FCN2 inhibits epithelial-mesenchymal transition-induced metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma via TGF-β/Smad signaling

Drug Repurposing of Selected Antibiotics: An Emerging Approach in Cancer Drug Discovery

Drug repurposing is a method of investigating new therapeutic applications for previously approved medications. This repurposing approach to "old" medications is now highly efficient, simple to arrange, and cost-effective and poses little risk of failure in treating a variety of disorders, including cancer. Drug repurposing for cancer therapy is currently a key topic of study. It is a way of exploring recent therapeutic applications for already-existing drugs. Theoretically, the repurposing strategy has various advantages over the recognized challenges of creating new molecular entities, including being faster, safer, easier, and less expensive. In the real world, several medications have been repurposed, including aspirin, metformin, and chloroquine. However, doctors and scientists address numerous challenges when repurposing drugs, such as the fact that most drugs are not cost-effective and are resistant to bacteria. So the goal of this review is to gather information regarding repurposing pharmaceuticals to make them more cost-effective and harder for bacteria to resist. Cancer patients are more susceptible to bacterial infections. Due to their weak immune systems, antibiotics help protect them from a variety of infectious diseases. Although antibiotics are not immune boosters, they do benefit the defense system by killing bacteria and slowing the growth of cancer cells. Their use also increases the therapeutic efficacy and helps avoid recurrence. Of late, antibiotics have been repurposed as potent anticancer agents because of the evolutionary relationship between the prokaryotic genome and mitochondrial DNA of eukaryotes. Anticancer antibiotics that prevent cancer cells from growing by interfering with their DNA and blocking growth of promoters, which include anthracyclines, daunorubicin, epirubicin, mitoxantrone, doxorubicin, and idarubicin, are another type of FDA-approved antibiotics used to treat cancer. According to the endosymbiotic hypothesis, prokaryotes and eukaryotes are thought to have an evolutionary relationship. Hence, in this study, we are trying to explore antibiotics that are necessary for treating diseases, including cancer, helping people reduce deaths associated with various infections, and substantially extending people's life expectancy and quality of life.

The impact of Thiopeptide antibiotics on inflammatory responses in periodontal tissues through the regulation of the MAPK pathway

Periodontitis is a bacteria-induced inflammatory disease that damages the tissues supporting the teeth, gums, periodontal ligaments, and alveolar bone. Conventional treatments such as surgical procedures, anti-inflammatory drugs, and antibiotics, are somewhat effective; however, these may lead to discomfort and adverse events, thereby affecting patient outcomes. Therefore, this study aimed to find an effective method to prevent the onset of periodontal disease and explore the specific mechanisms of their action.The impact of thiostrepton on Porphyromonas gingivalis and periodontal ligament stem cells was evaluated in an inflammatory microenvironment. In vivo experiments were performed using a mouse periodontitis model to assess the effectiveness of locally applied thiostrepton combined with a silk fibroin hydrogel in impeding periodontitis progression. Thiostrepton exhibited significant antimicrobial effects against Porphyromonas gingivalis and anti-inflammatory properties by regulating the MAPK pathway through DUSP2. Locally applied thiostrepton effectively impeded the progression of periodontitis and reduced tissue damage. Thiostrepton treatment is a promising and tolerable preventive strategy for periodontitis, offering antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory benefits. These findings suggest the potential of thiostrepton as a valuable addition to periodontitis management, warranting further research and clinical exploration to improve patient outcomes.

Ficolin 3 promotes ferroptosis in HCC by downregulating IR/SREBP axis-mediated MUFA synthesis

BACKGROUND

Targeting ferroptosis has been identified as a promising approach for the development of cancer therapies. Monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) is a type of lipid that plays a crucial role in inhibiting ferroptosis. Ficolin 3 (FCN3) is a component of the complement system, serving as a recognition molecule against pathogens in the lectin pathway. Recent studies have reported that FCN3 demonstrates inhibitory effects on the progression of certain tumors. However, whether FCN3 can modulate lipid metabolism and ferroptosis remains largely unknown.

METHODS

Cell viability, BODIPY-C11 staining, and MDA assay were carried out to detect ferroptosis. Primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and xenograft models were utilized to investigate the effect of FCN3 on the development of HCC in vivo. A metabonomic analysis was conducted to assess alterations in intracellular and HCC intrahepatic lipid levels.

RESULTS

Our study elucidates a substantial decrease in the expression of FCN3, a component of the complement system, leads to MUFA accumulation in human HCC specimens and thereby significantly promotes ferroptosis resistance. Overexpression of FCN3 efficiently sensitizes HCC cells to ferroptosis, resulting in the inhibition of the oncogenesis and progression of both primary HCC and subcutaneous HCC xenograft. Mechanistically, FCN3 directly binds to the insulin receptor β (IR-β) and its pro-form (pro-IR), inhibiting pro-IR cleavage and IR-β phosphorylation, ultimately resulting in IR-β inactivation. This inactivation of IR-β suppresses the expression of sterol regulatory element binding protein-1c (SREBP1c), which subsequently suppresses the transcription of genes related to de novo lipogenesis (DNL) and lipid desaturation, and consequently downregulates intracellular MUFA levels.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings uncover a novel regulatory mechanism by which FCN3 enhances the sensitivity of HCC cells to ferroptosis, indicating that targeting FCN3-induced ferroptosis is a promising strategy for HCC treatment.

Engineered Multifunctional Zinc-Organic Framework-Based Aggregation-Induced Emission Nanozyme for Accelerating Spinal Cord Injury Recovery

Functional recovery following a spinal cord injury (SCI) is challenging. Traditional drug therapies focus on the suppression of immune responses; however, strategies for alleviating oxidative stress are lacking. Herein, we developed the zinc-organic framework (Zn@MOF)-based aggregation-induced emission-active nanozymes for accelerating recovery following SCI. A multifunctional Zn@MOF was modified with the aggregation-induced emission-active molecule 2-(4-azidobutyl)-6-(phenyl(4-(1,2,2-triphenylvinyl)phenyl)amino)-1H-phenalene-1,3-dione via a bioorthogonal reaction, and the resulting nanozymes were denoted as Zn@MOF-TPD. These nanozymes gradually released gallic acid and zinc ions (Zn2+) at the SCI site. The released gallic acid, a scavenger of reactive oxygen species (ROS), promoted antioxidation and alleviated inflammation, re-establishing the balance between ROS production and the antioxidant defense system. The released Zn2+ ions inhibited the activity of matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) to facilitate the regeneration of neurons via the ROS-mediated NF-κB pathway following secondary SCI. In addition, Zn@MOF-TPD protected neurons and myelin sheaths against trauma, inhibited glial scar formation, and promoted the proliferation and differentiation of neural stem cells, thereby facilitating the repair of neurons and injured spinal cord tissue and promoting functional recovery in rats with contusive SCI. Altogether, this study suggests that Zn@MOF-TPD nanozymes possess a potential for alleviating oxidative stress-mediated pathophysiological damage and promoting motor recovery following SCI.

Anti-tumor therapy of glycyrrhetinic acid targeted liposome co-delivery of doxorubicin and berberine for hepatocellular carcinoma

During the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), hepatic stellate cells undergo activation and transform into cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) due to the influence of tumor cells. The interaction between CAFs and tumor cells can compromise the effectiveness of chemotherapy drugs and promote tumor proliferation, invasion, and metastasis. This study explores the potential of glycyrrhetinic acid (GA)-modified liposomes (lip-GA) as a strategy for co-delivery of berberine (Ber) and doxorubicin (Dox) to treat HCC. The characterizations of liposomes, including particle size, zeta potential, polydispersity index, stability and in vitro drug release, were investigated. The study evaluated the anti-proliferation and anti-migration effects of Dox&Ber@lip-GA on the Huh-7 + LX-2 cell model were through MTT and wound-healing assays. Additionally, the in vivo drug distribution and anti-tumor efficacy were investigated using the H22 + NIH-3T3-bearing mouse model. The results indicated that Dox&Ber@lip-GA exhibited a nanoscale particle size, accumulated specifically in the tumor region, and was efficiently taken up by tumor cells. Compared to other groups, Dox&Ber@lip-GA demonstrated higher cytotoxicity and lower migration rates. Additionally, it significantly reduced the deposition of extracellular matrix (ECM) and inhibited tumor angiogenesis, thereby suppressing tumor growth. In conclusion, Dox&Ber@lip-GA exhibited superior anti-tumor effects both in vitro and in vivo, highlighting its potential as an effective therapeutic strategy for combating HCC.

