G2 and S phase-expressed-1 induces chromosomal instability in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cells and inhibits cell apoptosis through ROS/JNK signaling

Vitamin K2 mitigates cognitive, and motor impairments induced by multiple surgery with anesthesia and analgesia in neonatal stage

Anesthesia and analgesia are essential components for surgical procedures. While the neurotoxic effects of multiple anesthesia exposures during brain development are well established, the combined impact of multiple surgery with anesthesia and analgesia exposures on neurodevelopmental remains unknown. In this study, neonatal mice underwent multiple surgery with fentanyl and sevoflurane (MSFS) exposures on postnatal days 6, 8, and 10, resulting in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-like hyperactivity, impulsive behavior, cognitive impairment, and fine motor dysfunction in adulthood. Additionally, MSFS exposures inhibited neurogenesis in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) by reducing neural stem cells (NSCs) proliferation and differentiation into neurons and astrocytes. Pre-administration of Vitamin K2 (VK2) 30 min before each MSFS procedure significantly mitigated the behavioral impairments and restored neurogenesis. RNA-sequencing revealed that MSFS treatment induced 75 up-regulated and 140 down-regulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the NAc, while VK2 pre-administration resulted in 149 up-regulated and 56 down-regulated DEGs. Among these, 32 DEGs were down-regulated by MSFS but restored by VK2 and 12 DEGs were up-regulated by MSFS but down-regulated by VK2. To identify key regulatory genes modulated by VK2, we performed protein-protein interaction analysis using CytoHubba, which revealed 10 hub genes-DLGAP5, TPX2, KIF20B, PLK1, SGO1, GTSE1, ASPM, CDCA2, BUB1B, and NUSAP1-with critical roles in cell cycle, cell division and NSCs pathways. The expression of hub genes was validated by RT-qPCR and immunofluorescence staining. These findings suggest that MSFS-induces ADHD-like behaviors, cognitive impairment, fine motor dysfunction, impaired neurogenesis and altering genes expression involved in cell cycle, cell division and NSCs pathways, which are rescued by VK2. This study presents the clinically MSFS model for investigating neurodevelopmental toxicity and highlights VK2's potential as a neuroprotective agent in pediatric involving multiple surgery with anesthesia and analgesia.

METTL16 accelerates lung adenocarcinoma progression by inducing N6-methyladenosine modification of GTSE1 to regulate p53 pathway and cell cycle

BACKGROUND

METTL16 has recently emerged as an N6-methyladenosine (m6A) methyltransferase that serves an integral role in tumor regulation. However, its involvement in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) remains unexamined. This investigation aims to explore METTL16's role and mechanism in LUAD progression.

METHODS

The expression of METTL16 and G2 and S phase-expressed-1 (GTSE1) in LUAD was evaluated by qRT-PCR or western blotting. LUAD cell malignancy was checked by CCK-8, wound healing, and transwell invasion assays. The relationship among METTL16 and GTSE1 was determined via Pearson correlation analysis and MeRIP assay. The p53 pathway-related proteins were detected by western blotting, and cell cycle was analyzed by flow cytometry.

RESULTS

METTL16 was elevated in LUAD, and its silencing significantly reduced LUAD cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. GTSE1 was significantly downregulated upon silencing METTL16. Furthermore, increased levels of GTSE1 mRNA and protein were found in LUAD, and it was correlated positively with METTL16 in LUAD tissues. The stability of GTSE1 was modulated by METTL16 in an m6A-dependent way, and GTSE1 overexpression partially rescued the suppressive effects METTL16 silencing on LUAD cells. In addition, GTSE1 overexpression also inhibited p53 pathway to promote LUAD cell cycle.

CONCLUSIONS

These results indicate that METTL16-mediated m6A modification of GTSE1 accelerates LUAD progression by regulating p53 pathway and cell cycle. The aforementioned findings suggest METTL16 and GTSE1 may serve as potential targets for LUAD management.

