High expression of CDCA7 predicts tumor progression and poor prognosis in human colorectal cancer

CDCA7 enhances STAT3 transcriptional activity to regulate aerobic glycolysis and promote pancreatic cancer progression and gemcitabine resistance

Cell division cycle associated 7 (CDCA7) plays a role in various malignancies, especially pancreatic cancer (PC). However, its expression pattern and functional significance in PC require further research. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate CDCA7 expression levels and biological functions in PC using in vitro and in vivo experiments. Western blotting, immunohistochemistry, and real-time polymerase chain reaction were performed to detect CDCA7 expression in PC cells and tissues. Additionally, the biological functions of CDCA7 were assessed using cell proliferation, wound healing, and Transwell assays. CDCA7 overexpression promoted PC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion, and increased resistance to the chemotherapy drug gemcitabine, possibly through enhanced aerobic glycolysis. Additionally, immunoprecipitation assay showed that CDCA7 interacted with STAT3 protein and affected the transcriptional regulation of hexokinase 2. Conclusively, targeting CDCA7 might be a promising therapeutic strategy to increase gemcitabine sensitivity by inhibiting glycolysis in PC cells.

ARMH1 is a novel marker associated with poor pediatric AML outcomes that affect the fatty acid synthesis and cell cycle pathways

Introduction

Despite remarkable progress in Pediatric Acute Myeloid Leukemia (pAML) treatments, the relapsed disease remains difficult to treat, making it pertinent to identify novel biomarkers of prognostic/therapeutic significance.

Material and methods

Bone marrow samples from 21 pAML patients were analyzed using single cell RNA sequencing, functional assays with ARMH1 knockdown and overexpression were performed in leukemia cell lines to evaluate impact on proliferation and migration, and chemotherapy sensitivity. Mitochondrial function was assessed via Seahorse assay, ARMH1 interacting proteins were studied using co-immunoprecipitation. Bulk RNA-seq was performed on ARMH1knockdown and over expressing cell lines to evaluate the pathways and networks impacted by ARMH1.

Results

Our data shows that ARMH1, a novel cancer-associated gene, is highly expressed in the malignant blast cells of multiple pediatric hematologic malignancies, including AML, T/B-ALL, and T/B-MPAL. Notably, ARMH1 expression is significantly elevated in blast cells of patients who relapsed or have a high-risk cytogenetic profile (MLL) compared to standard-risk (RUNX1, inv (16)). ARMH1 expression is also significantly correlated with the pediatric leukemia stem cell score of 6 genes (LSC6) associated with poor outcomes. Perturbation of ARMH1 (knockdown and overexpression) in leukemia cell lines significantly impacted cell proliferation and migration. The RNA-sequencing analysis on multiple ARMH1 knockdown and overexpressing cell lines established an association with mitochondrial fatty acid synthesis and cell cycle pathways.The investigation of the mitochondrial matrix shows that pharmacological inhibition of a key enzyme in fatty acid synthesis regulation, CPT1A, resulted in ARMH1 downregulation. ARMH1 knockdown also led to a significant reduction in CPT1A and ATP production as well as Oxygen Consumption Rate. Our data indicates that downregulating ARMH1 impacts cell proliferation by reducing key cell cycle regulators such as CDCA7 and EZH2. Further, we also established that ARMH1 is a key physical interactant of EZH2, associated with multiple cancers.

Conclusion

Our findings underscore further evaluation of ARMH1 as a potential candidate for targeted therapies and stratification of aggressive pAML to improve outcomes.

B7-H4 is a potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in colorectal cancer and correlates with the epithelial-mesenchymal transition

Background

As a negative co-stimulatory molecule of the B7 family, B7-H4 has recently attracted increased attention. However, the clinical value of B7-H4 in colorectal cancer (CRC) remains controversial and requires further investigation. This study aimed to investigate the role of B7-H4 in the clinical diagnosis and survival prognosis of CRC.

Methods

The relationships between B7-H4 expression, immune cell infiltration, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), clinicopathological features, and survival prognosis were determined through the TCGA database and verified in a large CRC cohort (n = 1118).

Results

The results showed the level of B7-H4 mRNA expression was significantly increased in the CRC tumor tissues compared with normal tissues (P <  0.001). Immunohistochemistry showed that B7-H4 protein expression was also up-regulated in CRC. The positive rate of B7-H4 in CRC tumor tissues was 76.38%, which was significantly higher than that in non-tumor tissues (P <  0.001). Overexpression of B7-H4 was positively correlated with lymph node metastasis, advanced TNM stage, and poor tumor differentiation (P = 0.012; 0.009; 0.014). Prognostic analysis showed high B7-H4 expression was associated with significantly shorter OS. Multivariate analysis demonstrated the risk of death in CRC patients with high B7-H4 expression is 1.487 times that of low B7-H4 expression. In addition, B7-H4 expression was negatively correlated with the epithelial marker E-cadherin (P <  0.001) and positively correlated with the mesenchymal marker vimentin (P <  0.001) in CRC tissues. However, B7-H4 expression was not associated with the immunosuppressive microenvironment in CRC.

