TSC2 Mutations Were Associated with the Early Recurrence of Patients with HCC Underwent Hepatectomy

Purpose

To explore the value of Tuberous sclerosis complex 2 (TSC2) mutations in evaluating the early recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients underwent hepatectomy.

Patients and Methods

A total of 183 HCC patients were enrolled. Next-generation sequencing was performed on tumor tissues to analyze genomic alterations, tumor mutational burden and variant allele fraction (VAF). The associations between TSC2 mutations and recurrence rate within 1 year, RFS and OS after hepatectomy were analyzed.

Results

Our results showed that TSC2 mutation frequency in HCC was 12.6%. Compared to patients without TSC2 mutation, the proportion of microvascular invasion (MVI) and Edmondson grade III–IV was significantly higher in patients with a TSC2 mutation (p<0.05). The VAF of mutated TSC2 was higher in patients with maximum diameter of tumor >5cm or MVI than that of other patients (p<0.05). The frequency of TP53 mutation was significantly higher in patients with a TSC2 mutation than those without TSC2 mutation (p=0.003). Follow-up analysis showed that patients with a TSC2 mutation had significantly higher recurrence rate within 1 year (p=0.015) and poorer median recurrence-free survival (RFS) (p=0.010) than patients without TSC2 mutation. TSC2 mutations did not significantly affect overall survival of patients (p=0.480). The multivariate analysis results showed that the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) B-C stage, TSC2 mutations and preoperative serum alpha-fetoprotein level ≥400μg/L were independently associated with recurrence within 1 year after hepatectomy (HR=8.628, 95% CI: 3.836–19.405, p=0.000; HR=3.885, 95% CI: 1.295–11.653, p=0.015; HR=2.327, 95% CI: 1.018–5.323, p=0.045; respectively), and poorer RFS after hepatectomy (HR=3.070, 95% CI: 1.971–4.783, p=0.000; HR=1.861, 95% CI: 1.061–3.267, p=0.030; HR=1.715, 95% CI: 1.093–2.693, p=0.019; respectively).

Conclusion

TSC2 mutations were significantly associated with MVI in liver para-carcinoma tissue and Edmondson grade III–IV in patients with HCC and were independently associated with recurrence within 1 year and poorer RFS after hepatectomy. The TSC2 mutation may be a potential predictor for early recurrence in HCC patients underwent hepatectomy.

Clinically significant genomic alterations in the Chinese and Western patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma

BACKGROUND

The goal of this study is to disclose the clinically significant genomic alterations in the Chinese and Western patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.

METHODS

A total of 86 Chinese patients were enrolled in this study. A panel of 579 pan-cancer genes was sequenced for the qualified samples from these patients. Driver genes, actionability, and tumor mutational burden were inferred and compared to a cohort of Western patients.

RESULTS

Totally, 36 and 12 driver genes were identified in the Chinese and Western cohorts, respectively. Of them, seven driver genes (IDH1, KRAS, TP53, BAP1, PBRM1, ARID1A, and NRAS) were shared by the two cohorts. Four driver genes (SPTA1, ARID2, TP53, and GATA1) were found significantly correlated with the tumor mutational burden. For both cohorts, half of the patients had actionable mutations. The two cohorts shared the most actionable genes but differed much in their frequency. Though KRAS mutations were at the first and second actionable rank respectively for the Chinese and Western populations, they were still at a relatively low level of actionable evidence.

CONCLUSIONS

The study on the clinical significance of genomic alterations directs the future development of precision medicine for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma treatment.

Eight-gene metabolic signature related with tumor-associated macrophages predicting overall survival for hepatocellular carcinoma

BACKGROUND

In recent years, the relationship between tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and solid tumors has become a research hotspot. This study aims to explore the close relationship of TAMs with metabolic reprogramming genes in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) to provide new methods of treatment for HCC.

