LGALS4 as a Prognostic Factor in Urothelial Carcinoma of Bladder Affects Cell Functions

Prediction of future research trends in bladder urothelial carcinoma: Bibliometric analysis

BACKGROUND

Bladder urothelial carcinoma (BLCA) is a prevalent malignant tumor of the urinary system and, ranks 13th worldwide. Its incidence and mortality rates are consistently increasing, posing a significant threat to the physical and mental well-being of patients.

METHODS

We conducted a literature search in the field of BLCA from 2010 to 2023 using the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database. CiteSpace 6.2.R4 and VOSviewer 1.6.19 were utilized to visually represent the annual publications, countries, institutions, authors, journals, keywords, and references in the literature.

RESULTS

A total of 10,378 articles were included in this study. Since 2010, the number of published articles has been increasing. The countries and institutions that contributed the most were the USA and Medical University Vienna. The most frequently cited author was Bellmunt J, with 2551 citations. Shariat Shahrokh F holds the record for most published articles with 445. The journal "Urologic Oncology-Seminars and Original Investigations" had the largest number of publications, while "Eur Urol" was the most frequently cited journal. "survival" and "radical cystectomy" were identified as the most frequent keywords in recent years. Burst detection analysis revealed that the keyword with the highest intensity value was "Transitional-Cell Carcinoma," and the reference with the highest intensity value was Babjuk M, 2013.

CONCLUSION

This study aimed to analyze and predict the research hotspots and trends in BLCA to provide reference value for further research in this field. The findings of this study can contribute to the research progress in BLCA.

Identification of potential biomarkers in Barrett's esophagus derived esophageal adenocarcinoma

Almost 50% of esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) patients progressed from Barrett's esophagus (BE). EAC is often diagnosed at late stages and is related to dismal prognosis. However, there are still no effective methods for stratification and therapy in BE and EAC. Two public datasets (GSE26886 and GSE37200) were analyzed to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between BE and EAC. Then, a series of bioinformatics analyses were performed to explore potential biomarkers associated with BE-EAC. 27 up- and 104 down-regulated genes were observed between GSE26886 and GSE37200. The GO and KEGG enrichment analysis indicated that the DEGs were highly involved in tumorigenesis. Subsequently, Weighted Gene Co-Expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) were performed to explore the potential genes related to BE-EAC, which were validated in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, and 5 up-regulated genes (MYO1A, ACE2, COL1A1, LGALS4, and ADRA2A) and 3 down-regulated genes (AADAC, RAB27A, and P2RY14) were found in EAC. Meanwhile, ADRA2A and AADAC could contribute to EAC pathogenesis and progression. MYO1A, ACE2, COL1A1, LGALS4, ADRA2A, AADAC, RAB27A, and P2RY14 could be potential novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in BE-EAC.

Galectin Family Members: Emerging Novel Targets for Lymphoma Therapy?

The galectin family of proteins has high affinity with β-galactoside-containing glycans. These proteins participate in cell growth and differentiation, cell adhesion, cell signal transduction, cell apoptosis, and other cellular activities. In recent years, a large number of studies have described the expression and correlation of galectins in different tumors. Each member of the family plays a vital role in tumor growth, progression, angiogenesis, adhesion, and tumor immune escape. Studies on the roles of galectins in lymphoma have mainly involved galectin-1, -3, -7, and -9. The results suggest that galectins may become novel targets for precise tumor treatment. This article reviews current research progress regarding galectins in lymphoma and provides new ideas for exploring them as novel targets for treating lymphoma and other important medical issues.

Immune infiltration and prognostic and diagnostic use of LGALS4 in colon adenocarcinoma and bladder urothelial carcinoma

Colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) is a common tumor of the gastrointestinal tract with a high mortality rate. Current research has identified many genes associated with immune infiltration that play a vital role in the development of COAD. In this study, we analysed the prognostic and diagnostic features of such immune-related genes in the context of colonic adenocarcinoma (COAD). We analysed 17 overlapping gene expression profiles of COAD and healthy samples obtained from TCGA-COAD and public single-cell sequencing resources, to identify potential therapeutic COAD targets. We evaluated the abundance of immune infiltration with those genes using the TIMER (Tumor Immune Estimation Resource) deconvolution method. Subsequently, we developed predictive and survival models to assess the prognostic value of these genes. The LGALS4 (Galectin-4) gene was found to be significantly (P<0.05) downregulated in COAD and bladder urothelial carcinoma (BLCA) compared to healthy samples. We identified LGALS4 as a prognostic and diagnostic marker for multiple cancer types, including COAD and BLCA. Our analysis reveals a series of novel candidate drug targets, as well as candidate molecular markers, that may explain the pathogenesis of COAD and BLCA. LGALS4 gene is associated with multiple cancer types and is a possible prognostic, as well as diagnostic, marker of COAD and BLCA.

In silico development and clinical validation of novel 8 gene signature based on lipid metabolism related genes in colon adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND

Changes in lipid metabolism pathways play a major role in colon carcinogenesis and development. Hence, we conducted a systematic analysis of lipid metabolism-related genes to explore new markers that predict the prognosis of colon adenocarcinoma (COAD).

