A miRNA Combination as Promising Biomarker for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Diagnosis: A Study Based on Bioinformatics Analysis

Serum miRNA-101 expression signature as non-invasive diagnostic biomarker for Hepatitis C virus-associated hepatocellular carcinoma in Egyptian patients

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a leading cause of cancer mortality globally due to HCC late diagnosis and limited treatment options. MiRNAs (miRNAs) emerged as potential biomarkers for various diseases, including HCC. However, the value of miRNA-101 as a serum biomarker for HCV-induced HCC has not been fully investigated. Our study aims to investigate the miRNA-101 differential expression in Egyptian HCV-induced HCC patients' serum versus HCV liver cirrhosis (LC) as prospective diagnostic biomarkers compared to alpha-fetoprotein (AFP). Blood samples were collected for clinical chemistry profile, liver function, and serum AFP investigations. The serum miR-101 expression levels were evaluated using real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) in 100 Egyptian subjects: 40 HCV-induced HCC, 40 HCV-induced cirrhosis, and 20 healthy controls. HCC patients showed significantly higher TB, DB, and AFP levels than those cirrhosis and control groups, whereas ALB and Total Protein exhibited significantly reduced levels. AFP sensitivity and specificity in differentiating HCC reported 60 and 67%, respectively, at the cut-off values of 7ng/dl. miR-101 shows fold change upregulation in HCC patients (P < 0.0001) compared to LC and control groups. ROC curve demonstrated miR-101 (AUC) of 0.9556, sensitivity 92.5%, and specificity 97.5%, highlighting the miR-101 diagnostic potential as a biomarker for HCC detection. Elevated miR-101 levels in HCC are significantly correlated with a higher number and larger size of focal lesions, advanced BCLC staging, and Child-Pugh score. These findings highlight the utility of miR-101 as a predictive and diagnostic non-invasive biomarker for HCV-related HCC from cirrhotic populations. More research is warranted to validate the clinical validity of miR-101 and explore underlying mechanisms in HCV-HCC progression.

The role of microRNA-185 in the pathogenesis of human diseases: A focus on cancer

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a widely-studied class of non-coding RNAs characterized by their short length (18-25 nucleotides). The precise functions of miRNAs are not well-elucidated; however, an increasing number of studies suggest their involvement in various physiologic processes and deregulation in pathologic conditions. miRNA-185 (miR-185) is among the mostly-studied miRNAs in human diseases, which is found to play putative roles in conditions like metabolic disorders, asthma, frailty, schizophrenia, and hepatitis. Notably, many cancer studies report the downregulation of miR-185 in cell lines, tumor tissues, and plasma specimens of patients, while it demonstrates a suppressing role on the malignant properties of cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. Accordingly, miR-185 can be considered a tumor suppressor miRNA in human malignancies, while a few studies also report inconsistent findings. Being suggested as a prognostic/diagnostic biomarker, mi-185 is also found to offer clinical potentials, particularly for early diagnosis and prediction of the prognosis of cancer patients. In this review, we have outlined the studies that have evaluated the functions and clinical significance of miR-185 in different human diseases with a particular focus on cancer.

miRNome of Child A hepatocellular carcinoma in Egyptian patients

INTRODUCTION

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has different etiologies that contribute to its heterogeneity. In regards to the number of HCC patients, Egypt ranks third in Africa and fifteenth worldwide. Despite significant advancements in HCC diagnosis and treatment, the precise biology of the tumor is still not fully understood, which has a negative impact on patient outcomes.

METHODS

Advances in next-generation sequencing (NGS) have increased our knowledge of the molecular complexity of HCC.

