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You W, Ouyang J, Cai Z, Chen Y, Wu X. Comprehensive Analyses of Immune Subtypes of Stomach Adenocarcinoma for mRNA Vaccination. Front Immunol 2022; 13:827506. [PMID: 35874675 PMCID: PMC9300892 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.827506] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2021] [Accepted: 06/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Although messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines have unique advantages against multiple tumors, mRNA vaccine targets in stomach adenocarcinoma (STAD) remain unknown. The potential effectiveness of mRNA vaccines is closely associated with the tumor immune infiltration microenvironment. The present study aimed to identify tumor antigens of STAD as mRNA vaccine targets and systematically determine immune subtypes (ISs) of STAD that might be suitable for immunotherapy. Methods Gene expression profiles and clinical data of patients with gastric cancer were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA; n = 409) and the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO; n = 433), and genomic data were extracted from cBioPortal. Differential gene expression was analyzed using the limma package, genetic alterations were visualized using maftools, and prognosis was analyzed using ToPP. Correlations between gene expression and immune infiltration were calculated using TIMER software, and potential ISs were identified using ConsensusClusterPlus. Functional enrichment was analyzed in clusterProfiler, and r co-expression networks were analyzed using the weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) package in R. Results Overexpression of the prognostic and highly mutated antigens ADAMTS18, COL10A1, PPEF1, and STRA6 was associated with infiltration by antigen-presenting cells in STAD. Five ISs (IS1–IS5) in STAD with distinct prognoses were developed and validated in TCGA and GEO databases. The tumor mutational burden and molecular and clinical characteristics significantly differed among IS1–IS5. Both IS1 and IS2 were associated with a high mutational burden, massive infiltration by immune cells, especially antigen-presenting cells, and better survival compared with the other subtypes. Both IS4 and IS5 were associated with cold immune infiltration and correlated with advanced pathological stages. We analyzed the immune microenvironments of five subtypes of immune modulators and biomarkers to select suitable populations for mRNA vaccination and established four co-expressed key modules to validate the characteristics of the ISs. Finally, the correlation of these four mRNA vaccine targets with the transcription factors of DC cells, including BATF3, IRF4, IRF8, ZEB2, ID2, KLF4, E2-2, and IKZF1, were explored to reveal the underlying mechanisms. Conclusions ADAMTS18, COL10A1, PPEF1, and STRA6 are potential mRNA vaccine candidates for STAD. Patients with IS1 and IS2 are suitable populations for mRNA vaccination immunotherapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Weiqiang You
- Department of Colorectal Surgery, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Colorectal and Pelvic Floor Diseases, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Jian Ouyang
- The Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Regulatory Biology, The Institute of Biomedical Sciences and School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
- Shanghai-MOST Key Laboratory of Health and Disease Genomics, Institute for Genome and Bioinformatics, Shanghai Institute for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Technologies, Shanghai, China
| | - Zerong Cai
- Department of Colorectal Surgery, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Colorectal and Pelvic Floor Diseases, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Yufeng Chen
- Department of Colorectal Surgery, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Colorectal and Pelvic Floor Diseases, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Xiaojian Wu
- Department of Colorectal Surgery, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Colorectal and Pelvic Floor Diseases, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
- *Correspondence: Xiaojian Wu,
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Kołat D, Kałuzińska Ż, Bednarek AK, Płuciennik E. Prognostic significance of AP-2α/γ targets as cancer therapeutics. Sci Rep 2022; 12:5497. [PMID: 35361846 PMCID: PMC8971500 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-09494-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2021] [Accepted: 03/24/2022] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Identifying genes with prognostic importance could improve cancer treatment. An increasing number of reports suggest the existence of successful strategies based on seemingly "untargetable" transcription factors. In addition to embryogenesis, AP-2 transcription factors are known to play crucial roles in cancer development. Members of this family can be used as prognostic factors in oncological patients, and AP-2α/γ transcription factors were previously investigated in our pan-cancer comparative study using their target genes. The present study investigates tumors that were previously found similar with an emphasis on the possible role of AP-2 factors in specific cancer types. The RData workspace was loaded back to R environment and 3D trajectories were built via Monocle3. The genes that met the requirement of specificity were listed using top_markers(), separately for mutual and unique targets. Furthermore, the candidate genes had to meet the following requirements: correlation with AP-2 factor (through Correlation AnalyzeR) and validated prognostic importance (using GEPIA2 and subsequently KM-plotter or LOGpc). Eventually, the ROC analysis was applied to confirm their predictive value; co-dependence of expression was visualized via BoxPlotR. Some similar tumors were differentiated by AP-2α/γ targets with prognostic value. Requirements were met by only fifteen genes (EMX2, COL7A1, GRIA1, KRT1, KRT14, SLC12A5, SEZ6L, PTPRN, SCG5, DPP6, NTSR1, ARX, COL4A3, PPEF1 and TMEM59L); of these, the last four were excluded based on ROC curves. All the above genes were confronted with the literature, with an emphasis on the possible role played by AP-2 factors in specific cancers. Following ROC analysis, the genes were verified using immunohistochemistry data and progression-related signatures. Staining differences were observed, as well as co-dependence on the expression of e.g. CTNNB1, ERBB2, KRAS, SMAD4, EGFR or MKI67. In conclusion, prognostic value of targets suggested AP-2α/γ as candidates for novel cancer treatment. It was also revealed that AP-2 targets are related to tumor progression and that some mutual target genes could be inversely regulated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Damian Kołat
- Department of Molecular Carcinogenesis, Medical University of Lodz, 90-752, Lodz, Poland.
