Detection of genes responsible for cetuximab sensitization in colorectal cancer cells using CRISPR-Cas9

MRPL48 is a novel prognostic and predictive biomarker of hepatocellular carcinoma

BACKGROUND

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most prevalent forms of cancer and poses a threat to the health and survival of humans. Mitochondrial ribosomal protein L48 (MRPL48) belongs to the mitochondrial ribosomal protein family, which participates in energy production. Studies have shown that MRPL48 can predict osteosarcoma incidence and prognosis, as well as promotes colorectal cancer progression. However, the role of MRPL48 in HCC remains unknown.

METHODS

TCGA, GEO, HCCDB, CPTAC, SMART, UALCAN, Kaplan-Meier plotter, cBioPortal, and MethSurv were performed for bioinformatics purposes. Quantitative RT-PCR, immunoblotting, and functional studies were conducted to validate the methodology in vitro.

RESULTS

MRPL48 was greatly overexpressed in HCC tissues, compared with healthy tissue, which was subsequently demonstrated in vitro as well. The survival and regression analyses showed that MRPL48 expression is of significant clinical prognostic value in HCC. The ROC curve and nomogram analysis indicated that MRPL48 is a powerful predictor of HCC. MRPL48 methylation was adversely associated with the expression of MRPL48, and patients with a low level of methylation had poorer overall survival than those with a high level of methylation. GSEA showed that the expression of the MRPL48 was correlated with Resolution of Sister Chromatid Cohesion, Mitotic Prometaphase, Retinoblastoma Gene in Cancer, RHO Gtpases Activate Formins, Mitotic Metaphase and Anaphase, and Cell Cycle Checkpoints. An analysis of immune cell infiltration showed a significant association between MRPL48 and immune cell infiltration subsets, which impacted the survival of HCC patients. Additionally, MRPL48 knockdown reduced HCC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro.

CONCLUSIONS

We demonstrated that MRPL48 expression may be associated with HCC development and prognosis. These findings may open up new research directions and opportunities for the development of HCC treatments.

Abnormal expression of HADH, an enzyme of fatty acid oxidation, affects tumor development and prognosis (Review)

Tumor occurrence and progression are closely associated with abnormal energy metabolism and energy metabolism associated with glucose, proteins and lipids. The reprogramming of energy metabolism is one of the hallmarks of cancer. As a form of energy metabolism, fatty acid metabolism includes fatty acid uptake, de novo synthesis and β‑oxidation. In recent years, the role of abnormal fatty acid β‑oxidation in tumors has gradually been recognized. Mitochondrial trifunctional protein (MTP) serves an important role in fatty acid β‑oxidation and HADH (two subtypes: α subunit, HADHA and β subunit, HADHB) are important subunits of MTP. HADH participates in the steps of 2, 3 and 4 fatty acid β‑oxidation. However, there is no review summarizing the specific role of HADH in tumors. Therefore, the present study focused on HADH as the main indicator to explore the changes in fatty acid β‑oxidation in several types of tumors. The present review summarized the changes in HADH in 11 organs (cerebrum, oral cavity, esophagus, liver, pancreas, stomach, colorectum, lymph, lung, breast, kidney), the effect of up‑ and downregulation and the relationship of HADH with prognosis. In summary, HADH can be either a suppressor or a promoter depending on where the tumor is located, which is closely associated with prognostic assessment. HADHA and HADHB have similar prognostic roles in known and comparable tumors.

Metabolic modeling-based drug repurposing in Glioblastoma

The manifestation of intra- and inter-tumor heterogeneity hinders the development of ubiquitous cancer treatments, thus requiring a tailored therapy for each cancer type. Specifically, the reprogramming of cellular metabolism has been identified as a source of potential drug targets. Drug discovery is a long and resource-demanding process aiming at identifying and testing compounds early in the drug development pipeline. While drug repurposing efforts (i.e., inspecting readily available approved drugs) can be supported by a mechanistic rationale, strategies to further reduce and prioritize the list of potential candidates are still needed to facilitate feasible studies. Although a variety of ‘omics’ data are widely gathered, a standard integration method with modeling approaches is lacking. For instance, flux balance analysis is a metabolic modeling technique that mainly relies on the stoichiometry of the metabolic network. However, exploring the network’s topology typically neglects biologically relevant information. Here we introduce Transcriptomics-Informed Stoichiometric Modelling And Network analysis (TISMAN) in a recombinant innovation manner, allowing identification and validation of genes as targets for drug repurposing using glioblastoma as an exemplar.

HADHB, a fatty acid beta-oxidation enzyme, is a potential prognostic predictor in malignant lymphoma

In haematological malignancies, such as malignant lymphoma, reprogramming of fatty acid metabolism favours tumour cell survival and drug resistance. Hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase trifunctional multienzyme complex subunit alpha (HADHA), an enzyme involved in fatty acid beta-oxidation (FAO), is overexpressed in high-grade lymphoma and is a predictor of poor prognosis in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). HADHB forms a heterodimer with HADHA and functions as an FAO enzyme together with HADHA; however, the relevance of its expression in malignant lymphoma is unknown. In this study, we investigated the roles and antitumour effects of HADHB expression in malignant lymphoma. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that HADHB was frequently overexpressed in the high-grade lymphoma subtype. HADHB overexpression was observed in 68% (87/128) of DLBCL cases and was an independent predictor of poor prognosis (p=0.001). In vitro analysis demonstrated that HADHB knockdown suppressed cell proliferation in LCL-K and MD901 cells (p<0.05). Additionally, treatment with the FAO inhibitor, ranolazine, increased cell death in control cells compared with that in HADHB knockdown LCL-K and MD901 cells (p<0.01). Cell death was also suppressed by the ferroptosis inhibitor, ferrosatin-1, in LCL-K and MD901 cells (p<0.05). Collectively, these findings provide basic evidence for the development of new cell death-based therapies for refractory malignant lymphoma. We plan to perform prospective studies and preclinical studies using animal models to confirm these results.