URG4 upregulation is associated with tumor growth and poor survival in epithelial ovarian cancer

The relationship between URG4 and clinicopathologic parameters and its effect on two-year survival in gastric carcinoma

AIM

Gastric cancer (GC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. The present study examined the relationship between Upregulated gene 4 (URG4) expression, an oncogene involved in the development of gastric carcinoma, and clinicopathologic parameters including Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status. The study aimed to investigate the importance of URG4 as a prognostic factor for 2-year survival in GCs, which are usually in the advanced stage at the time of diagnosis and have a rapid course.

METHODS

In 61 patients with GC, URG4 expression results in paraffin blocks were compared with the patients' clinicopathologic, 2-year survival, and HER2 results.

RESULTS

Among the patients, 24 (39 %) had low URG4 scores (scores 0-4) and 37 (61 %) had high URG4 scores (scores 6-9). While the HER2 score was negative in 52 (85 %)patients, it was positive in 9 (15 %). URG4 expression values were significantly correlated with tumor (T) stage and lymphovascular invasion (LVI) (p < 0.005), whereas no significant correlation was determined between other pathological prognostic factors and HER2 status (p > 0.005). During the two-year period, 32 (52 %) patients survived and 29 (48 %) died. The mean duration of survival was 75.20 ± 35.22 weeks. A significant correlation was determined between URG4 values and survival and mortality results (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

We revealed a correlation (p < 0.005) between increased URG4 scores with increased T stage and LVI. We demonstrated an association between increased URG4 expression and survival time and mortality in patients with GC during the first two years of survival (p < 0.005) and URG4 and HER2 yielded similar results as prognostic factors in the survival of the patients URG4 is an essential oncogene in malignancies, especially in gastric GC, requiring further research and development in prognostic and therapeutic areas.

Improved multi-ancestry fine-mapping identifies cis-regulatory variants underlying molecular traits and disease risk

Multi-ancestry statistical fine-mapping of cis-molecular quantitative trait loci (cis-molQTL) aims to improve the precision of distinguishing causal cis-molQTLs from tagging variants. However, existing approaches fail to reflect shared genetic architectures. To solve this limitation, we present the Sum of Shared Single Effects (SuShiE) model, which leverages LD heterogeneity to improve fine-mapping precision, infer cross-ancestry effect size correlations, and estimate ancestry-specific expression prediction weights. We apply SuShiE to mRNA expression measured in PBMCs (n=956) and LCLs (n=814) together with plasma protein levels (n=854) from individuals of diverse ancestries in the TOPMed MESA and GENOA studies. We find SuShiE fine-maps cis-molQTLs for 16% more genes compared with baselines while prioritizing fewer variants with greater functional enrichment. SuShiE infers highly consistent cis-molQTL architectures across ancestries on average; however, we also find evidence of heterogeneity at genes with predicted loss-of-function intolerance, suggesting that environmental interactions may partially explain differences in cis-molQTL effect sizes across ancestries. Lastly, we leverage estimated cis-molQTL effect-sizes to perform individual-level TWAS and PWAS on six white blood cell-related traits in AOU Biobank individuals (n=86k), and identify 44 more genes compared with baselines, further highlighting its benefits in identifying genes relevant for complex disease risk. Overall, SuShiE provides new insights into the cis-genetic architecture of molecular traits.

Immunohistochemical Expression of Upregulated Gene 4 Protein Expression (URG4/URGCP) and Its Association with 5-Year Survival in Patients with Colon Adenocarcinoma

