Identification of Treg-related prognostic molecular subtypes and individualized characteristics in clear cell renal cell carcinoma through single-cell transcriptomes and bulk RNA sequencing

BACKGROUND

In clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), the role of Regulatory T cells (Treg cells) as prognostic and immunotherapy response predictors is not fully explored.

METHODS

Analyzing renal clear cell carcinoma datasets from TISCH, TCGA, and GEO, we focused on 8 prognostic Treg genes to study patient subtypes in ccRCC. We assessed Treg subtypes in relation to patient prognosis, tumor microenvironment, metabolism. Using Cox regression and principal component analysis, we devised Treg scores for individual patient characterization and explored the molecular role of C1QL1, a critical gene in the Treg model, through in vivo and in vitro studies.

RESULTS

Eight Treg-associated prognostic genes were identified, classifying ccRCC patients into cluster A and B. Cluster A patients showed poorer prognosis with distinct clinical and molecular profiles, potentially benefiting more from immunotherapy. Low Treg scores correlated with worse outcomes and clinical progression. Low scores also suggested that patients might respond better to immunotherapy and targeted therapies. In ccRCC, C1QL1 knockdown reduced tumor proliferation and invasion via NF-kb-EMT pathways and decreased Treg cell infiltration, enhancing immune efficacy.

CONCLUSIONS

The molecular subtype and Treg score in ccRCC, based on Treg cell marker genes, are crucial in personalizing ccRCC treatment and underscore C1QL1's potential as a tumor biomarker and target for immunotherapy.

[Clinical outcomes analysis of fertility-preserving therapy for atypical endometrial hyperplasia and early endometrial carcinoma]

Objective: To analyze the clinical efficacy of fertility-preserving therapy in patients with atypical endometrial hyperplasia (AEH) and early endometrial carcinoma (EC). Methods: The general condition, pathological type, treatment plan, tumor outcomes and pregnancy outcomes of 110 patients with AEH and EC treated with fertility-preserving therapy in Peking University People's Hospital from December 2005 to September 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. Kaplan-Meier and Log rank tests were used for survival analysis. Results: The response rate of 110 cases of AEH (62 cases) and EC (48 cases) was 94.5% (104/110) after fertility-preserving therapy. There were 93 cases (84.5%) achieved complete response and 11 cases (10.0%) achieved partial response, and the recurrence rate was 29.0% (27/93). The complete response rates of AEH and EC were 90.3% (56/62) and 77.1% (37/48), respectively, without significant difference (P=0.057). The recurrence rates of EC were significantly higher than that of AEH (40.5% vs 21.4%; P=0.022). Forty-one patients with complete response had pregnancy intention, the pregnancy rate was 70.7% (29/41), and the live birth rate was 56.1% (23/41). The live birth rate of AEH was 68.2% (15/22) and that of EC was 42.1% (8/19), the difference was statistically significant (P=0.032). The pathological type was related with the recurrence (P=0.044). Conclusions: Patients with AEH and EC can obtain high complete response rate and pregnancy rate after fertility-preserving therapy. The recurrence rate of EC is higher than that of AEH, while the live birth rate of AEH is higher than that of EC.

[Application and clinical significance of TCGA molecular classification in endometrial cancer]

