Circulating high mobility group AT-hook 2 and pleomorphic adenoma gene 1 in blood of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma

Potential Utility of Cell Free High Mobility Group AT-hook 2 (HMGA2) as a Prognostic Biomarker in Liquid Biopsies of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Background:

Locoregional spread is a frequent finding in oral cancer which dictates poor prognosis. HMGA2 expression has been linked to malignant traits of oral cancer in tissue biopsies however, data on HMGA2 expression in liquid biopsies in oral cancer is sparse. Purpose of this study was to explore prognostic relevance of HMGA2 in liquid biopsies of oral cancer patients.

Patients and Methods:

After obtaining approval from Institutional Review Board of Ziauddin University and informed written consent from study subjects, expression of circulating HMGA2 was evaluated in 96 OSCC cases and 100 age and sex matched controls via real time PCR using specific set of primers. We further analyzed relationship of various sociodemographic and clinicopathological variables with HMGA2expression and explored its prognostic potential.

Results:

Expression was seen in 22 (23%) cases. A higher expression was observed among subjects with local invasion (52.6% vs 47.4 %), distant metastasis (71.4% vs 28.6%) and tumor recurrence (57.1% vs 42.9%) p <0.05. Subjects having HMGA2 expression had a poor survival compared to HMGA2 negative (13.6% vs 35.4%), p <0.05.

Conclusion:

Circulating HMGA2 reflects presence of local invasion and distant metastasis and dictates poor prognosis in OSCC. It may contribute in categorizing high risk patients using a minimally invasive technique who are likely to benefit from targeted therapy.

Plag1 regulates neuronal gene expression and neuronal differentiation of neocortical neural progenitor cells

Neural progenitor cells (NPCs, also known as radial glial progenitors) produce neurons and then glial cells such as astrocytes during development of the mouse neocortex. Given that this sequential generation of neural cells is critical for proper brain formation, the neurogenic potential of NPCs must be precisely controlled. Here, we show that the transcription factor Plag1 plays an important role in the regulation of neurogenic potential in mouse neocortical NPCs. We found that Hmga2, a key neurogenic factor in neocortical NPCs, induces expression of the Plag1 gene. Analysis of the effects of over-expression or knockdown of Plag1 indicated that Plag1 promotes the production of neurons at the expense of astrocyte production in embryonic neocortical cultures. Furthermore, over-expression of Plag1 promoted and knockdown of Plag1 suppressed neuronal differentiation of neocortical NPCs in vivo. Transcriptomic analysis showed that Plag1 increases the expression of a set of neuronal genes in NPCs. Our results thus identify Plag1 as a regulator of neuronal gene expression and neuronal differentiation in NPCs of the developing mouse neocortex.

Curcumin: a potent agent to reverse epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition

BACKGROUND

Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is involved in tumor progression, invasion, migration and metastasis. EMT is a process by which polarized epithelial cells acquire motile mesothelial phenotypic features. This process is initiated by disassembly of cell-cell contacts through the loss of epithelial markers and replacement of these markers by mesenchymal markers. Reconstruction of the cytoskeleton and degradation of the tumor basement membrane ensures the spread of invasive malignant tumor cells to distant locations. Accumulating evidence indicates that curcumin, as a well-known phytochemical, can inhibit EMT/metastasis through various mechanisms and pathways in human tumors.

CONCLUSIONS

In this review, we summarize the mechanisms by which curcumin may affect EMT in cells under pathological conditions to understand its potential as a novel anti-tumor agent. Curcumin can exert chemo-preventive effects by inhibition and reversal of the EMT process through both TGF-β-dependent (e.g. in hepatoma and retinal pigment epithelial cancer) and -independent (e.g. in oral cancer, colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, breast cancer, melanoma, prostate cancer, bladder cancer, thyroid cancer and lung cancer) pathways. Curcumin can also mitigate chemoresistance through EMT suppression and promotion of the antiproliferative effects of conventional chemotherapeutics. Therefore, curcumin has the potential to be used as a novel adjunctive agent to prevent tumor metastasis, which may at least partly be attributed to its hampering of the EMT process.

Increased high-mobility group A2 correlates with lymph node metastasis and prognosis of non-small cell lung cancer

BACKGROUND

High-mobility group A2 (HMGA2) has been investigated to be associated with tumorigenesis; however, the expression pattern and clinical significance of HMGA2 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains poorly understood. The purpose of this study is to examine the expression of HMGA2 and to analyze its relationships with respect to clinico-pathological features and patient survival in NSCLC.

METHODS

The expression level of HMGA2 was examined by Western blot and immunohistochemistry in NSCLC cells and tissues. The relationship between HMGA2 expression and survival of NSCLC patients was calculated by a Kaplan-Meier method and the evaluation of risk factor was determined by the multiple regression analysis.

RESULTS

NSCLC tissues exhibited a higher expression level of HMGA2 compared to normal tissues (p< 0.05) and the expression level of HMGA2 was significantly associated with poor differentiation of NSCLC (p< 0.05), lymph node metastasis (p< 0.05) and advanced clinical stage (p< 0.05). Besides, HMGA2 was also confirmed to be elevated in NSCLC cells by Western blot. Moreover, increased expression of HMGA2 correlated with decreased survival of NSCLC patients (p< 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

HMGA2 was highly expressed in NSCLC tissues and cells and its overexpression was correlated with low-grade differentiation, lymph node metastasis, advanced clinical stage and poor survival time of NSCLC, which suggested that it could serve as a potential molecular marker and prognostic index for NSCLC.

High mobility group protein A2 overexpression indicates poor prognosis for cancer patients: a meta-analysis

Overexpression of the high mobility group protein A2 (HMGA2), an architectural transcription factor, has been linked to poor prognosis in many malignancies, although this remains controversial. Herein, we conducted a meta-analysis to investigate whether HMGA2 has prognostic value, and evaluated the association between HMGA2 and clinicopathologic factors in malignancies. A total of 29 studies involving 4114 patients were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled results demonstrated that elevated HMGA2 predicted a poor overall survival (OS) (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.82; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.62-2.05; P < 0.001) and disease-free survival/progression-free survival/recurrence-free survival (HR = 1.94; 95% CI = 1.27-2.98; P = 0.002). Subgroup analysis conducted by study region, sample size, detection method, and analysis method indicated that HMGA2 overexpression correlated with poor OS. Furthermore, HMGA2 overexpression was found to be linked to poor OS in various cancers except ovarian cancer (pooled HR = 1.14; 95% CI = 0.62-2.09; P = 0.673). High HMGA2 expression level also correlated with advanced TNM stage (OR = 2.44; 95% CI =1.87-3.2; P < 0.001), lymphovascular invasion (OR = 2.46, 95% CI = 1.67-3.64; P < 0.001), distant metastasis (OR = 2.66; 95% CI =1.51-4.69; P < 0.001), and lymph node metastasis (OR = 1.83; 95% CI =1.27-2.64; P = 0.001). In conclusion, HMGA2 overexpression indicates a worse prognosis and may serve as a prognostic predictor in cancer patients.