DMBT1 expression in biliary carcinogenesis with correlation of clinicopathological data

Circular RNAs: A Promising Biomarker for Endometrial Cancer

Endometrial cancer (EC) is one of the most common malignant tumors of the female reproductive tract. EC patients have high morbidity and mortality rates and remain an important cause of cancer-related morbidity and mortality worldwide. More and more studies have shown that a large number of non-coding RNAs (such as microRNAs and long non-coding RNAs) are associated with the occurrence of diseases. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) is an endogenous non-coding RNA. It has a unique covalent structure. Many studies in recent years have found circRNAs differential expression in a variety of tumor tissues compared to matched normal tissues. In endometrial carcinoma, there also are multiple circRNAs differentially expressed and therefore circRNAs perhaps can be used as a diagnostic and prognosis biomarkers of EC. In this review, we described the biogenesis, function and characteristics of circRNAs, and the circRNAs with potential influence and clinical significance on the development of EC were summarized. Adenocarcinoma is the most common form of EC, so this review focuses on endometrioid adenocarcinoma.

DMBT1 suppresses progression of gallbladder carcinoma through PI3K/AKT signaling pathway by targeting PTEN

Gallbladder carcinoma (GBC) is a highly lethal malignancy of the gastrointestinal tract. Despite extensive research, the underlying molecular mechanism of GBC remains largely unclear. Deleted in malignant brain tumors 1 (DMBT1) is low-expression during cancer progression and as a potential tumor-suppressor gene in various types of cancer. However, its role in Gallbladder cancer remains poorly understood. Here, we found that DMBT1 was significantly low-expression and deletion of copy number in GBC tissues by qRT-PCR and Western blot. Overexpression of DMBT1 impaired survival, promoted apoptosis in GBC cells in vitro, and inhibited tumor progression in vivo. Further study of underlying mechanisms demonstrated that DMBT1 combined with PTEN which could stabilize PTEN protein, resulting in inhibiting the activation of PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. Our study revealed a new sight of DMBT1 as a tumor-suppressor gene on the PI3K/AKT pathway in GBC, which may be a potential therapeutic target for improving treatment.

The analyses of SRCR genes based on protein-protein interaction network in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

The scavenger receptor cysteine-rich (SRCR) proteins, with one to several SRCR domains, play important roles in human diseases. A full view of their functions in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remain unclear. Sequence alignment and phylogenetic tree for all human SRCR domains were performed. Differentially-expressed SRCR genes were identified in ESCC, followed by protein-protein interaction (PPI) network construction, topological parameters, subcellular distribution, functional enrichment and survival analyses. The variation of conserved cysteines in each SRCR domain suggested a requirement for new classification of the SRCR family. Six genes (LGALS3BP, MSR1, CD163, LOXL2, LOXL3 and LOXL4) were upregulated, and four genes (DMBT1, PRSS12, TMPRSS2 and SCARA5) were downregulated in ESCC. These 10 SRCR genes form a unique biological network. Functional enrichment analyses provided important clues to investigate the biological functions for SRCR gene network in ESCC, such as extracellular structure organization and the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. Kaplan-Meier curves confirmed that high expression of SCARA5, LOXL2, LOXL3, LOXL4 were related to poor survival, whereas high expression of DMBTI and PRSS12 showed the opposite result. SRCR genes promote the development of ESCC through its network and could serve as potential prognostic factors and therapy targets of ESCC.

Analysis of the circular RNA transcriptome in endometrial cancer

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a naturally occurring family of non-coding RNA that may regulate gene expression in mammals. circRNAs are more stable than messenger RNAs due to their resistance to RNA exonuclease. A growing body of evidence has shown that the expression of circRNAs is regulated during development in a tissue-specific manner. CircRNAs have been implicated in a number of cancers; however, their role in endometrial cancer (EC) is completely unknown. Here, we report the circular transcriptome specific for EC as determined by RNA sequencing. We found that the overall abundance of circRNAs is lower in EC than in normal endometrium. Further, there are numerous ‘hotspot’ genes from which circRNAs are transcribed that may account for alterations in circRNA expression between the normal and malignant endometrium. Most importantly, we have also identified circRNAs that are differentially expressed between malignant and normal endometrial tissue. The functional significance of these circRNAs in cancer remains to be determined, but they may serve as potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of EC or monitoring of EC progression.