Comprehensive investigation of p53, p21, nm23, and VEGF expression in hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma overall survival after hepatectomy

TIM-1 promotes proliferation and metastasis, and inhibits apoptosis, in cervical cancer through the PI3K/AKT/p53 pathway

Background

T-cell immunoglobulin mucin-1 (TIM-1) has been reported to be associated with the biological behavior of several malignant tumors; however, it is not clear whether it has a role in cervical cancer (CC).

Methods

TIM-1 expression in cervical epithelial tumor tissues and cells was detected by immunohistochemistry or real-time quantitative-PCR and western blotting. CC cells from cell lines expressing low levels of TIM-1 were infected with lentiviral vectors encoding TIM-1. Changes in the malignant behavior of CC cells were assessed by CCK-8, wound healing, Transwell migration and invasion assays, and flow cytometry in vitro; while a xenograft tumor model was established to analyze the effects of TIM-1 on tumor growth in vivo. Changes in the levels of proteins related to the cell cycle, apoptosis, and Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) were determined by western blotting.

Results

TIM-1 expression was higher in CC tissues, than in high grade squamous intraepithelial lesion, low grade squamous intraepithelial lesion, or normal cervical tissues, and was also expressed in three CC cell lines. In HeLa and SiHa cells overexpressing TIM-1, proliferation, invasion, and migration increased, while whereas apoptosis was inhibited. Furthermore, TIM-1 downregulated the expression of p53, BAX, and E-cadherin, and increased cyclin D1, Bcl-2, Snail1, N-cadherin, vimentin, MMP-2, and VEGF. PI3K, p-AKT, and mTOR protein levels also increased, while total AKT protein levels remained unchanged.

Conclusions

Our study indicated that TIM-1 overexpression promoted cell migration and invasion, and inhibited cell apoptosis in CC through modulation of the PI3K/AKT/p53 and PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathways, and may be a candidate diagnostic biomarker of this disease.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-022-09386-7.

A prognostic model based on seven immune-related genes predicts the overall survival of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

BACKGROUND

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a disease with a high incidence and a poor prognosis. Growing amounts of evidence have shown that the immune system plays a critical role in the biological processes of HCC such as progression, recurrence, and metastasis, and some have discussed using it as a weapon against a variety of cancers. However, the impact of immune-related genes (IRGs) on the prognosis of HCC remains unclear.

METHODS

Based on The Cancer Gene Atlas (TCGA) and Immunology Database and Analysis Portal (ImmPort) datasets, we integrated the ribonucleic acid (RNA) sequencing profiles of 424 HCC patients with IRGs to calculate immune-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Survival analysis was used to establish a prognostic model of survival- and immune-related DEGs. Based on genomic and clinicopathological data, we constructed a nomogram to predict the prognosis of HCC patients. Gene set enrichment analysis further clarified the signalling pathways of the high-risk and low-risk groups constructed based on the IRGs in HCC. Next, we evaluated the correlation between the risk score and the infiltration of immune cells, and finally, we validated the prognostic performance of this model in the GSE14520 dataset.

RESULTS

A total of 100 immune-related DEGs were significantly associated with the clinical outcomes of patients with HCC. We performed univariate and multivariate least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso) regression analyses on these genes to construct a prognostic model of seven IRGs (Fatty Acid Binding Protein 6 (FABP6), Microtubule-Associated Protein Tau (MAPT), Baculoviral IAP Repeat Containing 5 (BIRC5), Plexin-A1 (PLXNA1), Secreted Phosphoprotein 1 (SPP1), Stanniocalcin 2 (STC2) and Chondroitin Sulfate Proteoglycan 5 (CSPG5)), which showed better prognostic performance than the tumour/node/metastasis (TNM) staging system. Moreover, we constructed a regulatory network related to transcription factors (TFs) that further unravelled the regulatory mechanisms of these genes. According to the median value of the risk score, the entire TCGA cohort was divided into high-risk and low-risk groups, and the low-risk group had a better overall survival (OS) rate. To predict the OS rate of HCC, we established a gene- and clinical factor-related nomogram. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, concordance index (C-index) and calibration curve showed that this model had moderate accuracy. The correlation analysis between the risk score and the infiltration of six common types of immune cells showed that the model could reflect the state of the immune microenvironment in HCC tumours.

CONCLUSION

Our IRG prognostic model was shown to have value in the monitoring, treatment, and prognostic assessment of HCC patients and could be used as a survival prediction tool in the near future.

Hepatitis B Virus preS2 Domain Promotes Angiogenesis in Hepatocellular Carcinoma via Transcriptional Activation of VEGFA Promoter

: Angiogenesis is closely related to the development and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Angiogenic factors have been confirmed to be overexpressed in HCC. The hepatitis B virus preS2 domain is a transactivator that plays an important role in hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related HCC. Here, we aimed to investigate the potential of the preS2 domain in inducing angiogenesis in HCC. A total of 25 cases of pathologically confirmed HCC were screened. The levels of preS2, CD34, and vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) in HCC samples were evaluated by immunohistochemistry (IHC). The proliferation of vascular endothelial cells was detected by CCK-8. Besides, VEGFA was analyzed by Western blot in HCC cells. The effect of preS2 on the VEGFA promoter was measured by dual-luciferase reporter assays. We found that preS2 domain-positive HCCs had significantly higher microvessel density (MVD) and VEGFA expression than preS2 domain-negative HCCs. Overexpression of preS2 upregulated VEGFA expression in HepG2 and activated vascular endothelial cell proliferation. However, blocking preS2 expression reduced VEGFA expression in HepG2.2.15 and inhibited the proliferation of vascular endothelial cells. In addition, a dual-luciferase assay indicated that the preS2 domain could activate VEGFA promoter activity. In conclusion, we showed that the expression of the preS2 domain promotes angiogenesis by transactivating the VEGFA promoter in HCC.

Identification of Potentially Therapeutic Target Genes of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

BACKGROUND

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major threat to public health. However, few effective therapeutic strategies exist. We aimed to identify potentially therapeutic target genes of HCC by analyzing three gene expression profiles.

METHODS

The gene expression profiles were analyzed with GEO2R, an interactive web tool for gene differential expression analysis, to identify common differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Functional enrichment analyses were then conducted followed by a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network construction with the common DEGs. The PPI network was employed to identify hub genes, and the expression level of the hub genes was validated via data mining the Oncomine database. Survival analysis was carried out to assess the prognosis of hub genes in HCC patients.

RESULTS

A total of 51 common up-regulated DEGs and 201 down-regulated DEGs were obtained after gene differential expression analysis of the profiles. Functional enrichment analyses indicated that these common DEGs are linked to a series of cancer events. We finally identified 10 hub genes, six of which (OIP5, ASPM, NUSAP1, UBE2C, CCNA2, and KIF20A) are reported as novel HCC hub genes. Data mining the Oncomine database validated that the hub genes have a significant high level of expression in HCC samples compared normal samples (t-test, p < 0.05). Survival analysis indicated that overexpression of the hub genes is associated with a significant reduction (p < 0.05) in survival time in HCC patients.

CONCLUSIONS

We identified six novel HCC hub genes that might be therapeutic targets for the development of drugs for some HCC patients.