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Introduction:Aberrant DNAmethylation patterns in serum DNAmight be used as a biomarker for the early diagnosis and management of cancer patients. The aim of present study was to evaluate DNAmethylation of RASSF1Aand CDH1 in circulating cell free DNA(cfDNA) from serum and paired tissue DNAsamples of breast cancer patients. Material and methods: Methylation-specific PCR was used to assess the methylation status of the two genes in serum and paired tissue sample DNAof 50 breast cancer patients. Biochemical parameters were assessed using an electrochemiluminescence analyzer. Results: Significant correlation found between methylation status of RASSF1A and CDH1 in serum and paired tissue samples of patients. Among clinicopathological findings, CDH1 methylation showed significant association with advance staging and tumor and methylation of RASSF1A exhibited significant association with progesterone receptor and estrogen receptor status in both serum and paired tissue. Vitamins levels were significantly high in cases compared to control group. High folic acid levels were significantly associated with the RASSF1Amethylation. Conclusions: These findings suggest that methylation of cfDNAmay be important in the early detection of breast cancer.
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Background: In the recent past, there has been a shift towards alternate and traditional therapies for the prevention and cure for various diseases including cancer, hypertension, diabetes etc. Due to the risk of side effects associated with allopathic medicines, people are fast turning towards traditional and folk medicines because of their supposedly low risk of side effects. Mushrooms have a very long and well-established role in traditional system of medicine in many Asian countries especially in China, Korea, and Japan etc. Methods: Fresh mushrooms were collected and identified based on morphological and reproductive characters by comparing with standard field guides by Largent (1973).Three different mushroom species were selected for the study. The material collected from target sites were subjected to solvent extraction followed by preparation of stock extracts, which were further used for the evaluation of anti-cancer activity. In-vitro cytotoxicity against different human cell lines was determined and the samples showing 50% or more growth inhibition at 100 µg/ml were considered as potential. Results: Ethanolic extract of mushroom 1 (100µg/ml) exhibited highest % age growth inhibition of 61, 53, 25% on lung, colon and CNS cell lines respectively. In case of mushroom-2 Ethanol: water (1:1) extracts 1 (100 µg/ml) showed highest %age growth inhibition of 19, 38, 7% against liver, Neuroblastoma, Colon cell lines respectively. Likewise, Ethanolic Extract of mushroom-3(100 µg/ml) exhibited highest %age growth inhibition of 58, 65, 13% on lung, neuroblastoma and prostate cell lines respectively. Conclusions: Based on preliminary evaluation two of the mushroom varieties showed promising results in terms of their anticancer activity however they need further evaluation and determination to ascertain their potential anticancer activity.
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INTRODUCTION: Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is characterized by the Philadelphia chromosome, an abnormally shortened chromosome 22. It is the result of a reciprocal translocation of chromosomes 9 and 22, creating BCR‑ABL fusion transcripts, b3a2, b2a2, and e1a2. The aim of our study was to determine the type of BCR‑ABL fusion transcripts for molecular diagnosis and investigate the frequency of BCR‑ABL fusion transcripts in CML patients by multiplex RT‑PCR in CML. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A single reaction with multiple primers multiplex PCR was used to detect and investigate the type and frequency in 200 CML patients among which 116, 33, and 51 were in CP, AP, and BC phase, respectively. RESULTS: The study included 200 CML patients, among whom breakpoints in b3a2, b2a2 transcripts were detected in 68% and 24%, respectively, while 8% of the patients showed both b3a2/b2a2. A statistically significant difference was seen between frequency of BCR‑ABL fusion transcripts and gender (P = 0.03), molecular response (P = 0.04), and hematological response (P = 0.05). However, there was no correlation found between frequencies of BCR‑/ABL fusion transcripts and other clinicopathological parameters like age, type of therapy, thrombocytopenia, and white blood cell count. CONCLUSION: Multiplex reverse transcriptase‑polymerase chain reaction is useful and saves time in the detection of BCR‑ABL variants; the occurrence of these transcripts associated with CML can assist in prognosis and treatment of disease.
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Hemoglobin color scale (HCS) is a commercially available test to screen anaemia in the absence of laboratory based hemoglobinometry. The present study was aimed at to compare the efficacy of HCS with Sahli's method (SM) for haemoglobin estimation and to estimate its sensitivity and specificity with respect to auto analyzer as the gold standard. The study was conducted from November 2006 to April 2007 at the department of hematology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi as a project of World Health Organization. The haemoglobin level was measured by all the three methods in 401 patients attending Haematology out patient department. Consent was taken from all the patients. Sensitivity of Sahli's method was 98.2% and specificity was 66.2%, whereas the sensitivity of HCS was 30% and specificity was 100%. Sahli's method was found to be in good agreement with autoanalyzer (gold standard). It was thus concluded that HCS is not as efficacious, as sahil's method for hemoglobin estimations in field.
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Background & objectives: Recurrent balanced translocations are generally recognized to be a major parameter for prognostication in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). The chromosomal translocation t(15;17) results in PML/RARα fusion gene, t(8;21) results in AML1/ETO fusion gene and Inv 16 generates CBFβ/MYH11 fusion gene. Patients with these mutations have a good prognosis unlike abnormalities in chromosome 5 or 7 or FLT3 genes. Therefore, we screened the AmL patients for known specific genetic abnormalities that could lead to more definitive prognoses. Methods: A total of 113 AML patients were evaluated at diagnosis based on routine morphology and cytochemistry and classified according to the WHO criteria. The distribution of AML subtypes was M1(1), M2(32), M3(57), M4(14), M5(1), M6(1) and seven cases where morphological subtype could not be classified. RT-PCR was performed to identify PML/RARα, AML1/ETO, CBFβ/MYH11 and FLT3 internal tandem duplication (ITD). Results: Of the 57 patients with M3 subtype, 55 had the PML-RARα fusion transcript. The prevalence of bcr3 (short isoform) was higher (62%) than that of bcr1 (long isoform) (38%) and no correlation was found with age, sex or white blood cell count. FLT3 internal tandem duplication (ITD) mutations were more frequent in patients with APL than in other AML subtypes (17.5 vs. 8.9%), the frequency greater in patients with bcr3 isoform (70%) than in those with in bcr1 isoform (30%). Patients with FLT3/ITD mutations had a significantly higher median white cell count than those without these mutations (55 x 109/l vs. 6.3 x 109/l; P<0.001). More patients with FLT3/ITD mutations died early (53%) than those without these mutations (16%) (P<0.01). AML1-ETO fusion transcript was detected in 16 of 56 patients with no correlation with clinical or haematological parameters. Interpretation & conclusion: The results of the present study showed presence of bcr3 (short isoform) higher than bcr1 (long isoform). FLT3 internal tandem duplication (ITD) mutation was predominant in acute promyelocytic leukaemia patients with bcr3 isoform. Thus, patients with APL who have FLT3 mutation appear to have a poorer prognosis. Therefore, rapid identification of specific translocations at diagnosis is important for prognostic purposes and their detection should be incorporated into routine assessment.