(1) Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer in terms of incidence and mortality. Approximately 90% of all colorectal cancer cases are adenocarcinomas, originating from epithelial cells of the colorectal mucosa. Upregulated gene 4 (URG4) is an oncogene involved in cancer development. The aim of the study was to assess the immunohistochemical expression of URG4 protein expression in Polish patients with colon adenocarcinoma who were not treated with any therapy before radical surgery. (2) Methods: The study used colon tissue samples taken from people with a confirmed diagnosis of colorectal adenocarcinoma after a thorough histopathological examination. The associations between the immunohistochemical expression of URG4 and clinical parameters were analyzed by the Chi2 test or Chi2Yatesa test. The study conducted an analysis of the correlation between the expression of URG4 and the five-year survival rate of patients through the application of the Kaplan-Meier analysis and the log-rank statistical test. The intracellular localization of URG4 was identified through the utilization of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) methodology. (3) Results: In univariate Cox regression analyses, immuno-histochemical expression of URG4, grade of histological differentiation, depth of invasion, angioinvasion, PCNA expression, stage of disease and lymph node involvement were found to be significant prognostic factors. Within our patient cohort, it was observed that the degree of tumour differentiation and URG4 expression were found to be distinct prognostic factors in regard to the 5-year survival rates of those with colon adenocarcinoma. (4) Conclusions: High immunohistochemical expression of URG4 correlates with poor prognosis in patients with colon adenocarcinoma.

Profiles of alternative splicing events in the diagnosis and prognosis of Gastric Cancer

Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is a heterogeneous disease, and alternative splicing (AS) is a powerful universal transcriptional regulatory mechanism that contributes to the occurrence and development of cancer. However, the systematic analysis of AS events in GC is lacking; therefore, further studies are needed. Methods: Genome-wide analysis of AS events was performed using RNA-Seq data to evaluate the difference between GC and adjacent tissues at the AS level. Prognostic signatures based on differentially expressed alternative splicing (DEAS) events and a correlation network between DEAS and genes were built. Results: We identified 48,141 AS events, of which 2325 showed differential expression patterns. The parental genes before DEAS events play an essential role in regulating GC-related processes such as ribosome (FDR < 0.0001) and thermogenesis (FDR = 0.0002). There were 76 survival-associated DEAS cases. Stratifying patients according to the percent spliced in index value of six types of splicing patterns formed significant Kaplan-Meier curves in the overall survival analysis. A prognostic feature based on DEAS performed well for stratification in patients with GC. Conclusion: The present study will enrich our understanding regarding the distinction of GC and provide a generous amount of biomarkers and potential targets for the treatment of GC.

URG4 mediates cell proliferation and cell cycle in osteosarcoma via GSK3β/β-catenin/cyclin D1 signaling pathway

BACKGROUND

Osteosarcoma is one of the most common malignant bone tumors with the annual global incidence of approximately four per million. Upregulated gene 4 (URG4) expression in the osteosarcoma tissue is closely associated with recurrence, metastasis, and poor prognosis of osteosarcoma. However, the biological function and underlying mechanisms of URG4 in osteosarcoma have not been elucidated. This study aimed to explore the expression and underlying mechanism of URG4 in osteosarcoma.

METHODS

The expression level of URG4 in osteosarcoma and normal tissues was compared using immunohistochemistry (IHC). PCR and western blotting (WB) techniques are used to detect URG4 mRNA and protein levels. Wound healing and Transwell analysis to assess the effect of URG4 on osteosarcoma cell migration and invasion. Cell Counting Kit-8 assay and colony proliferation assay were performed to evaluate the effects of silencing URG4 on the inhibition of cell proliferation. The cell cycle distribution was detected by flow cytometry, and a xenograft mouse model was used to verify the function of URG4 in vivo.

RESULTS

URG4 was found to be highly expressed in osteosarcoma tissues and cells, and its high expression was correlated with advanced Enneking stage, large tumor size, and tumor metastasis in osteosarcoma patients. The proliferation in osteosarcoma cell lines and cell cycle in the S phase was suppressed when siRNA was used to downregulate URG4. URG4 promoted cell proliferation and tumorigenesis in vitro and in vivo. WB verified that URG4 promotes cell proliferation in osteosarcoma via pGSK3β/β-catenin/cyclinD1 signaling.

