disease
Li, Harris et al., PLoS Genetics
Researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine and elsewhere propose a "connection between the epigenome, selective mutability, evolution, and human disease" based on the findings of their study on associations of structural mutability with germline DNA methylation and with non-allelic homologous recombination mediated by low-copy repeats. "Combined evidence from four human sperm methylome maps, human genome evolution, structural polymorphisms in the human population, and previous genomic and disease studies consistently points to a strong association of germline hypomethylation and genomic instability," the Baylor-led team writes.
This Week in the Journal of Clinical Pathology
Silke Lassmann and her colleagues at the University Medical Center in Freiburg, Germany, report in the Journal of Clinical Pathology that Aurora-B protein expression is common in serous, FIGO stage III ovarian carcinomas. Using tissue microarrays, Lassmann and her team performed immunohistocheistry on cancerous and normal ovarian tissue and correlated their Aurora-B protein expression to clinico-pathological parameters, including recurrence-free survival and overall survival. Nearly all of the ovarian carcinomas, 99 percent, expressed Aurora-B while normal tissue did not, which the researchers say indicates that Aurora-B may be a druggable target. "Moreover, Aurora-B protein expression is predictive for initial response to taxane-based 1st-CTx in optimal debulked, late stage ovarian carcinoma patients," they add.
The First Hospital of China Medical University researchers found that expression of receptor activator for nuclear factor κ B, or RANK, might be a predictor of poor prognosis for breast cancer patients with metastases to the bone. As they report in the Journal of Clinical Pathology, they stained paraffin-embedded primary tumor tissue sections from 102 patients with metastatic breast cancer for RANK. "Multivariate analysis demonstrated that RANK expression was an independent predictor of bone metastasis-free survival and disease-specific survival in patients with bone metastasis," the researchers say.
Finally, Nara Medical University School of Medicine in Japan's Maiko Takeda and colleagues report in the Journal of Clinical Pathology that "genomic evaluation by FISH analysis might be helpful in distinguishing MM [malignant mesothelioma ] from benign mesothelial proliferation," as they found a number of genomic gains and losses in malignant mesothelioma using FISH.