Gankyrin is a novel biomarker for disease progression and prognosis of patients with renal cell carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: In the clinic, how to stratify renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patients with different risks and to accurately predict their prognostic outcome remains a crucial issue. In this study, we assessed the expression and prognostic value of gankyrin in RCC patients. METHODS: The expression of gankyrin was examined in public databases and validated in specimens from two independent centers. The clinical practice and disease correlation of gankyrin in RCC were evaluated in RCC patients, various cell lines and an orthotopic RCC model. FINDINGS: Upregulation of gankyrin expression in RCC was corroborated in two independent cohorts. High gankyrin expression positively associated with disease progression and metastasis of RCC patients. A positive correlation between gankyrin and sunitinib-resistance was also observed in RCC cell lines and in an orthotopic RCC model. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that patients with higher gankyrin expression presented worse prognosis of RCC patients in the two cohorts. Gankyrin served as an independent prognostic factor for RCC patients even after multivariable adjustment by clinical variables. Time-dependent AUC and Harrell's c-index analysis presented that the incorporation of the gankyrin classifier into the current clinical prognostic parameters such as TNM stage, Fuhrman nuclear grade or SSIGN score achieved a greater accuracy than without it in predicting prognosis of RCC patients. All results were confirmed in randomized training and validation sets from the two patient cohorts. INTERPRETATION: Gankyrin can serve as a reliable biomarker for disease progression and for prognosis of RCC patients. Combining gankyrin with the current clinical parameters may help patient management. FUND: National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81773154, 81772747 and 81301861), Medical Discipline Construction Project of Pudong New Area Commission of Health and Family Planning (PWYgf2018-03), the Shanghai Medical Guidance (Chinese and Western Medicine) Science and Technology Support Project (No. 17411960200), Outstanding Leaders Training Program of Pudong Health Bureau of Shanghai (No. PWR12016-05).

[Effect of new photosensitizer CDHS801-mediated photodynamic therapy on bladder cancer: an experimental study].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of dynamic photodynamic therapy (PDT) on bladder cancer. METHODS: Human bladder cancer cells of the line T24 were co-cultured with CDHS801, a photosensitizer, and MitoTracker RED CMXRose and MitoTracker GREEN FM, mitochondria specific fluorescence probe dyes. Laser scanning confocal fluorescence microimaging system was applied to collect the fluorescence of the photosensitizer and the probes. T24 cells were cultured and divided into 4 groups: Group 1 as blank control group, Group 2 undergoing laser irradiation, Group 3, added with CDHS801 for 6h, and Group 4 (PDT group), added with CDHS801 and undergoing laser irradiation. The survival of the cells was examined by MTT colorimetric assay. The morphological changes and apoptosis of the photo-activated T24 cells were investigated by transmission electron microscopy, confocal laser scan microscopy, and flow cytometry. RESULTS: The fluorescence of the photosensitizer and that of the probes were detected in the cytoplasm and in the peri-nuclear region, mainly in the mitochondria, of the T24 cells. 2. The inhibitory rates of PDT on T24 cells were 0%, 7.3%, 10.8%, and 71.4% in the control group, Group 1, Group 2, and Group 3 respectively. T24 cell photo-activated with CDHS801 showed cell size shrinkage, condensed chromatin and formation of apoptotic body. Flow cytometry showed that apoptosis was seen in 55.31% of the photo-activated cells and peaked in the sub-G1 phase. However, no such changes were seen in the control group. CONCLUSION: CDHS801-based PDT can kill bladder cancer T24 cells. CDHS801 is localized in the cytoplasm and peri-nuclear region, mainly mitochondria, of tumor cell. CDHS801 based PDT maybe eliminate the T24 cell by the induction of apoptosis.