Kinase DYRK2 acts as a regulator of autophagy and an indicator of favorable prognosis in gastric carcinoma

Chemokine ligand 14 correlates with immune cell infiltration in the gastric cancer microenvironment in predicting unfavorable prognosis

OBJECTIVE

Gastric cancer (GC) is the world's third-leading cause of cancer-related mortality; the prognosis for GC patients remains poor in terms of a lack of reliable biomarkers for early diagnosis and immune therapy response prediction. Here, we aim to discover the connection between chemokine ligand 14 (CCL14) expression in the gastric tumor microenvironment (TME) and its clinical significance and investigate its correlation with immune cell infiltration.

METHODS

We assessed CCL14 mRNA expression and its interrelation with tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TILs) using bioinformatics analysis in gastric cancer. CCL14 protein expression, TILs, and immune checkpoints were detected by multiple immunohistochemistry analyses in gastric cancer tissue microarrays. Then, we conducted statistics analysis to determine the association between CCL14-related patient survival and immune cell infiltration (p < 0.05).

RESULTS

We found that the CCL14 protein was separately expressed in the carcinoma cells and TILs in stomach cancer tissues. The CCL14 protein was related to tumor differentiation and tumor depth and positively correlated with the presentation of LAG3 and PD-L1 in gastric cancer cells. In addition, the CCL14 protein in the TILs of gastric cancer tissues was related to Lauren's type cells, T cells (CD4+ and CD8+), and CD68+ macrophages in the TME. Kaplan-Meier survival and multivariate analyses showed that the CCL14 expression in gastric cancer cells was an independent prognostic factor.

CONCLUSION

Our study illustrated that CCL14 is a poor prognosis biomarker in gastric cancer, which may be associated with the potential for immunotherapy.

A Five-gene Signature based on MicroRNA for Predicting Prognosis and Immunotherapy in Stomach Adenocarcinoma

AIMS

We aimed to classify molecular subtypes and establish a prognostic gene signature based on miRNAs for the prognostic prediction and therapeutic response in Stomach adenocarcinoma (STAD).

BACKGROUND

STAD is a common diagnosed gastrointestinal malignancy and its heterogeneity is a big challenge that influences prognosis and precision therapies. Present study was designed to classify molecular subtypes and construct a prognostic gene signature based on miRNAs for the prognostic prediction and therapeutic response in STAD.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study is to investigate the molecular subtypes and prognostic model for STAD.

METHODS

A STAD specific miRNA-messenger RNA (mRNA) competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network was generated using the RNA-Seq and miRNA expression profiles from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, in which miRNA-related mRNAs were screened. Molecular subtypes were then determined using miRNA-related genes. Through univariate Cox analysis and multivariate regression analysis, a prognostic model was established in GSE84437 Train dataset and validated in GSE84437 Test, TCGA, GSE84437 and GSE66229 datasets. Immunotherapy datasets were employed for assessing the performance of the risk model. Finally, quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was applied to validate the expression of hub genes used for the risk score signature.

RESULTS

We constructed a ceRNA network containing 84 miRNAs and 907 mRNAs and determined two molecular subtypes based on 26 genes from the intersection of TCGASTAD and GSE84437 datasets. Subtype S2 had poor prognosis, lower tumor mutational burden, higher immune score and lower response to immunotherapy. Subtype S1 was more sensitive to Sorafenib, Pyrimethamine, Salubrinal, Gemcitabine, Vinorelbine and AKT inhibitor VIII. Next, a five-gene signature was generated and its robustness was validated in Test and external datasets. This risk model also had a good prediction performance in immunotherapy datasets.

CONCLUSION

This study promotes the underlying mechanisms of miRNA-based genes in STAD and offers directions for classification. A five-gene signature accurately predicts the prognosis and helps therapeutic options.

Functional Roles of DYRK2 as a Tumor Regulator

The dual-specificity tyrosine phosphorylation-regulated kinase 2 (DYRK2) regulates the induction of apoptosis and DNA repair, metastasis inhibition, cell cycle G1/S transition, protein scaffold stability for E3 ligase complexes, and embryogenesis. Owing to these functions, DYRK2 is thought to regulate tumorigenesis, and its function in cancer has been investigated. Notably, DYRK2 has been reported to function as a tumor suppressor; however, it has also been reported to act as an oncogene in some cancers. This discrepancy makes it difficult to elucidate the conserved functions of DYRK2 in cancer. Here, we reviewed the functions of DYRK2 in various cancers. Patient tissue samples were evaluated for each cancer type. Although some studies have used cell lines and/or xenografts to elucidate the mechanism of DYRK2 function, these studies are not sufficient to understand the role of DYRK2 in cancers. In particular, studies using genetically modified mice would help us to understand the reported functional duality of DYRK2 in cancer.

Dyrk2 gene transfer suppresses hepatocarcinogenesis by promoting the degradation of Myc and Hras

Background & Aims

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide, and has a poor prognosis. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying hepatocarcinogenesis and progression remain unknown. In vitro gain- and loss-of-function analyses in cell lines and xenografts revealed that dual-specificity tyrosine-regulated kinase 2 (DYRK2) influences tumour growth in HCC.

