Whole genome expression profiling of blood cells in ovarian cancer patients -prognostic impact of the CYP1B1, MTSS1, NCALD, and NOP14

From fallopian tube epithelium to high-grade serous ovarian cancer: A single-cell resolution review of sex steroid hormone signaling

High-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) represents the most lethal subtype of ovarian cancer, largely due to being commonly diagnosed at advanced stages. The early molecular mechanisms underlying ovarian carcinogenesis remain poorly defined, posing challenges to the development of prevention and early detection strategies. Here we dissect the molecular mechanisms of sex steroid hormone signaling throughout the decades-long evolution of HGSOC precursor lesions, which predominantly originate from secretory epithelial cells of fallopian tubes (FT). We also discuss the prognostic significance of sex steroid receptor isoforms and steroid metabolizing enzymes in HGSOCs. Finally, we provide a comprehensive gene expression atlases of sex steroid receptors, steroidogenic, and steroid-metabolizing enzymes across different cell populations in pre- and postmenopausal FTs, and HGSOCs, using published single-cell RNA sequencing datasets. These atlases reveal that secretory epithelial cells and stromal populations in FTs express sex steroid receptors and enzymes responsible for the formation and inactivation of genotoxic estrogen metabolites. In HGSOC, epithelial cells express various HSD17B isoforms and steroid conjugating enzymes, suggesting an enhanced ability to finely regulate the levels of bioactive sex steroids.

MiRNA-related metastasis in oral cancer: moving and shaking

Across the world, oral cancer is a prevalent tumor. Over the years, both its mortality and incidence have grown. Oral cancer metastasis is a complex process involving cell invasion, migration, proliferation, and egress from cancer tissue either by lymphatic vessels or blood vessels. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are essential short non-coding RNAs, which can act either as tumor suppressors or as oncogenes to control cancer development. Cancer metastasis is a multi-step process, in which miRNAs can inhibit or stimulate metastasis at all stages, including epithelial-mesenchymal transition, migration, invasion, and colonization, by targeting critical genes in these pathways. On the other hand, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and circular RNAs (circRNAs), two different types of non-coding RNAs, can regulate cancer metastasis by affecting gene expression through cross-talk with miRNAs. We reviewed the scientific literature (Google Scholar, Scopus, and PubMed) for the period 2000-2023 to find reports concerning miRNAs and lncRNA/circRNA-miRNA-mRNA networks, which control the spread of oral cancer cells by affecting invasion, migration, and metastasis. According to these reports, miRNAs are involved in the regulation of metastasis pathways either by directly or indirectly targeting genes associated with metastasis. Moreover, circRNAs and lncRNAs can induce or suppress oral cancer metastasis by acting as competing endogenous RNAs to inhibit the effect of miRNA suppression on specific mRNAs. Overall, non-coding RNAs (especially miRNAs) could help to create innovative therapeutic methods for the control of oral cancer metastases.

The role of DNA methylation in ovarian cancer chemoresistance: A narrative review

Background and Aims

Ovarian cancer (OC) is the most lethal gynecological cancer. In 2018, it was responsible for over 180,000 deaths worldwide. The high mortality rate is the culmination of a lack of early diagnosis and high rates of chemotherapy resistance, which is synonymous with disease recurrence. Over the last two decades, an increasingly significant role of epigenetic mechanisms, in particular DNA methylation, has emerged. This review will discuss several of the most significant genes whose hypo/hypermethylation profiles are associated with chemoresistance. Aside from functionally elucidating and evaluating these epimutations, this review will discuss recent trials of DNA methyltransferase inhibitors (DNMTi). Finally, we will propose future directions that could enhance the feasibility of utilizing these candidate epimutations as clinical biomarkers.

Methods

To perform this review, a comprehensive literature search based on our keywords was conducted across the online databases PubMed and Google Scholar for identifying relevant studies published up until August 2022.

Results

Epimutations affecting MLH1, MSH2, and Ras-association domain family 1 isoform A (DNA damage repair and apoptosis); ATP-binding cassette subfamily B member 1 and methylation-controlled J (drug export); secreted frizzled-related proteins (Wnt/β-catenin signaling), neurocalcin delta (calcium and G protein-coupled receptor signaling), and zinc finger protein 671 all have potential as biomarkers for chemoresistance. However, specific uncertainties relating to these epimutations include histotype-specific differences, intrinsic versus acquired chemoresistance, and the interplay with complete surgical debulking. DNMTi for chemoresistant OC patients has shown some promise; however, issues surrounding their efficacy and dose-limiting toxicities remain; a personalized approach is required to maximize their effectiveness.

