The FcεRI signaling pathway is involved in the pathogenesis of lacrimal gland benign lymphoepithelial lesions as shown by transcriptomic analysis

Loss of CCL28 and CXCL17 Expression and Increase in CCR1 Expression May Be Related to Malignant Transformation of LGBLEL into Lymphoma

To investigate the differential expression of the chemokine signaling pathway in lacrimal gland benign lymphoepithelial lesion (LGBLEL) and lacrimal lymphoma, providing insights into the mechanisms underlying malignant transformation and aiding clinical differentiation. Transcriptome analysis was conducted on patients with LGBLEL, lymphoma, and orbital cavernous hemangioma (CH). Three cases of LGBLEL and three cases of lymphoma were randomly selected as control and experimental groups, respectively. A real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to validate genes associated with the chemokine signaling pathway. Immunohistochemical (IHC) staining and quantitative Western blotting (WB) were performed for precise protein quantification. Transcriptome analysis revealed differential expression of the chemokine signaling pathway between the LGBLEL and lymphoma groups, identifying ten differentially expressed genes: CCL17, VAV2, CXCR5, NRAS, HCK, RASGRP2, PREX1, GNB5, ADRBK2, and CCL22. RT-qPCR showed that, compared to the lymphoma group, the LGBLEL group had significantly higher expression of CCL28, CXCL17, HCK, GNB5, NRAS, and VAV2 (p = 0.001, <0.001, <0.001, <0.001, =0.020, <0.001, respectively) and lower expression of CCR1 (p = 0.002). IHC staining and quantitative analysis confirmed significant differences in protein expression between the groups for CCL28, CCR1, CXCL17, HCK, GNB5, NRAS, and VAV2 (p = 0.003, 0.011, 0.001, 0.024, 0.005, 0.019, and 0.031, respectively). While IHC provided localization, WB offered greater precision. WB revealed that, compared to the lymphoma group, the LGBLEL group exhibited significantly higher expression of CCL28, CXCL17, HCK, GNB5, NRAS, and VAV2 (p = 0.012, 0.005, 0.009, 0.011, 0.008, and 0.003, respectively) and lower expression of CCR1 (p = 0.014). The chemokine signaling pathway plays a role in the malignant transformation of LGBLEL. The decreased expression of CCL28 and CXCL17, coupled with the increased expression of CCR1, may be linked to the progression of LGBLEL into lymphoma.

Association analysis of BclI with benign lymphoepithelial lesions of the lacrimal gland and glucocorticoids resistance

AIM

To evaluate the relationship between gene polymorphism (BclI, ER22/23EK, N363S) and the occurrence, progression and sensitivity to glucocorticoid of lacrimal gland benign lymphoepithelial lesion (LGBLEL).

METHODS

Clinical peripheral blood samples of 52 LGBLEL patients and 10 normal volunteers were collected for DNA extraction and polymerase chain reaction sequencing to analyze single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotypes. The lacrimal tissues of LGBLEL were surgically removed and made into paraffin sections for subsequent hematoxylin-eosin (HE) and Masson staining analysis. The duration of disease and hormone use of LGBLEL patients from diagnosis to surgery were also analyzed. The Meta-analysis follows PRISMA guidelines to conducted a systematic review of human studies investigating the relationship between the NR3C1 BclI polymorphism and glucocorticoids (GCs) sensitivity.

RESULTS

There was no association between ER22/23EK or N363S and the occurrence of LGBLEL or GCs sensitivity (P>0.05); BclI GC genotype was closely related to GCs resistance (P=0.03) as is the minor allele C (P=0.0017). The HE staining and Masson staining showed that the GC genotype of BclI remarkably slowed down the disease progression and reduced fibrosis (P<0.05), especially for GCs-dependent patients (P<0.0001). Meta-analysis showed that BclI was not significantly associated with GCs responsiveness.

CONCLUSION

The LGBLEL patients who carry the NR3C1 BclI allele C may be more sensitive to GCs and associated with lower fibrosis and slower disease progression. The results may guide the clinical treatment strategy for the LGBLEL patients.

Missing link between tissue specific expressing pattern of ERβ and the clinical manifestations in LGBLEL

Purpose

Lacrimal gland benign lymphoepithelial lesion (LGBLEL) is an IgG4-related disease of unknown etiology with a risk for malignant transformation. Estrogen is considered to be related to LGBLEL onset.

Methods

Seventy-eight LGBLEL and 13 control clinical samples were collected and studied to determine the relationship between estrogen and its receptors and LGBLEL development.

