N-myc downstream-regulated gene 2 promotes the protein stability of estrogen receptor beta via inhibition of ubiquitin-protein ligase E3A to suppress colorectal cancer

Prognostic value and potential regulatory relationship of miR-200c-5p in colorectal cancer

This study aimed to investigate the relationship and potential mechanisms of miR-200c-5p in colorectal cancer (CRC) progression. Differentially expressed miRNAs were screened using the TCGA database. Subsequently, univariate analysis was performed to identify CRC survival-related miRNAs. Survival and receiver operator characteristic curves were generated. The target genes of miR-200c-5p and the relevant signaling pathways or biological processes were predicted by the miRNet database and enrichment analyses. The miR-200c-5p expression was detected using quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction, Cell Counting Kit-8, Transwell, and cell apoptosis experiments were performed to determine miR-200c-5p's impact on CRC cell viability, invasiveness, and apoptosis. Finally, we constructed a CRC mouse model with inhibited miR-200c-5p to evaluate its impact on tumors. miR-200c-5p was upregulated in CRC, implying a favorable prognosis. Gene set enrichment analysis revealed that miR-200c-5p may participate in signaling pathways such as the TGF-β signaling pathway, RIG-I-like receptor signaling pathway, renin-angiotensin system, and DNA replication. miR-200c-5p potentially targeted mRNAs, including KCNE4 and CYP1B1, exhibiting a negative correlation with their expression. Furthermore, these mRNAs may participate in biological processes like the regulation of intracellular transport, cAMP-dependent protein kinase regulatory activity, ubiquitin protein ligase binding, MHC class II protein complex binding, and regulation of apoptotic signaling pathway. Lastly, miR-200c-5p overexpression repressed the viability and invasiveness of CRC cells but promoted apoptosis. The tumor size, weight, and volume were significantly increased by inhibiting miR-200c-5p (p < 0.05). miR-200c-5p is upregulated in CRC, serving as a promising biomarker for predicting CRC prognosis.

Ubiquitin-protein ligase E3A (UBE3A) mediation of viral infection and human diseases

The Ubiquitin-protein ligase E3A, UBE3A, also known as E6-associated protein (E6-AP), is known to play an essential role in regulating the degradation of various proteins by transferring Ub from E2 Ub conjugating enzymes to the substrate proteins. Several studies indicate that UBE3A regulates the stabilities of key viral proteins in the virus-infected cells and, thereby, the infected virus-mediated diseases, even if it were reported that UBE3A participates in non-viral-related human diseases. Furthermore, mutations such as deletions and duplications in the maternally inherited gene in the brain cause human neurodevelopmental disorders such as Angelman syndrome (AS) and autism. It is also known that UBE3A functions as a transcriptional coactivator for the expression of steroid hormone receptors. These reports establish that UBE3A is distinguished by its multitudinous functions that are paramount to viral pathology and human diseases. This review is focused on molecular mechanisms for such intensive participation of UBE3A in disease formation and virus regulation.

WFDC3 inhibits tumor metastasis by promoting the ERβ-mediated transcriptional repression of TGFBR1 in colorectal cancer

Estrogen plays a protective role in colorectal cancer (CRC) and primarily functions through estrogen receptor β (ERβ). However, clinical strategies for CRC therapy associated with ERβ are still under investigation. Our discoveries identified WFDC3 as a tumor suppressor that facilitates estrogen-induced inhibition of metastasis through the ERβ/TGFBR1 signaling axis. WFDC3 interacts with ERβ and increases its protein stability by inhibiting its proteasome-dependent degradation. WFDC3 represses TGFBR1 expression through ERβ-mediated transcription. Blocking TGFβ signaling with galunisertib, a drug used in clinical trials that targets TGFBR1, impaired the migration of CRC cells induced by WFDC3 depletion. Moreover, there was clinical significance to WFDC3 in CRC, as CRC patients with high WFDC3 expression in tumor cells had favorable prognoses. Therefore, this work suggests that WFDC3 could be an indicator for therapies targeting the estrogen/ERβ pathway in CRC patients.