Conclusion

Establishing a panel of aberrantly methylated chemoresistance-related genes to predict chemoresponsiveness and patients' suitability to DNMTi could significantly reduce OC recurrence, while improving DNMTi therapy viability. To achieve this, a large-scale prospective genome-wide DNA methylation profile study that spans different histotypes, includes paired samples (before and after chemotherapy), and integrates transcriptomic and methylomic analysis, is warranted.

NCALD as a potential predictive biomarker for the efficacy of platinum-based chemotherapy in ovarian cancer

Aim: Since reliable response predictors to platinum-based chemotherapy in ovarian cancer (OC) are scarce, we characterize NCALD as a predictive biomarker. Materials & methods: NCALD mRNA (n = 100) and protein (n = 102) expression was analyzed in OC samples and associated with patient outcome. A stable OC cell line knockdown was generated and cellular response to platinum was explored. Results: High NCALD mRNA and protein expression was significantly associated with longer overall patient survival (p = 0.037/0.002). Knockdown experiments revealed a significant association between cisplatin sensitivity and NCALD expression. Conclusion: Low NCALD expression was associated with reduced sensitivity to platinum-based chemotherapy. NCALD may be a new biomarker candidate to identify patients who might benefit from platinum-based chemotherapy.

Increased expression of NOP14 is associated with improved prognosis due to immune regulation in colorectal cancer

Background

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common of cancer-related deaths. Nucleolar protein 14 (NOP14) is known to play different roles in diverse types of cancers. However, little is known about its roles in CRC. Here, we assessed the prognostic value and functions of NOP14 in CRC using the data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and validated them based on the data from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO).

Methods

NOP14 mRNA and protein data in CRC was obtained from the TCGA, GEO, human protein atlas (HPA), and UALCAN databases. Survival and Cox regression analysis was performed to assess the prognostic value of NOP14 in CRC patients. Next, to evaluate the potential functions of NOP14, a protein–protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) of differential expression genes (DEGs) associated with dysregulated NOP14 was performed. Finally, to investigate the immune response associated with NOP14 expression in CRC, we analyzed the correlations between immune cells infiltration and NOP14 expression level. Additionally, the correlations between immune molecule expression levels with NOP14 expression level were analyzed.

Results

High NOP14 mRNA expression was observed in CRC tissues based on the data from TCGA and GEO datasets. Similarly, high NOP14 protein levels were found in CRC tissues according to the immunohistochemical images from HPA. Interestingly, high NOP14 expression level was associated with an improved prognosis in CRC patients. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that high NOP14 expression level was an independent protective factor for CRC patients. With the support of PPI network analysis, we found several risk genes interacted with NOP14. GSEA revealed that high NOP14 expression inhibited several signal pathways involved in tumor formation and development. Additionally, high NOP14 expression was positively associated with most kinds of immune cell infiltrations and the expression levels of some molecules related to immune activation.

Conclusion

Altogether, these results indicated that high NOP14 expression leads to improved prognosis in CRC patients by inhibiting the signaling pathways involved in tumor growth and promoting the immune responses.

LYAR Promotes Colorectal Cancer Progression by Upregulating FSCN1 Expression and Fatty Acid Metabolism

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a highly malignant tumor associated with poor prognosis, yet the molecular mechanisms are not fully understood. In this study, we showed that LYAR, a nucleolar protein, is expressed at a higher level in CRC tissue than in adjacent normal tissue and that LYAR expression is closely associated with distant CRC metastasis. LYAR not only significantly promotes the migration and invasion of CRC cells in vitro, but knockdown (KD) of LYAR in CRC cells also inhibits xenograft tumor metastasis in vivo. Microarray analysis of LYAR KD cells combined with a chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay, gene reporter assay, and rescue experiment indicated that FSCN1 (encoding fascin actin-bundling protein 1 (Fascin-1)) serves as a novel key regulator of LYAR-promoted migration and invasion of CRC cells. Knockdown of FSCN1 significantly inhibits subcutaneous tumorigenesis of CRC cells and leads to the downregulation of FASN and SCD, genes encoding key enzymes in fatty acid synthesis. In summary, this study reveals a novel mechanism by which LYAR promotes tumor cell migration and invasion by upregulating FSCN1 expression and affecting fatty acid metabolism in CRC.

OSov: An Interactive Web Server to Evaluate Prognostic Biomarkers for Ovarian Cancer

Simple Summary

The OSov web server incorporates gene expression profiles with clinical risk factors to estimate the ovarian cancers patients’ survival, and provides a tool for multiple analysis, such as forest-plot, uni/multi-variate survival analysis, Kaplan-Meier plot and nomogram construction.

