Molecular Profiling of Tumor Tissue in Mexican Patients with Colorectal Cancer.

Colorectal cancer is a heterogeneous disease with multiple genomic changes that influence the clinical management of patients; thus, the search for new molecular targets remains necessary. The aim of this study was to identify genetic variants in tumor tissues from Mexican patients with colorectal cancer, using massive parallel sequencing. A total of 4813 genes were analyzed in tumoral DNA from colorectal cancer patients, using the TruSight One Sequencing panel. From these, 192 variants with clinical associations were found distributed in 168 different genes, of which 46 variants had not been previous reported in the literature or databases, although genes harboring those variants had already been described in colorectal cancer. Enrichment analysis of the affected genes was performed using Reactome software; pathway over-representation showed significance for disease, signal transduction, and immune system subsets in all patients, while exclusive subsets such as DNA repair, autophagy, and RNA metabolism were also found. Those characteristics, whether individual or shared, could give tumors specific capabilities for survival, aggressiveness, or response to treatment. Our results can be useful for future investigations targeting specific characteristics of tumors in colorectal cancer patients. The identification of exclusive or common pathways in colorectal cancer patients could be important for better diagnosis and personalized cancer treatment.

Interaction of CCND2, CDKN1A, and POLD3 Variants in Mexican Patients with Colorectal Cancer.

BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer is the second cause of death by cancer around the world. Sporadic colorectal cancer is the most frequent (75%), and it is produced by the interaction of environmental, epigenetic, and genetic factors. The accumulation of single-nucleotide variants in genes associated with cell proliferation, DNA repair, and/or apoptosis could confer a risk to cancer. The aim of this study was to analyze the gene-gene interactions among CCND2 (rs3217901), CDKN1A (rs1059234 and rs1801270), and POLD3 (rs3824999) variants in Mexican patients with colorectal cancer. METHODS: We collected peripheral blood samples from 185 patients with sporadic colorectal cancer before treatment and from 185 unrelated blood donors as the reference group; all participants signed an informed consent form. DNA extraction was performed by Miller and Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)/ Dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DTAB) methods. Polymerase chain reaction- restriction fragment length polymorphism followed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis stained with AgNO3 methods were used to identify the variants rs3217901, rs1059234, rs1801270, and rs3824999. Odds ratio and single-nucleotide variant interaction were determined by single-locus analysis and Multifactorial Dimensionality Reduction software, respectively. RESULTS: No association was found for CCND2 and CDKN1A variants; yet, a significant association for the GG genotype, G allele, and recessive and additive models for the POLD3 variant was observed (P < .05). The single-nucleotide variant-single-nucleotide variant interaction revealed the combination rs1059234, rs3217901, and rs3824999 as the best model and the comparison showed an increased risk (P < .05). CONCLUSION: Single-locus and gene-gene interaction analyses disclosed that both the rs3824999 (POLD3) variant and the combination of rs3217901 (CCND2), rs1059234 (CDKN1A), and rs3824999 (POLD3) genotypes increase the risk for colorectal cancer in Mexican population.

Prevalence of the BRAF p.v600e variant in patients with colorectal cancer from Mexico and its estimated frequency in Latin American and Caribbean populations.

This study aimed to investigate the frequency of the somatic BRAF p.V600E in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) in Mexico and compare it with those estimated for Latin American and Caribbean populations. One hundred and one patients with CRC with AJCC stages ranging I-IV from Western Mexico were included, out of which 55% were male and 61% had AJCC stage III-IV, with a mean age of 60 years. PCR-Sanger sequencing was used to identify the BRAF p.V600E variant. In addition, a systematic literature search in PubMed/Medline database and Google of the 42 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean led to the collection of information on the BRAF p.V600E variant frequency of 17 population reports. To compare the BRAF variant prevalence among populations, a statistical analysis was performed using GraphPad Prism V.6.0. We found that 4% of patients with CRC were heterozygous for the p.V600E variant. The χ2 test showed no significant difference (p>0.05) in p.V600E detection when comparing with other Latin American and Caribbean CRC populations, except for Chilean patients (p=0.02). Our observational study provides the first evidence on the frequency of BRAF p.V600E in patients with CRC from Western Mexico, which is 4%, but increases to 7.8% for all of Latin America and the Caribbean. The patient mean age and genetic descent on the observed frequencies of the variant in populations could influence the frequency differences.

First Evidence of Vertical Infection of Dengue Virus 2 in Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes from Sinaloa, Mexico.

Fourteen pools of Aedes aegypti larvae collected within the urban area of Culiacán, Sinaloa, were analyzed by RT-PCR. The results demonstrate, for the first time, the vertical infection of serotype-2 dengue virus (DENV-2) in Sinaloa, Mexico, suggesting that Ae. aegypti acts as a natural reservoir of DENV-2 in this region.