METHODS

The non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) algorithm was applied to identify the molecular subtypes based on lipid metabolism-related genes. A weighted correlation network analysis (WCGNA) was used to identify co-expressed genes, and Lasso multivariate Cox analysis was performed to build a risk prognosis model. A timer database was used to analyze the immune infiltration of the gene signature and the GSCALite database was used for genome-wide analysis of the gene signature.

RESULTS

TCGA-COAD samples were divided into 3 subtypes based on lipid metabolism-related genes. 2739 genes were identified by WGCNA analysis. Finally, an 8-gene signature (RTN2, FYN, HEYL, FAM69A, FBXL5, HMGN2, LGALS4, STOX1) was constructed that demonstrated good robustness in different datasets, as well as an independent risk factor for colon cancer patients' prognosis. In addition, our model's predictive efficacy overall was higher than that of the other published models, and the 8 genes' expression analysis indicated that RTN2, HEYL, and STOX1 were all expressed highly significantly in COAD, while FAM69A, FBXL5, LGALS4, FYN and HMGN2 were expressed significantly poorly in cancer tissues, which was confirmed in immunohistochemistry. The 8 genes were expressed significantly differently in COAD immune subtypes and correlated with clinical variables. Genome-wide analysis revealed that the STOX1 mutation frequency was the highest, and genome methylation influenced HEYL, FAM69A, and STOX1 gene expression significantly; further, the expression of HEYL and FBXL5 was correlated positively with Copy number variation (CNV) and was regulated significantly by CNV in most cancers. FBXL5 was correlated significantly with austocystin d and bafilomycin and played an important role in anti-tumor and immunotherapy. The HEYL, FYN, FAM69A, and RTN2 genes' expression was associated with the EMT pathway's activation, while LGALS4 and STOX1 were associated significantly with the EMT pathway's inhibition.

CONCLUSION

This study constructed an 8-gene signature as a novel marker to predict colon cancer patients' survival.

Identification and Immunocorrelation of Prognosis-Related Genes Associated With Development of Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer

Improved understanding of the molecular mechanisms and immunoregulation of muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) is essential to predict prognosis and develop new targets for therapies. In this study, we used the cancer genome atlas (TCGA) MIBC and GSE13507 datasets to explore the differential co-expression genes in MIBC comparing with adjacent non-carcinoma tissues. We firstly screened 106 signature genes by Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) and further identified 15 prognosis-related genes of MIBC using the univariate Cox progression analysis. Then we systematically analyzed the genetic alteration, molecular mechanism, and clinical relevance of these 15 genes. We found a different expression alteration of 15 genes in MIBC comparing with adjacent non-carcinoma tissues and normal tissues. Meanwhile, the biological functions and molecular mechanisms of them were also discrepant. Among these, we observed the ANLN was highly correlated with multiple cancer pathways, molecular function, and cell components, revealing ANLN may play a pivotal role in MIBC development. Next, we performed a consensus clustering of 15 prognosis-related genes; the results showed that the prognosis, immune infiltration status, stage, and grade of MIBC patients were significantly different in cluster1/2. We further identified eight-genes risk signatures using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression analysis based on the expression values of 15 prognosis-related genes, and also found a significant difference in the prognosis, immune infiltration status, stage, grade, and age in high/low-risk cohort. Moreover, the expression of PD-1, PD-L1, and CTLA4 was significantly up-regulated in cluster1/high-risk-cohort than that in cluster2/low-risk-cohort. High normalized enrichment score of the Mitotic spindle, mTORC1, Complement, and Apical junction pathway suggested that they might be involved in the distinct tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) of cluster1/2 and high-/low-risk-cohort. Our study identified 15 prognosis-related genes of MIBC, provided a feasible stratification method to help for the future immunotherapy strategies of MIBC patients.

Identification of GSN and LAMC2 as Key Prognostic Genes of Bladder Cancer by Integrated Bioinformatics Analysis

Bladder cancer is a common malignancy with mechanisms of pathogenesis and progression. This study aimed to identify the prognostic hub genes, which are the central modulators to regulate the progression and proliferation in the specific subtype of bladder cancer. The identification of the candidate hub gene was performed by weighted gene co-expression network analysis to construct a free-scale gene co-expression network. The gene expression profile of GSE97768 from the Gene Expression Omnibus database was used. The association between prognosis and hub gene was evaluated by The Cancer Genome Atlas database. Four gene-expression modules were significantly related to bladder cancer disease: the red module (human adenocarcinoma lymph node metastasis), the darkturquioise module (grade 2 carcinoma), the lightgreen module (grade 3 carcinoma), and the royalblue module (transitional cell carcinoma lymphatic metastasis). Based on betweenness centrality and survival analysis, we identified laminin subunit gamma-2 (LAMC2) in the grade 2 carcinoma, gelsolin (GSN) in the grade 3 carcinoma, and homeodomain-interacting protein kinase 2 (HIPK2) in the transitional cell carcinoma lymphatic metastasis. Subsequently, the protein levels of LAMC2 and GSN were respectively down-regulated and up-regulated in tumor tissue with the Human Protein Atlas (HPA) database. Our results suggested that LAMC2 and GSN are the central modulators to transfer information in the specific subtype of the disease.