S100P acts as a target of miR-495 in pancreatic cancer through bioinformatics analysis and experimental verification

MicroRNA-495: a therapeutic and diagnostic tumor marker

Therapeutic and diagnostic progresses have significantly reduced the mortality rate among cancer patients during the last decade. However, there is still a high rate of mortality among cancer patients. One of the important reasons involved in the high mortality rate is the late diagnosis in advanced tumor stages that causes the failure of therapeutic strategies in these patients. Therefore, investigating the molecular mechanisms involved in tumor progression has an important role in introducing the efficient early detection markers. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) as stable factors in body fluids are always considered as non-invasive diagnostic and prognostic markers. In the present review, we investigated the role of miR-495 in tumor progression. It has been reported that miR-495 has mainly a tumor suppressor function through the regulation of transcription factors and tyrosine kinases as well as cellular processes such as multidrug resistance, chromatin remodeling, and signaling pathways. This review can be an effective step towards introducing the miR-495 as a non-invasive diagnostic/prognostic marker as well as a suitable target in tumor therapy.

Screening of Therapeutic Targets for Pancreatic Cancer by Bioinformatics Methods

Pancreatic cancer (PC) has the lowest survival rate and the highest mortality rate among all cancers due to lack of effective treatments. The objective of the current study was to identify potential therapeutic targets in PC. Three transcriptome datasets, namely GSE62452, GSE46234, and GSE101448, were analyzed for differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between cancer and normal samples. Several bioinformatics methods, including functional analysis, pathway enrichment, hub genes, and drugs were used to screen therapeutic targets for PC. Fisher's exact test was used to analyze functional enrichments. To screen DEGs, the paired t-test was employed. The statistical significance was considered at p <0.05. Overall, 60 DEGs were detected. Functional enrichment analysis revealed enrichment of the DEGs in "multicellular organismal process", "metabolic process", "cell communication", and "enzyme regulator activity". Pathway analysis demonstrated that the DEGs were primarily related to "Glycolipid metabolism", "ECM-receptor interaction", and "pathways in cancer". Five hub genes were examined using the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. Among these hub genes, 10 known drugs targeted to the CPA1 gene and CLPS gene were found. Overall, CPA1 and CLPS genes, as well as candidate drugs, may be useful for PC in the future.

The Interaction Between Non-Coding RNAs and Calcium Binding Proteins

Calcium binding proteins (CBP) are a group of proteins mediating the effects of calcium on cellular functions. These proteins can regulate calcium levels inside the cells and contribute in several cellular functions through transporting this ion across cell membranes or decoding related signals. Recent studies have shown that several non-coding RNAs interact with CBPs to affect their expression or activity. The interactions between these transcripts and CBPs have implications in the pathoetiology of human disorders, including both neoplastic and non-neoplastic conditions. In the current review, we describe the interactions between three classes of non-coding RNAs (long non-coding RNAs, circular RNAs, and microRNAs) and a number of CBPs, particularly CAB39, S100A1, S100A4, S100A7 and S100P. This kind of interaction has been verified in different pathological contexts such as drug-induced cardiotoxicity, osteoblasts cytotoxicity, acute lung injury, myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury, proliferative diabetic retinopathy, glomerulonephritis, as well as a wide array of neoplastic conditions.