Anticarin β Inhibits Human Glioma Progression by Suppressing Cancer Stemness via STAT3

Glioma Stem Cells-Features for New Therapy Design

On a molecular level, glioma is very diverse and presents a whole spectrum of specific genetic and epigenetic alterations. The tumors are unfortunately resistant to available therapies and the survival rate is low. The explanation of significant intra- and inter-tumor heterogeneity and the infiltrative capability of gliomas, as well as its resistance to therapy, recurrence and aggressive behavior, lies in a small subset of tumor-initiating cells that behave like stem cells and are known as glioma cancer stem cells (GCSCs). They are responsible for tumor plasticity and are influenced by genetic drivers. Additionally, GCSCs also display greater migratory abilities. A great effort is under way in order to find ways to eliminate or neutralize GCSCs. Many different treatment strategies are currently being explored, including modulation of the tumor microenvironment, posttranscriptional regulation, epigenetic modulation and immunotherapy.

Pan-cancer analysis of homeodomain-containing gene C10 and its carcinogenesis in lung adenocarcinoma

We found elevated homeodomain-containing gene C10 (HOXC10) showed dual roles in cancers' prognosis. Some signal pathways associated with tumor were totally positively enriched in HOXC10 for whole cancers. On the contrary, Notch signaling, Wnt-beta catenin signaling, myogenesis, and Hedgehog signaling were almost negatively enriched in HOXC10. Some pathways showed dual roles such as Kras signaling, interferon gram and alpha response, IL6/JAK/STAT3, IL2/STAT5 signaling. HOXC10 was associated with tumor mutation burden and microsatellite instability. HOXC10 also was associated with tumor microenvironment and immune status. HOXC10 was negatively associated with immune score in most cancers except colon adenocarcinoma. The correlations of HOXC10 with immune-related genes presented dual roles in different cancers. Results from our clinical samples indicated that HOXC10 was an independent predictor for distant metastasis-free survival in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Notably, the high levels of HOXC10 were positively correlated with the expression of angiogenic markers, vascular endothelial growth factor and microvessel density, and the number of CTC clusters. Our results demonstrated that aberrant expression happened in most cancers, which also affected the clinical prognosis and involved in progression via multiple signal pathways cancers. HOXC10 overexpression plays an important role in the aggression and metastasis in LUAD, which indicated a potential therapeutic target and an independent factor for the prognosis for LUAD patients.

Chaperonin containing TCP-1 (CCT/TRiC) is a novel therapeutic and diagnostic target for neuroblastoma

Chaperonin containing TCP1 (CCT/TRiC) is a multi-subunit protein folding complex that enables the cancer phenotype to emerge from the mutational landscape that drives oncogenesis. We and others linked increased expression of CCT subunits to advanced tumor stage and invasiveness that inversely correlates with cancer patient outcomes. In this study, we examined the expression of the second CCT subunit, CCT2, using genomic databases of adult and pediatric tumors and normal tissues, and found that it was highly expressed in pediatric cancers, showing a significant difference compared to normal tissues. Histologic staining confirmed that CCT subunits are highly expressed in tumor tissues, which was exemplified in neuroblastoma. Using two neuroblastoma cells, MYCN-amplified, IMR-32 cells, and non-amplified, SK-N-AS cells, we assessed baseline levels for CCT subunits and found expressions comparable to the highly invasive triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cell line, MDA-MB-231. Exogenous expression of CCT2 in both SK-N-AS and IMR-32 cells resulted in morphological changes, such as larger cell size and increased adherence, with significant increases in the CCT substrates, actin, and tubulin, as well as increased migration. Depletion of CCT2 reversed these effects and reduced cell viability. We evaluated CCT as a therapeutic target in IMR-32 cells by testing a novel peptide CCT inhibitor, CT20p. Treatment with CT20p induced cell death in these neuroblastoma cells. The use of CCT2 as a biological indicator for detection of neuroblastoma cells shed in blood was examined by spiking IMR-32 cells into human blood and using an anti-CCT2 antibody for the identification of spiked cancer cells with the CellSearch system. Results showed that using CCT2 for the detection of neuroblastoma cells in blood was more effective than the conventional approach of using epithelial markers like cytokeratins. CCT2 plays an essential role in promoting the invasive capacity of neuroblastoma cells and thus offers the potential to act as a molecular target in the development of novel therapeutics and diagnostics for pediatric cancers.