Evaluation of common protein biomarkers involved in the pathogenesis of respiratory diseases with proteomic methods: A systematic review

AIM

Respiratory disease (RD) is one of the most common diseases characterized by lung dysfunction. Many diagnostic mechanisms have been used to identify the pathogenic agents of responsible for RD. Among these, proteomics emerges as a valuable diagnostic method for pinpointing the specific proteins involved in RD pathogenesis. Therefore, in this study, for the first time, we examined the protein markers involved in the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), asthma, bronchiolitis obliterans (BO), and chemical warfare victims exposed to mustard gas, using the proteomics method as a systematic study.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A systematic search was performed up to September 2023 on several databases, including PubMed, Scopus, ISI Web of Science, and Cochrane. In total, selected 4246 articles were for evaluation according to the criteria. Finally, 119 studies were selected for this systematic review.

RESULTS

A total of 13,806 proteins were identified, 6471 in COPD, 1603 in Asthma, 5638 in IPF, three in BO, and 91 in mustard gas exposed victims. Alterations in the expression of these proteins were observed in the respective diseases. After evaluation, the results showed that 31 proteins were found to be shared among all five diseases.

CONCLUSION

Although these 31 proteins regulate different factors and molecular pathways in all five diseases, they ultimately lead to the regulation of inflammatory pathways. In other words, the expression of some proteins in COPD and mustard-exposed patients increases inflammatory reactions, while in IPF, they cause lung fibrosis. Asthma, causes allergic reactions due to T-cell differentiation toward Th2.

The Transcriptomic Landscape of Age-Induced Changes in Human Visceral Fat and the Predicted Omentum-Liver Connectome in Males

Aging causes alterations in body composition. Specifically, visceral fat mass increases with age and is associated with age-related diseases. The pathogenic potential of visceral fat accumulation has been associated with its anatomical location and metabolic activity. Visceral fat may control systemic metabolism by secreting molecules that act in distal tissues, mainly the liver, through the portal vein. Currently, little is known about age-related changes in visceral fat in humans. Aiming to identify molecular and cellular changes occurring with aging in the visceral fat of humans, we analyzed publicly available transcriptomic data of 355 omentum samples from the Genotype-Tissue Expression portal (GTEx) of 20-79-year-old males and females. We identified the functional enrichment of genes associated with aging, inferred age-related changes in visceral fat cellularity by deconvolution analysis, profiled the senescence-associated secretory phenotype of visceral adipose tissue, and predicted the connectivity of the age-induced visceral fat secretome with the liver. We demonstrate that age induces alterations in visceral fat cellularity, synchronous to changes in metabolic pathways and a shift toward a pro-inflammatory secretory phenotype. Furthermore, our approach identified candidates such as ADIPOQ-ADIPOR1/ADIPOR2, FCN2-LPR1, and TF-TFR2 to mediate visceral fat-liver crosstalk in the context of aging. These findings cast light on how alterations in visceral fat with aging contribute to liver dysfunction and age-related disease etiology.

Combinations of ivermectin with proteasome inhibitors induce synergistic lethality in multiple myeloma

Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable malignancy of plasma cells. Ivermectin is a US Food and Drug Administration-approved drug for antiparasitic use. Here, we showed that ivermectin exerted anti-MM effects and significantly synergized with proteasome inhibitors in vitro and in vivo. Ivermectin alone exhibited mild anti-MM activity in vitro. Further investigation suggested that ivermectin inhibited proteasome activity in the nucleus by repressing the nuclear import of proteasome subunits, such as PSMB5-7 and PSMA3-4. Therefore, ivermectin treatment caused the accumulation of ubiquitylated proteins and the activation of the UPR pathway in MM cells. Furthermore, ivermectin treatment caused DNA damage and DNA damage response (DDR) signaling pathway activation in MM cells. Ivermectin and bortezomib exhibited synergized anti-MM activity in vitro. The dual-drug treatment resulted in synergistic inhibition of proteasome activity and increased DNA damage. An in vivo study using a human MM cell line xenograft mouse model showed that ivermectin and bortezomib efficiently repressed MM tumor growth in vivo, while the dual-drug treatment was well tolerated by experimental animals. Overall, our results demonstrated that ivermectin alone or cotreated with bortezomib might be promising in MM treatment.

Ficolin-2: A potential immune-related therapeutic target with low expression in liver cancer

Objective

This study aimed to investigate the role of ficolin-2 (FCN2) in the development and course of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and to contribute to the evolution of innovative HCC therapeutics.

Methods

Oncomine, GEPIA (Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis), TISIDB (Tumor Immune System Interactions and Drug Bank database), UALCAN (University of Alabama at Birmingham Cancer data analysis portal), UCSC (University of California, Santa Cruz), R package, the Kaplan–Meier technique, Cox regression analysis, LinkedOmics, Pearson’s correlation, and a nomogram were used to investigate the prognostic value of FCN2 in HCC. Co-expressed genes were screened. A protein–protein interaction network was created using the STRING database. Finally, immunohistochemistry was performed to establish the expression of FCN2 in HCC tissues. A pan-cancer study centered on HCC-related molecular analysis was also conducted to look for a link between FCN2 and immune infiltration, immune modulators, and chemokine receptors.

Results

In HCC tissues, the expression of FCN2 was observed to be lower than that in normal tissues. This was connected to the HCC marker alpha-fetoprotein, showing that FCN2 is involved in the development and progression of cancer. FCN2 may act through Staphylococcus aureus infection, lectins, and other pathways. Furthermore, at the immune level, the expression of FCN2 in HCC was associated with some immune cell infiltration, immunomodulators, and chemokine receptors.

Conclusion

FCN2 may be an immune checkpoint inhibitor for HCC, creating a breakthrough in the treatment of HCC.

Circ_0000291 contributes to hepatocellular carcinoma tumorigenesis by binding to miR-1322 to up-regulate UBE2T

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are identified to show important regulatory functions in cancer biology. We attempted to analyze the role of circ_0000291 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progression and its related mechanism.

METHODS

The circular characteristic of circ_0000291 was tested using exonuclease RNase R. Cell proliferation was analyzed by 5-Ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU) incorporation and colony formation assays. Cell apoptosis was measured by flow cytometry and a caspase 3 activity assay kit. Transwell assays were performed to analyze cell migration and invasion abilities. Sphere formation assay was conducted to analyze cell stemness. Dual-luciferase reporter and RNA-pull down assays were conducted to verify the interaction between microRNA-1322 (miR-1322) and circ_0000291 or ubiquitin conjugating enzyme E2 T (UBE2T).

RESULTS

Circ_0000291 was markedly up-regulated in HCC tissues and cell lines. HCC patients with high expression of circ_0000291 displayed a low survival rate. Circ_0000291 knockdown restrained the proliferation, migration, invasion, and stemness and induced the apoptosis of HCC cells. Circ_0000291 directly interacted with miR-1322 and negatively regulated miR-1322 expression. Circ_0000291 knockdown-mediated anti-tumor impacts in HCC cells were largely overturned by the interference of miR-1322. miR-1322 directly paired with the 3' untranslated region (3'UTR) of UBE2T, and UBE2T was negatively regulated by miR-1322. UBE2T overexpression largely reversed circ_0000291 silencing-induced effects in HCC cells. Circ_0000291 positively regulated UBE2T expression by absorbing miR-1322 in HCC cells. Circ_0000291 silencing notably reduced the tumorigenic potential in vivo.

CONCLUSION

Circ_0000291 facilitated HCC progression by targeting miR-1322/UBE2T axis, which provided novel potential biomarkers and targets for HCC patients.

Comprehensive Analysis of Prognostic Value and Immune Infiltration of Ficolin Family Members in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Objective: Ficolin (FCN) family proteins are part of the innate immune system, play a role as recognition molecules in the complement system, and are associated with tumor development. The mechanism of its role in immunotherapy of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is unclear.

Methods: In this study, we used the TCGA database, HPA database, Gene Expression Profile Interaction Analysis (GEPIA), Kaplan-Meier plotter, TCGAportal, cBioPortal, GeneMANIA, TIMER, and TISIDB to analyze Ficolin family proteins (FCN1, FCN2 and FCN3, FCNs) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma for differential expression, prognostic value, genetic alterations, functional enrichment, and immune factor correlation analysis.

Results: The expression levels of FCN1/2/3 were significantly reduced in patients with HCC. Among them, FCN3 showed significant correlation with Overall Survival (OS), Progressive Free Survival (PFS) and Relapse Free Survival (RFS) in HCC. FCN1 and FCN3 may be potential prognostic markers for survival in patients with HCC. In addition, the functions of differentially expressed FCNs were mainly related to complement activation, immune response, apoptotic cell clearance and phagocytosis. FCNs were found to be significantly correlated with multiple immune cells and immune factors. Expression of FCN1 and FCN3 differed significantly in the immune and stromal cell component scores of HCC. analysis of the tumor mutation burden (TMB) and microsatellite instability (MSI) of FCNs with pan-cancer showed that FCN3 was significantly correlated with both.

