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Lin XH, Zhang DY, Liu ZY, Tang WQ, Chen RX, Li DP, Weng S, Dong L. lncRNA-AC079061.1/VIPR1 axis may suppress the development of hepatocellular carcinoma: a bioinformatics analysis and experimental validation. Lab Invest 2022; 20:379. [PMID: 36038907 PMCID: PMC9422102 DOI: 10.1186/s12967-022-03573-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2022] [Accepted: 08/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
Background Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most malignant tumors to threaten human life, and the survival rate remains low due to delayed diagnosis. Meanwhile, lncRNAs have great potential for application in tumor prognosis, therefore relevant research in hepatocellular carcinoma is indispensable. Methods Based on the EZH2 expression, the differentially expressed lncRNAs DElncRNAs), miRNAs (DEmiRNAs), and mRNAs (DEmRNAs) were identified in hepatocellular carcinoma by using the TCGA database. Bioinformatics technology was utilized to determine the effect of key genes in HCC progression. The methylation and immune infiltration analyses were performed to explore the underlying function of hub genes. Finally, cellular function experiments were performed to investigate the association between identified genes and biological phenotypes in HCC. Results lncRNA-AC079061.1, hsa-miR-765, and VIPR1 were identified as independent factors that affect the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma. The immune infiltration analyses revealed that lncRNA-AC079061.1 can alter the immune microenvironment and thus inhibit the development of HCC by regulating the expression of an immune-related gene (VIPR1). Methylation analyses demonstrated that VIPR1 expression is negatively related to the methylation level in HCC. Experimental results suggested that lncRNA-AC079061.1 and VIPR1 were frequently downregulated in HCC cells, while hsa-miR-765 was significantly upregulated. Moreover, the lncRNA-AC079061.1/VIPR1 axis suppressed the proliferation and invasion of HCC cells. Conclusion The present study identified the lncRNA-AC079061.1/VIPR1 axis as a novel biomarker that inhibited the proliferation and invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma, affecting the ultimate disease outcome. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12967-022-03573-7.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xia-Hui Lin
- Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.,Shanghai Institute of Liver Disease, Shanghai, 200032, China
| | - Dan-Ying Zhang
- Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.,Shanghai Institute of Liver Disease, Shanghai, 200032, China
| | - Zhi-Yong Liu
- Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.,Shanghai Institute of Liver Disease, Shanghai, 200032, China
| | - Wen-Qing Tang
- Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.,Shanghai Institute of Liver Disease, Shanghai, 200032, China
| | - Rong-Xin Chen
- Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University and Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion, Ministry of Education, Shanghai, 200032, China
| | - Dong-Ping Li
- Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.,Shanghai Institute of Liver Disease, Shanghai, 200032, China
| | - Shuqiang Weng
- Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China. .,Shanghai Institute of Liver Disease, Shanghai, 200032, China.
| | - Ling Dong
- Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China. .,Shanghai Institute of Liver Disease, Shanghai, 200032, China.
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Gao P, Zeng X, Zhang L, Wang L, Shen LL, Hou YY, Zhou F, Zhang X. Overexpression of miR-378 Alleviates Chronic Sciatic Nerve Injury by Targeting EZH2. Neurochem Res 2021; 46:3213-3221. [PMID: 34406548 DOI: 10.1007/s11064-021-03424-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2021] [Revised: 07/12/2021] [Accepted: 08/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
In numerous studies, microRNAs (miRNAs) have been authenticated to play vital roles in the pathophysiology of neuropathic pain and other neurological diseases. In our study, we focused on evaluating miR-378 and its potential effects in neuropathic pain development, as well as the underlying molecular mechanisms. Primarily, a chronic sciatic nerve injury (CCI) rat model was established. Next, reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was employed to measure the expression levels of miR-378 and EZH2 mRNA; the EZH2 protein expression levels were detected by western blot. A luciferase activity assay monitored the interaction of miR-378 and EZH2. Mechanical and thermal hyperalgesia was also performed to quantitate the effects of overexpression of miR-378 or EZH2 on the CCI rats. We found that miR-378 was down-regulated in the CCI rats, and the overexpression of miR-378 produced significant relief in their pain management. EZH2 was the downstream gene of miR-378 and was negatively regulated by miR-378. The up-regulation of EZH2 reduced the inhibitory effects of miR-378 on the development of neuropathic pain in the CCI rats. miR-378 acts as an inhibitor in the progression of neuropathic pain via targeting EZH2; the miR-378/EZH2 axis may be a novel target for the diagnosis and therapy of neuropathic pain in clinical treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pengfei Gao
- Department of Anesthesiology, The Affiliated Huai'an No.1 People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Huai'an, Jiangsu, China
| | - Xin Zeng
- Department of Anesthesiology, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Hubei Province, Wuhan, China
| | - Lin Zhang
- Department of Anesthesiology, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Hubei Province, Wuhan, China
| | - Long Wang
- Department of Anesthesiology, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Hubei Province, Wuhan, China
| | - Lu-Lu Shen
- Department of Anesthesiology, Huai'an Second People's Hospital and The Affiliated Huai'an Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, 66 Huaihai South Road, Huai'an, Jiangsu, China
| | - Ya-Yun Hou
- Department of Anesthesiology, Huai'an Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 3 Heping Road, Huai'an, Jiangsu, China
| | - Fang Zhou
- Department of Anesthesiology, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Hubei Province, Wuhan, China
| | - Xianlong Zhang
- Department of Anesthesiology, The Affiliated Huai'an No.1 People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Huai'an, Jiangsu, China.
