Long noncoding RNA LINC00968 inhibits proliferation, migration and invasion of lung adenocarcinoma through targeting miR-22-5p/CDC14A axis

Reverse predictive analysis of Rhizoma Pinelliae and Rhizoma Coptidis on differential miRNA target genes in lung adenocarcinoma

To use bioinformatics and network analysis to reveal the mechanism of "Rhizoma Pinelliae-Rhizoma Coptidis" herb pair in the treatment of lung adenocarcinoma. The target and pathway of "Rhizoma Pinelliae-Rhizoma Coptidis" herb pair in the treatment of lung adenocarcinoma were explored by online databases and network analysis tools, and the potential biomarkers of "Rhizoma Pinelliae-Rhizoma Coptidis" herb pair in the treatment of lung adenocarcinoma were predicted in reverse. A total of 59 traditional Chinese medicine compounds and 510 drug targets were screened in this study. A total of 25 micro-RNAs and 15,323 disease targets were obtained through GEO2R software analysis. In the end, 294 therapeutic targets and 47 core targets were obtained. A total of 186 gene ontology enrichment assays were obtained, and core therapeutic targets play multiple roles in biological processes, molecular functions, and cellular composition. Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes pathway enrichment analysis showed that the core targets were mainly enriched in cancer-related pathways, immune-related pathways, endocrine-related pathways, etc, among which the non-small cell lung cancer pathway was the most significant core pathway. Molecular docking shows that the compound and the target have good binding ability. "Rhizoma Pinelliae-Rhizoma Coptidis" herb pair plays a mechanism of action in the treatment of lung adenocarcinoma through multiple targets and pathways. miR-5703, miR-3125, miR-652-5P, and miR-513c-5p may be new biomarkers for the treatment of lung adenocarcinoma.

Hsa-miR-22-3p inhibits liver cancer cell EMT and cell migration/ invasion by indirectly regulating SPRY2

The general mechanism for microRNAs to play biological function is through their inhibition on the expression of their target genes. In cancer, microRNAs may accelerate cell senescence, block angiogenesis, decrease energy supplies, repress tumor cell cycle and promote apoptosis to function as the tumor repressors. On the other hand, microRNAs can modulate tumor suppressor molecules to activate oncogene relevant signaling pathway to initiate tumorigenesis and promote tumor progression. By targeting different genes, miR-22 can function as either a tumor suppressor or a tumor promoter in different types of cancer. In liver cancer, miR-22 mainly functions as a tumor suppressor via its regulation on different genes. In this study, we demonstrated that miR-22 indirectly regulates SPRY2 by inhibiting CBL, an E3 ligase for SPRY2 that has been confirmed. As one of the modulators of the MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase)/ERK (extracellular signal-regulated kinase) signaling pathway, SPRY2 plays important roles in many developmental and physiological processes, and its deregulation has been reported in different types of cancer and shown to affect cancer development, progression, and metastasis. By inhibiting the expression of CBL, which stabilizes SPRY2, miR-22 indirectly upregulates SPRY2, thereby suppressing the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), cell migration, and invasion and decreasing the expression of liver cancer stem cell (CSC) marker genes. The inhibitory effects of miR-22 on EMT, cell migration, and invasion can be blocked by the knockdown of SPRY2 expression in miR-22 overexpressing cells. Additionally, we demonstrated that miR-22 expression inhibits the ERK signaling pathway and that this effect is due to its upregulation of SPRY2. Overall, our study revealed a novel miR-22-3p/CBL/SPRY2/ERK axis that plays an important role in EMT, cell migration, and invasion of liver cancer cells.

Novel tumor necrosis factor-related long non-coding RNAs signature for risk stratification and prognosis in glioblastoma

Background

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is an inflammatory cytokine that can coordinate tissue homeostasis by co-regulating the production of cytokines, cell survival, or death. It widely expresses in various tumor tissues and correlates with the malignant clinical features of patients. As an important inflammatory factor, the role of TNFα is involved in all steps of tumorigenesis and development, including cell transformation, survival, proliferation, invasion and metastasis. Recent research has showed that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), defined as RNA transcripts >200 nucleotides that do not encode a protein, influence numerous cellular processes. However, little is known about the genomic profile of TNF pathway related-lncRNAs in GBM. This study investigated the molecular mechanism of TNF related-lncRNAs and their immune characteristics in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) patients.

