HIF-1α RNAi Combined with Asparagus Polysaccharide Exerts an Antiangiogenesis Effect on Hepatocellular Carcinoma In Vitro and In Vivo

COMMD3 Expression Affects Angiogenesis through the HIF1α/VEGF/NF-κB Signaling Pathway in Hepatocellular Carcinoma In Vitro and In Vivo

Background

High expression of copper metabolizing MURR1 domain (COMMD3) is significantly correlated with poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. Here, we explored the mechanism by which COMMD3 affects HCC angiogenesis through the HIF1α/VEGF/NF-κB signaling pathway.

Methods

SK-Hep1 and Hep-3B cell lines were transfected by COMMD3 overexpression and RNA interference lentivirus and verified using RT-qPCR and western blotting techniques. Using RNA sequencing, we analyzed differentially expressed genes in COMMD3-overexpressed and COMMD3-knockdown HCC cells. Altogether, colony formation assay, wound healing assay, transwell cell invasion assay, flow cytometry apoptosis experiments, HUVEC tube formation detection, phalloidin staining assay, western blotting, immunohistochemical staining, and a nude mouse xenograft model were used for experimental verification.

Results

Lentivirus COMMD3 overexpression and knockdown were successfully established in HCC cells. COMMD3 overexpression significantly promoted the proliferation, angiogenesis, migration, and invasion capacities of HCC cells with no obvious effect on apoptosis versus controls while COMMD3 knockdown showed the opposite trend. The expression and protein levels of COMMD3 as well as HIF1α, VEGF, and NF-κB were increased in COMMD3-overexpressing HCC cells versus control cells, while they were reduced after COMMD3 knockdown. In addition, RNA-seq indicated that COMMD3 is an indispensable gene for HCC angiogenesis through HIF1α and NF-κB signaling pathways.

Conclusion

This study showed that low expression of COMMD3 can inhibit HCC angiogenesis by suppressing the HIF1α/VEGF/NF-κB pathway. This implicates COMMD3 as a potential biomarker for improving the therapeutic outcome of HCC.

Co-Targeting Tumor Angiogenesis and Immunosuppressive Tumor Microenvironment: A Perspective in Ethnopharmacology

Tumor angiogenesis is one of the most important processes of cancer deterioration via nurturing an immunosuppressive tumor environment (TME). Targeting tumor angiogenesis has been widely accepted as a cancer intervention approach, which is also synergistically associated with immune therapy. However, drug resistance is the biggest challenge of anti-angiogenesis therapy, which affects the outcomes of anti-angiogeneic agents, and even combined with immunotherapy. Here, emerging targets and representative candidate molecules from ethnopharmacology (including traditional Chinese medicine, TCM) have been focused, and they have been proved to regulate tumor angiogenesis. Further investigations on derivatives and delivery systems of these molecules will provide a comprehensive landscape in preclinical studies. More importantly, the molecule library of ethnopharmacology meets the viability for targeting angiogenesis and TME simultaneously, which is attributed to the pleiotropy of pro-angiogenic factors (such as VEGF) toward cancer cells, endothelial cells, and immune cells. We primarily shed light on the potentiality of ethnopharmacology against tumor angiogenesis, particularly TCM. More research studies concerning the crosstalk between angiogenesis and TME remodeling from the perspective of botanical medicine are awaited.