Integrated bioinformatics and experiments reveal the roles and driving forces for HSF1 in colorectal cancer

The regulatory roles of RNA-binding proteins in the tumour immune microenvironment of gastrointestinal malignancies

The crosstalk between the tumour immune microenvironment (TIME) and tumour cells promote immune evasion and resistance to immunotherapy in gastrointestinal (GI) tumours. Post-transcriptional regulation of genes is pivotal to GI tumours progression, and RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) serve as key regulators via their RNA-binding domains. RBPs may exhibit either anti-tumour or pro-tumour functions by influencing the TIME through the modulation of mRNAs and non-coding RNAs expression, as well as post-transcriptional modifications, primarily N6-methyladenosine (m6A). Aberrant regulation of RBPs, such as HuR and YBX1, typically enhances tumour immune escape and impacts prognosis of GI tumour patients. Further, while targeting RBPs offers a promising strategy for improving immunotherapy in GI cancers, the mechanisms by which RBPs regulate the TIME in these tumours remain poorly understood, and the therapeutic application is still in its early stages. This review summarizes current advances in exploring the roles of RBPs in regulating genes expression and their effect on the TIME of GI tumours, then providing theoretical insights for RBP-targeted cancer therapies.

Synergistic Immunoregulation: harnessing CircRNAs and PiRNAs to Amplify PD-1/PD-L1 Inhibition Therapy

The utilization of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors marks a significant advancement in cancer therapy. However, the efficacy of monotherapy is still disappointing in a substantial subset of patients, necessitating the exploration of combinational strategies. Emerging from the promising results of the KEYNOTE-942 trial, RNA-based therapies, particularly circRNAs and piRNAs, have distinguished themselves as innovative sensitizers to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). These non-coding RNAs, notable for their stability and specificity, were once underrecognized but are now known for their crucial roles in regulating PD-L1 expression and bolstering anti-cancer immunity. Our manuscript offers a comprehensive analysis of selected circRNAs and piRNAs, elucidating their immunomodulatory effects and mechanisms, thus underscoring their potential as ICIs enhancers. In conjunction with the recent Nobel Prize-awarded advancements in mRNA vaccine technology, our review highlights the transformative implications of these findings for cancer treatment. We also discuss the prospects of circRNAs and piRNAs in future therapeutic applications and research. This study pioneers the synergistic application of circRNAs and piRNAs as novel sensitizers to augment PD-1/PD-L1 inhibition therapy, demonstrating their unique roles in regulating PD-L1 expression and modulating immune responses. Our findings offer a groundbreaking approach for enhancing the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy, opening new avenues for treatment strategies. This abstract aims to encapsulate the essence of our research and the burgeoning role of these non-coding RNAs in enhancing PD-1/PD-L1 inhibition therapy, encouraging further investigation into this promising field.

Bibliometric analysis of evolutionary trends and hotspots of super-enhancers in cancer

Introduction: In the past decade, super-enhancer (SE) has become a research hotspot with increasing attention on cancer occurrence, development, and prognosis. To illustrate the hotspots of SE in cancer research and its evolutionary tendency, bibliometric analysis was carried out for this topic. Methods: Literature published before Dec 31, 2022, in WOSCC, was systematically classified, and Citespace, bibliometric.com/app, and GraphPad Prism analyzed the data. Results: After screening out inappropriate documents and duplicate data, 911 publications were selected for further bibliometric analysis. The top five research areas were Oncology (257, 28.211%), Cell Biology (210, 23.052%), Biochemistry Molecular Biology (209, 22.942%), Science Technology Other Topics (138, 15.148%), and Genetics Heredity (132, 14.490%). The United States of America (United States) has the highest number of documents (462, 50.71%), followed by China (303, 33.26%). Among the most productive institutions, four of which are from the United States and one from Singapore, the National University of Singapore. Harvard Medical School (7.68%) has the highest percentage of articles. Young, Richard A, with 32 publications, ranks first in the number of articles. The top three authors came from Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research as a research team. More than two-thirds of the research are supported by the National Institutes of Health of the United States (337, 37.654%) and the United States Department of Health Human Services (337, 37.654%). And "super enhancer" (525), "cell identity" (258), "expression" (223), "cancer" (205), and "transcription factor" (193) account for the top 5 occurrence keywords. Discussion: Since 2013, SE and cancer related publications have shown a rapid growth trend. The United States continues to play a leading role in this field, as the top literature numbers, affiliations, funding agencies, and authors were all from the United States, followed by China and European countries. A high degree of active cooperation is evident among a multitude of countries. The role of SEs in cell identity, gene transcription, expression, and inhibition, as well as the relationship between SEs and TFs, and the selective inhibition of SEs, have received much attention, suggesting that they are hot issues for research.

