Altered cytochrome 2E1 and 3A P450-dependent drug metabolism in advanced ovarian cancer correlates to tumour-associated inflammation.

Background And Purpose: Previous work has focussed on changes in drug metabolism caused by altered activity of CYP3A in the presence of inflammation and, in particular, inflammation associated with malignancy. However, drug metabolism involves a number of other P450s, and therefore, we assessed the effect of cancer-related inflammation on multiple CYP enzymes using a validated drug cocktail.

Experimental Approach: Patients with advanced stage ovarian cancer and healthy volunteers were recruited.

Enhancement of non-invasive trans-membrane drug delivery using ultrasound and microbubbles during physiologically relevant flow.

Sonoporation has been associated with drug delivery across cell membranes and into target cells, yet several limitations have prohibited further advancement of this technology. Higher delivery rates were associated with increased cellular death, thus implying a safety-efficacy trade-off. Meanwhile, there has been no reported study of safe in vitro sonoporation in a physiologically relevant flow environment.

Alterations of choline phospholipid metabolism in endometrial cancer are caused by choline kinase alpha overexpression and a hyperactivated deacylation pathway.

Metabolic rearrangements subsequent to malignant transformation are not well characterized in endometrial cancer. Identification of altered metabolites could facilitate imaging-guided diagnosis, treatment surveillance, and help to identify new therapeutic options. Here, we used high-resolution magic angle spinning magnetic resonance mass spectroscopy on endometrial cancer surgical specimens and normal endometrial tissue to investigate the key modulators that might explain metabolic changes, incorporating additional investigations using qRT-PCR, Western blotting, tissue microarrays (TMA), and uptake assays of [(3)H]-labeled choline.

A fast modified protocol for random-access ultra-high density whole-genome scan: a tool for personalized genomic medicine, positional mapping, and cytogenetic analysis.

Background: High density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping array is widely applied on genome-wide association study of common diseases. In these studies, a fixed batch-size of 48 or 96 samples allows high-throughput analysis. To enhance the clinical application of microarray analysis on personalized medicine, we describe a modified PCR purification protocol without batch-size limitation for whole-genome scan using ultra-high density SNP microarray.