Recipient C6 rs9200 genotype is associated with hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence after orthotopic liver transplantation in a Han Chinese population

Identification and validation of a novel nine-gene prognostic signature of stem cell characteristic in hepatocellular carcinoma

Currently, cancer stem cells (CSCs) are regarded as the most promising target for cancer therapy due to their close association with tumor resistance, invasion, and recurrence. Thus, identifying CSCs-related genes and constructing a prognostic risk model associated with CSCs may be crucial for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) therapy. Xena Browser was used to download gene expression profiles and clinical data, while MSigDB was used to obtain genes associated with CSCs. Firstly, the non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) algorithm was used to cluster the HCC samples based on CSCs-related genes. To evaluate the predictive performance of the risk model, the receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC) and Kaplan-Meier analysis were used. The R package "rms" was used to construct the final nomogram based on risk scores and clinical characteristics. Based on 449 CSCs-related genes, a total of 588 HCC samples from TCGA-LIHC and ICGC-LIRI_JP were classified into four molecular subtypes with marked differences in survival and mRNA stemness index (mRNAsi) between subtypes. Univariate Cox regression, multivariate Cox regression, and LASSO regression analyses were performed on a total of 1417 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between subtypes, and a nine-gene prognostic model was constructed with TTK, ST6GALNAC4, SPP1, SGCB, MEP1A, HTRA1, CD79A, C6, and ATP2A3. In both the training and testing sets and the external validation cohort, the risk model performed well in predicting HCC patients' survival. A nomogram was constructed and had high predictive efficacy in short-term survival. In comparison with the other two prognostic models, our nine-gene signature model performed best. We constructed a nine-gene signature model to predict the survival of HCC patients, which has good predictive efficacy and stability. The model may contribute to guiding the prognostic assessment of HCC patients in clinical practice.

Molecular Clues for Prediction of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Recurrence After Liver Transplantation

Recurrence after liver transplantation (LT) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the commonest causes of cancer-related mortality. Thus, advances in the HCC molecular features have paid researchers great attention to identifying the different risk factors that could aid in liver cancer initiation and progression for earlier prediction of post-operative HCC recurrence risk. Our review has focused on the possible molecular onco-drivers' for HCC recurrence post-LT that may represent diagnostic/prognostic tools and scoring models for the proper selection of LT candidates with HCC.

Development and validation of an immune prognostic signature for ovarian carcinoma

BACKGROUND

Ovarian cancer (OC) causes a significant proportion of cancer-related deaths in women. Recently, immunotherapy has emerged as a substantial player in cancer treatment. Lymphocyte infiltration, an important indicator of immune activity and disease aggressiveness, can be identified by gene expression profiling of immune-related genes of tumours which may prove useful in prognosis of patients.

AIMS

The aim of this study is to identify and validate a novel immune gene-based prognostic signature for OC.

METHODS AND RESULTS

Here, we extracted the expression of immune-related genes and performed the Cox regression analysis and identified five genes with significant correlation with survival in training cohort of patients (n = 286). We utilised regression coefficient and expression level of five genes to calculate immune prognostic signature (IPS) score for OC patients. In univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis with other clinicopathological factors, we showed that IPS is an independent predictor of survival (P value <0.01). More importantly, we utilised 404 patients from TCGA dataset as the validation cohort and validated the survival capability of IPS in the univariate and multivariate analysis (P value <0.001). Interestingly, KM analysis showed a significant difference in survival of patients with high and low IPS score in both datasets (training dataset P value <0.01, validation dataset P value <0.01). Further, we showed that all the five genes are differentially expressed and involved in immune modulation among other pathways. Interestingly, GSEA analysis showed that high IPS patients had low immune activity and activated EMT and other oncogenic pathways.

CONCLUSION

In summary, we have developed and validated robust immune-related gene-based prognostic signature to identify the OC patients with high immune activity who can be taken for immunotherapy.

Genome-wide epigenetic landscape of pig lincRNAs and their evolution during porcine domestication

AIM

We aimed to identify previously unreported long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs) in the porcine liver, an important metabolic tissue, and further illustrate the epigenomic landscapes and the evolution of lincRNAs.