CONCLUSION

URG4, which is high-expressed in osteosarcoma, promotes cell cycle progression via GSK3β/β-catenin/cyclin D1 signaling pathway and may be a novel biomarker and potential target for the treatment of osteosarcoma.

URG4 expression in invasive breast carcinoma and its relation to clinicopathological characteristics

BACKGROUND

Upregulated gene 4 (URG4) is a recently described oncogene that upregulates cell proliferation. Its overexpression has been identified in many malignancies, and it is thought to be related to tumour progression, angiogenesis, metastasis and the recurrence of many cancers. This is the first study to show its expression in breast cancer patients and its association with clinicopathological characteristics in these patients.

METHODS

Fifty invasive ductal breast carcinoma cases and 25 control cases were included in the study. Tumourous tissues and control tissues were assessed molecularly for quantification of mRNA expression of URG4 and immunohistochemically for protein expression of URG4.

RESULTS

The mean ages of the patients and controls were 54.3 ± 11.3 and 38.9 ± 9.7 years, respectively. The expression levels of URG4 mRNA in tumour tissues were higher compared to control breast tissues (p = 0.023). An immunohistochemical assessment suggested that URG4 is strongly expressed in normal breast tissues and lower-grade (grades I and II) ductal carcinomas of the breast, but it is weakly expressed in high-grade (grade III) ductal breast carcinomas. Additionally, the immunohistochemical and molecular expression results of URG4 were relevant to most prognostic parameters (tumour size, oestrogen and progesterone receptor status, HER2 status and Ki67 proliferative index) for breast cancer. However, unlike the immunohistochemical studies, the molecular studies revealed that there was no significant difference in URG4 expression for different grades of tumour tissues.

CONCLUSION

The literature data suggest that URG4 overexpression is associated with poor prognosis in many types of cancer. Conversely, our results in breast cancer specimens indicate that URG4 overexpression in breast ductal carcinomas is significantly associated with good prognostic parameters. Nevertheless, these preliminary findings should be confirmed by further studies.

miR-671-5p inhibits gastric cancer cell proliferation and promotes cell apoptosis by targeting URGCP

Various studies have demonstrated that microRNA (miRNA) serves an important role in the development of gastric cancer. However, the expression level, clinical significance and the biological function of miRNA in gastric cancer remain largely unknown. The present study investigated the exact roles of miR-671-5p in gastric cancer, confirmed its target and explored its mechanism. Initially, the low expression levels of miR-671-5p in gastric cancer cells were confirmed by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. TargetScan and MiRanda databases were utilized to forecast the target genes of miR-671-5p, and the prediction was verified by dual-luciferase reporter assay and western blot analysis. Cell Counting Kit-8 was used for cell proliferation detection. An annexin V-fluorescein isothiocyanate kit was used for cell apoptosis determination. Western blot analysis was adopted to measure the protein expression levels in different groups. The results of the present study revealed that there were lower expression levels of miR-671-5p in gastric cancer cells than in normal gastric cells. Upregulator of cell proliferation (URGCP) is a direct target of miR-671-5p and it may be negatively regulated by miR-671-5p. miR-671-5p mimics induced reduction of MKN28 cell proliferation. miR-671-5p mimics caused upregulation of MKN28 cell apoptosis. In addition, western blotting results indicated that the ratio of B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2)/Bcl-2-associated X protein was significantly decreased in the miR-671-5p mimic group compared with the negative control group (P<0.01). These results suggested that miR-671-5p had a protective role in gastric cancer through inhibiting gastric cancer cell proliferation and promoting cell apoptosis by targeting URGCP. Therefore, miR-671-5p may be an effective therapeutic target for gastric cancer.

