Construction of a Co-Expression Network for lncRNAs and mRNAs Related to Urothelial Carcinoma of the Bladder Progression

Effect of Curcumin on Hepatic mRNA and lncRNA Co-Expression in Heat-Stressed Laying Hens

Heat stress is an important factor affecting poultry production; birds have a range of inflammatory reactions under high-temperature environments. Curcumin has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the effect of dietary curcumin supplementation on the liver transcriptome of laying hens under heat stress conditions. In the animal experiment, a total of 240 Hy-Line brown hens aged 280 days were divided randomly into four different experimental diets with four replicates, and each replicate consisted of 15 hens during a 42-D experiment. The ambient temperature was adjusted to 34 ± 2 °C for 8 h per day, transiting to a range of 22 °C to 28 °C for the remaining 16 h. In the previous study of our lab, it was found that supplemental 150 mg/kg curcumin can improve production performance, antioxidant enzyme activity, and immune function in laying hens under heat stress. To further investigate the regulatory mechanism of curcumin on heat stress-related genes, in total, six samples of three liver tissues from each of 0 mg/kg and 150 mg/kg curcumin test groups were collected for RNA-seq analysis. In the transcriptome analysis, we reported for the first time that the genes related to heat stress of mRNA, such as HSPA8, HSPH1, HSPA2, and DNAJA4, were co-expressed with lncRNA such as XLOC010450, XLOC037987, XLOC053511, XLOC061207, and XLOC100318, and all of these genes are shown to be down-regulated. These findings provide a scientific basis for the possible benefits of dietary curcumin addition in heat-stressed laying hens.

Elevated galectin-3 levels detected in women with hyperglycemia during early and mid-pregnancy antagonizes high glucose - induced trophoblast cells apoptosis via galectin-3/foxc1 pathway

OBJECTIVE

This study was to evaluate plasma galectin-3 levels from early pregnancy to delivery and explore the effects of galectin-3 on the function of trophoblast cells under high glucose exposure.

METHODS

The plasma galectin-3 levels were quantified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in the China National Birth Cohort (CNBC) at Peking University First Hospital, and the underlying signaling pathway was identified by protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis, gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), quantitative PCR (qPCR), western blotting, small interfering RNA (siRNA) transfections, and flow cytometry.

RESULTS

Significantly higher galectin-3 levels were found in patients with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM group; n = 77) during the first and second trimesters than that in healthy pregnant women (HP group; n = 113) (P < 0.05). No significant differences in plasma galectin-3 levels were detected between GDM and HP groups in maternal third-trimester blood and cord blood. PPI analysis suggested potential interactions between galectin-3 and foxc1. The findings of GSEA showed that galectin-3 was involved in the cytochrome P450-related and complement-related pathways, and foxc1 was associated with type I diabetes mellitus. Additionally, high glucose (25 mM) significantly increased the expression levels of galectin-3 and foxc1 and induced apoptosis in HTR-8/SVneo cells. Further in vitro experiments showed that galectin-3/foxc1 pathway could protect HTR-8/SVneo cells against high glucose - induced apoptosis.

CONCLUSION

Future studies were required to validate whether plasma galectin-3 might become a potential biomarker for hyperglycemia during pregnancy. Elevated galectin-3 levels might be a vital protective mechanism among those exposed to hyperglycemia during pregnancy.

Integrated risk scores from N6-methyladenosine-related lncRNAs are potential biomarkers for predicting the overall survival of bladder cancer patients

Background: N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most common form of mRNA- and long noncoding RNA (lncRNA)-specific internal modification encountered in eukaryotes, with important effects on mRNA stability, translation, and splicing. The role of m6A-modified lncRNAs (m6A-lncRNAs) in bladder cancer (BLCA) is rarely reported. This study aimed to evaluate an efficient prognostic model of BLCA in patients, based on m6A-lncRNAs, and to discover potential biological targets.

Methods: Differentially expressed lncRNAs were investigated in 433 BLCA samples derived from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Kaplan–Meier and univariate Cox regression analyses were performed to screen for m6A-lncRNAs with prognostic roles in BLCA. We implemented Pearson correlation analysis to analyze 18 potentially prognostic lncRNAs and 20 known m6A-associated genes. Next, the data were imputed using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression to establish an m6A-lncRNA prognostic signature.

Results: We established an integrated risk score (RS) containing five m6A-lncRNAs and constructed a nomogram that had the ability to forecast the overall survival (OS) of patients with BLCA. We showed that the predictive accuracy of the RS for BLCA prognosis was high, which was confirmed by the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. We analyzed the correlation between tumor immune infiltrating cells and RS in high- and low-risk patients with BLCA and used tumor immune dysfunction and exclusion to predict the effect of immunotherapy. We screened out the most relevant modules of RS through the weighted gene co-expression network analysis network and explored their potential biological functions using GO and KEGG analyses.

Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate that, compared with nomograms constructed using a single prognostic factor, the integrated RS represents a superior model for predicting survival in patients with BLCA, which may improve the clinical management of BLCA.