METHODS

The study selected 343 HCC patients with complete survival information (survival time > = 1 month) in the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) as study subjects. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis assisted in determining the relationship between macrophage infiltration and overall survival (OS), and Pearson correlation tests were used to identify metabolic reprogramming genes (MRGs) associated with tumor macrophage abundance. Lasso regression algorithms were used on prognosis-related MRGs identified by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and univariate Cox regression analysis to construct a risk score; another independent cohort (including 228 HCC patients) from the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) was used to verify prognostic signature externally.

RESULTS

A risk score composed of 8 metabolic genes could accurately predict the OS of a training cohort (TCGA) and a testing cohort (ICGC). The risk score could be widely used for people with different clinical characteristics, and it is a predictor that is independent of other clinical factors that affect prognosis. As expected, compared with the low-risk group, the high-risk group exhibited an obviously higher macrophage abundance, together with a positive correlation between the risk score and the expression levels of three commonly used immune checkpoints (PD1, PDL1, and CTLA4).

CONCLUSION

Our study constructed and validated a novel eight-gene signature for predicting HCC patient OS, which may contribute to clinical treatment decisions.

Development and validation of a CTNNB1-associated metabolic prognostic model for hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a heterogeneous malignancy closely related to metabolic reprogramming. We investigated how CTNNB1 mutation regulates the HCC metabolic phenotype and thus affects the prognosis of HCC. We obtained the mRNA expression profiles and clinicopathological data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), the International Cancer Genomics Consortium (ICGC) and the Gene Expression Omnibus database (GSE14520 and GSE116174). We conducted gene set enrichment analysis on HCC patients with and without mutant CTNNB1 through TCGA dataset. The Kaplan‐Meier analysis and univariate Cox regression analysis assisted in screening metabolic genes related to prognosis, and the prognosis model was constructed using the Lasso and multivariate Cox regression analysis. The prognostic model showed good prediction performance in both the training cohort (TCGA) and the validation cohorts (ICGC, GSE14520, GSE116174), and the high‐risk group presented obviously poorer overall survival compared with low‐risk group. Cox regression analysis indicated that the risk score can be used as an independent predictor for the overall survival of HCC. The immune infiltration in different risk groups was also evaluated in this study to explore underlying mechanisms. This study is also the first to describe an metabolic prognostic model associated with CTNNB1 mutations and could be implemented for determining the prognoses of individual patients in clinical practice.

A Prognostic Model of 15 Immune-Related Gene Pairs Associated With Tumor Mutation Burden for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Introduction

Tumor mutation burden (TMB) is an emerging biomarker for immunotherapy of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but its value for clinical application has not been fully revealed.

Materials and Methods

We used the Wilcox test to identify the differentially expressed immune-related genes (DEIRGs) in groups with high and low TMB as well as screened the immune gene pairs related to prognosis using univariate Cox regression analysis. A LASSO Cox regression prognostic model was developed by combining The Cancer Genome Atlas Liver Hepatocellular Carcinoma (TCGA-LIHC) with the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) LIRI-JP cohort, and internal (TCGA, ICGC) and external (GSE14520) validation analyses were conducted on the predictive value of the model. We also explored the relationship between the prognostic model and tumor microenvironment via the ESTIMATE algorithm and performed clinical correlation analysis by the chi-square test, revealing its underlying molecular mechanism with the help of Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA).

Results

The prognostic model consisting of 15 immune gene pairs showed high predictive value for short- and long-term survival of HCC in three independent cohorts. Based on univariate multivariate Cox regression analysis, the prognostic model could be used to independently predict the prognosis in each independent cohort. The immune score, stromal score, and estimated score values were lower in the high-risk group than in the low-risk group. As shown by the chi-square test, the prognostic model exhibited an obvious correlation with the tumor stage [American Joint Committee on Cancer tumor–node–metastasis (AJCC-TNM) (p < 0.001), Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) (p = 0.003)], histopathological grade (p = 0.033), vascular invasion (p = 0.009), maximum tumor diameter (p = 0.013), and background of liver cirrhosis (p < 0.001). GSEA revealed that the high-risk group had an enrichment of many oncology features, including the cell cycle, mismatch repair, DNA replication, RNA degradation, etc.

