GPR120 promotes radiation resistance in esophageal cancer via regulating AKT and apoptosis pathway

Serum Free Fatty Acids and G-Coupled Protein Receptors Are Associated With the Prognosis of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

Purpose

Fatty acid metabolism plays key role in cancer development, and free fatty acid receptors (FFARs) are involved in many cancers. However, the correlation between serum free fatty acids (FFAs)/FFARs levels and ovarian cancer (OC) prognosis remains largely unclear.

Methods

A retrospective review of 534 primary OC patients and 1049 women with benign ovarian tumors was performed. Serum FFA levels data were extracted from the electronic medical record system. Repeated FFA results of 101 OC patients treated with standard chemotherapy were collected. The effects of FFAs on cells migration were evaluated in OC cell lines by Transwell assay. Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA) was used to compare FFAR mRNA expression levels in cancer and noncancer tissues. Kaplan-Meier (KM) plotter was employed to analyze their prognostic values. SPSS 23.0 and Graphpad prism 7.0 software was used for analysis and graph construction.

Results

FFA levels in the serum of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) women were higher than in women with benign ovarian tumors independent of pathology, tumor stage,and grade. FFA levels decreased gradually after chemotherapy. FFAs enhanced the migration of OVCAR3 cells. FFAR1 mRNA expression was lower in OC cells than in control cells. FFAR3 was related to a better prognosis, and FFAR4 was related to poor prognosis in TP-53wild-type and mutated type OC, while FFAR1 and FFAR2 were related to a better prognosis in TP53 wild-type OC but FFAR2 was related to a poor prognosis in TP53-mutant OC.

Conclusion

The FFA levels are increased in OC and decreased with chemotherapy. High expression of FFARs was related to the prognosis of OC. The prognostic value of different FFARs differs depending on whether it is a TP53 wild or TP53 mutant ovarian cancer.Targeting FFARs may be an attractive treatment strategy for EOC.

Knockdown long non-coding RNA HCP5 enhances the radiosensitivity of esophageal carcinoma by modulating AKT signaling activation

Recently, long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been revealed to participate in cancer therapy. Especial in tumor radiotherapy, lncRNAs usually could enhance or restrict the radiosensitivity in different ways. LncRNA HCP5 is highly expressed in esophageal cancer and influenced the malignant behaviors of esophageal cancer cells. However, this study dedicates to clarify if lncRNA HCP5 affects the radiosensitivity of esophageal carcinoma. The expression levels of HCP5 in esophageal cancer and adjacent noncancerous tissue were first analyzed on the TCGA database and then detected by qRT-PCR. The related functional experiments were used to investigate whether the radiosensitivity of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma was affected by the inhibition of HCP5. The expression results showed HCP5 is upregulated in esophageal cancers compared to the normal tissues. Meanwhile, knockdown HCP5 further suppressed the proliferation and promoted the apoptosis of esophageal cancer cells treated with a 2 Gy dose of radiotherapy. Moreover, we uncovered that knockdown HCP5 eliminated radiotherapy resistance by modulating the miR-216a-3p/PDK1 axis to inhibit the AKT activation. Finally, rescue experiments pointed that lowering the miR-216a-3p expression weakened the inhibition effect of knockdown HCP5 on cells treated with radiotherapy. To summary, our results indicate that HCP5 is involved in esophageal carcinoma radiotherapy and knockdown HCP5 enhances the radiosensitivity of esophageal carcinoma by modulating AKT signaling activation.

FFAR4: A New Player in Cardiometabolic Disease?

Free fatty acids (FFAs) are implicated in the pathogenesis of metabolic diseases that includes obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular disease (CVD). FFAs serve as ligands for free fatty acid receptors (FFARs) that belong to the family of rhodopsin-like G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and are expressed throughout the body to maintain energy homeostasis under changing nutritional conditions. Free fatty acid receptor 4 (FFAR4), also known as G protein-coupled receptor 120, is a long-chain fatty acid receptor highly expressed in adipocytes, endothelial cells, and macrophages. Activation of FFAR4 helps maintain metabolic homeostasis by regulating adipogenesis, insulin sensitivity, and inflammation. Furthermore, dysfunction of FFAR4 is associated with insulin resistance, obesity, and eccentric remodeling in both humans and mice, making FFAR4 an attractive therapeutic target for treating or preventing metabolic diseases. While much of the previous literature on FFAR4 has focused on its role in obesity and diabetes, recent studies have demonstrated that FFAR4 may also play an important role in the development of atherosclerosis and CVD. Most notably, FFAR4 activation reduces monocyte-endothelial cell interaction, enhances cholesterol efflux from macrophages, reduces lesion size in atherogenic mouse models, and stimulates oxylipin production in myocytes that functions in a feed-forward cardioprotective mechanism. This review will focus on the role of FFAR4 in metabolic diseases and highlights an underappreciated role of FFAR4 in the development of atherosclerosis and CVD.