Abstract

Ovarian cancer is one of the most aggressive and highly lethal gynecological cancers. The purpose of our study is to build a free prognostic web server to help researchers discover potential prognostic biomarkers by integrating gene expression profiling data and clinical follow-up information of ovarian cancer. We construct a prognostic web server OSov (Online consensus Survival analysis for Ovarian cancer) based on RNA expression profiles. OSov is a user-friendly web server which could present a Kaplan–Meier plot, forest plot, nomogram and survival summary table of queried genes in each individual cohort to evaluate the prognostic potency of each queried gene. To assess the performance of OSov web server, 163 previously published prognostic biomarkers of ovarian cancer were tested and 72% of them had their prognostic values confirmed in OSov. It is a free and valuable prognostic web server to screen and assess survival-associated biomarkers for ovarian cancer.

Analysis of the role of Ly-1 antibody reactive in different cancer types

LYAR (Ly-1 antibody reactive) is a transcription factor with a specific DNA-binding domain, which plays a key role in the regulation of embryonic stem cell self-renewal and differentiation. However, the role of LYAR in human cancers remains unclear. This study aimed to analyze the prognostic value of LYAR in cancer. In this study, we evaluated the prognostic value of LYAR in various tumors. We research found that, compared with normal tissues, LYAR levels werehigher in a variety of tumors. LYAR expression level was associated with poor overall survival, progression-free interval, and disease-specific survival. LYAR expression was also related to tumor grade, stage, age, and tumor status. Cell counting kit-8, Transwell, and wound healing assay showed that knocking out LYAR significantly inhibited the proliferation, migration, and invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma cells. In addition, this study found that LYARexpression was significantly positively correlated with MKI67IP, BZW2, and CCT2. Gene set enrichment analysis results showed that samples with high LYAR expression levels were rich in spliceosomes, RNA degradation, pyrimidine metabolism, cell cycle, nucleotide excision repair, and base excision repair.

The blood transcriptome prior to ovarian cancer diagnosis: A case-control study in the NOWAC postgenome cohort

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) has a 5-year relative survival of 50%, partly because markers of early-stage disease are not available in current clinical diagnostics. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether EOC is associated with transcriptional profiles in blood collected up to 7 years before diagnosis. For this, we used RNA-stabilized whole blood, which contains circulating immune cells, from a sample of EOC cases from the population-based Norwegian Women and Cancer (NOWAC) postgenome cohort. We explored case-control differences in gene expression in all EOC (66 case-control pairs), as well as associations between gene expression and metastatic EOC (56 pairs), serous EOC (45 pairs, 44 of which were metastatic), and interval from blood sample collection to diagnosis (≤3 or >3 years; 34 and 31 pairs, respectively). Lastly, we assessed differential expression of genes associated with EOC in published functional genomics studies that used blood samples collected from newly diagnosed women. After adjustment for multiple testing, this nested case-control study revealed no significant case-control differences in gene expression in all EOC (false discovery rate q>0.96). With the exception of a few probes, the log₂ fold change values obtained in gene-wise linear models were below ±0.2. P-values were lowest in analyses of metastatic EOC (80% of which were serous EOC). No common transcriptional profile was indicated by interval to diagnosis; when comparing the 100 genes with the lowest p-values in gene-wise tests in samples collected ≤3 and >3 years before EOC diagnosis, no overlap in these genes was observed. Among 86 genes linked to ovarian cancer in previous publications, our data contained expression values for 42, and of these, tests of LIME1, GPR162, STAB1, and SKAP1, resulted in unadjusted p<0.05. Although limited by sample size, our findings indicated less variation in blood gene expression between women with similar tumor characteristics.

NOP14 regulates the growth, migration, and invasion of colorectal cancer cells by modulating the NRIP1/GSK-3β/β-catenin signaling pathway

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer diagnosed worldwide. Recently, nucleolar complex protein 14 (NOP14) has been discovered to play a critical role in cancer development and progression, but the mechanisms of action of NOP14 in colorectal cancer remain to be elucidated. In this study, we used collected colorectal cancer tissues and cultured colorectal cancer cell lines (SW480, HT29, HCT116, DLD1, Lovo), and measured the mRNA and protein expression levels of NOP14 in colorectal cancer cells using qPCR and Western blotting. GFP-NOP14 was constructed and siRNA fragments against NOP14 were synthesized to investigate the importance of NOP14 for the development of colorectal cells. Transwell migration assays were used to measure cell invasion and migration, CCK-8 kits were used to measure cell activity, and flow cytometry was applied to the observation of apoptosis. We found that both the mRNA and protein levels of NOP14 were significantly upregulated in CRC tissues and cell lines. Overexpression of GFP-NOP14 markedly promoted the growth, migration, and invasion of the CRC cells HT19 and SW480, while genetic knockdown of NOP14 inhibited these behaviors. Overexpression of NOP14 promoted the expression of NRIP1 and phosphorylated inactivation of GSK-3β, leading to the upregulation of β-catenin. Genetic knockdown of NOP14 had the opposite effect on NRIP1/GSK-3/β-catenin signals. NOP14 therefore appears to be overexpressed in clinical samples and cell lines of colorectal cancer, and promotes the proliferation, growth, and metastasis of colorectal cancer cells by modulating the NRIP1/GSK-3β/β-catenin signaling pathway.

