Overexpression of the metastasis-associated gene MTA3 correlates with tumor progression and poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma

Real world study on combining local interventions with systemic therapy in unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma

Combining local interventions with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) plus anti-PD-1 antibodies in a triple therapy has demonstrated remarkable anti-tumor efficacy and facilitated conversion resection in patients with initially unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the long-term survival outcomes remain largely unexplored. This study focused on a cohort of consecutive patients who underwent triple therapy for initially unresectable HCC at the authors' hospital between January 2020 and December 2022. Specifically, patients who exhibited a positive response to triple therapy and fulfilled the criteria for hepatectomy were selected for liver resection. Additionally, investigation assessed association between clinical factors and successful achievement of conversion resection, as well as postoperative recurrence. The study cohort comprised 79 patients, among whom 20 individuals (25.3%) underwent R0 resection subsequent to the initiation of triple therapy. Notably, patients without extrahepatic disease and those who exhibited a radiographic response to triple therapy were more likely to be eligible for curative resection. Importantly, hepatectomy independently associated with a favorable overall survival (HR, 0.388; 95% CI, 0.177-0.847; P = 0.017). Other independent risk factors related to overall survival contained extrahepatic metastasis (HR, 2.152; 95% CI, 1.076-4.302; P = 0.030), tumor number ≥ 4 (HR, 2.058; 95% CI, 1.001-4.234; P = 0.049) and radiological remission (HR, 0.233; 95% CI, 0.071-0.768; P = 0.017). For the 20 patients who underwent surgery, 12-month recurrence-free survival and overall survival rates were respectively 43.3% and 66.6%. The triple therapy demonstrated favorable prognostic outcomes and manageable safety profiles in patients with initially unresectable HCC.

Discovery of Jaspamycin from marine-derived natural product based on MTA3 to inhibit hepatocellular carcinoma progression

Studies have underscored the pivotal role of metastasis-associated protein 3 (MTA3) as a cancer regulator, yet its potential as a drug target across cancers necessitates comprehensive evaluation. In this study, we analyzed MTA3 expression profiles to ascertain its diagnostic and prognostic value in pan-cancers, probing associations with genetic variations and immunological characteristics. Notably, liver hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC) exhibited the most significant correlation with MTA3. By transfection of siRNA, interference of MTA3 affected HepG2 and Hepa1-6 cell viability and migration. Through drug screening and drug-likeness evaluation among marine-derived natural products, Jaspamycin was identified as a potential hepatocellular carcinoma treatment by targeting MTA3. By applying in vitro and in vivo experiment, the inhibitory effects of Jaspamycin on hepatocellular carcinoma viability, migration, and tumor progression were observed. To assess the potential of MTA3 as an anticancer drug target, MTA3 overexpression plasmid was transfected together with Jaspamycin treatment, and observed that MTA3 upregulation counteracted the inhibitory effects of Jaspamycin on hepatocarcinoma cell proliferation and migration, underscoring the efficacy of MTA3 as a drug target in hepatocellular carcinoma drug screening. This study highlights the clinical significance of MTA3 in pan-cancer, particularly in hepatocellular carcinoma. Additionally, it identifies Jaspamycin, a marine-derived compound with promising pharmacological properties, as an effective inhibitor of MTA3 activity, suggesting its potential for hepatocellular carcinoma treatment.

Function of TRPC1 in modulating hepatocellular carcinoma progression

The liver is the main organ of metabolism in the human body, and it is easy to suffer from hepatitis, cirrhosis, liver cancer, and other diseases, the most serious of which is liver cancer. Worldwide, liver cancer is the most common and deadly malignant tumor, the third leading cause of cancer death in the world. Based on TCGA and ICGC databases, our research discovered the important role of TRPC1 in liver cancer through bioinformatics. The results showed that TRPC1 was over-expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma, and the higher the expression level of TRPC1, the worse the OS and the lower the survival rate. TRPC1 was a risk factor affecting the overall survival probability of hepatocellular carcinoma patients. By analyzing the function of the TRP family in liver cancer, TRPC1 might promote the occurrence of liver cancer by up-regulating common signal pathways in tumors such as tumor proliferation signature, and down-regulating important metabolic reactions such as retinol metabolism. In addition, TRPC1 could promote the development of liver cancer by up-regulating the expression of ABI2, MAPRE1, YEATS2, MTA3, TMEM237, MTMR2, CCDC6, AC069544.2, and NCBP2 genes. These results illustrate that TRPC1 is very valuable in the study of liver cancer.

