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Background: To analyze the prognostic significance of the genes casein kinase 2 alpha subunit (CSNK2A1), anti-apoptosis clone-11 (AAC-11), and tumor metastasis suppressor NME1 in completely resected non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients., Material/methods: Total RNA was extracted from 145 cases of completely resected, formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded NSCLC tissues. mRNA expression levels of CSNK2A1, AAC-11, and NME1 were detected by real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. Univariate and multivariate survival analyses were used to identify factors related to prognosis., Results: A correlation between CSNK2A1 and AAC-11 mRNA expression levels (rs=0.366, p=0.000) was found. Univariate analysis showed that high expression of CSNK2A1 and AAC-11 was predictive of poor prognosis in NSCLC patients (p=0.029 and 0.044, respectively), especially when expression levels of both genes were concomitantly high (p=0.007). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that high expression of CSNK2A1, or concomitantly high expression of CSNK2A1 and AAC-11, are independent prognostic factors of poor survival in NSCLC patients. However, NME1 mRNA expression level did not significantly influence survival in NSCLC patients., Conclusions: This retrospective study indicates that CSNK2A1 and AAC-11, especially in combination, are useful prognosis markers in NSCLC patients after complete resection, independent of lymph node metastasis status.

Background: BAG-1 is a multifunctional anti-apoptotic protein that binds to a variety of cellular proteins and affects their functions. It has been proven that overexpression of BAG-1 was observed in a number of human maligancies and correlated with their prognosis. The aim of this study is to determine BAG-1 mRNA expression in human lung cancer tissues and its clinical significance., Methods: The expression of BAG-1 was detected by real-time PCR in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded human lung cancer tissues of 156 cases., Results: (1) The median survival time (MST, 33.5 months) in BAG-1 low-expression group was significantly higher than that (20.5 months) in BAG-1 highexpression group (P <0.005); (2) The 3-year and 5-year survival rates (44.74%; 26.32%) in BAG-1 low-expression group were dramatically higher than that in BAG-1 high-expression group (32.5%; 21.25%)(P <0.05), respectively. The survival curves in BAG-1 low-expression group was also significantly better than that in BAG-1 high-expression group (P =0.045); (3) The further analysis indicated that the survical curves in BAG-1 low-expression group were much better than that in BAG-1 high-expression group in the lung cancer patient with TNM stage I, or with squamous cell cacrinoma, or without any metastasis, respectively (P <0.05)., Conclusions: BAG-1 may be a biomarker for the prognosis of lung cancer patients, especially for the lung cancer patients with stage I or squamous cell carcinoma.

Background: Raf is a key molecule in the Ras-Raf-MEK-ERK signal transduction pathway and is highly activated in different human carcinomas. However, its biological functions and regulation mechanisms are still unclear. The aims of this study were to construct eukaryotic expression vectors with Raf full encoding region, truncated amino-terminus and carboxyl-terminus, respectively., Methods: Eukaryotic expression vectors of pCMV-Tag2b-Raf-1, pCMV-Tag2b-N-Raf and pCMV-Tag2b-C-Raf were constructed by gene recombination technique and confirmed by restriction enzyme analysis and DNA sequencing. Furthermore, the expression of these fusion proteins was detected by western blot in transient transfected 293T cells., Results: The sequences and open reading frames of these three vectors were completely consistent with experimental design. All target proteins can be detected in 293T cells., Conclusions: Eukaryotic expression vectors of pCMV-Tag2b-Raf-1, pCMV-Tag2b-N-Raf and pCMV-Tag2b-CRaf were successfully constructed and can be expressed in 293T cells.