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Kisakol B, Matveeva A, Salvucci M, Kel A, McDonough E, Ginty F, Longley DB, Prehn JHM. Identification of unique rectal cancer-specific subtypes. Br J Cancer 2024; 130:1809-1818. [PMID: 38532103 PMCID: PMC11130168 DOI: 10.1038/s41416-024-02656-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2023] [Revised: 03/05/2024] [Accepted: 03/08/2024] [Indexed: 03/28/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Existing colorectal cancer subtyping methods were generated without much consideration of potential differences in expression profiles between colon and rectal tissues. Moreover, locally advanced rectal cancers at resection often have received neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy which likely has a significant impact on gene expression. METHODS We collected mRNA expression profiles for rectal and colon cancer samples (n = 2121). We observed that (i) Consensus Molecular Subtyping (CMS) had a different prognosis in treatment-naïve rectal vs. colon cancers, and (ii) that neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy exposure produced a strong shift in CMS subtypes in rectal cancers. We therefore clustered 182 untreated rectal cancers to find rectal cancer-specific subtypes (RSSs). RESULTS We identified three robust subtypes. We observed that RSS1 had better, and RSS2 had worse disease-free survival. RSS1 showed high expression of MYC target genes and low activity of angiogenesis genes. RSS2 exhibited low regulatory T cell abundance, strong EMT and angiogenesis signalling, and high activation of TGF-β, NF-κB, and TNF-α signalling. RSS3 was characterised by the deactivation of EGFR, MAPK and WNT pathways. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that RSS subtyping allows for more accurate prognosis predictions in rectal cancers than CMS subtyping and provides new insight into targetable disease pathways within these subtypes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Batuhan Kisakol
- Department of Physiology and Medical Physics, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, 2, Ireland
- Centre for Systems Medicine, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, 2, Ireland
| | - Anna Matveeva
- Department of Physiology and Medical Physics, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, 2, Ireland
- Centre for Systems Medicine, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, 2, Ireland
| | - Manuela Salvucci
- Department of Physiology and Medical Physics, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, 2, Ireland
- Centre for Systems Medicine, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, 2, Ireland
| | | | | | | | - Daniel B Longley
- Centre for Cancer Research & Cell Biology, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
| | - Jochen H M Prehn
- Department of Physiology and Medical Physics, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, 2, Ireland.
- Centre for Systems Medicine, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, 2, Ireland.
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Camacho-Macorra C, Tabanera N, Sánchez-Bustamante E, Bovolenta P, Cardozo MJ. Maternal vgll4a regulates zebrafish epiboly through Yap1 activity. Front Cell Dev Biol 2024; 12:1362695. [PMID: 38444829 PMCID: PMC10912589 DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2024.1362695] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/28/2023] [Accepted: 02/01/2024] [Indexed: 03/07/2024] Open
Abstract
Gastrulation in zebrafish embryos commences with the morphogenetic rearrangement of blastodermal cells, which undergo a coordinated spreading from the animal pole to wrap around the egg at the vegetal pole. This rearrangement, known as epiboly, relies on the orchestrated activity of maternal transcripts present in the egg, compensating for the gradual activation of the zygotic genome. Epiboly involves the mechano-transducer activity of yap1 but what are the regulators of yap1 activity and whether these are maternally or zygotically derived remain elusive. Our study reveals the crucial role of maternal vgll4a, a proposed Yap1 competitor, during zebrafish epiboly. In embryos lacking maternal/zygotic vgll4a (MZvgll4a), the progression of epiboly and blastopore closure is delayed. This delay is associated with the ruffled appearance of the sliding epithelial cells, decreased expression of yap1-downstream targets and transient impairment of the actomyosin ring at the syncytial layer. Our study also shows that, rather than competing with yap1, vgll4a modulates the levels of the E-cadherin/β-catenin adhesion complex at the blastomeres' plasma membrane and hence their actin cortex distribution. Taking these results together, we propose that maternal vgll4a acts at epiboly initiation upstream of yap1 and the E-cadherin/β-catenin adhesion complex, contributing to a proper balance between tissue tension/cohesion and contractility, thereby promoting a timely epiboly progression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carlos Camacho-Macorra
- Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Raras (CIBERER), Madrid, Spain
| | - Noemí Tabanera
- Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Raras (CIBERER), Madrid, Spain
| | - Elena Sánchez-Bustamante
- Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Raras (CIBERER), Madrid, Spain
| | - Paola Bovolenta
- Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Raras (CIBERER), Madrid, Spain
| | - Marcos J Cardozo
- Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Raras (CIBERER), Madrid, Spain
