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Background: Minichromosome maintenance complex component 3 (MCM3) plays a key role in various tumours. However, it remains largely unknown what the specific role and clinical significance of MCM3 in pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD) are., Materials and Methods: We integrated high-throughput data from PAAD worldwide to analyse the expression level of MCM3 mRNA. We used immunohistochemistry to analyse MCM3 protein expression levels in 145 cases in the PAAD group and 29 cases in the non-PAAD group. We also mainly analysed the necessity of MCM3 for PAAD growth based on CRISPR screen data. In addition, we used enrichment analysis and protein-protein interaction networks to explore the molecular mechanism of MCM3 in PAAD. We also analysed the correlation between MCM3 expression, components of the immune microenvironment in PAAD tissue and clinical prognosis., Results: In PAAD, we observed for the first time that MCM3 was significantly highly expressed at both the mRNA (SMD = 0.67, 95% CI: 0.38 ∼ 0.96) and the protein level ( p  < 0.05). The mRNA (AUC = 0.78, 95% CI: 0.74 ∼ 0.81; sensitivity = 0.66, 95% CI: 0.55 ∼ 0.76; specificity = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.67 ∼ 0.84) and protein (AUC = 0.929) expression levels of MCM3 had a good ability to distinguish between PAAD and non-PAAD tissue. There was heterogeneity reflected by the differential expression of MCM3 protein in PAAD cells. MCM3 played an essential role in PAAD growth, through abnormal DNA replication, p53 signalling and cell cycle checkpoints. PAAD with high MCM3 expression was sensitive to c-75, brivanib, flavopiridol and VNLG/124 drugs, with stable molecular docking models., Conclusion: MCM3 is likely to be a critical element in promoting the initiation and growth of PAAD. Flavopiridol may exert its anti-PAAD effect through the interaction between MCM3, classic CDK1 targets in the cell cycle checkpoint and p53 pathway as well as related molecules in other pathways.

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) causes many deaths worldwide. Synaptotagmin binding cytoplasmic RNA interacting protein (SYNCRIP) is an RNA-binding protein that plays an important role in multiple cancers by epigenetically targeting some genes. Our study will examine the expression, potential effect, biological function and clinical value of SYNCRIP in CRC., Aim: To examine the expression, potential effect, biological function and clinical value of SYNCRIP in CRC., Methods: The expression of SYNCRIP was examined by immunohistochemistry arrays and high-throughput data. The effect of SYNCRIP gene in CRC cell growth was evaluated by CRISPR-Cas9 technology. The target genes of SYNCRIP were calculated using various algorithms, and the molecular mechanism of SYNCRIP in CRC was explored by mutation analysis and pathway analysis. The clinical value of SYNCRIP in prognosis and radiotherapy was revealed via evidence-based medicine methods., Results: The protein and mRNA levels of SYNCRIP were both highly expressed in CRC samples compared to nontumorous tissue based on 330 immunohistochemistry arrays and 3640 CRC samples. Cells grew more slowly in eleven CRC cell lines after knocking out the SYNCRIP gene. SYNCRIP could epigenetically target genes to promote the occurrence and development of CRC by boosting the cell cycle and affecting the tumor microenvironment. In addition, CRC patients with high SYNCRIP expression are more sensitive to radiotherapy., Conclusion: SYNCRIP is upregulated in CRC, and highly expressed SYNCRIP can accelerate CRC cell division by exerting its epigenetic regulatory effects. In addition, SYNCRIP is expected to become a potential biomarker to predict the effect of radiotherapy., Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.)

Ribosomal protein S6 kinase A6 (RPS6KA6) is a downstream factor of the ERK-MAPK pathway and has been extensively studied in various types of cancer. However, the role of RPS6KA6 in lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) remains unclear. This study investigated expression of the RPS6KA6 and its clinicopathological correlation with LUSC and explored genetic alterations in the ribosomal protein S6 kinase (RSK) family in LUSC and their impact on the survival of patients. Expression of the RPS6KA6 protein in 175 LUSC samples and 30 normal lung tissues samples was determined by immunohistochemistry (IHC). RPS6KA6 protein expression in the LUSC tissues was significantly higher compared with that in the normal lung tissues (P=0.017). Overexpression of RPS6KA6 protein correlated with tumor size (r=0.260, P=0.001), lymph node metastasis (r=0.683, P<0.001), and TNM stage (r=0.378, P<0.001). RPS6KA6 RNA-seq data were obtained from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and ONCOMINE database. RPS6KA6 mRNA expression in the LUSC tissues was significantly higher than that in paired noncancerous samples (TCGA: P=0.005; ONCOMINE: P=0.018). According to the cBioPortal online software, three detecting methods, including Seqv2, Array and U133, identified that the frequency of the genetic alterations in the RSKs in LUSC were 77%, 44%, and 42%, respectively. However, survival analysis of LUSC patients with or without RSKs genetic alterations reached no statistical significance. This study suggests that RPS6KA6 may be an oncogene in LUSC, and that expression of the RPS6KA6 protein is associated with the progression of LUSC. The RSK genes are frequently altered in LUSC, but the alterations have no significant effect on the survival of patients., Competing Interests: None., (IJCEP Copyright © 2018.)

In this study, we investigated the levels of homeobox A13 (HOXA13) and the mechanisms underlying the co-expressed genes of HOXA13 in lung squamous cancer (LUSC), the signaling pathways in which the co-expressed genes of HOXA13 are involved and their functional roles in LUSC. The clinical significance of 23 paired LUSC tissues and adjacent non-tumor tissues were gathered. HOXA13 levels in LUSC were detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). HOXA13 levels in LUSC from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Oncomine were analyzed. We performed receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves of various clinicopathological features of LUSC. Co-expressed of HOXA13 were collected from MEM, cBioPortal and GEPIA. The functions and pathways of the most reliable overlapped genes were achieved from the Gene Otology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) databases, respectively. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks were mapped using STRING. HOXA13 in LUSC were markedly upregulated compared with those in the non-cancerous controls as demonstrated by qRT-PCR (LUSC: 0.330±0.360; CONTROLS: 0.155±0.142; P =0.021). TCGA (LUSC: 6.388±2.097, CONTROLS: 1.157±0.719; P <0.001) and Hou's study from Oncomine (LUSC: 1.154±0.260; CONTROLS: 0.957±0.065; P =0.001) showed the same tendency. Meanwhile, the area under the curve (AUC) of TNM was calculated as 0.877 with P =0.002. Based on the HOXA13 expression data from TCGA, the ROC of the tissue types was calculated as AUC=0.971 ( P <0.001). In addition, 506 genes were filtered as co-expression genes of HOXA13. The 3 most significant KEGG pathways were metabolic pathways ( P =5.41E-15), the calcium signaling pathway ( P =3.01E-11), and the cAMP signaling pathway ( P =5.63E-11). MAPK1, GNG7, GNG12, PRKCA were selected as the hub genes. In conclusion, HOXA13 was upregulated and related to the TNM stage in LUSC. The expression of hub genes in LUSC might be deregulated by HOXA13. Moreover, the 4 co-expressed hub genes of HOXA13 might be crucial biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of LUSC, as well as the development of novel therapeutic targets against LUSC., Competing Interests: None., (IJCEP Copyright © 2017.)