RESULTS & DISCUSSION

In this research, 16 HCC and 6 tumor adjacent tissues (control) of Child A Egyptian patients were successfully profiled for the expression profile of miRNAs by NGS. Forty-one differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) were found by differential expression analysis, with 31 being upregulated and 10 being downregulated. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis was then conducted on these differentially expressed miRNAs revealing that Sensitivity and specificity analysis showed that hsa-miR-4488, hsa-miR-3178, and hsa-miR-3182 were unique miRNAs as they are expressed in HCC tissues only. These miRNAs were all highly involved in AMPK signaling pathways. However, hsa-miR-214-3p was expressed in control tissues about eight times higher than in cancer tissues and was most abundant in "pathways in cancer and PI3K-Akt signaling pathway" KEGG terms. As promising HCC diagnostic markers, we here suggest hsa-miR-4488, hsa-miR-3178, hsa-miR-3182, and hsa-miR-214-3p. We further urge future research to confirm these markers' diagnostic and prognostic potential as well as their roles in the pathophysiology of HCC.

PARP-1 modulates the expression of miR-223 through histone acetylation to involve in the hydroquinone-induced carcinogenesis of TK6 cells

The upstream regulators of microRNAs were rarely reported. Hydroquinone (HQ) is the main metabolite of benzene, one of the important environmental factors contributing to leukemia and lymphoma. In HQ-induced malignant transformed TK6 (TK6-HT) cells, the expression of PARP-1 and miR-223 were upregulated. When in PARP-1 silencing TK6-HT cells, miR-223 was downregulated and the apoptotic cell number correspondingly increased. In TK6 cells treated with HQ for different terms, the expression of miR-223 and PARP-1 were dynamically observed and found to be decreased and increased, respectively. Trichostatin A could increase the expression of miR-223, then the expression of HDAC1-2 and nuclear factor kappa B were found to be increased, but that of mH2A was decreased. PARP-1 silencing inhibited the protein expression of H3Ac, mH2A, and H3K27ac. By co-immunoprecipitation experiment, PARP-1 and HDAC2 were found to form a regulatory complex. In conclusion, we demonstrated that the upregulation of PARP-1 mediated activation of acetylation to promote the transcription of miR-223 possibly via coregulating with HDAC2, an epigenetic regulation mechanism involved in cell malignant transformation resulting from long-term exposure to HQ, in which course, H3K27ac might be a specific marker for the activation of histone H3, which also gives hints for benzene exposure research.

Bioinformatic Evidence Reveals that Cell Cycle Correlated Genes Drive the Communication between Tumor Cells and the Tumor Microenvironment and Impact the Outcomes of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an aggressive cancer type with poor prognosis; thus, there is especially necessary and urgent to screen potential prognostic biomarkers for early diagnosis and novel therapeutic targets. In this study, we downloaded target data sets from the GEO database, and obtained codifferentially expressed genes using the limma R package and identified key genes through the protein–protein interaction network and molecular modules, and performed GO and KEGG pathway analyses for key genes via the clusterProfiler package and further determined their correlations with clinicopathological features using the Oncomine database. Survival analysis was completed in the GEPIA and the Kaplan–Meier plotter database. Finally, correlations between key genes, cell types infiltrated in the tumor microenvironment (TME), and hypoxic signatures were explored based on the TIMER database. From the results, 11 key genes related to the cell cycle were determined, and high levels of these key genes' expression were focused on advanced and higher grade status HCC patients, as well as in samples of TP53 mutation and vascular invasion. Besides, the 11 key genes were significantly associated with poor prognosis of HCC and also were positively related to the infiltration level of MDSCs in the TME and the HIF1A and VEGFA of hypoxic signatures, but a negative correlation was found with endothelial cells (ECs) and hematopoietic stem cells. The result determined that 11 key genes (RRM2, NDC80, ECT2, CCNB1, ASPM, CDK1, PRC1, KIF20A, DTL, TOP2A, and PBK) could play a vital role in the pathogenesis of HCC, drive the communication between tumor cells and the TME, and act as probably promising diagnostic, therapeutic, and prognostic biomarkers in HCC patients.

