CA9 Silencing Promotes Mitochondrial Biogenesis, Increases Putrescine Toxicity and Decreases Cell Motility to Suppress ccRCC Progression

Nc-RNA-mediated low expression of AZIN1 correlated with unfavorable prognosis in kidney renal clear cell carcinoma

OBJECTIVE

Kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC, ccRCC) is the most common type of renal cancer with high recurrence and mortality. It has long been recognized that Antizyme inhibitor 1 (AZIN1) serves as a pro-oncogenic molecule in multiple cancers. However, the clinicopathological features of AZIN1 in KIRC remain unexplored.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA, TIMER, and GEPIA) were employed for pan-cancer expression and survival analysis of AZIN1, indicating the unique anti-tumor role of AZIN1 in KIRC. The expression and clinical characteristics of AZIN1 in KIRC were further proven via Human Protein Atlas and TCGA. single-sample GSEA was employed to investigate the immune infiltration of AZIN1. Then the downstream pathways were illustrated via the LinkedOmics, Metascape, and Cytoscape databases. The possible upper regulating noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) were analyzed from five programs-TargetScan, StarBase, miRanda, PITA, and miRmap.

RESULTS

AZIN1 is downregulated in KIRC patients. Lower levels of AZIN1 were linked with unfavorable outcomes in KIRC patients. The AZIN1 expression was positively related to immune cell infiltration in KIRC. We also elucidated a possible upstream regulatory ncRNA of AZIN1 in KIRC namely STK4-AS1/AC068338.2-miR-106b-5p-AZIN1 axis as well as the downstream signaling pathways.

CONCLUSION

This study illustrated the unique anti-tumor role of AZIN1 in KIRC and provided potential value for guiding immunotherapy and targeted therapy.

CA9 and PRELID2; hypoxia-responsive potential therapeutic targets for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma as per bioinformatics analyses

A strong hypoxic environment has been observed in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cells, which contributes to drug resistance, tumor progression, and metastasis. Therefore, we performed bioinformatics analyses to investigate potential targets for the treatment of PDAC. To identify potential genes as effective PDAC treatment targets, we selected all genes whose expression level was related to worse overall survival (OS) in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and selected only the genes that matched with the genes upregulated due to hypoxia in pancreatic cancer cells in the dataset obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Although the extracted 107 hypoxia-responsive genes included the genes that were slightly enriched in angiogenic factors, TCGA data analysis revealed that the expression level of endothelial cell (EC) markers did not affect OS. Finally, we selected CA9 and PRELID2 as potential targets for PDAC treatment and elucidated that a CA9 inhibitor, U-104, suppressed pancreatic cancer cell growth more effectively than 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and PRELID2 siRNA treatment suppressed the cell growth stronger than CA9 siRNA treatment. Thus, we elucidated that specific inhibition of PRELID2 as well as CA9, extracted via exhaustive bioinformatic analyses of clinical datasets, could be a more effective strategy for PDAC treatment.

Downregulation of HHLA2 inhibits ovarian cancer progression via the NF-κB signaling pathway and suppresses the expression of CA9

HHLA2 has been recently demonstrated to play multifaceted roles in several types of cancers. However, its underlying mechanism in the progression of human ovarian cancer (OC) remains largely unexplored. In the present study, we aimed to determine whether downregulation of HHLA2 inhibited malignant phenotypes of human OC cells and explore its specific mechanism. Our results revealed that downregulation of HHLA2 by transfection with a lentiviral vector significantly suppressed the viability, invasion, and migration of OC cells. Interaction study showed that downregulation of HHLA2 in OC cells reduced the expression of CA9 and increased the expressions of p-IKKβ and p-RelA. Conversely, the viability, invasion, and migration of HHLA2-depleted OC cells were increased when CA9 was upregulated. In vivo, we found that downregulation of HHLA2 significantly inhibited tumor growth, which was reversed by CA9 overexpression. In addition, downregulation of HHLA2 inhibited the OC progression via activating the NF-κB signaling pathway and decreasing the expression of CA9. Collectively, our data suggested a link between HHLA2 and NF-κB axis in the pathogenesis of OC, and these findings might provide valuable insights into the development of novel potential therapeutic targets for OC.

