Endocrine Abstracts

Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is the 8th most common cancer among women overall. Licorice (Li) contains over 300 active compounds and many of them with anti-cancer properties. Glycyrrhetinic acid (GA) is a major component of Li and a mineralocorticoid receptor agonist. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential anti-proliferative effects of Li and GA on PTC cell cultures. Li extract (LE) was produced from the root and tested on BCPAP and K1 cell lines, as well as ...

Objectives: This project, funded by a Ministerial Finalized Research grant, investigated the pathogenesis of follicular thyroid lesions using a combined genomic-proteomic approach (NGS and MALDI-MS) to recognize and characterize Non-invasive follicular thyroid neoplasms with papillary like nuclear features (NIFTPs) [1] and their potential clinically targetable proteogenetic targets.Methods: A total of 95 patients undergoing thyroidectomy at IRCC...

Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a rare neuroendocrine tumor arising from parafollicular C-cells. Differently to other neuroendocrine tumors, the information on MTC tumor microenvironment and its role in in therapy resistance are scanty, mainly because of the lack of reliable in vitro models. We hypothesized that, similarly to other cancers, MTC cells may have a certain degree of plasticity that could be modulated by variable microenvironmental factors. The main a...

Objectives: Evidence exists that estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) and beta (ERβ) may be involved in the pathogenesis of thyroid cancer. miR-341, a potent biomarker that distinguishes follicular thyroid cancer (FTC) from adenoma, has shown proliferative and metastatic effects in various cancers by regulating nuclear receptor-interacting protein 1 (NRIP1), which forms complexes with ERα. Thus, we investigated the role of miR-346 on estrogen-associated pathogenesis of...

Point mutations constitute the majority of thyroid cancer mutations. Depending on screening strategy and patient populations, however, rearrangements also serve as oncogenic drivers for roughly one-in-five tumors. This underscores the importance of a comprehensive molecular approach that extends beyond assessment of single nucleotide variants (SNV). Receptor tyrosine kinases (RTK) feature prevalently within the described gene fusions in thyroid entities. Such fusions impart a ...

Objectives: Differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) accounts for over 95% of thyroid malignancies. It has been reported that integrin αvβ3, fractalkine, and CX3CR1 expression were upregulated in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). L-thyroxine (T4) is the principal ligand of the thyroid hormone analogue receptor on the extracellular domain of integrin αvβ3. In patients with DTC, thyroid hormone suppression therapy (THST) with T4 has been associated ...

Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is one of the aggressive and fatal human cancers, and accounts for <2% of thyroid carcinomas. Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangements are associated with tumor growth and considered a target for the treatment of ATC. Crizotinib is an oral small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor of ALK, MET, and ROS1 kinases, approved in ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer. The effect of crizotinib in primary human ATC (pATC) cells in transformin...

Background: Variants of the TSHR gene occur in different types of thyroid tumors. The importance of their molecular testing and the clinical impact is unclear. The aim of this study was to detect TSHR variants in a large cohort of malignant, low-risk and benign thyroid tumors and correlate them with clinical and histopathological data.Methods: The cohort consisted of 885 fresh frozen thyroid tumor samples (455 malignant tumors, 52 low-r...

Objectives: New approaches are urgently needed to enhance radioiodide (RAI) ablation of aggressive and metastatic thyroid cancer. Our previous experiments revealed that valosin-containing protein inhibitors (VCPi), such as disulfiram, markedly increase sodium iodide symporter (NIS) activity to promote RAI uptake. Recently, disulfiram was reported to inhibit NPL4 activity – a critical VCP cofactor – via its copper bound diethyldithiocarbamate metabolite Cu(DDC)2<...

Introduction: Our team identified a family where 5 elements developed thyroid cancer between the ages of 26 and 38. Since no syndromic form of the disease was found, the diagnosis was of familial non-medullary thyroid carcinoma (FNMTC). Our team employed Whole-Exome Sequencing (WES) and identified a new potentially pathogenic germline mutation in the KCNB2 gene [ p.(Gly106Arg)]. KCNB2 encodes a voltage-gated potassium channel (vgKCN), and the detecte...