MicroRNA-936 Targets JAG1 and Inhibits the Proliferation of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors. Investigating the underlying molecular mechanism is essential for the treatment and prognosis of HCC. Emerging evidence suggests that microRNAs (miRNAs) play pivotal roles in cancer progression. Down-regulation of miR-936 has been found in several cancers, which serves as a tumor suppressor to inhibit the development of cancers. However, the clinical significance and functional roles of miR-936 in HCC have not been determined. To explore this, the expression of miR-936 in HCC tissues and cells was detected by RT-qPCR. Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay, cell migration and cell cycle analysis were performed to evaluate the effects of miR-936 on the growth of HCC cells. The targets of miR-936 were predicted using the miRDB database and confirmed by luciferase reporter experiments. The protein expression of targets was determined by western blot. The results showed that miR-936 was significantly decreased in HCC tissues and cell lines. Low expression of miR-936 was associated with the advance progression and poor survival of HCC patients (P = 0.0036). Functional study revealed that overexpression of miR-936 inhibited the proliferation, migration (decreased to ∼0.26 fold) and induced cell cycle arrested in G₁ phase (from 35.3% to 44.7%) of HCC cells. Additionally, miR-936 targeted the 3′-untranslated region (UTR) of jagged-1 (JAG1) and reduced the expression of JAG1 (decreased to ∼0.35 fold). JAG1 was found to be up-regulated in HCC tissues and was inversely correlated with the expression of miR-936 (Pearson r = −0.4633; P = 0.0007). The anti-cancer effects of miR-936 on the proliferation of HCC cells were partially reversed by the rescue of JAG1. Therefore, these results suggested that miR-936 might be a potential target for HCC treatment.

Identification of miR-4644 as a suitable endogenous normalizer for circulating miRNA quantification in hepatocellular carcinoma

Background: Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) have proved to be promising biomarkers for early diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring in cancers. Particularly for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), detection of circulating miRNA biomarkers as a new diagnostic approach has been written into the latest Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Primary Liver Cancer in China (2019 edition). However, no general consensus on an ideal endogenous normalizer for circulating miRNAs quantification has been reached, so it will affect the accuracy of quantitative results. In this study, we aim to identify a stable endogenous normalizer for analyzing circulating miRNAs.

Methods: Candidate miRNAs were selected by screening dataset GSE104310, as well as data statistics and analysis. Five commonly reference genes were chosen for further comparison and verification. Then, the expression levels of these genes in serum were analyzed by quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) among four groups, including patients diagnosed with HCC, chronic hepatitis B (CHB), liver cirrhosis, and healthy subjects. Furthermore, the stability of target genes was evaluated using geNorm, NormFinder, comparative ΔCq programs, and validated by database. We also explored the availability of the miRNA combination, and compared the performance difference between combination and individuals, as well as the selectivity of miRNA references in the combinations.

Results: 11 candidate miRNAs were obtained, and miR-4644 stood out among these miRNAs, and proved to be much more stable than other endogenous miRNAs. Further study showed that miR-4644 exhibited higher stability and expression abundance than other commonly miRNA reference controls. Finally, we discovered the combination of miR-4644 and miR-16 revealed high performance in stability when compared to miRNA individuals. Furthermore, the combination consisted of references with closer nature could give rise to amplification effects in stability.

Conclusions: Our findings demonstrated that miR-4644 is an ideal endogenous normalizer for circulating microRNA quantification in hepatocellular carcinoma. Besides, combining miR-4644 with miR-16 into a whole as a reference control would greatly improve the accuracy of quantification.

Value of miR-1271 and glypican-3 in evaluating the prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization

BACKGROUND

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third leading cause of cancer death, causing about 750000 deaths worldwide every year. Patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma will often only receive transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE). Glypican-3 (GPC3) is one of the most promising serum markers for HCC. Abnormal expression of miRNAs may be involved in the occurrence and development of tumor.

AIM

To explore the value of miR-1271 and GPC3 in evaluating the prognosis of patients with HCC after TACE.

METHODS

From January 2016 to December 2018, 162 patients with advanced HCC who received TACE in our hospital were selected into the cancer group, and 162 patients who underwent physical examination during the same period were selected into the health group. The patients in the HCC group were treated with TACE. The changes of serum GPC3 and circulating miR-1271 in the HCC before and after TACE were analyzed. The expression of serum GPC3 was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and the expression of circulating miR-1271 was detected by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The methodological results of sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of miR-1271 and GPC3 alone and joint detection of HCC were also evaluated.

