Sequential Interferon β-Cisplatin Treatment Enhances the Surface Exposure of Calreticulin in Cancer Cells via an Interferon Regulatory Factor 1-Dependent Manner

Bioengineered Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cells in Anti-Cancer Therapy: Current Trends and Future Prospects

Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) are one of the most widely used cell types in advanced therapies due to their therapeutic potential in the regulation of tissue repair and homeostasis, and immune modulation. However, their use in cancer therapy is controversial: they can inhibit cancer cell proliferation, but also potentially promote tumour growth by supporting angiogenesis, modulation of the immune milieu and increasing cancer stem cell invasiveness. This opposite behaviour highlights the need for careful and nuanced use of MSCs in cancer treatment. To optimize their anti-cancer effects, diverse strategies have bioengineered MSCs to enhance their tumour targeting and therapeutic properties or to deliver anti-cancer drugs. In this review, we highlight the advanced uses of MSCs in cancer therapy, particularly as carriers of targeted treatments due to their natural tumour-homing capabilities. We also discuss the potential of MSC-derived extracellular vesicles to improve the efficiency of drug or molecule delivery to cancer cells. Ongoing clinical trials are evaluating the therapeutic potential of these cells and setting the stage for future advances in MSC-based cancer treatment. It is critical to identify the broad and potent applications of bioengineered MSCs in solid tumour targeting and anti-cancer agent delivery to position them as effective therapeutics in the evolving field of cancer therapy.

Calreticulin as a marker and therapeutic target for cancer

Calreticulin (CRT) is a multifunctional protein found within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). In addition, CRT participates in the formation and development of tumors and promotes the proliferation and migration of tumor cells. When a malignant tumor occurs in the human body, cancer cells that die from immunogenic cell death (ICD) expose CRT on their surface, and CRT that is transferred to the cell surface represents an "eat me" signal, which promotes dendritic cells to phagocytose the tumor cells, thereby increasing the sensitivity of tumors to anticancer immunotherapy. Expression of CRT in tumor tissues is higher than in normal tissues and is associated with disease progression in many malignant tumors. Thus, the dysfunctional production of CRT can promote tumorigenesis because it disturbs not only the balance of healthy cells but also the body's immune surveillance. CRT may be a diagnostic marker and a therapeutic target for cancer, which is discussed extensively in this review.

The Dual Role of Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Cancer Pathophysiology: Pro-Tumorigenic Effects versus Therapeutic Potential

Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) are multipotent cells involved in numerous physiological events, including organogenesis, the maintenance of tissue homeostasis, regeneration, or tissue repair. MSCs are increasingly recognized as playing a major, dual, and complex role in cancer pathophysiology through their ability to limit or promote tumor progression. Indeed, these cells are known to interact with the tumor microenvironment, modulate the behavior of tumor cells, influence their functions, and promote distant metastasis formation through the secretion of mediators, the regulation of cell-cell interactions, and the modulation of the immune response. This dynamic network can lead to the establishment of immunoprivileged tissue niches or the formation of new tumors through the proliferation/differentiation of MSCs into cancer-associated fibroblasts as well as cancer stem cells. However, MSCs exhibit also therapeutic effects including anti-tumor, anti-proliferative, anti-inflammatory, or anti-oxidative effects. The therapeutic interest in MSCs is currently growing, mainly due to their ability to selectively migrate and penetrate tumor sites, which would make them relevant as vectors for advanced therapies. Therefore, this review aims to provide an overview of the double-edged sword implications of MSCs in tumor processes. The therapeutic potential of MSCs will be reviewed in melanoma and lung cancers.

