[Expression of KIF23 and Its Prognostic Role in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer: Analysis Based on the Data-mining of Oncomine]

Identification and validation of a novel phagocytosis regulators-related signature with potential prognostic and immunotherapeutic value in patients with lung adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND

Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is a malignant tumor that seriously affects the prognosis of patients. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) play a vital role in the tumor microenvironment and can be used as a potential target for tumor therapy, and phagocytosis regulators (PRs) are particularly important in this process. However, the PRs-related signature that can predict the potential prognostic and immunotherapeutic value in patients with LUAD has not been discovered.

METHODS

In this study, we mainly analyzed the effect of phagocytosis regulators on the prognosis of LUAD, and based on multiple screening analyses including differential analysis, univariate Cox analysis, and Lasso analysis, we constructed a prognostic risk model consisting of five genes. To verify the stability of the model, survival analysis and ROC curve verification were carried out through multiple data sets. In addition, we also combined many factors, such as immune infiltrating cells, clinical grouping characteristics, immune examination sites, pro-inflammatory factors, and other factors as well as in vitro cell experiments and clinical tissue samples for further validation analysis.

RESULTS

After identifying 29 differentially expressed PRs in LUAD samples, we further constructed a prognostic model consisting of five prognostic signatures (FURIN, KIF23, SASH3, GNPNAT1, and ITGAL). Further survival analysis tests, ROC verification, as well as univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that the risk score of the model could well predict the prognosis of LUAD patients and could be used as an independent prognostic factor. In addition, we further found that these phagocytic regulators-related signatures were closely related to the immune microenvironment and immunotherapy in LUAD patients, and could well predict the efficacy of immunotherapy in patients. In vitro cell experiments and Immunohistochemistry of clinical tissues showed that the expressions of FURIN, KIF23, SASH3, GNPNAT1 and ITGAL in normal lung cells/tissues and LUAD cells/tissues were consistent with bioinformatics results, and 3 of them had significant differences.

CONCLUSION

Our study identified a novel PRs-related signature that has potential application value in predicting the prognosis of LUAD patients and predicting the efficacy of immunotherapy. This provides a new basis for the prognosis assessment of LUAD patients and provides a novel target for immunotherapy of LUAD patients.

Mutation and Copy Number Alterations Analysis of KIF23 in Glioma

In glioma, kinesin family member 23 (KIF23) is up-regulated and plays a vital role in oncogenesis. However, the mechanism underlying KIF23 overexpression in malignant glioma remains to be elucidated. This study aims to find potential causes of KIF23 high expression at genome level. To clarify this issue, we obtained point mutation and copy number alterations (CNAs) of KIF23 in 319 gliomas using whole-exome sequencing. Only two glioma samples with missense mutations in KIF23 coding region were identified, while 7 patients were detected with amplification of KIF23. Additional analysis showed that KIF23 amplification was significantly associated with higher expression of KIF23. Gene ontology analysis indicated that higher copy number of KIF23 was associated TNF-α signaling pathway and mitotic cell circle checkpoint, which probably caused by subsequent upregulated expression of KIF23. Moreover, pan-cancer analysis showed that gaining of copy number was significantly associated with higher expression of KIF23, consolidating our findings in glioma. Thus, it was deduced that elevated KIF23 expression in glioma tended to be caused by DNA copy number amplification, instead of mutation.

Genetic Mutation Analysis in Small Cell Lung Cancer by a Novel NGS-Based Targeted Resequencing Gene Panel and Relation with Clinical Features

Background

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is an aggressive and invasive malignancy that presents at advanced clinical stage with no more effective treatments. Development of a method for its early detection would be useful, also new therapeutic target need to be discovered; however, there is a lack of information about its oncogenic driver gene mutations.

Objectives

We aim to identify the SCLC-related genomic variants that associate with clinical staging and serum protein biomarkers observed in other types of lung cancer.

Methods

We screened formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) biopsy tissues of 32 Chinese SCLC patients using the 303 oncogenic driver gene panel generated by Tiling PCR amplification sequencing (tPAS) and analyzed the patients' corresponding serum protein levels of CYFRA21-1 CEA, NSE, and SCCA.

Results

In total, we found 147 SCLC-related mutant genes, among these, three important genes (TP53, RB1, KMT2D) as well as five novel genes LRRK2, BRCA1, PTCH1, ARID2, and APC that altogether occurred in 90% of patients. Furthermore, increased mutations to 6 genes (WT1, NOTCH1, EPHA3, KDM6A, SETD2, ACVR1B) significantly associated with higher serum NSE levels (P = 0.0016) and higher clinical stages II + III compared to stage I (P = 0.06).

