Substantial remission of prostate adenocarcinoma with dendritic cell therapy APCEDEN® in combination with chemotherapy

Identifying the tumor immune microenvironment-associated prognostic genes for prostate cancer

PURPOSE

This study aimed to explore novel tumor immune microenvironment (TIME)-associated biomarkers in prostate adenocarcinoma (PRAD).

METHODS

PRAD RNA-sequencing data were obtained from UCSC Xena database as the training dataset. The ESTIMATE package was used to evaluate stromal, immune, and tumor purity scores. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) related to TIME were screened using the immune and stromal scores. Gene functions were analyzed using DAVID. The LASSO method was performed to screen prognostic TIME-related genes. Kaplan-Meier curves were used to evaluate the prognosis of samples. The correlation between the screened genes and immune cell infiltration was explored using Tumor IMmune Estimation Resource. The GSE70768 dataset from the Gene Expression Omnibus was used to validate the expression of the screened genes.

RESULTS

The ESTIMATE results revealed that high immune, stromal, and ESTIMATE scores and low tumor purity had better prognoses. Function analysis indicated that DEGs are involved in the cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction signaling pathway. In TIME-related DEGs, METTL7B, HOXB8, and TREM1 were closely related to the prognosis. Samples with low expression levels of METTL7B, HOXB8, and TREM1 had better survival times. Similarly, both the validation dataset and qRT-PCR suggested that METTL7B, HOXB8, and TREM1 were significantly decreased. The three genes showed a positive correlation with immune infiltration.

CONCLUSIONS

This study identified three TIME-related genes, namely, METTL7B, HOXB8, and TREM1, which correlated with the prognosis of patients with PRAD. Targeting the TIME-related genes might have important clinical implications when making decisions for immunotherapy in PRAD.

Has the Landscape of Immunotherapy for Prostate Cancer Changed? A Systematic Review and Post Hoc Analysis

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second leading cause of cancer-causing death in the United States. As the most common malignancy in men, it is pertinent to explore whether novel immunotherapies may improve the quality of life and overall survival (OS) of patient populations. This systematic review and post hoc analysis curates a patient-by-patient pool of evidence adhering to PRISMA Statement 2020 guidelines. In total, 24 patients were analyzed for treatment history and associated variables including prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels at diagnosis and post-treatment, Gleason score, secondary tumor locations, success/failure of therapy, and post-immunotherapy outcomes including OS. In total, 10 types of immunotherapies were identified with Pembrolizumab (among 8 patients) followed by IMM-101 (among 6 patients) being the most commonly administered. The mean OS for all patients was 27.8 months (24 patients) with the relatively highest mean OS reported with IMM-101 (56 months) followed by tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (30 months). This research article provides critical insights into the evolving landscape of immunotherapies being tested for PCa and addresses gaps in oncological research to advance the understanding of PCa.

Zinc finger C3H1 domain-containing protein (ZFC3H1) evaluates the prognosis and treatment of prostate adenocarcinoma (PRAD): A study based on TCGA data

The present study was aimed to evaluate the expression profile of Zinc finger C3H1 domain-containing protein (ZFC3H1) using bioinformatic analysis of public datasets from The Cancer Genome Atlas database (TCGA). The results showed that the expression levels of ZFC3H1 were notably lower than the corresponding non-cancerous tissues in prostate adenocarcinoma (PRAD), and patients in the high ZFC3H1-expression group showed poor survival. We hypothesized that the low expression of ZFC3H1 in tumor tissue might have be an inhibitory effect on the autoimmune system. We predicted the regulatory target and protein interaction partner network of ZFC3H1, and identified a PPI network composed of 26 node genes in PRAD. Furthermore, we found that the expression levels of MPHOSPH6 (encoding M-phase phosphoprotein 6) and MRPS31 (encoding mitochondrial ribosomal protein S31) were lower in PRAD tissues than in non-cancerous tissues, and the survival time of patients with high MPHOSPH6 and MRPS31 expression was poor. To further demonstrate the role of ZC3H1 in PRAD, we knocked-down the ZFC3H1 expression and found that the inhibition of ZFC3H1 significantly inhibited PRAD cell migration and invasion. Furthermore, ZFC3H1 siRNA treatment could reduce cell viability and increase the number of apoptotic cells in PRAD cells. Taken together, ZFC3H1 could represent a new marker for PRAD prognosis and provide a reference for the development of new therapies to treat PRAD.