MicroRNA miR-19b-3p mediated G protein γ subunit 7 (GNG7) loss contributes lung adenocarcinoma progression through activating Hedgehog signaling

GIMAP7 inhibits epithelial-mesenchymal transition and glycolysis in lung adenocarcinoma cells via regulating the Smo/AMPK signaling pathway

BACKGROUND

GTPase immunity-associated protein 7 (GIMAP7) has been previously recognized as a prognostic marker in pan-cancer. Our objective was to explore the function of GIMAP7 in the progression of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD).

METHODS

GIMAP7 was overexpressed by transfection with GIMAP7 plasmid, and knocked down using siRNAs. The biological functions of GIMAP7 were examined by employing CCK-8, EdU, colony formation, flow cytometry, wound healing, and transwell assays. The effects of GIMAP7 on the extracellular acidification rate (ECAR), oxygen consumption rate (OCR), lactate production, and glucose uptake were evaluated. In addition, the related mRNA and protein expression was detected employing immunohistochemical, western blot, and qRT-PCR. A xenograft tumor model was established in nude mice to evaluate the effects of GIMAP7 on tumor growth.

RESULTS

GIMAP7 was lowly expressed in LUAD tissues and cells. GIMAP7 inhibited the proliferation, mobility, EMT, glycolysis, but promoted apoptosis in LUAD cells. Moreover, we also confirmed that GIMAP7 suppressed Smo/AMPK signaling in LUAD cells. By adding the Smo agonist SAG and AMPK agonist GSK621, the results of rescue experiments further verified that GIMAP7 played a role in LUAD inhibition through inhibition of the Smo/AMPK signaling pathway. Furthermore, the role of GIMAP7 in inhibiting tumor growth was verified in vivo.

CONCLUSIONS

These results demonstrate that GIMAP7 could inhibit cell proliferation, mobility and glycolysis, but accelerate apoptosis via repressing the Smo/AMPK signaling pathway in LUAD.

Establishment of a new prognostic risk model of GNG7 pathway-related molecules in clear cell renal cell carcinoma based on immunomodulators

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (CCRCC) is a common tumor of the urological system for which surgery is the preferred treatment, but there is a lack of therapeutic options after surgery. This study aims to explore the biological role of GNG7 on CCRCC from a genetic perspective. Differences in mRNA expression and patient survival of GNG7 in patients with CCRCC and healthy patients were analyzed using the TCGA database. It was observed that GNG7 gene expression was downregulated in CCRCC tissue compared with healthy tissue, and high GNG7 predicted better prognosis for patients, and GNG7 also showed strong variability in clinical and TMN staging. The immune relevance of GNG7 and related genes was explored using renal cancer data from CCLE and TISIDB database. It was verified that the risk score constructed by 7 GNG7-related regulators might be used as an independent prognostic risk factor for CCRCC. A CCRCC prognostic model that involved 7 immune genes was further established to predict the survival probabilities of patients. At last, the GEO database and immunochemical tissue staining were used to validate GNG7 expression in CCRCC. Our study proposed a novel panel of genes to predict CCRCC OS based on GNG7-related immune genes, which may help to accurately predict the prognosis of CCRCC patients and make better clinical decisions for individual treatment.

Comprehensive analysis to identify GNG7 as a prognostic biomarker in lung adenocarcinoma correlating with immune infiltrates

Background: G Protein Subunit Gamma 7 (GNG7), an important regulator of cell proliferation and cell apoptosis, has been reported to be downregulated in a variety of tumors including lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). However, the correlation between low expression of GNG7 and prognosis of LUAD as well as the immune infiltrates of LUAD remains unclear.

Methods: The samples were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). R software was performed for statistical analysis. GNG7 expression and its prognostic value in LUAD were assessed through statistically analyzing the data from different databases. A nomogram was constructed to predict the impact of GNG7 on prognosis. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) and single-sample gene set enrichment analyses GSEA (ssGSEA) were employed to determine the potential signal pathways and evaluated the immune cell infiltration regulated by GNG7. The prognostic significance of GNG7 expression associated with immune cell infiltration was investigated using the Tumor Immune Estimation Resource 2.0 (TIMER2.0) and the Kaplan-Meier plotter database. The UALCAN, cBio Cancer Genomics Portal (cBioPortal) and MethSurv database were used to analyze the correlation between the methylation of GNG7 and its mRNA expression as well as prognostic significance.

Results: GNG7 was demonstrated to be down-regulated in LUAD and its low expression was associated with poor prognosis. A clinical reliable prognostic-predictive model was constructed. Pathway enrichment showed that GNG7 was highly related to the B cell receptor signaling pathway. Further analysis showed that GNG7 was positively associated with B cell infiltration and low levels of B cell infiltration tended to associate with worse prognosis in patients with low GNG7 expression. Moreover, methylation analysis suggested hypermethylation may contribute to the low expression of GNG7 in LUAD.

Conclusion: Decreased expression of GNG7 at least partly caused by hypermethylation of the GNG7 promoter is closely associated with poor prognosis and tumor immune cell infiltration (especially B cells) in LUAD. These results suggest that GNG7 may be a promising prognostic biomarker and a potential immunotherapeutic target for LUAD, which provides new insights into immunotherapy for LUAD.

The emerging role of noncoding RNAs in the Hedgehog signaling pathway in cancer

Hedgehog (HH), a conserved signaling pathway, is involved in embryo development, organogenesis, and other biological functions. Dysregulation and abnormal activation of HH are involved in tumorigenesis and tumor progression. With the emergence of interest in noncoding RNAs, studies on their involvement in abnormal regulation of biological processes in tumors have been published one after another. In this review, we focus on the crosstalk between noncoding RNAs and the HH pathway in tumors and elaborate the mechanisms by which long noncoding RNAs and microRNAs regulate or are regulated by HH signaling in cancer. We also discuss the interaction between noncoding RNAs and the HH pathway from the perspective of cancer hallmarks, presenting this complex network as concisely as possible and organizing ideas for cancer diagnosis and treatment.