Overexpression of LINC00691 promotes the proliferation and invasion of gastric cancer cells via the Janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription signalling pathway

Causal network perturbation analysis identifies known and novel type-2 diabetes driver genes

The molecular pathogenesis of diabetes is multifactorial, involving genetic predisposition and environmental factors that are not yet fully understood. However, pancreatic β-cell failure remains among the primary reasons underlying the progression of type-2 diabetes (T2D) making targeting β-cell dysfunction an attractive pathway for diabetes treatment. To identify genetic contributors to β-cell dysfunction, we investigated single-cell gene expression changes in β-cells from healthy (C57BL/6J) and diabetic (NZO/HlLtJ) mice fed with normal or high-fat, high-sugar diet (HFHS). Our study presents an innovative integration of the causal network perturbation assessment (ssNPA) framework with meta-cell transcriptome analysis to explore the genetic underpinnings of type-2 diabetes (T2D). By generating a reference causal network and in silico perturbation, we identified novel genes implicated in T2D and validated our candidates using the Knockout Mouse Phenotyping (KOMP) Project database.

Long non-coding RNAs and JAK/STAT signaling pathway regulation in colorectal cancer development

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the main fatal cancers. Cell signaling such as Janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK/STAT) signaling substantially influences the process of gene expression and cell growth. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play regulatory roles in cell signaling, cell proliferation, and cancer fate. Hence, lncRNAs can be considered biomarkers in cancers. The inhibitory or activating effects of different lncRNAs on the JAK/STAT pathway regulate cancer cell proliferation or tumor suppression. Additionally, lncRNAs regulate immune responses which play a role in immunotherapy. Mechanisms of lncRNAs in CRC via JAK/STAT regulation mainly include cell proliferation, invasion, metastasis, apoptosis, adhesion, and control of inflammation. More profound findings are warranted to specifically target the lncRNAs in terms of activation or suppression in hindering CRC cell proliferation. Here, to understand the lncRNA cross-talk in CRC through the JAK/STAT signaling pathway, we collected the related in vitro and in vivo data. Future insights may pave the way for the development of novel diagnostic tools, therapeutic interventions, and personalized treatment strategies for CRC patients.

Exosomes-mediated transfer of LINC00691 regulates the formation of CAFs and promotes the progression of gastric cancer

OBJECTIVE

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the malignant tumors with the highest mortality worldwide. Our previous studies have revealed that LINC00691 is up-regulated in serum of GC patients as a novel potential biomarker for GC diagnosis and prognosis. However, the roles of serum exosomal LINC00691 in GC has not been clarified. This study aimed to find the expression pattern of serum exosomal LINC00691 in GC patients and the correlation between the level of serum exosomal LINC00691 and the pathology of gastric cancer patients.

METHODS

We collected the serum of 94 GC patients before surgery and extracted exosomes to detect the expression level of exosomal LINC00691, with 21 healthy volunteers and 17 patients with benign gastric diseases as controls. Surgical GC tissues and paired healthy tissues were collected to culture primary cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and normal fibroblasts (NFs). We then treated NFs with LINC00691-rich GC cell culture supernatant or exosomes and detected the activation markers and biological functions of the fibroblasts.

RESULTS

The results of real-time qPCR indicated that the serum exosomal LINC00691 of GC patients was significantly higher than that of healthy subjects and patients with benign gastric diseases, and was associated with the clinicopathology of GC patients. More interestingly, when the NFs were treated with GC exosomes, the level of LINC00691 was significantly increased, the cell proliferation and migration were noticeably enhanced, and the ability to accelerate GC cell proliferation and invasion was promoted, which means that the induced fibroblasts gained the properties of CAFs. In addition, we found that knockdown of LINC00691 and the use of the JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway inhibitor ruxolitinib effectively deprived exosome-containing GC cell supernatants of the effects on NFs.

CONCLUSION

Our study suggested that exosomal LINC00691 promoted NFs to gained the properties of CAFs depending on JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway as a potential diagnostic biomarker for GC.

