Vasohibin-1 expression inhibits advancement of ovarian cancer producing various angiogenic factors

Revealing the inhibitory effect of VASH1 on ovarian cancer from multiple perspectives

The function of Vasohibin-1 (VASH1) in human cancer has not been thoroughly or comprehensively examined. Here, we identified the tumor suppressor part of VASH1 across cancers, including epithelial ovarian tumors. Our study carefully contrasted the expression of VASH1 in pancancer and nontumorous tissues in a public database to explore its regulatory role in clinical prognosis, diagnosis, tumor purity, and immune cell infiltration. Next, we explored the antitumor mechanism of VASH1 through drug sensitivity, functional enrichment, and phenotypic experiments in ovarian cancer. Research suggests that the expression of VASH1 in neoplastic tissues is lower than that in normal tissues. VASH1 affects the OS and RFS of several tumor types. In addition, VASH1 expression resulted in a high OS and RFS in the diagnosis of tumor and nontumor tissues and negatively regulated tumor purity. Moreover, VASH1 controls the tumor microenvironment by regulating immunocyte infiltration. In ovarian cancer, VASH1 can serve as a biomarker to estimate the efficacy of chemotherapy. Functional enrichment analysis suggests that VASH1 plays a tumor suppressor role by regulating the extracellular matrix receptor pathway. VASH1 inhibition of the malignant phenotype of ovarian cancer cells was further confirmed by in vivo experiments. These results indicate that VASH1 acts as a cancer-inhibiting factor and potential therapeutic target in ovarian cancer.

A diagnostic miRNA panel to detect recurrence of ovarian cancer through artificial intelligence approaches

BACKGROUND

Ovarian Cancer (OC) is the deadliest gynecology malignancy, whose high recurrence rate in OC patients is a challenging object. Therefore, having deep insights into the genetic and molecular mechanisms of OC recurrence can improve the target therapeutic procedures. This study aimed to discover crucial miRNAs for the detection of tumor recurrence in OC by artificial intelligence approaches.

METHOD

Through the ANOVA feature selection method, we selected 100 candidate miRNAs among 588 miRNAs. For their classification, a deep-learning model was employed to validate the significance of the candidate miRNAs. The accuracy, F1-score (high-risk), and AUC-ROC of classification test data based on the 100 miRNAs were 73%, 0.81, and 0.65, respectively. Association rule mining was used to discover hidden relations among the selected miRNAs.

RESULT

Five miRNAs, including miR-1914, miR-203, miR-135a-2, miR-149, and miR-9-1, were identified as the most frequent items among high-risk association rules. The identified miRNAs may target genes/proteins involved in epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), resistance to therapy, and cancer stem cells; being responsible for the heterogeneity and plasticity of the tumor. Our conclusion presents mir-1914 as the significant candidate miRNA and the most frequent item. Current knowledge indicates that the dysregulated miR-1914 may function as a tumor suppressor or oncogene in the development of cancer.

CONCLUSION

These candidate miRNAs can be considered a powerful tool in the diagnosis of OC recurrence. We hypothesize that mir-1914 might open a new line of research in the realm of managing the recurrence of OC and could be a significant factor in triggering OC recurrence.

An Aging and Senescence-Related Gene Signature for Prognosis Prediction in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

Background: Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is the most common solid lesion in the kidney. This study aims to establish an aging and senescence-related mRNA model for risk assessment and prognosis prediction in ccRCC patients.

Methods: ccRCC data were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) datasets. By applying univariate Cox regression, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), and multivariate Cox regression, a new prognostic model based on aging and senescence-related genes (ASRGs) was established. Depending on the prognostic model, high- and low-risk groups were identified for further study. The reliability of the prediction was evaluated in the validation cohort. Pan-cancer analysis was conducted to explore the role of GNRH1 in tumors.

Results: A novel prognostic model was established based on eight ASRGs. This model was an independent risk factor and significantly correlated with the prognosis and clinicopathological features of ccRCC patients. The high- and low-risk groups exhibited distinct modes in the principal component analysis and different patterns in immune infiltration. Moreover, the nomogram combining risk score and other clinical factors showed excellent predictive ability, with AUC values for predicting 1-, 3-, and 5-year overall survival in the TCGA cohort equal to 0.88, 0.82, and 0.81, respectively.

Conclusion: The model and nomogram based on the eight ASRGs had a significant value for survival prediction and risk assessment for ccRCC patients, providing new insights into the roles of aging and senescence in ccRCC.

Antitumor effect of isoquercetin on tissue vasohibin expression and colon cancer vasculature

Tumor cells trigger angiogenesis through the expression of angiogenic factors. Vasohibins (VASHs) are a family of peptides that regulate angiogenesis. Flavonoids have antiproliferative antitumor properties; however, few studies have highlighted their antiangiogenic potential. This study evaluated the flavonoid isoquercetin (Q3G) as an antitumor compound related to colon cancer vascularization and regulation of VASH1 and 2. Mice bearing xenogeneic colon cancer (n = 15) were divided into 3 groups: Q3G-treated (gavage, daily over a week), bevacizumab-treated (intraperitoneal, single dose), or untreated animals. Tumor growth, histological characteristics, blood vessel volume, and VASH1 and 2 expressions were analyzed. Q3G impaired tumor growth and vascularization, upregulated VASH1, and downregulated VASH2 in comparison to untreated animals. Mice treated with Q3G showed approximately 65% fewer blood vessels than untreated animals and 50% fewer blood vessels than mice treated with bevacizumab. Thus, we show that Q3G has antitumor activity, impairs vascularization, and differentially modulates VASH1 and 2 expressions in colon cancer.