Conclusions: Our study provides new insights into the link between the FCN family and immunotherapy for HCC, and FCN3 may serve as a prognostic biomarker for HCC.

Cytotoxic capability and the associated proteomic profile of cell-free coelomic fluid extracts from the edible sea cucumber Holothuria tubulosa on HepG2 liver cancer cells

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an aggressive cancer histotype and one of the most common types of cancer worldwide. The identification of compounds that might intervene to restrain neoplastic cell growth appears imperative due to its elevated overall mortality. The marine environment represents a reservoir rich in bioactive compounds in terms of primary and secondary metabolites produced by aquatic animals, mainly invertebrates. In the present study, we determined whether the water-soluble cell-free extract of the coelomic fluid (CFE) of the edible sea cucumber Holothuria tubulosa could play an anti-HCC role in vitro by analyzing the viability and locomotory behavior, cell cycle distribution, apoptosis and autophagy modulation, mitochondrial function and cell redox state of HepG2 HCC cells. We showed that CFE causes an early block in the cell cycle at the G₂/M phase, which is coupled to oxidative stress promotion, autophagosome depletion and mitochondrial dysfunction ultimately leading to apoptotic death. We also performed a proteomic analysis of CFE identifying a number of proteins that are seemingly responsible for anti-cancer effects. In conclusion, H. tubulosa's CFE merits further investigation to develop novel promising anti-HCC prevention and/or treatment agents and also beneficial supplements for formulation of functional foods and food packaging material.

Extracellular Vesicles Derived from SIPA1high Breast Cancer Cells Enhance Macrophage Infiltration and Cancer Metastasis through Myosin-9

Simple Summary

The high expression of signal-induced proliferation-associated 1 (SIPA1) in breast cancer could aggravate cancer cell metastasis, but how the tumour microenvironment is involved in this incident is unknown. In this study, we investigated whether breast cancer cells with high SIPA1 expression recruited macrophages into the tumour microenvironment. We also found that extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from MDA-MB-231 cells significantly enhanced macrophage migration, compared with that from SIPA1-knockdown MDA-MB-231 cells both in vitro and in vivo. In terms of the mechanism, SIPA1 in cancer cells modulated the key protein myosin-9 in EVs and promoted macrophage infiltration via EVs. We confirmed that either down-regulating SIPA1 expression or blocking myosin-9 by its inhibitor, blebbistatin, led to the suppression of macrophage infiltration. These findings contribute to a deep understanding of how SIPA1 regulates the tumour microenvironment in breast cancer to facilitate tumour metastasis and provide a basis for the development of therapeutics against breast cancer metastasis.

Abstract

Tumour cell metastasis can be genetically regulated by proteins contained in cancer cell-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) released to the tumour microenvironment. Here, we found that the number of infiltrated macrophages was positively correlated with the expression of signal-induced proliferation-associated 1 (SIPA1) in invasive breast ductal carcinoma tissues and MDA-MB-231 xenograft tumours. EVs derived from MDA-MB-231 cells (231-EVs) significantly enhanced macrophage migration, compared with that from SIPA1-knockdown MDA-MB-231 cells (231/si-EVs) both in vitro and in vivo. We revealed that SIPA1 promoted the transcription of MYH9, which encodes myosin-9, and up-regulated the expression level of myosin-9 in breast cancer cells and their EVs. We also found that blocking myosin-9 by either down-regulating SIPA1 expression or blebbistatin treatment led to the suppression of macrophage infiltration. Survival analysis showed that breast cancer patients with high expression of SIPA1 and MYH9 molecules had worse relapse-free survival (p = 0.028). In summary, SIPA1^high breast cancer can enhance macrophage infiltration through EVs enriched with myosin-9, which might aggravate the malignancy of breast cancer.

Components of the Lectin Pathway of Complement in Solid Tumour Cancers

The complement system is an important branch of the humoral innate immune response that can be activated via three distinct pathways (classical, alternative, lectin), contributing to keeping/restoring homeostasis. It can also interact with cellular innate immunity and with components of acquired immunity. Cross-talk between the complement system and other enzyme-dependent cascades makes it a more influential defence system, but on the other hand, over- or chronic activation can be harmful. This short review is focused on the dual role of the lectin pathway of complement activation in human solid tumour cancers, including those of the female reproductive system, lung, and alimentary tract, with emphasis on the aforementioned cross-talk.

lncRNA ZNF674-AS1 inhibits the migration, invasion and epithelial-mesenchymal transition of thyroid cancer cells by modulating the miR-181a/SOCS4 axis

Thyroid cancer (TC) is a very common endocrine cancer worldwide. Further understanding and revealing the molecular mechanism underlying thyroid cancer are indispensable for the development of effective diagnosis and treatments. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), a series of non-coding RNAs with a length of >200 nts, have been regarded as crucial regulators of many cancers playing a tumor suppressive or oncogenic role, depending on circumstances. lncRNA ZNF674-AS1 was reported to be abnormally expressed in TC, but the exact mechanism remains unclear. This study aims to probe the mechanism and roles of ZNF674-AS1 in TC. The expression patterns of RNAs and proteins were determined via qRT-PCR and western blotting, respectively. Cell proliferation, migration and invasion were detected using MTT and Transwell assays. ZNF674-AS1 and SOCS4 expression were remarkably reduced while miR-181a was upregulated in TC tissues and cells. Enforced expression of ZNF674-AS1 inhibited proliferation, migration, invasion and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in vitro and reduced tumour growth in vivo. Mechanistic assays verified that ZNF674-AS1 directly interacted with miR-181a to increase SOCS4 expression. In addition, miR-181a overexpression aggravated proliferation, metastasis and EMT by inhibiting SOCS4. Interestingly, inhibition of miR-181a diminished the promoting effects of ZNF674-AS1 silencing on the malignant behaviours of TC cells. These data illustrated that ZNF674-AS1 alleviated TC progression by modulating the miR-181a/SOCS4 axis (graphical abstract), further suggesting that ZNF674-AS1 might be used as a therapheutic target in TC treatment.

Molecular Profile Study of Extracellular Vesicles for the Identification of Useful Small “Hit” in Cancer Diagnosis

Tumor-secreted extracellular vesicles (EVs) are the main mediators of cell-cell communication, permitting cells to exchange proteins, lipids, and metabolites in varying physiological and pathological conditions. They contain signature tumor-derived molecules that reflect the intracellular status of their cell of origin. Recent studies have shown that tumor cell-derived EVs can aid in cancer metastasis through the modulation of the tumor microenvironment, suppression of the immune system, pre-metastatic niche formation, and subsequent metastasis. EVs can easily be isolated from a variety of biological fluids, and their content makes them useful biomarkers for the diagnosis, prognosis, monitorization of cancer progression, and response to treatment. This review aims to explore the biomarkers of cancer cell-derived EVs obtained from liquid biopsies, in order to understand cancer progression and metastatic evolution for early diagnosis and precision therapy.

Comprehensive Analysis to Identify the Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition-Related Immune Signatures as a Prognostic and Therapeutic Biomarkers in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a highly heterogeneous disease with the high rates of the morbidity and mortality due to the lack of the effective prognostic model for prediction.

Aim: To construct a risk model composed of the epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related immune genes for the assessment of the prognosis, immune infiltration status, and chemosensitivity.

Methods: We obtained the transcriptome and clinical data of the HCC samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and The International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) databases. The Pearson correlation analysis was applied to identify the differentially expressed EMT-related immune genes (DE-EMTri-genes). Subsequently, the univariate Cox regression was introduced to screen out the prognostic gene sets and a risk model was constructed based on the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator-penalized Cox regression. Additionally, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were plotted to compare the prognostic value of the newly established model compared with the previous model. Furthermore, the correlation between the risk model and survival probability, immune characteristic, and efficacy of the chemotherapeutics were analyzed by the bioinformatics methods.

Results: Six DE-EMTri-genes were ultimately selected to construct the prognostic model. The area under the curve (AUC) values for 1-, 2-, and 3- year were 0.773, 0.721, and 0.673, respectively. Stratified survival analysis suggested that the prognosis of the low-score group was superior to the high-score group. Moreover, the univariate and multivariate analysis indicated that risk score [hazard ratio (HR) 5.071, 95% CI 3.050, 8.432; HR 4.396, 95% CI 2.624, 7.366; p < 0.001] and stage (HR 2.500, 95% CI 1.721, 3.632; HR 2.111, 95% CI 1.443, 3.089; p < 0.001) served as an independent predictive factors in HCC. In addition, the macrophages, natural killer (NK) cells, and regulatory T (Treg) cells were significantly enriched in the high-risk group. Finally, the patients with the high-risk score might be more sensitive to cisplatin, doxorubicin, etoposide, gemcitabine, and mitomycin C.