Integrated analysis of RNA-binding proteins in human colorectal cancer

Background

Although RNA-binding proteins play an essential role in a variety of different tumours, there are still limited efforts made to systematically analyse the role of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) in the survival of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients.

Methods

Analysis of CRC transcriptome data collected from the TCGA database was conducted, and RBPs were extracted from CRC. R software was applied to analyse the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of RBPs. To identify related pathways and perform functional annotation of RBP DEGs, Gene Ontology (GO) function and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses were carried out using the database for annotation, visualization and integrated discovery. Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) of these DEGs were analysed based on the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes (STRING) database and visualized by Cytoscape software. Based on the Cox regression analysis of the prognostic value of RBPs (from the PPI network) with survival time, the RBPs related to survival were identified, and a prognostic model was constructed. To verify the model, the data stored in the TCGA database were designated as the training set, while the chip data obtained from the GEO database were treated as the test set. Then, both survival analysis and ROC curve verification were conducted. Finally, the risk curves and nomograms of the two groups were generated to predict the survival period.

Results

Among RBP DEGs, 314 genes were upregulated while 155 were downregulated, of which twelve RBPs (NOP14, MRPS23, MAK16, TDRD6, POP1, TDRD5, TDRD7, PPARGC1A, LIN28B, CELF4, LRRFIP2, MSI2) with prognostic value were obtained.

Conclusions

The twelve identified genes may be promising predictors of CRC and play an essential role in the pathogenesis of CRC. However, further investigation of the underlying mechanism is needed.

An exome-wide exploration of cases of primary ovarian insufficiency uncovers novel sequence variants and candidate genes

Primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) implies the cessation of menstruation for several months in women before the age of 40 years and is a major cause of infertility. The study of the contribution of genetic factors to POI has been fueled by the use of whole exome sequencing (WES). Here, to uncover novel causative pathogenic variants and risk alleles, WES has been performed in 12 patients with familial POI (eight unrelated index cases and two pairs of sisters) and six women with early menopause and family history of POI (four index cases and one pair of sisters). Likely causative variants in NR5A1 and MCM9 genes were identified as well as a variant in INHA that requires further investigation. Moreover, we have identified more than one candidate variant in 3 out of 15 familial cases. Taken together, our results highlight the genetic heterogeneity of POI and early menopause and support the hypothesis of an oligogenic inheritance of such conditions, in addition to monogenic inheritance.

Low expression of NCALD is associated with chemotherapy resistance and poor prognosis in epithelial ovarian cancer

Background

Low expression of NCALD(neurocalcin delta) in peripheral blood of ovarian cancer patients predicts poor prognosis. However, the molecular mechanism of NCALD in ovarian cancer and its relationship with chemotherapy outcomes is unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential signaling pathways of NCALD and to evaluate its ability to predict chemotherapy outcomes and prognosis.

Methods

High-throughput RNA sequencing data were downloaded from TCGA. GSEA explored the potential signaling pathways of NCALD. The expression of NCALD in chemotherapy sensitive and chemotherapy resistant ovarian cancer patients was detected by TCGA data and clinical samples. ROC analysis confirmed the ability of NCALD to predict chemotherapy outcomes. The association between NCALD expression and prognosis in ovarian cancer patients was assessed using Kaplan-Meier plotter.

Results

In patients with NCALD overexpression, genes expression related to ERK1 / 2 signaling pathway, NF-kappaB signaling pathway, TGF-β signaling pathway and immune response pathway was increased, especially ERK1 / 2 signaling pathway. The expression of NCALD in chemoresistant patients was significantly lower than chemosensitive patients. In TCGA data and immunohistochemical samples, the AUC of NCALD expression predicting chemotherapy outcome was 0.59 and 0.64, respectively. In clinical samples, low expression of NCALD was associated with poor OS and PFS.

Conclusions

NCALD may activate the ERK1 / 2 signaling pathway in ovarian cancer. As a new biomarker of chemotherapy sensitivity, NCALD was significantly down-regulated in chemotherapy resistance ovarian cancer patients. Low expression of NCALD in ovarian cancer is associated with poor OS and PFS. In the future, further research will be needed on the potential mechanism and clinical application value of NCALD in ovarian cancer.

