Characterizing and Targeting Genes Regulated by Transcription Factor MYBL2 in Lung Adenocarcinoma Cells

ELOVL6 is associated with immunosuppression in lung adenocarcinoma through bioinformatics analysis

The aim of this paper was to reveal the correlation between the expression of ELOVL fatty acid elongase 6 (ELOVL6) gene in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) and its clinical significance, immune cell infiltration level and prognosis. Expression profile data of ELOVL6 mRNA were collected from the cancer genome atlas database to analyze the differences in ELOVL6 mRNA expression in LUAD tissues and normal lung tissues, and to analyze the correlation between ELOVL6 and information on clinicopathological features. Based on TIMER database, TISDIB database and GEPIA2 database, the correlation between ELOVL6 expression and tumor immune cell infiltration in LUAD was analyzed. Gene ontology and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes enrichment analyses of ELOVL6-related co-expressed genes were performed to identify the involved signaling pathways and to construct their co-expressed gene protein interaction networks. Drugs affected by ELOVL6 expression were screened based on the Cell Miner database. These findings suggest that ELOVL6 plays an important role in the course of LUAD, and the expression level of this gene has a close relationship with clinicopathological characteristics and survival prognosis, and has the potential to become a prognostic marker and therapeutic target for LUAD.

MYBL2 alternative splicing-related genetic variants reduce the risk of triple-negative breast cancer in the Chinese population

Background: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most malignant subtype of breast cancer, and studies have found an association between the Myb proto-oncogene like 2 (MYBL2) gene and TNBC development; however, the specific mechanisms underlying development remain unknown. Recent studies have reported the association of alternative splicing (AS) with cancer, providing new approaches to elucidate the carcinogenesis mechanism. This study aimed to identify MYBL2 AS-related genetic variants that influence the risk of developing TNBC, providing new ideas for probing the mechanism of TNBC and novel biomarkers for TNBC prevention. Methods: We conducted a case-control study of 217 patients with TNBC and 401 cancer-free controls. The CancerSplicingQTL database and HSF software were used to screen for MYBL2 AS-related genetic variants. The association of sample genotypes with the risk of TNBC development and with clinicopathological features was analysed via unconditional logistic regression. Combining multiple platforms, the candidate sites were subjected to biological function analysis. Results: Two AS-associated SNPs, rs285170 and rs405660, were identified using bioinformatics analysis. Logistic regression analysis showed that both rs285170 (OR = 0.541; 95% CI = 0.343-0.852; p = 0.008) and rs405660 (OR = 0.642; 95% CI = 0.469-0.879; p = 0.006) exhibited protective effects against TNBC under the additive model. Stratification analysis showed that these two SNPs had more significant protective effects in the Chinese population aged ≧50 years. Additionally, we found that rs405660 was associated with the risk of lymph node metastasis (OR = 0.396, 95% CI = 0.209-0.750, p = 0.005) in TNBC. Functional analysis revealed that both rs285170 and rs405660 are associated with splicing of exon 3 and that the exon 3-deleted spliceosome does not increase breast cancer risk. Conclusion: We found for the first time that MYBL2 AS-related genetic variants are associated with reduced TNBC susceptibility in the Chinese population, especially in women aged ≧50 years.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Transcriptional Profiles That Affect the Clinical Response to PD-1 Inhibitors in Patients with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Using a machine learning method, we investigated the intrinsic and extrinsic transcriptional profiles that affect the clinical response to PD-1 inhibitors in 57 patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Among the top 100 genes associated with the responsiveness to PD-1 inhibitors, the proportion of intrinsic genes in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) (69%) was higher than in NSCLC overall (36%) and lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) (33%). The intrinsic gene signature of LUAD (mean area under the ROC curve (AUC) = 0.957 and mean accuracy = 0.9) had higher predictive power than either the intrinsic gene signature of NSCLC or LUSC or the extrinsic gene signature of NSCLC, LUAD, or LUSC. The high intrinsic gene signature group had a high overall survival rate in LUAD (p = 0.034). When we performed a pathway enrichment analysis, the cell cycle and cellular senescence pathways were related to the upregulation of intrinsic genes in LUAD. The intrinsic signature of LUAD also showed a positive correlation with other immune checkpoint targets, including CD274, LAG3, and PDCD1LG2 (Spearman correlation coefficient > 0.25). PD-1 inhibitor-related intrinsic gene patterns differed significantly between LUAD and LUSC and may be a particularly useful biomarker in LUAD.