Dysregulation of FURIN by prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2 in lung epithelial NCI-H292 cells

The possible role furin and furin inhibitors in endometrial adenocarcinoma: A narrative review

BACKGROUND

Endometrial adenocarcinoma (EAC) is a malignant tumor of the endometrium. EAC is the most common female malignancy following the menopause period. About 40% of patients with EAC are linked with obesity and interrelated with hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and high circulating estrogen levels. Proprotein convertase (PC) furin was involved in the progression of EAC.

RECENT FINDINGS

Furin is a protease enzyme belonging to the subtilisin PC family called PC subtilisin/kexin type 3 that converts precursor proteins to biologically active forms and products. Aberrant activation of furin promotes abnormal cell proliferation and the development of cancer. Furin promotes angiogenesis, malignant cell proliferation, and tissue invasion by malignant cells through its pro-metastatic and oncogenic activities. Furin activity is correlated with the malignant proliferation of EAC. Higher expression of furin may increase the development of EAC through overexpression of pro-renin receptors and disintegrin and metalloprotease 17 (ADAM17). As well, inflammatory signaling in EAC promotes the expression of furin with further propagation of malignant transformation.

CONCLUSION

Furin is associated with the development and progression of EAC through the induction of proliferation, invasion, and metastasis of malignant cells of EAC. Furin induces ontogenesis in EAC through activation expression of ADAM17, pro-renin receptor, CD109, and TGF-β. As well, EAC-mediated inflammation promotes the expression of furin with further propagation of neoplastic growth and invasion.

Identification and validation of a novel phagocytosis regulators-related signature with potential prognostic and immunotherapeutic value in patients with lung adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND

Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is a malignant tumor that seriously affects the prognosis of patients. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) play a vital role in the tumor microenvironment and can be used as a potential target for tumor therapy, and phagocytosis regulators (PRs) are particularly important in this process. However, the PRs-related signature that can predict the potential prognostic and immunotherapeutic value in patients with LUAD has not been discovered.

METHODS

In this study, we mainly analyzed the effect of phagocytosis regulators on the prognosis of LUAD, and based on multiple screening analyses including differential analysis, univariate Cox analysis, and Lasso analysis, we constructed a prognostic risk model consisting of five genes. To verify the stability of the model, survival analysis and ROC curve verification were carried out through multiple data sets. In addition, we also combined many factors, such as immune infiltrating cells, clinical grouping characteristics, immune examination sites, pro-inflammatory factors, and other factors as well as in vitro cell experiments and clinical tissue samples for further validation analysis.

RESULTS

After identifying 29 differentially expressed PRs in LUAD samples, we further constructed a prognostic model consisting of five prognostic signatures (FURIN, KIF23, SASH3, GNPNAT1, and ITGAL). Further survival analysis tests, ROC verification, as well as univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that the risk score of the model could well predict the prognosis of LUAD patients and could be used as an independent prognostic factor. In addition, we further found that these phagocytic regulators-related signatures were closely related to the immune microenvironment and immunotherapy in LUAD patients, and could well predict the efficacy of immunotherapy in patients. In vitro cell experiments and Immunohistochemistry of clinical tissues showed that the expressions of FURIN, KIF23, SASH3, GNPNAT1 and ITGAL in normal lung cells/tissues and LUAD cells/tissues were consistent with bioinformatics results, and 3 of them had significant differences.

CONCLUSION

Our study identified a novel PRs-related signature that has potential application value in predicting the prognosis of LUAD patients and predicting the efficacy of immunotherapy. This provides a new basis for the prognosis assessment of LUAD patients and provides a novel target for immunotherapy of LUAD patients.

DNA methylation in nasal epithelium, atopy, and atopic asthma in children: a genome-wide study

BACKGROUND

Epigenetic mechanisms could alter the airway epithelial barrier and ultimately lead to atopic diseases such as asthma. We aimed to identify DNA methylation profiles that are associated with-and could accurately classify-atopy and atopic asthma in school-aged children.

