Associations between polymorphisms of the ACYP2 gene and Liver cancer risk: A case-control study and meta-analysis

A novel 16-gene alternative mRNA splicing signature predicts tumor relapse and indicates immune activity in stage I–III hepatocellular carcinoma

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a lethal disease with high relapse and dismal survival rates. Alternative splicing (AS) plays a crucial role in tumor progression. Herein, we aim to integratedly analyze the relapse-associated AS events and construct a signature predicting tumor relapse in stage I–III HCC.

Methods: AS events of stage I–III HCC with tumor relapse or long-term relapse-free survival were profiled to identify the relapse-associated AS events. A splicing network was set up to analyze the correlation between the relapse-associated AS events and splicing factors. Cox regression analysis and receiver operating characteristic curve were performed to develop and validate the relapse-predictive AS signature. Single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) and the ESTIMATE algorithm were used to assess the immune infiltration status of the HCC microenvironment between different risk subgroups. Unsupervised cluster analysis was conducted to assess the relationship between molecular subtypes and local immune status and clinicopathological features.

Results: In total, 2441 ASs derived from 1634 mRNA were identified as relapse-associated AS events. By analyzing the proteins involved in the relapse-associated AS events, 1573 proteins with 11590 interactions were included in the protein–protein interaction (PPI) network. In total, 16 splicing factors and 61 relapse-associated AS events with 85 interactions were involved in the splicing network. The relevant genes involved in the PPI network and splicing network were also analyzed by Gene Ontology enrichment analysis. Finally, we established a robust 16-gene AS signature for predicting tumor relapse in stage I–III HCC with considerable AUC values in all of the training cohort, testing cohort, and entire cohort. The ssGSEA and ESTIMATE analyses showed that the AS signature was significantly associated with the immune status of the HCC microenvironment. Moreover, four molecular subgroups with distinguishing tumor relapse modes and local immune status were also revealed.

Conclusion: Our study built a novel 16-gene AS signature that robustly predicts tumor relapse and indicates immune activity in stage I–III HCC, which may facilitate the deep mining of the mechanisms associated with tumor relapse and tumor immunity and the development of novel individualized treatment targets for HCC.

The Effect of 5A nursing intervention on living quality and self-care efficacy of patients undergoing chemotherapy after hepatocellular carcinoma surgery

OBJECTIVES

This paper explored and analyzed the effect of 5A nursing intervention on living quality and self-care efficacy of patients undergoing postoperative chemotherapy after hepatocellular carcinoma surgery.

METHODS

A total of 97 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma hospitalized from March 2017 to June 2019 were chosen as subjects and separated to the control group (n=47) and observation group (n=50) based on the admission time. The control-group received a conventional nursing care mode, and the observation-group was given the 5A nursing care mode in addition to the conventional care mode in the control group. Self-care efficacy, SF-36 quality of life, cancer-related fatigue degree and satisfaction with nursing work of patients pre- and post-intervention were compared between the two groups.

RESULTS

The self-care efficacy of the two groups post-intervention was critically higher than during pre-intervention (P<0.05), and the index of the observation group was significantly higher than that of the control group (P<0.05). The scores in each dimension of life quality in both groups after intervention were remarkably higher than those for pre-intervention (P<0.05), and the index in observation group was notably higher than that in the control group (P<0.05). Cancer-related fatigue degree of the two groups of patients during post-intervention was critically higher than those in pre-intervention (P<0.05), while during post-intervention, the index in control group was notably higher than in observation group (P<0.05). The satisfaction degree of nursing skills, service attitude, health training and hospital condition in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P<0.05).

CONCLUSION

The model of 5A nursing intervention can ameliorate the self-care efficacy and living quality of patients undergoing chemotherapy after hepatocellular carcinoma surgery. The intervention can also help alleviate cancer-related fatigue during treatment, and improve the satisfaction degree of patients with nursing care, which is worthy of clinical promotion and application.

Associations between polymorphisms of the ACYP2 gene and Liver cancer risk: A case-control study and meta-analysis

Background

ACYP2 gene may be involved in the process of telomere shortening which may be involved in the liver cancer. So, this research was to examine whether the ACYP2 gene polymorphism has impact on the risk of liver cancer in Chinese population.

Methods

Two hundred and fifty cirrhosis patients and 248 liver cancer patients were selected. Unconditional logistic regression was to calculate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Analyze the relationship between ACYP2 gene polymorphism and tumor using meta‐analysis. Analyze the expression of ACYP2 gene in liver cancer and its influence on the prognosis of liver cancer by databases (Ualcan, GTEX and Kaplan–Meier plotter).

Results

In the allele model, ACYP2 rs843720 was protection against the occurrence of cirrhosis developed into liver cancer (OR = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.58–0.99, p = 0.04). Rs1682111 and rs843720 play a protective role in the additive model (rs1682111: OR = 0.69, 95% CI: 0.52–0.93, p = 0.01; rs843720: OR = 0.73, 95% CI: 0.54–0.98, p = 0.04).While rs843645 G allele increased the risk of cirrhosis developed into liver cancer under the additive model (OR = 1.42, 95% CI: 1.02–2.00, p = 0.04).The haplotype analysis detected that “ATATCGCC” decreased the risk of cirrhosis developed into liver cancer (OR = 0.69, 95% CI: 0.51–0.92, 95% CI: p = 0.013); however, “TGAGCGTC” increased the risk of cirrhosis developed into liver cancer (OR = 1.48, 95% CI: 1.04–2.10, p = 0.027). Meta‐analysis shown that ACYP2 rs1682111 was associated with the risk of cancer (OR = 0.90, 95% CI: 0.78–1.05, p = 0.02). ACYP2 gene high expression was found to be associated with better OS for all liver patients.

Conclusion

Based on this research, we surmised that ACYP2 gene may be involved in the occurrence of liver cancer in Chinese populations.