Objective: To explore the application and clinical significance of the cancer genome atlas (TCGA) molecular classification in endometrial cancer (EC). Methods: Sixty-six EC patients collected from December 2018 to March 2021 from Peking University People's Hospital were categorized into four subgroups based on TCGA molecular classification tested by next generation sequencing. The correlation among four molecular subgroups and the clinical-pathological features including prognosis were analyzed. Results: (1) Clinical and pathological features: median age at diagnosis was 56 years (range: 24-78 years). The cases were distributed as follows: 3 (5%) cases DNA polymerase epsilon (POLE) ultra-mutated, 11 (17%) cases high microsatellite instability (MSI-H) including 2 Lynch syndrome, 42 (64%) cases low copy-number (CN-L) and 10 (15%) cases high copy-number (CN-H). There were significant differences among four subtypes in the combination of other tumors, tumor family history, surgical method, International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO, 2009) stage, depth of muscle invasion and lymph vascular space invasion (all P<0.05). The proportions of patients in CN-H subgroup with advanced FIGO stage (stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ), deep muscle invasion and positive lymph-vascular space invasion were significantly increased. There were no significant differences in age, menopausal status, body mass index, metabolic syndrome-related complications, preoperative serum CA₁₂₅ and human epididymis protein 4 levels, tumor size, pathological grade (only endometrioid cancer), and lymph node metastasis among the 4 TCGA molecular types (all P>0.05). (2) Immuno-related molecular analysis: among 66 EC patients, 27 patients underwent immunohistochemical analysis of programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 (PD-L1) protein, and 28 patients underwent tumor mutation burden (TMB) detection. POLE and MSI-H subgroups contained TMB than those in CN-L and CN-H (P<0.05).(3) Prognosis: the median follow-up time was 10 months (range: 0-28 months). The progression-free survival rate of TCGA molecular types were 100% (POLE ultra-mutated), 100% (MSI-H), 98% (CN-L), and 80% (CN-H) respectively and had significant differences (P=0.034). The overall survival were 100% (POLE ultra-mutated), 100% (MSI-H), 98% (CN-L), and 90% (CN-H) respectively, but there were not statistically significant difference (P=0.361). POLE ultra-mutated and MSI-H subgroups had the best survival, while CN-H had the worst. Conclusion: TCGA molecular classification has feasibility and clinical value in clinical application of EC, which is helpful to identify the prognosis of patients.

[Correlation between the primary tumor size of endometrial carcinoma and lymph node metastasis and recurrence]

Objective: To investigate the clinical significance of the primary tumor size in patients with endometrial carcinoma (EC). Methods: A total of 385 patients with EC admitted to Peking University People's Hospital from January 2006 to December 2016 with complete follow up data were selected, whose tumor size data before biopsy were retrospectively studied. Results: (1) The mean diameter of the primary tumor was (3.6±1.8) cm (range: 1-15 cm). And 48 cases were 0-<2 cm, 78 cases were 2-<3 cm, 92 cases were 3-<4 cm, 73 cases were 4-<5 cm, 94 cases were ≥5 cm. The diameter of the tumor was associated with age <60 years old, premenopause, CA₁₂₅≥35 kU/L, non-parturition, poor differentiation, stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ, depth of myometrial infiltration ≥1/2, cervical interstitial involvement, adnexal metastasis and lymph node metastasis (all P<0.05), but not associated with body mass index, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, pathology, lymph-vascular space invasion (all P>0.05). (2) Among the 334 patients underwent lymphadenectomy, 45 (13.5%, 45/334) cases with lymph node metastasis were observed. Stratified analysis showed that lymph node metastasis and recurrence rate of patients with EC gradually increased with the increase of tumor size (P<0.05). Adopting 2, 3, 4 and 5 cm as cut-off values of tumor size, there were significant differences in the rate of lymph node metastasis and recurrence among them observed (P<0.05), except for lymph node metastasis rate and recurrence rate when the cut-off value was 2 cm (P>0.05). (3) An receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that a tumor diameter of 4.25 cm was the cut-off prognostic value to predict lymph node metastasis and recurrence of EC. Conclusions: Tumor diameter is significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis and recurrence in patients with EC. Tumor size should be considered in determining the scope of surgery and adjuvant therapy.

729G/C polymorphism in Toll-like receptor 4 results in increased susceptibility to bladder cancer

In this study, the association between the 729G/C polymorphism in Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and the risk of bladder cancer was investigated. A total of 376 patients with bladder cancer and 380 healthy volunteers from the Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University (China) were enrolled in this study between January 2008 and February 2014. The TLR4-729G/C polymorphism was detected by the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism assay. There was a significant difference in the distribution of the TLR4-729G/C genotype between bladder cancer patients and healthy controls (P < 0.001). Our analysis showed that the GC genotype (OR = 2.99; 95%CI = 1.01-4.81, P = 0.046) and CC genotype (OR = 3.67; 95%CI = 2.11-7.27, P = 0.017) were significantly associated with increased bladder cancer risk when the GG genotype served as a reference. Furthermore, carriers of the C allele had a significantly increased risk of developing bladder cancer (OR = 3.89; 95%CI = 2.88-8.53; P = 0.009). Our results suggest a correlation between the TLR4-729G/C polymorphism and the risk of developing bladder cancer in this Chinese population.