Oxidative degradation of dihydrofolate reductase increases CD38-mediated ferroptosis susceptibility

High expression of CD38 in tissues is a characteristic of aging, resulting in a decline in nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and increasing cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS). However, whether CD38 increases susceptibility to ferroptosis remains largely unexplored. Our previous study showed that CD38 overexpression decreased dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR). In the present study, we confirmed that high expression of CD38 increased ROS levels and induced DHFR degradation, which was prevented by nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) replenishment. We further revealed that ROS-mediated sulfonation on Cys7 of DHFR induced its degradation via the autophagy and non-canonical proteasome pathways. Mutation of Cys7 to alanine abolished ROS-induced DHFR degradation. Moreover, oxidative degradation of DHFR was responsible for the increased ferroptosis susceptibility of cells in which CD38 was highly expressed. We also found that CD38 expression was higher in bone-marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs) from aged mice than those from young mice, while the DHFR level was lower. Consequently, we demonstrated that BMDMs from aged mice were more susceptible to ferroptosis that can be reverted by NMN replenishment, suggesting that CD38 high expression rendered cells more susceptible to ferroptosis. Taken together, these results indicated that CD38-mediated NAD⁺ decline promoted DHFR oxidative degradation, thus resulting in increased cellular susceptibility to ferroptosis and suggesting that NMN replenishment may protect macrophages from ferroptosis in aged mice.

Nicotinamide N-Methyltransferase Remodeled Cell Metabolism and Aggravated Proinflammatory Responses by Activating STAT3/IL1β/PGE2 Pathway

Nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT) is a cytosolic methyltransferase, catalyzing N-methylation of nicotinamide (NAM) to form 1-methylnicotinamide (1-MNAM), in which S-adenosyl-l-methionine (SAM) is the methyl donor. It has been well documented that NNMT is elevated in multiple cancers and promotes tumor aggressiveness. In the present study, we investigated the effects of NNMT overexpression on cellular metabolism and proinflammatory responses. We found that NNMT overexpression reduced NAD⁺ and SAM levels, and activated the STAT3 signaling pathway. Consequently, STAT3 activation upregulated interleukin 1β (IL1β) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX2), leading to prostaglandin E2 (PGE₂) accumulation. On the other hand, NNMT downregulated 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase (15-PGDH) which catalyzes PGE₂ into inactive molecules. Moreover, secretomic data indicated that NNMT promoted secretion of collagens, pro-inflammatory cytokines, and extracellular matrix proteins, confirming NNMT aggravated inflammatory responses to promote cell growth, migration, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and chemoresistance. Taken together, we showed that NNMT played a pro-inflammatory role in cancer cells by activating the STAT3/IL1β/PGE₂ axis and proposed that NNMT was a potential therapeutic target for cancer treatment.

Duodenal Metabolic Profile Changes in Heat-Stressed Broilers

Simple Summary

Heat stress (HS) represents an environmental and socio-economic burden to the poultry industry worldwide. However, the underpinning mechanisms for HS responses are still not well defined. Here, we used a high-throughput analysis to determine the metabolite profiles in acute and chronic heat-stressed broilers in comparison with thermoneutral and pair-fed birds. The results showed that HS altered several duodenal metabolites in a duration-dependent manner and identified potential metabolite signatures.

Abstract

Heat stress (HS) is devastating to poultry production sustainability worldwide. In addition to its adverse effects on growth, welfare, meat quality, and mortality, HS alters the gut integrity, leading to dysbiosis and leaky gut syndrome; however, the underlying mechanisms are not fully defined. Here, we used a high-throughput mass spectrometric metabolomics approach to probe the metabolite profile in the duodenum of modern broilers exposed to acute (AHS, 2 h) or chronic cyclic (CHS, 8 h/day for 2 weeks) HS in comparison with thermoneutral (TN) and pair-fed birds. Ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled with high resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC–HRMS) identified a total of 178 known metabolites. The trajectory analysis of the principal component analysis (PCA) score plots (both 2D and 3D maps) showed clear separation between TN and each treated group, indicating a unique duodenal metabolite profile in HS birds. Within the HS groups, partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) displayed different clusters when comparing metabolite profiles from AHS and CHS birds, suggesting that the metabolite signatures were also dependent on HS duration. To gain biologically related molecule networks, the above identified duodenal metabolites were mapped into the Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) knowledge-base and analyzed to outline the most enriched biological functions. Several common and specific top canonical pathways were generated. Specifically, the adenosine nucleotide degradation and dopamine degradation pathways were specific for the AHS group; however, the UDP-D-xylose and UDP-D-glucuronate biosynthesis pathways were generated only for the CHS group. The top diseases enriched by the IPA core analysis for the DA metabolites, including cancer, organismal (GI) injury, hematological, cardiovascular, developmental, hereditary, and neurological disorders, were group-specific. The top altered molecular and cellular functions were amino acid metabolism, molecular transport, small molecule biochemistry, protein synthesis, cell death and survival, and DNA damage and repair. The IPA-causal network predicted that the upstream regulators (carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1B, CPT1B; histone deacetylase 11, HDAC11; carbonic anhydrase 9, CA9; interleukin 37, IL37; glycine N-methyl transferase, GNMT; GATA4) and the downstream mediators (mitogen-activated protein kinases, MAPKs; superoxide dismutase, SOD) were altered in the HS groups. Taken together, these data showed that, independently of feed intake depression, HS induced significant changes in the duodenal metabolite profile in a duration-dependent manner and identified a potential duodenal signature for HS.