Conclusion: We established a reliable EMTri-genes-based prognostic signature, which may hold promise for the clinical prediction.

Berberine Suppresses EMT in Liver and Gastric Carcinoma Cells through Combination with TGFβR Regulating TGF-β/Smad Pathway

Berberine (BBR), a natural alkaloid derived from Coptis, has anticancer activity. Some researchers have found that it could restrain epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of melanoma, neuroblastoma, and other tumor cells. However, it is unclear whether BBR can reverse EMT in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and gastric carcinoma (GC). In our study, BBR inhibited the migration and invasion of HepG2, MGC803, and SGC7901 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Transcription sequencing assays showed that Vimentin, MMP, and Smad3 were downregulated, but Smad2, Smad6, TAB2, ZO-1, and claudin 7 were upregulated when treated with BBR. GO Enrichment analysis of KEGG pathway showed that BBR significantly inhibited TGF-β/Smad at 12 h, then, PI3K/Akt and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathways at 24 h, which were closely related to the proliferation, migration, and EMT. The results of the transcriptome sequencing analysis were verified by Western Blot. It showed that the expression of epithelial marker E-cadherin and ZO-1 remarkably augmented with BBR treatment, as well as declined mesenchymal markers, including N-cadherin and Vimentin, decreased transcription factor Snail and Slug. The effects of BBR were similar to those of the PI3K inhibitor LY294002 and TGF-β receptor inhibitor SB431542. Furthermore, β-catenin and phosphorylation of AKT, Smad2, and Smad3 were changed dose-dependently by BBR treatment, which upregulated p-Smad2 and downregulated the others. Combined with LY or SB, respectively, BBR could enhance the effects of the two inhibitors. Simultaneously, IGF-1 and TGF-β, which is the activator of PI3K/AKT and TGF-β/Smad, respectively, could reverse the anti-EMT effect of BBR. The Molecular Docking results showed BBR had a high affinity with the TGF-β receptor I (TGFβR1), and the binding energy was -7.5 kcal/mol, which is better than the original ligand of TGFβR1. Although the affinity of BBR with TGF-β receptor II (TGFβR2) was lower than the original ligand of TGFβR2, the more considerable negative binding energy (-8.54 kcal/mol) was obtained. BBR upregulated p-Smad2, which was different from other reports, indicating that the function of Smad2 was relatively complex. Combination BBR with SB could enhance the effect of the inhibitor on EMT, and the results indicated that BBR binding to TGFβR was not competitive with SB to TGFβR since different binding amino acid sites. Our experiments demonstrated BBR increased p-Smad2 and decreased p-Smad3 by binding to TGFβR1 and TGβFR2 inhibiting TGF-β/Smad, then, PI3K/AKT and other signaling pathways to restrain EMT, metastasis, and invasion in tumor cells. The effect of BBR was similar on the three tumor cells.

Role of tight junction-associated MARVEL protein marvelD3 in migration and epithelial-mesenchymal transition of hepatocellular carcinoma

MarvelD3, a recently identified tight junction membrane protein, could be associated with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We aimed to investigate the role of marvelD3 in Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) and migration of HCC and explore the underlying molecular mechanisms. First, we assessed marvlD3 expression in HCC and normal liver tissues and found loss of marvelD3 expression was significantly correlated with the occurrence and TNM stage of HCC. Second, we detected that marvelD3 was downregulated in HCC cells with transforming growth factor β1 and snail/slug-induced EMT. Finally, we analyzed expression of marvelD3 protein was significantly associated with EMT and the NF-κB signaling pathway. Our study demonstrated that MarvelD3 inhibited EMT and migration of HCC cells along with inhibiting NF-κB signaling pathway.Abbreviations: HCC, Hepatocellular carcinoma; TJ, Tight junction; MARVEL, MAL and related proteins for vesicle trafficking and membrane link; EMT, Epithelial-mesenchymal transition; NF-κB, Nuclear factor kappa B; TAMPs, Tight junction-associated marvel proteins; TGF-β1, Transforming growth factor-β1; MMP9, matrix metallopeptidase 9; RT-PCR, Real-time PCR; IHC, Immunohistochemistry; IF, Immunofluorescence.

ETS1 promoted cell growth, metastasis and epithelial-mesenchymal transition process in melanoma by regulating miR-16-mediated SOX4 expression

Melanoma is a malignant tumor with high metastasis and mortality. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) was reported to be involved in the growth and metastasis of melanoma. To investigate these sections further, we showed that E26 transformation specific 1 (ETS1) could regulate growth, metastasis and EMT process of melanoma by regulating microRNA(miR)-16/SRY-related HMG box (SOX) 4 expression. MiR-16, ETS1, SOX4 and nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) expression levels in melanoma cells were examined using qPCR. ETS1, SOX4, EMT-related proteins and NF-κB signaling pathway-related proteins were examined using western blot. Cell counting kit-8 assay, transwell assay were applied to evaluate the cell proliferation, migration and invasion of melanoma cells, respectively. Besides, a dual-luciferase reporter assay was employed to verify the binding relationship between ETS1 and miR-16, miR-16 and SOX4, miR-16 and NF-κB1. We showed that ETS1 and SOX4 were upregulated in melanoma cells, while miR-16 was downregulated. MiR-16 overexpression suppressed growth, metastasis and EMT process of melanoma. We found ETS1 could bind to the promoter region of miR-16 and inhibited its transcription. ETS1 silence could inhibit growth, metastasis and EMT process of melanoma, and inhibition of miR-16 could reverse the effects. Besides, miR-16 is directly bound to SOX4 and downregulated its expression. Rescued experiments confirmed that SOX4 overexpression abolished the inhibition effect of miR-16 mimics on growth, metastasis and EMT process of melanoma. Finally, NF-κB1 as the target of miR-16 mediated downstream biological responses. ETS1 activated NF-κB signaling pathway through miR-16 via targeting SOX4, thus promoting growth, metastasis and EMT of melanoma.

Benchmarking and Testing Machine Learning Approaches with BARRA:CuRDa, a Curated RNA-Seq Database for Cancer Research

RNA-seq is gradually becoming the dominating technique employed to access the global gene expression in biological samples, allowing more flexible protocols and robust analysis. However, the nature of RNA-seq results imposes new data-handling challenges when it comes to computational analysis. With the increasing employment of machine learning (ML) techniques in biomedical sciences, databases that could provide curated data sets treated with state-of-the-art approaches already adapted to ML protocols, become essential for testing new algorithms. In this study, we present the Benchmarking of ARtificial intelligence Research: Curated RNA-seq Database (BARRA:CuRDa). BARRA:CuRDa was built exclusively for cancer research and is composed of 17 handpicked RNA-seq data sets for Homo sapiens that were gathered from the Gene Expression Omnibus, using rigorous filtering criteria. All data sets were individually submitted to sample quality analysis, removal of low-quality bases and artifacts from the experimental process, removal of ribosomal RNA, and estimation of transcript-level abundance. Moreover, all data sets were tested using standard approaches in the field, which allows them to be used as benchmark to new ML approaches. A feature selection analysis was also performed on each data set to investigate the biological accuracy of basic techniques. Results include genes already related to their specific tumoral tissue a large amount of long noncoding RNA and pseudogenes. BARRA:CuRDa is available at http://sbcb.inf.ufrgs.br/barracurda.

Colorectal cancer cell intrinsic fibroblast activation protein alpha binds to Enolase1 and activates NF-κB pathway to promote metastasis

Fibroblast activation protein alpha (FAP) is a marker of cancer-associated fibroblast, which is also expressed in cancer epithelial cells. However, the role of FAP in colorectal cancer (CRC) cells remains to be elucidated. Here we investigate the expression pattern of FAP in CRC tissues and cells to prove that FAP is upregulated in CRC cells. Loss- of and gain-of-function assays identified FAP promotes migration and invasion instead of an effect on cell proliferation. Microarray assays are adopted to identify the different expressed genes after FAP knockdown and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) is used to exploit the involved signaling pathway. Our works reveal FAP exerts a function dependent on NF-κB signaling pathway and FAP expression is associated with NF-κB signaling pathway in clinical samples. Our work shows FAP is secreted by CRC cells and soluble FAP could promote metastasis. To investigate the mechanism of FAP influencing the NF-κB signaling pathway, LC/MS is performed to identify the proteins interacting with FAP. We find that FAP binds to ENO1 and activates NF-κB signaling pathway dependent on ENO1. Blocking ENO1 could partially reverse the pro-metastatic effect mediated by FAP. We also provide evidences that both FAP and ENO1 are associated with CRC stages, and high levels of FAP and ENO1 predict a poor survival in CRC patients. In summary, our work could provide a novel mechanism of FAP in CRC cells and a potential strategy for treatment of metastatic CRC.

Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 7 Promotes Th17/Th1 Cell Differentiation in Psoriasis by Modulating Glycolytic Metabolism

Excessive activation of CD4⁺ T cells and T helper type (Th) 17/Th1 cell differentiation are critical events in psoriasis pathogenesis, but the associated molecular mechanism is still unclear. Here, using quantitative proteomics analysis, we found that cyclin-dependent kinase 7 (CDK7) expression was markedly increased in CD4⁺ T cells from patients with psoriasis compared with healthy controls and was positively correlated with psoriasis severity. Meanwhile, genetic or pharmacological inhibition of CDK7 ameliorated the severity of psoriasis in the imiquimod-induced psoriasis-like mouse model and suppressed CD4⁺ T-cell activation as well as Th17/Th1 cell differentiation in vivo and in vitro. Furthermore, the CDK7 inhibitor also reduced the enhanced glycolysis of CD4⁺ T cells from patients with psoriasis. Proinflammatory cytokine IL-23 induced increased CDK7 expression in CD4⁺ T cells and activated the protein kinase B/mTOR/HIF-1α signaling pathway, enhancing glycolytic metabolism. Correspondingly, CDK7 inhibition significantly impaired IL-23-induced glycolysis via the protein kinase B/mTOR/HIF-1α pathway. In summary, this study shows that CDK7 promotes CD4⁺ T-cell activation and Th17/Th1 cell differentiation by regulating glycolysis, thus contributing to the pathogenesis of psoriasis. Targeting CDK7 might be a promising immunosuppressive strategy to control skin inflammation mediated by IL-23.

IL-35 promotes EMT through STAT3 activation and induces MET by promoting M2 macrophage polarization in HCC

The tumor microenvironment and interplay with cancer cells could promote tumor growth and metastasis. Here we report that polarization state of macrophages could affect epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET). IL-35 level secreted by M1 macrophage was significantly higher than M2 macrophage and it facilitated EMT process through activation of STAT3 in hepatocellular carcinoma cells. Interestingly, IL-35 could not directly promote MET, but it could indirectly induce MET of HCC cells through M2 macrophage polarization. These results indicated the level of IL-35 in tumor microenvironment may fluctuate at different stages of oncogenesis to regulate epithelial plasticity of HCC and provide potential therapeutic targets for tumor metastasis.

Identification of serum biomarkers to predict pemetrexed/platinum chemotherapy efficacy for advanced lung adenocarcinoma patients by data-independent acquisition (DIA) mass spectrometry analysis with parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) verification

Background

Pemetrexed/platinum chemotherapy has been the standard chemotherapy regimen for lung adenocarcinoma patients, but the efficacy varies considerably.

Methods

To discover new serum biomarkers to predict the efficacy of pemetrexed/platinum chemotherapy, we analyzed 20 serum samples from advanced lung adenocarcinoma patients who received pemetrexed/platinum chemotherapy with the data-independent acquisition (DIA) quantitative mass spectrometry (MS).

Results

The 20 patients were categorized as “good response” [12 patients achieving partial response (PR)] and “poor response” [8 patients with progressive disease (PD)] groups. Altogether 23 significantly different expressed proteins were identified, which had relative ratios higher than 1.2 or lower than –0.83, with 7 proteins having an area under the curve (AUC) above 0.8. To further validate the DIA results, we used the parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) method to examine 16 candidate serum biomarkers in the study cohort of 20 patients and another cohort of 22 advanced lung adenocarcinoma patients (16 PR and 6 PD). Quantitative validation using PRM correlated well with the DIA results, and 10 promising proteins exhibited a similar up- or downregulation. It is worth noting that glutathione peroxidase 3 (GPX3) exhibits significant upregulation in the poor response group compared with the good response group, which was validated by both DIA and PRM methods.

Conclusions

Our study confirmed that combined DIA MS and PRM approaches were effective in identifying serum predictive biomarkers for advanced lung adenocarcinoma patients. Further studies are needed to explore the potential biological mechanism underlying these biomarkers.

A novel urinary biomarker protein panel to identify children with ureteropelvic junction obstruction - A pilot study

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE

Reliable urinary biomarker proteins would be invaluable in identifying children with ureteropelvic junction obstruction (UPJO) as the existing biomarker proteins are inconsistent in their predictive ability. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify consistent and reliable urinary biomarker proteins in children with UPJO.

METHODS

To identify candidate biomarker proteins, total protein from age-restricted (<2 years) and sex-matched (males) control (n = 22) and UPJO (n = 21) urine samples was analyzed by mass spectrometry. Proteins that were preferentially identified in UPJO samples were selected (2-step process) and ranked according to their diagnostic odds ratio value. The top ten proteins with highest odds ratio values were selected and tested individually by ELISA. The total amount of each protein was normalized to urine creatinine and the median with interquartile ranges for control and UPJO samples was determined. Additionally, fold change (UPJO/Control) of medians of the final panel of 5 proteins was also determined. Finally, we calculated the average + 3(SD) and average + 4(SD) values of each of the 5 proteins in the control samples and used it as an arbitrary cutoff to classify individual control and UPJO samples.

RESULTS

In the first step of our selection process, we identified 171 proteins in UPJO samples that were not detected in the majority of the control samples (16/22 samples, or 72.7%). Of the 171 proteins, only 50 proteins were detected in at least 11/21 (52.4%) of the UPJO samples and hence were selected in the second step. Subsequently, these 50 proteins were ranked according to the odds ratio value and the top 10 ranked proteins were validated by ELISA. Five of the 10 proteins - prostaglandin-reductase-1, ficolin-2, nicotinate-nucleotide pyrophosphorylase [carboxylating], immunoglobulin superfamily-containing leucine-rich-repeat-protein and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 were present at higher levels in the UPJO samples (fold-change of the median protein concentrations ranging from 2.9 to 9.4) and emerged as a panel of biomarkers to identify obstructive uropathy. Finally, the order of prevalence of the 5 proteins in UPJO samples is PTGR1>FCN2>QPRT>ISLR>VCAM1.

CONCLUSION

In summary, this unique screening strategy led to the identification of previously unknown biomarker proteins that when screened collectively, may reliably distinguish between obstructed vs. non-obstructed infants and may prove useful in identifying informative biomarker panels for biological samples from many diseases.

Associations of ficolins and mannose-binding lectin with acute myeloid leukaemia in adults

We investigated clinical associations of ficolins and mannose-binding lectin (MBL) in 157 patients suffering from acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). Concentrations of ficolin-1, ficolin-2, ficolin-3 and MBL (before chemotherapy) in serum were determined as were selected polymorphisms of the corresponding genes (FCN1, FCN2, FCN3 and MBL2). The control group (C) consisted of 267 healthy unrelated individuals. Median level of ficolin-1 in patients was lower (p < 0.000001) while median levels of ficolin-2, ficolin-3 and MBL were higher (p < 0.000001, p < 0.000001 and p = 0.0016, respectively) compared with controls. These findings were generally associated with AML itself, however the highest MBL levels predicted higher risk of severe hospital infections (accompanied with bacteremia and/or fungaemia) (p = 0.012) while the lowest ficolin-1 concentrations tended to be associated with prolonged (> 7 days) fever (p = 0.026). Genotyping indicated an association of G/G homozygosity (corresponding to FCN1 gene - 542 G > A polymorphism) with malignancy [p = 0.004, OR = 2.95, 95% CI (1.41-6.16)]. Based on ROC analysis, ficolin-1, -2 and -3 may be considered candidate supplementary biomarkers of AML. Their high potential to differentiate between patients from non-malignant controls but also from persons suffering from other haematological cancers (multiple myeloma and lymphoma) was demonstrated.

Chinese Dragon's Blood EtOAc Extract Inhibits Liver Cancer Growth Through Downregulation of Smad3

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most prevalent malignancies, which ranks the third leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. The screening of anti-HCC drug with high efficiency and low toxicity from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has attracted more and more attention. As a TCM, Chinese dragon’s blood has been used for the treatment of cardiovascular illness, gynecological illness, skin disorder, otorhinolaryngological illness, and diabetes mellitus complications for many years. However, the anti-tumor effect and underlying mechanisms of Chinese dragon’s blood remain ill-defined. Herein we have revealed that Chinese dragon’s blood EtOAc extract (CDBEE) obviously suppressed the growth of human hepatoma HepG2 and SK-HEP-1 cells. Moreover, CDBEE inhibited the migration and invasion of HepG2 and SK-HEP-1 cells. Additionally, CDBEE displayed good in vitro anti-angiogenic activity. Importantly, CDBEE treatment significantly blunted the oncogenic capability of HepG2 cells in nude mice. Mechanistically, CDBEE inhibited Smad3 expression in human hepatoma cells and tumor tissues from nude mice. Using RNA interference, we demonstrated that CDBEE exerted anti-hepatoma activity partially through down-regulation of Smad3, one of major members in TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway. Therefore, CDBEE may be a promising candidate drug for HCC treatment, especially for liver cancer with aberrant TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway.

