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Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal diseases which lack an early diagnostic marker. We investigated whether serum ferritin (SF) reflects risk for pancreatic cancer and potential genes that may contribute ferritin and pancreatic cancer risks. We performed a meta-analysis of relevant studies on SF and pancreatic cancer risk by searching articles in PUBMED and EMBASE published up to 1 March 2020. We also collected serum samples from Taipei Medical University Joint Biobank and compared SF levels in 34 healthy controls and 34 pancreatic cancer patients. An Oncomine database was applied as a platform to explore a series of genes that exhibited strong associations between ferritin and pancreatic cancer. Herein, we show that high levels of SF can indicate risk of pancreatic cancer, suggesting SF as the new tumor marker that may be used to help pancreatic cancer diagnosis. We also found that expressions of iron homeostasis genes (MYC, FXN) and ferroptosis genes (ALOX15, CBS, FDFT1, LPCAT3, RPL8, TP53, TTC35) are significantly altered with pancreatic tumor grades, which may contribute to differential expression of ferritin related to pancreatic cancer prognosis.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an aggressive disease with a 5-year survival rate of &lt, 8%. Therefore, finding new treatment strategies against PDAC cells is an imperative issue. Betulinic acid (BA), a plant-derived natural compound, has shown great potential to combat cancer owing to its versatile physiological functions. In this study, we observed the impacts of BA on the cell viability and migratory ability of PDAC cell lines, and screened differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) by an LC-MS/MS-based proteomics analysis. Our results showed that BA significantly inhibited the viability and migratory ability of PDAC cells under a relatively low dosage without affecting normal pancreatic cells. Moreover, a functional analysis revealed that BA-induced downregulation of protein clusters that participate in mitochondrial complex 1 activity and oxidative phosphorylation, which was related to decreased expressions of RNA polymerase mitochondrial (POLRMT) and translational activator of cytochrome c oxidase (TACO1), suggesting that the influence on mitochondrial function explains the effect of BA on PDAC cell growth and migration. In addition, BA also dramatically increased Apolipoprotein A1 (APOA1) expression and decreased NLR family CARD domain-containing protein 4 (NLRC4) expression, which may be involved in the dampening of PDAC migration. Notably, altered expression patterns of APOA1 and NLRC4 indicated a favorable clinical prognosis of PDAC. Based on these findings, we identified potential proteins and pathways regulated by BA from a proteomics perspective, which provides a therapeutic window for PDAC.

Osteoporosis is common in postmenopausal women and elderly people. In this study, the ovariectomized mice were used as an in vivo test to evaluate the effects of 70% ethanolic extracts of Taiwanofungus camphoratus and T. salmoneus (Polyporales, Agaricomycetes) on postmenopausal osteoporosis. Ovariectomized mice had significantly higher body weight and histopathological alterations of the liver were found to have diffused fatty infiltrated vesicles. The bone parameters of the femur were determined by microcomputed tomography. In addition, the relative weight of the uterus is significantly lower and atrophy of the uterine glands was found in histopathological alterations. The results of trabecular bone parameters showed that feeding high doses of T. camphoratus mycelia ethanolic extract to ovariectomized mice had the ability to delay bone loss. The bone density of trabecular bone and cortical bone were also significantly higher than those of ovariectomized mice, indicating that the ethanolic extract of T. camphoratus has the potential to delay the occurrence of osteoporosis.