The prognostic and clinical significance of IFI44L aberrant downregulation in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma

An Acid-Responsive Iron-Based Nanocomposite for OSCC Treatment

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common type of oral cancer, characterized by invasiveness, local lymph node metastasis, and poor prognosis. Traditional treatment and medications have limitations, making the specific inhibition of OSCC growth, invasion, and metastasis a challenge. The tumor microenvironment exhibits mildly acidity and high concentrations of H2O2, and its exploitation for cancer treatment has been widely researched across various cancers, but research in the oral cancer field is relatively limited. In this study, by loading ultra-small Prussian blue nanoparticles (USPBNPs) into mesoporous calcium-silicate nanoparticles (MCSNs), we developed an acid-responsive iron-based nanocomposite, USPBNPs@MCSNs (UPM), for the OSCC treatment. UPM demonstrated excellent dual enzyme activities, generating toxic ·OH in a mildly acidic environment, effectively killing OSCC cells and producing O2 in a neutral environment to alleviate tissue hypoxia. The results showed that UPM could effectively inhibit the proliferation, migration, and invasion of OSCC cells, as well as the growth of mice solid tumors, without obvious systemic toxicity. The mechanisms may involve UPM inducing ferroptosis of OSCC cells by downregulating the xCT/GPX4/glutathione (GSH) axis, characterized by intracellular iron accumulation, reactive oxygen species accumulation, GSH depletion, lipid peroxidation, and abnormal changes in mitochondrial morphology. Therefore, this study provides empirical support for ferroptosis as an emerging therapeutic target for OSCC and offers a valuable insight for future OSCC treatment.

Identification of qualitative characteristics of immunosuppression in sepsis based on immune-related genes and immune infiltration features

Objective

Sepsis is linked to high morbidity and mortality rates. Consequently, early diagnosis is crucial for proper treatment, reducing hospitalization, and mortality rates. Additionally, over one-fifth of sepsis patients still face a risk of death. Hence, early diagnosis, and effective treatment play pivotal roles in enhancing the prognosis of patients with sepsis.

Method

The study analyzed whole blood data obtained from patients with sepsis and control samples sourced from three datasets (GSE57065, GSE69528, and GSE28750). Commonly dysregulated immune-related genes (IRGs) among these three datasets were identified. The differential characteristics of these common IRGs in the sepsis and control samples were assessed using the REO-based algorithm. Based on these differential characteristics, samples from eight Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases (GSE57065, GSE69528, GSE28750, GSE65682, GSE69063, GSE95233, GSE131761, and GSE154918), along with three ArrayExpress databases (E-MTAB-4421, E-MTAB-4451, and E-MTAB-7581), were categorized and scored. The effectiveness of these differential characteristics in distinguishing sepsis samples from control samples was evaluated using the AUC value derived from the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) curve. Furthermore, the expression of IRGs was validated in peripheral blood samples obtained from patients with sepsis through qRT-PCR.

Results

Among the three training datasets, a total of 84 common dysregulated immune-related genes (IRGs) were identified. Utilizing a within-sample relative expression ordering (REOs)-based algorithm to analyze these common IRGs, differential characteristics were observed in three reverse stable pairs (ELANE-RORA, IL18RAP-CD247, and IL1R1-CD28). In the eight GEO datasets, the expression of ELANE, IL18RAP, and IL1R1 demonstrated significant upregulation, while RORA, CD247, and CD28 expression exhibited notable downregulation during sepsis. These three pairs of immune-related marker genes displayed accuracies of 95.89% and 97.99% in distinguishing sepsis samples among the eight GEO datasets and the three independent ArrayExpress datasets, respectively. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve ranged from 0.81 to 1.0. Additionally, among these three immune-related marker gene pairs, mRNA expression levels of ELANE and IL1R1 were upregulated, whereas the levels of CD247 and CD28 mRNA were downregulated in blood samples from patients with sepsis compared to normal controls.

Conclusion

These three immune-related marker gene pairs exhibit high predictive performance for blood samples from patients with sepsis. They hold potential as valuable auxiliary clinical blood screening tools for sepsis.

