Study of long non-coding RNA highly upregulated in liver cancer (HULC) in breast cancer: A clinical & in vitro investigation

Breast cancer risk is associated with the HULC rs7763881, MTMR3 rs12537 polymorphisms, and serum levels of HULC and MTMR3 in Egyptian patients

BACKGROUND

Highly upregulated in liver cancer (HULC) is one of the LncRNAs that was documented to enhance cancer progression, and its downregulation is associated with cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Myotubularin-related protein 3 (MTMR3) is required for autophagy, and many studies consider MTMR3 to be a negative regulator of autophagy processes. However, nothing is understood about how they regulate breast cancer.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

This case-control study included 245 patients (Group A: 85 early BC Group B: 40 metastatic BC cases, Group C: 40 fibroadenoma cases; and Group D: 80 age matched healthy control subjects. TaqMan Real-time PCR was used to analyse rs7158663 and rs12537. MTMR3 and HULC gene expression levels were measured using RT-PCR.

RESULT

Breast cancer patients exhibited elevated serum MTMR3 and HULC compared to fibroadenomas and control cases. The MTMR3 rs12537 "T/T" genotype was highly expressed in cases of breast cancer (early and metastatic) compared to controls (risk genotype). On the other hand, the HULC rs7158663 genotypes were not statistically associated with breast cancer. However, when compared to the control, the C/C genotype of the HULC gene is higher in the case.MTMR3 gene expression was higher in the T/T genotype compared to both the C/C and C/T genotypes, while HULC gene expression was lower in the A/C genotype compared to both the A/A and C/C genotypes. Positive correlation between MTMR3 and HULC. MTMR3 and ALT, as well as HULC and alkaline phosphatase, both showed a statistically significant positive correlation.

CONCLUSION

Our findings reveal that MTMR3 and HULC serum expression and their SNPs (HULC rs7763881, MTMR3 rs12537) are associated with a higher risk for the development of breast cancer in the Egyptian population.

Beyond the genome: lncRNAs as regulators of the PI3K/AKT pathway in lung cancer

Lung cancer is a prevalent and devastating disease, representing a significant global health burden. Despite advancements in therapeutic strategies, the molecular mechanisms underlying its pathogenesis remain incompletely understood. Lung cancer typically displays the deregulated activity of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase/protein kinase B (PI3K/AKT) pathway, which is vital for cell proliferation, survival, and metastasis. Emerging evidence suggests that long non-coding RNA (lncRNAs) can modulate the PI3K/AKT pathway, offering new insights into lung cancer biology and potential therapeutic opportunities. These lncRNA act as either oncogenes, promoting pathway activation, or tumour suppressors, attenuating pathway signalling. The dysregulation of lncRNA is associated with various cellular processes, including apoptosis, cell cycle control, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and angiogenesis, ultimately influencing lung cancer growth and metastasis. The development of novel therapeutic strategies, such as small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), antisense oligonucleotides, and CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing, holds promise for restoring lncRNAs dysregulation and re-establishing the equilibrium of the PI3K/AKT pathway. The emerging role of lncRNAs as regulators of the PI3K/AKT pathway sheds new light on the complex molecular landscape of lung cancer. Understanding the interplay between lncRNA and the PI3K/AKT pathway could lead to the identification of novel biomarkers for prognosis and therapeutic targets for precision medicine. The potential of lncRNAs-based therapeutics may pave the way for more effective and personalized treatment approaches in lung cancer and potentially other malignancies with dysregulated PI3K/AKT signalling. This review aims to explore the emerging role of lncRNAs as key regulators of the PI3K/AKT pathway in lung cancer.

Screening potential lncRNA biomarkers for breast cancer and colorectal cancer combining random walk and logistic matrix factorization

Breast cancer and colorectal cancer are two of the most common malignant tumors worldwide. They cause the leading causes of cancer mortality. Many researches have demonstrated that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have close linkages with the occurrence and development of the two cancers. Therefore, it is essential to design an effective way to identify potential lncRNA biomarkers for them. In this study, we developed a computational method (LDA-RWLMF) by integrating random walk with restart and Logistic Matrix Factorization to investigate the roles of lncRNA biomarkers in the prognosis and diagnosis of the two cancers. We first fuse disease semantic and Gaussian association profile similarities and lncRNA functional and Gaussian association profile similarities. Second, we design a negative selection algorithm to extract negative LncRNA-Disease Associations (LDA) based on random walk. Third, we develop a logistic matrix factorization model to predict possible LDAs. We compare our proposed LDA-RWLMF method with four classical LDA prediction methods, that is, LNCSIM1, LNCSIM2, ILNCSIM, and IDSSIM. The results from 5-fold cross validation on the MNDR dataset show that LDA-RWLMF computes the best AUC value of 0.9312, outperforming the above four LDA prediction methods. Finally, we rank all lncRNA biomarkers for the two cancers after determining the performance of LDA-RWLMF, respectively. We find that 48 and 50 lncRNAs have the highest association scores with breast cancer and colorectal cancer among all lncRNAs known to associate with them on the MNDR dataset, respectively. We predict that lncRNAs HULC and HAR1A could be separately potential biomarkers for breast cancer and colorectal cancer and need to biomedical experimental validation.

LncRNA HULC as a potential predictor of prognosis and clinicopathological features in patients with digestive system tumors: a meta-analysis

Objective: This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the correlation between lncRNA HULC, prognosis and clinicopathological characteristics in patients with digestive system tumors.

Methods: The relevant literatures were collected through PubMed, Web of Science and Embase up to February 2021. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to assess the prognostic value of HULC in patients with digestive system tumors. The clinicopathological characteristics of HULC in patients were estimated by odds ratios (ORs).

Results: A total of 14 studies involving 1312 patients were included. The up-regulated expression level of HULC was associated with poorer overall survival (OS) in patients with digestive system tumors (HR = 1.83, 95% CI: 1.05-3.19, P = 0.033). Subgroup analysis showed that cancer type (pancreatic cancer or gastric cancer), residence region (China, Japan or Korea), and specimen (serum) significantly associated between HULC and OS. In addition, high HULC expression significantly increased the risk of high TNM stage (OR = 2.51, 95%CI: 1.36-4.62, P < 0.05), poor differentiation (OR = 1.38, 95%CI: 1.02-1.87, P < 0.05) and lymphatic node metastasis (LNM, OR = 4.93, 95% CI: 3.47-6.99, P < 0.05).

Conclusions: High expression level of HULC is related to OS, TNM stage, differentiation and LNM. Therefore, HULC can be used as a new potential predictor for prognosis and clinicopathological features of patients with digestive system tumors.

Transposons: Unexpected players in cancer

Transposons are repetitive DNA sequences encompassing about half of the human genome. They play a vital role in genome stability maintenance and contribute to genomic diversity and evolution. Their activity is regulated by various mechanisms considering the deleterious effects of these mobile elements. Various genetic risk factors and environmental stress conditions affect the regulatory pathways causing alteration of transposon expression. Our knowledge of the biological role of transposons is limited especially in various types of cancers. Retrotransposons of different types (LTR-retrotransposons, LINEs and SINEs) regulate a plethora of genes that have a role in cell reprogramming, tumor suppression, cell cycle, apoptosis, cell adhesion and migration, and DNA repair. The regulatory mechanisms of transposons, their deregulation and different mechanisms underlying transposon-mediated carcinogenesis in humans focusing on the three most prevalent types, lung, breast and colorectal cancers, were reviewed. The modes of regulation employed include alternative splicing, deletion, insertion, duplication in genes and promoters resulting in upregulation, downregulation or silencing of genes.