Hepatocellular carcinoma-derived exosomes in organotropic metastasis, recurrence and early diagnosis application

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of primary liver cancer, despite improvements in the clinical trial and diagnosis, HCC still remains high mortality due to the 70% recurrence and lung metastasis after surgical resection. Exosomes are small membrane vesicles, which are shuttled from donor cells to recipient cells, contributing to the recruitment and reprogramming of constituents via an autocrine or paracrine fashion. HCC derived exosomes could redirect metastasis of tumor cells which lack the capacity to metastasize to a specific organ via generating pre-metastatic niche. These findings emphasize a practical and potentially feasible role of exosomes in the treatment of patients with HCC, both as a target and a vehicle for drug design. We herein summarize recent findings that implicate oncogenes and non-canonical signaling of HCC exosomes, as well as the impact of exosomal bioactive molecules in high recurrence induced by organ-specific metastasis. The aim of review is to illustrate the underlying mechanism of exosomes in tumor metastasis, immune evasion, and the potential application of prognostic biomarker in HCC process.

Associations of Ficolins With Hematological Malignancies in Patients Receiving High-Dose Chemotherapy and Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantations

A prospective study of 312 patients [194 with multiple myeloma (MM) and 118 with lymphomas (LYMPH)] receiving high-dose chemotherapy and autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (auto-HSCT) was conducted. Ficolins are innate immune defense factors, able to distinguish between "self" "abnormal self," and "non-self" and contribute to the elimination of the last two by direct opsonization and/or initiation of complement activation via the lectin pathway. Concentrations of ficolin-1, ficolin-2, and ficolin-3 in serially taken serum samples were determined as were the polymorphisms of the corresponding (FCN1, FCN2, and FCN3) genes. Serum samples were collected before conditioning chemotherapy, before HSCT, and once weekly post-HSCT (four to five samples in total); some patients were also sampled at 1 and/or 3 months post-transplantation. The control group (C) consisted of 267 healthy unrelated individuals. Median ficolin-1 and ficolin-2 (but not ficolin-3) levels in MM patients' sera taken before chemotherapy were lower (and correspondingly frequencies of the lowest concentrations were higher) compared with controls. That appeared to be associated with the malignant disease itself rather than with post-HSCT complications (febrile neutropenia, infections accompanied, or not with bacteremia). Higher frequencies of the FCN1 genotype G/A-C/C-G/G (corresponding to polymorphisms at positions -542, -144, and +6658, respectively) and FCN2 gene heterozygosity for the -857 C>A polymorphism were found among patients diagnosed with MM compared with the C group. Furthermore, FCN2 G/G homozygosity (-557 A>G) was found more frequently and heterozygosity G/T at +6424 less frequently among LYMPH patients than among the healthy subjects. Heterozygosity for +1637delC mutation of the FCN3 gene was more common among patients diagnosed with lymphomas who experienced hospital infections. Although no evidence for an association of low ficolin-1 or ficolin-2 with infections during neutropenia following chemotherapy before HSCT was found, we observed a possible protective effect of ficolins during follow-up.

SENP1 is a crucial promotor for hepatocellular carcinoma through deSUMOylation of UBE2T

The cooperative roles of SENP1 and UBE2T in development and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are still unknown. The expression levels of SENP1 and UBE2T were evaluated in clinical specimens and HCC cells. The relationship between clinicopathological features and SENP1 were analyzed. We constructed the HepG2-SENP1 knockout cell model and explored the functions of SENP1 and UBE2T in HCC development. UBE2T was confirmed as a novel deSUMOylation target of SENP1. Upregulation of SENP1 and UBE2T were observed in HCC tissues and most hepatoma cell lines, and their expression levels were proved to be positively related. Knockout of SENP1 resulted in impaired growth, migration and invasion, and enhanced apoptosis in vitro, as well as inhibition of tumor growth in vivo. Furthermore, we demonstrated that SENP1 could directly deSUMOylate UBE2T thereby increasing its expression and activating Akt pathway. Functional studies showed that UBE2T overexpression or K8R mutation promoted cell growth, migration and invasion. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that SENP1 and UBE2T were positively related and functioned as tumor promoters. The carcinogenesis of SENP1 is mediated by deSUMOylation of UBE2T and the UBE2T/Akt pathway. Notably, UBE2T was identified as a novel deSUMOylation target of SENP1 in this study for the first time.

The Interaction of CDH20 With β-Catenin Inhibits Cervical Cancer Cell Migration and Invasion via TGF-β/Smad/SNAIL Mediated EMT

Cancer-associated cadherin 20 (CDH20) is a novel identified cadherin that is genetically altered in several types of human cancer, including cervical cancer. However, its involvement in the progression of cervical cancer remains unknown. In this study, we show that CDH20 was downregulated in clinical cervical cancer samples and its expression correlated with cervical cancer clinical features. CDH20 negatively regulated the migration and invasion of cervical cancer cells. CDH20 increased the expression and promoted the cytoplasm and membrane translocation of β-catenin, and interacted with β-catenin. Mechanistically, CDH20/β-catenin suppressed transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β)-induced epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) by downregulating Snail through reducing the phosphorylation and nuclear translocation of Smad2/3. Taken together, our data suggest that CDH20 may act as a tumor suppressor that interacts with β-catenin to inhibit cervical cancer cell migration and invasion via TGF-β/Smad/Snail mediated EMT.

Contextual Regulation of TGF-β Signaling in Liver Cancer

Primary liver cancer is one of the leading causes for cancer-related death worldwide. Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) is a pleiotropic cytokine that signals through membrane receptors and intracellular Smad proteins, which enter the nucleus upon receptor activation and act as transcription factors. TGF-β inhibits liver tumorigenesis in the early stage by inducing cytostasis and apoptosis, but promotes malignant progression in more advanced stages by enhancing cancer cell survival, EMT, migration, invasion and finally metastasis. Understanding the molecular mechanisms underpinning the multi-faceted roles of TGF-β in liver cancer has become a persistent pursuit during the last two decades. Contextual regulation fine-tunes the robustness, duration and plasticity of TGF-β signaling, yielding versatile albeit specific responses. This involves multiple feedback and feed-forward regulatory loops and also the interplay between Smad signaling and non-Smad pathways. This review summarizes the known regulatory mechanisms of TGF-β signaling in liver cancer, and how they channel, skew and even switch the actions of TGF-β during cancer progression.

Prognostic genes of hepatocellular carcinoma based on gene coexpression network analysis

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common subtype in liver cancer whose prognosis is affected by malignant progression associated with complex gene interactions. However, there is currently no available biomarkers associated with HCC progression in clinical application. In our study, RNA sequencing expression data of 50 normal samples and 374 tumor samples was analyzed and 9225 differentially expressed genes were screened. Weighted gene coexpression network analysis was then conducted and the blue module we were interested was identified by calculating the correlations between 17 gene modules and clinical features. In the blue module, the calculation of topological overlap was applied to select the top 30 genes and these 30 genes were divided into the green group (11 genes) and the yellow group (19 genes) through searching whether these genes were validated by in vitro or in vivo experiments. The genes in the green group which had never been validated by any experiments were recognized as hub genes. These hub genes were subsequently validated by a new data set GSE76427 and KM Plotter Online Tool, and the results indicated that 10 genes (FBXO43, ARHGEF39, MXD3, VIPR1, DNASE1L3, PHLDA1, CSRNP1, ADR2B, C1RL, and CDC37L1) could act as prognosis and progression biomarkers of HCC. In summary, 10 genes who have never been mentioned in HCC were identified to be associated with malignant progression and prognosis of patients. These findings may contribute to the improvement of the therapeutic decision, risk stratification, and prognosis prediction for HCC patients.

A Novel Oxoglutarate Dehydrogenase-Like Mediated miR-214/TWIST1 Negative Feedback Loop Inhibits Pancreatic Cancer Growth and Metastasis

PURPOSE

As a main rate-limiting subunit of the 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase multienzyme complex, oxoglutarate dehydrogenase like (OGDHL) is involved in the tricarboxylic acid cycle, and frequently downregulated in human carcinoma and suppresses tumor growth. However, little is known about the role of OGDHL in human cancer, especially pancreatic cancer. Our goal is to study the underlying mechanism and define a novel signaling pathway controlled by OGDHL modulating pancreatic cancer progression.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

The expression and functional analysis of OGDHL, miR-214, and TWIST1 in human pancreatic cancer tissues, cell lines, and xenograft tumor model were investigated. The correlations between OGDHL and those markers were analyzed.