The cross-talk between LncRNAs and JAK-STAT signaling pathway in cancer

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are non-coding RNAs that were transcribed from the human genome and have become important regulators in a number of cellular activities, mostly via controlling gene expression. A growing body of evidence shows that lncRNAs regulate various factors to impact various biological activities that are related to tumorigenesis, including the Janus kinase (JAK)-signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) pathway. lncRNAs influence the JAK-STAT signaling pathway either by directly targeting or via indirectly modulating other upstream or downstream pathways' components like members of the suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS) family, and other genes that regulate cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration, invasion, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Furthermore, lncRNAs can act as downstream effectors of the JAK-STAT pathway and mediates tumorigenesis. The relationship between JAK-STAT signaling and lncRNAs differs among various types of cancers. Besides, lncRNAs, as biological molecules, have been shown to play a dual role in either tumorigenesis or tumor suppression in various cancers. In this review, we focus on the reciprocated regulation and functions of lncRNAs and the JAK-STAT signaling pathway in cancer, as well as narrate the latest research progress on this association. A deeper understanding of this correlation may simplify the recognition of potential targets for clinical therapeutics.

Pan-cancer analysis of PCAT6 and its effect on oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma cell proliferation and migration

Bioinformatics methods were used to analyze the role of PCAT6 in a variety of tumors and verify its role in oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) EC109 cells. The pan-cancer dataset was downloaded from the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) database to analyze the expression of PCAT6 in pan-cancer and its relationship with prognosis, clinical features, and immune infiltration. The expression and prognosis of PCAT6 in ESCC were verified by Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and Kaplan-Meier database. CCK8, colony formation, wound healing, Transwell cell invasion (CI), and cell migration (CM) assays were used to detect the effect of PCAT6 knockdown on the ability of ESCC cell proliferation (CP), CI and CM. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis was used to analyze the signaling pathways involved in the regulation of PCAT6. Quantitative real-time PCR and western blotting were used to examine the expression of cancer stem cell-related markers and the activation of JAK/STAT pathway in ESCC after PCAT6 knockdown. PCAT6 is significantly up-regulated in a variety of tumor tissues, and its expression is closely related to prognosis, clinical features and immune infiltration. High expression of PCAT6 leads to poor prognosis in ESCC patients. In ESCC EC109 cells, PCAT6 knockdown inhibited the ability of CP, CI, CM, and stemness, and inhibited the activation of JAK/STAT signaling pathway. PCAT6 expression is elevated in a variety of tumors. PCAT6 plays an oncogene role in ESCC by activating the JAK/STAT signaling pathway.

Skin cutaneous melanoma properties of immune-related lncRNAs identifying potential prognostic biomarkers

Skin cutaneous melanoma (SKCM) is one of the most aggressive and life-threatening cancers with high incidence rate, metastasis rate and mortality. Early detection and stratification of risk assessment are essential to treat SKCM and to improve survival rate. The aim of this study is to construct an immune-related lncRNAs (immlncRNAs) prognosis risk model to identify immune biomarkers for early diagnosis, prognosis assessment and target immunotherapy of SKCM. For this purpose, we identified 46 immlncRNAs significantly correlated with SKCM prognosis to construct the prognostic risk model and patients were stratified into the high- and low-risk subgroups according to the developed model. The predictive efficiency of this model has been proved by K-M survival analysis and receiver operating characteristic curve. Moreover, CIBERSORT algorithms confirmed that there were differences in immune cell infiltration between the high- and low-risk groups. Functional enrichment analysis further indicated that immlncRNAs were related to a variety of immune response process signaling pathways, suggesting that relevant immlncRNAs could play an important role in the immune regulation of SKCM. Finally, subgroup analysis and multiple Cox regression analysis further proved the stability of the model. In summary, we successfully constructed a 46 immlncRNA-related prognostic risk score model with excellent predictive efficacy and provided more possibilities to investigate the immune regulation mechanisms and to develop immunotherapy of SKCM.