Conclusion

B7-H4 may represent a potential biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of CRC and enhance CRC invasion by promoting EMT.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-022-10159-5.

Investigating CENPW as a Novel Biomarker Correlated With the Development and Poor Prognosis of Breast Carcinoma

Breast invasive carcinoma (BRCA) is a carcinoma with a fairly high incidence, and the therapeutic schedules are generally surgery and chemotherapy. However, chemotherapeutic drugs tend to produce serious toxic side effects, which lead to the cessation of treatment. Therefore, it is imperative to develop treatment strategies that are more effective and have fewer side effects at the genetic level. Centromeric protein W (CENPW) is an oncogene that plays an important part in nucleosome assembly. To date, no studies have reported the prognostic significance of CENPW in breast carcinoma. In this study, we verified that CENPW expression is up-regulated in breast carcinoma and positively associated with the level of immune cell infiltration. The clinicopathological characteristics further suggest that CENPW expression is correlated with a worse prognosis of breast carcinoma. Interestingly, the CENPW mutation contributes to the poor prognosis. Next, we discovered that the genes interacting with CENPW are mainly concentrated in the cell cycle pathway, and CENPW is co-expressed with CDCA7, which is also highly expressed in breast carcinoma and leads to a worse prognosis. Our subsequent studies verified that knockdown of CENPW significantly inhibits the proliferation and migration of breast carcinoma cells and promotes their apoptosis rate. Notably, inhibition of CEMPW sensitizes breast cancer cells to chemotherapeutic drugs that have been found to induce cell cycle arrest. In summary, these results provide extensive data and experimental evidence that CENPW can serve as a novel predictor of breast cancer and may act as a prospective therapeutic target.

High-Throughput Profiling of Colorectal Cancer Liver Metastases Reveals Intra- and Inter-Patient Heterogeneity in the EGFR and WNT Pathways Associated with Clinical Outcome

Simple Summary

Tumor heterogeneity can greatly influence therapy outcome and patient survival. In this study, we aimed at unraveling inter- and intra-patient heterogeneity of colorectal cancer liver metastases (CRLM). To this end, we comprehensively characterized CRLM using state-of-the-art high-throughput technologies combined with bioinformatics analyses. We found a high degree of inter- and intra-patient heterogeneity among the metastases, in particular in genes of the WNT and EGFR pathways. Through analyzing the master regulators and effectors associated with the regulation of these genes, we identified a specific gene signature that was highly expressed in a large cohort of colorectal cancer patients and associated with clinical outcome.

Abstract

Seventy percent of patients with colorectal cancer develop liver metastases (CRLM), which are a decisive factor in cancer progression. Therapy outcome is largely influenced by tumor heterogeneity, but the intra- and inter-patient heterogeneity of CRLM has been poorly studied. In particular, the contribution of the WNT and EGFR pathways, which are both frequently deregulated in colorectal cancer, has not yet been addressed in this context. To this end, we comprehensively characterized normal liver tissue and eight CRLM from two patients by standardized histopathological, molecular, and proteomic subtyping. Suitable fresh-frozen tissue samples were profiled by transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) and proteomic profiling with reverse phase protein arrays (RPPA) combined with bioinformatic analyses to assess tumor heterogeneity and identify WNT- and EGFR-related master regulators and metastatic effectors. A standardized data analysis pipeline for integrating RNA-Seq with clinical, proteomic, and genetic data was established. Dimensionality reduction of the transcriptome data revealed a distinct signature for CRLM differing from normal liver tissue and indicated a high degree of tumor heterogeneity. WNT and EGFR signaling were highly active in CRLM and the genes of both pathways were heterogeneously expressed between the two patients as well as between the synchronous metastases of a single patient. An analysis of the master regulators and metastatic effectors implicated in the regulation of these genes revealed a set of four genes (SFN, IGF2BP1, STAT1, PIK3CG) that were differentially expressed in CRLM and were associated with clinical outcome in a large cohort of colorectal cancer patients as well as CRLM samples. In conclusion, high-throughput profiling enabled us to define a CRLM-specific signature and revealed the genes of the WNT and EGFR pathways associated with inter- and intra-patient heterogeneity, which were validated as prognostic biomarkers in CRC primary tumors as well as liver metastases.

