Sarcopenia and a 5-mRNA risk module as a combined factor to predict prognosis for patients with stomach adenocarcinoma

Unlocking the secrets of NPSLE: the role of dendritic cell-secreted CCL2 in blood-brain barrier disruption

Background

This study employed RNA-seq technology and meta-analysis to unveil the molecular mechanisms of neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE) within the central nervous system.

Methods

Downloaded transcriptomic data on systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and analyzed differential genes in peripheral blood samples of NPSLE patients and healthy individuals. Employed WGCNA to identify key genes related to cognitive impairment and validated findings via RNA-seq. Conducted GO, KEGG, and GSEA analyses, and integrated PPI networks to explore gene regulatory mechanisms. Assessed gene impacts on dendritic cells and blood-brain barrier using RT-qPCR, ELISA, and in vitro models.

Results

Public databases and RNA-seq data have revealed a significant upregulation of CCL2 (C-C motif chemokine ligand 2) in the peripheral blood of both SLE and NPSLE patients, primarily secreted by mature dendritic cells. Furthermore, the secretion of CCL2 by mature dendritic cells may act through the RSAD2-ISG15 axis and is associated with the activation of the NLRs (Nod Like Receptor Signaling Pathway) signaling pathway in vascular endothelial cells. Subsequent in vitro cell experiments confirmed the high expression of CCL2 in peripheral blood dendritic cells of NPSLE patients, with its secretion being regulated by the RSAD2-ISG15 axis and inducing vascular endothelial cell pyroptosis through the activation of the NLRs signaling pathway. Clinical trial results ultimately confirmed that NPSLE patients exhibiting elevated CCL2 expression also experienced cognitive decline.

Conclusions

The secretion of CCL2 by dendritic cells induces pyroptosis in vascular endothelial cells, thereby promoting blood-brain barrier damage and triggering cognitive impairment in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Molecular insights into sarcopenia: ferroptosis-related genes as diagnostic and therapeutic targets

Ferroptosis, characterized by iron accumulation and lipid peroxidation, leads to cell death. Growing evidence suggests the involvement of ferroptosis in sarcopenia. However, the fundamental ferroptosis-related genes (FRGs) for sarcopenia diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy remain elusive. This study aimed to identify molecular biomarkers of ferroptosis in sarcopenia patients. Gene expression profiles were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between normal and sarcopenia samples were identified using the 'limma' package in R software. FRGs were extracted from GeneCards and FerrDB databases. Functional enrichment analysis determined the roles of DEGs using the 'clusterProfiler' package. A protein-protein network was constructed using Cytoscape software. Immune infiltration analysis and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis were performed. mRNA-miRNA, mRNA-TF, and mRNA-drug interactions were predicted using ENCORI, hTFtarget, and CHIPBase databases. The network was visualized using Cytoscape. We identified 46 FRGs in sarcopenia. Functional enrichment analysis revealed their involvement in critical biological processes, including responses to steroid hormones and glucocorticoids. KEGG enrichment analysis implicated pathways such as carbon metabolism, ferroptosis, and glyoxylate in sarcopenia. Totally, 11 hub genes were identified, and ROC analysis demonstrated their potential as sensitive and specific markers for sarcopenia in both datasets. Additionally, differences in immune cell infiltration were observed between normal and sarcopenia samples. The hub genes identified in this study are closely associated with ferroptosis in sarcopenia and can effectively differentiate sarcopenia from controls. CDKN1A, CS, DLD, FOXO1, HSPB1, LDHA, MDH2, and YWHAZ show high sensitivity and specificity for sarcopenia diagnosis.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

Immune checkpoints signature-based risk stratification for prognosis of patients with gastric cancer

Until now, few researches have comprehensive explored the role of immune checkpoints (ICIs) and tumor microenvironment (TME) in gastric cancer (GC) patients based on the genomic data. RNA-sequence data and clinical information were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas Stomach Adenocarcinoma (TCGA-STAD) database, GSE84437 and GSE84433. Univariate Cox analysis identified 60 ICIs with prognostic values, and these genes were then subjected to NMF cluster analysis and the GC samples (n = 804) were classified into two distinct subtypes (Cluster 1: n = 583; Cluster 2: n = 221). The Kaplan-Meier curves for OS analysis indicated that C1 predicted a poorer prognosis. The C2 subtype illustrated a relatively better prognosis and characteristics of "hot tumors," including high immune score, overexpression of immune checkpoint molecules, and enriched tumor-infiltrated immune cells, indicating that the NMF clustering in GC was robust and stable. Regarding the patient's heterogeneity, an ICI-score was constructed to quantify the ICI patterns in individual patients. Moreover, the study found that the low ICI-score group contained mostly MSI-low events, and the high ICI-score group contained predominantly MSI-high events. In addition, the ICI-score groups had good responsiveness to CTLA4 and PD-1 based on The Cancer Immunome Atlas (TCIA) database. Our research firstly constructed ICIs signature, as well as identified some hub genes in GC patients.