Conclusion

Our research developed and validated a reliable prognostic model associated with TMB for HCC, which may help to further enrich the therapeutic targets of HCC.

Association between donor/recipient MTRR gene polymorphisms and the risk of new-onset neurological complications after liver transplantation

Neurological complications are very common after liver transplantation. This study focuses on clinical risk factors and susceptibility gene polymorphisms of neurological complications after liver transplantation. A better predictive model is obtained. This study proves that MTRR is an independent susceptibility gene for neurological complications. Compared with the independent risk factor of abdominal infection, MTRR has a more advantageous value in predicting neurological complications after liver transplantation.

Development and Validation of a Novel Immune-Gene Pairs Prognostic Model Associated with CTNNB1 Alteration in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Background

Immunotherapy is one of the research hotspots in the field of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Successive clinical trials have shown that patients with CTNNB1 mutations are resistant to immunotherapy, but the mechanism is still unclear.

Material/Methods

We identified differentially expressed immune genes (DEIGs) in patients with and without CTNNB1 mutations in the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and then paired them to explore any correlation with prognosis. Univariate Cox regression analysis and Lasso regression analysis were used to develop the prognostic model. We first divided the TCGA cohort into 29 subgroups for internal validation and then used the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) cohort to conduct external validation. We also used a CIBERSORT algorithm to quantify immune infiltration of the different risk groups.

Results

The novel prognostic model consisted of 45 immune-gene pairs with general applicability. It was more accurate than the traditional prognostic signature, which is based on gene expression by comparison of area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) values. The infiltration proportion of B cells, CD8 T lymphocytes, activated natural killer cells, and M1 macrophages in the low-risk group was greater in the high-risk group, while the infiltration proportion of M0 and M2 macrophages was greater in the high-risk group.

Conclusions

In this study, a novel approach was proposed for evaluating HCC prognosis, which may be useful in evaluatingthe intensity of the immune response in the HCC microenvironment.

A robust nine-gene prognostic signature associated with tumour doubling time for hepatocellular carcinoma

BACKGROUND

Tumour doubling time (TDT) is an indicator reflecting tumour growth rate, however, the prognostic genes associated with the TDT in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have not been fully identified.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We obtained mRNA expression profiles and tumour doubling time from GSE54236 and used the Pearson correlation test to identify tumour doubling time-related genes (TDTRGs). We extracted TDTRGs from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and identified prognostic genes using univariate Cox regression analysis and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. Lasso and multivariate Cox regression analysis assisted in constructing the signature and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) served as an external validation.

RESULTS

We identified a total of 296 genes associated with tumour doubling time and developed a prognostic signature consisting of 9 genes. Patients were divided into high- and low-risk groups according to the uniform cutoff (0.85). Regardless of the clinical characteristics of the patients, the group at high risk exhibited obviously lower overall survival (OS) than did the group with low risk in both TCGA and ICGC cohorts. The prognostic model showed superior accuracy in both TCGA and ICGC cohorts, as confirmed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. The univariate together with multivariate Cox regression analysis further suggested the ability of the signature to predict prognosis independently.

CONCLUSION

A novel prognostic signature for HCC was developed and validated in the study, which may be beneficial to improve the treatment strategy of HCC.

Study on the characteristics and mechanism of pulsed laser cleaning of polyacrylate resin coating on aluminum alloy substrates

The behavior of paint removal with a pulsed laser has been investigated using an Nd:YAG fiber laser. Experimental and theoretical analyses are conducted to reveal the underlying mechanism of the paint removal. The results show that the depth, radius, and volume of the pit formed by a single pulse become larger with increases in the energy density. The ideal parameters for the complete removal of paint have been achieved. During the paint removal, burning occurred over the surface, and the variation in element content has been attributed to the absorption of laser energy. Under the action of the pulsed laser, there was breakage and rearrangement of chemical bonds such as C-C, C-N, and C-O in the molecular chain of the polyacrylate paint coating. Through these analyses, the paint removal mechanism was shown to be based on chemical bond breakage, combustion, and mechanical action provided by the thermal expansion and plasma shock.