Downregulation of miR-16 via URGCP pathway contributes to glioma growth

Experimental and clinical evidence points to a critical role of Upregulator of cell proliferation (URGCP/URG4) in controlling the progression of multiple tumors. However, the oncogenic role of URGCP in glioma still remains elusive. In this study we tried to investigate the oncogenic roles and molecular mechanisms of URGCP in glioma. We found that the levels of URGCP were upregulated in glioma, and that the high-levels of URGCP indicated a worse prognosis in glioma patients. URGCP and miR-16 are critical for glioma growth: silencing URGCP (shURGCP) inhibited glioma growth, while, the shURGCP-mediated proliferative inhibition could be recovered by antagonizing miR-16 (anta-miR-16) in vivo and in vitro. Mechanically, URGCP repressed miR-16 expression via activating NF-κB/c-myc pathway in glioma; Cyclins D1 and Cyclin E1 were identified as the direct targets of miR-16, thus, URGCP-mediated miR-16 downregulation accelerated cell proliferation by upregulating Cyclin D1 and Cyclin E1 expression. All these results suggested that URGCP accelerates glioma growth through the NF-κB/c-myc/miR-16/Cyclin D1/E1 pathway, and both URGCP and miR-16 function as a novel cell cycle regulators in glioma and could be considered as potential targets for glioma therapy.

mRNA expression profiles obtained from microdissected pancreatic cancer cells can predict patient survival

Background

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most devastating malignancies in developed countries because of its very poor prognosis and high mortality rates. By the time PDAC is usually diagnosed only 20-25% of patients are candidates for surgery, and the rate of survival for this cancer is low even when a patient with PDAC does undergo surgery. Lymph node invasion is an extremely bad prognosis factor for this disease.

Methods

We analyzed the mRNA expression profile in 30 PDAC samples from patients with resectable local disease (stages I and II). Neoplastic cells were isolated by laser-microdissection in order to avoid sample ‘contamination’ by non-tumor cells. Due to important differences in the prognoses of PDAC patients with and without lymph node involvement (stage IIB and stages I-IIA, respectively), we also analyzed the association between the mRNA expression profiles from these groups of patients and their survival.

Results

We identified expression profiles associated with patient survival in the whole patient cohort and in each group (stage IIB samples or stage I-IIA samples). Our results indicate that survival-associated genes are different in the groups with and without affected lymph nodes. Survival curves indicate that these expression profiles can help physicians to improve the prognostic classification of patients based on these profiles.

URG4 expression is a novel prognostic factor for the progression of nasopharyngeal carcinoma and overall survival of patient

URG4, a novel oncogene, is involved in the development and progression of various tumors. This study investigated the clinicopathological significance of URG4 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). We used five NPC tissues and adjacent normal nasopharyngeal tissues to determine URG4 expression and found that URG4 was upregulated in NPC tissues. Immunohistochemistry analysis found URG4 was expressed positively in 97.1% (99/102) of NPC samples and highly expressed in 41.2% (42/102) of NPC samples. Its level was positively correlated with advancing clinical stage. Kaplan–Meier analysis with the log-rank test found that patients with high URG4 expression had poor outcome and patients with low URG4 expression had better survival. Statistical analysis showed that there was a significant correlation between URG4 expression and clinical stage, larger tumor size, and lymph node involvement. Cox-regression analysis showed that URG4 expression could serve as a prognostic factor for NPC patients. In summary, this study showed that URG4 was upregulated in NPC tissues, patients with high URG4 expression had poor outcome, and URG4 was found to be a valuable biomarker for NPC progression.

URGCP promotes non-small cell lung cancer invasiveness by activating the NF-κB-MMP-9 pathway

Invasion and metastasis are main traits of tumor progression and responsible for the poor prognosis of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The molecular mechanisms underlying the malignant behaviors of NSCLC remain incompletely understood. The present study demonstrate that up-regulator of cell proliferation (URGCP), a recently identified tumor-promoting gene found in several tumor types, is markedly overexpressed in human NSCLC cell lines and clinical NSCLC samples. URGCP upregulation correlates significantly with the progression and poor prognosis of this disease. In vitro and in vivo studies demonstrate that increasing URGCP expression accelerates invasion, migration, and distant metastasis of NSCLC cells whereas downregulating URGCP suppresses these malignant traits. Notably, silencing URGCP expression almost completely abrogates the metastatic ability of NSCLC cells. At the molecular level, URGCP markedly promotes MMP-9 expression by activating NF-κB signaling. Additionally, URGCP and MMP-9 expression are positively correlated in various cohorts of human NSCLC specimens, and NF-κB-activated MMP-9 expression contributes to URGCP-induced invasiveness of NSCLC cell lines. Collectively, these findings indicate that URGCP plays an important role in promoting NSCLC cell invasion and metastasis by enhancing NF-κB-activated MMP-9 expression and may serve as a potential therapeutic target and prognostic marker.

