Low junctional adhesion molecule-A expression is associated with an epithelial to mesenchymal transition and poorer outcomes in high-grade serous carcinoma of uterine adnexa

The Long Non-Coding RNA HOXC-AS3 Promotes Glioma Progression by Sponging miR-216 to Regulate F11R Expression

HOXC cluster antisense RNA 3 (HOXC-AS3) is a long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) that plays a crucial role in various tumors; nevertheless, its role in glioma and its mechanism have not been completely elucidated. In this research, we discovered that HOXC-AS3 was over-expression in glioma cells and tissues and was associated with prognosis. Next, we determined that HOXC-AS3 targeted miR-216 as a sponge and that the F11 receptor (F11R) was the target of miR-216 by online databases analysis, qRT–PCR, and luciferase reporter assay. In addition, the rescue experiments confirmed that HOXC-AS3 regulated the expression of F11R by competitively binding miR-216 and functioning as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA). The intracranial glioblastoma mouse model suggested that HOXC-AS3 could promote glioma malignant progression in vivo. In summary, our study shows that the HOXC-AS3/miR-216/F11R axis plays an important role in the malignant progression of glioma, and may provide new ideas for the treatment of glioma.

The F11 Receptor (F11R)/Junctional Adhesion Molecule-A (JAM-A) (F11R/JAM-A) in cancer progression

The F11 Receptor (F11R), also called Junctional Adhesion Molecule-A (JAM-A) (F11R/JAM-A), is a transmembrane glycoprotein of the immunoglobulin superfamily, which is mainly located in epithelial and endothelial cell tight junctions and also expressed on circulating platelets and leukocytes. It participates in the regulation of various biological processes, as diverse as paracellular permeability, tight junction formation and maintenance, leukocyte transendothelial migration, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, angiogenesis, reovirus binding, and platelet activation. Dysregulation of F11R/JAM-A may result in pathological consequences and disorders in normal cell function. A growing body of evidence points to its role in carcinogenesis and invasiveness, but its tissue-specific pro- or anti-tumorigenic role remains a debated issue. The following review focuses on the F11R/JAM-A tissue-dependent manner in tumorigenesis and metastasis and also discusses the correlation between poor patient clinical outcomes and its aberrant expression. In the future, it will be required to clarify the signaling pathways that are activated or suppressed via the F11R/JAM-A protein in various cancer types to understand its multiple roles in cancer progression and further use it as a novel direct target for cancer treatment.

A Keratin 7 and E-Cadherin Signature Is Highly Predictive of Tubo-Ovarian High-Grade Serous Carcinoma Prognosis

During tubo-ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC) progression, tumoral cells undergo phenotypic changes in their epithelial marker profiles, which are essential for dissemination processes. Here, we set out to determine whether standard epithelial markers can predict HGSC patient prognosis. Levels of E-CADH, KRT7, KRT18, KRT19 were quantified in 18 HGSC cell lines by Western blot and in a Discovery cohort tissue microarray (TMA) (n = 101 patients) using immunofluorescence. E-CADH and KRT7 levels were subsequently analyzed in the TMA of the Canadian Ovarian Experimental Unified Resource cohort (COEUR, n = 1158 patients) and in public datasets. Epithelial marker expression was highly variable in HGSC cell lines and tissues. In the Discovery cohort, high levels of KRT7 and KRT19 were associated with an unfavorable prognosis, whereas high E-CADH expression indicated a better outcome. Expression of KRT7 and E-CADH gave a robust combination to predict overall survival (OS, p = 0.004) and progression free survival (PFS, p = 5.5 × 10⁻⁴) by Kaplan–Meier analysis. In the COEUR cohort, the E-CADH-KRT7 signature was a strong independent prognostic biomarker (OS, HR = 1.6, p = 2.9 × 10⁻⁴; PFS, HR = 1.3, p = 0.008) and predicted a poor patient response to chemotherapy (p = 1.3 × 10⁻⁴). Our results identify a combination of two epithelial markers as highly significant indicators of HGSC patient prognosis and treatment response.