Frequency of HER2 Expression, MMR Deficiency, and PI3KCA Mutation in Pretreated Surgical Specimens of Patients with Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma in Iran Cancer Institute.

Background & Objective: Iran is located in the esophageal cancer geographical belt. As multiple genetic alterations are responsible for the molecular pathogenesis of esophageal squamous cell cancer (ESCC), the role and frequency of HER2 expression, MMR deficiency, and PI3KCA mutation are not well defined. Methods: We carried out HER2/neu expression, dMMR/MSI high, and PI3KCA mutation analysis in specimens of patients with ESCC. We accessed archival tissue blocks related to specimens of 68 ESCC cases at the time of surgery following neoadjuvant chemoradiation. These patients underwent surgery during 2013-2018 at the Cancer Institute of Iran affiliated with the Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Tehran. Results: None of the patients showed HER2 expression, dMMR/MSI high, or PI3K mutations. Conclusion: dMMR/MSI-H and PI3KCA mutation and HER2 expression may not be reliable andfrequent targets for systemic therapy in patients with esophageal SCC.

Protein complex prediction: A survey.

Protein complexes are one of the most important functional units for deriving biological processes within the cell. Experimental methods have provided valuable data to infer protein complexes. However, these methods have inherent limitations. Considering these limitations, many computational methods have been proposed to predict protein complexes, in the last decade. Almost all of these in-silico methods predict protein complexes from the ever-increasing protein-protein interaction (PPI) data. These computational approaches usually use the PPI data in the format of a huge protein-protein interaction network (PPIN) as input and output various sub-networks of the given PPIN as the predicted protein complexes. Some of these methods have already reached a promising efficiency in protein complex detection. Nonetheless, there are challenges in prediction of other types of protein complexes, specially sparse and small ones. New methods should further incorporate the knowledge of biological properties of proteins to improve the performance. Additionally, there are several challenges that should be considered more effectively in designing the new complex prediction algorithms in the future. This article not only reviews the history of computational protein complex prediction but also provides new insight for improvement of new methodologies. In this article, most important computational methods for protein complex prediction are evaluated and compared. In addition, some of the challenges in the reconstruction of the protein complexes are discussed. Finally, various tools for protein complex prediction and PPIN analysis as well as the current high-throughput databases are reviewed.

Effect of probiotic supplementation on seizure activity and cognitive performance in PTZ-induced chemical kindling.

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders that severely affect life quality of many people worldwide. Ion transport in the neuronal membrane, inhibitory-excitatory mechanisms, and regulatory modulator systems have been implicated in the pathogenesis of epilepsy. A bidirectional communication is proposed between brain and gut where the brain modulates the gastrointestinal tract, and the gut can affect brain function and behavior. The gut microbiome takes an important role in health and disease where dysbiosis is involved in several neurological disorders. Probiotics as living microorganisms are beneficial to humans and animals when adequately administered. In the present work, we evaluated the effect of a probiotic bacteria mixture on seizure activity, cognitive function, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), nitric oxide (NO), malondealdehyde (MDA), and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) level of the brain tissue in the pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced kindled rats. The Racine score and performance in water maze were considered as indices of the epileptic severity and the spatial learning and memory, respectively. We found that the probiotic supplementation substantially reduces seizure severity so that almost no probiotic-treated animals showed full kindling. The oral bacteriotherapy partially improved the spatial learning and memory in the kindled rats. The intervention decreased NO and MDA and increased TAC concentration of the brain. The probiotic treatment also increased the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA. Our findings are the first preclinical report to show positive effect of probiotic bacteria on seizure-induced neurological disorders. Further investigation is required to answer the questions raised about the probable mechanisms involved.