Prevalence and clinical significance of pathogenic germline BRCA1/2 mutations in Chinese non-small cell lung cancer patients

Objective: Germline alterations in the breast cancer susceptibility genes type 1 and 2, BRCA1 and BRCA2, predispose individuals to hereditary cancers, including breast, ovarian, prostate, pancreatic, and stomach cancers.Accumulating evidence suggests inherited genetic susceptibility to lung cancer.The present study aimed to survey the prevalence of pathogenic germline BRCA mutations(gBRCAm) and explore the potential association between gBRCAm and disease onset in Chinese advanced non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC) patients.Methods: A total of 6,220 NSCLC patients were screened using capture-based ultra-deep targeted sequencing to identify patients harboring germline BRCA1/2 mutations.Results: Out of the 6,220 patients screened, 1.03%(64/6,220) of the patients harbored the pathogenic gB RCAm, with BRCA2 mutations being the most predominant mutations(49/64, 76.5%).Patients who developed NSCLC before 50 years of age were more likely to carry gBRCAm(P = 0.036).Among the patients harboring classic lung cancer driver mutations, those with concurrent gBRCAm were significantly younger than those harboring the wild-type gBRCA(P = 0.029).By contrast, the age of patients with or without concurrent gBRCAm was comparable to those of patients without the driver mutations(P = 0.972).In addition, we identified EGFR-mutant patients with concurrent gBRCAm who showed comparable progression-free survival but significantly longer overall survival(P = 0.002) compared to EGFR-mutant patients with wild-type germline BRCA.Conclusions: Overall, our study is the largest survey of the prevalence of pathogenic gBRCAm in advanced Chinese NSCLC patients.Results suggested a lack of association between germline BRCA status and treatment outcome of EGFR-TKI.In addition,results showed a positive correlation between pathogenic gB RCAm and an early onset of NSCLC.

Erratum to Prevalence and clinical significance of pathogenic germline BRCA1/2 mutations in Chinese non-small cell lung cancer patients

In the published article1,the affiliation for the first author,Xingshcng Hu,is"Department of Medical Oncology,Cancer Hospital,Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences",we would like to update it to"Department of Medical Oncology,National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital,Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College,Beijing,100021,China".We apologize for the errors and for any confusion it may have caused.

Immune‑Ageing Evaluation of Peripheral T and NK Lymphocyte Subsets in Chinese Healthy Adults

Ageing is often accompanied with a decline in immune system function,resulting in immune ageing.Numerous studies have focussed on the changes in different lymphocyte subsets in diseases and immunosenescence.The change in immune phenotype is a key indication of the diseased or healthy status.However,the changes in lymphocyte number and phenotype brought about by ageing have not been comprehensively analysed.Here,we analysed T and natural killer(NK)cell subsets,the phenotype and cell differentiation states in 43,096 healthy individuals,aged 20–88 years,without known diseases.Thirty-six immune parameters were analysed and the reference ranges of these subsets were established in different age groups divided into 5-year intervals.The data were subjected to random forest machine learning for immune-ageing modelling and confirmed using the neural network analysis.Our initial analysis and machine modelling prediction showed that na.ve T cells decreased with ageing,whereas central memory T cells(Tcm)and effector memory T cells(Tem)increased cluster of differentiation(CD)28-associated T cells.This is the largest study to investigate the correlation between age and immune cell function in a Chinese population,and provides insightful differences,suggesting that healthy adults might be considerably influenced by age and sex.The age of a person's immune system might be different from their chronological age.Our immune-ageing modelling study is one of the largest studies to provide insights into‘immune-age’rather than‘biological-age’.Through machine learning,we identified immune factors influencing the most through ageing and built a model for immune-ageing prediction.Our research not only reveals the impact of age on immune parameter differences within the Chinese population,but also provides new insights for monitoring and preventing some diseases in clinical practice.

Phenethyl isothiocyanate as an anti-nutritional factor attenuates deoxynivalenol-induced IPEC-J2 cell injury through inhibiting ROSmediated autophagy

Deoxynivalenol(DON)is considered to be the most harmful mycotoxin that affects the intestinal health of animals and humans.Phenethyl isothiocyanate(PEITC)in feedstuff is an anti-nutritional factor and impairs nutrient digestion and absorption in the animal intestinal.In the current study,we aimed to explore the effects of PEITC on DON-induced apoptosis,intestinal tight junction disorder,and its potential molecular mechanism in the porcine jejunum epithelial cell line(IPEC-J2).Our results indicated that PEITC treatment markedly alleviated DON-induced cytotoxicity,decreasing the apoptotic cell percentage and pro-apoptotic mRNA/protein levels,and increasing zonula occludens-1(ZO-1),occludin and claudin-1 mRNA/protein expression.Meanwhile,PEITC treatment ameliorated DON-induced an increase of the inducible nitric oxide synthase(iNOS)and cyclooxygenase 2(COX-2)mRNA levels and intracellular reactive oxygen species(ROS)level,and a decrease of glutathione peroxidase 1(GPx1),superoxide dismutase 2(SOD2),catalase(CAT)and heme oxygenase 1(HO-1)mRNA levels.Additionally,PEITC treatment significantly down-regulated autophagy-related protein 5(ATG5),beclin-1 and microtubuleassociated protein 1 light chain 3B(LC3-II)mRNA/protein levels,decreased the number of green fluorescent protein-microtubule-associated protein 1 light-chain 3(GFP-LC3)puncta and phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase(PI3K)protein expression,and up-regulated phospho-protein kinase B(p-Akt)and phospho-mammalian target of rapamycin(p-mTOR)protein expression against DON.However,the activation of autophagy by rapamycin,an autophagy agonist,abolished the protective effects of PEITC against DON-induced cytotoxicity,apoptosis and intestinal tight junction disorder.Collectively,PEITC could confer protection against DON-induced porcine intestinal epithelial cell injury by suppressing ROSmediated autophagy.