Search

BACKGROUND: Vesicle-associated membrane protein 7 (VAMP7) plays oncogenic roles in cancers. However, its clinical significance in breast cancer (BC) tissues remains unknown. OBJECTIVE: To elucidate the clinical implications of VAMP7, as well as its involvement in the tumor microenvironment and molecular pathways of breast cancer. METHODS: BC (n = 100) and non-cancerous breast tissues (n = 100) were collected for an immunohistochemical experiment (1:200). The protein expression level of VAMP7 was determined by using a semi-quantitative scoring method. High-throughput RNA-sequencing data of BC tissues were analyzed to confirm the mRNA expression trend of VAMP7. Additionally, the largest BC prognosis cohort data were collected to mine the potential impact VAMP7 has on BC progression. The association between VAMP7 and the microenvironment of BC was evaluated by using a CIBERSORT algorithm. Moreover, we explored the co-expressed molecular mechanisms of VAMP7 in BC by calculating Pearson correlation coefficients and overexpressed genes. Finally, the biological mechanism underlying the relationship between VAMP7 and the key pathways was also explored using gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). Potential therapeutic strategies were predicted targeting VAMP7. RESULTS: VAMP7 protein was significantly over-expressed in BC tissue than that in controls (p < 0.001). Compared with 459 normal breast tissues and 113 non-cancerous breast tissues, the expression level of VAMP7 mRNA was significantly increased in 1111 BC tissues. CD4+T cells, macrophages, and naïve B cells had a higher infiltration rate in BC tissues with high VAMP7 expression, while regulatory T cells and CD8+T cells had a lower infiltration rate. Over-expressed VAMP7 was associated with macrophages activation and transition from M1 to M2 polarization. Upregulated VAMP7 could predicted poorer OS, DMFS, PPS, and RFS outcomes. Upregulated VAMP7 co-expressed genes were significantly enriched in the cell cycle checkpoints. GSEA confirmed that over-expressed VAMP7 are markedly associated with functional enrichment in cell cycle related categories, including mitotic spindle, G2M checkpoint, and E2F targets. KU-55933 was predicted as a putative therapeutic drug for BC targeting VAMP7. CONCLUSIONS: VAMP7 was upregulated in BC tissue and correlated with poor prognosis of BC patients. VAMP7 may promote BC progression by targeting the cell cycle pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite great advance has been made in multi‐modality treatments for HCC patients, the effectiveness is far from satisfactory with worse survival outcome, which may be partly explainable by the anti‐tumor deficiency of the immune system. It is necessary to clarify the molecular mechanism of HCC immunodeficiency. Here, we demonstrated that carbohydrate sulfotransferase 11 (CHST11) was upregulated in HCC and related to advanced TNM stage. HCC patients with TP53 mutation showed higher CHST11 expression. Survival analysis revealed that CHST11 was an independent prognostic biomarker in HCC. Cellular functional experiments indicated that knockdown of CHST11 in HCC inhibited cell proliferation and metastasis. Gene functional enrichment analyses indicated that CHST11 modulated pathways related to tumor growth, metastasis and immune regulation. Continuative immune‐related analyses revealed that CHST11 expression facilitated Tregs infiltration in HCC and promoted the expression of checkpoints PD‐L1/PD‐1, resulting in the immunosuppression of HCC. Targeting CHST11 may inhibit Tregs infiltration and enhance the antineoplastic effect of immune checkpoint inhibitors, which provides a novel insight into the combination immunotherapy with Treg‐modulating agents and PD‐L1/PD‐1 inhibitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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: In the present day, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains a formidable threat to human health. Actin-related protein 10 ( ACTR10 ) is related to tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) resistance. A comprehensive analysis of ACTR10 in HCC will further our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying this resistance phenomenon, shedding light on potential therapeutic strategies for combating TKI resistance in HCC., Methods: We conducted an integration of high-throughput datasets across various centers, analyzing ACTR10 expression using the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE) and assessing its implications through clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) knockout screen. Pathogenic mechanisms were elucidated through enrichment analysis. Prognostic assessment utilized Kaplan-Meier survival and univariate Cox analyses. An integrated analysis of gene expression profiles related to TKI in HCC was conducted, and TKI resistance mechanisms were explored through enrichment analysis. Potential therapeutic drugs were identified using the Drug Gene Budger database and molecular docking techniques., Results: The standardized mean difference (SMD) of 0.34 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.22 - 0.45, P < 0.05) and ACTR10 -dependent growth in HCC cells confirm its upregulation in HCC. The area under the summary receiver operating characteristic (sROC) curve was 0.69, indicating moderate discriminative ability of ACTR10 in HCC patients. ACTR10 exerts its pro-cancer effect by influencing RNA splicing, mRNA processing and nucleocytoplasmic transport. A hazard ratio of 2.19 (95% CI: 1.56 - 3.08, P < 0.05) identifies ACTR10 as an independent prognostic risk factor. Additionally, the SMD of 0.88 (95% CI: 0.01 - 0.76, P < 0.05) validates ACTR10 as a TKI-resistance gene, mediating resistance via enhanced exocytosis, autophagy, and apoptosis in HCC patients. Trichostatin A emerges as a prospective targeted agent for HCC., Conclusion: The upregulation of ACTR10 accelerates HCC progression, promotes TKI resistance, and emerges as a prospective target for the treatment of HCC., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (Copyright 2024, Luo et al.)

