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Ye Z, Xiao M, Zhang Y, Zheng A, Zhang D, Chen J, Du F, Zhao Y, Wu X, Li M, Chen Y, Deng S, Shen J, Zhang X, Wen Q, Zhang J, Xiao Z. Identification of tumor stemness and immunity related prognostic factors and sensitive drugs in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Sci Rep 2024; 14:15962. [PMID: 38987626 PMCID: PMC11236973 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-66196-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2024] [Accepted: 06/28/2024] [Indexed: 07/12/2024] Open
Abstract
The presence of cancer stem cells (CSCs) contributes significantly to treatment resistance in various cancers, including head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Despite this, the relationship between cancer stemness and immunity remains poorly understood. In this study, we aimed to identify potential immunotherapeutic targets and sensitive drugs for CSCs in HNSCC. Using data from public databases, we analyzed expression patterns and prognostic values in HNSCC. The stemness index was calculated using the single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssgsea) algorithm, and weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was employed to screen for key stemness-related modules. Consensus clustering was then used to group samples for further analysis, and prognosis-related key genes were identified through regression analysis. Our results showed that tumor samples from HNSCC exhibited higher stemness indices compared to normal samples. WGCNA identified a module highly correlated with stemness, comprising 187 genes, which were significantly enriched in protein digestion and absorption pathways. Furthermore, we identified sensitive drugs targeting prognostic genes associated with tumor stemness. Notably, two genes, HLF and CCL11, were found to be highly associated with both stemness and immunity. In conclusion, our study identifies a stemness-related gene signature and promising drug candidates for CSCs of HNSCC. Additionally, HLF and CCL11, which are associated with both stemness and immunity, represent potential targets for immunotherapy in HNSCC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhihua Ye
- Department of Medical Oncology Center, Zhongshan People's Hospital, Zhongshan, Guangdong, China
| | - Mintao Xiao
- South Sichuan Institute of Translational Medicine, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
| | - Yinping Zhang
- Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
| | - Anfu Zheng
- Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
| | - Duoli Zhang
- Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
| | - Jie Chen
- Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
| | - Fukuan Du
- Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
- Cell Therapy and Cell Drugs of Luzhou Key Laboratory, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
- South Sichuan Institute of Translational Medicine, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
| | - Yueshui Zhao
- Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
- Cell Therapy and Cell Drugs of Luzhou Key Laboratory, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
- South Sichuan Institute of Translational Medicine, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
| | - Xu Wu
- Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
- Cell Therapy and Cell Drugs of Luzhou Key Laboratory, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
- South Sichuan Institute of Translational Medicine, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
| | - Mingxing Li
- Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
- Cell Therapy and Cell Drugs of Luzhou Key Laboratory, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
- South Sichuan Institute of Translational Medicine, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
| | - Yu Chen
- Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
- Cell Therapy and Cell Drugs of Luzhou Key Laboratory, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
- South Sichuan Institute of Translational Medicine, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
| | - Shuai Deng
- Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
- Cell Therapy and Cell Drugs of Luzhou Key Laboratory, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
- South Sichuan Institute of Translational Medicine, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
| | - Jing Shen
- Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
- Cell Therapy and Cell Drugs of Luzhou Key Laboratory, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
- South Sichuan Institute of Translational Medicine, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
| | - Xinyi Zhang
- School of Data Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China
| | - Qinglian Wen
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Junkai Zhang
- Department of Medical Oncology Center, Zhongshan People's Hospital, Zhongshan, Guangdong, China.
| | - Zhangang Xiao
- Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, China.
- Cell Therapy and Cell Drugs of Luzhou Key Laboratory, Luzhou, Sichuan, China.
- South Sichuan Institute of Translational Medicine, Luzhou, Sichuan, China.
- Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Sichuan College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Mianyang, 621000, Sichuan, China.
- Gulin Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Luzhou, China.