Penetrating Exploration of Prognostic Correlations of the FKBP Gene Family with Lung Adenocarcinoma

The complexity of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), the development of which involves many interacting biological processes, makes it difficult to find therapeutic biomarkers for treatment. FK506-binding proteins (FKBPs) are composed of 12 members classified as conservative intracellular immunophilin family proteins, which are often connected to cyclophilin structures by tetratricopeptide repeat domains and have peptidyl prolyl isomerase activity that catalyzes proline from residues and turns the trans form into the cis form. Since FKBPs belong to chaperone molecules and promote protein folding, previous studies demonstrated that FKBP family members significantly contribute to the degradation of damaged, misfolded, abnormal, and foreign proteins. However, transcript expressions of this gene family in LUAD still need to be more fully investigated. In this research, we adopted high-throughput bioinformatics technology to analyze FKBP family genes in LUAD to provide credible information to clinicians and promote the development of novel cancer target drugs in the future. The current data revealed that the messenger (m)RNA levels of FKBP2, FKBP3, FKBP4, FKBP10, FKBP11, and FKBP14 were overexpressed in LUAD, and FKBP10 had connections to poor prognoses among LUAD patients in an overall survival (OS) analysis. Based on the above results, we selected FKBP10 to further conduct a comprehensive analysis of the downstream pathway and network. Through a DAVID analysis, we found that FKBP10 was involved in mitochondrial electron transport, NADH to ubiquinone transport, mitochondrial respiratory chain complex I assembly, etc. The MetaCore pathway analysis also indicated that FKBP10 was involved in "Ubiquinone metabolism", "Translation_(L)-selenoaminoacid incorporation in proteins during translation", and "Transcription_Negative regulation of HIF1A function". Collectively, this study revealed that FKBP family members are both significant prognostic biomarkers for lung cancer progression and promising clinical therapeutic targets, thus providing new targets for treating LUAD patients.

The role of interferons in ovarian cancer progression: Hinderer or promoter?

Ovarian cancer (OC) is a common gynecologic malignancy with poor prognosis and high mortality. Changes in the OC microenvironment are closely related to the genesis, invasion, metastasis, recurrence, and drug-resistance. The OC microenvironment is regulated by Interferons (IFNs) known as a type of important cytokines. IFNs have a bidirectional regulation for OC cells growth and survival. Meanwhile, IFNs positively regulate the recruitment, differentiation and activation of immune cells. This review summarizes the secretion and the role of IFNs. In particular, we mainly elucidate the actions played by IFNs in various types of therapy. IFNs assist radiotherapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy and biotherapy for OC, except for some IFN pathways that may cause chemo-resistance. In addition, we present some advances in OC treatment with the help of IFN pathways. IFNs have the ability to powerfully modulate the tumor microenvironment and can potentially provide new combination strategies for OC treatment.

Novel Potential Therapeutic Targets of PTPN Families for Lung Cancer

Despite the treatment of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) having partially improved in recent years, LUAD patients still have poor prognosis rates. Therefore, it is especially important to explore effective biomarkers and exploit novel therapeutic developments. High-throughput technologies are widely used as systematic approaches to explore differences in expressions of thousands of genes for both biological and genomic systems. Recently, using big data analyses in biomedicine research by integrating several high-throughput databases and tools, including The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), cBioportal, Oncomine, and Kaplan-Meier plotter, is an important strategy to identify novel biomarkers for cancer therapy. Here, we used two different comprehensive bioinformatics analysis and revealed protein tyrosine phosphatase non-receptor type (PTPN) family genes, especially PTPN1 and PTPN22, were downregulated in lung cancer tissue in comparison with normal samples. The survival curves indicated that LUAD patients with high transcription levels of PTPN5 were significantly associated with a good prognosis. Meanwhile, Gene Ontology (GO) and MetaCore analyses indicated that co-expression of the PTPN1, PTPN5, and PTPN21 genes was significantly enriched in cancer development-related pathways, including GTPase activity, regulation of small GTPase-mediated signal transduction, response to mechanical stimuli, vasculogenesis, organ morphogenesis, regulation of stress fiber assembly, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade, cell migration, and angiogenesis. Collectively, this study revealed that PTPN family members are both significant prognostic biomarkers for lung cancer progression and promising clinical therapeutic targets, which provide new targets for treating LUAD patients.