The Emerging Role of Super-enhancers as Therapeutic Targets in The Digestive System Tumors

Digestive system tumors include malignancies of the stomach, pancreas, colon, rectum, and the esophagus, and are associated with high morbidity and mortality. Aberrant epigenetic modifications play a vital role in the progression of digestive system tumors. The aberrant transcription of key oncogenes is driven by super-enhancers (SEs), which are characterized by large clusters of enhancers with significantly high density of transcription factors, cofactors, and epigenetic modulatory proteins. The SEs consist of critical epigenetic regulatory elements, which modulate the biological characteristics of digestive system tumors including tumor cell identity and differentiation, tumorigenesis, environmental response, immune response, and chemotherapeutic resistance. The core transcription regulatory loop of the digestive system tumors is complex and a high density of transcription regulatory complexes in the SEs and the crosstalk between SEs and the noncoding RNAs. In this review, we summarized the known characteristics and functions of the SEs in the digestive system tumors. Furthermore, we discuss the oncogenic roles and regulatory mechanisms of SEs in the digestive system tumors. We highlight the role of SE-driven genes, enhancer RNAs (eRNAs), lncRNAs, and miRNAs in the digestive system tumor growth and progression. Finally, we discuss clinical significance of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system and inhibitors of SE-related proteins such as BET and CDK7 as potential cancer therapeutics.

HSF1 Stimulates Glutamine Transport by Super-Enhancer-Driven lncRNA LINC00857 in Colorectal Cancer

Simple Summary

Based on the latest research, cancer cells prefer glutamine to glucose. Therefore, it is more worthwhile to explore the regulatory mechanism of glutamine metabolism in cancer cells. Super enhancers are critical for the gene transcriptional programs responsible for cell fate by interacting with various transcription factors. The transcription factor HSF1 exerts a multifaced role in tumorigenesis. However, the relevance of HSF1 to super enhancers in tumors remains obscure. Therefore, this study focused on the mechanism underlying super-enhancer activation and its relationship to HSF1 in CRC. Here, we performed a super-enhancer landscape in CRC and we screened out an HSF1-mediated super enhancer, lncRNA-LINC00857, by lncRNA microarray. We discovered that HSF1 could stimulate acetyltransferase P300-mediated super-enhancer activity to facilitate LINC00857 expression, contributing to SLC1A5/ASCT2-mediated glutamine transport. In addition, we validated that targeting the HSF1/LINC00857/ANXA11 axis may provide a valuable therapeutic strategy against CRC.

Abstract

Super enhancers are critical for the gene transcription responsible for cell fate by interacting with transcription factors. However, the relevance of HSF1 to super enhancers in tumors remains obscure. We profiled H3K27ac enrichment by chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing. HSF1-mediated lncRNAs were identified by lncRNA microarray. The characteristics of LINC00857 were explored by in vitro and in vivo assays. The mechanism was studied via chromatin immunoprecipitation, RNA immunoprecipitation, and HSF1/ANXA11 knockout mice. We found that super enhancers occupied multiple gene loci in colorectal cancer. We screened out an HSF1-mediated super enhancer, lncRNA-LINC00857, which exerts its characteristics in promoting cell growth via regulating glutamine metabolism. Notably, HSF1 could stimulate the super-enhancer activity of LINC00857 by the enrichment of acetyltransferase P300 to its gene loci, contributing to LINC00857 transcription. In turn, nuclear LINC00857 cooperated with HSF1 to promote ANXA11 transcription, which modulated SLC1A5/ASCT2 protein expression by binding competitively to miR-122-5p. The knockout of ANXA11 attenuated colorectal cancer formation in vivo. Collectively, we shed light on a closely cooperative machinery between HSF1 and super enhancers. HSF1 could stimulate acetyltransferase P300-mediated super-enhancer activity to facilitate LINC00857 expression, contributing to SLC1A5-mediated glutamine transport. Targeting the HSF1/LINC00857/ANXA11 axis may provide a valuable therapeutic strategy against colorectal cancer.