RESULTS

The level of serum GPC3 in patients with HCC was significantly higher than that in healthy controls. GPC3 levels were increased in both HCC patients and those treated with TACE compared with healthy controls. After TACE, the level of serum GPC3 was significantly lower than that before treatment (P < 0.05), and the level of circulating miR-1271 was significantly higher than that before treatment (P < 0.05). There were 112 cases (69.14%) with remission (complete remission + complete remission + stable disease) and 50 cases (30.86%) with relapse disease progression in HCC patients. After TACE, the miR-1271 level in patients with remission and relapse was lower than that in the healthy group, and the GPC3 level was higher than that in the healthy group, the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). The miR-1271 of relapsed patients was lower than that of remission patients, and the level of GPC3 was higher than that of remission patients, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). The sensitivity of combined detection of miR-1271 and GPC3 was significantly higher than that of single detection, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05); while the specificity of the two combined detections was lower than that of the single detection; and the accuracy was slightly higher than that of single detection, but the difference was not statistically significant.

CONCLUSION

The level of miR-1271 in patients with HCC was significantly increased and the level of GPC3 was decreased after TACE. Monitoring the levels of serum GPC3 and circulating miR-1271 has important clinical reference value for evaluating the prognosis of patients with HCC. The levels of serum GPC3 and circulating miR-1271 may help to determine tumor recurrence, evaluate survival status, and guide the next step of treatment.

Plasma Small Extracellular Vesicles Derived miR-21-5p and miR-92a-3p as Potential Biomarkers for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Screening

INTRODUCTION

Liquid biopsy using circulating microvesicles and exosomes is emerging as a new diagnostic tool that could improve hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) early diagnosis and screening protocols. Our study aimed to investigate the utility of plasma exosomal miR-21-5p and miR-92-3p for HCC diagnosis during screening protocols.

METHODS

The study group included 106 subjects: 48 patients diagnosed with HCC during screening, who underwent a potentially curative treatment (surgical resection or liver transplantation), 38 patients with liver cirrhosis (LC) on the waiting list for liver transplantation, and 20 healthy volunteers. The exosomes were isolated by precipitation with a reagent based on polyethylene glycol and were characterized based on morphological aspects (i.e., diameter); molecular weight; CD63, CD9, and CD81 protein markers; and exosomal miR-21-5p and miR-92a-3p expression levels.

RESULTS

We first demonstrate that the exosome population isolated with the commercially available Total Exosome Isolation kit respects the same size ranging, morphological, and protein expression aspects compared to the traditional ultracentrifugation technique. The analysis of the expression profile indicates that miR-21-5p was upregulated (p = 0.017), and miR-92a-3p was downregulated (p = 0.0005) in plasma-derived exosomes from HCC subjects, independently from the patient's characteristics. AUROC for HCC diagnosis based on AFP (alpha-fetoprotein) was 0.72. By integrating AFP and the relative expression of exosomal miR-21-5p and miR-92a-3p in a logistic regression equation for HCC diagnosis, the combined AUROC of the new exosomal miR HCC score was 0.85-significantly better than serum AFP alone (p = 0.0007).

CONCLUSION

Together with serum AFP, plasma exosomal miR-21-5p and miR-92a-3p could be used as potential biomarkers for HCC diagnosis in patients with LC subjected to screening and surveillance.

MicroRNA-383 inhibits proliferation, migration, and invasion in hepatocellular carcinoma cells by targeting PHF8

Background

To study the effect of microRNA‐383 (miR‐383) on cell proliferation, migration, and invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells, and explore its mechanism.

