Breast cancer radioresistance may be overcome by osteopontin gene knocking out with CRISPR/Cas9 technique

Common Variants in Osteopontin and CD44 Genes as Predictors of Treatment Outcome in Radiotherapy and Chemoradiotherapy for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Osteopontin (OPN)-CD44 signaling plays an important role in promoting tumor progression and metastasis. In cancer, OPN and CD44 overexpression is a marker of aggressive disease and poor prognosis, and correlates with therapy resistance. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the OPN and CD44 genes with clinical outcomes in 307 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy. The potential impact of the variants on plasma OPN levels was also investigated. Multivariate analysis showed that OPN rs11730582 CC carriers had a significantly increased risk of death (p = 0.029), while the CD44 rs187116 A allele correlated with a reduced risk of locoregional recurrence (p = 0.016) in the curative treatment subset. The rs11730582/rs187116 combination was associated with an elevated risk of metastasis in these patients (p = 0.016). Furthermore, the OPN rs1126772 G variant alone (p = 0.018) and in combination with rs11730582 CC (p = 7 × 10-5) was associated with poor overall survival (OS) in the squamous cell carcinoma subgroup. The rs11730582 CC, rs187116 GG, and rs1126772 G, as well as their respective combinations, were independent risk factors for unfavorable treatment outcomes. The impact of rs11730582-rs1126772 haplotypes on OS was also observed. These data suggest that OPN and CD44 germline variants may predict treatment effects in NSCLC.

(Nano)platforms in breast cancer therapy: Drug/gene delivery, advanced nanocarriers and immunotherapy

Breast cancer is the most malignant tumor in women, and there is no absolute cure for it. Although treatment modalities including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy are utilized for breast cancer, it is still a life-threatening disease for humans. Nanomedicine has provided a new opportunity in breast cancer treatment, which is the focus of the current study. The nanocarriers deliver chemotherapeutic agents and natural products, both of which increase cytotoxicity against breast tumor cells and prevent the development of drug resistance. The efficacy of gene therapy is boosted by nanoparticles and the delivery of CRISPR/Cas9, Noncoding RNAs, and RNAi, promoting their potential for gene expression regulation. The drug and gene codelivery by nanoparticles can exert a synergistic impact on breast tumors and enhance cellular uptake via endocytosis. Nanostructures are able to induce photothermal and photodynamic therapy for breast tumor ablation via cell death induction. The nanoparticles can provide tumor microenvironment remodeling and repolarization of macrophages for antitumor immunity. The stimuli-responsive nanocarriers, including pH-, redox-, and light-sensitive, can mediate targeted suppression of breast tumors. Besides, nanoparticles can provide a diagnosis of breast cancer and detect biomarkers. Various kinds of nanoparticles have been employed for breast cancer therapy, including carbon-, lipid-, polymeric- and metal-based nanostructures, which are different in terms of biocompatibility and delivery efficiency.

A Four-Gene Signature Associated with Radioresistance in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Identified by Text Mining and Data Analysis

Purpose

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the sixth leading cancer globally, and radiotherapy plays a crucial part in its treatment. This study was designed to identify potential genes related to radiation resistance in HNSCC.

Method

We first used text mining to obtain common genes related to radiotherapy resistance and HNSCC in published articles. Functional enrichment analyses were conducted to identify the significantly enriched pathways and genes. Protein and protein interactions were performed, and the most significant gene modules were determined; then, genes in the gene modules were validated at transcriptional levels and overall survival. Gene set variation analysis (GSVA) score was calculated, and the association between GSVA score and survival/pathway was estimated. Immune cell infiltration, methylation, and genetic alteration analysis of these genes was conducted in HNSCC patients. Finally, potential sensitive anticancer drugs related to target genes were obtained.

Result

We identified 583 common genes through text mining. After further validation, a four-gene signature (EPHB2, SPP1, SERPINE1, and VEGFC) was constructed. The patients with higher GSVA scores have a worse prognosis than those with lower GSVA scores. Differences in methylation of these four genes in HNSCC tumor tissue and normal tissue were compared, with higher methylation levels of EBPH2 and SPP1 in normal tissue and higher methylation levels of SERPINE1 in the tumor. Immune cell infiltration revealed that the increased expression of these genes was closely related to the infiltration level of CD4+ T cell, neutrophil, macrophage, and dendritic cell. Thirty drugs, including 22 positively and eight negatively correlated drugs that most correlated with related genes, were available for treating HNSCC.

Conclusion

In this study, we identified four potential genes as well as corresponding drugs that might be related to radioresistance in HNSCC patients. These candidate genes may provide a promising avenue to further elevate radiotherapy efficacy.

CRISPR/Cas9 mediated knocking out of OPN gene enhances radiosensitivity in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell line

PURPOSE

Although chemotherapy and radiotherapy in conjunction with surgery have been known as the standard methods for patients with breast cancer, they frequently face resistance due to the failure of cells to death. Accordingly, improving the results requires discovering novel therapeutic approaches based on the changes in the molecular biology of cancer cells. Osteopontin (OPN) is a secreted protein that previous studies have shown to be associated with progression, poor prognosis, and metastasis in breast cancer. The current study examined the synergistic effects of radiotherapy and knocking out of OPN gene, utilizing CRISPR/Cas9 technique in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells.

METHODS

We used to knock out the OPN gene by the two different gRNAs. The cells irradiated 24 h after transfection. The mRNA expression, tumor cell proliferation, cell cycle distribution, growth, and apoptosis were measured. Moreover, activation of Chk1 and AKT were measured via western blot.

RESULTS

We demonstrated the OPN knocking out along with radiation led to the promotion of apoptosis, suppression of downstream genes, reduction of cell viability, and inhibition of cell-cycle progression. The western blot analysis has indicated that the knocking out of the OPN gene along with radiotherapy changes DNA damage responses substantially.