Enriched high‑throughput reverse transcription‑quantitative PCR template preparation without pre‑amplification

A cDNA template with a high concentration is required to generate a high number of copies for accurate downstream high‑throughput reverse transcription‑quantitative PCR screening. However, with the traditional method, pre‑amplification is not widely available. In the present study, a novel strategy to resolve the pre‑amplification limitation has been developed. Total RNA was extracted using a commercially available RNeasy Micro kit then, the cDNA was synthesized using SuperScript® III First‑Strand Synthesis system. PCR inhibitors (proteins and soluble salt ions) in the enriched cDNA were removed using saturated phenol‑chloroform extraction. Finally, genes were evaluated using PCR amplification and the BioMark™ HD system. The positive detection rate of individual target gene expression reached 70.18%; however, it markedly decreased to 35.42% using PCR amplification without prior dilution. Next, the reverse transcription product was purified using saturated phenol‑chloroform extraction, and the positive detection rate increased to 97.04%. Notably, the positive detection rate of cDNA prepared using this method of high‑throughput and traditional PCR (97.04 vs. 96.6%) was not significantly different. In conclusion, the results demonstrate the novel method was an easy and reproducible method for performing robust and highly accurate targeted amplification.

Targeting NLRP3 Inflammasome Reduces Age-Related Experimental Alveolar Bone Loss

The cause of chronic inflammatory periodontitis, which leads to the destruction of periodontal ligament and alveolar bone, is multifactorial. An increasing number of studies have shown the clinical significance of NLRP3-mediated low-grade inflammation in degenerative disorders, but its causal linkage to age-related periodontitis has not yet been elucidated. In this study, we investigated the involvement of the NLRP3 inflammasome and the therapeutic potential of NLRP3 inhibition in age-related alveolar bone loss by using in vivo and in vitro models. The poor quality of alveolar bones in aged mice was correlated with caspase-1 activation by macrophages and elevated levels of IL-1β, which are mainly regulated by the NLRP3 inflammasome, in periodontal ligament and serum, respectively. Aged mice lacking Nlrp3 showed better bone mass than age-matched wild-type mice via a way that affects bone resorption rather than bone formation. In line with this finding, treatment with MCC950, a potent inhibitor of the NLRP3 inflammasome, significantly suppressed alveolar bone loss with reduced caspase-1 activation in aged mice but not in young mice. In addition, our in vitro studies showed that the addition of IL-1β encourages RANKL-induced osteoclastogenesis from bone marrow-derived macrophages and that treatment with MCC950 significantly suppresses osteoclastic differentiation directly, irrelevant to the inhibition of IL-1β production. Our results suggest that the NLRP3 inflammasome is a critical mediator in age-related alveolar bone loss and that targeting the NLRP3 inflammasome could be a novel option for controlling periodontal degenerative changes with age.

1057 Evaluating Differences In Upper Airway Anatomy Between Diabetic And Non-diabetic OSA Patients

Introduction

Studies show that OSA is linked to impaired glucose tolerance, insulin resistance, and the onset of diabetes. We hypothesized that diabetic OSA patients will have higher apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) values than OSA patients without diabetes after adjusting for age and body mass index (BMI) and that this difference can be explained through increases in upper airway structures between diabetic and non-diabetic OSA patients.

Methods

This study evaluated differences in upper airway and craniofacial dimensions and volume of the pharyngeal soft tissues between diabetic and non-diabetic patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Airway sizes, soft tissue volumes and craniofacial dimensions were quantified using three-dimensional MRI in OSA patients without diabetes (n=237) and OSA patients with diabetes (n=64). Comparisons in upper airway measures among diabetics and non-diabetics were performed using linear regression models controlling for age, sex, BMI, race, and AHI.