Identification of a Novel Protein-Based Prognostic Model in Gastric Cancers

Gastric cancer (GC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. However, there are still no reliable biomarkers for the prognosis of this disease. This study aims to construct a robust protein-based prognostic prediction model for GC patients. The protein expression data and clinical information of GC patients were downloaded from the TCPA and TCGA databases, and the expressions of 218 proteins in 352 GC patients were analyzed using bioinformatics methods. Additionally, Kaplan-Meier (KM) survival analysis and univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis were applied to screen the prognosis-related proteins for establishing the prognostic prediction risk model. Finally, five proteins, including NDRG1_pT346, SYK, P90RSK, TIGAR, and XBP1, were related to the risk prognosis of gastric cancer and were selected for model construction. Furthermore, a significant trend toward worse survival was found in the high-risk group (p = 1.495 × 10-7). The time-dependent ROC analysis indicated that the model had better specificity and sensitivity compared to the clinical features at 1, 2, and 3 years (AUC = 0.685, 0.673, and 0.665, respectively). Notably, the independent prognostic analysis results revealed that the model was an independent prognostic factor for GC patients. In conclusion, the robust protein-based model based on five proteins was established, and its potential benefits in the prognostic prediction of GC patients were demonstrated.

Identification of novel tumor microenvironment-associated genes in gastric cancer based on single-cell RNA-sequencing datasets

Tumor microenvironment and heterogeneity play vital roles in the development and progression of gastric cancer (GC). In the past decade, a considerable amount of single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) studies have been published in the fields of oncology and immunology, which improve our knowledge of the GC immune microenvironment. However, much uncertainty still exists about the relationship between the macroscopic and microscopic data in transcriptomics. In the current study, we made full use of scRNA-seq data from the Gene Expression Omnibus database (GSE134520) to identify 25 cell subsets, including 11 microenvironment-related cell types. The MIF signaling pathway network was obtained upon analysis of receptor–ligand pairs and cell–cell interactions. By comparing the gene expression in a wide variety of cells between intestinal metaplasia and early gastric cancer, we identified 64 differentially expressed genes annotated as immune response and cellular communication. Subsequently, we screened these genes for prognostic clinical value based on the patients’ follow-up data from The Cancer Genome Atlas. TMPRSS15, VIM, APOA1, and RNASE1 were then selected for the construction of LASSO risk scores, and a nomogram model incorporating another five clinical risk factors was successfully created. The effectiveness of least absolute shrinkage and selection operator risk scores was validated using gene set enrichment analysis and levels of immune cell infiltration. These findings will drive the development of prognostic evaluations affected by the immune tumor microenvironment in GC.

ESRRG, ATP4A, and ATP4B as Diagnostic Biomarkers for Gastric Cancer: A Bioinformatic Analysis Based on Machine Learning

Based on multiple bioinformatics methods and machine learning techniques, this study was designed to explore potential hub genes of gastric cancer with a diagnostic value. The novel biomarkers were detected through multiple databases of gastric cancer–related genes. The NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database was used to obtain gene expression files. Three hub genes (ESRRG, ATP4A, and ATP4B) were detected through a combination of weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), gene–gene interaction network analysis, and supervised feature selection method. GEPIA2 was used to verify the differences in the expression levels of the hub genes in normal and cancer tissues in the RNA-seq levels of Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) databases. The objectivity of potential hub genes was also verified by immunohistochemistry in the Human Protein Atlas (HPA) database and transcription factor–hub gene regulatory network. Machine learning (ML) methods including data pre-processing, model selection and cross-validation, and performance evaluation were examined on the hub-gene expression profiles in five Gene Expression Omnibus datasets and verified on a GEO external validation (EV) dataset. Six supervised learning models (support vector machine, random forest, k-nearest neighbors, neural network, decision tree, and eXtreme Gradient Boosting) and one semi-supervised learning model (label spreading) were established to evaluate the diagnostic value of biomarkers. Among the six supervised models, the support vector machine (SVM) algorithm was the most effective one according to calculated performance metrics, including 0.93 and 0.99 area under the curve (AUC) scores on the test and external validation datasets, respectively. Furthermore, the semi-supervised model could also successfully learn and predict sample types, achieving a 0.986 AUC score on the EV dataset, even when 10% samples in the five GEO datasets were labeled. In conclusion, three hub genes (ATP4A, ATP4B, and ESRRG) closely related to gastric cancer were mined, based on which the ML diagnostic model of gastric cancer was conducted.