Tenascin XB Is a Novel Diagnostic Marker for Malignant Mesothelioma

Our plain-English summary of Tenascin XB Is a Novel Diagnostic Marker for Malignant Mesothelioma, by K. Nakayama, M. Seike, R. Noro, et al (Anticancer Research, 2019).

The study

• Authors: K. Nakayama, M. Seike, R. Noro, S. Takeuchi, K. Matsuda, S. Kunugi, K. Kubota, A. Gemma
• Journal: Anticancer Research
• Published: 2019;39(2):627-633
• Cited by: 9 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Background/aim: Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is an aggressive tumor with poor prognosis. The establishment of a new diagnostic and therapeutic approach for MM is expected. This study investigated the diagnostic significance of tenascin XB (TNXB) for MM.

Materials And Methods: TNXB gene expression was found to be significantly higher in MM tumor tissues compared to paired normal tissues, as assessed by the Gene Expression Omnibus database. The inhibition of TNXB using small interfering RNAs suppressed the proliferation and colony formation of MM cells. Expression of TNXB and calretinin, a current diagnostic marker of MM, was evaluated by immunohistochemistry.

Results: The sensitivity and specificity of TNXB for MM were 80.0% and 69.5%, respectively. When the detection of TNXB was combined with that of calretinin, 83.3% of MM cases were detected.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that TNXB is a novel diagnostic biomarker for MM. A combination of detecting TNXB and calretinin may be useful for the differential diagnosis of MM from lung adenocarcinoma.

Copyright© 2019, International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.

In plain English

This laboratory study examined whether a protein called tenascin XB (TNXB) could help tell malignant mesothelioma apart from lung adenocarcinoma. It did not study asbestos exposure. In public gene data from 41 patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma, TNXB gene activity was significantly higher in tumor tissue than in paired normal tissue. Three of five mesothelioma cell lines showed high TNXB. Blocking TNXB in two mesothelioma cell lines reduced cell growth. Colony formation fell significantly in one line but only showed a tendency to fall in the other (p=0.12). In stained tissue samples, 24 of 30 mesothelioma cases and 21 of 69 lung adenocarcinoma cases were TNXB-positive (sensitivity 80.0%, specificity 69.5%). The existing marker calretinin was positive in 6 of 30 mesotheliomas and 4 of 69 adenocarcinomas (sensitivity 20.0%, specificity 94.2%). Using the two markers together detected 25 of 30 mesotheliomas (83.3%), with a specificity of 68.1%. The authors concluded that TNXB is a novel diagnostic marker and called for further studies. They noted that calretinin's sensitivity in this study was lower than in earlier studies.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Laboratory study combining analysis of public gene-expression data, experiments on cell lines, and immunohistochemistry staining of commercial tissue microarrays
• Who was studied: Paired malignant pleural mesothelioma and normal tissues from 41 individuals in the GSE51024 dataset; five mesothelioma and five lung adenocarcinoma cell lines, plus the normal mesothelium cell line Met5A as a control; tissue microarrays from which 30 malignant mesothelioma samples and 69 lung adenocarcinoma samples were evaluated, after six bronchioalveolar carcinoma samples were excluded
• Exposure: No asbestos or other exposure was studied. The study measured TNXB and calretinin as possible diagnostic markers.
• Main results:
  • In 41 patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma, TNXB gene expression was significantly higher in tumor tissue than in paired normal tissue (p<0.001)
  • High TNXB expression was seen in three of five mesothelioma cell lines. All five lung adenocarcinoma cell lines showed lower expression than the Met5A control.
  • After TNXB was blocked with siRNA, colony formation was significantly reduced in H2452 cells (p<0.05) and showed only a tendency to be reduced in H226 cells (p=0.12). Proliferation was reduced on day 3 in both lines.
  • The area stained for TNXB was significantly higher in mesothelioma than in adenocarcinoma tissues (p<0.001). The area under the ROC curve for telling the two apart was 0.718.
  • With a 1.4% stained-area cut-off, 24 of 30 mesothelioma cases and 21 of 69 lung adenocarcinoma cases were TNXB-positive. This gave a sensitivity of 80.0% and a specificity of 69.5%.
  • Calretinin was positive in 6 of 30 mesothelioma cases and 4 of 69 adenocarcinoma cases, giving a sensitivity of 20.0% and a specificity of 94.2%
  • TNXB and calretinin combined detected 25 of 30 mesothelioma cases (83.3% sensitivity), with a specificity of 68.1%
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that TNXB is a novel diagnostic marker for malignant mesothelioma. They said that combining it with calretinin may be applicable for telling mesothelioma apart from lung adenocarcinoma, and that further studies are needed.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The sensitivity of calretinin for detecting mesothelioma in this study was lower than in previous studies
  • The authors said further studies are needed to evaluate the usefulness and robustness of TNXB combined with calretinin

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Lung cancer, Mesothelioma.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Malignant Mesothelioma, Prognosis, Calretinin, Immunohistochemistry, Biomarker, Differential Diagnosis, Lung Adenocarcinoma.

Related studies

• Tenascin expression and distribution in pleural inflammatory and fibrotic diseases — R. Kaarteenaho-Wiik, E. Lakari, et al. (2000)
• Tenascin and fibronectin expression in human mesothelial cells and pleural mesothelioma cell-line cells — V.L. Kinnula, A. Linnala, et al. (1998)
• Combined use of novel epithelial (MOC-31) and mesothelial (HBME-1) immunohistochemical markers for optimal first line diagnostic distinction between mesothelioma and metastatic carcinoma in pleura — C. González-Lois, C. Ballestín, et al. (2001)
• The diagnostic utility of D2-40, calretinin, CK5/6, desmin and MOC-31 in the differentiation of mesothelioma from adenocarcinoma in pleural effusion cytology — T.S. Hyun, M. Barnes, et al. (2012)
• MUC4, a novel immunohistochemical marker identified by gene expression profiling, differentiates pleural sarcomatoid mesothelioma from lung sarcomatoid carcinoma — V.J. Amatya, K. Kushitani, et al. (2017)
• Identification of novel markers for the diagnosis of malignant pleural mesothelioma — F. Gueugnon, S. Leclercq, et al. (2011)

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