Results

Among study participants, diabetic OSA patients were older than non-diabetic OSA patients (54.2±10.1 vs. 47.3±11.1 years; p&lt;0.0001). No significant differences were found between diabetic and non-diabetic OSA patients with respect to BMI (39.8±7.0 vs. 38.4±8.8 kg/m2; p=0.207) or AHI (45.0±31.0 vs. 38.8±27.8 events/hour; p=0.154). In covariate adjusted models, non-diabetic OSA patients also had smaller RP minimum airway area (adjusted difference [95% CI] = -3119 [-5359, 879] mm2; p=0.0066) and RP minimum AP distance (-16.0 mm [-29.6, -2.5]; p=0.021) compared to diabetic OSA patients. No differences were observed in soft tissue volumes or craniofacial dimensions.

Conclusion

While diabetics had higher average AHI, we observed no significant differences in AHI between diabetic and non-diabetic patients with sleep apnea. In general, upper airway anatomy was similar between diabetic and non-diabetics apneics, controlling for demographic factors and AHI. Future studies should examine dynamic changes, in addition to static upper airway anatomy, in diabetic and non-diabetics apneics.

Support

 

Detailed studies on the anticancer action of rosmarinic acid in human Hep-G2 liver carcinoma cells: evaluating its effects on cellular apoptosis, caspase activation and suppression of cell migration and invasion

PURPOSE

Liver cancer is one of the most common and highly malignant cancers of the digestive system. The main aim of the present research work was to investigate the anticancer action of rosmarinic acid - a naturally occurring plant secondary metabolite. We also investigated its effects on cell apoptosis, caspase activation, cell migration and cell invasion.

METHODS

Cell viability of Hep-G2 liver cancer cells was evaluated by CCK-8 assay while apoptotic studies were carried out by fluorescence microscopy using Hoechst, acridine orange (AO)/ethidium bromide (EB) and Comet assays as well as using annexin-v/propidium iodide (PI) assay for apoptosis quantification. Western blot assay was used to study the effects of rosmarinic acid on apoptosis-related protein expressions including Bax, Bcl-2 and various caspases. In vitro wound healing assay was used to evaluate the effects on cell migration while transwell chambers assay with Matrigel was used to assess the effects of rosmarinic acid on cell invasion.

RESULTS

Rosmarinic acid caused significant reduction in the viability of the human Hep-G2 liver carcinoma cells in a dose-dependent manner, exhibiting an IC50 of 14 µM in cancer cells. The AO/EB staining assay showed that rosmarinic acid suppressed the viability of cancer cells via induction of apoptotic cell death which was associated with rise in Bax and decrease in Bcl-2 levels. DAPI staining results also confirmed that rosmarinic acid induced apoptosis. The apoptotic cells increased from 5.8% in control to 24.68% at 28 µM concentration of rosmarinic acid. Rosmarinic acid also caused activation of caspase-3 and 9 along with suppressing liver cancer cell migration and invasion.

CONCLUSIONS

The current study shows that rosmarinic acid has a potential to inhibit in vitro cancer cell growth in Hep-G2 cells by triggering apoptosis, caspase activation and suppressing cell migration and invasion and as such this molecule could be developed as a possible anticancer agent provided further studies are carried out.

The association between genomic variations and histological grade in hepatocellular carcinoma

Background

Histological grade (HG) is an important prognostic factor for hepatocellular carcinoma. With the development of precision medicine, diagnosis with a sequencing technology has become increasingly accepted. It is vital to discuss their similarities and differences to bridge or improve the traditional HG diagnosis with the novel sequencing technique.

Methods

A total of 658 tumor samples were collected from 602 Chinese hepatocellular carcinoma patients and sequenced for a panel of pan-cancer genes. Nucleotide usage bias, genomic variation-related scores, driver genes, and biological processes were compared among different HGs. These results were further verified using a cohort dataset from the Western population.

