Aim: To investigate whether the insulin-like growth factor 2 mRNA-binding protein 2 (IGF2BP2) rs1470579 and rs4402960 polymorphisms are associated with the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and the repaglinide therapeutic efficacy in Chinese T2DM patients. Methods: A case-control study of a total of 350 patients with T2DM and 207 healthy volunteers was conducted to identify their genotypes for the IGF2BP2 rs1470579 and rs4402960 polymorphisms using a polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) assay. Forty-two patients were randomly selected to undergo an 8-week repaglinide treatment (3 mg/d). Fasting plasma glucose (FPG), postprandial plasma glucose (PPG), glycated hemoglobin (HbAlc), fasting serum insulin (FINS), postprandial serum insulin (PINS), homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), serum triglyceride, total cholesterol (TC), lowdensity lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-c), and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-c) were determined before and after repaglinide treatment.Results: The frequencies of the IGF2BP2 rs1470579 C allele and the rs4402960 T allele were higher in T2DM patients than in healthy controls (P<0.05 and P<0.001, respectively). The effects of the repaglinide treatment on FPG (P<0.05) and PPG (P<0.05) were reduced in patients with the rs1470579 AC+CC genotypes compared with AA genotype carriers. Patients with the rs4402960 GT+TT genotypes exhibited an enhanced effect of repaglinide treatment on PINS (P<0.01) compared with GG genotype subjects. Conclusion: The IGF2BP2 rs1470579 and rs4402960 polymorphisms may be associated with the development of T2DM, and these polymorphisms may affect the therapeutic efficacy of repaglinide in Chinese T2DM patients.

MUC16/CA125 has been identified as a prominent cancer biomarker, especially for epithelial ovarian cancers, in clinical test for over three decades. Due to its huge mass, limited knowledge of MUC16 was acquired previously. By utilizing a well characterized self-made MUC16 monoclonal antibody, we identified the endogenous interaction between a C-terminal fragment of MUC16 (MUC16C) and β-catenin for the first time, and further elucidated that trans-activation domain of β-catenin is required for this interaction. Such interaction could activate the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway by facilitating cytosol-nucleus transportation of β-catenin, consequently induce cell proliferation and the migration, eventually lead to tumorigenesis and metastasis in nude mice. Consistently, knockdown of MUC16 significantly weakened the capabilities of cells for proliferation and migration. Based on our discovery, we suggest that MUC16 appears as an attractive target for the development of effective anticancer drugs.

This study was designed to investigate whether functional and molecular MRI techniques are sensitive biomarkers for assessment of neuroinflammation and drug efficacy after traumatic brain injury (TBI) in rats. We subjected rats to a controlled cortical impact model and used behavioral tests, histology, and immunofluorescence to assess whether flavonoid pinocembrin provides cerebral protection and improves functional recovery. Most importantly, we used multiple noninvasive structural, functional, and molecular MRI techniques to examine whether the pinocembrin-related neuroprotection and attenuation of neuroinflammation can be detected in vivo. Significant increases in cerebral blood flow (CBF) and amide proton transfer-weighted (APTw) MRI signals were observed in the perilesional areas in untreated TBI rats at 3 days and could be attributed to increased glial response. In addition, increased apparent diffusion coefficient and decreased magnetization transfer ratio signals in untreated TBI rats over time were likely due to edema. Post-treatment with pinocembrin decreased microglial/macrophage activation at 3 days, consistent with the recovery of CBF and APTw MRI signals in regions of secondary injury. These findings suggest that pinocembrin provides cerebral protection for TBI and that multiple MRI signals, CBF and APTw in particular, are sensitive biomarkers for identification and assessment of neuroinflammation and drug efficacy in the TBI model.

Canines are able to differentiate between serum samples taken from cancer patients and samples taken from normal controls. This study further supports the use of dogs as biomedical research tools for detection of cancer biomarkers. In particular, this study was designed to determine the accuracy of canines' ability to detect, by scent alone, lung cancer biomarkers in blood serum. Operant conditioning was used in the form of clicker training to train four beagles to distinguish, by scent alone, blood serum from malignant lung cancer patients when presented along with healthy controls in a double‐blind format. Non‐small cell lung cancer and healthy control blood serum samples were presented to 2‐year‐old beagles. Three dogs were able to correctly identify the cancer samples with a sensitivity of 96.7%, specificity of 97.5%, positive predictive value (PPV) of 90.6% and negative predictive value (NPV) of 99.2%. One of the dogs, Snuggles, was unmotivated to perform during training and tested with 80% specificity and 60% sensitivity. This study paves the way for a larger scale research project designed to explore the use of canine scent detection as a tool for detecting cancer biomarkers, ultimately leading to their identification. This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

No abstract