Reduced GRAMD1C expression correlates to poor prognosis and immune infiltrates in kidney renal clear cell carcinoma

There has been an increase in the mortality rate and morbidity of kidney cancer (KC) with kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) being the most common subtype of KC. GRAMD1C (GRAM Domain Containing 1C) has not been reported to relate to prognosis and immunotherapy in any cancers. Using bioinformatics methods, we judged the prognostic value of GRAMD1C expression in KIRC and investigated the underlying mechanisms of GRAMD1C affecting the overall survival of KIRC based on data downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The outcome revealed that reduced GRAMD1C expression could be a promising predicting factor of poor prognosis in kidney renal clear cell carcinoma. Meanwhile, GRAMDIC expression was significantly correlated to several tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIICs), particularly the regulatory T cells (Tregs). Furthermore, GRAMD1C was most significantly associated with the mTOR signaling pathway, RNA degradation, WNT signaling pathway, toll pathway and AKT pathway in KIRC. Thus, GRAMD1C has the potential to become a novel predictor to evaluate prognosis and immune infiltration for KIRC patients.

Overexpression of circ_0021093 circular RNA forecasts an unfavorable prognosis and facilitates cell progression by targeting the miR-766-3p/MTA3 pathway in hepatocellular carcinoma

Increasing studies have demonstrated the important roles of circular RNAs (circRNAs) in human malignancies. Nevertheless, the molecular mechanisms and functions of circRNAs in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are still not fully understood. In the present study, we evaluated circ_0021093 expression in 82 pairs of HCC tissues and 5 cell lines by qRT-PCR. The clinical implications of circ_0021093 were evaluated. In addition, the viability, apoptosis, migration and invasion capacities of different HCC cells were evaluated by gain-/loss-of-function experiments. Target prediction and dual-luciferase reporter experiments were performed to identify the molecular mechanisms of circ_0021093. Upregulation of circ_0021093 was found in HCC tumor samples and cells. Additionally, upregulated circ_0021093 was related to adverse clinical characteristics and an unfavorable prognosis. Furthermore, downregulated circ_0021093 attenuated cell growth, migration and invasion but increased cell apoptosis. By contrast, ectopically expressed circ_0021093 enhanced the abovementioned malignant biological behaviors. For mechanism exploration, circ_0021093 sponges of miR-766-3p were used in HCC cells. In addition, we found that metastasis-associated protein 3 (MTA3) was a direct target of miR-766-3p and that the oncogenic function of circ_0021093 was partly dependent on the miR-766-3p/MTA3 axis according to rescue assays. In conclusion, the circ_0021093/miR-766-3p/MTA3 regulatory axis may be an effective therapeutic target for HCC.

Longitudinal study of leukocyte DNA methylation and biomarkers for cancer risk in older adults

Background

Changes in DNA methylation over the course of life may provide an indicator of risk for cancer. We explored longitudinal changes in CpG methylation from blood leukocytes, and likelihood of future cancer diagnosis.

Methods

Peripheral blood samples were obtained at baseline and at follow-up visit from 20 participants in the Health, Aging and Body Composition prospective cohort study. Genome-wide CpG methylation was assayed using the Illumina Infinium Human MethylationEPIC (HM850K) microarray.

Results

Global patterns in DNA methylation from CpG-based analyses showed extensive changes in cell composition over time in participants who developed cancer. By visit year 6, the proportion of CD8+ T-cells decreased (p-value = 0.02), while granulocytes cell levels increased (p-value = 0.04) among participants diagnosed with cancer compared to those who remained cancer-free (cancer-free vs. cancer-present: 0.03 ± 0.02 vs. 0.003 ± 0.005 for CD8+ T-cells; 0.52 ± 0.14 vs. 0.66 ± 0.09 for granulocytes). Epigenome-wide analysis identified three CpGs with suggestive p-values ≤10^− 5 for differential methylation between cancer-free and cancer-present groups, including a CpG located in MTA3, a gene linked with metastasis. At a lenient statistical threshold (p-value ≤3 × 10^− 5), the top 10 cancer-associated CpGs included a site near RPTOR that is involved in the mTOR pathway, and the candidate tumor suppressor genes REC8, KCNQ1, and ZSWIM5. However, only the CpG in RPTOR (cg08129331) was replicated in an independent data set. Analysis of within-individual change from baseline to Year 6 found significant correlations between the rates of change in methylation in RPTOR, REC8 and ZSWIM5, and time to cancer diagnosis.

