The role of contextual signal TGF-β1 inducer of epithelial mesenchymal transition in metastatic lung adenocarcinoma patients with brain metastases: an update on its pathological significance and therapeutic potential

Clinical and molecular assessment of an onco-immune signature with prognostic significance in patients with colorectal cancer

Understanding the complex tumor microenvironment is key to the development of personalized therapies for the treatment of cancer including colorectal cancer (CRC). In the past decade, significant advances in the field of immunotherapy have changed the paradigm of cancer treatment. Despite significant improvements, tumor heterogeneity and lack of appropriate classification tools for CRC have prevented accurate risk stratification and identification of a wider patient population that may potentially benefit from targeted therapies. To identify novel signatures for accurate prognostication of CRC, we quantified gene expression of 12 immune‐related genes using a medium‐throughput NanoString quantification platform in 93 CRC patients. Multivariate prognostic analysis identified a combined four‐gene prognostic signature (TGFB1, PTK2, RORC, and SOCS1) (HR: 1.76, 95% CI: 1.05–2.95, *p < 0.02). The survival trend was captured in an independent gene expression data set: GSE17536 (177 patients; HR: 3.31, 95% CI: 1.99–5.55, *p < 0.01) and GSE14333 (226 patients; HR: 2.47, 95% CI: 1.35–4.53, *p < 0.01). Further, gene set enrichment analysis of the TCGA data set associated higher prognostic scores with epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) and inflammatory pathways. Comparatively, a lower prognostic score was correlated with oxidative phosphorylation and MYC and E2F targets. Analysis of immune parameters identified infiltration of T‐reg cells, CD8⁺ T cells, M2 macrophages, and B cells in high‐risk patient groups along with upregulation of immune exhaustion genes. This molecular study has identified a novel prognostic gene signature with clinical utility in CRC. Therefore, along with prognostic features, characterization of immune cell infiltrates and immunosuppression provides actionable information that should be considered while employing personalized medicine.

AUNIP Expression Is Correlated With Immune Infiltration and Is a Candidate Diagnostic and Prognostic Biomarker for Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Lung Adenocarcinoma

AUNIP, a novel prognostic biomarker, has been shown to be associated with stromal and immune scores in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Nonetheless, its role in other cancer types was unclear. In this study, AUNIP expression was increased in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) according to data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, Integrative Molecular Database of Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCCDB), and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database (GSE45436, GSE102079, GSE10072, GSE31210, and GSE43458). Further, according to copy number variation analysis, AUNIP up-regulation may be associated with copy number variation. Immunohistochemistry showed AUNIP expression was higher in HCC and LUAD compared with the normal tissues. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis demonstrated that AUNIP is a candidate diagnostic biomarker for HCC and LUAD. Next, TCGA, International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC), and GEO (GSE31210 and GSE50081) data showed that increased AUNIP expression clearly predicted poor overall survival (OS), disease-specific survival (DSS), and progression-free interval (PFI) in HCC and LUAD. Additionally, multivariate Cox regression analysis involving various clinical factors showed that AUNIP is an independent prognostic biomarker for HCC and LUAD. Next, the role of AUNIP in HCC and LUAD was explored via a co-expression analysis, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses, and a gene set variation analysis (GSVA). HCC and LUAD exhibited almost identical enrichment results. More specifically, high AUNIP expression was associated with DNA replication, cell cycle, oocyte meiosis, homologous recombination, mismatch repair, the p53 signal transduction pathway, and progesterone-mediated oocyte maturation. Lastly, the Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) tool was used to determine the correlations of AUNIP expression with tumor immune infiltration. AUNIP expression was positively correlated with the infiltration degree of B cells, CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, neutrophils, macrophages, and dendritic cells in HCC. However, AUNIP expression was negatively correlated with the infiltration degree of B cells, CD4+ T cells, and macrophages in LUAD. In addition, AUNIP expression was correlated with immune infiltration in various other tumors. In conclusion, AUNIP, which is associated with tumor immune infiltration, is a candidate diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for HCC and LUAD.

Emerging Roles and Potential Biological Value of CircRNA in Osteosarcoma

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are endogenous noncoding RNAs that are widely found in eukaryotic cells. They have been found to play a vital biological role in the development of human diseases. At present, circRNAs have been involved in the pathogenesis, diagnosis, and targeted treatment of multiple tumors. This article reviews the research progress of circRNAs in osteosarcoma (OSA) in recent years. The potential connection between circRNAs and OSA cell proliferation, apoptosis, metastasis, and chemotherapy sensitivity or resistance, as well as clinical values, is described in this review. Their categories and functions are generally summarized to facilitate a better understanding of OSA pathogenesis, and findings suggest novel circRNA-based methods may be used to investigate OSA and provide an outlook for viable biomarkers and therapeutic targets.

Novel long non-coding RNA LINC02323 promotes epithelial-mesenchymal transition and metastasis via sponging miR-1343-3p in lung adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND

We have previously developed a unique metastasis-associated signature consisting of six long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), including a novel lncRNA, namely LINC02323. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the underlying roles of LINC02323 in the migration, invasion and TGF-β-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) cells.

METHODS

The distribution of LINC02323 was detected by the nuclear-plasma separation experiment. Cell proliferation was assessd by MTT assay, and cell migration and invation were detected by transwell assays. EMT was detected by RT-qPCR and western blotting. Interaction between miRNA and LINC02323 was predicted by starBase v2.0 and confirmed by the double luciferase reporting system.

RESULTS

LINC02323 was distributed in the cytoplasm and nucleus. The overexpression or deletion of LINC02323 did not affect the proliferation of LUAD cells, while significantly affected the migration and invasion of LUAD cells. TGF-β-induced EMT process was significantly affected by both RNA interference (RNAi) and overexpression of LINC02323. The predicted results showed that there were binding sites between LINC02323 and miR-1343-3p. The expression of LINC02323 was found to be negatively correlated with miR-1343-3p in LUAD by analyzing The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. The double luciferase reporting system, RT-qPCR and western blotting experiments confirmed that LINC02323 could bind to miR-1343-3p, which bound to TGF-β receptor 1 (TGFBR1). Inhibition of miR-1343-3p reversed LINC02323 silencing-mediated suppression of migration, invasion and EMT.

CONCLUSIONS

LINC02323 acts as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA), which sponged miR-1343-3p to upregulate the TGFBR1 expression and promote the EMT and metastasis in LUAD.

KEY POINTS

SIGNIFICANT FINDINGS OF THE STUDY: LINC02323 promotes epithelial-mesenchymal transition and metastasis via sponging miR-1343-3p in lung adenocarcinoma.

WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS

LINC02323 is a key molecule in the process of invasion and metastasis of LUAD and might be used as a potential target in metastatic cancer.