Curcumin Inhibits Papillary Thyroid Cancer Cell Proliferation by Regulating lncRNA LINC00691

Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is a type of epithelial-derived differentiated TC that reportedly accounts for a majority of TCs. Curcumin, a polyphenolic compound and a member of the Zingiberaceae (ginger) family derived from turmeric plants, can exhibit anticancer effects. Herein, we aimed to investigate the effect of curcumin on PTC and elucidate underlying mechanisms. Accordingly, PTC B-CPAP cells were treated with curcumin, in combination with/without long noncoding RNA LINC00691 inhibition, to determine the effect of curcumin and its relationship with LINC00691 in PTC cells. We observed that curcumin treatment decreased B-CPAP cell proliferation and promoted apoptosis. Curcumin inhibited LINC00691 expression in B-CPAP cells. Curcumin administration or si-LINC00691 transfection alone promoted ATP levels, inhibited glucose uptake and lactic acid levels, and inhibited lactate dehydrogenase A and hexokinase 2 protein expression in B-CPAP cells, which were further enhanced by combination treatment. Moreover, curcumin administration or si-LINC00691 transfection alone inhibited p-Akt activity, further suppressed by combination treatment. Akt inhibition promoted apoptosis and suppressed the Warburg effect in B-CPAP cells. In conclusion, our findings indicate that curcumin promotes apoptosis and suppresses proliferation and the Warburg effect by inhibiting LINC00691 in B-CPAP cells. The precise molecular mechanism might be mediated through the Akt signaling pathway, providing a theoretical basis for the treatment of PTC with curcumin.

STAM2 knockdown inhibits proliferation, migration, and invasion by affecting the JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway in gastric cancer

Signal transducing adaptor molecule 2 (STAM2) is a phosphotyrosine protein, which regulates receptor signaling and trafficking of mammalian cells. However, its role in gastric cancer (GC) remains undiscovered. In this study, we aimed to investigate the functions of STAM2 in GC. The mRNA and protein expression levels of STAM2 were measured by quantitative real-time PCR, western blot analysis, and immunohistochemistry. STAM2 was stably silenced in AGS and HGC-27 cells using small interfering RNA. The function of STAM2 in GC cells was further investigated by CCK-8 assay, EdU incorporation assay, flow cytometry, and scratch wound healing and Boyden chamber assays. Additionally, we conducted biological pathway enrichment analysis and rescue assays to explore the effects of STAM2 on JAK/STAT signaling pathway. Our results showed that STAM2 is remarkably highly expressed in GC tissues and cells, and overexpressed STAM2 is correlated with tumor size, advanced tumor node metastasis stage, and poor prognosis. In addition, STAM2 knockdown could significantly inhibit proliferation, block cell cycle, and restrain migration and invasion capabilities of GC cells. Mechanistically, we found that STAM2 knockdown effectively decreased the expressions of MMP2 and MMP9 and the phosphorylation levels of JAK2 and STAT3. Taken together, this study revealed that STAM2 knockdown could suppress malignant process by targeting the JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway in GC.

LINC00514 promotes gastric cancer cell growth and EMT progression via miR-204-3p/KRAS

Long noncoding RNAs (LncRNAs) participate in tumor development and tumorigenesis. However, the mechanism, function and expression of LINC00514 in GC remain unknown. We showed that LINC00514 was upregulated in GC specimens compared with nontumor specimens. Overexpression of LINC00514 induced cell growth and EMT progression in GC cells. By using bioinformatics prediction, we found that miR-204-3p contained binding sequences for LINC00514. Luciferase reporter analysis noted that miR-204-3p overexpression decreased the luciferase expression under LINC00514-wild-type and KRAS-wild-type reporters but not that under mutant reporter. Ectopic LINC00514 expression decreased miR-204-3p expression. miR-204-3p expression was decreased in GC specimens compared with nontumor specimens and that LINC00514 was negatively correlated with miR-204-3p in GC specimens. Furthermore, KRAS was identified as a target gene for miR-204-3p according to TargetScan. Elevated miR-204-3p expression inhibited KRAS expression in HGC-27 cells, and ectopic expression of LINC00514 enhanced KRAS expression. Elevated LINC00514 expression enhanced cell growth and EMT progression by sponging KRAS. Our data indicated that LINC00514 may act as an oncogene and therapeutic target for GC.