Conclusion

The results show that changes in cellular composition explains much of the cross-sectional and longitudinal variation in CpG methylation. Additionally, differential methylation and longitudinal dynamics at specific CpGs could provide powerful indicators of cancer development and/or progression. In particular, we highlight CpG methylation in the RPTOR gene as a potential biomarker of cancer that awaits further validation.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s40364-019-0161-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Overexpression of MTA1 inhibits the metastatic ability of ZR-75-30 cells in vitro by promoting MTA2 degradation

BACKGROUND

As the first member of the metastasis-associated protein (MTA) family, MTA1 and another MTA family member, MTA2, have both been reported to promote breast cancer progression and metastasis. However, the difference and relationship between MTA1 and MTA2 have not been fully elucidated.

METHODS

Transwell assays were used to assess the roles of MTA1 and MTA2 in the metastasis of ZR-75-30 luminal B breast cancer cells in vitro. Immunoblotting and qRT-PCR were used to evaluate the effect of MTA1 overexpression on MTA2. Proteases that cleave MTA2 were predicted using an online web server. The role of neutrophil elastase (NE) in MTA1 overexpression-induced MTA2 downregulation was confirmed by specific inhibitor treatment, knockdown, overexpression and immunocytochemistry, and NE cleavage sites in MTA2 were confirmed by MTA2 truncation and mutation. The effect of MTA1 overexpression on the intrinsic inhibitor of NE, elafin, was detected by qRT-PCR, immunoblotting and treatment with inhibitors.

RESULTS

MTA1 overexpression inhibited, while MTA2 promoted the metastasis of ZR-75-30 cells in vitro. MTA1 overexpression downregulated MTA2 expression at the protein level rather than the mRNA level. NE was predicted to cleave MTA2 and was responsible for MTA1 overexpression-induced MTA2 degradation. NE was found to cleave MTA2 in the C-terminus at the 486, 497, 542, 583 and 621 sites. MTA1 overexpression activated NE by downregulating elafin in a histone deacetylase- and DNA methyltransferase-dependent manner.

CONCLUSIONS

MTA1 and MTA2 play opposing roles in the metastasis of ZR-75-30 luminal B breast cancer cells in vitro. MTA1 downregulates MTA2 at the protein level by epigenetically repressing the expression of elafin and releasing the inhibition of neutrophil elastase, which cleaves MTA2 in the C-terminus at multiple specific sites.

Bioinformatical identification of key pathways and genes in human hepatocellular carcinoma after CSN5 depletion

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of primary liver cancer. It has been previously reported that CSN5 depletion is an effective method in human HCC. In the current study, we aimed to uncover gene signatures and key pathways during HCC. Gene expression profiles of GSE26485 were downloaded from GEO database. Totally, 101 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were up-regulated and 146 ones were down-regulated. Biological processes (BP) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway (KEGG) analysis showed that the DEGs were mainly enriched in regulation of cell growth, oxidation-reduction process, mitotic cytokinesis, negative regulation of macroautophagy, endosome organization, lysosome, biosynthesis of antibiotics, small cell lung cancer and glutathione metabolism and so on (P < 0.05). Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network, Kaplan-Meier, log-rank method, western blot, immunohistochemistry and encyclopedia of DNA elements (ENCODE) analysis showed that CSN5 depletion took effects through down-regulation of SMAD5-related pathways which include EXO1, CENPA and NCAPG, resulting in the inactivation of H3K4me3 and H3K36me3. Those genes represent the promising targets for therapeutic intervention in HCC patients.

MiR-367 regulates cell proliferation and metastasis by targeting metastasis-associated protein 3 (MTA3) in clear-cell renal cell carcinoma

Clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is an aggressive and malignant kidney cancer which has the worst prognosis. Although microRNAs (miRNAs) have recently been identified as a novel class of regulators in oncogenesis and metastasis, there are few studies on their participation in ccRCC. In the present study, we observed that miR-367 expression was increased in both human ccRCC tissues and cell lines. Cell proliferation was evaluated by MTT assay and 5-Ethynyl-2′-deoxyuridine (EdU) assay kit, which indicated that inhibition of miR-367 could suppress the ccRCC proliferation. Forced expression of miR-367 substantially induced cell migration and invasion evidenced by wound-healing and transwell assays, and this carcinogenesis could be abolished by miR-367 inhibitor treatment. Further analysis identified Metastasis-Associated Protein 3 (MTA3) as a direct target of miR-367. QRT-PCR and western blot results indicated the correlative expression of miR-367 and MTA3 in ccRCC tissue samples. Overexpression of MTA3 reversed miR-367-induced cell proliferation, migration and invasion. Our data uncovered a novel molecular interaction between miR-367 and MTA3, indicating a therapeutic strategy of miR-367 for ccRCC.