A review on vasohibin and ocular neovascularization

Ischemic and neovascular disease is one of the most difficult ocular diseases to deal with nowadays. Redundancy, poor visual acuity and decreased life quality are bothering patients and ophthalmologists for decades. After vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) was found to be a primary factor in promoting retinal angiogenesis, intravitreal injection of anti-VEGF drugs has been the first-line treatment. Whereas, some patients are refractory to this therapy and problems of economic burden, local complications and adverse effects promote researches into other possible targets. The vasohibin (VASH) family is a newly-investigated factor in modulating ocular angiogenesis. The family includes VASH1 and VASH2, which show opposite effects of inhibiting and accelerating angiogenesis respectively. Positive results have been reported in cellular and animal experiments. With further researches, it can be a promising future target of treating ocular neovascular diseases.

Kaempferol protects retinal ganglion ceils from high-glucose-induced injury by regulating vasohibin-1

Kaempferol is a medicinal flavonol derived from the roots of Kaempferia galanga L. Kaempferol can affect cell survival, apoptosis, and anti-oxidation, though its role and underlying mechanism in retinal ganglion cells with high-glucose injury remains unclear. In this study, we explored kaempferol's role in high-glucose injury in cells from the retinal ganglion cell (RGC) line. RGC cells were isolated and then cultured in high glucose (55 mmol/L) for 0 h, 12 h, 24 h, 48 h, or 72 h, and results showed decreased cell viability at 48 h and 72 h. We treated RGC cells with different concentrations of kaempferol (0 μmol/L, 20 μmol/L, 40 μmol/L, 60 μmol/L, 80 μmol/L, or 100 μmol/L) and high-glucose (55 mmol/L) for 48 h. The data indicated inhibited lactate dehydrogenase leakage, apoptosis, caspase-3 activity, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels. Moreover, whereas cell viability increased in RGC cells that were incubated with kaempferol (60 μmol/L, 80 μmol/L, or 100 μmol/L) and glucose (55 mmol/L), compared with glucose alone. Kaempferol (60 μmol/L) elevated ERK phosphorylation and vasohibin-1 (VASH1) expression, and inhibition of ERK phosphorylation reversed the effect of kaempferol (60 μmol/L) on VASH1 expression in RGC cells with high-glucose injury. Additionally, interference of VASH1 by VASH1 siRNA markedly reversed the effects of kaempferol (60 μmol/L) on cell viability, caspase-3 activity, and ROS levels in RGC cells with high glucose injury. Taken together, the results suggest that kaempferol protected retinal ganglion cells from high-glucose-induced injury via ERK and VASH1 signaling.

The expression of vasohibin-1 and its prognostic significance in bladder cancer

Angiogenesis is important in the development of solid tumors. Vasohibin-1 (VASH-1) is an endothelium-derived protein that acts as an inhibitor of angiogenesis in many different types of cancer. However, the expression of VASH-1 and its clinical value in bladder cancer remain unknown. The current study analyzed the expression of VASH-1, as well as the expression of the angiogenesis-related factors vascular endothelial growth factor-A, hypoxia inducible factor-1α and cluster of differentiation 34 in bladder cancer tissues from 50 patients using immunohistochemistry. The associations between the expression of these factors and the clinicopathological characteristics of the patients were assessed. The current study demonstrated that VASH-1 is primarily expressed in the cytoplasm of bladder cancer cells and in a fraction of vascular endothelial cells. Furthermore, the expression of VASH-1 was positively associated with the tumor stage (P<0.01), pathological grade (P<0.01) and distant metastasis (P<0.05) but not with patient age or sex (P>0.05). Spearman rank correlation tests indicated that levels of those four factors were positively correlated with each other. Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that high expression of these four factors was significantly associated with lower 5-year overall survival and progression-free survival rates. Collectively, the results of the current study suggest that VASH-1 is clinically significant in bladder cancer and its high expression may predict the progression and prognosis of patients with bladder cancer. The present study also implies that VASH-1 may be a novel target for vascular targeting therapy.

Vasohibin-1 expression inhibits advancement of ovarian cancer producing various angiogenic factors

Vasohibin‐1 (VASH1) is a negative feedback regulator of angiogenesis, the first to be discovered, and was identified in vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)‐stimulated vascular endothelial cells. Vasohibin‐1 inhibits abnormal vascularization induced by various angiogenic factors including fibroblast growth factor and platelet‐derived growth factor (PDGF), in addition to VEGF. By focusing on this characteristic of VASH1, we investigated the antitumor effects of VASH1 expression on ovarian cancer cells that produce different angiogenic factors. By using a high VEGF‐producing ovarian cancer cell line, SHIN‐3, and a high PDGF‐producing ovarian cancer cell line, KOC‐2S, the cells were transfected with either a VEGF antagonist, soluble VEGF receptor‐1 (sVEGFR‐1, or sFlt‐1), or VASH1 genes to establish their respective cellular expression. The characteristics of these transfectants were compared with controls. We previously reported that the expression of sFlt‐1 inhibited tumor vascularization and growth of high VEGF‐producing ovarian cancer cells, reduced peritoneal dissemination and ascites development, and prolonged the survival time of the host. However, in the current study, the expression of sFlt‐1 had no such effect on the high PDGF‐producing ovarian cancer cells used here, whereas VASH1 expression inhibited tumor vascularization and growth, not only in high VEGF‐producing cells, but also in high PDGF‐producing cells, reduced their peritoneal dissemination and ascites, and prolonged the survival time of the host. These results suggest that VASH1 is an effective treatment for ovarian cancer cells that produce different angiogenic factors.