Pathogenic effects of the coccidium Eimeria ninakohlyakimovae in goats

Twenty-four coccidia-free goats were reared artificially in indoor cages and allocated to 6 groups of 4 animals each. At 20 days of age, goats in groups 1-3 received 10(4),10(5) and 10(6) sporulated oocysts of Eimeria ninakohlyakimovae per goat, respectively, each as a single dose. Goats in group 4 received daily doses increasing over a 3-week period, starting with 100/day for the first week, followed by 1000, and 10,000/day in weeks 2, 3, respectively. Goats in group 5 received 10(4) oocysts following a challenge dose of 10(6) oocysts on day 32. Goats in group 6 were kept as uninoculated controls. Infected animals showed diarrhoea and weight loss. Goats in group 4 showed longer periods of diarrhoea and patency than other infected goats. Goats in group 5 showed the same severe clinical signs as those in group 3 but produced very low oocyst output after a challenge dose. The diarrhoea was associated with a reduction in alkaline phosphatase activity and increases in packed cell volume and haemoglobin. No significant differences were found in serum aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, total protein, albumin, globulin, Na+, K+,Cl- between groups during 48 days after inoculation. There were no serum enzyme indications of damage to the liver. Histological examination performed 100 days after inoculation revealed that inoculated goats had mild subacute to chronic proliferative enteritis in the lower small intestine and the large intestine, and the mesenteric lymph nodes, gallbladders and livers also showed slight histological lesions. The results showed that E. ninakohlyakimovae was highly pathogenic.

[The effect of needleless electroacupuncture in general anesthesia during laparoscopic surgery]

BACKGROUND

Three kinds of pain-relieving substances, namely, endorphins, enkephalins and dynorphins, can be released by stimulating the relevant acupoints with the dense-disperse mode of nerve stimulator. The neurochemical mechanisms of pain relief by acupoint stimulation have been widely studied and proved. In the present study, we investigated the modulatory effect of needleless electroacupuncture on the inhaled general anesthesia during laparoscopic surgery.

METHODS

Forty gynecologic patients of ASA class I-II status, scheduled for elective laparoscopic surgery, were randomly allocated to study and control groups. Induction and intubation were performed in the same fashion and anesthesia was maintained with inhaled general anesthetics: 50% N2O in oxygen and isoflurane, which was adjusted to keep the hemodynamic changes within +/- 10% of their preoperated level. HANS (LY 257), a special nerve stimulator with 2 Hz and 100 Hz dense-disperse wave, was used to stimulate the bilateral Yang Ling Chuan (G34), Zusanli (S36) acupoints in patients of the study group during the surgery.

RESULTS

We found that needleless electroacupuncture significantly lowered the volume concentration of isoflurane from 1.0 +/- 0.33% to 0.74 +/- 0.19% (p < 0.05) at 30 min after the start of operation. Furthermore, it also significantly shortened the recovery time from 11.4 +/- 3.3 min to 8.8 +/- 3.2 min (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Under general anesthesia, the application of needleless electroacupuncture can reduce the volume concentration of isoflurane and shorten the post-anesthetic recovery time during laparoscopic surgery.

Hepatic coccidiosis in the goat

Coccidial oocysts were seen in the bile from five goats infected with coccidia either naturally or artificially. The oocysts measured on average 21.3 by 18.3 microns and resembled those of Eimeria ninakohlyakimovae. Livers and gall bladders of infected animals showed various degrees of histopathological changes. In the worst case, bile had a thick consistency and contained blood and necrotic debris. Apart from those in the bile, oocysts were seen in liver smears and in the centrilobular vein in two histological sections. Forms resembling meronts and measuring on average 200 by 147 microns were seen in sections of bile duct.