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Kedan Cen, Caide Lu Department of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery, The Affiliated Lihuili Hospital, Ningbo University, Ningbo, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Caide Lu, Department of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery, The Affiliated Lihuili Hospital, Ningbo University, 1111 Jiangnan Road, Ningbo, 315040, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China, Email lucaide@nbu.edu.cnBackground: Transaldolase 1 (TALDO1) deficiency was associated with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but the association between TALDO1 and prognosis in HCC remains unclear.Material and Methods: RNA-seq and clinical data of HCC from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database were analyzed. CCK8 and EdU assays were utilized to examine the effect of TALDO1 on HCC proliferation. Transwell assay was used to explore the effect of TALDO1 on HCC migration. Western Blot was applied to detected the expression levels of pathway-related proteins.Results: TALDO1 mRNA level was higher in HCC tissues than in control normal tissues in TCGA and GEO databases (P< 0.001, P< 0.001). Expression of TALDO1 mRNA was associated with histologic grade (P=0.021). Multivariate regression analysis revealed that high TALDO1 mRNA expression was an independent risk factor for prognosis (P< 0.001). High expression of TALDO1 had poor overall survival (OS) (P=0.046). Additionally, Nomogram prognostic model of TALDO1 and clinicopathological parameters could predict the prognostic OS of HCC patients. Functional enrichment and immune infiltration analysis revealed that TALDO1 negatively regulates immune response. Furthermore, knockdown TALDO1 expression suppressed the proliferation and migration ability of HCC cells. Mechanistically, TALDO1 leaded to activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway and enhancement of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT).Conclusion: Our findings demonstrated that TALDO1 could serve as a promising novel biomarker for HCC patients, which might modulate the immune microenvironment resulting in a poor prognosis.Keywords: transaldolase 1, prognosis, immune infiltration, proliferation, migration

Upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) is a rare tumor with an incidence that varies greatly between Eastern and Western countries. Transaldolase 1 (TALDO1) is a rate‐limiting enzyme of the pentose phosphate pathway. In humans, aberrant TALDO1 activity has been implicated in various autoimmune diseases and malignancies; however, the function of TALDO1 in UTUC has not been previously investigated. Here we evaluated the clinical significance of TALDO1 expression in 115 paraffin‐embedded tumor samples from patients with UTUC using immunohistochemistry. Our results demonstrated that there was an association between high TALDO1 expression and advanced stage (P = 0.011), tumor size (P = 0.005), tumor location (P = 0.047), distant metastases (P = 0.023), local recurrence (P = 0.002), and cancer death (P = 0.003). Using univariate and multivariate analyses, we found that chemotherapy was an independent factor for bladder recurrence‐free survival. Late stage (III/IV) and high TALDO1 expression were independent prognostic factors for progression‐free and cancer‐specific survival. In summary, increased TALDO1 expression in UTUC was significantly correlated with late stage, tumor size, tumor location, distant metastases, local recurrence, and cancer death. Therefore, high TALDO1 expression could be a predictor of poor survival in patients with UTUC. Further studies are necessary to investigate the role of TALDO1 in UTUC development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The occurrence of sedentary and migratory life-history forms is common in several salmonid fish species. A cDNA microarray study, investigating differences between these life-history forms at the level of the transcriptome, identified the transaldolase 1 gene (Taldo1) as being differently expressed in liver between sedentary and migratory brown trout populations just before the onset of migration. The aim of the study presented here was to gain further knowledge about the potential role of this gene during preparatory changes associated with the migratory life-history and the time of onset of this expression difference by investigating its expression levels in several juvenile age stages of sedentary and freshwater-migratory brown trout. A quantitative real-time PCR assay was established for the Taldo1 gene to measure its expression levels in liver samples of brown trout and Atlantic salmon. Taldo1 transcript levels were significantly lower in migratory brown trout and Atlantic salmon at the onset of migration compared to sedentary trout of the same age, confirming the results obtained by cDNA microarray technology. Comparison of Taldo1 expression patterns with changes in body condition factor led to the hypothesis that the observed lower levels of Taldo1 expression in migratory individuals are associated with the depletion of lipid stores during premigratory adaptations, potentially related to the smoltification process observed in anadromous salmonids, and a joint reduction in de novo lipid synthesis. Analysis of three juvenile stages of morphologically undifferentiated future migratory and sedentary brown trout revealed a significantly elevated expression level of the Taldo1 gene in future migratory trout compared to sedentary individuals three and a half month before the onset of migration, indicating an early signal potentially useful for predicting the future life-history of an individual. These results suggest that physiological differences between life-history forms might be measurable before morphological differentiation and that further study of such younger age stages could reveal new insights into the regulation and initiation of life-history related physiological, morphological and behavioural changes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]