Circadian rhythm-related factors of PER and CRY family genes function as novel therapeutic targets and prognostic biomarkers in lung adenocarcinoma

The period (PER) and cryptochrome (CRY) families play critical roles in circadian rhythms. The imbalance of circadian factors may lead to the occurrence of cancer. Expressions of PER and CRY family members decrease in various cancers. Nevertheless, expression levels, genetic variations, and molecular mechanisms of PER and CRY family members in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) and their correlations with prognoses and immune infiltration in LUAD patients are still unclear. In this study, to identify their biological functions in LUAD development, comprehensive high-throughput techniques were applied to analyze the relationships of expressions of PER and CRY family members with genetic variations, molecular mechanisms, and immune infiltration. The present results showed that transcription levels of PER1 and CRY2 in LUAD were significantly downregulated. High expression levels of PER2, PER3, CRY1, and CRY2 indicated longer overall survival. Some cancer signaling pathways were related to PER and CRY family members, such as cell-cycle, histidine metabolism, and progesterone-mediated oocyte maturation pathways. Expressions of PER and CRY family members significantly affected the infiltration of different immune cells. In conclusion, our findings may help better understand the molecular basis of LUAD, and provide new perspectives of PER and CRY family members as novel biomarkers for LUAD.

Comprehensive analysis of prognostic significance of cadherin (CDH) gene family in breast cancer

Breast cancer is one of the leading deaths in all kinds of malignancies; therefore, it is important for early detection. At the primary tumor site, tumor cells could take on mesenchymal properties, termed the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). This process is partly regulated by members of the cadherin (CDH) family of genes, and it is an essential step in the formation of metastases. There has been a lot of study of the roles of some of the CDH family genes in cancer; however, a holistic approach examining the roles of distinct CDH family genes in the development of breast cancer remains largely unexplored. In the present study, we used a bioinformatics approach to examine expression profiles of CDH family genes using the Oncomine, Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis 2 (GEPIA2), cBioPortal, MetaCore, and Tumor IMmune Estimation Resource (TIMER) platforms. We revealed that CDH1/2/4/11/12/13 messenger (m)RNA levels are overexpressed in breast cancer cells compared to normal cells and were correlated with poor prognoses in breast cancer patients’ distant metastasis-free survival. An enrichment analysis showed that high expressions of CDH1/2/4/11/12/13 were significantly correlated with cell adhesion, the extracellular matrix remodeling process, the EMT, WNT/beta-catenin, and interleukin-mediated immune responses. Collectively, CDH1/2/4/11/12/13 are thought to be potential biomarkers for breast cancer progression and metastasis.

8-Hydroxydaidzein Downregulates JAK/STAT, MMP, Oxidative Phosphorylation, and PI3K/AKT Pathways in K562 Cells

A metabolite isolated from fermented soybean, 8-hydroxydaidzein (8-OHD, 7,8,4′-trihydroxyisoflavone, NSC-678112), is widely used in ethnopharmacological research due to its anti-proliferative and anti-inflammatory effects. We reported previously that 8-OHD provoked reactive oxygen species (ROS) overproduction, and induced autophagy, apoptosis, breakpoint cluster region-Abelson murine leukemia viral oncogene (BCR-ABL) degradation, and differentiation in K562 human chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) cells. However, how 8-OHD regulates metabolism, the extracellular matrix during invasion and metastasis, and survival signaling pathways in CML remains largely unexplored. High-throughput technologies have been widely used to discover the therapeutic targets and pathways of drugs. Bioinformatics analysis of 8-OHD-downregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) revealed that Janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK/STAT), matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), c-Myc, phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT, and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) metabolic pathways were significantly altered by 8-OHD treatment. Western blot analyses validated that 8-OHD significantly downregulated cytosolic JAK2 and the expression and phosphorylation of STAT3 dose- and time-dependently in K562 cells. Zymography and transwell assays also confirmed that K562-secreted MMP9 and invasion activities were dose-dependently inhibited by 8-OHD after 24 h of treatment. RT-qPCR analyses verified that 8-OHD repressed metastasis and OXPHOS-related genes. In combination with DisGeNET, it was found that 8-OHD’s downregulation of PI3K/AKT is crucial for controlling CML development. A STRING protein–protein interaction analysis further revealed that AKT and MYC are hub proteins for cancer progression. Western blotting revealed that AKT phosphorylation and nuclear MYC expression were significantly inhibited by 8-OHD. Collectively, this systematic investigation revealed that 8-OHD exerts anti-CML effects by downregulating JAK/STAT, PI3K/AKT, MMP, and OXPHOS pathways, and MYC expression. These results could shed new light on the development of 8-OHD for CML therapy.

