Endocrine Abstracts

Ad Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is an aggressive tumour and treatment remains unsatisfactory in advanced disease. Activation of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is considered causative for metastatic spread in a variety of human cancers. Accordingly, new drugs were developed specifically targeting EMT with a focus on hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)/HGF receptor (c-MET) and fibroblast growth factor (FGF)/FGF receptor (FGFR) signalling.We here a...

In a previous study we found mutations in the main catalytic subunit of protein kinase A (PKA Cα) to be responsible for cortisol-secreting adrenocortical adenomas (ACAs). These mutations interfere with the formation of a stable holoenzyme, thus causing constitutive PKA activation. More recently, we identified additional mutations affecting PKA Cα in ACAs associated with overt Cushing syndrome: Ser213Arg_Leu212_Lys214insIle-Ile-Leu-Arg, Cys200_Gly201insVal, Trp197Arg,...

Background: Adrenocortical tumours consist of frequent adrenocortical adenomas (ACA) and highly malignant (ACC) with a still incompletely understood pathogenesis. Dysregulation of Notch signalling pathway is implicated in several cancers with oncogenic or tumour suppressor functions. Copy number gains and over-expression of Jagged1, a ligand of Notch receptor, was reported in ACC. The aim of the study was to evaluate the expression of Jagged1 and other Notch-r...

Recently, mutations in the PRKACA (catalytic subunit α of the PKA) gene have been identified as causative in 35% of adrenocortical adenomas (ACA) with overt Cushing’s syndrome (Beuschlein et al. 2014). These mutations lead to constitutive activation of PKA signaling and subsequently to an excessive production of cortisol. Protein kinase A is a heterotetramer consisting of two catalytic and two regulatory subunits with several isoforms (Cα, β, &#947...

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a malignant tumor with poor prognosis and no established therapy in advanced stage. Cisplatin is the most frequently used cytotoxic drug, but even combined with doxorubicin and etoposid, the response rate is <50%. Recently, it has been demonstrated that the excision repair cross complementing group 1 (ERCC1) plays a relevant role in the DNA repairing process, particularly in the correction of platinum-induced DNA adducts. Accordingly, ERCC...

Long-term effects of trans-naso-sphenoidal surgery (TNS) and long-acting somatostatin analogs (SSTa) on hypotalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) function have been poorly investigated. Aim of the study was to evaluate over time the integrity of HPA axis in acromegalic patients with baseline preserved adrenal function and treated with one or both available treatments. We selected 23 patients (15F & 8M, age (±S.D.)=46.8±13.7 yrs) with normal (n=19)...

Protein Kinase A (PKA) consists of two catalytic and two regulatory subunits with several isoforms (Cα, β, γ and RIα, IIα, Iβ, IIβ, respectively). Type II regulatory subunits are phosphorylated by PKA in their inhibitory sites, while type I are not. Somatic activating mutations in the gene encoding the catalytic subunit α (Cα) of PKA (PRKACA) have been found in 30–40% of cortisol-producing adrenocortical adenomas (CPA). We rece...

We previously identified mutations in PRKACA, coding for the catalytic a (Ca) subunit of protein kinase A (PKA), as the main genetic alteration in cortisol-producing adrenal adenomas (CPAs) responsible for Cushing’s syndrome. Here, we further investigated the mechanism of action of all PRKACA mutations identified so far by our team (L206R, L199_C200_insW, S213R_L212_K214insIILR, C200_GlyinsV, W197R, del244-248+E249Q and E32V). Five out of seven mutants s...

Adrenocortical carcinomas (ACC) are associated with heterogeneous prognosis and limited treatment options for advanced stages. Until now no efficient targeted therapies have been identified. This study aims to identify possible new molecular drug targets for a future personalized therapeutic approach. We isolated good quality RNA from 40 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor samples (33 from primary surgery, 5 from local recurrences and 2 from distant metastasis) of ACC patie...

BackgroundAdrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare but devastating tumour of the adrenal gland and the molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis remain incompletely understood. To gain novel insights into the cellular landscape of ACC, we compared single nuclei RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) datasets from ACC and normal adrenal glands (NAGs).Methods: We isolated single nuclei from 12 ACC snap-frozen samples, including 6 primary tumours, 3 local r...