• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 2020

Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) are immature myeloid cells that exert suppressive function on the immune response. MDSCs expand in tumor-bearing hosts or in the tumor microenvironment and suppress T cell responses via various mechanisms, whereas a reduction in their activities has been observed in autoimmune diseases or infections. It has been reported that the symptoms of various diseases, including malignant tumors, can be alleviated by targeting MDSCs. Moreover, MDSCs can contribute to patient resistance to therapy using immune checkpoint inhibitors. In line with these therapeutic approaches, diverse oligonucleotide-based molecules and small molecules have been evaluated for their therapeutic efficacy in several disease models via the modulation of MDSC activity. In the current review, MDSC-targeting oligonucleotides and small molecules are briefly summarized, and we highlight the immunomodulatory effects on MDSCs in a variety of disease models and the application of MDSC-targeting molecules for immuno-oncologic therapy.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2006

Bcl-2/adenovirus E1B 19 kDa-interacting protein 3 (BNIP3) is a mitochondrial pro-apoptotic protein that has a single Bcl-2 homology 3 (BH3) domain and a COOH-terminal transmembrane (TM) domain. Although it belongs to the Bcl-2 family and can heterodimerize with Bcl-2, its pro-apoptotic activity is distinct from those of other members of the Bcl-2 family. For example, cell death mediated by BNIP3 is independent of caspases and shows several characteristics of necrosis. Furthermore, the TM domain, but not the BH3 domain, is required for dimerization, mitochondrial targeting and pro-apoptotic activity. BNIP3 plays an important role in hypoxia-induced death of normal and malignant cells. Its expression is markedly increased in the hypoxic regions of some solid tumors and appears to be regulated by hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF), which binds to a site on the BNIP3 promoter. Silencing, followed by methylation, of the BNIP3 gene occurs in a significant proportion of cancer cases, especially in pancreatic cancers. BNIP3 also has a role in the death of cardiac myocytes in ischemia. Further studies of BNIP3 should provide insight into hypoxic cell death and may contribute to improved treatment of cancers and cardiovascular diseases.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.291-299
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• 2006

A Computer-Aided Diagnosis system has been examined to reduce the effort of radiologist. In this paper, we propose the algorithm using Support Vector Machine(SVM) classifier to discriminate whether microcalcifications are malignant or benign tumors. The proposed method to detect microcalcifications is composed of two detection steps each of which uses SVM classifier. The coarse detection step finds out pixels considered high contrasts comparing with neighboring pixels. Then, Region of Interest(ROI) is generated based on microcalcification characteristics. The fine detection step determines whether the found ROIs are microcalcifications or not by merging potential regions using obtained ROIs and SVM classifier. The proposed method is specified on Korean mammogram database. The experimental result of the proposed algorithm presents robustness in detecting microcalcifications than the previous method using Artificial Neural Network as classifier even when using small training data.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.2989-2993
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• 2016

The commonest cancer in Egyptian females occurs in the breast cfDNA is a non-invasive marker for tumor detetion and prognostic assessment in many types of cancer including breast cancer. This study aimed to assess the role of cfDNA and its fragmentation pattern in breast cancer prognosis and treatment response. Forty female patients with malignant breast tumors and a comparable group of healthy blood donors were enrolled prospectively. cfDNA levels and fragmentation patterns were investigated after cfDNA extraction, gel electrophoresis and gel analysis. The percentage of breast cancer patients positive for cfDNA (92.5%) was significantly higher than that of controls (55%). Also, mean concentration of cfDNA was significantly higher than in the control group (P<0.05). Most Her-2 positive patients had long cfDNA fragments, this being significant as compared to Her-2 negative patients (P<0.05). Metastasis was also positively linked to significantly higher cfDNA (P<0.05) and the mean cfDNA integrity index was significantly higher in non-responders compared to treatment responders (P<0.05). In conclusion, both qualitative and quantitative aspects of cfDNA and its different fragments in breast cancer patients could be related to prognosis, metastasis and treatment response. Long cfDNA fragments could be particularly useful for prediction purposes.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.197-201
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• 1990

The primary treatment modality of malignant tumors of the nasopharynx is radiation therapy owing to its inaccessibility to surgical intervention. Over the last two decades there were many changes in techniques of delivery, which include the use of higher doses of radiotherapy, the use of wide radiation field, including the elective radiation of the whole neck, the combined use of brachy- and teletherapy, and the use of split-course therapy. In spite of these advances local and regional recurrences remain the major cause of death. As a boost therapy after external irradiation, high-dose-rate intracavitary irradiation using remote control afterloading system(RALS) was used in two patients. Our results were satisfactory, however, this procedure should only be performed by those who have developed enough expertise in the use of intracavitary techniques for the treatment of nasopharyngeal cancer and have a supportive team including a physicist, dosimetrist, nurse, and trained technologist.