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Mo WJ, Liang ZQ, Huang JZ, Huang ZG, Zhi ZF, Chen JH, Chen G, Zeng JJ, Feng ZB. Clinicopathological role of Cyclin A2 in uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma: Integration of tissue microarrays and ScRNA-Seq. Int J Biol Markers 2024; 39:168-183. [PMID: 38646803 DOI: 10.1177/03936155241238759] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/23/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The comprehensive expression level and potential molecular role of Cyclin A2 (CCNA2) in uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma (UCEC) remains undiscovered. METHODS UCEC and normal endometrium tissues from in-house and public databases were collected for investigating protein and messenger RNA expression of CCNA2. The transcription factors of CCNA2 were identified by the Cistrome database. The prognostic significance of CCNA2 in UCEC was evaluated through univariate and multivariate Cox regression as well as Kaplan-Meier curve analysis. Single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) analysis was performed to explore cell types in UCEC, and the AUCell algorithm was used to investigate the activity of CCNA2 in different cell types. RESULTS A total of 32 in-house UCEC and 30 normal endometrial tissues as well as 720 UCEC and 165 control samples from public databases were eligible and collected. Integrated calculation showed that the CCNA2 expression was up-regulated in the UCEC tissues (SMD = 2.43, 95% confidence interval 2.23∼2.64). E2F1 and FOXM1 were identified as transcription factors due to the presence of binding peaks on transcription site of CCNA2. CCNA2 predicted worse prognosis in UCEC. However, CCNA2 was not an independent prognostic factor in UCEC. The scRNA-seq analysis disclosed five cell types: B cells, T cells, monocytes, natural killer cells, and epithelial cells in UCEC. The expression of CCNA2 was mainly located in B cells and T cells. Moreover, CCNA2 was active in T cells and B cells using the AUCell algorithm. CONCLUSION CCNA2 was up-regulated and mainly located in T cells and B cells in UCEC. Overexpression of CCNA2 predicted unfavorable prognosis of UCEC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei-Jia Mo
- Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China
| | - Zi-Qian Liang
- Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China
| | - Jie-Zhuang Huang
- Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China
| | - Zhi-Guang Huang
- Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China
| | - Zhi-Fu Zhi
- Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China
| | - Jun-Hong Chen
- Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China
| | - Gang Chen
- Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China
| | - Jing-Jing Zeng
- Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China
| | - Zhen-Bo Feng
- Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China
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Dong J, Tao T, Yu J, Shan H, Liu Z, Zheng G, Li Z, Situ W, Zhu X, Li Z. A ferroptosis-related LncRNAs signature for predicting prognoses and screening potential therapeutic drugs in patients with lung adenocarcinoma: A retrospective study. Cancer Rep (Hoboken) 2024; 7:e1925. [PMID: 38043920 PMCID: PMC10809199 DOI: 10.1002/cnr2.1925] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2023] [Revised: 09/22/2023] [Accepted: 10/16/2023] [Indexed: 12/05/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) has a high mortality rate. Ferroptosis is linked to tumor initiation and progression. AIMS This study aims to develop prognostic models of ferroptosis-related lncRNAs, evaluate the correlation between differentially expressed genes and tumor microenvironment, and identify prospective drugs for managing LUAD. METHODS AND RESULTS In this study, transcriptomic and clinical data were downloaded from the TCGA database, and ferroptosis-related genes were obtained from the FerrDb database. Through correlation analysis, Cox analysis, and the LASSO algorithm for constructing a prognostic model, we found that ferroptosis-related lncRNA-based gene signatures (FLncSig) had a strong prognostic predicting ability in the LUAD patients. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichments reconfirmed that ferroptosis is related to receptor-ligand activity, enzyme inhibitor activity, and the IL-17 signaling pathway. Next, tumor mutation burden (TMB), tumor immune dysfunction and exclusion (TIDE) algorithms, and pRRophetic were used to predict immunotherapy response and chemotherapy sensitivity. The IMvigor210 cohort was also used to validate the prognostic model. In the tumor microenvironment, Type_II_IFN_Response and HLA were found to be a group of low-risk pathways, while MHC_class_I was a group of high-risk pathways. Patients in the high-risk subgroup had lower TIDE scores. Exclusion, MDSC, CAF, and TAMM2 were significantly and positively correlated with risk scores. In addition, we found 15 potential therapeutic drugs for LUAD. Finally, differential analysis of stemness index based on mRNA expression (mRNAsi) indicated that mRNAsi was correlated with gender, primary tumor (T), distant metastasis (M), and the tumor, node, and metastasis (TNM) stage in LUAD patients. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, the prognostic model based on FLncSig can alleviate the difficulty in predicting the prognosis and immunotherapy of LUAD patients. The identified FLncSig and the screened drugs exhibit potential for clinical application and provide references for the treatment of LUAD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiaxin Dong