NCALD affects drug resistance and prognosis by acting as a ceRNA of CX3CL1 in ovarian cancer

Drug resistance, an impenetrable barrier in the treatment of ovarian cancer (OC), is often associated with poor outcomes. Hence, it is urgent to discover new factors controlling drug resistance and survival. The association between neurocalcin delta (NCALD) and cancer drug resistance is poorly understood. Here, we reveal that NCALD messenger RNA expression, probably regulated by DNA methylation and microRNAs, was significantly downregulated in at least three independent microarrays covering 633 ovarian carcinomas and 16 normal controls, which includes the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) ovarian cohort. In the sub-groups of the TCGA cohort, NCALD was suppressed in 90 platinum-resistant tissues vs in 197 sensitive tissues. It is consistent with the quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction results revealing gene downregulation in carboplatin-resistant SKOV3 and HeyA8 OC cells as compared with that in controls. Low expression of NCALD predicted poor overall survival (OS) in sub-groups of 1656 patients, progression-free survival (PFS) in 1435 patients, and post-progression survival (PPS) in 782 patients according to Kaplan-Meier plotter covering 1815 OC patients. Comprehensive bioinformatic analyses strongly implicated NCALD in the regulation of drug resistance, probably via competing for endogenous RNA (ceRNA) interactions with CX3CL1 and tumor immune-microenvironment. NCALD acted as a ceRNA for CX3CL1 in 21 different cancers includes OC according to Starbase. These two genes negatively correlated with tumor purity and positively correlated with infiltration levels of neutrophils and dendritic cells in OC. The combined low expression of NCALD and CX3CL1 showed better prognosis potential for OS, PFS, and PPS in the 1815 OC patients than any of the individually tested genes. In summary, NCALD acts as a ceRNA for CX3CL1, and its downregulation may affect drug resistance and prognosis in OC. Thus, NCALD could be a new therapeutic target for anticancer therapy and a new biomarker for survival prediction in OC.

Nuclear KIT induces a NFKBIB-RELA-KIT autoregulatory loop in imatinib-resistant gastrointestinal stromal tumors

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are frequently driven by auto-activated, mutant KIT and have durable response to KIT tyrosine kinase inhibitor. However, acquired resistance is an increasing clinical issue in GIST patients receiving front-line imatinib therapy. Our previous studies showed the colocalization of KIT with DAPI-stained nuclei in GIST cells without knowing the role of nuclear KIT in GIST tumorigenesis. In this article, we first identified the binding of nuclear KIT to the promoter of NFKB inhibitor beta (NFKBIB) by chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) sequencing and ChIP assays, which was accompanied with enhanced NFKBIB protein expression in GIST cells. Clinically, high NCCN risk GISTs had significantly higher mean expression levels of nuclear phospho-KIT and NFKBIB as compared with those of intermediate or low/very low-risk GISTs. Conversely, downregulation of NFKBIB by siRNA led to RELA nuclear translocation that could bind to the KIT promoter region and subsequently reduced KIT transcription/expression and the viability of GIST cells. These findings were further confirmed by either RELA overexpression or NFKB/RELA inducer, valproic acid, treatment to result in reduced KIT expression and relative cell viability of imatinib-resistant GIST cells. Combining valproic acid with imatinib showed significantly better growth inhibitory effects on imatinib-resistant GIST48 and GIST430 cells in vitro, and in the GIST430 animal xenograft model. Taken together, these results demonstrate the existence of a nuclear KIT-driven NFKBIB-RELA-KIT autoregulatory loop in GIST tumorigenesis, which are potential targets for developing combination therapy to overcome imatinib-resistant of KIT-expressing GISTs.

High NCALD expression predicts poor prognosis of cytogenetic normal acute myeloid leukemia

Background

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous disease in terms of genetic basis, clinical, biological and prognostic, and is a malignant clonal disease of leukemia stem cells (LSCs). Nearly half of adult AML patients exhibit a cytogenetic normal acute myeloid leukemia (CN-AML). The expression level of NCALD gene was associated with the prognosis of ovarian cancer and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The expression level of NCALD gene is still unclear in the prognosis of patients with AML.

Method

We integrated 5 independent datasets totally 665 AML patients (497 CN-AML patients) to analyzed relation between NCALD gene expression and the clinical FAB classification, gene mutation, therapy, prognosis of CN-AML. We analyzed the NCALD gene expression with the prognosis and LSC of 165 AML patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset and 78 AML patients from GEO dataset.

Results

High NCALD-expressing CN-AML patients were associated with poor event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) compared to low NCALD expression (EFS, P < 0.0001, OS, P < 0.0001). In AML patients of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT), high NCALD expression was associated with poor survival prognosis in EFS and OS (EFS, P < 0.0051, OS, P = 0.028). Post-chemotherapy in AML patients, high NCALD expression led a worse prognosis in EFS and OS (EFS, P = 0.011; OS, P = 0.0056). In multivariate analysis, high NCALD expression was an independent prognostic factor that predicts shorter EFS and OS (EFS, P = 3.84E−05, OS, P = 8.53E−05) of CN-AML.