RESULTS

OGDHL was downregulated in human pancreatic cancer and predicted poor prognosis. OGDHL overexpression inhibited migration and invasion of pancreatic cancer cells and suppressed pancreatic cancer tumor growth. OGDHL was shown to be negatively regulated by miR-214. TWIST1 upregulation induced miR-214 expression in pancreatic cancer. OGDHL suppressed TWIST1 expression through promoting ubiquitin-mediated proteasomal degradation of HIF1α and regulating AKT pathways. A combination of OGDHL downregulation and TWIST1 and miR-214 overexpression predicted worse prognosis in patients with pancreatic cancer.

CONCLUSIONS

We demonstrated the prognostic value of OGDHL, miR-214, and TWIST1 in pancreatic cancer, and elucidated a novel pathway in OGDHL-regulated inhibition of pancreatic cancer tumorigenesis and metastasis. These findings may lead to new targeted therapy for pancreatic cancer through regulating OGDHL, miR-214, and TWIST1.

Upregulation of cystatin SN promotes hepatocellular carcinoma progression and predicts a poor prognosis

Cystatin SN, a specific cysteine protease inhibitor, is thought to be involved in various malignant tumors. Therefore, we evaluated the role of cystatin SN in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Notably, cystatin SN was elevated in tumorous samples and cells. Moreover, overexpression of cystatin SN was correlated with tumor diameter and TNM stage. Cox multivariate analysis displayed that cystatin SN was an independent prognosis indicator and that high cystatin SN level was associated with a dismal prognosis. Moreover, cystatin SN enhancement facilitated the proliferation, migratory, and invasive potential of Huh7 and HCCLM3 cells, whereas cystatin SN knockdown caused the opposite effect. Cystatin SN also modulated the epithelial‐mesenchymal transition progression through the PI3K/AKT pathway. In vivo cystatin SN promoted HCCLM3 cell growth and metastasis in xenograft mice model. Thus, cystatin SN was involved in HCC progression and could be a latent target for HCC treatment.

Serum Proteomic Changes as Candidate Biomarkers of Intermediate Liver Fibrosis in Chronic Hepatitis B Infection

Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) is a major global health burden. Liver fibrosis, an insidious process, is the main histopathological change in CHB that might lead to the end-stage liver disease if left untreated. The intermediate liver fibrosis (S2) is the optimal time to start antiviral therapy. The aim of the present study was to examine the proteomic changes in patients with CHB at different fibrotic stages, with a view to identify future serum biomarkers for S2. Ninety CHB patients were grouped into mild (S0-1), intermediate (S2), and severe liver fibrosis (S3-4) (61 men and 29 women; age 25-63 years). Isobaric tagging for relative and absolute quantitation was applied to screen proteins differentially expressed among the patient groups. Another 46 patients with CHB (age 25-59 years; 31 men and 15 women), and 16 healthy controls (age 26-61 years; 11 men and 5 women) were enrolled in a validation group. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to verify the diagnostic value of the candidate biomarkers. We found 139 proteins that were differentially expressed between various fibrotic stage-paired comparisons. Five protein candidates were selected as potential biomarkers of S2 for further verification. Notably, ficolin-2 (FCN2) and carboxypeptidase B2 (CPB2) showed differential expression between patients and healthy controls. In conclusion, serum proteomic changes reported here offer new molecular leads for future research on biomarker candidates to identify liver fibrotic stages in CHB. In particular, FCN2 and CPB2 warrant further research on their possible mechanistic involvement in CHB pathogenesis.

TBL1XR1 as a potential therapeutic target that promotes epithelial-mesenchymal transition in lung squamous cell carcinoma

Transducin (β)-like 1 X-linked receptor 1 (TBL1XR1) has been demonstrated to serve a vital role in tumor progression. However, the biological role and molecular mechanisms of TBL1XR1 in lung squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) remain largely unknown. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the biological role of TBL1XR1 and its mechanism in lung SCC. TBL1XR1 was expressed in a human bronchial epithelial cell line and in lung SCC cell lines. The present study analyzed TBL1XR1-induced proliferation, invasion and migration abilities in vitro using the cell counting kit-8 assay, cell invasion assay and wound healing assay, respectively. This study examined the effects of TBL1XR1 on epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in lung SCC cells and activation of the transforming growth factor (TGF)-β/mothers against decapentaplegic homolog (Smad) signaling pathway by western blotting. The results indicated that TBL1XR1 was upregulated in lung SCC cells. Overexpression of TBL1XR1 increased the rate of cell proliferation compared with the control group. In vitro, overexpression of TBL1XR1 promoted cell invasion and migration ability compared with the control group. In addition, overexpression of TBL1XR1 produced a mesenchymal phenotype, while cells with downregulated TBL1XR1 produced an epithelial phenotype. Overexpression of TBL1XR1 significantly increased E-cadherin protein expression whilst snail family transcriptional repressor 1 (SNAI1), zinc finger E-box binding homebox 1 (ZEB1), p-Smad2/3, Smad2 and Smad3 protein expression was significantly reduced, compared with the control group. Downregulation of TBL1XR1 produced the opposite results. The present study indicated that TBL1XR1 contributed to lung SCC development and progression, and therefore TBL1XR1 may be a potential therapeutic target. TBL1XR1 may induce EMT of lung SCC cells through activation of the TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway.

Ophiopogonin B suppresses the metastasis and angiogenesis of A549 cells in vitro and in vivo by inhibiting the EphA2/Akt signaling pathway

Lung adenocarcinoma is the most common metastatic cancer, and is associated with high patient mortality. Therefore, investigation of anti‑metastatic treatments for lung adenocarcinoma is crucial. Ophiopogonin B (OP‑B) is a bioactive component of Radix Ophiopogon Japonicus, which is often used in Chinese traditional medicine to treat pulmonary disease. Screening of transcriptome and digital gene expression (DGE) profiling data in NSCLC cell lines showed that OP‑B regulated the epithelial‑mesenchymal transition (EMT) pathway in A549 cells. Further results showed that 10 µmol/l OP‑B downregulated EphA2 expression and phosphorylation (Ser897) in A549 cells but upregulated them in NCI‑H460 cells. Meanwhile, the Ras/ERK pathway was unaffected in A549 cells and stimulated in NCI‑H460 cells. More importantly, detection of the EMT pathway showed that OP‑B treatment increased the epithelial markers ZO‑1 and E‑cadherin and decreased the expression of the mesenchymal marker N‑cadherin and the transcriptional repressors Snail, Slug and ZEB1. Furthermore, through Transwell migration and scratch wound healing assays, we found that 10 µmol/l OP‑B significantly reduced the invasion and migration of A549 cells. In vivo, we found that 75 mg/kg OP‑B inhibited A549 cell metastasis in a pulmonary metastasis nude mouse model. In addition, we also found that 10 µmol/l OP‑B significantly inhibited tube formation in EA.hy926 cells. The expression of VEGFR2 and Tie‑2, the phosphorylation of Akt (S473) and PLC (S1248), and the levels of EphA2 and phosphorylated EphA2 (S897) were all inhibited by OP‑B in this cell line. In vivo, using a Matrigel plug assay, we found that OP‑B inhibited angiogenesis and the hemoglobin content of A549 transplanted tumors. Taken together, OP‑B inhibited the metastasis and angiogenesis of A549 cells by inhibiting EphA2/Akt and the corresponding pathway. The investigation gives new recognition to the anticancer mechanism of OP‑B in NSCLC and this compound is a promising inhibitor of metastasis and angiogenesis of lung adenocarcinoma cells.

Isoviolanthin Extracted from Dendrobium officinale Reverses TGF-β1-Mediated Epithelial⁻Mesenchymal Transition in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells via Deactivating the TGF-β/Smad and PI3K/Akt/mTOR Signaling Pathways

Dendrobium officinale is a precious medicinal herb and health food, and its pharmacological actions have been studied and proved. However, the mechanisms by which its active flavonoid glycosides affect epithelial⁻mesenchymal transition (EMT) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells, such as HepG2 and Bel-7402 cells, have not been previously investigated. Therefore, we investigated whether isoviolanthin extracted from the leaves of Dendrobium officinale inhibits transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1-induced EMT in HCC cells. In this study, the physicochemical properties and structure of isoviolanthin were identified by HPLC, UV, ESIMS, and NMR and were compared with literature data. HCC cells were pretreated with 10 ng/mL TGF-β1 to induce EMT and then treated with isoviolanthin. Herein, we found that isoviolanthin exhibited no cytotoxic effects on normal liver LO2 cells but notably reduced the migratory and invasive capacities of TGF-β1-treated HCC cells. Additionally, isoviolanthin treatment decreased matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 and -9 levels, and remarkably altered the expression of EMT markers via regulating the TGF-β/Smad and PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathways; Western blot analysis confirmed that the effects of the inhibitors SB431542 and LY294002 were consistent with those of isoviolanthin. These findings demonstrate the potential of isoviolanthin as a therapeutic agent for the treatment of advanced-stage metastatic HCC.

