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The glycolytic enzyme enolase 2 (ENO2) is dysregulated in many types of cancer. However, the roles and detailed molecular mechanism of ENO2 in colorectal cancer (CRC) metastasis remain unclear. Here, we performed a comprehensive analysis of ENO2 expression in 184 local CRC samples and samples from the TCGA and GEO databases and found that ENO2 upregulation in CRC samples was negatively associated with prognosis. By knocking down and overexpressing ENO2, we found that ENO2 promoted CRC cell migration and invasion, which is dependent on its interaction with the long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) CYTOR, but did not depend on glycolysis regulation. Furthermore, CYTOR mediated ENO2 binding to large tumor suppressor 1 (LATS1) and competitively inhibited the phosphorylation of Yes-associated protein 1 (YAP1), which ultimately triggered epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT). Collectively, these findings highlight the molecular mechanism of the ENO2–CYTOR interaction, and ENO2 could be considered a potential therapeutic target for CRC.

Background Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a highly lethal malignancy. Vaccinia virus (VV) possessed many inherent advantages with respect to being engineered as a vector for cancer gene therapy, although the mechanism of action remains to be explored further. Methods We constructed a thymidine kinase gene insertional inactivated VV, named VV-Onco, and then tested its effects on cell viability, apoptosis and colony formation ability in a highly metastatic human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line MHCC97-H, and also investigated the potential cell signal pathways involved in this action. Results VV-Onco induced strong cytotoxicity and apoptosis and also inhibited the colony formation of MHCC97-H cells. The tumor cell apoptosis induced by VV-Onco is likely mediated via endoplasmic reticulum stress, autophagy and Wnt signaling pathways. The downregulation of survivin and c-Myc may also play a role in VV-Onco induced cell death. Conclusions The results of the present study provide new insights into the mechanisms of VV-induced tumor cell death. The engineered recombinant VV containing optimized therapeutic transgenes may represent a new avenue for cancer gene therapy. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Lung cancer has an especially high incidence rate worldwide, and its resistance to cell death and chemotherapeutic drugs increases its intractability. The vaccinia virus has been shown to destroy neoplasm within a short time and disseminate rapidly and extensively as an enveloped virion throughout the circulatory system, and this virus has also demonstrated a strong ability to overexpress exogenous genes. Interleukin-24 (IL-24/mda-7) is an important cytokine that belongs to the activating caspase family and facilitates the inhibition of STAT3 when a cell enters the apoptosis pathway. In this study, we constructed a cancer-targeted vaccinia virus carrying the IL-24 gene knocked in the region of the viral thymidine kinase (TK) gene (VV-IL-24). Our results showed that VV-IL-24 efficiently infected and destroyed lung cancer cells via caspase-dependent apoptosis and decreased the expression of STAT3. In vivo, VV-IL-24 expressed IL-24 at a high level in the transplanted tumour, reduced STAT3 activity, and eventually led to apoptosis. In conclusion, we demonstrated that vv-IL-24 has the potential for use as a new human lung cancer treatment.

Ensuring a suitable pH is a major problem in industrial organic acid fermentation. To circumvent this problem, we used a metabolic profiling approach to analyze metabolite changes in Rhizopus oryzae under different pH conditions. A correlation between fumaric acid production and intracellular metabolic characteristics of R. oryzae was revealed by principal component analysis. The results showed that to help cell survival in the presence of low pH, R. oryzae altered amino acid and fatty acid metabolism and promoted sugar or sugar alcohol synthesis, corresponding with a suppressing of energy metabolism, phenylalanine, and tyrosine synthesis and finally resulting in the low performance of fumaric acid production. Based on this observation, 1 % linoleic acid was added to the culture medium in pH 3.0 to decrease the carbon demand for cell survival, and the fumaric acid titer was enhanced by 39.7 % compared with the control (pH 3.0 without linoleic acid addition), reaching 18.3 g/L after 84 h of fermentation. These findings provide new insights into the mechanism by which R. oryzae responds to acidic stress and would be helpful for the development of efficient strategies for fumaric acid production at low pH.

Ensuring a suitable pH in the culture broth is a major problem in microorganism-assisted industrial fermentation of organic acids. To address this issue, we investigated the physiological changes in Rhizopus oryzae at different extracellular pH levels and attempted to solve the issue of cell shortage under low pH conditions. We compared various parameters, such as membrane fatty acids’ composition, intracellular pH, and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) concentration. It was found that the shortage of intracellular ATP might be the main reason for the low rate of fumaric acid production by R. oryzae under low pH conditions. When 1 g/l citrate was added to the culture medium at pH 3.0, the intracellular ATP concentration increased from 0.4 to 0.7 µmol/mg, and the fumaric acid titer was enhanced by 63 % compared with the control (pH 3.0 without citrate addition). The final fumaric acid concentration at pH 3.0 reached 21.9 g/l after 96 h of fermentation. This strategy is simple and feasible for industrial fumaric acid production under low pH conditions.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a highly lethal malignancy. Vaccinia virus (VV) possessed many inherent advantages with respect to being engineered as a vector for cancer gene therapy, although the mechanism of action remains to be explored further.We constructed a thymidine kinase gene insertional inactivated VV, named VV-Onco, and then tested its effects on cell viability, apoptosis and colony formation ability in a highly metastatic human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line MHCC97-H, and also investigated the potential cell signal pathways involved in this action.VV-Onco induced strong cytotoxicity and apoptosis and also inhibited the colony formation of MHCC97-H cells. The tumor cell apoptosis induced by VV-Onco is likely mediated via endoplasmic reticulum stress, autophagy and Wnt signaling pathways. The downregulation of survivin and c-Myc may also play a role in VV-Onco induced cell death.The results of the present study provide new insights into the mechanisms of VV-induced tumor cell death. The engineered recombinant VV containing optimized therapeutic transgenes may represent a new avenue for cancer gene therapy. Copyright © 2016 John WileySons, Ltd.