Methods

The expressions of miR‐383 and plant homology domain that refers to protein 8 (PHF8) were detected in tissues and cells by quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction (qRT‐PCR) or western blot respectively. The miR‐383 group (transfected miR‐383 mimics), miR‐con group (transfected miR‐con), si‐con group (transfected si‐con), si‐PHF8 group (transfected si‐PHF8), miR‐383 + ctrl group (cotransfected miR‐383 mimics and pcDNA‐3.1), miR‐383 + PHF8 group (cotransfected miR‐383 mimics and pcDNA‐3.1‐PHF8) were transfected into HepG2 cells by liposome method. Cell proliferation, migration and invasion were measured by 3‐(4,5‐dimethyl‐2‐thiazolyl)‐2,5‐diphenyl‐2‐H‐tetrazolium bromide (MTT) or trans‐well assays respectively. The luciferase activity of each group was detected by dual luciferase reporter gene assay.

Results

Compared with normal adjacent tissues, the expression of miR‐383 was significantly down‐regulated and the expression of PHF8 was significantly up‐regulated (p < .05). Compared with normal hepatocellular cell LO2, the expression of miR‐383 was significantly reduced (p < .05) in HCC cells. Moreover, overexpression of miR‐383 or silencing of PHF8 significantly inhibited the proliferation, migration, and invasion of HCC cells. In addition, PHF8 was targeted by miR‐383 and its restoration rescued the inhibitory effect of miR‐383 on cell proliferation, migration, and invasion of HCC cells.

Conclusion

miR‐383 could inhibit the proliferation, migration, and invasion of HCC cells by targeting PHF8, which will provide a basis for miR‐383 targeted therapy for HCC.

Identification of Platform-Independent Diagnostic Biomarker Panel for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Using Large-Scale Transcriptomics Data

The high mortality rate of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is primarily due to its late diagnosis. In the past, numerous attempts have been made to design genetic biomarkers for the identification of HCC; unfortunately, most of the studies are based on small datasets obtained from a specific platform or lack reasonable validation performance on the external datasets. In order to identify a universal expression-based diagnostic biomarker panel for HCC that can be applicable across multiple platforms, we have employed large-scale transcriptomic profiling datasets containing a total of 2,316 HCC and 1,665 non-tumorous tissue samples. These samples were obtained from 30 studies generated by mainly four types of profiling techniques (Affymetrix, Illumina, Agilent, and High-throughput sequencing), which are implemented in a wide range of platforms. Firstly, we scrutinized overlapping 26 genes that are differentially expressed in numerous datasets. Subsequently, we identified a panel of three genes (FCN3, CLEC1B, and PRC1) as HCC biomarker using different feature selection techniques. Three-genes-based HCC biomarker identified HCC samples in training/validation datasets with an accuracy between 93 and 98%, Area Under Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (AUROC) in a range of 0.97 to 1.0. A reasonable performance, i.e., AUROC 0.91–0.96 achieved on validation dataset containing peripheral blood mononuclear cells, concurred their non-invasive utility. Furthermore, the prognostic potential of these genes was evaluated on TCGA-LIHC and GSE14520 cohorts using univariate survival analysis. This analysis revealed that these genes are prognostic indicators for various types of the survivals of HCC patients (e.g., Overall Survival, Progression-Free Survival, Disease-Free Survival). These genes significantly stratified high-risk and low-risk HCC patients (p-value <0.05). In conclusion, we identified a universal platform-independent three-genes-based biomarker that can predict HCC patients with high precision and also possess significant prognostic potential. Eventually, we developed a web server HCCpred based on the above study to facilitate scientific community (http://webs.iiitd.edu.in/raghava/hccpred/).

Systematic analysis and prediction model construction of alternative splicing events in hepatocellular carcinoma: a study on the basis of large-scale spliceseq data from The Cancer Genome Atlas