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Tan X, Zhang Z, Liu P, Yao H, Shen L, Tong JS. Inhibition of EZH2 enhances the therapeutic effect of 5-FU via PUMA upregulation in colorectal cancer. Cell Death Dis 2020; 11:1061. [PMID: 33311453 PMCID: PMC7733595 DOI: 10.1038/s41419-020-03266-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2020] [Revised: 11/10/2020] [Accepted: 11/11/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Although the survival rate of patients with cancer have increased due to the use of current chemotherapeutic agents, adverse effects of cancer therapy remain a concern. The reversal of drug resistance, reduction in harmful side effects and accelerated increase in efficiency have often been addressed in the development of combination therapeutics. Tazemetostat (EPZ-6438), a histone methyltransferase EZH2 selective inhibitor, was approved by the FDA for the treatment of advanced epithelioid sarcoma. However, the effect of tazemetostat on colorectal cancer (CRC) and 5-FU sensitivity remains unclear. In this study, the enhancement of tazemetostat on 5-FU sensitivity was examined in CRC cells. Our findings demonstrated that tazemetostat combined with 5-FU exhibits synergistic antitumor function in vitro and in vivo in CRC cells. In addition, tazemetostat promotes PUMA induction through the ROS/ER stress/CHOP axis. PUMA depletion attenuates the antitumor effect of the combination therapy. Therefore, tazemetostat may be a novel treatment to improve the sensitivity of tumors to 5-FU in CRC therapy. In conclusion, the combination of 5-FU and tazemetostat shows high therapeutic possibility with reduced unfavorable effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiao Tan
- Department of Oncology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, 410008, People's Republic of China.
| | - Zhongqiang Zhang
- Department of Liver Transplantation, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, 410011, People's Republic of China
| | - Ping Liu
- Department of Oncology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, 410008, People's Republic of China
| | - Hongliang Yao
- Department of General Surgery, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, 410011, People's Republic of China
| | - Liangfang Shen
- Department of Oncology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, 410008, People's Republic of China
| | - Jing-Shan Tong
- Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA.
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Wijetunga NA, Pascual M, Tozour J, Delahaye F, Alani M, Adeyeye M, Wolkoff AW, Verma A, Greally JM. A pre-neoplastic epigenetic field defect in HCV-infected liver at transcription factor binding sites and polycomb targets. Oncogene 2017; 36:2030-2044. [PMID: 27721404 PMCID: PMC5383522 DOI: 10.1038/onc.2016.340] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/21/2015] [Revised: 07/26/2016] [Accepted: 08/05/2016] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
The predisposition of patients with Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) involves components of viral infection, inflammation and time. The development of multifocal, genetically distinct tumours is suggestive of a field defect affecting the entire liver. The molecular susceptibility mediating such a field defect is not understood. One potential mediator of long-term cellular reprogramming is heritable (epigenetic) regulation of transcription, exemplified by DNA methylation. We studied epigenetic and transcriptional changes in HCV-infected livers in comparison with control, uninfected livers and HCC, allowing us to identify pre-neoplastic epigenetic and transcriptional events. We find the HCV-infected liver to have a pattern of acquisition of DNA methylation targeted to candidate enhancers active in liver cells, enriched for the binding sites of the FOXA1, FOXA2 and HNF4A transcription factors. These enhancers can be subdivided into those proximal to genes implicated in liver cancer or to genes involved in stem cell development, the latter distinguished by increased CG dinucleotide density and polycomb-mediated repression, manifested by the additional acquisition of histone H3 lysine 27 trimethylation (H3K27me3). Transcriptional studies on our samples showed that the increased DNA methylation at enhancers was associated with decreased local gene expression, results validated in independent samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas. Pharmacological depletion of H3K27me3 using the EZH2 inhibitor GSK343 in HepG2 cells suppressed cell growth and also revealed that local acquired DNA methylation was not dependent upon the presence of polycomb-mediated repression. The results support a model of HCV infection influencing the binding of transcription factors to cognate sites in the genome, with consequent local acquisition of DNA methylation, and the added repressive influence of polycomb at a subset of CG-dense cis-regulatory sequences. These epigenetic events occur before neoplastic transformation, resulting in what may be a pharmacologically reversible epigenetic field defect in HCV-infected liver.
