Identification of cell senescence molecular subtypes in prediction of the prognosis and immunotherapy of hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma

How shared versus unshared parental contribution to child risk influences guilt responses

The extent to which parents experience guilt related to their child's health may depend on their perceptions of their contribution to these outcomes. The impact of the child's "other" biological parent's (OBP) contribution to child health on guilt responses is understudied. Some models posit a diffusion-of-responsibility process, while others favor a heightened-risk-heightened-guilt model. The present study examines how perceived OBP contribution to child risk affects guilt among a sample of parents with self-reported overweight. Parents who perceived their child's OBP to also have overweight experienced more guilt for passing down genetic and family environment-based obesity risk to their child, which suggests that perceptions of shared risk contribution promote guilt-related outcomes. Additionally, risk information endorsing a gene-environment interaction liability framing was the most responsive to OBP weight status. These results support a heightened-risk-heightened-guilt process. Future work should consider guilt when developing child health interventions to avoid undesirable emotional outcomes among parents.

Cellular Senescence in Liver Cancer: How Dying Cells Become "Zombie" Enemies

Liver cancer represents the fourth leading cause of cancer-associated death worldwide. The heterogeneity of its tumor microenvironment (TME) is a major contributing factor of metastasis, relapse, and drug resistance. Regrettably, late diagnosis makes most liver cancer patients ineligible for surgery, and the frequent failure of non-surgical therapeutic options orientates clinical research to the investigation of new drugs. In this context, cellular senescence has been recently shown to play a pivotal role in the progression of chronic inflammatory liver diseases, ultimately leading to cancer. Moreover, the stem-like state triggered by senescence has been associated with the emergence of drug-resistant, aggressive tumor clones. In recent years, an increasing number of studies have emerged to investigate senescence-associated hepatocarcinogenesis and its derived therapies, leading to promising results. In this review, we intend to provide an overview of the recent evidence that unveils the role of cellular senescence in the most frequent forms of primary and metastatic liver cancer, focusing on the involvement of this mechanism in therapy resistance.

Cellular senescence throws new insights into patient classification and pharmacological interventions for clinical management of hepatocellular carcinoma

BACKGROUND

Cellular senescence, a state of stable growth arrest, is intertwined with human cancers. However, characterization of cellular senescence-associated phenotypes in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unexplored.

AIM

To address this issue, we delineated cellular senescence landscape across HCC.

METHODS

We enrolled two HCC datasets, TCGA-LIHC and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC). Unsupervised clustering was executed to probe tumor heterogeneity based upon cellular senescence genes. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator algorithm were utilized to define a cellular senescence-relevant scoring system. TRNP1 expression was measured in HCCs and normal tissues through immunohistochemistry, immunoblotting and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The influence of TMF-regulated nuclear protein (TRNP)1 on HCC senescence and growth was proven via a series of experiments.

RESULTS

TCGA-LIHC patients were classified as three cellular senescence subtypes, named C1-3. The robustness and reproducibility of these subtypes were proven in the ICGC cohort. C2 had the worst overall survival, C1 the next, and C3 the best. C2 presented the highest levels of immune checkpoints, abundance of immune cells, and immunogenetic indicators. Thus, C2 might possibly respond to immunotherapy. C2 had the lowest somatic mutation rate, while C1 presented the highest copy number variations. A cellular senescence-relevant gene signature was generated, which can predict patient survival, and chemo- or immunotherapeutic response. Experimentally, it was proven that TRNP1 presented the remarkable upregulation in HCCs. TRNP1 knockdown induced apoptosis and senescence of HCC cells and attenuated tumor growth.

CONCLUSION

These findings provide a systematic framework for assessing cellular senescence in HCC, which decode the tumor heterogeneity and tailor the pharmacological interventions to improve clinical management.