Expression of the anti-inflammatory suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3) in human clear cell renal cell carcinoma

Cell Differentiation Trajectory Predicts Prognosis and Immunotherapeutic Response in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is the main type of malignancy in kidney related to glucose metabolism. Primary single cell culture and single cell sequencing are novel research technologies. In this study, we explored the differentiation status of ccRCC cells and its significance in prognosis and immunotherapeutic response through bioinformatics. We characterized distinct differentiation states and differentiation-related genes (DRGs) in ccRCC cells through single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) analysis. Combined with bulk RNA-seq data, we classified patients into two clusters and found that this classification was closely correlated with patient prognosis and immunotherapeutic responses. Based on machine learning, we identified a prognostic risk model composed of 14 DRGs, including BTG2, CDKN1A, COL6A1, CPM, CYB5D2, FOSB, ID2, ISG15, PLCG2, SECISBP2, SOCS3, TES, ZBTB16, and ZNF704, to predict the survival rate of patients and then constructed a nomogram model integrating clinicopathological characteristics and risk score for clinical practice. In the study of immune checkpoints, we found that patients in the high-risk group had a disposition to get worse prognosis and better effects of immune checkpoint blocking therapies. Finally, we found the expression level of model DRGs was associated with a tumor-immune microenvironment (TIME) pattern and the response of 83 compounds or inhibitors was significantly different in the two risk groups. In a word, our study highlights the potential contribution of cell differentiation in prognosis judgment and immunotherapy response and offers promising therapeutic options for ccRCC patients.

[Role of cytokine signal suppressor 3 in the regulatory mechanism of colon cancer invasion and proliferation]

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the expression of cytokine signal suppressor 3 (SOCS3) in colon cancer tissue and the mechanism by which SOCS3 regulates the proliferation and invasion of colon cancer.

METHODS

We collected the specimens of tumor tissues and paired adjacent tissues from 80 patients with colon cancer undergoing radical resection in our hospital between July, 2014 and May, 2017, and the expression of SOCS3 in the tissue samples was analyzed using Western blotting. We also transfected colon cancer cell line SW480 with a SOCS3-overexpressing plasmid or a small interference RNA (siRNA) for SOCS3 knockdown, and the changes in the cell proliferation and invasion capacity were evaluated using CCK-8 assay and Transwell assay, respectively. The effect of demethylation and IL-6 treatment on SOCS3 expression and the proliferation and invasion of SW480 cells were observed.

RESULTS

Colon cancer tissues showed a lowered expression of SOCS3 compared with the adjacent tissues. Over-expression of SOCS3 significantly inhibited while SOCS3 knockdown obviously promoted the proliferation and invasion of SW480 cells in vitro. Demethylation treatment up-regulated SOCS3 expression and inhibited the proliferation and invasion capacity of SW480 cells; IL-6 treatment of the cells caused the reverse changes.

CONCLUSIONS

SOCS3 participates in the development and progression of colon cancer and serves as a potential target for colon cancer treatment. In patients with colon cancer, the low expression of SOCS3 possibly as a result of methylation may promote the proliferation and invasion of the cancer cells.

DNA methylation associates with survival in non-metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma

BACKGROUND

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is the most common subtype among renal cancer and is associated with poor prognosis if metastasized. Up to one third of patients with local disease at diagnosis will develop metastasis after nephrectomy, and there is a need for new molecular markers to identify patients with high risk of tumor progression. In the present study, we performed genome-wide promoter DNA methylation analysis at diagnosis to identify DNA methylation profiles associated with risk for progress.

METHOD

Diagnostic tissue samples from 115 ccRCC patients were analysed by Illumina HumanMethylation450K arrays and methylation status of 155,931 promoter associated CpGs were related to genetic aberrations, gene expression and clinicopathological parameters.

RESULTS

The ccRCC samples separated into two clusters (cluster A/B) based on genome-wide promoter methylation status. The samples in these clusters differed in tumor diameter (p < 0.001), TNM stage (p < 0.001), morphological grade (p < 0.001), and patients outcome (5 year cancer specific survival (pCSS5yr) p < 0.001 and cumulative incidence of progress (pCIP5yr) p < 0.001. An integrated genomic and epigenomic analysis in the ccRCCs, revealed significant correlations between the total number of genetic aberrations and total number of hypermethylated CpGs (R = 0.435, p < 0.001), and predicted mitotic age (R = 0.407, p < 0.001). We identified a promoter methylation classifier (PMC) panel consisting of 172 differently methylated CpGs accompanying progress of disease. Classifying non-metastatic patients using the PMC panel showed that PMC high tumors had a worse prognosis compared with the PMC low tumors (pCIP5yr 38% vs. 8%, p = 0.001), which was confirmed in non-metastatic ccRCCs in the publically available TCGA-KIRC dataset (pCIP5yr 39% vs. 16%, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

DNA methylation analysis at diagnosis in ccRCC has the potential to improve outcome-prediction in non-metastatic patients at diagnosis.