Metabolism of tumor tissue differs from the normal one by the intensity of protein synthesis and glycolysis. The dimeric pyruvate kinase (PKM2) is a specific enzyme for tumor glycolysis. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between the activity of PKM2 and the type and stage of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). A second objective was to compare the expression of PKM2 with disease progression and prognosis. We studied 65 patients divided into two groups: 45 patients with lung cancer and 20 non-cancer healthy subjects taken as control. The serum activity of PKM2 was assessed spectrophotometrically. We found that PKM2 activity was greater, on average, by 136 % for adenocarcinoma and for 126 % for squamous cell carcinoma compared with that present in control subjects. The higher PKM2 activity was associated only with Stage III of cancer (p < 0.001). Sensitivity of PKM2 as a cancer marker was 79 % for adenocarcinoma and 81 % for squamous cell carcinoma and specificity was 50 % for both cancer types. We conclude that PKM2 activity is higher in patients with NSCLC than in healthy subjects. The level of PKM2 activity is associated with advanced stage of cancer. Nonetheless, low specificity of PKM2 assessment makes it of limited utility in NSCLC diagnosis or evaluation of cancer progression.
We suggest that EBT may serve as marker and predictor of asthma exacerbation in children. EBT follow-up may be useful in asthma monitoring in children and adolescents.
Overactive bladder (OAB) is defined by International Urogynecological Association (IUGA)/ International Continence Society (ICS) as urinary urgency, usually accompanied by frequency and nocturia, with or without urgency urinary incontinence, in the absence of urinary tract infection (UTI) or other obvious pathology. The pathophysiology of OAB is not well understood, however a number of different proteins and cytokines including vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) were found to be important in regulating structural integrity of the bladder wall. Proteome analysis may thus provide significant information with regard to OAB and may help in discovering novel diagnostic disease biomarkers. Sixteen Caucasian women aged 32–78 were included in the study. Patients were placed within 2 groups: OAB group (n = 8) and control group (n = 8). Urine samples were collected, immediately preserved in a protease inhibitor mixture, and frozen at −80 ℃. All samples were then further processed according to the isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ) manual. Proteins were labeled and analyzed in the mass spectrometer conjugated with liquid chromatograph (data are available via ProteomeXchange with the identifier PXD017799). There were no statistically significant differences in demographic data between control and OAB groups. VCAM-1 was the only protein that reached statistical significance as a differentiating protein in both of our experiments assessing the proteomic constitution in OAB patients. Studies involving a larger group of patients may provide further information on urinary bladder proteomics.
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