Conclusions

Our panel is relatively reliable in detecting the oncogenic mutations of Chinese SCLC patients. Based on our findings, it may be possible to combine SCLC-related mutations and serum NSE for a simple detection of clinical staging.

KIF23 Promotes Gastric Cancer by Stimulating Cell Proliferation

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most aggressive malignant tumors with low early diagnosis and high metastasis. Despite progress in treatment, to combat this disease, a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms and novel therapeutic targets is needed. KIF23, which belongs to the KIF family, plays a vital role in various cell processes, such as cytoplasm separation and axon elongation. Nowadays, KIF23 has been found to be highly expressed in multiple tumor tissues and cells, suggesting a potential link between KIF23 and tumorigenesis. Herein, we reported that KIF23 expression was correlated with poor prognosis of gastric cancer and found an association between KIF23 and pTNM stage. An in vitro assay proved that the proliferation of gastric cancer cells was significantly inhibited, which is caused by KIF23 depletion. Additionally, knockdown of KIF23 resulted in a marked inhibition of cell proliferation of gastric cancer in mice, with significant downregulation of Ki67 and PCNA expression. In conclusion, these data indicate that KIF23 is a potential therapeutic target for gastric cancer treatment.

Integrative analysis of KIF4A, 9, 18A, and 23 and their clinical significance in low-grade glioma and glioblastoma

To determine the prognostic significance of kinesin superfamily gene (KIF) expression in patients with brain cancer, including low-grade glioma (LGG) and glioblastoma (GBM), we comprehensively analyzed KIFs in 515 LGG and 595 GBM patients. Among KIFs, KIF4A, 9, 18A, and 23 showed significant clinical implications in both LGG and GBM. The mRNA and protein expression levels of KIF4A, 9, 18A, and 23 were significantly increased in LGG and GBM compared with those in the normal control groups. The mRNA expression levels of KIF4A, 9, 18A, and 23 in LGG were significantly increased in the high-histologic-grade group compared with those with a low histologic grade. Genomic analysis showed that the percent of mRNA upregulation of KIF4A, 9, 18A, and 23 was higher than that of other gene alterations, including gene amplification, deep deletion, and missense mutation. In addition, LGG patients with KIF4A, 18A, and 23 gene alterations were significantly associated with a poor prognosis. In survival analysis, the group with high expression of KIF4A, 9, 18A, and 23 mRNA was significantly associated with a poor prognosis in both LGG and GBM patients. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) revealed that high mRNA expression of KIF4A, 18A, and 23 in LGG and GBM patients showed significant positive correlations with the cell cycle, E2F targets, G₂M checkpoint, Myc target, and mitotic spindle. By contrast, high mRNA expression of KIF9 in both LGG and GBM patients was significantly negatively correlated with the cell cycle, G₂M checkpoint, and mitotic spindle pathway. However, it was significantly positively correlated with EMT and angiogenesis. This study has extended our knowledge of KIF4A, 9, 18A, and 23 in LGG and GBM and shed light on their clinical relevance, which should help to improve the treatment and prognosis of LGG and GBM.

CAV2 promotes the growth of renal cell carcinoma through the EGFR/PI3K/Akt pathway

Background

Caveolin-2 (CAV2) is reported to have an important role in cancer. The following study investigated the expression and function of CAV2 in kidney cancer in vitro and in vivo.

Materials and methods

Real-time PCR, immunohistochemistry and Western blotting analysis were used to determine CAV2, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) and protein kinase B (Akt) in kidney cancer cell line OS-RC-2 and clinical specimens. The role of CAV2 in maintaining kidney cancer malignant phenotype was examined by wound healing assay, Matrigel invasion assays and mouse orthotopic xenograft model.

Results

Higher expression of CAV2 was found in renal cell carcinoma tissue compared to normal tissue. Furthermore, increased expression of CAV2 was associated with cancer progression. Also, silencing of CAV2 inhibited the proliferation, migration and invasion, as well as the expression of EGFR, PI3K and p-Akt in OS-RC-2 cells in vitro, and OS-RC-2 xenograft growth in vivo.

Conclusion

Our results revealed that CAV2 promotes the growth of renal cell carcinoma through EGFR/PI3K/Akt pathway.