Depressive Disorder promotes Hepatocellular Carcinoma metastasis via upregulation of ABCG2 gene expression and maintenance of self-renewal

Decreased NMIIA heavy chain phosphorylation at S1943 promotes mitoxantrone resistance by upregulating BCRP and N-cadherin expression in breast cancer cells

Mitoxantrone (MX) is an effective treatment for breast cancer; however, high efflux of MX that is accomplished by breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) leads to acquired multidrug resistance (MDR), reducing MX's therapeutic efficacy in breast cancer. Non-muscle myosin IIA (NMIIA) and its heavy phosphorylation at S1943 have been revealed to play key roles in tumor metastasis and progression, including in breast cancer; however, their molecular function in BCRP-mediated MDR in breast cancer remains unknown. In this study, we revealed that the expression of NMIIA heavy chain phosphorylation at S1943 was downregulated in BCRP-overexpressing breast cancer MCF-7/MX cells, and stable expression of NMIIA-S1943A mutant increased BCRP expression and promoted the resistance of MCF-7/MX cells to MX. Meanwhile, NMIIA S1943 phosphorylation induced by epidermal growth factor (EGF) was accompanied by the downregulation of BCRP in MCF-7/MX cells. Furthermore, stable expression of NMIIA-S1943A in MCF-7/MX cells resulted in upregulation of N-cadherin and the accumulation of β-catenin on the cell surface, which inhibited the nucleus translocation of β-catenin and Wnt/β-catenin-based proliferative signaling. EGF stimulation of MCF-7/MX cells showed the downregulation of N-cadherin and β-catenin. Our results suggest that decreased NMIIA heavy phosphorylation at S1943 increases BCRP expression and promotes MX resistance in breast cancer cells via upregulating N-cadherin expression.

Causal relationship between psychological factors and hepatocellular carcinoma as revealed by Mendelian randomization

PURPOSE

The impact of psychological factors on the incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in humans remains unclear. Mendelian randomization (MR) study is a novel approach aimed at unbiased detection of causal effects. Therefore, we conducted a two-sample MR to determine if there is a causal relationship between psychological distress (PD), participation in leisure/social activities of religious groups (LARG), and HCC.

METHODS

The genetic summary data of exposures and outcome were retrieved from genome-wide association studies (GWAS). We used PD and LARG as exposures and HCC as outcome. Five MR methods were used to investigate the causal relationship between PD, LARG, and HCC. The result of inverse variance weighted (IVW) method was deemed as principal result. Besides, we performed a comprehensive sensitivity analysis to verify the robustness of the results.

RESULTS

The IVW results showed that PD [odds ratio (OR) 1.006, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.000-1.011, P = 0.033] and LARG (OR 0.994, 95% CI 0.988-1.000, P = 0.035) were causally associated with the incidence of HCC. Sensitivity analysis did not identify any bias in the results.

CONCLUSION

PD turned out to be a mild risk factor for HCC. In contrast, LARG is a protective factor for HCC. Therefore, it is highly recommended that people with PD are seeking positive leisure activities such as participation in formal religious social activities, which may help them reduce the risk of HCC.

Huaier granule prolongs overall survival after curative resection of hepatocarcinoma carcinoma: A propensity score analysis

BACKGROUND

The effectiveness and safety of huaier granules in reducing recurrence after curative resection of HCC have been confirmed, but it is unclear whether huaier granules can significantly prolong overall survival.

AIM

To demonstrate the effectiveness of huaier granule for HCC after curative resection over a 5-year follow-up.

METHOD

A total of 1265 HCC patients who underwent curative resection from January 2008 to January 2020 were enrolled, 1111 patients were finally enrolled according to the exclusion criteria, and the oncology outcome of Huaier granule was analyzed by propensity score matching method (PSM).

RESULT

Before propensity score matching, huaier granule resulted in better 5- year overall survival (61.49% vs 54.92%, p = 0.0099) and recurrence-free survival (45.64% vs 38.42%, p = 0.0042) for HCC patients. For solitary HCC ≤30 mm, huaier granule resulted in similar 5- year recurrence-free survival (54.55% vs 50.13%, p = 0.4403), but better 5- year overall survival (82.42% vs70.08%, p = 0.0189). Similar to overall patients, huaier granule resulted in better 5- year overall survival (54.77% vs 51.37%, p = 0.1530) and recurrence-free survival (42.61% vs 35.62%, p = 0.0082) for solitary HCC >30 mm. After propensity score matching, we did confirm that huaier granules can significantly prolong overall survival by more than 5 years, the exception was recurrence-free survival in the HCC <30 mm cohort.