| | - Żaneta Kałuzińska
- Department of Molecular Carcinogenesis, Medical University of Lodz, 90-752, Lodz, Poland
| | - Andrzej K Bednarek
- Department of Molecular Carcinogenesis, Medical University of Lodz, 90-752, Lodz, Poland
| | - Elżbieta Płuciennik
- Department of Molecular Carcinogenesis, Medical University of Lodz, 90-752, Lodz, Poland
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Lavoie-Ouellet C, Clark MÈ, Ruiz J, Saindon AA, Leclerc P. The protein phosphatase with EF-hand domain 1 is a calmodulin-binding protein that interacts with proteins involved in sperm capacitation, binding to the zona pellucida, and motility. Mol Reprod Dev 2021; 88:302-317. [PMID: 33783058 DOI: 10.1002/mrd.23467] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2020] [Revised: 03/08/2021] [Accepted: 03/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
Spermatozoa are highly specialized cells whose fertilizing and motility functions highly depend on intracellular Ca2+ -mediated events and protein posttranslational modifications like phosphorylation. Our group previously identified PPEF1, the Ser/Thr phosphatase with EF-hand domain 1, among calmodulin-affinity pulled down sperm proteins. As the mammalian ortholog of the Drosophila phosphatase rdgC that dephosphorylates rhodopsin, PPEF1 has been studied mostly in the retina. The presence and importance of this Ca2+ /calmodulin-binding protein phosphatase has not been studied in sperm or testicular functions despite its high expression level. In this study, we show that PPEF1 is present in testicular germ cells, and in mouse, human and bull spermatozoa where it is localized predominantly in the neck and acrosome areas. Different transcript variants encoding four predicted isoforms were detected by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction in bull testis, spermatocytes and spermatids. Phosphatase activity of immunoprecipitated sperm PPEF1 was detected using the substrate pNPP and analysis of the coimmunoprecipitated proteins reveal an enrichment in the biological processes of sperm capacitation, binding to the zona pellucida and motility. Although this is the first demonstration of the presence of PPEF1 in sperm and testicular germ cells, its involvement in sperm fertilizing ability and motility, and the mechanisms regulating its activity remain to be further investigated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Camille Lavoie-Ouellet
- Département d'Obstétrique, gynécologie et reproduction, Centre de recherche en reproduction, développement et santé intergénérationnelle, Université Laval, Axe reproduction, santé de la mère et de l'enfant, Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec-Université Laval, Quebec City, Québec, Canada
| | - Marie-Ève Clark
- Département d'Obstétrique, gynécologie et reproduction, Centre de recherche en reproduction, développement et santé intergénérationnelle, Université Laval, Axe reproduction, santé de la mère et de l'enfant, Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec-Université Laval, Quebec City, Québec, Canada
| | - Juliana Ruiz
- Département d'Obstétrique, gynécologie et reproduction, Centre de recherche en reproduction, développement et santé intergénérationnelle, Université Laval, Axe reproduction, santé de la mère et de l'enfant, Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec-Université Laval, Quebec City, Québec, Canada
| | - Andrée-Anne Saindon
- Département d'Obstétrique, gynécologie et reproduction, Centre de recherche en reproduction, développement et santé intergénérationnelle, Université Laval, Axe reproduction, santé de la mère et de l'enfant, Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec-Université Laval, Quebec City, Québec, Canada
| | - Pierre Leclerc
- Département d'Obstétrique, gynécologie et reproduction, Centre de recherche en reproduction, développement et santé intergénérationnelle, Université Laval, Axe reproduction, santé de la mère et de l'enfant, Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec-Université Laval, Quebec City, Québec, Canada
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Jiang Q, Jin M. Feature Selection for Breast Cancer Classification by Integrating Somatic Mutation and Gene Expression. Front Genet 2021; 12:629946. [PMID: 33719339 PMCID: PMC7952975 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2021.629946] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2020] [Accepted: 01/21/2021] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Exploring the molecular mechanisms of breast cancer is essential for the early prediction, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer patients. The large scale of data obtained from the high-throughput sequencing technology makes it difficult to identify the driver mutations and a minimal optimal set of genes that are critical to the classification of cancer. In this study, we propose a novel method without any prior information to identify mutated genes associated with breast cancer. For the somatic mutation data, it is processed to a mutated matrix, from which the mutation frequency of each gene can be obtained. By setting a reasonable threshold for the mutation frequency, a mutated gene set is filtered from the mutated matrix. For the gene expression data, it is used to generate the gene expression matrix, while the mutated gene set is mapped onto the matrix to construct a co-expression profile. In the stage of feature selection, we propose a staged feature selection algorithm, using fold change, false discovery rate to select differentially expressed genes, mutual information to remove the irrelevant and redundant features, and the embedded method based on gradient boosting decision tree with Bayesian optimization to obtain an optimal model. In the stage of evaluation, we propose a weighted metric to modify the traditional accuracy to solve the sample imbalance problem. We apply the proposed method to The Cancer Genome Atlas breast cancer data and identify a mutated gene set, among which the implicated genes are oncogenes or tumor suppressors previously reported to be associated with carcinogenesis. As a comparison with the integrative network, we also perform the optimal model on the individual gene expression and the gold standard PMA50. The results show that the integrative network outperforms the gene expression and PMA50 in the average of most metrics, which indicate the effectiveness of our proposed method by integrating multiple data sources, and can discover the associated mutated genes in breast cancer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qin Jiang
- College of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, China
| | - Min Jin
- College of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, China
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