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Li M, Tan T, Geng Y, Tao Y, Pan J, Zhang J, Xu Q, Shen H, Zuo L, Chen Y. HOXB13 facilitates hepatocellular carcinoma progression by activating AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. Ann Hepatol 2023; 28:100759. [PMID: 36179794 DOI: 10.1016/j.aohep.2022.100759] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/10/2022] [Revised: 08/31/2022] [Accepted: 09/14/2022] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the sixth most common malignancies worldwide and is accompanied by high mortality. Homeobox B13 (HOXB13) has been shown to be involved in the development of various cancers. This study aimed to investigate the role of HOXB13 in HCC progression. MATERIALS AND METHODS The expression of HOXB13 in HCC tumor tissues was analyzed using qRT-PCR and immunohistochemical staining . After overexpression or downregulation of HOXB13 in HCC cell lines, cell proliferation was detected by CCK8 assay and Ki67 staining and cell invasion ability were tested by transwell assay. Western blot assay was applied to analyze the effect of HOXB13 on related signaling pathways. In addition, the role of HOXB13 on HCC in vivo was explored using a HCC mouse model. IF and WB were performed to detect cell proliferation, apoptosis and related protein expression in mice tumor tissues. RESULTS The results showed that the expression of HOXB13 was significantly increased in HCC tissues compared with adjacent tissues and positively correlated with the tumor stage and survival of HCC patients. Overexpression of HOXB13 promoted the proliferation and invasion of HCC cells and up-regulated the protein expression of AKT, mTOR and MMP2. In contrast, the downregulation of HOXB13 resulted in the opposite results. In vivo experiments, HOXB13 significantly promoted tumor growth in mice bearing HCC by promoting cell proliferation and inhibiting cell apoptosis. CONCLUSIONS This study suggested that HOXB13 can facilitate HCC progression by activation of the AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. HOXB13 may be a novel target for HCC therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miao Li
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital Clinical College of Jiangsu University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
| | - Tingting Tan
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital Clinical College of Jiangsu University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
| | - Yu Geng
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital Clinical College of Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
| | - Yue Tao
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital Clinical College of Jiangsu University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
| | - Jie Pan
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital Clinical College of Jiangsu University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
| | - Jun Zhang
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital Clinical College of Jiangsu University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
| | - Qin Xu
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital Clinical College of Jiangsu University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
| | - Han Shen
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital Clinical College of Jiangsu University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
| | - Lingyun Zuo
- Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Hospital of Nanjing, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210008, China.
| | - Yuxin Chen
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital Clinical College of Jiangsu University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
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Liu H, Wang J, Shen J, Wu X, Li Y. [miR-20a-5p inhibits proliferation of lung cancer A549 cells by down-regulating HOXB13]. NAN FANG YI KE DA XUE XUE BAO = JOURNAL OF SOUTHERN MEDICAL UNIVERSITY 2022; 42:568-574. [PMID: 35527493 DOI: 10.12122/j.issn.1673-4254.2022.04.13] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To investigate the molecular mechanism by which miR-20a-5p regulates HOXB13 gene expression and inhibits lung cancer cell proliferation. METHODS The expression levels of HOXB13 mRNA and protein in lung cancer A549 cells transfected with HOXB13 overexpression plasmid or HOXB13 siRNA were detected with real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) and Western blotting. CCK-8 and EdU assays were used to examine the effect of modulation of HOXB13 expression on cell proliferation. We screened possible binding miRNAs of HOXB13 by bioinformatics analysis. In A549 cells transfected with miR-20a-5p mimic or miR-20a-5p inhibitor, the expression level of miR-20a-5p was detected by qRT-PCR and the protein expression of HOXB13 was determined with Western blotting. CCK-8 and EdU assays were used to assess the effect of miR-20a-5p overexpression on the proliferation of A549 cells. miR-20a-5p mimic and HOXB13 overexpression plasmids were co-transfected into A549 cells, and the changes in cell proliferation were evaluated with CCK-8 and EdU assays. RESULTS HOXB13 overexpression obviously promoted the proliferation of A549 cells (P < 0.05). miR-20a-5p was identified as the potential binding miRNA of HOXB13. Overexpression of miR-20a-5p in A549 cells significantly decreased the expression of HOXB13 protein (P < 0.05), while interference of miR-20a-5p obviously increased HOXB13 expression (P < 0.05). The results of cell proliferation experiment showed that miR-20a-5p and HOXB13 had opposite effects on cell proliferation, and the cells overexpressing both miR-20a-5p and HOXB13 showed a lower proliferation activity than the cells overexpressing HOXB13 but higher than the cells overexpressing miR-20a-5p alone (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION miR-20a-5p inhibits proliferation of lung cancer cells by down-regulating the expression of HOXB13.
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Affiliation(s)
- H Liu
- First Affiliated Hospital of Wan Nan Medical College, Wannan Medical College, Wuhu 241002, China.,Provincial Key Laboratory of Biological Macro-molecules Research, Wannan Medical College, Wuhu 241002, China
| | - J Wang
- Provincial Key Laboratory of Biological Macro-molecules Research, Wannan Medical College, Wuhu 241002, China
| | - J Shen
- Provincial Key Laboratory of Biological Macro-molecules Research, Wannan Medical College, Wuhu 241002, China
| | - X Wu
- Provincial Key Laboratory of Biological Macro-molecules Research, Wannan Medical College, Wuhu 241002, China
| | - Y Li
- Provincial Key Laboratory of Biological Macro-molecules Research, Wannan Medical College, Wuhu 241002, China
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