URG4/URGCP enhances the angiogenic capacity of human hepatocellular carcinoma cells in vitro via activation of the NF-κB signaling pathway

Background

Angiogenesis is essential for tumor growth. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is characterized by hypervascularity; high levels of angiogenesis are associated with poor prognosis and a highly invasive phenotype in HCC. Up-regulated gene-4 (URG4), also known as upregulator of cell proliferation (URGCP), is overexpressed in multiple tumor types and has been suggested to act as an oncogene. This study aimed to elucidate the effect of URG4/URGCP on the angiogenic capacity of HCC cells in vitro.

Methods

Expression of URG4/URGCP in HCC cell lines and normal liver epithelial cell lines was examined by Western blotting and quantitative real-time PCR. URG4/URGCP was stably overexpressed or transiently knocked down using a shRNA in two HCC cell lines. The human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) tubule formation and Transwell migration assays and chicken chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay were used to examine the angiogenic capacity of conditioned media from URG4/URGCP-overexpressing and knockdown cells. A luciferase reporter assay was used to examine the transcriptional activity of nuclear factor kappa – light – chain - enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB). NF-κB was inhibited by overexpressing degradation-resistant mutant inhibitor of κB (IκB)-α. Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor C (VEGFC), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα), interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8 and v-myc avian myelocytomatosis viral oncogene homolog (MYC) were examined by quantitative real-time PCR; VEGFC protein expression was analyzed using an ELISA.

Results

URG4/URGCP protein and mRNA expression were significantly upregulated in HCC cell lines. Overexpressing URG4/URGCP enhanced - while silencing URG4/URGCP decreased - the capacity of HCC cell conditioned media to induce HUVEC tubule formation and migration and neovascularization in the CAM assay. Furthermore, overexpressing URG4/URGCP increased - whereas knockdown of URG4/URGCP decreased - VEGFC expression, NF-κB transcriptional activity, the levels of phosphorylated (but not total) IκB kinase (IKK) and IκB-α, and expression of TNFα, IL-6, IL-8 and MYC in HCC cells. Additionally, inhibition of NF-κB activity in HCC cells abrogated URG4/URGCP-induced NF-κB activation and angiogenic capacity.

Conclusions

This study suggests that URG4/URGCP plays an important pro-angiogenic role in HCC via a mechanism linked to activation of the NF-κB pathway; URG4/URGCP may represent a potential target for anti-angiogenic therapy in HCC.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12885-015-1378-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Serological identification of URGCP as a potential biomarker for glioma

AIM

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is one of the most frequent human brain tumor and causes dismal outcome. To identify tumor-associated antigens in GBM patients may find potential diagnostic markers and immunotherapeutic targets. In this study, we identified a gene termed URGCP using the serological identification of antigens by recombinant A2B5 positive glioma cDNA library. The gene product of URGCP is immunogenic in GBM after tested in allogenic patients serum screening.

METHODS AND RESULTS

GBM patients with an auto-antibody response against URGCP show longer survival than those without URGCP response. In additional, we show that URGCP was high expression in most GBM tissues and cell lines compared with normal brain tissues and majorly co-expressed with stem cell marker A2B5.

CONCLUSION

We identified a potential new biomarker of GBM, URGCP. The findings indicate that URGCP is immunogenic in human GBM and suggest its potential use as diagnostic and immunotherapeutic for GBM patients.