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Background/aim: Prostate cancer (PCa) diagnosis using patient urine samples represents a non-invasive and more convenient method than the conventional biopsy and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test. This study intended to identify a biomarker panel to distinguish PCa from benign prostate using urine samples., Materials and Methods: We identified six biomarkers with differential gene expression in 154 PCa and benign prostate specimens. We then determined mRNA expression signature and the diagnostic performance of the 6-biomarker panel in 156 urine samples from patients with PCa and benign disease., Results: The 6-biomarker panel distinguished PCa from benign prostate cases with sensitivity of 80.6%, specificity of 62.9% and area under the curve (AUC) of 0.803 (p<0.0001), whereas serum PSA at 4 ng/ml cutoff had sensitivity of 95.5%, specificity of 20.2% and AUC of 0.521 (p<0.0001)., Conclusion: The 6-biomarker panel for use in urine samples was able to distinguish PCa from benign prostate with higher specificity and accuracy than PSA and may be useful in clinical settings., (Copyright© 2018, International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.)

In cutaneous T cell lymphomas (CTCL), miR-21 is aberrantly expressed in skin and peripheral blood and displays anti-apoptotic properties in malignant T cells. It is, however, unclear exactly which cells express miR-21 and what mechanisms regulate miR-21. Here, we demonstrate miR-21 expression in situ in both malignant and reactive lymphocytes as well as stromal cells. qRT-PCR analysis of 47 patients with mycosis fungoides (MF) and Sezary Syndrome (SS) confirmed an increased miR-21 expression that correlated with progressive disease. In cultured malignant T cells miR-21 expression was inhibited by Tofacitinib (CP-690550), a clinical-grade JAK3 inhibitor. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) analysis showed direct binding of STAT5 to the miR-21 promoter. Cytokine starvation ex vivo triggered a decrease in miR-21 expression, whereas IL-2 induced an increased miR-21 expression in primary SS T cells and cultured cytokine-dependent SS cells (SeAx). siRNA-mediated depletion of STAT5 inhibited constitutive- and IL-2-induced miR-21 expression in cytokine-independent and dependent T cell lines, respectively. IL-15 and IL-2 were more potent than IL-21 in inducing miR-21 expression in the cytokine-dependent T cells. In conclusion, we provide first evidence that miR-21 is expressed in situ in CTCL skin lesions, induced by IL-2 and IL-15 cytokines, and is regulated by STAT5 in malignant T cells. Thus, our data provide novel evidence for a pathological role of IL-2Rg cytokines in promoting expression of the oncogenic miR-21 in CTCL., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Objectives: In the present study, we investigated whether the cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)-activated protein kinase A (PKA) pathway may regulate the expression of AR and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and whether there is a correlation between the expression of cAMP/PKA-associated genes and androgen receptor (AR) in patients with prostate cancer (CaP)., Materials and Methods: The functional studies were performed in LNCaP and PC3 cell lines. Data on the mRNA expression of sets of genes in human clinical samples, including prostate tissues from organ donors, prostate primary cancer, and metastatic cancer, were extracted from the National Center for Biotechnology Informations Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Statistical tests were applied., Results: We showed that elevated levels of cAMP/PKA pathways induced an increased expression of AR and PSA proteins in LNCaP cells in the absence of androgen. A cAMP-associated phosphodiesterase-4 (PDE4) inhibitor, rolipram induced an up-regulation in AR expression, whereas a cAMP enhancer, forskolin increased PSA level without affecting AR expression. Forskolin treatment increased the level of PKA R1α in LNCaP cells, but remarkably inhibited R1α expression in aggressive PC3 cells. In patients with CaP, we found that the expression of genes encoding R1α and phosphodiesterase-4B was statistically significantly lower in the metastatic specimens than that in the primary CaP specimens or in the normal prostate tissues (P<0.01) and was reversely correlated with AR expression. Conversely, AR and PRKAR2B mRNA expressions were significantly higher in metastatic lesions than those in the primary CaP specimens or in the normal prostate tissues (P<0.01)., Conclusion: Our study revealed a novel mechanism to precisely define the functional and clinical interrelationship between the cAMP/PKA pathway and AR signaling in the development of androgen-independent growth of CaPs and metastasis progression., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)