MATERIALS & METHODS

We used porcine omics data and comprehensively analyzed and identified lincRNAs and their methylation, expression and evolutionary patterns during pig domestication.

RESULTS

LincRNAs exhibit highly methylated promoter and downstream regions, as well as lower expression levels and higher tissue specificity than protein-coding genes. We identified a batch of lincRNAs with selection signals that are associated with pig domestication, which are more highly expressed in the liver than in other tissues (19:10/8/6/3/2/1/1). Interestingly, the lincRNA linc-sscg1779 and its target gene C6, which is crucial in liver metabolism, are differentially expressed during pig domestication.

CONCLUSION

Although they may originate from noisy transcripts, lincRNAs may be subjected to artificial selection. This phenomenon implies the functional importance of lincRNAs in pig domestication.

Gene Variations of Sixth Complement Component Affecting Tacrolimus Metabolism in Patients with Liver Transplantation for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

BACKGROUND

Orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) improves the prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Moreover, the complement system is a powerful immune effector that can affect liver function and process of liver cirrhosis. However, studies correlating the complement system with tacrolimus metabolism after OLT are scarce. In this study, the role of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with the sixth complement component (C6) in tacrolimus metabolism was investigated during the early stages of liver transplantation.

METHODS

The study enrolled 135 adult patients treated with OLT for HCC between August 2011 and October 2013. Ten SNPs in C6 gene and rs776746 in cytochrome P450 3A5 (CYP3A5) gene were investigated. The tacrolimus levels were monitored daily during 4 weeks after transplantation.

RESULTS

Both donor and recipient CYP3A5 rs776746 allele A were correlated with decreased concentration/dose (C/D) ratios. Recipient C6 rs9200 allele G and donor C6 rs10052999 homozygotes were correlated with lower C/D ratios. Recipient CYP3A5 rs776746 allele A (yielded median tacrolimus C/D ratios of 225.90 at week 1 and 123.61 at week 2), C6 rs9200 allele G (exhibited median tacrolimus C/D ratios of 211.31 at week 1, 110.23 at week 2, and 99.88 at week 3), and donor CYP3A5 rs776746 allele A (exhibited median C/D ratios of 210.82 at week 1, 111.06 at week 2, 77.49 at week 3, and 85.60 at week 4) and C6 rs10052999 homozygote (exhibited median C/D ratios of 167.59 at week 2, 157.99 at week 3, and 155.36 at week 4) were associated with rapid tacrolimus metabolism. With increasing number of these alleles, patients were found to have lower tacrolimus C/D ratios at various time points during the 4 weeks after transplantation. In multiple linear regression analysis, recipient C6 rs9200 group (AA vs. GG/GA) was found to be related to tacrolimus metabolism at weeks 1, 2, and 3 (P = 0.005, P = 0.045, and P = 0.033, respectively), whereas donor C6 rs10052999 group (CC/TT vs. TC) was demonstrated to be correlated with tacrolimus metabolism only at week 4 (P = 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Recipient C6 gene rs9200 polymorphism and donor C6 gene rs10052999 polymorphism are new genetic loci that affect tacrolimus metabolism in patients with HCC after OLT.

Fuling Granule, a Traditional Chinese Medicine Compound, Suppresses Cell Proliferation and TGFβ-Induced EMT in Ovarian Cancer

The compound fuling granule (CFG) is a traditional Chinese drug which has been used to treat ovarian cancer in China for over twenty years. Nevertheless, the underlying molecular mechanism of its anti-cancer effect remains unclear. In this study, microarray data analysis was performed to search differentially expressed genes in CFG-treated ovarian cancer cells. Several cell cycle and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) related genes were identified. The microarray analyses also revealed that CFG potentially regulates EMT in ovarian cancer. We also found that, functionally, CFG significantly suppresses ovarian cancer cell proliferation by cell cycle arrest, apoptosis and senescence and the AKT/GSK-3β pathway is possibly involved. Additionally, the invasion and migration ability of ovarian cancer induced by TGFβ is significantly suppressed by CFG. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that CFG suppresses ovarian cancer cell proliferation as well as TGFβ1-induced EMT in vitro. Finally, we discovered that CFG suppresses tumor growth and distant metastasis in vivo. Overall, these findings provide helpful clues to design novel clinical treatments against cancer.