Conclusion

Our results indicate that high expression of NCALD gene is a poor prognostic factor for CN-AML. NCALD can be considered as independent predictors of CN-AML patients and can be used as a biomarker for the prognosis of CN-AML.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12967-019-1904-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

[miR-122-5p inhibits the proliferation of melanoma cells by targeting NOP14]

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the expression profile of miR-122-5p in melanoma tissues and the effect of miR-122-5p on the proliferation, cell cycle and apoptosis of human melanoma cell lines SK-MEL-110 and A375.

METHODS

The expression profiles of miR-122-5p in melanoma and pigmented nevus tissues were detected using real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR). SK-MEL-110 and A375 cells transfected with miR-122-5p inhibitor or negative control inhibitor (NC) I were examined for miR-122- 5p expression using qRT-PCR and changes in cell proliferation, cell cycle and apoptosis using MTT assay or flow cytometry. NOP14 mRNA and protein expressions in the cells were detected using qRT- PCR and Western blotting, respectively. Luciferase reporter assay was used to confirm the identity of NOP14 as the direct target of miR-122-5p.

RESULTS

The relative expression of miR-122-5p in human pigmented nevus tissues and melanoma tissues was 1.23±0.270 and 7.65 ± 1.37, respectively. The relative expression of miR-122-5p in SK-MEL-110 and A375 cells transfected with miR-122-5p inhibitor was 0.21 ± 0.08 and 0.17 ± 0.05, respectively. miR-122-5p inhibitor obviously inhibited the cell proliferation and increased the percentage of cells in G1 stage in both SK-MEL-110 and A-375 cells, but did not cause obvious changes in the apoptosis of the two cells. miR-122-5p inhibitor did not significantly affect the expression level of NOP14 mRNA, but obviously increased the expression level of NOP14 protein. Luciferase reporter assay revealed a significantly lower luciferase activity in cells co-transfected with miR-122-5p mimics and wild-type psi-CHECK2-3'UTR plasmid than in the cells cotransfected with NC and wild-type psi-CHECK2-3'UTR plasmid (0.21 ± 0.14 vs 0.56 ± 0.1, P &lt; 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

miR-122-5p expression is upregulated in melanoma tissues, indicating its involvement in the development of melanoma. miR-122-5p inhibits the proliferation of SK-MEL-110 and A-375 cells possibly by affecting the cycle through NOP14.

Role of lncRNA and EZH2 Interaction/Regulatory Network in Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are non-protein-coding transcripts and longer than 200 nucleotides. LncRNAs have been demonstrated to modulate gene expression at transcriptional, post-transcriptional, as well as epigenetic levels in lung cancer. Interestingly, compelling studies have revealed that lncRNAs participated in the EZH2 oncogenic regulatory network. EZH2 plays an important role in the initiation, progression and metastasis of cancer. On one hand, lncRNAs can directly bind to EZH2, recruit EZH2 to the promoter region of genes and repress their expression. On the other hand, lncRNAs can also serve as EZH2 effectors or regulators. In this review, we summarized the types of lncRNA-EZH2 interaction and regulatory network identified till date and discussed their influence on lung cancer. Better understanding regarding the interaction and regulatory network will provide new insights on lncRNA- or EZH2-based therapeutic development in lung cancer.

Upregulation of long intergenic noncoding RNA 00673 promotes tumor proliferation via LSD1 interaction and repression of NCALD in non-small-cell lung cancer

Despite improvements in diagnostics and treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), it remains the leading causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide. In more recent years, mutiple lines of evidence have highlighted long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) serve as novel class of regulators of cancer biological processes, including proliferation, apoptosis and metastasis. LncRNAs serve as a novel class of regulators of cancer biological processes in cancer, but little is known of their expression and potential functions in NSCLC. We identified an oncogene, linc00673, whose expression level was upregulated by bioinformatics analyses and qRT-PCR analyses in NSCLC. The effects of linc00673 on tumor progression were investigated in vitro and in vivo. Linc00673 knockdown significantly inhibited cell proliferation and colony-forming ability, and suppressed S-phase entry in vitro and shRNA linc00673 mediated knockdown significantly inhibit tumor growth in vivo, meanwhile, linc00673 overexpression increased tumor cell growth. Analysis of RNAseq data revealed linc00673 could modulate the transcription of a large amount of genes including oncogene and tumor suppressor gene, so we investigated the role and regulatory mechanism of linc00673 in NSCLC proliferation. Further mechanistic analyses indicated that the oncogenic activity of linc00673 is partially attributable to its repression of NCALD through association with the epigenetic repressor LSD1. Taken together, these findings suggested that linc00673 could play crucial role in NSCLC progression and might be a potential therapeutic target for patients with NSCLC.