- Computational Systems Biology Lab (CSBL), The Marine Biomedical Research InstituteGuangdong Medical UniversityZhanjiangChina
| | - Tao Tao
- Medical Research Center, Department of GastroenterologyZibo Central HospitalZiboChina
| | - Jiaao Yu
- Computational Systems Biology Lab (CSBL), The Marine Biomedical Research InstituteGuangdong Medical UniversityZhanjiangChina
| | - Huisi Shan
- Computational Systems Biology Lab (CSBL), The Marine Biomedical Research InstituteGuangdong Medical UniversityZhanjiangChina
| | - Ziyu Liu
- Computational Systems Biology Lab (CSBL), The Marine Biomedical Research InstituteGuangdong Medical UniversityZhanjiangChina
| | - Guangzhao Zheng
- Computational Systems Biology Lab (CSBL), The Marine Biomedical Research InstituteGuangdong Medical UniversityZhanjiangChina
| | - Zhihong Li
- Computational Systems Biology Lab (CSBL), The Marine Biomedical Research InstituteGuangdong Medical UniversityZhanjiangChina
| | - Wanyi Situ
- Computational Systems Biology Lab (CSBL), The Marine Biomedical Research InstituteGuangdong Medical UniversityZhanjiangChina
| | - Xiao Zhu
- Computational Systems Biology Lab (CSBL), The Marine Biomedical Research InstituteGuangdong Medical UniversityZhanjiangChina
| | - Zesong Li
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Systems Biology and Synthetic Biology for Urogenital Tumors, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Genitourinary Tumor, Department of UrologyThe First Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University, Shenzhen Second People's Hospital (Shenzhen Institute of Translational Medicine)ShenzhenChina
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Li Y, Tian R, Liu J, Li J, Tan H, Wu Q, Fu X. Deciphering the immune landscape dominated by cancer-associated fibroblasts to investigate their potential in indicating prognosis and guiding therapeutic regimens in high grade serous ovarian carcinoma. Front Immunol 2022; 13:940801. [PMID: 36119108 PMCID: PMC9478207 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.940801] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2022] [Accepted: 08/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Limited immunotherapeutic effect in high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC) propels exploration of the mechanics behind this resistance, which may be partly elucidated by investigating characters of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), a significant population in HGSOC involved in shaping tumor immune microenvironment. Herein, leveraging gene expression data of HGSOC samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas and Gene Expression Omnibus datasets, we suggested that CAFs detrimentally affected the outcomes of HGSOC patients. Subsequently, we performed weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) to identify a CAFs-related module and screened out seven hub genes from this module, all of which were positively correlated with the infiltration of immunosuppressive macrophages. As one of the hub genes, the expression of fibrillin 1 (FBN1) and its relevance to CD206 were further verified by immunohistochemistry staining in HGSOC samples. Meanwhile, we extracted genes that correlated well with CAF signatures to construct a CAFscore. The capacity of the CAFscore as an independent prognostic factor was validated by Cox regression analyses, and its relevance to components as well as signals in the tumor immune microenvironment was also investigated. Under the evaluation by the CAFscore, HGSOC patients with relatively high CAFscore had worse outcomes, activated mesenchymal signaling pathways, and immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) resistance signatures, which was consistent with the fact that non-responders in anti-PD-1 treatment cohorts tended to have higher CAFscore. Besides, the possibility of CAFscore to guide the selection of sensitive chemotherapeutic agents was explored. In conclusion, individualized assessment of the CAFscore could uncover the extent of stroma activation and immunosuppression and inform therapeutic strategies to improve the benefit of therapies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yimin Li
- Department of Pathology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China
- Department of Pathology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, China
- Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Ruotong Tian
- Department of Pharmacology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Jiaxin Liu
- Department of Pathology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, China
| | - Juanni Li
- Department of Pathology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China
- National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders, Xiangya Hospital, Changsha, China
| | - Hong Tan
- Department of Pathology, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China
- *Correspondence: Xiaodan Fu, ; ; Qihui Wu, ; Hong Tan,
| | - Qihui Wu
- National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders, Xiangya Hospital, Changsha, China
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China
- *Correspondence: Xiaodan Fu, ; ; Qihui Wu, ; Hong Tan,
| | - Xiaodan Fu
- Department of Pathology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China
- National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders, Xiangya Hospital, Changsha, China
- *Correspondence: Xiaodan Fu, ; ; Qihui Wu, ; Hong Tan,
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