The Role of HECT E3 Ubiquitin Ligases in Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is estimated to rank as the second reason for cancer-related deaths, and the prognosis of CRC patients remains unsatisfactory. Numerous studies on gastrointestinal cell biology have shown that the E3 ligase-mediated ubiquitination exerts key functions in the pathogenesis of CRC. The homologous to E6-associated protein C-terminus (HECT) family E3 ligases are a major group of E3 enzymes, featured with the presence of a catalytic HECT domain, which participate in multiple cellular processes; thus, alterations in HECT E3 ligases in function or expression are closely related to the occurrence and development of many human malignancies, including-but not limited to-CRC. In this review, we summarize the potential role of HECT E3 ligases in colorectal carcinogenesis and the related underlying molecular mechanism to expand our understanding of their pathological functions. Exploiting specific inhibitors targeting HECT E3 ligases could be a potential therapeutic strategy for CRC therapy in the future.

Estrogen receptor beta promotes lung cancer invasion via increasing CXCR4 expression

Lung cancer is one of the most lethal malignant tumors in the world. The high recurrence and mortality rate make it urgent for scientists and clinicians to find new targets for better treatment of lung cancer. Early studies indicated that estrogen receptor β (ERβ) might impact the progression of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the detailed mechanisms, especially its linkage to the CXCR4-mediated cell invasion, remain unclear. Here we found that ERβ could promote NSCLC cell invasion via increasing the circular RNA (circRNA), circ-TMX4, expression via directly binding to the 5′ promoter region of its host gene TMX4. ERβ-promoted circ-TMX4 could then sponge and inhibit the micro RNA (miRNA, miR), miR-622, expression, which can then result in increasing the CXCR4 messenger RNA translation via a reduced miRNA binding to its 3′ untranslated region (3′UTR). The preclinical study using an in vivo mouse model with orthotopic xenografts of NSCLC cells confirmed the in vitro data, and the human NSCLC database analysis and tissue staining also confirmed the linkage of ERβ/miR-622/CXCR4 signaling to the NSCLC progression. Together, our findings suggest that ERβ can promote NSCLC cell invasion via altering the ERβ/circ-TMX4/miR-622/CXCR4 signaling, and targeting this newly circ-TMX4/miR-622/CXCR4 signaling may help us find new treatment strategies to better suppress NSCLC progression.

Effects of Allium sativum Stem Extract on Growth and Migration in Melanoma Cells through Inhibition of VEGF, MMP-2, and MMP-9 Genes Expression

The present study investigated the effects of Allium sativum stem extract (ASE) on B16-F0 cell growth and metastasis. Evaluation of the effects of ASE on B16-F0 cells’ viability and migration showed that 0.5 mg/mL ASE inhibited B16-F0 cells’ growth by 30.2% and migration by 38.5%, which indicates that the ASE has anticancer and antimetastatic effects on B16-F0 cells. To study the anticancer and antimetastatic mechanism, mRNA levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), matrix metalloproteinases-2 (MMP-2), and matrix metalloproteinases-9 (MMP-9) expressions were evaluated with reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, and 0.25 and 0.5 mg/mL ASE was found to exert significant inhibition on mRNA expressions of VEGF, MMP-2, and MMP-9 in B16-F0 cells. Thus, ASE reduce extracellular matrix degradation through inhibitions of expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9, and also showed an angiogenesis inhibitory effect through reduction of VEGF expression. High-performance liquid chromatography analysis showed that among various polyphenols, gallic acid (2.1 mg/g) was a major compound of ASE. Overall, our results demonstrated that ASE inhibited the growth and migration of B16-F0 cells through downregulation of the VEGF, MMP-2, and MMP-9 genes expression, which indicates ASE could be applied for the prevention and treatment of melanoma.