Prognostic and immune infiltration signatures of proteasome 26S subunit, non-ATPase (PSMD) family genes in breast cancer patients

The complexity of breast cancer includes many interacting biological processes that make it difficult to find appropriate therapeutic treatments. Therefore, identifying potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers is urgently needed. Previous studies demonstrated that 26S proteasome delta subunit, non-ATPase (PSMD) family members significantly contribute to the degradation of damaged, misfolded, abnormal, and foreign proteins. However, transcriptional expressions of PSMD family genes in breast cancer still remain largely unexplored. Consequently, we used a holistic bioinformatics approach to explore PSMD genes involved in breast cancer patients by integrating several high-throughput databases, including The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), cBioPortal, Oncomine, and Kaplan-Meier plotter. These data demonstrated that PSMD1, PSMD2, PSMD3, PSMD7, PSMD10, PSMD12, and PSMD14 were expressed at significantly higher levels in breast cancer tissue compared to normal tissues. Notably, the increased expressions of PSMD family genes were correlated with poor prognoses of breast cancer patients, which suggests their roles in tumorigenesis. Meanwhile, network and pathway analyses also indicated that PSMD family genes were positively correlated with ubiquinone metabolism, immune system, and cell-cycle regulatory pathways. Collectively, this study revealed that PSMD family members are potential prognostic biomarkers for breast cancer progression and possible promising clinical therapeutic targets.

Prognostic and Genomic Analysis of Proteasome 20S Subunit Alpha (PSMA) Family Members in Breast Cancer

The complexity of breast cancer includes many interacting biological processes, and proteasome alpha (PSMA) subunits are reported to be involved in many cancerous diseases, although the transcriptomic expression of this gene family in breast cancer still needs to be more thoroughly investigated. Consequently, we used a holistic bioinformatics approach to study the PSMA genes involved in breast cancer by integrating several well-established high-throughput databases and tools, such as cBioPortal, Oncomine, and the Kaplan–Meier plotter. Additionally, correlations of breast cancer patient survival and PSMA messenger RNA expressions were also studied. The results demonstrated that breast cancer tissues had higher expression levels of PSMA genes compared to normal breast tissues. Furthermore, PSMA2, PSMA3, PSMA4, PSMA6, and PSMA7 showed high expression levels, which were correlated with poor survival of breast cancer patients. In contrast, PSMA5 and PSMA8 had high expression levels, which were associated with good prognoses. We also found that PSMA family genes were positively correlated with the cell cycle, ubiquinone metabolism, oxidative stress, and immune response signaling, including antigen presentation by major histocompatibility class, interferon-gamma, and the cluster of differentiation signaling. Collectively, these findings suggest that PSMA genes have the potential to serve as novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets for breast cancer. Nevertheless, the bioinformatic results from the present study would be strengthened with experimental validation in the future by prospective studies on the underlying biological mechanisms of PSMA genes and breast cancer.

Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells in cancer therapy

The multipotent mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs), initially discovered from bone marrow in 1976, have been identified in nearly all tissues of human body now. The multipotency of MSCs allows them to give rise to osteocytes, chondrocytes, adipocytes, and other lineages. Moreover, armed with the immunomodulation capacity and tumor-homing property, MSCs are of special relevance for cell-based therapies in the treatment of cancer. However, hampered by lack of knowledge about the controversial roles that MSC plays in the crosstalk with tumors, limited progress has been made with regard to translational medicine. Therefore, in this review, we discuss the prospects of MSC-associated anticancer strategies in light of therapeutic mechanisms and signal transduction pathways. In addition, the clinical trials designed to appraise the efficacy and safety of MSC-based anticancer therapies will be assessed according to published data.

