Interleukin-12 elicits a non-canonical response in B16 melanoma cells to enhance survival

IL-12p70 Induces Neuroprotection via the PI3K-AKT-BCL2 Axis to Mediate the Therapeutic Effect of Electroacupuncture on Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction

Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD), a postsurgical decline in cognitive function, primarily affects older adults and worsens their prognosis. Although elevated interleukin-12p70 (IL-12p70) is closely correlated with slower cognitive decline in older adults, its role in POCD remains unclear. Here, IL-12p70 is identified as a significant mediator of therapeutic effect of electroacupuncture (EA) on POCD. EA at acupoints ST36, GV20, and GV24 significantly enhanced cognitive behaviors of POCD mice. IL-12p70, downregulated in POCD mice but rescued by EA treatment, is the cytokine closely associated with EA's therapeutic effect. Clinically, IL-12p70 is downregulated in older adults' serum post-surgery. Furthermore, IL-12p70 exerts a potent neuroprotective effect in both neuronal cell lines and primary hippocampal neurons. The PI3K-AKT-BCL2 axis enriched by in silico analysis is validated as the signaling mechanism underlying IL-12p70-induced neuroprotection. In vivo, beneficial effects of EA treatment on the activation of PI3K-AKT-BCL2 axis and POCD are reproduced by IL-12p70 administration but attenuated by IL-12p70 knockdown. The findings reveal a novel mechanism underlying the therapeutic effect of EA on POCD, demonstrating that IL-12p70 exerts a neuroprotective effect by activating PI3K-AKT-BCL2 axis in hippocampal neurons. The newly-discovered function and mechanism of IL-12p70 highlight its potential in treating cognitive disorders.

Effects of STAT4 on myocardial ischemia‑reperfusion injury and the underlying mechanisms

The regulation of cardiac function by the nuclear transcription factor signal transducer and activator of transcription 4 (STAT4) has been recently recognized. Nevertheless, the role and mechanisms of action of STAT4 in myocardial ischemia‑reperfusion (I/R) injury remain unknown. Consequently, the present study constructed a rat model of I/R by ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery. Following sacrifice, the rat hearts were excised and analyzed to investigated the effects of STAT4 on I/R‑induced myocardial injury. Western blotting demonstrated that expression of STAT4 decreased significantly in the rat model of cardiac I/R and in H9C2 cells that were subjected to hypoxia and reoxygenation (H/R). The overexpression of STAT4 in H9C2 cells reduced cell damage and apoptosis induced by H/R. Furthermore, both in vivo and in vitro, the level of PI3K decreased significantly. Although the AKT protein expression levels were not altered, the AKT phosphorylation levels decreased significantly. STAT4 overexpression enhanced the expression of PI3K and AKT in the H9C2 cells. On the whole, the present study demonstrated that STAT4 alleviated I/R‑induced myocardial injury through the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.

Head-to-Head Comparison of CCN4, DNMT3A, PTPN11, and SPARC as Suppressors of Anti-tumor Immunity

Purpose

Emergent cancer cells likely secrete factors that inhibit anti-tumor immunity. To identify such factors, we applied a functional assay with proteomics to an immunotherapy resistant syngeneic mouse melanoma model. Four secreted factors were identified that potentially mediate immunosuppression and could become targets for novel immunotherapies. We tested for consistent clinical correlates in existing human data and verified in vivo whether knocking out tumor cell production of these factors improved immune-mediated control of tumor growth.

Methods

Existing human data was analyzed for clinical correlates. A CRISPR/Cas9 approach to generate knockout cell lines and a kinetic analysis leveraging a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach quantified the various knockouts' effect on cells' intrinsic growth rate. Flow cytometry was used to characterize differences in immune infiltration.

Results

While all four gene products were produced by malignant melanocytes, only increased CCN4 expression was associated with reduced survival in primary melanoma patients. In immunocompetent C57BL/6 mice the CCN4 knockout increased survival while the other knockouts had no effect. This survival advantage was lost when the CCN4 knockout cells were injected into immunocompromised hosts, indicating that the effect of CCN4 may be immune mediated. Parameter estimation from the MCMC analysis shows that CCN4 was the only knockout tested that decreased the net tumor growth rate in immunocompetent mice. Flow cytometry showed an increase in NK cell infiltration in CCN4 knockout tumors.

Conclusions

The results suggest that CCN4 is a mediator of immunosuppression in the melanoma tumor microenvironment and a potential collateral immunotherapy target.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12195-023-00787-7.

KRT81 Knockdown Inhibits Malignant Progression of Melanoma Through Regulating Interleukin-8

KRT81 is involved in carcinogenesis and progression of many types of human cancers. However, little is known about the role of KRT81 in melanoma. In this study, we identified that KRT81 expression is upregulated in melanoma tissues compared with corresponding adjacent nontumor tissues. Overexpression of KRT81 was also found in human melanoma cell lines. Cell functional studies have shown that KRT81 knockdown could inhibit proliferation, colony formation, migration, invasion, and promote apoptosis of A375 cells. Consistently, in vivo tumorigenesis experiments showed that KRT81 knockdown significantly suppressed the growth of xenograft tumors. Moreover, KRT81 knockdown increased the chemosensitivity of A375 cells to DDP. Mechanical exploration revealed that KRT81 knockdown mediated the downregulation of inflammatory cytokine interleukin-8 (IL-8). In conclusion, these findings indicate that downregulation of KRT81 could inhibit progression of melanoma by regulating IL-8. Therefore, KRT81 represents a potential therapeutic target for melanoma therapy.

Identification of prognostic genes in uveal melanoma microenvironment

Background

Uveal melanoma (UM) is the most common primary intraocular malignancy in adults. Many previous studies have demonstrated that the infiltrating of immune and stromal cells in the tumor microenvironment contributes significantly to prognosis.

Methods

Dataset TCGA-UVM, download from TCGA portal, was taken as the training cohort, and GSE22138, obtained from GEO database, was set as the validation cohort. ESTIMATE algorithm was applied to find intersection differentially expressed genes (DEGs) among tumor microenvironment. Kaplan-Meier analysis and univariate Cox regression model were performed on intersection DEGs to initial screen for potential prognostic genes. Then these genes entered into the validation cohort for validation using the same methods as that in the training cohort. Moreover, we conducted correlation analyses between the genes obtained in the validation cohort and the status of chromosome 3, chromosome 8q, and tumor metastasis to get prognosis genes. At last, the immune infiltration analysis was performed between the prognostic genes and 6 main kinds of tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TICs) for understanding the role of the genes in the tumor microenvironment.

Results

959 intersection DEGs were found in the UM microenvironment. Kaplan-Meier and Cox analysis was then performed in the training and validation cohorts on these DEGs, and 52 genes were identified with potential prognostic value. After comparing the 52 genes to chromosome 3, chromosome 8q, and metastasis, we obtained 21 genes as the prognostic genes. The immune infiltration analysis showed that Neutrophil had the potential prognostic ability, and almost every prognostic gene we had identified was correlated with abundances of Neutrophil and CD8+ T Cell.

Conclusions

Identifying 21 prognosis genes (SERPINB9, EDNRB, RAPGEF3, HFE, RNF43, ZNF415, IL12RB2, MTUS1, NEDD9, ZNF667, AZGP1, WARS, GEM, RAB31, CALHM2, CA12, MYEOV, CELF2, SLCO5A1, ISM1, and PAPSS2) could accurately identify patients' prognosis and had close interactions with Neutrophil in the tumor environment, which may provide UM patients with personalized prognosis prediction and new treatment insights.