The overexpression of GRASP might inhibit cell proliferation and invasion in hepatocellular carcinoma

Early detection and prognosis evaluation for hepatocellular carcinoma by circulating tumour DNA methylation: A multicentre cohort study

BACKGROUND

Early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) can significantly improve patient survival. We aimed to develop a blood-based assay to aid in the diagnosis, detection and prognostic evaluation of HCC.

METHODS

A three-phase multicentre study was conducted to screen, optimise and validate HCC-specific differentially methylated regions (DMRs) using next-generation sequencing and quantitative methylation-specific PCR (qMSP).

RESULTS

Genome-wide methylation profiling was conducted to identify DMRs distinguishing HCC tumours from peritumoural tissues and healthy plasmas. The twenty most effective DMRs were verified and incorporated into a multilocus qMSP assay (HepaAiQ). The HepaAiQ model was trained to separate 293 HCC patients (Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stage 0/A, 224) from 266 controls including chronic hepatitis B (CHB) or liver cirrhosis (LC) (CHB/LC, 96), benign hepatic lesions (BHL, 23), and healthy controls (HC, 147). The model achieved an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.944 with a sensitivity of 86.0% in HCC and a specificity of 92.1% in controls. Blind validation of the HepaAiQ model in a cohort of 523 participants resulted in an AUC of 0.940 with a sensitivity of 84.4% in 205 HCC cases (BCLC stage 0/A, 167) and a specificity of 90.3% in 318 controls (CHB/LC, 100; BHL, 102; HC, 116). When evaluated in an independent test set, the HepaAiQ model exhibited a sensitivity of 70.8% in 65 HCC patients at BCLC stage 0/A and a specificity of 89.5% in 124 patients with CHB/LC. Moreover, HepaAiQ model was assessed in paired pre- and postoperative plasma samples from 103 HCC patients and correlated with 2-year patient outcomes. Patients with high postoperative HepaAiQ score showed a higher recurrence risk (Hazard ratio, 3.33, p < .001).

CONCLUSIONS

HepaAiQ, a noninvasive qMSP assay, was developed to accurately measure HCC-specific DMRs and shows great potential for the diagnosis, detection and prognosis of HCC, benefiting at-risk populations.

A novel strategy for the diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, and chemoresistance of hepatocellular carcinoma: DNA methylation

The cancer mortality rate of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second highest in the world and the therapeutic options are limited. The incidence of this deadly cancer is rising at an alarming rate because of the high degree of resistance to chemo- and radiotherapy, lack of proper, and adequate vaccination to hepatitis B, and lack of consciousness and knowledge about the disease itself and the lifestyle of the people. DNA methylation and DNA methylation-induced epigenetic alterations, due to their potential reversibility, open the access to develop novel biomarkers and therapeutics for HCC. The contribution to these epigenetic changes in HCC development still has not been thoroughly summarized. Thus, it is necessary to better understand the new molecular targets of HCC epigenetics in HCC diagnosis, prevention, and treatment. This review elaborates on recent key findings regarding molecular biomarkers for HCC early diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. Currently emerging epigenetic drugs for the treatment of HCC are summarized. In addition, combining epigenetic drugs with nonepigenetic drugs for HCC treatment is also mentioned. The molecular mechanisms of DNA methylation-mediated HCC resistance are reviewed, providing some insights into the difficulty of treating liver cancer and anticancer drug development.

Effect of CELSR3 on the Cell Cycle and Apoptosis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells

Cadherin EGF LAG seven-pass G-type receptor 3 (CELSR3) has been reported in cancers but its role and potential molecular mechanism in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is unclear. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the clinical value and molecular mechanism of CELSR3 in HCC using an in vitro experiment, a meta-analysis and bioinformatics. The in vitro experiment determined the promoting effect of CELSR3 in the proliferation, invasion, and migration of HCC cells. CELSR3 knockout causes S-phage arrest in HCC cells. CELSR3 can also inhibit the apoptosis of HCC cells. The expression of the CELSR3 gene and protein was significantly elevated in HCC. Elevated CELSR3 was correlated to the bigger tumor size, higher pathological stage, and the worse overall survival of HCC. Methylation analysis revealed that the hypomethylation of CELSR3 regulated by DNMT1, DNMT3A, and DNMT3B may be the underlying mechanism of upregulated CELSR3. Biological enrichment analysis uncovered that the cell cycle, DNA replication, and PI3K-Akt signaling pathways were important pathways regulated by CELSR3 and its co-expressed genes in HCC. Taken together, upregulated CELSR3 is an important regulator in the progression and prognosis of HCC. The hypomethylation of CELSR3 and its regulation in the cell cycle may be the potential molecular mechanism in HCC.

Bioinformatic analysis of the prognostic value and potential regulatory network of FOXF1 in papillary thyroid cancer

FOXF1 belongs to the forkhead family of transcription factors. In this study, we aimed to explore the expression profile of FOXF1 in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) and corresponding adjacent normal tissues, by using data from The Cancer Genome Atlas-Thyroid Cancer (TCGA-THCA) and The Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project. Also, we studied its prognostic significance in PTC and its potential regulatory network. Results showed that FOXF1 expression was significantly lower in PTC tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues. Subgroup analysis only confirmed the downregulation in classical histological variant, but not in tall-cell and follicular variants. FOXF1 downregulation was associated with advanced T stages, positive nodal invasion, and advanced pathological stages of the classical variants. FOXF1 expression might be a fair prognostic marker in terms of recurrence, which independently predicted favorable RFS (HR:0.114, 95%CI: 0.045-0.289, p < .001). We examined FOXF1 somatic mutations, gene-level copy number alterations (CNAs) and the methylation status of 57 CpG sites in more than 350 classical PTC cases. However, no expression-related genetic and epigenetic alterations were identified. Based on 20,048 genes with RNA-seq data, we identified 16 genes that showed strongly positive co-expression (Pearson's r ≥ 0.6) with FOXF1. Available evidence showed that some of the genes have well-characterized tumor suppressive effects. We hypothesized that some of these genes might be the upstream regulators or downstream effectors of FOXF1 in classical PTC. In conclusion, FOXF1 mRNA was typically downregulated in classical PTC. Its expression might be a specific and independent prognostic biomarker in terms of RFS in classical PTC patients.