Potential Prognostic Biomarkers of NIMA (Never in Mitosis, Gene A)-Related Kinase (NEK) Family Members in Breast Cancer

Breast cancer remains the most common malignant cancer in women, with a staggering incidence of two million cases annually worldwide; therefore, it is crucial to explore novel biomarkers to assess the diagnosis and prognosis of breast cancer patients. NIMA-related kinase (NEK) protein kinase contains 11 family members named NEK1-NEK11, which were discovered from Aspergillus Nidulans; however, the role of NEK family genes for tumor development remains unclear and requires additional study. In the present study, we investigate the prognosis relationships of NEK family genes for breast cancer development, as well as the gene expression signature via the bioinformatics approach. The results of several integrative analyses revealed that most of the NEK family genes are overexpressed in breast cancer. Among these family genes, NEK2/6/8 overexpression had poor prognostic significance in distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) in breast cancer patients. Meanwhile, NEK2/6 had the highest level of DNA methylation, and the functional enrichment analysis from MetaCore and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) suggested that NEK2 was associated with the cell cycle, G2M checkpoint, DNA repair, E2F, MYC, MTORC1, and interferon-related signaling. Moreover, Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) results showed that the transcriptional levels of NEK2 were positively correlated with immune infiltration of B cells and CD4+ T Cell. Collectively, the current study indicated that NEK family genes, especially NEK2 which is involved in immune infiltration, and may serve as prognosis biomarkers for breast cancer progression.

Expression Profiles and Prognostic Value of FABPs in Colorectal Adenocarcinomas

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the world's leading causes of cancer-related deaths; thus, it is important to detect it as early as possible. Obesity is thought to be linked to a large rise in the CRC incidence as a result of bad dietary choices, such as a high intake of animal fats. Fatty acid-binding proteins (FABPs) are a set of molecules that coordinate intracellular lipid responses and are highly associated with metabolism and inflammatory pathways. There are nine types of FABP genes that have been found in mammals, which are FABP1-7, FABP9, and FABP12. Each FABP gene has its own roles in different organs of the body; hence, each one has different expression levels in different cancers. The roles of FABP family genes in the development of CRC are still poorly understood. We used a bioinformatics approach to examine FABP family gene expression profiles using the Oncomine, GEPIA, PrognoScan, STRING, cBioPortal, MetaCore, and TIMER platforms. Results showed that the FABP6 messenger (m)RNA level is overexpressed in CRC cells compared to normal cells. The overexpression of FABP6 was found to be related to poor prognosis in CRC patients' overall survival. The immunohistochemical results in the Human Protein Atlas showed that FABP1 and FABP6 exhibited strong staining in CRC tissues. An enrichment analysis showed that high expression of FABP6 was significantly correlated with the role of microRNAs in cell proliferation in the development of CRC through the insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signaling pathway. FABP6 functions as an intracellular bile-acid transporter in the ileal epithelium. We looked at FABP6 expression in CRC since bile acids are important in the carcinogenesis of CRC. In conclusion, high FABP6 expression is expected to be a potential biomarker for detecting CRC at the early stage.

Potential Therapeutic and Prognostic Values of LSM Family Genes in Breast Cancer

In recent decades, breast cancer (BRCA) has become one of the most common diseases worldwide. Understanding crucial genes and their signaling pathways remain an enormous challenge in evaluating the prognosis and possible therapeutics. The "Like-Smith" (LSM) family is known as protein-coding genes, and its member play pivotal roles in the progression of several malignancies, although their roles in BRCA are less clear. To discover biological processes associated with LSM family genes in BRCA development, high-throughput techniques were applied to clarify expression levels of LSMs in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)-BRCA dataset, which was integrated with the cBioPortal database. Furthermore, we investigated prognostic values of LSM family genes in BCRA patients using the Kaplan-Meier database. Among genes of this family, LSM4 expression levels were highly associated with poor prognostic outcomes with a hazard ratio of 1.35 (95% confidence interval 1.21-1.51, p for trend = 3.4 × 10-7). MetaCore and GlueGo analyses were also conducted to examine transcript expression signatures of LSM family members and their coexpressed genes, together with their associated signaling pathways, such as "Cell cycle role of APC in cell cycle regulation" and "Immune response IL-15 signaling via MAPK and PI3K cascade" in BRCA. Results showed that LSM family members, specifically LSM4, were significantly correlated with oncogenesis in BRCA patients. In summary, our results suggested that LSM4 could be a prospective prognosticator of BRCA.