Results

Genomic variation subtypes, such as C>G substitution, maximum somatic allele frequency (MSAF), and TP53, and biological processes including “angiogenesis” and “regulation of homotypic cell-cell adhesion” were found to be significantly associated with HG in both Chinese and Western populations.

Conclusions

The association identified between genomic variation and HG could aid our understanding of HG as an important clinical measure, and potentially be used to predict HG for hepatocellular carcinoma.

The acute phase protein orosomucoid 1 is upregulated in early lactation but does not trigger appetite-suppressing STAT3 signaling via the leptin receptor

Dairy cows consume inadequate amounts of feed in early lactation and during conditions and diseases such as excessive fatness, heat stress, and infectious diseases. Affected cows often experience increases in plasma concentrations of acute phase proteins consistent with the negative effect of inflammation on appetite. The acute phase protein orosomucoid 1 (ORM1), also known as alpha-1-acid glycoprotein, was recently reported to reduce appetite in the mouse through its ability to bind the full-length leptin receptor (Ob-Rb) and activate appetite-suppressing signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling. These observations raise the possibility that ORM1 exerts appetite-suppressing effects in dairy cattle during periods of increased inflammatory tone. The applicability of this model was assessed in 2 ways. First, we asked whether ORM1 is regulated during periods of inadequate appetite such as the transition from late pregnancy to early lactation and periods of increased inflammatory tone. Plasma ORM1 was invariant in late pregnancy but increased 2.5-fold between parturition and d 7 of lactation. Gene expression studies showed that liver was the major source of this elevation with little contribution by adipose tissue or mammary gland. Additional studies showed that plasma ORM1 was not increased further by excessive fatness or by reproductive dysfunction in early lactation and was completely unresponsive to inflammatory stimuli such as heat stress or intravascular administration of the endotoxin lipopolysaccharide during established lactation. Second, we tested the ability of ORM1 to trigger STAT3 signaling through Ob-Rb using Chinese hamster ovary K1 (CHO-K1) cells transfected with a STAT3 expression plasmid. In this configuration, CHO-K1 cells did not express Ob-Rb and were incapable of leptin-induced STAT3 phosphorylation. Leptin responsiveness was conferred by co-transfecting with bovine Ob-Rb, with leptin causing increases of 5.7-fold in STAT3 phosphorylation and 2.1-fold in the expression of the STAT3-dependent gene, SOCS3. In contrast, neither bovine or human ORM1 triggered STAT3 phosphorylation irrespective of dose and period of incubation tested. In summary, bovine ORM1 is not increased during periods of increased inflammatory tone except in early lactation and is incapable of Ob-Rb-dependent STAT3 signaling. Overall, these data are inconsistent with ORM1 mediating the appetite-suppressing effects of inflammation in cattle through Ob-Rb.

Effects of donor-recipient combinational CYP3A5 genotypes on tacrolimus dosing in Chinese DDLT adult recipients

BACKGROUND

For liver transplant (LT) recipients, the liver CYP3A5 metabolic enzymes are determined by the donor's genes, whereas the intestinal enzymes are encoded by the recipient's genes. This combinational form confuses the metabolism of tacrolimus (Tac) in vivo. This retrospective study was conducted to investigate the combined effects of donor-recipient CYP3A5 genotype on tacrolimus pharmacokinetics in Chinese LT adult patients.

METHODS

Three hundred seventy-three LT patients from two Chinese organ transplant centers were enrolled, and both recipients and donors were genotyped for CYP3A5. Patients were divided into four groups (R_ND_N, R_ED_N, R_ND_E, R_ED_E) according to CYP3A5*3 allele expressers (E) and non-expressers (N) in recipients (R) and donors (D). The dose-adjusted trough levels (C/D ratio) of tacrolimus were assessed for six months among the four groups. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed to assess the effects of the CYP3A5 genotype and several clinical variables on the C/D ratio.

