Repression of DOK7 mediated by DNMT3A promotes the proliferation and invasion of KYSE410 and TE-12 ESCC cells

Oxymatrine inhibits migration and invasion of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cell lines via the MEK1/ERK/β-catenin pathway

Esophageal, cancer is a prevalent malignant tumour of the digestive system in China, and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) accounts for 90 % of all esophageal cancer cases. Currently, the primary treatment involves surgical resection combined with postoperative radiotherapy. In this study, we used two ESCC cell lines to determine whether oxymatrine (OMT) inhibits ESCC, whether the mechanism involves the MEK1/ERK/β-catenin pathway, and how OMT modulates this pathway to affect the development of ESCC. The effects of OMT treatment were monitored with Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assays as well as with clony formation, migration and invasion, wound healing, Hoechst 33258, and Western blot analyses. The relationship between OMT and the target was also evaluated by molecular docking and cell stability experiments. These findings suggest that ESCC development and metastasis may be inhibited by OMT and that OMT targets MEK1 through the ERK/β-catenin/EMT pathway to suppress ESCC cell migration and invasion. In addition, in vivo studies confirmed that OMT can inhibit the growth of ESCC cell lines in NOG mice without causing damage to other organs. In conclusion, in vitro experiments, revealed that OMT prevents the migration and invasiveness of ESCC cells by inhibiting the ERK/β-catenin/EMT pathway and thus targeting MAP2K1 (MEK1) in ESCC.

A prognostic model based on necroptosis-related genes for prognosis and therapy in bladder cancer

Bladder cancer, one of the most prevalent malignant cancers, has high rate of recurrence and metastasis. Owing to genomic instability and high-level heterogeneity of bladder cancer, chemotherapy and immunotherapy drugs sensitivity and lack of prognostic markers, the prognosis of bladder cancer is unclear. Necroptosis is a programmed modality of necrotic cell death in a caspase-independent form. Despite the fact that necroptosis plays a critical role in tumor growth, cancer metastasis, and cancer patient prognosis, necroptosis-related gene sets have rarely been studied in bladder cancer. As a result, the development of new necroptosis-related prognostic indicators for bladder cancer patients is critical. Herein, we assessed the necroptosis landscape of bladder cancer patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas database and classified them into two unique necroptosis-related patterns, using the consensus clustering. Then, using five prognosis-related genes, we constructed a prognostic model (risk score), which contained 5 genes (ANXA1, DOK7, FKBP10, MAP1B and SPOCD1). And a nomogram model was also developed to offer the clinic with a more useful prognostic indicator. We found that risk score was significantly associated with clinicopathological characteristics, TIME, and tumor mutation burden in patients with bladder cancer. Moreover, risk score was a valid guide for immunotherapy, chemotherapy, and targeted drugs. In our study, DOK7 was chosen to further verify our prognosis model, and functional assays indicated that knockdown the expression of DOK7 could prompt bladder cancer proliferation and migration. Our work demonstrated the potential role of prognostic model based on necroptosis genes in the prognosis, immune landscape and response efficacy of immunotherapy of bladder cancer.

DOK7 CpG hypermethylation in blood leukocytes as an epigenetic biomarker for acquired tamoxifen resistant in breast cancer

BACKGROUND

Breast cancer (BC) is among the most common cause of cancer 10.4% and one of the leading causes of death among 20-50 years old women in the world. Tamoxifen drug is the first line therapy for BC however tamoxifen resistance (TR) has shown in 30-50% of cases that may face BC recurrence. Hence, TR early detection reduces BC recurrence and fatalities. The epigenetic alteration that happens by hypermethylation of tumor suppressor genes and hypomethylation of oncogenes has been suggested to be useful in early cancer or drug resistance diagnosis.

METHODS

This is the first study to investigate DOK7 CpG hypermethylation in blood leukocytes of 31 TR (ER+) BC compared to 29 tamoxifen sensitive BC to evaluate DOK7 as a potential TR biomarker. DNA was extracted from blood samples of all participants and MSRE-PCR and real-time PCR were used for quantification of CpG methylation alterations.

RESULTS

The means of DOK7 CpG hypermethylation were obtained as 85.03%, 29.1% and 57.34% in TR, TS and normal control respectively. Significant hypermethylation were found among TR vs. TS (p < 0.001), TS vs. normal (p < 0.001) and TR vs. normal controls (p < 0.03). Online databases expression and survival analysis of DOK7 showed increasing expression in TS groups vs. TR groups which have consistency with our methylation alteration results. The sensitivity and specificity of the TR epigenetic test were determined using ROC analysis showed 89.66% and 96.77% respectively and showed that 37.5% above hypermethylation is at risk for TR and breast cancer recurrence.

CONCLUSION

There is a significant difference in the methylation ratio of DOK7 between tamoxifen resistant and tamoxifen sensitive groups that may be useful in the early diagnosis of tamoxifen resistance in BC cases and cancer recurrence prevention.

Epigenteic Alteration of DOK7 Gene CpG Island in Blood Leukocyte of Patients with Gastric Cancer and Intestinal Methaplasia

Background

Intestinal metaplasia (IM) is a benign lesion with no serious concern for patients' health. On the other hand, gastric cancer (GC) is a malignant lesion that has to be differentially diagnosed from benign intestinal metaplasia. Epigenetic modifications have been suggested to play an important role in cancer initiation and development, and they have been investigated as a reliable biomarker tool even for early cancer diagnosis. Whole blood leucocytes (WBC) are potentially the most accessible tissue for cancer early diagnosis, especially for GC, which is hard to diagnose in the early stage.