The Immunological Contribution of a Novel Metabolism-Related Signature to the Prognosis and Anti-Tumor Immunity in Cervical Cancer

Cervical cancer is the most frequently diagnosed malignancy in the female reproductive system. Conventional stratification of patients based on clinicopathological characters has gradually been outpaced by a molecular profiling strategy. Our study aimed to identify a reliable metabolism-related predictive signature for the prognosis and anti-tumor immunity in cervical cancer. In this study, we extracted five metabolism-related hub genes, including ALOX12B, CA9, FAR2, F5 and TDO2, for the establishment of the risk score model. The Kaplan-Meier curve suggested that patients with a high-risk score apparently had a worse prognosis in the cervical cancer training cohort (TCGA, n = 304, p < 0.0001), validation cohort (GSE44001, n = 300, p = 0.0059) and pan-cancer cohorts (including nine TCGA tumors). Using a gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), we observed that the model was correlated with various immune-regulation-related pathways. Furthermore, pan-cancer cohorts and immunohistochemical analysis showed that the infiltration of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) was lower in the high-score group. Additionally, the model could also predict the prognosis of patients with cervical cancer based on the expression of immune checkpoints (ICPs) in both the discovery and validation cohorts. Our study established and validated a metabolism-related prognostic model, which might improve the accuracy of predicting the clinical outcome of patients with cervical cancer and provide guidance for personalized treatment.

MN/CA9 gene expression as a potential tumor marker for renal cell carcinoma

MN/CA9 is a cell surface glycoprotein and a tumor-associated antigen. It plays a crucial role in the regulation of cell proliferation and oncogenesis. There is no ideal tumor marker currently available for renal cell carcinoma (RCC) with sufficient sensitivity and specificity. Therefore, we studied MN/CA9 gene expression in the tumor tissue, apparently normal kidney tissue, preoperative blood, and urine samples of patients with RCC. We included thirty cases of renal tumors (26 RCC and 4 benign tumors) in the study. We applied an RT-PCR assay for MN/CA9 gene expression to 26 RCC kidney tumor samples and four benign kidney tumor tissue samples. We also evaluated MN/CA9 gene expression in preoperative blood and urine samples of 15 of these cases. Additionally, thirty-five grossly normal renal tissue samples, including 21 from kidneys with RCC, were also evaluated for gene expression. The RT-PCR analysis revealed that twenty-one out of 26 RCC tissue samples showed MN/CA9 gene expression compared to three out of 35 non-malignant renal tissue samples (p < 0.05). Two out of four benign renal tissue samples also expressed this gene. We also observed MN/CA9 gene expression in nine out of 15 blood samples and four out of 15 urine samples. All patients with urinary MN/CA9 gene expression showed expression in blood and tumor tissue samples. We found a correlation in terms of MN/CA9 expression between blood and tumor tissue samples of RCC patients as those who exhibit MN/CA9 expression in blood were also positive at the tumor tissue levels. The difference in MN/CA9 gene expression in tumor tissue, blood, and urine samples in relation to the stage of the disease, nuclear grade, and histological cell-type was not statistically significant. However, all the three patients who had metastatic RCC had MN/CA9 gene expression in their blood. The existence of a tumor-associated antigen such as MN/CA9 may present a possible target for molecular diagnosis and management of RCC.