A Comparison of Arms‐plus and Droplet Digital PCR for Detecting Egfr Activating Mutations in Plasma

Abstract

1Background and Aim: Galectin-3, a β-galactoside-binding lectin, has been shown to be involved in tumor development. However the significance of galectin-3 expression in lung cancer remains unclear. Recently, several studies demonstrated that galectin-3 is upregulated by hypoxiainducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) in several types of cancers other than lung cancer. We hypothesized that hypoxia would promote tumor progression via upregulation of galectin-3 in lung cancer. The aim of this study is to evaluate the biological role of galectin-3 in human lung adenocarcinoma and clarify its prognostic significance in patients.Methods: (1) Galectin-3 or scrambled shRNA were transfected into human lung adenocarcinoma cell line, A549 to evaluate the effect of hypoxia in vitro. Cell migration and invasion assays were performed under hypoxia. To study RhoA activation, pull-down assay was done to assess the GTP-bound RhoA. (2) Galectin-3 expression was analyzed by immunohistochemistry in 57 patients with stag I lung adenocarcinoma who underwent surgical resection.Results: (1) Hypoxia induced the upregulation of HIF-1α and galectin-3, and increased cell migration and invasion. Silence of galectin-3 expression in A549 significantly decreased cell migration and invasion in hypoxic condition. Activation of RhoA was significantly decreased in galectin-3 knockdown cells compared with control cells. (2) Galectin-3 expression was observed in 20 patients (35.1%), and significantly associated with the incidence of recurrences (p<0.001) and the relapse-free survival time (p=0.001).Conclusion: These data suggest that galecin-3 would contribute to tumor invasion in hypoxia through RhoA activation and indicate that galectin-3 expression on tumor cells would serve as a prognostic marker in lung adenocarcinoma. Therefore, galectin-3 could be a potential therapeutic target in human lung adenocarcinoma. Background and Aim: Low-dose computed tomography for lung screening is able to identify smaller nodules more often than can chest radiographs. However, complications of invasive diagnostic procedures of detected nodules are common in practice. Exosomes, membrane vesicles released from cells, contain a diverse array of biomolecules that closely reflect the biologic state of cell and tissue from which they are released. The aim of this study is to investigate diagnostic values in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid exosomal micro (mi)RNA in early stage lung adenocarcinoma.Methods: We chose candidate miRNAs known as having a diagnostic value of lung adenocarcinoma. Exosomes were isolated from BAL fluid from control subjects (n = 15) and patients with lung adenocarcinoma (n = 13). Exosomal RNA was analyzed by using commercial kit containing probes for selected 6 miRNAs. Results were validated with quantitative RT-PCR.Results: The presence of miRNAs was confirmed in exosomes from BAL fluid of both lung adenocarcinoma patients and control subjects.MiR-126 (p<0.001) and were present in significantly higher levels in the BAL fluid of lung adenocarcinoma pat...