NDRG2 Expression in Breast Cancer Cells Downregulates PD-L1 Expression and Restores T Cell Proliferation in Tumor-Coculture

Simple Summary

N-myc downstream-regulated gene 2 (NDRG2) is a candidate tumor suppressor in various cancers, including breast cancer. Increased expression of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) is frequently observed in human cancers. Despite its role in cancer cells, the effects of NDRG2 on PD-L1 expression and PD-L1-PD-1 pathway disruption have not been investigated. We demonstrated that NDRG2 overexpression inhibits PD-L1 expression in human breast cancer cells. Blocking T cell proliferation by coculture with 4T1 mouse tumor cells that express high levels of PD-L1 could be significantly reversed by NDRG2 overexpression in the same tumor cells. NDRG2 knockdown in NDRG2-transfected cells elicited the upregulation of PD-L1 expression and accelerated the inhibition of T cell proliferation. These findings were confirmed from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data that PD-L1 expression in basal and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients, but not in luminal A or B cancer patients, was negatively correlated with the NDRG2 expression.

Abstract

(1) Background: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of NDRG2 expression in regulating PD-L1 or PD-L2 on malignant breast cancer cells. (2) Methods: Overexpression and knockdown of the NDRG2 gene in human and mouse cancer cells were applied and quantitative real-time PCR and Western blot analysis were performed. T cell proliferation and TCGA analysis were conducted to validate negative correlation of the PD-L1 expression with the NDRG2 expression. (3) Results: We found that NDRG2 overexpression inhibits PD-L1 expression in human breast cancer cells through NF-κB signaling. NDRG2 overexpression in 4T1 mouse breast cancer cells followed by PD-L1 downregulation could block the suppressive activity of cancer cells on T cell proliferation and knockdown of NDRG2 expression enhanced the expression of PD-L1, leading to the inhibition of T cell proliferation by tumor cell coculture. Finally, we confirmed from TCGA data that PD-L1 expression in basal and triple-negative breast cancer patients was negatively correlated with the expression of NDRG2. Intriguingly, linear regression analysis using TNBC cell lines showed that the PD-L1 level was negatively associated with the NDRG2 expression level. (4) Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that NDRG2 expression is instrumental in suppressing PD-L1 expression and restoring PD-L1-inhibited T cell proliferation activity in TNBC cells.

A Novel Prognostic Model and Practical Nomogram for Predicting the Outcomes of Colorectal Cancer: Based on Tumor Biomarkers and Log Odds of Positive Lymph Node Scheme

Background

Emerging evidence shows that serum tumor biomarkers (TBs) and log odds of positive lymph node scheme (LODDS) are closely associated with the prognosis of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. The aim of our study is to validate the predictive value of TBs and LODDS clinically and to develop a robust prognostic model to predict the overall survival (OS) of patients with CRC.

Methods

CRC patients who underwent radical resection and with no preoperative chemotherapy were enrolled in the study. The eligible population were randomized into training (70%) and test (30%) cohorts for the comprehensive evaluation of the prognostic model. Clinical implications of serum biomarkers and LODDS were identified by univariate and multivariate Cox proportion regression analysis. The predictive ability and discriminative performance were evaluated by Kaplan–Meier (K–M) curves and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Clinical applicability of the prognostic model was assessed by decision curve analysis (DCA), and the corresponding nomogram was constructed based on the above factors.

Results

A total of 1,202 eligible CRC patients were incorporated into our study. Multivariable COX analysis demonstrated that CA199 (HR = 1.304), CA125 (HR = 1.429), CEA (HR = 1.307), and LODDS (HR = 1.488) were independent risk factors for OS (all P < 0.0001). K–M curves showed that the high-risk group possessed a shorter OS than the low-risk counterparts. The area under curves (AUCs) of the model for 1-, 3- and 5-year OS were 86.04, 78.70, and 76.66% respectively for the train cohort (80.35, 77.59, and 74.26% for test cohort). Logistic DCA and survival DCA confirmed that the prognostic model displayed more clinical benefits than the conventional AJCC 8^th TNM stage and CEA model. The nomograms were built accordingly, and the calibration plot for the probability of survival at 3- or 5-years after surgery showed an optimal agreement between prediction and actual observation.

Conclusions

Preoperative serum TBs and LODDS have significant clinical implications for CRC patients. A novel prognostic model incorporating common TBs (CA199, CA125, and CEA) and LODDS displayed better predictive performance than both single factor and the TNM classification. A novel nomogram incorporating TBs and LODDS could individually predict OS in patients with CRC.