Methods

To identify TNF associations in GBM patients, we performed bioinformatics analysis of public databases - The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA). The ConsensusClusterPlus, CIBERSORT, Estimate, GSVA and TIDE and first-order bias correlation and so on approaches were conducted to comprehensively characterize and compare differences among TNF-related subtypes.

Results

Based on the comprehensive analysis of TNF-related lncRNAs expression profiles, we constructed six TNF-related lncRNAs (C1RL-AS1, LINC00968, MIR155HG, CPB2-AS1, LINC00906, and WDR11-AS1) risk signature to determine the role of TNF-related lncRNAs in GBM. This signature could divide GBM patients into subtypes with distinct clinical and immune characteristics and prognoses. We identified three molecular subtypes (C1, C2, and C3), with C2 showing the best prognosis; otherwise, C3 showing the worst prognosis. Moreover, we assessed the prognostic value, immune infiltration, immune checkpoints, chemokines cytokines and enrichment analysis of this signature in GBM. The TNF-related lncRNA signature was tightly associated with the regulation of tumor immune therapy and could serve as an independent prognostic biomarker in GBM.

Conclusion

This analysis provides a comprehensive understanding of the role of TNF-related characters, which may improve the clinical outcome of GBM patients.

LncRNA ARAP1-AS1 contributes to lung adenocarcinoma development by targeting miR-8068 to upregulate CEACAM5

BACKGROUND

It has been discovered that lncRNA ARAP1-AS1 is upregulated and operates as a tumor promoter in many cancers. However, its pattern of expression and potential mechanism in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is still unknown.

METHODS

The levels of lncRNA ARAP1-AS1, miR-8068, and CEACAM5 expressions in LUAD cell lines and tissues were assessed by conducting western blot and RT-qPCR analyses. MiR-8068's potential targeting relationships with lncRNA ARAP1-AS1 and CEACAM5 were ascertained by performing bioinformatics analysis. The interaction of lncRNA ARAP1-AS1 with miR-8068 was validated by means of by RIP and luciferase reporter experiments. CCK-8, cell adhesion, and Transwell migration experiments were conducted to study how lncRNA ARAP1-AS1 affects LUAD cell migration, adhesion, and proliferation. To confirm the function of lncRNA ARAP1-AS1 in vivo, a tumor formation experiment was executed.

RESULTS

An elevated expression of lncRNA ARAP1-AS1 was observed among the LUAD cells and tissues. The overexpression of lncRNA ARAP1-AS boosted cell proliferation, adhesion, and migration in LUAD and also favored in vivo tumor growth. MiR-8068 was found to be lncRNA ARAP1-AS1's target gene. MiR-8068 overexpression partially antagonized lncRNA ARAP1-AS1's promotive effect on proliferation, viability, and adhesion. Meanwhile CEACAM5 could alleviate the miR-8068-induced inhibition of tumor growth. The negative correlation of miR-8068 with lncRNA ARAP1-AS1 or CEACAM5 was also revealed.

CONCLUSION

To upregulate CEACAM5 expression lncRNA ARAP1-AS1 targeted miR-8068, thus promoting the progression of LUAD. This indicates that the lncRNA ARAP1-AS1/miR-8068/CEACAM5 axis has potential as a therapeutic target in LUAD treatment.

Identification of a apoptosis-related LncRNA signature to improve prognosis prediction and immunotherapy response in lung adenocarcinoma patients

Apoptosis is closely associated with the development of various cancers, including lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). However, the prognostic value of apoptosis-related lncRNAs (ApoRLs) in LUAD has not been fully elucidated. In the present study, we screened 2, 960 ApoRLs by constructing a co-expression network of mRNAs-lncRNAs associated with apoptosis, and identified 421 ApoRLs that were differentially expressed between LUAD samples and normal lung samples. Sixteen differentially expressed apoptosis-related lncRNAs (DE-ApoRLs) with prognostic relevance to LUAD patients were screened using univariate Cox regression analysis. An apoptosis-related lncRNA signature (ApoRLSig ) containing 10 ApoRLs was constructed by applying the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) Cox regression method, and all LUAD patients in the TCGA cohort were divided into high or low risk groups. Moreover, patients in the high-risk group had a worse prognosis (p < 0.05). When analyzed in conjunction with clinical features, we found ApoRLSig to be an independent predictor of LUAD patients and established a prognostic nomogram combining ApoRLSig and clinical features. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) revealed that ApoRLSig is involved in many malignancy-associated immunomodulatory pathways. In addition, there were significant differences in the immune microenvironment and immune cells between the high-risk and low-risk groups. Further analysis revealed that the expression levels of most immune checkpoint genes (ICGs) were higher in the high-risk group, which suggested that the immunotherapy effect was better in the high-risk group than in the low-risk group. And we found that the high-risk group was also better than the low-risk group in terms of chemotherapy effect. In conclusion, we successfully constructed an ApoRLSig which could predict the prognosis of LUAD patients and provide a novel strategy for the antitumor treatment of LUAD patients.