Results

The serological analysis revealed no significant differences in the levels of three estrogens be-tween the LGBLEL and control groups. However, immunohistochemical analyses indicated that the expression levels of ERβ and its downstream receptor RERG were relatively lower in LGBLEL samples than in control samples, with higher expression in the lacrimal gland and lower expression in the lymphocyte infiltration region. However, low expression of ERα was detected. The transcriptome sequence analysis revealed upregulated genes associated with LGBLEL enriched in lymphocyte proliferation and activation function; downregulated genes were enriched in epithelial and vascular proliferation functions. The key genes and gene networks were further analyzed. Interactions between B cells and epithelial cells were analyzed due to the identified involvement of leukocyte subsets and epithelial cells. B cell proliferation was found to potentially contribute to lacrimal gland apoptosis.

Conclusion

Therefore, the tissue-heterogeneous expression pattern of ERβ is potentially related to the clinical manifestations and progression of LGBLEL, although further investigations are required to confirm this finding.

A predictive molecular signature consisting of lncRNAs associated with cellular senescence for the prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma

The role of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) has been verified by more and more researches in recent years. However, there are few reports on cellular senescence-associated lncRNAs in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Therefore, to explore the prognostic effect of lncRNAs in LUAD, 279 cellular senescence-related genes, survival information and clinicopathologic parameters were derived from the CellAge database and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Then, we constructed a novel cellular senescence-associated lncRNAs predictive signature (CS-ALPS) consisting of 6 lncRNAS (AC026355.1, AL365181.2, AF131215.5, C20orf197, GAS6-AS1, GSEC). According to the median of the risk score, 480 samples were divided into high-risk and low-risk groups. Furthermore, the clinicopathological and biological functions, immune characteristics and common drug sensitivity were analyzed between two risk groups. In conclusion, the CS-ALPS can independently forecast the prognosis of LUAD, which reveals the potential molecular mechanism of cellular senescence-associated lncRNAs, and provides appropriate strategies for the clinical treatment of patients with LUAD.

Evaluation of the Efficacy of Immune and Inflammatory Markers in the Diagnosis of Lacrimal-Gland Benign Lymphoepithelial Lesion

This study retrospectively analyzes the immune and inflammatory indices of patients with lacrimal-gland benign lymphoepithelial lesion (LGBLEL) in order to screen out reference indices with higher diagnostic efficacy. The medical histories of patients whose diagnoses of LGBLEL and primary lacrimal prolapse were confirmed by pathology between August 2010 and August 2019 were collected. In the LGBLEL group, the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP) level, rheumatoid factor (RF), and immunoglobulins G, G1, G2, and G4 (IgG, IgG1, IgG2, IgG4) were higher (p < 0.05) and the expression level of C3 was lower (p < 0.05) compared to the lacrimal-gland prolapse group. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that IgG4, IgG, and C3 were independent risk factors for predicting LGBLEL occurrence (p < 0.05). The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of the prediction model (IgG4+IgG+C3) was 0.926, which was significantly better than that of any single factor. Therefore, serum levels of IgG4, IgG, and C3 were independent risk factors for predicting the occurrence of LGBLEL, and the combined diagnostic efficacy of IgG4+IgG+C3 was the highest.

Ubiquitin-related lncRNAs: The new tool for prognosis prediction in prostate cancer

Objective

To establish a ubiquitin-related long noncoding ribonucleic acids (lncRNAs) prognosis prediction model for prostate cancer (Pca).

Methods

Data were acquired through The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Ubiquitin-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and lncRNAs in Pca were filtered out. UBE2S was selected as the representative gene and validated in vitro. Progression-free survival (PFS) predictive signature was established with ubiquitin-related lncRNAs screened by Cox regression analyses and internally validated. A nomogram was constructed to assess the prognosis of Pca patients. Gene enrichment analysis was performed to explore functional differences based on risk stratification. Between different risk groups, immune status and drug sensitivity were contrasted.

Results

A total of 254 ubiquitin-related genes were screened. UBE2S was shown to promote the proliferation of Pca cells in vitro. The predictive signature was established based on six ubiquitin-related lncRNAs and validated. The prognosis of Pca patients was worse with an increasing risk score. The area under the curve (AUC) of the signature was higher than that of clinicopathological variables (0.806 vs 0.504–0.701). The AUC was 0.811 for 1-year PFS, 0.807 for 3-year PFS, and 0.790 for 5-year PFS. The calibration curves of risk score-based nomogram demonstrated high consistency. By contrasting the expression of immune function, cells, and checkpoints, we found that the signature was closely related to immunity. The high-risk patients were more sensitive to gemcitabine, cisplatin, bortezomib, etc. and resistant to bicalutamide.

Conclusion

The ubiquitin-related lncRNAs can effectively predict the prognosis of Pca and may provide new treatment options for Pca.