Prevalence of baseline chronic kidney disease in 2,769 Chinese patients with renal cancer: Nephron-sparing treatment is still underutilized

Meta-analysis of the Relationship between Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Renal Cancer Risk

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between type 2 diabetes mellitus and the risk of renal cancer.

METHODS

A search was carried out on PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, China Biology Medicine disc (CBM), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang and other databases. The search period was from 2000 to 2022. The two authors independently conducted literature screening, extracted literature data, and then conducted a literature quality evaluation. The type of study is a cohort study. Meta-analysis was carried out on the included literature through Stata12.0 software, and the combined value was calculated with RR value and 95% confidence interval. Subgroup analysis was carried out to explore the impact of different factors on the overall results.

RESULTS

A total of 10 articles were included. Through cohort study, the meta-analysis on the risk of type 2 diabetes and renal cancer showed that the combined effect value Risk Ratio (RR) = 1.57 with 95% Confidence Intervals (CI) (1.36, 1.82) and P<0.05. The difference had a significant impact, indicating that the risk of renal cancer in type 2 diabetes patients was 1.55 times higher than that in non-type 2 diabetes patients. The subgroup analysis showed that the combined effect value RR and 95% CI for men was 1.49 (1.26, 1.75), and the combined effect value RR and 95% CI for women was 1.60 (1.35, 1.88), which was basically consistent.

CONCLUSION

Type 2 diabetes can significantly increase the risk of renal cell carcinoma, and the former is a risk factor for the latter. It is suggested that multi-center studies with larger sample sizes should be conducted in the future, and adjustments should be made according to the type of diabetes, the source of the study population, the pathological type of renal cell carcinoma, the use of hypoglycemic drugs, and other factors, to provide a reliable basis for the study of the relationship between diabetes and renal cell carcinoma. At present, the specific mechanism of diabetes increasing the risk of renal cell carcinoma and whether diabetes increases mortality due to renal cell carcinoma is still unclear and needs further research.

Ursolic acid inhibits the invasiveness of A498 cells via NLRP3 inflammasome activation

Renal cell cancer is a common malignant tumor of the urinary system. Ursolic acid (UA) serves an important antitumor role in certain types of cancer, such as lung cancer, breast cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma; however, to the best of our knowledge, the effect of UA on renal cancer has not yet been investigated. In the present study, A498 cells were treated with different concentrations of UA for 12, 24 and 48 h, and then MCC950, an inhibitor of the NLR family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) receptor, was added to block NLRP3 signaling. The proliferation of A498 cells was analyzed using an MTS assay and invasiveness was analyzed using a Transwell assay. The expression levels of NLRP3, cleaved caspase-1, IL-1β and MMP-2 were detected using western blotting. The present results demonstrated that the invasiveness of A498 cells was significantly decreased following UA treatment (P<0.05), while expression levels of NLRP3, cleaved caspase-1 and IL-1β were significantly increased, and MMP-2 expression was decreased following UA stimulation (P<0.05). This was reversed by MCC950 treatment (P<0.05), with the exception of NLRP3. In conclusion, the present results indicated that UA exposure decreased the proliferation and invasiveness of A498 cells. Additionally, UA exposure significantly decreased MMP-2 production and induced the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome, which was reversed by MCC950 treatment, indicating that NLRP3 activation may be involved in UA inhibition of A498 cell invasiveness.

Ursolic acid derivative FZU-03,010 inhibits STAT3 and induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in renal and breast cancer cells

Advanced renal cell carcinoma and triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) are malignancies without effective therapeutics currently. Ursolic acid (UA) has been previously reported to have anti-cancer effects in multiple solid tumors. In order to develop more potent anti-cancer reagents, FZU-03,010 based on the chemical structure of UA were synthesized. The results demonstrated that, compared with UA, FZU-03,010 could suppress renal cancer cell 786-0 and TNBC cell HCC1806 cell viability more potently.  Furthermore, FZU-03,010 could induce G1 cell cycle arrest and cell apoptosis more efficiently than UA. FZU-03,010 could also inhibit signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 activation, induce the expression of cell cycle-dependent kinase inhibitors (p21 and p27) and promote cell apoptosis. In conclusion, our results suggest that the UA derivative FZU-03,010 is more potent in inhibiting cancer cell survival, and FZU-03,010 has the potential to be developed as a therapeutic for renal cell cancers and TNBCs.