Whole Blood mRNA Expression-Based Prognosis of Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma

The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) prognostic score is based on clinical parameters. We analyzed whole blood mRNA expression in metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (mCCRCC) patients and compared it to the MSKCC score for predicting overall survival. In a discovery set of 19 patients with mRCC, we performed whole transcriptome RNA sequencing and selected eighteen candidate genes for further evaluation based on associations with overall survival and statistical significance. In an independent validation of set of 47 patients with mCCRCC, transcript expression of the 18 candidate genes were quantified using a customized NanoString probeset. Cox regression multivariate analysis confirmed that two of the candidate genes were significantly associated with overall survival. Higher expression of BAG1 [hazard ratio (HR) of 0.14, p < 0.0001, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.04–0.36] and NOP56 (HR 0.13, p < 0.0001, 95% CI 0.05–0.34) were associated with better prognosis. A prognostic model incorporating expression of BAG1 and NOP56 into the MSKCC score improved prognostication significantly over a model using the MSKCC prognostic score only (p < 0.0001). Prognostic value of using whole blood mRNA gene profiling in mCCRCC is feasible and should be prospectively confirmed in larger studies.

LYAR promotes colorectal cancer cell mobility by activating galectin-1 expression

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death worldwide. However, the molecular mechanisms of CRC pathogenesis are not fully understood. In this study, we report the characterization of LYAR (Ly-1 antibody reactive clone) as a key regulator of the migration and invasion of human CRC cells. Immunohistochemistry analysis demonstrated that LYAR is expressed at a higher level in metastatic CRC tissues. We found that LYAR promoted the migratory and invasive capabilities of CRC cells. Gene expression profile analysis of CRC cells showed that LGALS1, which encodes the galectin-1 protein, was a potential target of LYAR. The ChIP assay and gene reporter assays indicated that LYAR directly bound to the LGALS1 promoter. The ectopic expression of galectin-1 partially restored the mobile potential of LYAR knocked-down cells, which suggests that galectin-1 contributed to the LYAR-promoted cell migration and invasion of CRC cells. Thus, this study revealed a novel mechanism by which the transcription factor LYAR may promote tumor cell migration and invasion by upregulating galectin-1 gene expression in CRC.

NOP14 suppresses breast cancer progression by inhibiting NRIP1/Wnt/β-catenin pathway

NOP14, which is functionally conserved among eukaryotes, has been implicated in cancer development. Here, we show that NOP14 is poorly expressed in breast cancer cells and invasive breast cancer tissues. In vivo and in vitro studies indicated that NOP14 suppressed the tumorigenesis and metastasis of breast cancer cells. Further investigations revealed that NOP14 enhanced ERα expression and inhibited the Wnt/β-catenin pathway by up-regulating NRIP1 expression. Survival analysis indicated that low NOP14 expression was significantly associated with poor overall survival (P = 0.0006) and disease-free survival (P = 0.0007), suggesting that NOP14 is a potential prognostic factor in breast cancer. Taken together, our findings reveal that NOP14 may suppress breast cancer progression and provide new insights into the development of targeted therapeutic agents for breast cancer.

Expression and Significances of MTSS1 in Pancreatic Cancer

Thus far, expression of metastasis suppressor 1 (MTSS1), its clinicopathologic and prognostic significances in pancreatic cancer (PC) remain unknown. Expression of MTSS1 was detected by Western blotting in PC cell lines, and by tissue microarray-based immunohistochemical staining in paired tumor and non-tumor samples from 242 patients with PC. Furthermore, the correlations between MTSS1 expression and clinicopathologic variables as well as overall survival were evaluated. In PC cell lines, MTSS1 was differentially expressed. In addition, MTSS1 expression was significantly lower in tumor than in non-tumor tissues (P < 0.001 in both McNemar and Mann-Whitney U tests). High tumoral expression of MTSS1 was closely associated with absence of lymph node metastasis (P = 0.023). Univariate analysis found that high MTSS1 expression in tumor tissues was a strong predictor of favorable overall survival in the whole cohort (P < 0.001). Besides, its impacts on prognosis were also observed in nine out of fourteen subgroups. Finally, MTSS1 expression was identified as an independent prognostic marker in the whole cohort (P = 0.031) as well as in six subgroups (P < 0.05), as shown by multivariate Cox regression test. Down-regulation of MTSS1 expression is evident in PC, and is associated with lymph node metastasis and poor prognosis.