Exosome CTLA-4 Regulates PTEN/CD44 Signal Pathway in Spleen Deficiency Internal Environment to Promote Invasion and Metastasis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common primary cancers, and its pathogenesis is complicated and difficult to screen. Currently, there is no effective treatment. In traditional Chinese medicine, a large proportion of patients with HCC have been diagnosed with spleen deficiency (SD) syndrome and treated with tonifying traditional Chinese medicine, which has significant clinical efficacy. However, the role and molecular mechanism of SD in HCC remain unclear. In this study, 40 mice were randomly divided into four groups: control, SD, HCC, and SD-HCC groups. The liver cancer model of SD was established by reserpine induction and orthotopic transplantation. The effects of SD on the proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, and metastasis of HCC cells were studied by cell proliferation, cell apoptosis, cell scratch, and transwell assay. We found that compared with the HCC group, the protein expressions of cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4), programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN), and AKT (also known as protein kinase B or PKB) in the exosomes of the SD-HCC group were upregulated. In addition, the metastases and self-renewal of exosomes in the SD-HCC group were more aggressive than those in the HCC group, which could be partially reversed with the addition of CTLA-4 inhibitors. Further studies showed that in the internal environment of SD, CTLA-4 promoted tumor invasion and metastasis by regulating the PTEN/CD44 pathway. In conclusion, our findings suggest that during SD in the internal environment, exosome CTLA-4 regulates the PTEN/CD44 signal pathway to promote the proliferation, self-renewal, and metastasis of liver cancer.

Markers and Reporters to Reveal the Hierarchy in Heterogeneous Cancer Stem Cells

A subpopulation within cancer, known as cancer stem cells (CSCs), regulates tumor initiation, chemoresistance, and metastasis. At a closer look, CSCs show functional heterogeneity and hierarchical organization. The present review is an attempt to assign marker profiles to define the functional heterogeneity and hierarchical organization of CSCs, based on a series of single-cell analyses. The evidences show that analogous to stem cell hierarchy, self-renewing Quiescent CSCs give rise to the Progenitor CSCs with limited proliferative capacity, and later to a Progenitor-like CSCs, which differentiates to Proliferating non-CSCs. Functionally, the CSCs can be tumor-initiating cells (TICs), drug-resistant CSCs, or metastasis initiating cells (MICs). Although there are certain marker profiles used to identify CSCs of different cancers, molecules like CD44, CD133, ALDH1A1, ABCG2, and pluripotency markers [Octamer binding transcriptional factor 4 (OCT4), SOX2, and NANOG] are used to mark CSCs of a wide range of cancers, ranging from hematological malignancies to solid tumors. Our analysis of the recent reports showed that a combination of these markers can demarcate the heterogeneous CSCs in solid tumors. Reporter constructs are widely used for easy identification and quantification of marker molecules. In this review, we discuss the suitability of reporters for the widely used CSC markers that can define the heterogeneous CSCs. Since the CSC-specific functions of CD44 and CD133 are regulated at the post-translational level, we do not recommend the reporters for these molecules for the detection of CSCs. A promoter-based reporter for ABCG2 may also be not relevant in CSCs, as the expression of the molecule in cancer is mainly regulated by promoter demethylation. In this context, a dual reporter consisting of one of the pluripotency markers and ALDH1A1 will be useful in marking the heterogeneous CSCs. This system can be easily adapted to high-throughput platforms to screen drugs for eliminating CSCs.

Retinal dehydrogenase 5 (RHD5) attenuates metastasis via regulating HIPPO/YAP signaling pathway in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Retinal dehydrogenase 5 (RDH5) is an important enzyme in the visual cycle. Several studies have reported that the RDH family may play crucial roles in tumor prognosis. However, the role of RDH5 in tumor prognosis is still unclear. We examined the mRNA level of RDH5 by using q-PCR in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and adjacent non-cancerous tissues. The proliferation rate of HCC cells was detected by MTS assay, and the invasive ability was examined by transwell and scratch wound assays. The YAP protein localization and expression were visualized by immunofluorescence in two different cell lines. CpG islands in the promoter region were predicted by using the methprimer database. Clinical characteristics of a patient cohort data came from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. RDH5 was significantly downregulated in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues, and low RDH5 expression was associated with metastasis and poor patient prognosis. Functional assays revealed that the RDH5 promoter is methylated in HCC cell lines. Moreover, overexpressing RDH5 can suppress metastasis by reversing the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process, and RDH5 also inhibits cell proliferation in HCC cell lines. Furthermore, suppressing RDH5 can activate the Hippo/YAP signaling pathway and promote the nuclear translocation of YAP. Clinical data demonstrated that RDH5 is an independent prognostic factor in HCC. In our study, we provided the first evidence that RDH5 plays a crucial role in suppressing proliferation and metastasis, and the RDH5 promoter is methylated in hepatocellular carcinoma. And as an important regulator, RDH5 can suppress the Hippo/YAP signaling pathway. Taken together, it revealed that RDH5 might be a potential therapeutic target in HCC patients.