Systematical identification of key genes and regulatory genetic variants associated with prognosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) stands as a highly lethal malignancy characterized by pronounced recurrence and metastasis, resulting in a bleak 5-year survival rate. Despite extensive investigations, encompassing genome-wide association studies, the identification of robust prognostic markers has remained elusive. In this study, leveraging four independent data sets comprising 404 ESCC patients, we conducted a systematic analysis to unveil pivotal genes influencing overall survival. our meta-analysis identified 278 genes significantly associated with ESCC prognosis. Further exploration of the prognostic landscape involved an examination of expression quantitative trait loci for these genes, leading to the identification of six tag single nucleotide polymorphisms predictive of overall survival in a cohort of 904 ESCC patients. Notably, functional annotation spotlighted rs11227223, residing in the enhancer region of nuclear paraspeckle assembly transcript 1 (NEAT1), as a crucial variant likely exerting a substantive biological role. Through a series of biochemistry experiments, we conclusively demonstrated that the rs11227223-T allele, indicative of a poorer prognosis, augmented NEAT1 expression. Our results underscore the substantive role of NEAT1 and its regulatory variant in prognostic predictions for ESCC. This comprehensive analysis not only advances our comprehension of ESCC prognosis but also unveils a potential avenue for targeted interventions, offering promise for enhanced clinical outcomes.

GTSE1 promotes nasopharyngeal carcinoma proliferation and angiogenesis by upregulating STMN1

BACKGROUND

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a malignant tumor with poor survival rate. G2 and S phase-expressed-1 (GTSE1) takes part in the progression of diverse tumors as an oncogene, but its role and potential mechanism in NPC remain unknown.

METHODS

The GTSE1 expression was analyzed by western blot in NPC tissues and cells. Knock-down experiments were conducted to determine the function of GTSE1 in NPC by cell counting kit-8, the 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU) incorporation experiment, cell scratch wound-healing experiment, transwell assays, tube forming experiment and western blot. In addition, the in vivo role of GTSE1 was addressed in tumor-bearing mice.

RESULTS

The expression of was increased in NPC. Silencing of GTSE1 suppressed cell viability, the percent of EdU positive cells, and the number of invasion cells and tubes, but enhanced the scratch ratio in NPC cells. Mechanically, downregulation of GTSE1 decreased the expressions of FOXM1 and STMN1, which were restored with the upregulation of FOXM1. Increased expression of STMN1 reversed the effects of the GTSE1 silencing on proliferation, migration, invasion and angiogenesis of NPC cells. Furthermore, knockdown of GTSE1 repressed the tumor volume and tumor weight of xenografted mice.

CONCLUSION

GTSE1 was highly expressed in NPC, and silencing of GTSE1 ameliorated the malignant processes of NPC cells by upregulating STMN1, suggesting a possible therapeutical target for NPC.

GTSE1: A potential prognostic and diagnostic biomarker in various tumors including lung adenocarcinoma

OBJECTIVE

This research was aimed to comprehensively investigate the expression levels, diagnostic and prognostic implications, and the relationship with immune infiltration of G2 and S phase-expressed-1 (GTSE1) across 33 tumor types, including lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), through gene expression profiling.

METHODS

GTSE1 mRNA expression data together with clinical information were acquired from Xena database of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), ArrayExpress, and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database for this study. The Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used to detect differences in GTSE1 expression between groups. The ability of GTSE1 to accurately predict cancer status was evaluated by calculating the area under the curve (AUC) value for the receiver operating characteristic curve. Additionally, we investigated the predictive value of GTSE1 in individuals diagnosed with neoplasms using univariate Cox regression analysis as well as Kaplan-Meier curves. Furthermore, the correlation between GTSE1 expression and levels of immune infiltration was assessed by utilizing the Tumor Immune Estimate Resource (TIMER) database to calculate the Spearman rank correlation coefficient. Finally, the pan-cancer analysis findings were validated by examining the association between GTSE1 expression and prognosis among patients with LUAD.

RESULTS

GTSE1 exhibited significantly increased expression levels in a wide range of tumor tissues in contrast with normal tissues (p < 0.05). The expression of GTSE1 in various tumors was associated with clinical features, overall survival, and disease-specific survival (p < 0.05). In immune infiltration analyses, a strong correlation of the level of immune infiltration with the expression of GTSE1 was observed. Furthermore, GTSE1 demonstrated good discriminative and diagnostic value for most tumors. Additional experiments confirmed the relationship between elevated GTSE1 expression and unfavorable prognosis in individuals diagnosed with LUAD. These findings indicated the crucial role of GTSE1 expression level in influencing the development and immune infiltration of different types of tumors.

CONCLUSIONS

GTSE1 might be a potential biomarker for the prognosis of pan-cancer. Meanwhile, it represented a promising target for immunotherapy.