• Archives of Craniofacial Surgery
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.275-278
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• 2018

Trichoblastic carcinoma usually occurs as a malignant transformation of the trichoblastoma, but is very rare. A 25-year-old man was admitted with trichoblastoma in the nuchal area with frequent recurrences since birth. The preoperative neck magnetic resonance image revealed lobulated soft tissue lesions involving superficial fascia and infiltrating into both proximal trapezius muscles. In our department, wide excision and reconstruction with a free anterolateral thigh flap were performed. Histological examination revealed skin adnexal carcinoma, originating from the hair follicles, consistent with trichoblastic carcinoma. There was no palpable mass 5 years postoperatively, and there was no recurrence on follow-up positron emission tomography-computed tomography. Trichoblastic carcinomas are rare and difficult to diagnose, but histopathological findings include atypical basaloid keratinocytes with crowded, hyperchromatic nuclei, and increased mitotic activity. The presence of hypercellular stroma is a criterion for distinguishing trichoblastic carcinoma from basal cell carcinoma. A rare giant trichoblastic carcinoma was reported, which was the biggest one in the literature.

• Archives of Craniofacial Surgery
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.279-282
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• 2018

Primary malignant lymphoma rarely presents as a mass in the salivary gland. It accounts for about 1% of salivary gland tumors. The lymphomas of the parotid gland are mainly non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of B-cell follicular type. It usually occurs in male adults and is very rare in children. In contrast to the intractable disease course of adult parotid follicular lymphoma, when occurred in children or adolescent, its prognosis is very good when it is first treated with surgical excision. Thus, a solitary follicular lymphoma in an extranodal site that has occurred in children is termed separately as pediatric follicular lymphoma (PFL). We share our treatment experience of a 16-year-old PFL patient through surgical removal combined with superficial parotidectomy. In line with the few previous case reports of PFL, we suggest that active surgical removal should be undertaken for solitary, extranodal follicular lymphoma of the pediatric and adolescent population.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.150-153
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• 2019

Larynx cancer is a potentially terminal and severe type of neck and head cancer in which malignant cells start to grow and spread upwards in the larynx, or voice box. Smoking tobacco, drinking hot beverages and drinking alcohol are the main risk factors for these tumors. In this study, we aimed to develop a precise, accurate and rapid chemometrics assisted Raman spectroscopy method for diagnosis of larynx cancer in deparaffinized tissue samples. In the proposed method, samples were deparaffinized and 20 microns of each tissue were located on a coverslip. Both healthy (n = 13) and cancerous tissues (n = 13) were exposed to a Raman laser (785 nm) and excitations were recorded between wavenumbers of $50{\sim}1500cm^{-1}$. An Orthogonal Partial Least Square algorithm was applied to evaluate the Raman spectrum obtained. Sensitivity and specificity of the proposed method is high enough with the aid of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to test the whole model. Healthy and cancerous tissues were accurately and precisely clustered. A rapid, easy and precise diagnosis algorithm was developed for larynx cancer. By this method, some useful data about differences in biomolecules of each group (phospholipids, amides, tyrosine, phenylalanine collagen etc.) was also obtained from the spectra. It is claimed that the optimized method has a great potential for clustering and separating tumor tissues from healthy ones. This novel, rapid, precise and objective diagnosis method may be an alternative for the conventional methods in literature for diagnosis of larynx cancer.

• BMB Reports
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.312-317
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• 2019

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. MiR-371 has recently emerged as an important regulator in tumorigenesis, and may serve as a biomarker for malignant tumors. We transfected miR-371 or its inhibitor in two human HCC cell lines, then used 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide, soft agar colony formation, and transwell migration assays to evaluate the effects on cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. We found that miR-371 was positively correlated with HCC metastasis and poor prognosis in the inflicted patients, and the high expression of miR-371 was promoted, whereas a low level of miR-371 depressed cell proliferation and invasion. We found PTEN to be a direct target of miR-371. The overexpression or knockdown of PTEN exhibited the opposite effects from those of miR-371 on cell proliferation and migration. Our study demonstrates that miR-371 promotes proliferation and metastasis in HCC by targeting PTEN.

• Brain Tumor Research and Treatment
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.86-91
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• 2018

Aneurysmal bone cyst (ABC) is a rare non-neoplastic bone lesion that involves mostly the long bones and vertebrae and may occur very rarely in the craniofacial bones. ABCs may occur as secondary bony pathologies in association with various benign and malignant bone tumors and with fibrous dysplasia (FD). FD is a common non-neoplastic bony pathology mostly affecting craniofacial bones. Secondary ABC occurring in craniofacial FD is extremely rare, with only approximately 20 cases reported in the literature to date. Here, we report on a case of secondary ABC in a 25-year-old woman who has had a craniofacial deformity for over 10 years and who presented to us with a rapidly growing painful pulsatile mass in the right frontal region that began over 2 months prior to admission. On thorough examination of computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging brain scans taken at two-month interval, an aggressive, rapidly enlarging ABC, arising from the right frontal FD, was diagnosed. The patient underwent preoperative embolization followed by gross total resection of the ABC and cranioplasty. The 6-month follow up showed no recurrence of the ABC, nor was any progression of the FD noticed.