Immunological Classification of Pancreatic Carcinomas to Identify Immune Index and Provide a Strategy for Patient Stratification

The immunological landscape in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and overcoming resistance to immunotherapy

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is associated with a poor prognosis and there are few treatment options. The development of immunotherapy in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma has been difficult, and immune checkpoint inhibitors are only effective in a very small subset of patients. Most obstacles for treatment have been related to intertumoural and intratumoural heterogeneity, the composition of tumour stroma, and crosstalk with cancer cells. Improved molecular characterisation of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and a better understanding of its microenvironment have paved the way for novel immunotherapy strategies, including the identification of predictive biomarkers, the development of rational combinations to optimise effectiveness, and the targeting of new mechanisms. Future immunotherapy strategies should consider individual characteristics to move beyond the traditional immune targets and circumvent the resistance to therapies that have been developed so far.

The role of CSTF2 in cancer: from technology to clinical application

A protein called cleavage-stimulating factor subunit 2 (CSTF2, additionally called CSTF-64) binds RNA and is needed for the cleavage and polyadenylation of mRNA. CSTF2 is an important component subunit of the cleavage stimulating factor (CSTF), which is located on the X chromosome and encodes 557 amino acids. There is compelling evidence linking elevated CSTF2 expression to the pathological advancement of cancer and on its impact on the clinical aspects of the disease. The progression of cancers, including hepatocellular carcinoma, melanoma, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and pancreatic cancer, is correlated with the upregulation of CSTF2 expression. This review provides a fresh perspective on the investigation of the associations between CSTF2 and various malignancies and highlights current studies on the regulation of CSTF2. In particular, the mechanism of action and potential clinical applications of CSTF2 in cancer suggest that CSTF2 can serve as a new biomarker and individualized treatment target for a variety of cancer types.

The diagnostic significance of the ZNF gene family in pancreatic cancer: a bioinformatics and experimental study

Background: Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD) is among the most devastating of all cancers with a poor survival rate. Therefore, we established a zinc finger (ZNF) protein-based prognostic prediction model for PAAD patients. Methods: The RNA-seq data for PAAD were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases. Differentially expressed ZNF protein genes (DE-ZNFs) in PAAD and normal control tissues were screened using the "lemma" package in R. An optimal risk model and an independent prognostic value were established by univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses. Survival analyses were performed to assess the prognostic ability of the model. Results: We constructed a ZNF family genes-related risk score model that is based on the 10 DE-ZNFs (ZNF185, PRKCI, RTP4, SERTAD2, DEF8, ZMAT1, SP110, U2AF1L4, CXXC1, and RMND5B). The risk score was found to be a significant independent prognostic factor for PAAD patients. Seven significantly differentially expressed immune cells were identified between the high- and low-risk patients. Then, based on the prognostic genes, we constructed a ceRNA regulatory network that includes 5 prognostic genes, 7 miRNAs and 35 lncRNAs. Expression analysis showed ZNF185, PRKCI and RTP4 were significantly upregulated, while ZMAT1 and CXXC1 were significantly downregulated in the PAAD samples in all TCGA - PAAD, GSE28735 and GSE15471 datasets. Moreover, the upregulation of RTP4, SERTAD2, and SP110 were verified by the cell experiments. Conclusion: We established and validated a novel, Zinc finger protein family - related prognostic risk model for patients with PAAD, that has the potential to inform patient management.