METHODS

We did a genome-wide study of DNA methylation in nasal epithelium and atopy or atopic asthma in 483 Puerto Rican children aged 9-20 years, recruited using multistage probability sampling. Atopy was defined as at least one positive IgE (≥0·35 IU/mL) to common aeroallergens, and asthma was defined as a physician's diagnosis plus wheeze in the previous year. Significant (false discovery rate p<0·01) methylation signals were correlated with gene expression, and top CpGs were validated by pyrosequencing. We then replicated our top methylation findings in a cohort of 72 predominantly African American children, and in 432 children from a European birth cohort. Next, we tested classification models based on nasal methylation for atopy or atopic asthma in all cohorts.

FINDINGS

DNA methylation profiles were markedly different between children with (n=312) and without (n=171) atopy in the Puerto Rico discovery cohort, recruited from Feb 12, 2014, until May 8, 2017. After adjustment for covariates and multiple testing, we found 8664 differentially methylated CpGs by atopy, with false discovery rate-adjusted p values ranging from 9·58 × 10^-17 to 2·18 × 10^-22 for the top 30 CpGs. These CpGs were in or near genes relevant to epithelial barrier function, including CDHR3 and CDH26, and in other genes related to airway epithelial integrity and immune regulation, such as FBXL7, NTRK1, and SLC9A3. Moreover, 28 of the top 30 CpGs replicated in the same direction in both independent cohorts. Classification models of atopy based on nasal methylation performed well in the Puerto Rico cohort (area under the curve [AUC] 0·93-0·94 and accuracy 85-88%) and in both replication cohorts (AUC 0·74-0·92, accuracy 68-82%). The models also performed well for atopic asthma in the Puerto Rico cohort (AUC 0·95-1·00, accuracy 88%) and the replication cohorts (AUC 0·82-0·88, accuracy 86%).

INTERPRETATION

We identified specific methylation profiles in airway epithelium that are associated with atopy and atopic asthma in children, and a nasal methylation panel that could classify children by atopy or atopic asthma. Our findings support the feasibility of using the nasal methylome for future clinical applications, such as predicting the development of asthma among wheezing infants.

FUNDING

US National Institutes of Health.

The proprotein convertase furin in tumour progression

Proprotein convertases are proteases that have been implicated in the activation of a wide variety of proteins. These proteins are generally synthesised as precursor proteins and require limited proteolysis for conversion into their mature bioactive counterparts. Many of these proteins, including metalloproteases, growth factors and their receptors or adhesion molecules, have been shown to facilitate tumour formation and progression. Hence, this review will focus on the proprotein convertase furin and its role in cancer. The expression of furin has been confirmed in a large spectrum of cancers such as head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, breast cancer and rhabdomyosarcoma. Functional studies modulating furin activity uncovered its importance for the processing of many cancer-related substrates and strongly indicate that high furin activity promotes the malignant phenotype of cancer cells. In this review, we summarise the expression and function of furin in different cancer types, discuss its role in processing cancer-related proproteins and give examples of potential therapeutic approaches that take advantage of the proteolytic activity of furin in cancer cells.

Pathway-related molecules of VEGFC/D-VEGFR3/NRP2 axis in tumor lymphangiogenesis and lymphatic metastasis

Precondition for tumor lymphatic metastasis is that tumor cells induce formation of original and newborn lymphatic vessels and invade surrounding lymphatic vessels in tumor stroma, while some pathway-related molecules play an important role in mechanisms associated with proliferation and migration of lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs) and tumor cells. In lymphangiogenesis and lymphatic metastasis, the pathway-related molecules of VEGFC/D-VEGFR3/NRP2 axis, such as Furin-like enzyme, CNTN1, Prox1, LYVE-1, Podoplanin, SOX18, SDF1 and CXCR4, are direct constitutors as a portion of VEGFC/D-VEGFR3/NRP2 axis, and their biological activities rely on this ligand-receptor system. These axis-related signal molecules could gradually produce waterfall-like cascading effects, mediate differentiation and maturation of LECs, remodel original and neonatal lymphatic vessels, as well as ultimately promote tumor cell chemotaxis, migration, invasion and metastasis to lymphoid tracts. This review summarizes the structure and function features of pathway-related molecules of VEGFC/D-VEGFR3/NRP2 axis, the expression changes of these molecules in different anatomic organs or histopathologic types or development stages of various tumors, the characteristics of transduction, implementation, integration of signal networks, the interactive effects on biological behaviors between tumor cells and lymphatic endothelial cells, and their molecular mechanisms and significances in tumor lymphangiogenesis and lymphatic metastasis.