Increased Kremen2 predicts worse prognosis in colon cancer.

Background: Colon cancer (CC) is the fifth most prevalent cancer around the globe and poses a major risk to human health. Even though Kremen2 serves as a prognostic indicator in individuals with malignant tumours, its role in evaluating the prognosis of individuals with colon cancer has not been confirmed. Methods: Here, we examined the protein expression of Kremen2 in CC tissues and paired adjacent normal tissues by immunohistochemistry (IHC), then analyzed the clinical and RNA-seq data presented in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database to confirm the relationship between Kremen2 levels and CC. In addition, the associations between Kremen2 mRNA expression and infiltrating immune cells were examined. Results: The study showed that the mRNA expression and protein level of Kremen2 were increased in CC tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues. According to Kaplan-Meier analysis, high Kremen2 expression in CC was linked to poor overall survival and progression-free survival. Clinical correlation analysis highlighted that a high level of Kremen2 expression was strongly linked with tumour progression, particularly lymph node metastasis. Cox regression analysis highlighted that Kremen2 was an independent prognostic indicator for CC. Bioinformatic studies highlighted that Kremen2 might be associated with the immune status in CC. Conclusion: Increased Kremen2 could serve as a potential prognostic CC biomarker.

An integrative analysis revealing POLD2 as a tumor suppressive immune protein and prognostic biomarker in pan-cancer.

Introduction: POLD2 is an indispensable subunit of DNA polymerase δ, which is responsible for the synthesis of the backward accompanying strand in eukaryotic organisms. Current studies have found an association between POLD2 and the development of a variety of cancers. However, its value in cancer immunotherapy has not been fully established. Methods: POLD2 expression was analyzed using RNA expression and clinical data from TCGA and GTEx databases. The prognostic impact of POLD2 on tumor patients was analyzed using clinical survival data from TCGA. Gene enrichment analysis was performed using the R package "cluster analyzer" to explore the role of POLD2. We used the TIMER2 database to analyze the relationship between immune cell infiltration and POLD2 expression in TCGA. We downloaded relevant data from TCGA and analyzed the relationship between POLD2 and immune checkpoints, immunosuppressive genes, immune activating genes, chemokines and chemokine receptors. Results: POLD2 was significantly overexpressed in most tumors compared to normal tissue. High POLD2 expression was significantly associated with advanced tumor stage, significantly shorter overall survival and progression-free survival. Also, we found that POLD2 expression correlated strongly with immunomodulatory genes, and significantly negatively with most immune checkpoints (PD-L1, CTLA4, TIM3, and CD28). Pathway enrichment analysis suggests that low expression of POLD2 promotes immune regulation-related pathways and high expression promotes metabolic and DNA repair-related pathways. Furthermore, tumor microenvironment analysis suggests that high POLD2 expression inhibits infiltration of CD8+ T cells and CD4+ memory T cells. Discussion: In conclusion, POLD2 may be a molecular biomarker for pan-cancer prognosis and immunotherapy. It may serve as a potential target for new insights in human tumor prognosis prediction and immunotherapy assessment.

[Detection of transforming growth factor-ß1 in colorectal cancer and its clinical significance].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the role of transforming growth factor ß1 (TGF-ß1) in patients with colorectal cancer. METHODS: Fresh peripheral blood were obtained from 50 patients (before surgery and at least one week after surgery) and 25 healthy donors in the morning. Fresh colorectal cancer tissues and the adjacent tissues (at least 5 cm from the tumor site) were obtained from patients undergoing tumor resection. The expression levels of TGF-ß1 in the blood and tissue specimens were determined using ELISA. RESULTS: The plasma levels of TGF-ß1 in patients with colorectal cancer were significantly higher than those in the healthy donors, and decreased after the surgery (P<0.05). The tumor tissues expressed higher levels of TGF-ß1 than the adjacent tissues from both CEA-negative and -positive patients. The plasma level of TGF-ß1 in the patients were positively correlated with the tumor size and clinical tumor stage (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: TGF-ß1 combined with CEA can provide important information for the diagnosis, prognostic assessment and prediction of recurrence in patients with colorectal cancer, and may provide new insights for anti-TGF-ß1-based tumor immune therapeutic strategies.

[Observation on clinical effect of ZHUANG medicine mediated thread moxibustion combined with medication for patients with ulcerative colitis].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the clinical effect and safety of Sulfasalazine (SASP) combined with ZHUANG medicine mediated thread moxibustion (ZMMTM) for patients with mild and moderate ulcerative colitis (UC). METHODS: A total of 46 UC patients were randomly and equally divided into moxibustion group (SASP combined with ZMMTM) and SASP medication group. Patients of both groups were treated by oral administration of SASP (1 g, tid) for six weeks. For patients of the moxibustion group, ZMMTM was applied to points Tianshu (ST 25), Qihai (CV 6), Guanyuan (CV 4), and Dachangshu (BL 25), once a day, for 20 times. The therapeutic effect was assessed according to Schroeder and colleagues' method (1987), scores of Baron' s endoscope scale (0 - 9 scoring standards, 1964), 0 - 3 scoring standards of activity indexes (including 4 items of diarrhea, hemorrhage, mucosal appearance and doctors' evaluation), respectively. RESULTS: Of the two 32 UC patients in the medication and moxibustion groups, 6 and 9 had a complete remission in their symptoms, 6 and 7 experienced a remarkable improvement, 5 and 6 were effective, and 6 and 1 was invalid, with the effective rates being 73.91% and 95.65%, respectively. Following the treatment, both endoscopic score and activity index in the moxibustion group were significantly lower than those of the medication group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: ZMMTM combined with medication is significantly superior to simple medication in relieving clinical symptoms of mild and moderate UC patients.