Long non-coding RNA NEAT1-modulated abnormal lipolysis via ATGL drives hepatocellular carcinoma proliferation

BACKGROUND

Abnormal metabolism, including abnormal lipid metabolism, is a hallmark of cancer cells. Some studies have demonstrated that the lipogenic pathway might promote the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the role of the lipolytic pathway in HCC has not been elucidated.

METHODS

We compared levels of adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL) in human HCC and healthy liver tissues by real time PCR, western blot and immunohistochemistry. We measured diacylglycerol(DAG) and free fatty acid (FFA) levels in HCC cells driven by the NEAT1-ATGL axis and in HCC tissues. We also assessed the effects of ATGL, DAG, FFA, and NEAT1 on HCC cells proliferation in vitro and in an orthotopic xenograft HCC mouse model. We also performed a luciferase reporter assay to investigate the interaction between NEAT1/ATGL and miR-124-3p.

RESULTS

We found that the lipolytic enzyme, ATGL is highly expressed in human HCC tissues and predicts poor prognosis. We also found that high levels of DAG and FFA are present in HCC tissues. Furthermore, the lncRNA-NEAT1 was found to modulate ATGL expression and disrupt lipolysis in HCC cells via ATGL. Notably, ATGL and its products, DAG and FFA, were shown to be responsible for NEAT1-mediated HCC cell growth. NEAT1 regulated ATGL expression by binding miR-124-3p. Additionally, NEAT1 knockdown attenuated HCC cell growth through miR-124-3p/ATGL/DAG+FFA/PPARα signaling.

CONCLUSION

Our results reveal that NEAT1-modulates abnormal lipolysis via ATGL to drive HCC proliferation.

Clinical significance of C/D box small nucleolar RNA U76 as an oncogene and a prognostic biomarker in hepatocellular carcinoma

BACKGROUND

Recent evidence has suggested novel roles of small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) in tumorigenicity. However, the roles of C/D box snoRNA U76 (SNORD76) in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain unknown. Herein, we systematically evaluated dysregulation of snoRNAs in HCC and clarified the biomarker potential and biological significance of SNORD76 in HCC.

METHODS

We performed quantitative analyses of the expression of SNORD76 in 66 HCC specimens to compare its expression pattern between tumor tissue and matched non-tumor tissue. The effects of SNORD76 on HCC tumorigenicity were investigated in SK-Hep1 and Huh7 cells as well as in a xenograft nude mouse model.

RESULTS

SNORD76 expression was significantly upregulated in HCC tissues compared to corresponding non-tumor tissues. This upregulation of SNORD76 in HCC tumors was significantly associated with poorer patient survival. Furthermore, inhibiting SNORD76 expression suppressed cell proliferation by inducing G0/G1 cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Low SNORD76 expression also resulted in decreased HCC growth in an animal model. Conversely, overexpressing SNORD76 promoted cell proliferation. SNORD76 increased HCC cell invasion by inducing epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Finally, we found that SNORD76 promoted HCC tumorigenicity through activation of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway.

CONCLUSIONS

Therefore, we demonstrated for the first time that SNORD76 may function as a novel tumor promoter in HCC and may serve as a promising prognostic biomarker in patients with HCC.

Long non-coding RNA XLOC_000647 suppresses progression of pancreatic cancer and decreases epithelial-mesenchymal transition-induced cell invasion by down-regulating NLRP3

BACKGROUND

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play an important role in the development and progression of various tumors, including pancreatic cancer (PC). Recent studies have shown that lncRNAs can 'act in cis' to regulate the expression of its neighboring genes. Previously, we used lncRNAs microarray to identify a novel lncRNA termed XLOC_000647 that was down-regulated in PC tissues. However, the expression and function of XLOC_000647 in PC remain unclear.

METHODS

The expression of XLOC_000647 and NLRP3 in PC specimens and cell lines were detected by quantitative real-time PCR. Transwell assays were used to determine migration and invasion of PC cells. Western blot was carried out for detection of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers in PC cells. The effect of XLOC_000647 on PC cells was assessed in vitro and in vivo. The function of NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) in PC was investigated in vitro. In addition, the regulation of NLRP3 by XLOC_000647 in PC was examined in vitro.

RESULTS

Here, XLOC_000647 expression was down-regulated in PC tissues and cell lines. The expression level of XLOC_000647 was significantly correlated to tumor stage, lymph node metastasis, and overall survival. Overexpression of XLOC_000647 attenuated cell proliferation, invasion, and EMT in vitro and impaired tumor growth in vivo. Further, a significantly negative correlation was observed between XLOC_000647 levels and its genomic nearby gene NLRP3 in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, XLOC_000647 decreased NLRP3 by inhibiting its promoter activity. Knockdown of NLRP3 decreased proliferation of cancer cells, invasion, and EMT in vitro. Importantly, after XLOC_000647 was overexpressed, the corresponding phenotypes of cells invasion and EMT were reversed by overexpression of NLRP3.

CONCLUSIONS

Together, these results indicate that XLOC_000647 functions as a novel tumor suppressor of lncRNA and acts as an important regulator of NLRP3, inhibiting cell proliferation, invasion, and EMT in PC.

Netrin-1 elicits metastatic potential of non-small cell lung carcinoma cell by enhancing cell invasion, migration and vasculogenic mimicry via EMT induction

Ectopic expression of netrin-1 has been validated in several cancers including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Recent research confirms the critical role of netrin-1 in NSCLC growth and its prognostic value. Unfortunately, its contribution in NSCLC metastasis remains elusive. Here, netrin-1 had relatively high expression in NSCLC tissues and cells, especially in high metastatic groups. Notably, netrin-1 overexpression aggravated the malignant metastatic behavior of NSCLC cells, including cell invasion, migration, and vasculogenic mimicry (VM), whereas netrin-1 depression reversely dampened the metastatic potential. Mechanism analysis confirmed that elevation of netrin-1 induced the typical morphological changes of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and increased the expression of EMT markers, including E-cadherin down-regulation and N-cadherin up-regulation. Consistently, netrin-1 inhibition inversely antagonized the occurrence of EMT. Moreover, netrin-1 also activated the oncogenic pathways of PI3K/AKT and ERK signaling. More importantly, blocking these pathways with their antagonists LY294002 or U0126 reversed the effects of netrin-1 overexpression on cell invasion, migration, EMT, and VM formation. Collectively, the current data suggest that netrin-1 can act as a pro-metastatic factor in NSCLC by enhancing cell invasion, migration, and VM via PI3K/AKT and ERK-mediated EMT process, thereby implicating netrin-1 as a novel promising therapeutic target against aggressive NSCLC.

Therapeutic effects of conditioned medium from bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells on epithelial-mesenchymal transition in A549 cells

Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a chronic lung disease. The transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1)/Smad3 signaling pathway plays an important role in the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis. Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) have been shown to be a modulator of the molecular aspects of the fibrosis pathway. However, it is still unknown as to whether the conditioned medium from BMSCs (BMSCs-CM) inhibits the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process. This study confirmed the hypothesis that BMSCs-CM exerts an anti-fibrotic effect on human type II alveolar epithelial cells (A549) by suppressing the phosphorylation of Smad3. We used the A549 cells in vitro to detect morphological evidence of EMT by phase-contrast microscopy. These cells were randomly divided into 4 groups as follows: the control group, the TGF-β1 group, the SIS3 (specific inhibitor of Smad3) group and the BMSCs-CM group. The immunofluorescence method was used to determined the location of E-cadherin (E-calcium mucins; E-cad), α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and p-Smad3. The expression levels of E-cad, CK8, α-SMA, vimentin, p-Smad3, Snail1, collagen I (COLI) and collagen III (COLIII) were detected by western blot analysis. Following exposure to TGF-β1, the A549 cells displayed a spindle-shaped fibroblast-like morphology. In accordance with these morphological changes, the expression levels of E-cad and CK8 were downregulated, while the expression levels of α-SMA and vimentin were upregulated. Along with this process, the expression levels of p-Smad3, Snail1, COLI and COLIII were increased. However, the cells in the BMSCs-CM group and SIS3 group exhibited a decrease in the levels of α-SMA and vimentin (which had been upregulated by TGF-β1), and an increase in the levels of E-cad and CK8 expression (which had been downregulated by TGF-β1). On the whole, these results indicated that BMSCs-CM suppressed the EMT which might be associated with TGF-β1/Smad3. This study provides the theoretical basis for the research of the mechanisms responsible for pulmonary disease.