MTSS1 is an independent prognostic biomarker for survival in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma patients

MTSS1 is a possible metastasis suppressor which has been proved to play a key role in metastasis of various tumors, yet its role in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) remains unclear. In present study, we reported detection of MTSS1 expression in ICC and explored its clinical significances. Tissue microarrays containing 93 cases with ICC were constructed and immunohistochemistry was performed to detect MTSS1 expression on these arrays. PcDNA3.1-MTSS1 was transfected into QBC939 cell lines and cell function was measured by transwell assay. Data showed that MTSS1 expression was barely detectable in 56 cases (60.0%) of the 93 primary tumors and that lacking MTSS1 expression was significantly associated with tumor size, nodal metastases and advanced disease stage. In addition, survival analysis demonstrated that lacking MTSS1 expression also correlated significantly with tumor recurrence and poor outcome of patients with ICC. Meanwhile, enhanced expression of MTSS1 leaded to inhibition of the migration of QBC939 cell lines in vitro. These findings together support that MTSS1 may serve as a useful biomarker in predicting tumor recurrence and prognosis of ICC.

MTSS1 gene regulated by miR-96 inhibits cell proliferation and metastasis in tongue squamous cellular carcinoma Tca8113 cell line

BACKGROUND

Metastasis suppressor-1 (MTSS1) is a novel potential metastasis suppressor gene in several types of human cancers. However, the exact function and regulatory mechanism of MTSS1 in Tongue squamous cellular carcinoma (TSCC) have not been elucidated.

MATERIAL/METHODS

We first confirmed the MTSS1 gene expression by using quantitative real time-PCR (qRT-PCR) and immunohistochemical staining. Then we detected the effect of MTSS1 gene on Tca8113 cells proliferation and invasion ability by using MTT, wound healing and invasion assay. Finally by using bioinformatics analysis, luciferase reporter assay and a serial method, we analyzed the targeting of miR-96 on MTSS1 and the ability of miR-96 on MTSS1 gene mediated biological alterations in Tca8113 cells.

RESULTS

Our findings showed that the expression of MTSS1 was down-regulated in both TSCC tissues and Tca8113 cells. Forced expression of MTSS1 led to inhibited cell proliferation ability, retarded wound closing and reduced trans-membrane cell numbers. MiR-96 is confirmed to be a direct target of MTSS1 gene and could regulate MTSS1 mediated Tca8113 cells proliferation and metastasis. But miR-96 could not completely restore the invasion ability of Tca8113 cells.

CONCLUSIONS

MiR-96 targeting and promoting MTSS1 repression may precipitate in the TSCC tumorigenesis through bypassing cell proliferation and metastasis control.

Identification of a multi-cancer gene expression biomarker for cancer clinical outcomes using a network-based algorithm

Cancer types are commonly classified by histopathology and more recently through molecular characteristics such as gene expression, mutations, copy number variations, and epigenetic alterations. These molecular characterizations have led to the proposal of prognostic biomarkers for many cancer types. Nevertheless, most of these biomarkers have been proposed for a specific cancer type or even specific subtypes. Although more challenging, it is useful to identify biomarkers that can be applied for multiple types of cancer. Here, we have used a network-based exploration approach to identify a multi-cancer gene expression biomarker highly connected by ESR1, PRKACA, LRP1, JUN and SMAD2 that can be predictive of clinical outcome in 12 types of cancer from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) repository. The gene signature of this biomarker is highly supported by cancer literature, biological terms, and prognostic power in other cancer types. Additionally, the signature does not seem to be highly associated with specific mutations or copy number alterations. Comparisons with cancer-type specific and other multi-cancer biomarkers in TCGA and other datasets showed that the performance of the proposed multi-cancer biomarker is superior, making the proposed approach and multi-cancer biomarker potentially useful in research and clinical settings.

Identification of the Adapter Molecule MTSS1 as a Potential Oncogene-Specific Tumor Suppressor in Acute Myeloid Leukemia

The adapter protein metastasis suppressor 1 (MTSS1) is implicated as a tumor suppressor or tumor promoter, depending on the type of solid cancer. Here, we identified Mtss1 expression to be increased in AML subsets with favorable outcome, while suppressed in high risk AML patients. High expression of MTSS1 predicted better clinical outcome of patients with normal-karyotype AML. Mechanistically, MTSS1 expression was negatively regulated by FLT3-ITD signaling but enhanced by the AML1-ETO fusion protein. DNMT3B, a negative regulator of MTSS1, showed strong binding to the MTSS1 promoter in PML-RARA positive but not AML1-ETO positive cells, suggesting that AML1-ETO leads to derepression of MTSS1. Pharmacological treatment of AML cell lines carrying the FLT3-ITD mutation with the specific FLT3 inhibitor PKC-412 caused upregulation of MTSS1. Moreover, treatment of acute promyelocytic cells (APL) with all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) increased MTSS1 mRNA levels. Taken together, our findings suggest that MTSS1 might have a context-dependent function and could act as a tumor suppressor, which is pharmacologically targetable in AML patients.