Dissection of an impact of VDR and RXRA on the genomic activity of 1,25(OH)2D3 in A431 squamous cell carcinoma

BACKGROUND

Human skin is the natural source, place of metabolism, and target for vitamin D3. The classical active form of vitamin D3, 1,25(OH)2D3, expresses pluripotent properties and is intensively studied in cancer prevention and therapy. To define the specific role of vitamin D3 receptor (VDR) and its co-receptor retinoid X receptor alpha (RXRA) in genomic regulation, VDR or RXRA genes were silenced in the squamous cell carcinoma cell line A431 and treated with 1,25(OH)2D3 at long incubation time points 24 h/72 h. Extending the incubation time of A431 WT (wild-type) cells with 1,25(OH)2D3 resulted in a two-fold increase in DEGs (differentially expressed genes) and a change in the amount of downregulated from 37% to 53%. VDR knockout led to a complete loss of 1,25(OH)2D3-induced genome-wide gene regulation at 24 h time point, but after 72 h, 20 DEGs were found, of which 75% were downregulated, and most of them belonged to the gene ontology group "immune response". This may indicate the existence of an alternative, secondary response to 1,25(OH)2D3. In contrast, treatment of A431 ΔRXRA cells with 1,25(OH)2D3 for 24 h only partially affected DEGs, suggesting RXRA-independent regulation. Interestingly, overexpression of classic 1,25(OH)2D3 targets, like CYP24A1 (family 24 of subfamily A of cytochrome P450 member 1) or CAMP (cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide) was found to be RXRA-independent. Also, immunofluorescence staining of A431 WT cells revealed partial VDR/RXRA colocalization after 24 h and 72 h 1,25(OH)2D3 treatment. Comparison of transcriptome changes induced by 1,25(OH)2D3 in normal keratinocytes vs. cancer cells showed high cell type specific expression pattern with only a few genes commonly regulated by 1,25(OH)2D3. Activation of the genomic pathway at least partially reversed the expression of cancer-related genes, forming a basis for anti-cancer activates of 1,25(OH)2D3. In summary, VDR or RXRA independent genomic activities of 1,25(OH)2D3 suggest the involvement of alternative factors, opening new challenges in this field.

IFI44L as a novel epigenetic silencing tumor suppressor promotes apoptosis through JAK/STAT1 pathway during lung carcinogenesis

Numerous evidence showed that the occurrence and development of lung cancer is closely related to environmental pollution. Therefore, new environmental response predictive markers are urgently needed for early diagnosis and screening of lung cancer. Interferon-induced protein 44-like (IFI44L) has been shown to be related in a variety of tumors, but its function and mechanism during lung carcinogenesis still have remained largely unknown. In this study, gene expression and methylation status were analyzed through online tools and malignant transformation models. Differentially expressed cell models and xenograft tumor models were established and used to clarify the gene function. RT-qPCR, western blotting, immunohistochemistry, and co-immunoprecipitation (Co-IP) were used to explore the mechanism. Results showed that IFI44L was dramatically downexpressed during lung carcinogenesis, and its low expression may be attributed to DNA methylation. Overexpression of IFI44L obviously inhibited cell growth and promoted apoptosis. After knockdown of IFI44L expression, the proliferation ability was remarkably increased and the apoptosis was significantly reduced. Functional enrichment showed that IFI44L was involved in apoptosis and JAK/STAT1 signaling pathway, and was highly correlated with downstream molecules. After overexpression of IFI44L, the expression of P-STAT1 and downstream molecules XAF1, OAS1, OAS2 and OAS3 were significantly increased. After knockdown of STAT1 expression, the pro-apoptotic effect of IFI44L was reduced. Co-IP results showed that IFI44L had protein interaction with STAT1. Results proved that IFI44L promoted STAT1 phosphorylation and activated the JAK/STAT1 signaling pathway by directly binding to STAT1 protein, thereby leading to cell apoptosis. Our study revealed that IFI44L promotes cell apoptosis and exerts tumor suppressors by activating the JAK/STAT1 signaling pathway. It further suggests that IFI44L has clinical therapeutic potential and may be a promising biomarker during lung carcinogenesis.

Identification of Potential Biomarkers Using Integrative Approach: A Case Study of ESCC

This paper presents a consensus-based approach that incorporates three microarray and three RNA-Seq methods for unbiased and integrative identification of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) as potential biomarkers for critical disease(s). The proposed method performs satisfactorily on two microarray datasets (GSE20347 and GSE23400) and one RNA-Seq dataset (GSE130078) for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Based on the input dataset, our framework employs specific DE methods to detect DEGs independently. A consensus based function that first considers DEGs common to all three methods for further downstream analysis has been introduced. The consensus function employs other parameters to overcome information loss. Differential co-expression (DCE) and preservation analysis of DEGs facilitates the study of behavioral changes in interactions among DEGs under normal and diseased circumstances. Considering hub genes in biologically relevant modules and most GO and pathway enriched DEGs as candidates for potential biomarkers of ESCC, we perform further validation through biological analysis as well as literature evidence. We have identified 25 DEGs that have strong biological relevance to their respective datasets and have previous literature establishing them as potential biomarkers for ESCC. We have further identified 8 additional DEGs as probable potential biomarkers for ESCC, but recommend further in-depth analysis.