Role of TET1 and 5hmC in an Obesity-Linked Pathway Driving Cancer Stem Cells in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a subtype of breast cancer that lacks expression of estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and the HER2 but is enriched with cancer stem cell-like cells (CSC). CSCs are the fraction of cancer cells recognized as the source of primary malignant tumors that also give rise to metastatic recurrence. 5-Hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) is a DNA epigenetic feature derived from 5-methylcytosine by action of tet methylcytosine dioxygenase enzymes (e.

Detecting qualitative changes in biological systems.

Currently, most diseases are diagnosed only after significant disease-associated transformations have taken place. Here, we propose an approach able to identify when systemic qualitative changes in biological systems happen, thus opening the possibility for therapeutic interventions before the occurrence of symptoms. The proposed method exploits knowledge from biological networks and longitudinal data using a system impact analysis.

Obesity-induced MBD2_v2 expression promotes tumor-initiating triple-negative breast cancer stem cells.

Obesity is a risk factor for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) incidence and poor outcomes, but the underlying molecular biology remains unknown. We previously identified in TNBC cell cultures that expression of epigenetic reader methyl-CpG-binding domain protein 2 (MBD2), specifically the alternative mRNA splicing variant MBD variant 2 (MBD2_v2), is dependent on reactive oxygen species (ROS) and is crucial for maintenance and expansion of cancer stem cell-like cells (CSCs). Because obesity is coupled with inflammation and ROS, we hypothesized that obesity can fuel an increase in MBD2_v2 expression to promote the tumor-initiating CSC phenotype in TNBC cells in vivo.

Significance Testing and Multivariate Analysis of Datasets from Surface Plasmon Resonance and Surface Acoustic Wave Biosensors: Prediction and Assay Validation for Surface Binding of Large Analytes.

In this study, we performed uni- and multivariate data analysis on the extended binding curves of several affinity pairs: immobilized acetylcholinesterase (AChE)/bioconjugates of aflatoxin B₁(AFB₁) and immobilized anti-AFB₁ monoclonal antibody/AFB₁-protein carriers. The binding curves were recorded on three mass sensitive cells operating in batch configurations: one commercial surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor and two custom-made Love wave surface-acoustic wave (LW-SAW) sensors. We obtained 3D plots depicting the time-evolution of the sensor response as a function of analyte concentration using real-time SPR binding sensograms.