Prognoses and genomic analyses of proteasome 26S subunit, ATPase (PSMC) family genes in clinical breast cancer

Breast cancer is a complex disease, and several processes are involved in its development. Therefore, potential therapeutic targets need to be discovered for these patients. Proteasome 26S subunit, ATPase gene (PSMC) family members are well reported to be involved in protein degradation. However, their roles in breast cancer are still unknown and need to be comprehensively researched. Leveraging publicly available databases, such as cBioPortal and Oncomine, for high-throughput transcriptomic profiling to provide evidence-based targets for breast cancer is a rapid and robust approach. By integrating the aforementioned databases with the Kaplan–Meier plotter database, we investigated potential roles of six PSMC family members in breast cancer at the messenger RNA level and their correlations with patient survival. The present findings showed significantly higher expression profiles of PSMC2, PSMC3, PSMC4, PSMC5, and PSMC6 in breast cancer compared to normal breast tissues. Besides, positive correlations were also revealed between PSMC family genes and ubiquinone metabolism, cell cycle, and cytoskeletal remodeling. Meanwhile, we discovered that high levels of PSMC1, PSMC3, PSMC4, PSMC5, and PSMC6 transcripts were positively correlated with poor survival, which likely shows their importance in breast cancer development. Collectively, PSMC family members have the potential to be novel and essential prognostic biomarkers for breast cancer development.

Analysis of LAGEs Family Gene Signature and Prognostic Relevance in Breast Cancer

Breast cancer (BRCA) is one of the most complex diseases and involves several biological processes. Members of the L-antigen (LAGE) family participate in the development of various cancers, but their expressions and prognostic values in breast cancer remain to be clarified. High-throughput methods for exploring disease progression mechanisms might play a pivotal role in the improvement of novel therapeutics. Therefore, gene expression profiles and clinical data of LAGE family members were acquired from the cBioportal database, followed by verification using the Oncomine and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) databases. In addition, the Kaplan-Meier method was applied to explore correlations between expressions of LAGE family members and prognoses of breast cancer patients. MetaCore, GlueGo, and GluePedia were used to comprehensively study the transcript expression signatures of LAGEs and their co-expressed genes together with LAGE-related signal transduction pathways in BRCA. The result indicated that higher LAGE3 messenger (m)RNA expressions were observed in BRCA tissues than in normal tissues, and they were also associated with the stage of BRCA patients. Kaplan-Meier plots showed that overexpression of LAGE1, LAGE2A, LAGE2B, and LAGE3 were highly correlated to poor survival in most types of breast cancer. Significant associations of LAGE family genes were correlated with the cell cycle, focal adhesion, and extracellular matrix (ECM) receptor interactions as indicated by functional enrichment analyses. Collectively, LAGE family members’ gene expression levels were related to adverse clinicopathological factors and prognoses of BRCA patients; therefore, LAGEs have the potential to serve as prognosticators of BRCA patients.

Tauroursodeoxycholic acid attenuates cisplatin-induced ototoxicity by inhibiting the accumulation and aggregation of unfolded or misfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum

Cisplatin-induced ototoxicity is one of the important reasons that limit the drug's clinical application, and its mechanism has not been fully elucidated so far. The aim of this study was to explore the attenuate effect of tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA), a proteostasis promoter, on cisplatin-induced ototoxicity in vivo and in vitro, and to explore its possible mechanism. Auditory brainstem response (ABR) was measured to identify the attenuate effects of TUDCA administered subcutaneously [500 mg/kg/d × 3d, cisplatin: 4.6 mg/kg/d × 3d, intraperitoneal injection (i.p.)] or trans-tympanically (0.5 mg/mL, cisplatin: 12 mg/kg, i.p. with a pump) in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats subjected to cisplatin-induced hearing loss. The cochlear explants of neonatal rats and OC1 auditory hair cell-like cell lines cultured in vitro were used to observe the number of apoptotic cells and the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in the control, cisplatin (5 μM for 48 h for cochlear explants, 10 μM for 24 h for OC1 cells), and cisplatin + TUDCA (1 mM for 24 h for cochlear explants, 1.6 mM for 24 h for OC1 cells) groups. Differences in the expression of key proteins in the ER protein quality control (ERQC) system were detected. The changes in the attenuate effect of TUDCA on cisplatin-induced ototoxicity after down-regulating calreticulin (CRT), UDP-glucose ceramide glucosyltransferase-like 1 (UGGT1), and OS9 ER lectin (OS9) were also measured. The effect of TUDCA (10 mM) on stabilizing unfolded or misfolded proteins (UFP/MFP) was analyzed in a cell-free 0.2 % bovine serum albumin (BSA) aggregation system in vitro. Both the subcutaneous and trans-tympanic TUDCA administration alleviated cisplatin-induced increase in ABR thresholds in rats. TUDCA was able to reduce cisplatin-induced apoptosis and alleviate ER stress in cochlear explants and OC1 cells. Under the cisplatin treatment, the expression levels of CRT, UGGT1, and OS9 in the auditory hair cell increased, and the expression of total ubiquitinated proteins decreased. TUDCA attenuated the effect of cisplatin on UGGT1 and OS9, and recovered the protein ubiquitination levels. After down-regulating CRT, UGGT1, or OS9, the protective effect of TUDCA decreased. In the cell-free experimental system, TUDCA inhibited the aggregation of denatured BSA molecules. In summary, TUDCA can attenuate cisplatin-induced ototoxicity, possibly by inhibiting the accumulation and aggregation of UFP/MFP and the associated ER stress.

Calreticulin-Multifunctional Chaperone in Immunogenic Cell Death: Potential Significance as a Prognostic Biomarker in Ovarian Cancer Patients

Immunogenic cell death (ICD) is a type of death, which has the hallmarks of necroptosis and apoptosis, and is best characterized in malignant diseases. Chemotherapeutics, radiotherapy and photodynamic therapy induce intracellular stress response pathways in tumor cells, leading to a secretion of various factors belonging to a family of damage-associated molecular patterns molecules, capable of inducing the adaptive immune response. One of them is calreticulin (CRT), an endoplasmic reticulum-associated chaperone. Its presence on the surface of dying tumor cells serves as an "eat me" signal for antigen presenting cells (APC). Engulfment of tumor cells by APCs results in the presentation of tumor's antigens to cytotoxic T-cells and production of cytokines/chemokines, which activate immune cells responsible for tumor cells killing. Thus, the development of ICD and the expression of CRT can help standard therapy to eradicate tumor cells. Here, we review the physiological functions of CRT and its involvement in the ICD appearance in malignant disease. Moreover, we also focus on the ability of various anti-cancer drugs to induce expression of surface CRT on ovarian cancer cells. The second aim of this work is to discuss and summarize the prognostic/predictive value of CRT in ovarian cancer patients.

Comprehensive analysis of prognostic gene signatures based on immune infiltration of ovarian cancer

BACKGROUND

Ovarian cancer (OV) is one of the most common malignant tumors of gynecology oncology. The lack of effective early diagnosis methods and treatment strategies result in a low five-year survival rate. Also, immunotherapy plays an important auxiliary role in the treatment of advanced OV patient, so it is of great significance to find out effective immune-related tumor markers for the diagnosis and treatment of OV.

METHODS

Based on the consensus clustering analysis of single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) score transformed via The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) mRNA profile, we obtained two groups with high and low levels of immune infiltration. Multiple machine learning methods were conducted to explore prognostic genes associated with immune infiltration. Simultaneously, the correlation between the expression of mark genes and immune cells components was explored.

RESULTS

A prognostic classifier including 5 genes (CXCL11, S1PR4, TNFRSF17, FPR1 and DHRS95) was established and its robust efficacy for predicting overall survival was validated via 1129 OV samples. Some significant variations of copy number on gene loci were found between two risk groups and it showed that patients with fine chemosensitivity has lower risk score than patient with poor chemosensitivity (P = 0.013). The high and low-risk groups showed significantly different distribution (P < 0.001) of five immune cells (Monocytes, Macrophages M1, Macrophages M2, T cells CD4 menory and T cells CD8).

CONCLUSION

The present study identified five prognostic genes associated with immune infiltration of OV, which may provide some potential clinical implications for OV treatment.