Significance of plasma MACC1 levels on the prognostic stratification in patients with colorectal cancer

Overexpression of Metastasis-Associated in Colon Cancer 1-Antisense RNA 1 (MACC1-AS1) in Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells (BMSCs) Inhibits miR-145-5P and Promotes Chemotherapy Resistance of Colorectal Cancer

BMSCs have the potential of multipotent differentiation. This study aimed to investigate the interaction between MACC1-AS1 and miR-145-5P in BMSCs and their effect on chemotherapy resistance in colorectal cancer (CRC). BMSCs extracted from mouse marrow were transfected with MACC1-AS1 mimic, or MACC1-AS1 NC (control group). CRC cells were treated wtih gemcitabine and then co-cultured with BMSCs to measure cell viability and invasiveness by MTT and Transwell assay, along with analysis of the expression of MACC1, miR-145-5P, HGF, C-met, P-gp, and MRP. Successful isolation of BMSCs was confirmed by flow cytometry with positive expression of CD44, CD105, and CD90 (purity > 95%). Functionally, overexpression of MACC1-AS1 in BMSCs increased CRC cell viability and invasion, attenuated the inhibitory effect of gemcitabine (p < 0.05). Up-regulation of MACC1-AS1 (9.23±1.21) as demonstrated by RT-qPCR, resulted in a decline of miR-145-5P expression (4.23±1.22) in CRC cells (p < 0.05). In addition, overexpression of MACC1-AS1 increased the expression of HGF, C-met, and multidrug resistance-associated proteins (P-gp, and MRP). In conclusion, overexpression of MACC1-AS1 in BMSCs inhibits miR-145-5P expression to promote colorectal cancer cell progression possibly via activating HGF/C-met pathway and inducing resistance to chemotherapy.

Circ_0002577/miR-126-5p/MACC1 axis promotes endometrial carcinoma progression by regulation of proliferation, migration, invasion, and apoptosis of endometrial carcinoma cells

BACKGROUND

Endometrial carcinoma (EC) is a common female reproductive malignant tumor. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been reported to participate in tumorigenesis, including EC. Therefore, this study was designed to clarify the role and underlying molecular mechanisms of circ_0002577 in EC.

METHODS

The expression levels of circ_0002577, miR-126-5p, and metastasis associated in colon cancer 1 (MACC1) was determined by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) assay. The protein expression was quantified by western blot assay. The proliferation of EC cells was assessed by 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazol-3-ium bromide (MTT) and colony-forming assays. The migration and invasion of EC cells was measured by transwell assay. The apoptosis was determined by flow cytometry assay. Dual-luciferase reporter assay and RNA pull-down assays were performed to confirm the relationship between miR-126-5p and circ_0002577 or MACC1. The influence of circ_0002577 inhibition on tumor growth was assessed by xenograft experiment.

RESULTS

Circ_0002577 and MACC1 were increased while miR-126-5p was decreased in EC tissues and cells. Loss-of-functional experiment revealed that silencing of circ_0002577 inhibited the proliferation, migration, and invasion while induced apoptosis of EC cells, which were overturned by overexpression of MACC1. The upregulation of miR-126-5p also impeded proliferation and mobility while induced apoptosis of EC cells. MiR-126-5p, negatively regulating MACC1 expression, was a functional target of circ_0002577 in EC cells. Moreover, we also confirmed that suppression of circ_0002577 repressed tumor growth in vivo.

CONCLUSION

The contributions of the circ_0002577 in EC were contributed to its interactions with miR-126-5p and MACC1, which offered a new perspective to the roles of circ_0002577 in EC.

MACC1 regulates the AKT/STAT3 signaling pathway to induce migration, invasion, cancer stemness, and suppress apoptosis in cervical cancer cells

Cervical cancer (CC) ranks as the second most frequent tumor in women, and CC stem cells have been vital in the tumorigenesis of CC. Recently, the metastasis- associated in colon cancer 1 (MACC1) gene was proven to be a promising biomarker of CC. However, the role and mechanism of MACC1 in CC remain undetermined. Expressions of MACC1 were estimated by qRT-PCR, immunohistochemistry, and Western blot assays in cervical cancer tissues and cells. Three siRNAs were generated to knockdown expressions of MACC1 in CC cells. After knockdown of MACC1 or/and Colivelin treatment, cell migration, invasion, apoptosis, and stemness were evaluated through a series of functional experiments including Transwell, flow cytometry, Hoechst staining, and sphere-formation assays. MACC1 was found to express more highly in CC tissues in comparison with corresponding non-tumor tissues at both mRNA and protein levels. Functionally, the knocking- down of MACC1 significantly repressed migration and invasion, and induced apoptosis of CC cells. Also, knockdown of MACC1 was discovered to suppress sphere-formation of CC cells and downregulate OCT4 and Nanog. It was proved that knockdown of MACC1 had a significant blocking effect on the AKT/STAT3 pathway. In addition, we verified that treatment with the STAT3 activator (Colivelin) had significant reversal effects on the malignant behaviors of CC cells and CC stemness. Our study concluded that MACC1 might be a novel regulator of CC by regulating the AKT/STAT3 pathway to change the migration, invasion, apoptosis, and cancer stemness of CC cells.

