Detection of carcinoembryonic antigen levels in pleural effusion and serum and their ratio for differential diagnosis of pleural effusion resulting from tuberculosis and lung cancer / 南方医科大学学报

OBJECTIVE@#To study the clinical value of detecting carcinoembryonic antigen levels in pleural effusion (PCEA) and serum (SCEA) and their ratio (P/S) in the differential diagnosis of pleural effusions resulting from tuberculosis and lung cancer.@*METHODS@#This retrospectively study was conducted among 82 patients with pleural effusion caused by pulmonary tuberculous (TB; control group) and 120 patients with pleural effusion resulting from lung cancer in our hospital between April, 2016 and March, 2018. PCEA, SCEA and P/S were compared between the two groups and among the subgroups of lung cancer patients with squamous cell carcinoma (SqCa), adenocarcinoma (ACA), small cell carcinoma (SCLC). The receiveroperating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis was used to confirm the optimal critical value to evaluate the diagnostic efficiency of different combinations of PCEA, SCEA and P/S.@*RESULTS@#PCEA, SCEA and P/S were significantly higher in the overall cancer patients and in all the 3 subgroups of cancer patients than in the patients with TB ( < 0.05). The areas under the ROC curve of PCEA, SCEA and P/S were 0.925, 0.866 and 0.796, respectively; PCEA had the highest diagnostic value, whose diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, accurate rate, and diagnostic threshold were 83.33%, 96.34, 88.61%, and 3.26 ng/ml, respectively; SCEA had the lowest diagnostic performance; the diagnostic performance of P/S was between that of SCEA and PCEA, but its combination with SCEA greatly improved the diagnostic performance and reduced the rates of misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis. Parallel tests showed that the 3 indexes combined had significantly higher diagnostic sensitivity than each or any two of the single indexes ( < 0.05), but the diagnostic specificity did not differ significantly. The area under the ROC curve of combined detections of the 3 indexes was 0.941 for diagnosis of lung cancer-related pleural effusion, higher than those of any other combinations of the indexes.@*CONCLUSIONS@#The combined detection of PCEA, SCEA and P/S has a high sensitivity for diagnosis of lung cancer-related pleural effusion and provides important information for rapid and accurate diagnosis of suspected cases.

Incorporation of CD40 ligand enhances the immunogenicity of tumor­associated calcium signal transducer 2 virus­like particles against lung cancer.

The cell surface glycoprotein Trop­2 is overexpressed in various types of cancer, including in lung cancer, and has recently been used as an effective immunotherapeutic target. CD40 ligand (CD40L), a tumor necrosis factor superfamily member, is a promising immune adjuvant. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) gag­based virus­like particles (VLPs) are highly immunogenic, and foreign antigens can be incorporated onto their membrane envelope for cancer vaccine development. In the present study, a HIV gag­based VLP strategy and Bac­to­Bac system were utilized to construct Trop­2, CD40L and gag recombinant baculoviruses, which were then used to infect TN5 cells in order to form Trop­2 VLPs or Trop­2­CD40L VLPs. These VLPs were characterized using transmission electron microscopy and western blot analysis methods. VLPs incorporating murine Trop­2 only or incorporating Trop­2 and CD40L were used to immunize C57BL/6 mice. Immunized mice demonstrated high humoral and cellular immunity responses, whereas the Trop­2­CD40L VLPs led to higher immune responses in comparison with Trop­2 only VLPs. Immunization with Trop­2­CD40L VLPs also reduced tumor growth more effectively compared with Trop­2 VLPs. Furthermore, Trop­2­CD40L VLP immunization increased the survival rate of Lewis tumor­bearing mice more significantly when compared with Trop­2 only VLPs. In conclusion, the present study provided a novel vaccine design by combination of a tumor antigen and an immune adjuvant based on a VLP strategy, which may be potentially applied as an alternative immunotherapeutic option in the treatment of lung cancer.

Progress on the Study and Application of Serum Adenosine Deaminase in the Diagnosis of Autoimmune Diseases / 现代检验医学杂志

Adenosine deaminase (ADA)plays an important role in the regulation of normal immune system.The altered activ-ity of serum ADA could associate with some autoimmune diseases(AID).Various studies abroad have found the elevated ac-tivity of serum ADA compared with healthy controls in many kinds of AID such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis(RA),et al (P<0.05).Many studies foused on the correlation of altered activity of serum ADA with the disease severity,but there is still controversy.To explore the diagnostic value of serum ADA in AID,make a review a-bout the application research progress of ADA in several AID.

Prokaryotic expression and purification of anti-AEG-1 single-chain variable antibody / 国际检验医学杂志

Objective To construct anti-astrocyte elevated gene-1(AEG-1)single-chain variable antibody (V23)prokaryotic ex-pression vector,and to conduct the protein purification and immunological activity detection.Methods The Primer5 software was applied to design the primers aiming at the gene sequence of the antibody anti-AEG-1 single-chain variable region for constructing the prokaryotic expression plasmid of PRsetC/V23.After the enzyme digestion by the restriction enzyme Pst1 and correct DNA se-quencing,the prokaryotic expression plasmid was led to E.coli BL21 ,the prokaryotic expression engineering strain containing the V23 gene was constructed.After the induction with IPTG,the interest protein was purified by the magnetic beads with the HIS tag,and the content of interest protein was determined by the SDS-PAGE electrophoresis.Western blot and ELISA were adopted to detect the immune activity of the nti-AEG-1 single-chain variable region antibody.Results For the constructed prokaryotic expres-sion plasmid PRsetC/V23,the single enzyme digestion and sequencing analysis displayed that the constructed V23 gene was com-pletely consistent to the designing sequences.After IPTG induction,SDS-PAGE electrophoresis showed an apparent protein band at 31×103 ,the Western blot detection showed a specific AEG-1 response band at 80 ×103 ,the ELISA test showed the positive re-sults.Conclusion The PRsetC/V23 prokaryotic expression plasmid and the V23 prokaryotic expression engineering strain are suc-cessfully constructed,this engineering strain can express anti-AEG-1 single-chain variable region antibody protein,and the protein has good immune activity.

Advances in Molecular Modification of Microbial Enzymes / 中国生物工程杂志

In recent years,more and more of the enzyme proteins have been carried out using recombinant microorganism bioreactor for large scale production.For reasons of improved the catalytic capability and environmental suitability,or enhanced expression level of the protein,a variety of genetic engineering technology according to protein molecule modification have been applied extensively.Major strategies and achievements of molecular modification for microbial enzyme,such as site-directed mutagenesis,error-prone PCR,DNA shuffling and optimum codon design were reviewed.