Transcriptome analysis reveals upregulation of immune response pathways at the invasive tumour front of metastatic seminoma germ cell tumours

Background Testicular germ cell tumours (TGCTs) have a high metastasis rate. However, the mechanisms related to their invasion, progression and metastasis are unclear. Therefore, we investigated gene expression changes that might be linked to metastasis in seminomatous testicular germ cell tumour (STGCT) patients. Methods Defined areas [invasive tumour front (TF) and tumour centre (TC)] of non-metastatic (with surveillance and recurrence-free follow-up >2 years) and metastatic STGCTs were collected separately using laser capture microdissection. The expression of 760 genes related to tumour progression and metastasis was analysed using nCounter technology and validated with quantitative real-time PCR and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results Distinct gene expression patterns were observed in metastatic and non-metastatic seminomas with respect to both the TF and TC. Comprehensive pathway analysis showed enrichment of genes related to tumour functions such as inflammation, angiogenesis and metabolism at the TF compared to the TC. Remarkably, prominent inflammatory and cancer-related pathways, such as interleukin-6 (IL-6) signalling, integrin signalling and nuclear factor-κB signalling, were significantly upregulated in the TF of metastatic vs non-metastatic tumours. Conclusions IL-6 signalling was the most significantly upregulated pathway in metastatic vs non-metastatic tumours and therefore could constitute a therapeutic target for future personalised therapy. In addition, this is the first study showing intra- and inter-tumour heterogeneity in STGCT.

MATURE TESTICULAR TERATOMA IN PEDIATRIC PATIENT: A CASE REPORT

Objective: To report our experience on management of testicular teratoma in pediatric patient. Case(s) presentation: A 2-years-old boy presented with progressive mass in his left testis. The mass was found 3 months ago but became larger in a few days. The patient had no other genitourinary complaint. Vital signs were within normal limits. A hard and tender mass in the left scrotum sized 5x4x2.5 cm was palpated from the physical examination. An imaging study with Computed Tomography (CT) Scan revealed an enhancement in the left scrotum mass area. There was no ring enhancement in pelvic and paraaortic lymph nodes. The laboratory examination within normal limit. Inguinal radical orchiectomy was performed, and histopathological examination revealed a mature testicular teratoma of the left testis. Discussion: Testicular teratoma in children is usually benign. Testicular germ cell tumors generally have a good prognosis with current therapy. Post-orchiectomy management depends on the histology type, staging, and tumor markers. Conclusion: Testicular teratoma is a rare case and can cause minimal symptoms until it grows significantly. Testicular teratoma should be considered in the differential diagnosis of non-traumatic painless progressive scrotal mass. Inguinal radical orchiectomy may be considered as the primary management.

Choriocarcinoma syndrome: a rare presentation of testicular germ cell tumour

Published in August 2021.

An evaluation of the performance of the Point of Care Test iCHROMA™ AFP method: Precision and accuracy

The estimation of serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is useful in the diagnosis and monitoring of primary hepatocellular carcinoma, hepatoblastoma, non-seminomatous testicular germ cell tumours and other germ cell tumours. The iCHROMA™ AFP is a lateral flow chromatography, fluorescence immunoassay (FIA) for the quantitative determination of AFP in serum or plasma. In this study, the Boditech iCHROMA™ AFP assay had a very good precision of 9.8%. It showed a very good correlation with the following 12 methods: Abbott Architect (r2 = 0.9705), BioMerieux VIDAS (r2 = 0.9717), Roche Cobas 6000/8000 (r2 = 0.9738), Siemens Centaur XP/XPT/Classic (r2 = 0.9654), Siemens/DPC/Immulite 2000/2500 (r2 = 0.9673), Siemens/DPC/Immulite 1000 (r2 = 0.9670), Beckman Dxl 600/800 (r2 = 0.9676), Roche Elecsys (r2 = 0.9683), Roche Cobas 4000/e411 (r2 = 0.9688), Roche Modular E170 (r2 = 0.9692), SNIBE Maglumi (r2 = 0.9457) and Ortho Vitros 3600/5600/ECi (r2 = 0.9714). In summary, the iCHROMA™ AFP, a rapid point of care test method, has a within-run precision value of less than 10% and excellent correlations with traditional laboratory methods. There is a consistent overestimation with the iCHROMA™ method, which must be taken into consideration when setting a reference range.

Roles of Noncoding RNA in Reproduction

The World Health Organization predicts that infertility will be the third major health threat after cancer and cardiovascular disease, and will become a hot topic in medical research. Studies have shown that epigenetic changes are an important component of gametogenesis and related reproductive diseases. Epigenetic regulation of noncoding RNA (ncRNA) is appropriate and is a research hotspot in the biomedical field; these include long noncoding RNA (lncRNA), microRNA (miRNA), and PIWI-interacting RNA (piRNA). As vital members of the intracellular gene regulatory network, they affect various life activities of cells. LncRNA functions as a molecular bait, molecular signal and molecular scaffold in the body through molecular guidance. miRNAs are critical regulators of gene expression; they mainly control the stability or translation of their target mRNA after transcription. piRNA functions mainly through silencing genomic transposable elements and the post-transcriptional regulation of mRNAs in animal germ cells. Current studies have shown that these ncRNAs also play significant roles in the reproductive system and are involved in the regulation of essential cellular events in spermatogenesis and follicular development. The abnormal expression of ncRNA is closely linked to testicular germ cell tumors, poly cystic ovary syndrome and other diseases. This paper briefly presents the research on the reproductive process and reproductive diseases involving ncRNAs.