Association of MACC1 expression with lymphatic metastasis in colorectal cancer: A nested case-control study

MACC1 gene is a newly discovered gene and plays an important role in the metastasis of colorectal cancer (CRC). The objective of this study was to investigate whether MACC1 is an independent factor associated with lymphatic metastasis in CRC patients. We analyzed the association between MACC1 expression and lymphatic metastasis in a nested case-control study including 99 cases and 198 matched controls in CRC patients, assessed from August 2001 to March 2015. Cases were defined as lymphatic metastasis and non-lymphatic metastasis according to AJCC TNM stages; for each case, two age-matched control without lymphatic and distant metastasis was randomly selected from the study participants. Demographic, variables about metastasis and MACC1 expression were collected. In multivariate analysis, the OR (95% CI) of MACC1 expression was 1.5 (1.1 to 2.0) in patients with lymphatic metastasis versus non-lymphatic metastasis after adjusting all variables. After adjustment for all variables and age stratification, MACC1 expression was found to be an independent risk factor for lymph node metastasis in the middle-aged group (OR 2.1, 95%CI 1.1–4.0). A nonlinear relationship between MACC1 expression and 64–75 age group was observed. The probability of metastasis slightly increased with the MACC1 level lower than turning point 1.4. At the same time, the probability of lymphatic metastasis was obviously increased even after adjusting all variables when MACC1 level higher than 1.4 (OR 11.2, 95% CI 1.5–81.5; p = 0.017) in the middle age group. The expression of MACC1 was not associated with lymphatic metastasis in populations younger than 64 or older than 75. The results demonstrates that increased MACC1 level in 64–75 age group might be associated with lymphatic metastasis in CRC patients.

circ_0101802 functions as a sponge of miR-1236-3p to facilitate the proliferation, migration and invasion of colorectal cancer via regulating MACC1

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been shown to be involved in the progression of many diseases, including cancer. However, the role of circ_0101802 in the proliferation, migration and invasion of colorectal cancer (CRC) has not been studied. Our results showed that circ_0101802 was highly expressed in CRC tumor tissues and cells. Functional experiments suggested that circ_0101802 knockdown could inhibit the proliferation, migration and invasion of CRC cells in vitro and CRC tumorigenesis in vivo. In the terms of mechanism, we discovered that circ_0101802 could act as a sponge of miR-1236-3p, and miR-1236-3p could target MACC1. The rescue experiments revealed that miR-1236-3p inhibitor could reverse the inhibition effect of circ_0101802 silencing on CRC proliferation, migration and invasion, and MACC1 overexpression also could abolish the negative regulation of miR-1236-3p on CRC proliferation, migration and invasion. More important, our data confirmed that circ_0101802 sponged miR-1236-3p to positively regulate MACC1. In summary, our results revealed that circ_0101802 functioned as a tumor promoter in CRC, which could facilitate CRC proliferation, migration and invasion via regulating the miR-1236-3p/MACC1 axis.

A Simple Competing Endogenous RNA Network Identifies Novel mRNA, miRNA, and lncRNA Markers in Human Cholangiocarcinoma

Background

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is the second most common malignant primary liver tumor and has shown an alarming increase in incidence over the last two decades. However, the mechanisms behind tumorigenesis and progression remain insufficient. The present study aimed to uncover the underlying regulatory mechanism on CCA and find novel biomarkers for the disease prognosis.

Method

The RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) datasets of lncRNAs, miRNAs, and mRNAs in CCA as well as relevant clinical information were obtained from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. After pretreatment, differentially expressed RNAs (DERNAs) were identified and further interrogated for their correlations with clinical information. Prognostic RNAs were selected using univariate Cox regression. Then, a ceRNA network was constructed based on these RNAs.

Results

We identified a total of five prognostic DEmiRNAs, 63 DElncRNAs, and 90 DEmRNAs between CCA and matched normal tissues. Integrating the relationship between the different types of RNAs, an lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA network was established and included 28 molecules and 47 interactions. Screened prognostic RNAs involved in the ceRNA network included 3 miRNAs (hsa-mir-1295b, hsa-mir-33b, and hsa-mir-6715a), 7 lncRNAs (ENSG00000271133, ENSG00000233834, ENSG00000276791, ENSG00000241155, COL18A1-AS1, ENSG00000274737, and ENSG00000235052), and 18 mRNAs (ANO9, FUT4, MLLT3, ABCA3, FSCN2, GRID2IP, NCK2, MACC1, SLC35E4, ST14, SH2D3A, MOB3B, ACTL10, RAB36, ATP1B3, MST1R, SEMA6A, and SEL1L3).

Conclusions

Our study identified novel prognostic makers and predicted a previously unknown ceRNA regulatory network in CCA and may provide novel insight into a further understanding of lncRNA-mediated ceRNA regulatory mechanisms in CCA.

Significance of plasma MACC1 levels on the prognostic stratification in patients with colorectal cancer

The clinical significance of metastasis‐associated in colon cancer‐1 (MACC1) has been investigated but the relevance of peripheral MACC1 levels was rather limited. Herein, our data revealed that plasma MACC1 levels in 117 colorectal cancer patients (CRC) were dramatically higher than that in normal controls (P < 0.001), and with a strong discrimination power between the two groups (AUC = 0.960, P < 0.001). Moreover, MACC1 is an independent prognostic factor for CRC patients. When clinical parameters stratified by MACC1_low and MACC1_high, MACC1 levels exhibited further significant predictive value. Summary, plasma MACC1 levels could be a useful prognostic and diagnostic biomarker, and could improve the prognostic value of traditional prognosticators for colorectal cancer patients.