Objective

This study aims to investigate the methylation status of DOK7 gene CpG island in blood leukocytes of patients with IM and GC compared to normal control groups.

Material and Method

DNA was extracted from the whole blood of 30 IM patients, 30 GC patients, and 34 normal controls samples, and MSRE-PCR was utilized to evaluate the loci methylation status.

Results

Significant hypermethylation of DOK7 gene CpG has been observed in GC 88.1 % (p < 0.001) and IM 66.0 % (p = 0.03) in comparison to the normal control group 56.8%. A cutoff upper than 84.5 % of hypermethylation is considered as a presence of gastric cancer malignant lesions.

Conclusions

This is the first reported on hypermethylation in DOK7 CPG in blood leukocytes of patients with GC and IM and establishing a laboratory blood based test that may be useful as a novel biomarker test in the early diagnosis and screaning of GC and IM.

Prognostic role of DOK family adapters in acute myeloid leukemia

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a genetically and clinically heterogeneous disease. Gene mutational and expressional profile can aid the identification of different prognostic subgroups. Downstream of tyrosine kinase (DOK) proteins are a multigenic family of adaptors; some of them are key negative regulators of immune cell signaling. However, the expression and clinical implication of DOK family in AML has rarely been investigated. A total of 155 AML patients with DOK family (DOK1-7) expression data from The Cancer Genome Atlas database were enrolled in the study. In patients who only received chemotherapy, those with high expressions of DOK4 or DOK5 had significantly shorter EFS and OS than patients with low expressions (all P < 0.001), whereas high DOK7 expressers had longer EFS and OS than the low expressers (all P < 0.05). In patients who underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT), however, all DOK members had no impact on EFS and OS. Multivariate analysis confirmed that high DOK5 expression was an independent risk factor for EFS and OS in untransplanted patients (all P < 0.05). Our study suggests that in AML, high expressions of DOK4 and DOK5 are adverse prognostic factors, high DOK7 expression is a good prognostic factor, but their effects can be overcome by allo-HSCT.

Increased CDKL3 expression predicts poor prognosis and enhances malignant phenotypes in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

BACKGROUND

Cyclin-dependent kinase-like 3 (CDKL3) is a putative protein serine kinase and plays an important role in the regulation of cell growth and/or differentiation. However, studies on the function of CDKL3 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is limited. In our study, we explored the role and prognosis of CDKL3 in ESCC and underlying mechanism.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The expression of CDKL3 was investigated by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemical staining. CDKL3 expression was downregulated by the RNAi-mediated knockdown. The functions of CDKL3 on cell growth were assessed by Celigo image cytometry, MTT assay, cell-cycle analysis, Annexin V assay, and caspase-3/7 activity analysis. The effect of CDKL3 on cellular invasive was investigated by the Transwell assay. Pathscan Stress Signaling Antibody Array was used to study the underlying mechanism. Additionally, the association between the survival and CDKL3 expression in ESCC were evaluated based on the TCGA data.

RESULTS

CDKL3 was highly expressed in ESCC tissues and cell lines. TE-1 cells transfected with CDKL3-shRNA-lentivirus significantly decreased CDKL3 expression and resulted in inhibiting cell proliferation, inducing the S-phase cell-cycle arrest, attenuating cellular invasive and increasing cell apoptosis. The expression of pERK1/2, p-Akt, p-Smad2, p-p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase, cleaved caspase-7, and phospho-Chk1 were significantly decreased by CDKL3 knockdown. In addition, high expression of CDKL3 was associated with shorter overall survival.

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggest that higher expression of CDKL3 is correlated with poor prognosis in patients with ESCC and play a vital role in the malignant phenotype of ESCC cell lines, which indicating that CDKL3 may be as a new therapeutic target in ESCC.

DOK7V1 influences the malignant phenotype of lung cancer cells through PI3K/AKT/mTOR and FAK/paxillin signaling pathways

Downstream of tyrosine kinase 7 transcript variant 1 (DOK7V1) is a docking protein mediating signal transduction between receptors and intracellular downstream molecules. Our previous study indicated that DOK7V1 was decreased in lung cancer and its lower expression was associated with a decreased survival rate. The 5‑year overall survival rate for patients with lung cancer was 20.2 and 18.6% for high and low DOK7 expression, respectively; the 5‑year disease‑free survival rate for patients with lung cancer was 14.3 and 16.9% for high and low DOK7 expression, respectively. DOK7V1 inhibited proliferation and migration, but enhanced adhesion, of lung cancer cells. In the present study, the effect of DOK7V1 and its domains [pleckstrin homology (PH) and phosphotyrosine‑binding (PTB) domain] on the malignant phenotype and associated signaling pathway in lung cancer cells was investigated. The results indicated that truncation of DOK7V1 domains (DOK7V1Δ‑PH and DOK7V1Δ‑PTB) inhibited the proliferation and migration of lung cancer cells which exhibited the same trend as DOK7V1, whereas DOK7V1Δ‑PH and DOK7V1Δ‑PTB exhibited different functions from those of DOK7V1 in cell matrix adhesion. Consistently, DOK7V1 overexpression in lung cancer cells suppressed the phosphoinositide 3‑kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (AKT)/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathways, but activated the focal adhesion kinase (FAK)/paxillin signaling pathway. Taken together, these results indicate that DOK7V1 may inhibit proliferation and migration via negatively regulating the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway, and increase adhesion by upregulating the FAK/paxillin signaling pathway in lung cancer cells.