The analysis of human leukocyte antigen-G level in patients with endometrial cancer by Western blot technique

METTL3 promotes drug resistance to oxaliplatin in gastric cancer cells through DNA repair pathway

Gastric cancer (GC) poses a significant threat to human health and remains a prevalent form of cancer. Despite clinical treatments, the prognosis for Gastric cancer patients is still unsatisfactory, largely due to the development of multidrug resistance. Oxaliplatin (OXA), a second-generation platinum drug, is commonly recommended for adjuvant and palliative chemotherapy in Gastric cancer; however, the underlying mechanisms of acquired resistance to Oxaliplatin in Gastric cancer patients are not yet fully understood. In this study, we aimed to explore the potential mechanisms of Oxaliplatin resistance in Gastric cancer by employing bioinformatics analysis and conducting in vitro experiments. Specifically, we focused on investigating the role of methyltransferase-like 3 (METTL3). Our findings revealed that the knockdown of METTL3 significantly impeded the proliferation and migration of Gastric cancer cells. METTL3 knockdown induced apoptosis in OXA-resistant Gastric cancer cells and enhanced their sensitivity to Oxaliplatin. Furthermore, we found that DNA repair pathways were significantly activated in OXA-resistant Gastric cancer cells, and METTL3 knockdown significantly inhibited DNA repair pathways. Another important finding is that METTL3 knockdown and OXA-induced Gastric cancer cell death are additive, and the targeted METTL3 can assist Oxaliplatin treatment. Collectively, our findings suggest that METTL3 knockdown can augment the sensitivity of Gastric cancer cells to Oxaliplatin by impeding DNA repair processes. Consequently, targeting METTL3 holds great promise as a viable adjuvant strategy in the treatment of Gastric cancer patients.

Functional prominence of natural killer cells and natural killer T cells in pregnancy and infertility: A comprehensive review and update

During pregnancy, complicated connections are formed between a mother and a fetus. In a successful pregnancy, the maternal-fetal interface is affected by dynamic changes, and the fetus is protected against the mother's immune system. Natural killer (NK) cells are one of the immune system cells in the female reproductive system that play an essential role in the physiology of pregnancy. NK cells not only exist in peripheral blood (PB) but also can exist in the decidua. Studies have suggested multiple roles for these cells, including decidualization, control of trophoblast growth and invasion, embryo acceptance and maintenance by the mother, and facilitation of placental development during pregnancy. Natural killer T (NKT) cells are another group of NK cells that play a crucial role in the maintenance of pregnancy and regulation of the immune system during pregnancy. Studies show that NK and NKT cells are not only effective in maintaining pregnancy but also can be involved in infertility-related diseases. This review focuses on NK and NKT cells biology and provides a detailed description of the functions of these cells in implantation, placentation, and immune tolerance during pregnancy and their role in pregnancy complications.

Human leukocyte antigen-G (HLA-G) expression plays an important role in the diagnosis and grading of endometrial cancer

The research aimed to investigate the expression of human leukocyte antigen G (HLA-G) in cancer tissues and normal endometrium and the expression of HLA-G in the three different grades of Endometrial cancer, to determine if HLA-G expression is related with the diagnosis and grading of endometrial cancer. The expression of HLA-G protein was analysed in the primary tumour in 97 tissue samples obtained from endometrial cancer, in which 30 samples were at pathological Grade 1; 37 samples were at Grade 2; 27 samples were at Grade 3; and the other 5 samples were obtained from normal endometrium. The HLA-G protein level was measured by immunohistochemical method and analysed according to the clinicopathological parameters of patients. A statistically significant difference (p < .05) was observed in HLA-G expression between the cancerous tissue and the normal endometrium (p = .0007), and the histochemistry score (H-score) of the negative control was 0.05 ± 0.03 (mean ± SD). Statistically significant correlations were also observed between samples of pathological Grade 1 and Grade 2 (p = .0126), Grade 2 and Grade 3 (p = .0359), Grade 1 and Grade 3 (p = .0001). Endometrial cancer cells express higher levels of HLA-G probably to escape immune surveillance, and HLA-G expression level is related with the pathological grade of endometrial cancer. Therefore, HLA-G detecting and quantifying could possibly help diagnosing, grading and treatment of endometrial cancer.Impact statementWhat is already known on this subject? The expression of a member of the non-classical HLA antigens, HLA-G, is one of the main ways for tumour immune escape and progression. The significance of HLA-G in tumour biology has been intensively investigated (Carosella et al. 2015), and now it is widely acknowledged that HLA-G expression in tumours is highly linked with immune suppressive microenvironments, advanced tumour stage, poor therapeutic responses and prognosis (Lin and Yan, 2018). However, to our knowledge, no research has been conducted on the correlation between HLA-G expression and pathological grades of endometrial cancer.What do the results of this study add? Our study demonstrated that the expression of HLA-G plays an important role in the pathological grading of endometrial cancer.What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? Measuring the level of HLA-G expression to help pathological grading of endometrial cancer is important in determining the treatment of patients with endometrial cancer and studying the underlying mechanisms of the development of endometrial cancer, while proving or finding new targeted therapies inhibiting or modifying these processes still requires further investigation.