Methods

To investigate the role of Dyrk2 during hepatocarcinogenesis, we developed liver-specific Dyrk2 conditional knockout mice and an in vivo gene delivery system with a hydrodynamic tail vein injection and the Sleeping Beauty transposon. The antitumour effects of Dyrk2 gene transfer were investigated in a murine autologous carcinogenesis model.

Results

Dyrk2 expression was reduced in tumours, and that its downregulation was induced before hepatocarcinogenesis. Dyrk2 gene transfer significantly suppressed carcinogenesis. It also suppresses Myc-induced de-differentiation and metabolic reprogramming, which favours proliferative, and malignant potential by altering gene profiles. Dyrk2 overexpression caused Myc and Hras degradation at the protein level rather than at the mRNA level, and this degradation mechanism was regulated by the proteasome. Immunohistochemical analyses revealed a negative correlation between DYRK2 expression and MYC and longer survival in patients with HCC with high-DYRK2 and low-MYC expressions.

Conclusions

Dyrk2 protects the liver from carcinogenesis by promoting Myc and Hras degradation. Our findings would pave the way for a novel therapeutic approach using DYRK2 gene transfer.

Impact and Implications

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancers, with a poor prognosis. Hence, identifying molecules that can become promising targets for therapies is essential to improve mortality. No studies have clarified the association between DYRK2 and carcinogenesis, although DYRK2 is involved in tumour growth in various cancer cells. This is the first study to show that Dyrk2 expression decreases during hepatocarcinogenesis and that Dyrk2 gene transfer is an attractive approach with tumour suppressive activity against HCC by suppressing Myc-mediated de-differentiation and metabolic reprogramming that favours proliferative and malignant potential via Myc and Hras degradation.

DYRK2 downregulation in colorectal cancer leads to epithelial-mesenchymal transition induction and chemoresistance

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is among the most prominent causes of cancer-associated mortality in the world, with chemoresistance representing one of the leading causes of treatment failure. However, the mechanisms governing such chemoresistance remain incompletely understood. In this study, the role of DYRK2 as a mediator of CRC cell drug resistance and the associated molecular mechanisms were assessed by evaluating human tumor tissue samples, CRC cell lines, and animal model systems. Initial analyses of The Cancer Genome Atlas database and clinical tissue microarrays revealed significant DYRK2 downregulation in CRC in a manner correlated with poor prognosis. We further generated LoVo CRC cells that were resistant to the chemotherapeutic drug 5-FU, and found that such chemoresistance was associated with the downregulation of DYRK2 and a more aggressive mesenchymal phenotype. When DYRK2 was overexpressed in these cells, their proliferative, migratory, and invasive activities were reduced and they were more prone to apoptotic death. DYRK2 overexpression was also associated with enhanced chemosensitivity and the inhibition of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) induction in these LoVo 5-FUR cells. Co-immunoprecipitation assays revealed that DYRK2 bound to Twist and promoted its proteasomal degradation. In vivo studies further confirmed that the overexpression of DYRK2 inhibited human CRC xenograft tumor growth with concomitant Twist downregulation. Overall, these results thus highlight DYRK2 as a promising therapeutic target in CRC worthy of further investigation.

NDUFS4 promotes tumor progression and predicts prognosis in gastric cancer

Gastric cancer ranked third worldwide in terms of mortality. The immediate priority is to search for new prognosticative or therapeutic targets. This research aims to examine the function of the NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase subunit S4 (NDUFS4) in the malignant phenotype of gastric carcinoma. We analyzed the correlation between NDUFS4 expression and gastric cancer via bioinformatics analysis and cancer tissue microarray via immunohistochemistry. Also, we detected the phenotype change in gastric cancer cells after NDUFS4 was downregulated. NDUFS4's high expression in gastric cancer tissues showed an association with terminal TNM stage and unfavorable survival. Furthermore, downregulation of NDUFS4 decreased gastric cancer cell proliferation, migration and invasion. Nude mouse models revealed that NDUFS4 promotes tumor growth. This investigation highlights the prognostic role of NDUFS4 in gastric cancer. Our results also creatively ascertained NDUFS4 as a candidate for gastric cancer therapeutic targets.

Identifying immune cells-related phenotype to predict immunotherapy and clinical outcome in gastric cancer

Background

The tumor microenvironment is mainly composed of tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIICs), fibroblast, extracellular matrix, and secreted factors. TIICs are often associated with sensitivity to immunotherapy and the prognosis of multiple cancers, yet the predictive role of individual cells on tumor prognosis is limited.

Methods

Based on single-sample gene set enrichment analysis, we combined three Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) cohorts to build a TIIC model for risk stratification and prognosis prediction. The performance of the TIIC model was validated using our clinical cohort and the TCGA cohort. To assess the predictive power of the TIIC model for immunotherapy, we plotted the receiver operating characteristic curve with the IMvigor210 and GSE135222 cohorts.

Results

Chemokines, tumor-infiltrating immune cells, and immunomodulators differed between the two TIIC groups. The TIIC model was vital for predicting the outcome of immunotherapy. In our clinical samples, we verified that the expression levels of PD-1 and PD-L1 were higher in the low TIIC score group than in the high TIIC score group, both in the tumor and stroma.

Conclusions

Collectively, the TIIC model could provide a novel idea for immune cell targeting strategies in gastric cancer and predict the survival outcome of patients.