Clinical Data and Biocalculation Methods of GABRD Determine the Clinical Characteristics and Immune Relevance of Colorectal Cancer

Background

The aim of this study was to clarify the expression of gamma-aminobutyric acid type A receptor delta subunit (GABRD) gene in pan-cancer and its correlation with patient prognosis, and to investigate the function and possible mechanism of GABRD in colorectal cancer (CRC).

Methods

The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data were used to analyze the expression differences of GABRD in pan-cancer, and the correlation between GABRD and clinical prognosis of various tumors was analyzed by Cox regression method. According to the expression level of GABRD, Gene Function Annotation (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genomes (KEGG) functional enrichment analysis were performed on the differentially expressed genes. Expression of GABRD gene and 44 marker genes of three types of RNA modification (m1A (10), m5C (13), m6A (21)) genes in different tumors was observed. Pearson correlation of GABRD gene and marker genes of five immune pathways was measured.

Results

: TCGA data analysis showed that GABRD was significantly upregulated in various tumor tissues, especially COAD and READCOAD. Survival analysis showed that GABRD was a prognostic protective factor in CRC (p < 0.001). The results of survival nomogram showed that GABRD, age, and tumor (T) lymph node (N) distant metastasis (M) stage were independent prognostic factors, and the survival model C-index was 0.724 (0.644-1). Gene enrichment and functional analysis showed that GABRD may be related to protein digestion and absorption, ECM-receptor interaction, extracellular structure organization, extracellular matrix organization, pancreatic secretion, and antimicrobial humoral response. The expression of GABRD was positively correlated in m1A-, m5C-, and m6A-related genes. The GABRD gene was found in B cell, T cell CD4, T cell CD8, neutrophil, macrophage in TCGA-COAD (N = 282), and TCGA-COADREAD (N = 373). The infiltration level and DC was significantly positively correlated (p < 0.05). Also, the Pearson correlation coefficient is the largest.

Conclusion

The involvement of GABRD in the occurrence and development of CRC may be related to protein digestion and absorption, ECM-receptor interaction, extracellular structure organization, extracellular matrix organization, pancreatic secretion, and antimicrobial humoral response. GABRD can be used as a molecular marker for the prognosis of CRC.

Advances of Heat Shock Family in Ulcerative Colitis

Ulcerative Colitis (UC) is a non-specific and chronic inflammatory disease of colonic mucosa whose exact etiology and mechanisms remain unclear. The incidence rate of UC is increasing year by year worldwide. What followed is that the medical costs are also rising rapidly. Therefore, it is urgent to understand the pathogenesis and find promising therapeutic targets for UC. Intestinal mucosal homeostasis is essential for normal bowel function, and its imbalance may be an important pathogenesis of UC. Endogenous homeostatic regulators play roles in repairing intestinal mucosa injury after stress. Heat shock family proteins are essential endogenous homeostasis factors. They can inhibit inflammation, regulate intestinal epithelial cells’ survival and death, and promote mucosal healing. Thus, they play important roles in sustaining intestinal mucosal homeostasis and protecting against UC progression. However, the heat shock family may promote UC carcinogenesis. Here, we summarize the advances in the research of the functions of the heat shock family in UC. And this review is an attempt to light on the etiopathogenesis of UC, highlighting the endogenous protective mechanisms, hoping to provide a novel therapeutic target for UC treatment.