Background: Novel treatments such as monotherapy and combined immunotherapy significantly extend overall survival (OS) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients, but HCC is susceptible to treatment resistance during long-term therapy. The resistance mechanism to targeted drugs in HCC remains ambiguous, making research on HCC drug resistance targets crucial for the development of precision medicine., Objectives: To investigate the transcriptional features, biological functions and potential clinical value of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI)-resistant gene ZNF687 in HCC., Material and Methods: The TKI-resistant genes of HCC were identified using clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) in vitro screening. Then, the dependence of HCC cell lines on ZNF687 was investigated in silico. We collected global mRNA datasets of HCC tissue, integrated the mRNA expression characteristics of ZNF687 in HCC and explored the impact of ZNF687 on HCC patient prognoses using the Kaplan-Meier method (in silico). The Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways analyses were then conducted, and a connectivity map and molecular docking technology were applied to find the underlying agent opposing ZNF687., Results: In vitro, the guide RNA corresponding to ZNF687 was weakly detected in HCC cells, and ZNF687 deficiency was found to inhibit growth in HCC cell lines. ZNF687 mRNA was overexpressed and had a high discriminatory ability for HCC in 2,975 HCC samples, contrasting with 2,340 non-HCC samples. Moreover, an excessive ZNF687 transcript level was related to a worse overall survival (OS) prognosis. Histone modification, spliceosome, transcription coregulator activity, and nucleocytoplasmic transport were the most significant pathways for ZNF687 differential-related gene enrichment. Chaetocin was found to be a candidate compound and presented a strong affinity to ZNF687., Conclusions: ZNF687 represents a TKI-resistant and growth-dependent gene for HCC, the overexpression of which indicates poor OS for HCC patients. Additionally, ZNF687 is expected to be a druggable target for overcoming TKI resistance, and chaetocin may be a candidate therapeutic compound for ZNF687.

Background: The clinical role of claudin 8 ( CLDN8 ) in kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) remains unclarified. Herein, the expression level and potential molecular mechanisms of CLDN8 underlying KIRC were determined., Methods: High-throughput datasets of KIRC were collected from GEO, ArrayExpress, SRA, and TCGA databases to determine the mRNA expression level of the CLDN8 . In-house tissue microarrays and immunochemistry were performed to examine CLDN8 protein expression. A summary receiver operating characteristic curve (SROC) and standardized mean difference (SMD) forest plot were generated using Stata v16.0. Single-cell analysis was conducted to further prove the expression level of CLDN8 . A clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats knockout screen analysis was executed to assess the growth impact of CLDN8 . Functional enrichment analysis was conducted using the Metascape database. Additionally, single-sample gene set enrichment analysis was implied to explore immune cell infiltration in KIRC., Results: A total of 17 mRNA datasets comprising 1,060 KIRC samples and 452 non-cancerous control samples were included in this study. Additionally, 105 KIRC and 16 non-KIRC tissues were analyzed using in-house immunohistochemistry. The combined SMD was -5.25 (95% confidence interval (CI): -6.13 to -4.37), and CLDN8 downregulation yielded an SROC area under the curve (AUC) close to 1.00 (95% CI: 0.99 - 1.00). CLDN8 downregulation was also confirmed at the single-cell level. Knocking out CLDN8 stimulated KIRC cell proliferation. Lower CLDN8 expression was correlated with worse overall survival of KIRC patients (hazard ratio of CLDN8 downregulation = 1.69, 95% CI: 1.2 - 2.4). Functional pathways associated with CLDN8 co-expressed genes were centered on carbon metabolism obstruction, with key hub genes ACADM , ACO2 , NDUFS1 , PDHB , SDHD , SUCLA2 , SUCLG1 , and SUCLG2., Conclusions: CLDN8 is downregulated in KIRC and is considered a potential tumor suppressor. CLDN8 deficiency may promote the initiation and progression of KIRC, potentially in conjunction with metabolic dysfunction., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright 2024, Ji et al.)