Characterization and validation of a ferroptosis-related LncRNA signature as a novel prognostic model for lung adenocarcinoma in tumor microenvironment

Ferroptosis is a more relatively recently identified type of programmed cell death, which is associated with tumor progression. However, the mechanism underlying the effect of ferroptosis-related long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) remains elusive. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate the role of ferroptosis-related lncRNAs in LUAD and to develop a prognostic model. The clinicopathological characteristics of patients and the gene sequencing data were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas, while the ferroptosis-associated mRNAs were downloaded from the FerrDb database. A ferroptosis-related lncRNA signature was established with Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator Cox regression analysis. Furthermore, the risk scores of ferroptosis-related lncRNAs were calculated and LUAD patients were then assigned to high- and low-risk groups based on the median risk score. The prognostic model was established by K-M plotters and nomograms. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was performed to evaluate the association between immune responses and ferroptosis-related lncRNAs. A total of 10 ferroptosis-related lncRNAs were identified as independent predictors of LUAD outcome, namely RP11-386M24.3, LINC00592, FENDRR, AC104699.1, AC091132.1, LANCL1-AS1, LINC-PINT, IFNG-AS1, LINC00968 and AC006129.2. The area under the curve verified that the established signatures could determine LUAD prognosis. The nomogram model was used to assess the predictive accuracy of the established signatures. Additionally, GSEA revealed that the 10 ferroptosis-related lncRNAs could be involved in immune responses in LUAD. Overall, the results of the current study may provide novel insights into the development of novel therapies or diagnostic strategies for LUAD.

FABP7 inhibits proliferation and invasion abilities of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma cells via the Notch signaling pathway

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) is one of the most common non-melanoma skin cancers worldwide. Fatty acid-binding protein 7 (FABP7) has been reported to be involved in the occurrence, development, metastasis and prognosis of various tumors. In addition, downregulated FABP7 expression was demonstrated in cutaneous malignant melanoma in a previous study. Therefore, we speculated that FABP7 may be a biomarker for CSCC diagnosis. The aim of the present study was to determine the molecular mechanism underlying the effects of FABP7 in CSCC, which may provide a new diagnostic biomarker or treatment target for CSCC. Reverse transcription-PCR, western blotting and immunohistochemistry assays were performed to detect the expression levels of FABP7 in CSCC tissues and cells. Overexpression of FABP7 was achieved in A431 and colo-16 cell lines by transfection with an overexpression vector (oeFABP7). Cell proliferation, colony formation, migration and invasion were detected by Cell Counting Kit-8, crystal violet, scratch and Transwell assays, respectively. Following FABP7 overexpression, western blotting was used to determine the expression levels of proliferation-, invasion- and Notch pathway-associated proteins, including Snail, N-cadherin, Twist, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2, MMP-7, Notch 1 and Notch 3. In addition a CSCC model in nude mice was constructed. Immunohistochemistry was used to determine the expression levels of FABP7, Ki67, Notch 1 and Notch 3. It was demonstrated that FABP7 expression levels were significantly reduced in human CSCC tissues and cells compared with normal samples. Overexpression of FABP7 inhibited the proliferation, invasion and migration abilities of A431 and colo-16 cells compared with those in the negative control group. In addition, transfection with oeFABP7 reduced the expression levels of proliferation-, invasion- and Notch pathway-associated proteins compared with those in the negative control group. Overexpression of FABP7 also reduced the growth of CSCC tumors in vivo and inhibited the expression of Ki67, Notch 1 and Notch 3. Therefore, the results of the present study suggested that FABP7 may inhibit the proliferation and invasion of CSCC cells via the Notch signaling pathway.