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Affiliation(s)
- N A Wijetunga
- Department of Genetics and Center for Epigenomics, Bronx, NY, USA
| | - M Pascual
- Department of Genetics and Center for Epigenomics, Bronx, NY, USA
- Centro de Investigación Médica Aplicada (CIMA), IDISNA, Oncohematology Department, Pamplona, Spain
| | - J Tozour
- Department of Genetics and Center for Epigenomics, Bronx, NY, USA
| | - F Delahaye
- Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women's Health, Bronx, NY, USA
| | - M Alani
- Department of Medicine (Division of Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases), Bronx, NY, USA
- Marion Bessin Liver Research Center, Bronx, NY, USA
| | - M Adeyeye
- Department of Genetics and Center for Epigenomics, Bronx, NY, USA
| | - A W Wolkoff
- Department of Medicine (Division of Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases), Bronx, NY, USA
- Marion Bessin Liver Research Center, Bronx, NY, USA
| | - A Verma
- Department of Medicine (Oncology), Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA
| | - J M Greally
- Department of Genetics and Center for Epigenomics, Bronx, NY, USA
- Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1301 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx NY 10461, USA. E-mail:
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Ma DN, Chai ZT, Zhu XD, Zhang N, Zhan DH, Ye BG, Wang CH, Qin CD, Zhao YM, Zhu WP, Cao MQ, Gao DM, Sun HC, Tang ZY. MicroRNA-26a suppresses epithelial-mesenchymal transition in human hepatocellular carcinoma by repressing enhancer of zeste homolog 2. J Hematol Oncol 2016; 9:1. [PMID: 26733151 PMCID: PMC4702409 DOI: 10.1186/s13045-015-0229-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 76] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2015] [Accepted: 12/28/2015] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Our previous study reported that microRNA-26a (miR-26a) inhibited tumor progression by inhibiting tumor angiogenesis and intratumoral macrophage infiltration in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The direct roles of miR-26a on tumor cell invasion remain poorly understood. In this study, we aim to explore the mechanism of miR-26a in modulating epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in HCC. Methods In vitro cell morphology and cell migration were compared between the hepatoma cell lines HCCLM3 and HepG2, which were established in the previous study. Overexpression and down-regulation of miR-26a were induced in these cell lines, and Western blot and immunofluorescence assays were used to detect the expression of EMT markers. Xenograft nude mouse models were used to observe tumor growth and pulmonary metastasis. Immunohistochemical assays were conducted to study the relationships between miR-26a expression and enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) and E-cadherin expression in human HCC samples. Results Down-regulation of miR-26a in HCCLM3 and HepG2 cells resulted in an EMT-like cell morphology and high motility in vitro and increased in tumor growth and pulmonary metastasis in vivo. Through down-regulation of EZH2 expression and up-regulation of E-cadherin expression, miR-26a inhibited the EMT process in vitro and in vivo. Luciferase reporter assay showed that miR-26a directly interacted with EZH2 messenger RNA (mRNA). Furthermore, the expression of miR-26a was positively correlated with E-cadherin expression and inversely correlated with EZH2 expression in human HCC tissue. Conclusions miR-26a inhibited the EMT process in HCC by down-regulating EZH2 expression.
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Affiliation(s)
- De-Ning Ma
- Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.,Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
| | - Zong-Tao Chai
- Department of General Surgery, Changzheng Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
| | - Xiao-Dong Zhu
- Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.,Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
| | - Ning Zhang
- Department of Liver Surgery, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Cancer Hospital, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
| | - Di-Hua Zhan
- Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.,Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
| | - Bo-Gen Ye
- Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.,Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
| | - Cheng-Hao Wang
- Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.,Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
| | - Cheng-Dong Qin
- Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.,Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
| | - Yi-Ming Zhao
- Department of Liver Surgery, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Cancer Hospital, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
| | - Wei-Ping Zhu
- Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.,Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
| | - Man-Qing Cao
- Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.,Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
| | - Dong-Mei Gao
- Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.,Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
| | - Hui-Chuan Sun
- Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.,Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
| | - Zhao-You Tang
- Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China. .,Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
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