CONCLUSIONS

The OPN gene knocking out with radiotherapy might be an efficient approach to overcome the radioresistance in breast cancer.

Identification of Novel Regulators of Radiosensitivity Using High-Throughput Genetic Screening

The biological impact of ionizing radiation (IR) on humans depends not only on the physical properties and absorbed dose of radiation but also on the unique susceptibility of the exposed individual. A critical target of IR is DNA, and the DNA damage response is a safeguard mechanism for maintaining genomic integrity in response to the induced cellular stress. Unrepaired DNA lesions lead to various mutations, contributing to adverse health effects. Cellular sensitivity to IR is highly correlated with the ability of cells to repair DNA lesions, in particular coding sequences of genes that affect that process and of others that contribute to preserving genomic integrity. However, accurate profiling of the molecular events underlying individual sensitivity requires techniques with sensitive readouts. Here we summarize recent studies that have used whole-genome analysis and identified genes that impact individual radiosensitivity. Whereas microarray and RNA-seq provide a snapshot of the transcriptome, RNA interference (RNAi) and CRISPR-Cas9 techniques are powerful tools that enable modulation of gene expression and characterizing the function of specific genes involved in radiosensitivity or radioresistance. Notably, CRISPR-Cas9 has altered the landscape of genome-editing technology with its increased readiness, precision, and sensitivity. Identifying critical regulators of cellular radiosensitivity would help tailor regimens that enhance the efficacy of therapeutic treatments and fast-track prediction of clinical outcomes. It would also contribute to occupational protection based on average individual sensitivity, as well as the formulation of countermeasures to the harmful effects of radiation.

CRISPR/Cas9 application in cancer therapy: a pioneering genome editing tool

The progress of genetic engineering in the 1970s brought about a paradigm shift in genome editing technology. The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR associated protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) system is a flexible means to target and modify particular DNA sequences in the genome. Several applications of CRISPR/Cas9 are presently being studied in cancer biology and oncology to provide vigorous site-specific gene editing to enhance its biological and clinical uses. CRISPR's flexibility and ease of use have enabled the prompt achievement of almost any preferred alteration with greater efficiency and lower cost than preceding modalities. Also, CRISPR/Cas9 technology has recently been applied to improve the safety and efficacy of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapies and defeat tumor cell resistance to conventional treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The current review summarizes the application of CRISPR/Cas9 in cancer therapy. We also discuss the present obstacles and contemplate future possibilities in this context.

Strategies to overcome the main challenges of the use of CRISPR/Cas9 as a replacement for cancer therapy

CRISPR/Cas9 (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-associated protein 9) shows the opportunity to treat a diverse array of untreated various genetic and complicated disorders. Therapeutic genome editing processes that target disease-causing genes or mutant genes have been greatly accelerated in recent years as a consequence of improvements in sequence-specific nuclease technology. However, the therapeutic promise of genome editing has yet to be explored entirely, many challenges persist that increase the risk of further mutations. Here, we highlighted the main challenges facing CRISPR/Cas9-based treatments and proposed strategies to overcome these limitations, for further enhancing this revolutionary novel therapeutics to improve long-term treatment outcome human health.

CRISPR/Cas9: A revolutionary genome editing tool for human cancers treatment

Cancer is a genetic disease stemming from genetic and epigenetic mutations and is the second most common cause of death across the globe. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) is an emerging gene-editing tool, acting as a defense system in bacteria and archaea. CRISPR/Cas9 technology holds immense potential in cancer diagnosis and treatment and has been utilized to develop cancer disease models such as medulloblastoma and glioblastoma mice models. In diagnostics, CRISPR can be used to quickly and efficiently detect genes involved in various cancer development, proliferation, metastasis, and drug resistance. CRISPR/Cas9 mediated cancer immunotherapy is a well-known treatment option after surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. It has marked a turning point in cancer treatment. However, despite its advantages and tremendous potential, there are many challenges such as off-target effects, editing efficiency of CRISPR/Cas9, efficient delivery of CRISPR/Cas9 components into the target cells and tissues, and low efficiency of HDR, which are some of the main issues and need further research and development for completely clinical application of this novel gene editing tool. Here, we present a CRISPR/Cas9 mediated cancer treatment method, its role and applications in various cancer treatments, its challenges, and possible solution to counter these challenges.

Optimizing sgRNA to Improve CRISPR/Cas9 Knockout Efficiency: Special Focus on Human and Animal Cell

During recent years, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) technologies have been noticed as a rapidly evolving tool to deliver a possibility for modifying target sequence expression and function. The CRISPR/Cas9 tool is currently being used to treat a myriad of human disorders, ranging from genetic diseases and infections to cancers. Preliminary reports have shown that CRISPR technology could result in valued consequences for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), cystic fibrosis (CF), β-thalassemia, Huntington's diseases (HD), etc. Nonetheless, high rates of off-target effects may hinder its application in clinics. Thereby, recent studies have focused on the finding of the novel strategies to ameliorate these off-target effects and thereby lead to a high rate of fidelity and accuracy in human, animals, prokaryotes, and also plants. Meanwhile, there is clear evidence indicating that the design of the specific sgRNA with high efficiency is of paramount importance. Correspondingly, elucidation of the principal parameters that contributed to determining the sgRNA efficiencies is a prerequisite. Herein, we will deliver an overview regarding the therapeutic application of CRISPR technology to treat human disorders. More importantly, we will discuss the potent influential parameters (e.g., sgRNA structure and feature) implicated in affecting the sgRNA efficacy in CRISPR/Cas9 technology, with special concentration on human and animal studies.