RESULTS

The R_ND_N group consistently had the largest C/D ratio throughout the entire study period, whereas the R_ED_E group had the smallest C/D ratio, and the R_ED_N/R_ND_E group had an intermediate (R_ND_N > R_ED_N/R_ND_E > R_ED_E) ratio. The C/D ratio in the R_ND_N and R_ND_E groups was higher than that in the R_ED_N and R_ED_E groups within three months, respectively; the ratio in the R_ND_N group was higher than that in the R_ND_E group, and the ratio in the R_ED_N group was higher than that in the R_ED_E group at six months. The effect of the donor CYP3A5 genotype on C/D values was observed throughout the timeline, and the recipient's genetics correlated only in the first three months. Among non-genetic factors, hemoglobin (HGB) and albumin (ALB) were correlated with Tac C/D values at a few time points.

CONCLUSIONS

To predict the initial dose of tacrolimus in LT patients, both donor and recipient CYP3A5 genotypes must be taken into account; during the maintenance phase of targeted blood concentration, the donor's CYP3A5 genotype may be of prime importance, especially at three months after transplantation.

circPCNX and Pecanex Promote Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cell Viability by Inhibiting miR-506

Introduction

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant cancers, while the molecular mechanism is not clear. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a class of naturally occurring endogenous noncoding RNAs that prove to play important roles in the occurrence, development and prognosis of HCC. In this study, we focused on an abnormally expressed circular RNA-circPCNX in HCC and study the function of circPCNX and Pecanex (PCNX) in HCC.

Methods

Circular RNA sequencing was used to find the abnormally expressed circRNAs and qRT-PCR was used to verify it. CCK8 assay, colony formation assay and cell apoptosis assay were used to study biological functions, and Luciferase reporter assay and Western blot analysis were used to study the mechanism.

Results

We observed that circPCNX and Pecanex were significantly upregulated in tumor tissues of patients with HCC and correlated with clinicopathological variables or prognosis of HCC patients. Functional investigations showed circPCNX and Pecanex could promote the viability of HCC cells. Mechanistic investigations suggested that both circPCNX and Pecanex 3'UTR could bind to miR-506 and subsequently inhibited the miR-506-induced anticarcinogenic effect in HCC.

Conclusion

Our study revealed the function of circPCNX and Pecanex in promoting HCC progression and acting as biomarkers in the clinical estimate and treatment of HCC.

MicroRNA-370 functions as a tumor suppressor in hepatocellular carcinoma via inhibition of the MAPK/JNK signaling pathway by targeting BEX2

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a primary malignancy of the liver and occurs predominantly in patients with underlying chronic liver disease and cirrhosis. Accumulating studies have revealed that microRNAs (miRNAs) play a critical role in the development and progression of HCC. Through microarray-based gene expression profiling of HCC, miR-370, and BEX2 were identified in HCC. Hence, this study aimed to evaluate their abilities on the cellular processes in HCC. It was determined that BEX2 was highly expressed and miR-370 was poorly expressed in HCC cell lines and tissues. Then, the cell line presenting with the highest BEX2 expression and the lowest miR-370 expression was selected for subsequent gain- and loss-of-function experimentation. The antitumor effect of miR-370 on HCC cell proliferation, invasion, migration, and apoptosis, as well as the MAPK/JNK signaling pathway was examined. Meanwhile, the interaction among miR-370, BEX2, and MAPK/JNK signaling pathway was identified. BEX2 is verified to be a target of miR-370. Moreover, miR-370 exerted antitumor effect on HCC development through suppression of the MAPK/JNK signaling pathway by targeting BEX2. Later, it was further verified by in vivo experiment that overexpression of miR-370 inhibited tumor growth. Above results provide evidence that miR-370 could downregulate BEX2 gene and inhibit activation of MAPK/JNK signaling pathway, thus inhibiting the development of HCC. It provides a worth-trying novel therapeutic target for HCC treatment.