HLA-G/ILTs Targeted Solid Cancer Immunotherapy: Opportunities and Challenges

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have become a promising immunotherapy for cancers. Human leukocyte antigen-G (HLA-G), a neoantigen, its biological functions and clinical relevance have been extensively investigated in malignancies, and early clinical trials with “anti-HLA-G strategy” are being launched for advance solid cancer immunotherapy. The mechanism of HLA-G as a new ICI is that HLA-G can bind immune cell bearing inhibitory receptors, the immunoglobulin-like transcript (ILT)-2 and ILT-4. HLA-G/ILT-2/-4 (HLA-G/ILTs) signaling can drive comprehensive immune suppression, promote tumor growth and disease progression. Though clinical benefits could be expected with application of HLA-G antibodies to blockade the HLA-G/ILTs signaling in solid cancer immunotherapy, major challenges with the diversity of HLA-G isoforms, HLA-G/ILTs binding specificity, intra- and inter-tumor heterogeneity of HLA-G, lack of isoform-specific antibodies and validated assay protocols, which could dramatically affect the clinical efficacy. Clinical benefits of HLA-G-targeted solid cancer immunotherapy may be fluctuated or even premature unless major challenges are addressed.

Bioinformatic profiling identifies prognosis-related genes in the immune microenvironment of endometrial carcinoma

Endometrial carcinoma (EC) is a common malignancy of female genital system which exhibits a unique immune profile. It is a promising strategy to quantify immune patterns of EC for predicting prognosis and therapeutic efficiency. Here, we attempted to identify the possible immune microenvironment-related prognostic markers of EC. We obtained the RNA sequencing and corresponding clinical data of EC from TCGA database. Then, 3 immune scores based on the Estimation of STromal and Immune cells in MAlignant Tumor tissues using Expression data (ESTIMATE) algorithm were computed. Correlation between above ESTIMATE scores and other immune-related scores, molecular subtypes, prognosis, and gene mutation status (including BRCA and TP53) were further analyzed. Afterwards, gene modules associated with the ESTIMATE scores were screened out through hierarchical clustering analysis and weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). Differentially expressed analysis was performed and genes shared by the most relevant modules were found out. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis was conducted to explore the biological functions of those genes. Survival analysis was carried out to identify prognostic immune-related genes and GSE17025 database was further used to confirm the correlation between immune-related genes and the ImmuneScore. The immune-related scores based on ESTIMATE algorithm was closely related to the immune microenvironment of EC. 3 gene modules that had the closest correlations with 3 ESTIMATE scores were obtained. 109 immune-related genes were preliminarily found out and 29 pathways were significantly enriched, most of which were associated with immune response. Univariate survival analysis revealed that there were 14 genes positively associated with both OS and PFS. Among which, 11 genes showed marked correlations with ImmuneScore values in GSE17025 database. Our current study profiled the immune status and identified 14 novel immune-related prognostic biomarkers for EC. Our findings may help to investigate the complicated tumor microenvironment and develop novel individualized therapeutic targets for EC.

HLA-G and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) associations with cancer in African populations: Implications in personal medicine

The immune system plays an important role in protecting the body against malignancy. During cancer immunoediting, the immune system can recognize and keep checking the tumor cells by down-expression of some self-molecules or by increasing expression of some novel molecules. However, the microenvironment created in the course of cancer development hampers the immune ability to recognize and destroy the transforming cells. Human Leukocyte Antigen G (HLA-G) is emerging as immune checkpoint molecule produced more by cancer cells to weaken the immune response against them. HLA-G is a non-classical HLA class I molecule which is normally expressed in immune privileged tissues as a soluble or membrane-bound protein. HLA-G locus is highly polymorphic in the non-coding 3′ untranslated region (UTR) and in the 5′ upstream regulatory region (5′ URR). HLA-G expression is controlled by polymorphisms located in these regions, and several association studies between these polymorphic sites and disease predisposition, response to therapy, and/or HLA-G protein expression have been reported. Various polymorphisms are demonstrated to modulate its expression and this is increasingly finding more significance in cancer biology. This review focuses on the relevance of the HLA-G gene and its polymorphisms in cancer development. We highlight population genetics of HLA-G as evidence to espouse the need and importance of exploring potential utility of HLA-G in cancer diagnosis, prognosis and immunotherapy in the currently understudied African population.