The Higher Expression of CDCA2 Associated with Poor Prognosis in Glioma

Glioma is the most common primary intracranial tumor and is related to poor clinical outcomes. The developments of sensitive markers can be applied to reveal the mechanisms involved in the progression of glioma. This study examined CDCA2 expression in glioma samples and its significance in predicting glioma patient outcome. GEPIA and GEO datasets were used to explore the expression of CDCA2 in glioma. Kaplan-Meier and multivariate assays were applied to delve into the prognostic values of CDCA2 expression in glioma patients using CGGA datasets. Our group also determined the associations between CDCA2 and clinical characteristics. Coexpression analysis was performed. In this research, we observed that CDCA2 expression was distinctly upregulated in glioma specimens compared with nontumor specimens. The prognosis of glioma with high CDCA2 expression was distinctly worse compared with that of glioma with low CDCA2 expression. Additionally, multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that high CDCA2 expression was an independent poor prognostic indicator for glioma patients. High expression of CDCA2 was positively associated with advanced clinical progression. Coexpression analysis revealed that CDCA2 could be positively related to ASPM, SKA1, DLGAP5, NCAPG, and CDCA8 and was negatively associated with ETNPPL, LDHD, MRVI1, CBX7, and CENPJ. Overall, our findings revealed that CDCA2 might serve as an independent prognosis indicator for glioma.

CDCA7 Facilitates Tumor Progression by Directly Regulating CCNA2 Expression in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Background

CDCA7 is a copy number amplified gene identified not only in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) but also in various cancer types. Its clinical relevance and underlying mechanisms in ESCC have remained unknown.

Methods

Tissue microarray data was used to analyze its expression in 179 ESCC samples. The effects of CDCA7 on proliferation, colony formation, and cell cycle were tested in ESCC cells. Real-time PCR and Western blot were used to detect the expression of its target genes. Correlation of CDCA7 with its target genes in ESCC and various SCC types was analyzed using GSE53625 and TCGA data. The mechanism of CDCA7 was studied by chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), luciferase reporter assays, and rescue assay.

Results

The overexpression of CDCA7 promoted proliferation, colony formation, and cell cycle in ESCC cells. CDCA7 affected the expression of cyclins in different cell phases. GSE53625 and TCGA data showed CCNA2 expression was positively correlated with CDCA7. The knockdown of CCNA2 reversed the malignant phenotype induced by CDCA7 overexpression. Furthermore, CDCA7 was found to directly bind to CCNA2, thus promoting its expression.

Conclusions

Our results reveal a novel mechanism of CDCA7 that it may act as an oncogene by directly upregulating CCNA2 to facilitate tumor progression in ESCC.

Expression of cell divisioncycle-associated genes and their prognostic significance in hepatocellular carcinoma

The cell division cycle-associated (CDCA) protein family plays an essential role in tumor progression by cell division. However, the function of each CDCA family member in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is not well known. This study is to find the roles of CDCAs in the prognosis of HCC patients by using ONCOMINE, UALCAN, Human Protein Atlas, Kaplan-Meier Plotter, and cBioPortal databases. Overexpression of CDCA mRNA and protein were found to be significantly associated with individual cancer stages and tumor grades in HCC patients. Higher mRNA expressions of 6 CDCA family members were found to be significantly associated with shorter overall survival (OS) in HCC patients. Multivariate analysis showed that overexpressions of CDCA mRNA were independent prognostic factors for shorter OS in HCC patients. Moreover, a high mutation rate of CDCAs (27%) was also detected in HCC patients, and genetic alteration in CDCAs was associated with shorter overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in HCC patients. Finally, a functional analysis showed that CDCAs were mainly enriched in the cell cycle (hsa04110) and oocyte meiosis. Overall, these results indicated that CDCA2/3/4/5/8 could be prognostic biomarkers of survival in HCC patients.

Identification and Verification of Immune-Related Gene Prognostic Signature Based on ssGSEA for Osteosarcoma

Osteosarcoma is the most common malignant bone tumor in children and adolescence. Multiple immune-related genes have been reported in different cancers. The aim is to identify an immune-related gene signature for the prospective evaluation of prognosis for osteosarcoma patients. In this study, we evaluated the infiltration of immune cells in 101 osteosarcoma patients downloaded from TARGET using the ssGSEA to the RNA-sequencing of these patients, thus, high immune cell infiltration cluster, middle immune cell infiltration cluster and low immune cell infiltration cluster were generated. On the foundation of high immune cell infiltration cluster vs. low immune cell infiltration cluster and normal vs. osteosarcoma, we found 108 common differentially expressed genes which were sequentially submitted to univariate Cox and LASSO regression analysis. Furthermore, GSEA indicated some pathways with notable enrichment in the high- and low-immune cell infiltration cluster that may be helpful in understanding the potential mechanisms. Finally, we identified seven immune-related genes as prognostic signature for osteosarcoma. Kaplan-Meier analysis, ROC curve, univariate and multivariate Cox regression further confirmed that the seven immune-related genes signature was an innovative and significant prognostic factor independent of clinical features. These results of this study offer a means to predict the prognosis and survival of osteosarcoma patients with uncovered seven-gene signature as potential biomarkers.