High TRAF3IP3 Level Predicts Poor Prognosis of Patients with Gliomas

Cellular Impacts of Striatins and the STRIPAK Complex and Their Roles in the Development and Metastasis in Clinical Cancers (Review)

Striatins (STRNs) are generally considered to be cytoplasmic proteins, with lower expression observed in the nucleus and at cell-cell contact regions. Together with protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A), STRNs form the core region of striatin-interacting phosphatase and kinase (STRIPAK) complexes through the coiled-coil region of STRN proteins, which is crucial for substrate recruitment. Over the past two decades, there has been an increasing amount of research into the biological and cellular functions of STRIPAK members. STRNs and the constituent members of the STRIPAK complex have been found to regulate several cellular functions, such as cell cycle control, cell growth, and motility. Dysregulation of these cellular events is associated with cancer development. Importantly, their roles in cancer cells and clinical cancers are becoming recognised, with several STRIPAK components found to have elevated expression in cancerous tissues compared to healthy tissues. These molecules exhibit significant diagnostic and prognostic value across different cancer types and in metastatic progression. The present review comprehensively summarises and discusses the current knowledge of STRNs and core STRIPAK members, in cancer malignancy, from both cellular and clinical perspectives.

Identification of Key Genes in the HBV-Related HCC Immune Microenvironment Using Integrated Bioinformatics Analysis

Purpose. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has poor prognosis and high mortality among gastrointestinal tumors because of its insidious onset and strong invasiveness. However, there was little understanding of their pathogenesis. The purpose of this study was to use bioinformatics analysis to identify genes associated with the immune microenvironment in HBV-related HCC and to develop new therapeutic targets to prevent and treat cancer. Methods. RNA-seq data of HBV-related HCC cases were downloaded from TCGA-LIHC database. ESTIMATE and Deseq2 algorithms were used to screen out differentially expressed genes (DEGs). WGCNA was used to construct gene coexpression networks. In key modules, functional enrichment analysis was performed. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) was used to screen hub genes, and survival analysis was conducted to assess their prognostic significance. Following, we search for key genes differentially expressed between cancerous and paracancerous tissues in GSE136247 and GSE121248 datasets. Reveal the potential links between key genes in immune infiltration by using TIMER. Finally, in TCGA-LIHC database, integration of key genes with clinical data were used to further validate their correlation with prognosis. Results. In the cohort of HBV-related HCC patients, immune/stromal/ESTIMATE scores were not significantly associated with patient prognosis. After bioinformatics analysis, screening out five key genes was significantly related to the prognosis of HBV-related HCC. Downregulation of SLAMF1 and TRAF3IP3 suggested poor prognosis and was related to a variety of immune cell infiltration. Furthermore, compared with adjacent nontumor tissues, TRAF3IP3 and SLAMF1 were highly expressed in tumor tissues and were linked to tumor recurrences. Conclusion. In conclusion, SLAMF1 and TRAF3IP3 were identified with higher expression in tumor tissues and associated with tumor recurrence. It will be a new research direction of tumor progress and treatment.

TRAF3IP3 promotes glioma progression through the ERK signaling pathway

TRAF3IP3 was reportedly associated with poor prognosis in patients with melanoma; however, its role in glioma is unknown. We aimed to demonstrate the relationship between TRAF3IP3 and glioma and to investigate the potential role of TRAF3IP3 in glioma. Datasets were collected from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases. We used the Wilcoxon rank-sum test to compared TRAF3IP3 expression in normal and glioma tissues. Kaplan–Meier analysis was performed to evaluate the correlation between TRAF3IP3 and patient survival rate. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to annotate the biological function of TRAF3IP3 in glioma. We also examined the effects of TRAF3IP3 on glioma progression, including characteristics such as cell proliferation, migration, and invasion, using cell proliferation, wound healing, and Transwell assays, respectively, paired with in vitro glioma cell lines and in vivo mouse xenograft models to determine the molecular mechanisms underlying these effects. High TRAF3IP3 expression in glioma tissues was associated with patients with neoplasm cancer tissue source site, and poorer overall survival (OS) (p = 0.03), which was validated using TCGA. GSEA revealed the enrichment of neuroactive ligand–receptor interactions, the olfactory pathway, proteasome pathway, cytokine–cytokine receptor interactions, and calcium signaling pathway in the TRAF3IP3 high-expression phenotype. TRAF3IP3 knockdown markedly suppressed the proliferation, migration, and invasion abilities of U251 glioma cells, whereas TRAF3IP3 overexpression notably promoted the progression of U118 cell tumors. Mechanistic studies revealed that TRAF3IP3 upregulated p-ERK expression in glioma cells. Notably, the ERK signaling pathway inhibitor U0126 drastically attenuated the effects of TRAF3IP3 on p-ERK and markedly blocked its tumor-promoting activity. TRAF3IP3 overexpression also promoted in vivo tumor growth in a nude mouse xenograft model. Collectively, TRAF3IP3 stimulates glioma cell proliferation, migration, and invasion, at least partly by activating the ERK signaling pathway. We hypothesize that TRAF3IP3 may participate in glioma development via the ERK signaling pathway and that elevated TRAF3IP3 expression may serve as a potential biomarker for glioma prognosis.