The analysis of Treg lymphocyte blood percentage changes in patients with head and neck cancer during combined oncological treatment: a preliminary report

Introduction

In patients with cancer, Treg lymphocytes seem to play an important role in promoting tumour growth. The number of circulating Treg cells has been associated with poor survival among patients suffering from various types of cancers. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the changes in the percentage levels of Treg lymphocytes in the blood samples of patients with head and neck cancer during combined treatment with respect to the stage of the disease and the intensity of the radiation reaction as monitored using the Dische scale.

Material and methods

Peripheral blood samples were collected from 20 head and neck cancer patients prior to the combined oncological treatment, during, and then one week after the completion of the therapy.

Results

A statistically significantly higher percentage of CD3⁺/CD4⁺/CD25⁺/FoxP3⁺/CD127(^–/low) T cells within the CD3⁺/CD4⁺ T cell population was detected in patients during radiotherapy (RTH), chemotherapy (CTH), and chemoradiotherapy (CRT) than before the treatment began (p < 0.0001). A statistically significantly higher percentage of CD3⁺/CD4⁺/CD25⁺/FoxP3⁺/CD127(^–/low) T cells within the CD3⁺/CD4⁺ T cell population was detected after RTH/CRT than before treatment, with respect to the radiation reaction as evaluated using the Dische scale (p = 0.0150).

Conclusions

The increase in the percentage of Treg cells correlated with an increase in the intensity of the radiation reaction measured using the Dische scale which indicates the advance of the oral mucositis reaction to RTH. In conclusion, because the role of Treg lymphocytes in cancer patients is complex, it is necessary to monitor the percentages of these cells in patients during combined oncological therapies.

Expression analysis of immune-regulatory molecules HLA-G, HLA-E and IDO in endometrial cancer

HLA-G has been widely implicated in advanced cancers through different pathways of immunosuppression allowing tumor escape. Contrarily, HLA-E has a controversial role in the tumor escape from the immune system. IDO catabolic enzyme is known to be up-regulated in many tumors types allowing their immune escape. Based on these considerations, we investigated the expression of HLA-G, HLA-E and IDO molecules in endometrial cancer (EC) and their association with prognostic clinicopathologic parameters. Their expression were checked in tumoral and adjacent endometrial tissues. Both HLA-G and IDO immunostaining were significantly increased in EC tissues compared to normal residual endometrial glands (Mann Whitney U-test, p = 0.0001 and p = 0,020 respectively). However, HLA-E was highly expressed in tumoral tissues as well as in normal residual endometrial glands (respectively, 100% and 81.8%). Increased HLA-G expression levels were observed in high histological grade (grade 3), and in the non-endometrioid type 2 EC. Unexpectedly, patients with IDO Low expression had significantly impaired overall survival compared to patients with IDO High (log-rank p = 0.021). Conversely, HLA-E low expression was associated to an improved overall survival EC (log-rank p = 0.004). We concluded that, HLA-G and IDO are highly expressed in EC compared to adjacent normal endometrial tissues, that might be interesting for the EC outcome.

Insulin resistance in obese adolescents affects the expression of genes associated with immune response

OBJECTIVE

The development of obesity and its metabolic complications is associated with dysregulation of various intrinsic mechanisms, which control basic metabolic processes through changes in the expression of numerous regulatory genes.

METHODS

The expression level of HLA-DRA, HLA-DRB1, HLA-G, HLA-F, and NFX1 genes as well as miR-190b was measured in the blood of obese adolescents without signs of resistance to insulin and with insulin resistance in comparison with the group of relative healthy control individuals without signs of obesity.

RESULTS

It was shown that obesity without signs of insulin resistance is associated with upregulation of the expression level of HLA-DRA and HLA-DRB1 genes, but with down-regulation of HLA-G gene expression in the blood as compared to control group of relative healthy adolescents. At the same time, no significant changes were observed in the expression level of HLA-F and NFX1 genes in the blood of this group of obese adolescents. Development of insulin resistance in obese individuals leads to significant down-regulation of HLA-DRA, HLA-DRB1, HLA-G, and HLA-F gene expressions as well as to up-regulation of NFX1 gene as well as microRNA miR-190b in the blood as compared to obese patients without signs of insulin resistance.

CONCLUSIONS

Results of this study provide evidence that obesity affects the expression of the subset of genes related to immune response in the blood and that development of insulin resistance in obese adolescents is associated with strong down-regulation of the expressions of HLA-DRA, HLA-DRB1, HLA-F, and HLA-G genes, which may be contribute to the development of obesity complications. It is possible that transcription factor NFX1 and miR-190b participate in downregulation of HLA-DRA gene expression in the blood of obese adolescents with insulin resistance.