Survival analysis of young adults from a Brazilian cohort of non-small cell lung cancer patients

METTL3 attenuates ferroptosis sensitivity in lung cancer via modulating TFRC

Overexpression of methyltransferase-like 3 (METTL3) is significantly correlated with the malignancy of lung cancer (LC). In the present study, we demonstrated that METTL3 had higher levels in LC tissues relative to normal tissues. METTL3 showed superior sensitivity and specificity for diagnosis and identification of LC functions. In addition, silencing METTL3 resulted in enhanced ferroptosis sensitivity, whereas overexpression of METTL3 exhibited the opposite effect. Inhibition of METTL3 impeded LC growth in cell-derived xenografts. Further exploratory studies found that METTL3 stimulated the low expression of transferrin receptor (TFRC), which was critical for ferroptosis sensitization in LC cells induced by silenced METTL3, as silencing of TFRC caused a decrease in negative regulators of ferroptosis (FTH1 and FTL) in METTL3 knockdown A549 and PC9 cells. Finally, we confirmed that METTL3 attenuation effectively maintained the stability of TFRC mRNA. In conclusion, we reported a novel mechanism of METTL3 desensitization to ferroptosis via regulating TFRC, and an appropriate reduction of METTL3 might sensitize cancer cells to ferroptosis-based therapy.

Association between Polymorphism of Genes IL-1A, NFKB1, PAR1, TP53, and UCP2 and Susceptibility to Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer in the Brazilian Amazon

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for the vast majority of cases of lung neoplasms. It is formed in multiple stages, with interactions between environmental risk factors and individual genetic susceptibility and with genes involved in the immune and inflammatory response paths, cell or genome stability, and metabolism, among others. Our objective was to evaluate the association between five genetic variants (IL-1A, NFKB1, PAR1, TP53, and UCP2) and the development of NSCLC in the Brazilian Amazon. The study included 263 individuals with and without lung cancer. The samples were analyzed for the genetic variants of NFKB1 (rs28362491), PAR1 (rs11267092), TP53 (rs17878362), IL-1A (rs3783553), and UCP2 (INDEL 45-bp), which were genotyped in PCR, followed by an analysis of the fragments, in which we applied a previously developed set of informative ancestral markers. We used a logistic regression model to identify differences in the allele and the genotypic frequencies among individuals and their association with NSCLC. The variables of gender, age, and smoking were controlled in the multivariate analysis to prevent confusion by association. The individuals that were homozygous for the Del/Del of polymorphism NFKB1 (rs28362491) (p = 0.018; OR = 0.332) demonstrate a significant association with NSCLC, which was similar to that observed in the variants of PAR1 (rs11267092) (p = 0.023; OR = 0.471) and TP53 (rs17878362) (p = 0.041; OR = 0.510). Moreover, the individuals with the Ins/Ins genotype of polymorphism IL-1A (rs3783553) demonstrated greater risk for NSCLC (p = 0.033; OR = 2.002), as did the volunteers with the Del/Del of UCP2 (INDEL 45-bp) (p = 0.031; OR = 2.031). The five polymorphisms investigated can contribute towards NSCLC susceptibility in the population of the Brazilian Amazon.