Growing evidence showed that alternative splicing (AS) event is significantly related to tumor occurrence and progress. This study was performed to make a systematic analysis of AS events and constructed a robust prediction model of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The clinical information and the genes expression profile data of 335 HCC patients were collected from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Information of seven types AS events were collected from the TCGA SpliceSeq database. Overall survival (OS) related AS events and splicing factors (SFs) were identified using univariate Cox regression analysis. The corresponding genes of OS-related AS events were sent for gene network analysis and functional enrichment analysis. Optimal OS-related AS events were selected by LASSO regression to construct prediction model using multivariate Cox regression analysis. Prognostic value of the prediction models were assessed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and KaplanMeir survival analysis. The relationship between the Percent Spliced In (PSI) value of OS-related AS events and SFs expression were analyzed using Spearman correlation analysis. And the regulation network was generated by Cytoscape. A total of 34,163 AS events were identified, which consist of 3,482 OS-related AS events. UBB, UBE2D3, SF3A1 were the hub genes in the gene network of the top 800 OS-related AS events. The area under the curve (AUC) of the final prediction model based on seven types OS-related AS events was 0.878, 0.843, 0.821 in 1, 3, 5 years, respectively. Upon multivariate analysis, risk score (All) served as the risk factor to independently predict OS for HCC patients. SFs HNRNPH3 and HNRNPL were overexpressed in tumor samples and were signifcantly associated with the OS of HCC patients. The regulation network showed prominent correlation between the expression of SFs and OS-related AS events in HCC patients. The final prediction model performs well in predicting the prognosis of HCC patients. And the findings in this study improve our understanding of the association between AS events and HCC.

Linc00511 Indicates A Poor Prognosis Of Liver Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Objective

To uncover the specific function of linc00511 in the progression of liver hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC) and the underlying mechanism.

Patients and methods

GEPIA dataset containing 9736 LIHC samples and 857 normal samples were downloaded from TCGA. Expression pattern and prognostic potential of linc00511 in LIHC were analyzed. Subsequently, expression level of linc00511 in LIHC tissues collected in our hospital and cell lines were determined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Differential expressions of linc00511 in LIHC with different tumor grades and metastatic status were compared. After transfection of si-linc00511, proliferative and migratory changes in Huh7 and Hep3B cells were assessed by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8), 5-ethynyl-2ʹ-deoxyuridine (EdU) and Transwell assay. Lastly, Pearson correlation analysis and qRT-PCR were conducted to investigate the interaction between linc00511 and miR-29c.

Results

Linc00511 was upregulated in LIHC tissues and cell lines. Its level was positively correlated to TNM staging, lymphatic metastasis and poor prognosis in LIHC patients. Knockdown of linc00511 attenuated proliferative and migratory abilities in Huh7 and Hep3B cells. In addition, miR-29c was downregulated in LIHC and negatively linked to linc00511 level. A negative interaction between linc00511 and miR-29c could be a regulatory feedback influencing the progression of LIHC.

Conclusion

Linc00511 accelerates the proliferation and migration in LIHC, thus aggravating tumor progression. Meanwhile, linc00511 could be utilized as a hallmark predicting poor prognosis in LIHC patients.

Diagnostic and prognostic values of integrin α subfamily mRNA expression in colon adenocarcinoma

The integrin α (ITGA) subfamily genes play a fundamental role in various cancers. However, the potential mechanism and application values of ITGA genes in colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) remain elusive. The present study investigated the significance of the expression of ITGA genes in COAD from the perspective of diagnosis and prognosis. A COAD RNA-sequencing dataset was obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas. The present study investigated the biological function of the ITGA subfamily genes through bioinformatics analysis. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction was applied to investigate the distribution of integrin α8 (ITGA8) expression in COAD tumors and adjacent normal tissues. Bioinformatics analysis indicated that ITGA genes were noticeably enriched in cell adhesion and the integrin-mediated signaling pathway, and co-expressed with each other. It was also revealed through observation that the majority of gene expression was significantly low in tumor tissues (P<0.05), and diagnostic receiver operating characteristic curves revealed that most of the genes could serve as significant diagnostic markers in COAD (P<0.05), especially ITGA8 which had a high diagnostic value with an area under curve (AUC) of 0.989 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.980–0.997] in COAD (P<0.0001). In addition, ITGA8 expression was verified in clinical samples and it was revealed that it was higher in adjacent normal tissues (P=0.041) compared to COAD tissues, and the AUC was 0.704 (95% CI, 0.577–0.831; P<0.0085). Multivariate survival analysis indicated that integrin α (ITGA5) may be an independent prognostic indicator for COAD overall survival. Gene set enrichment analysis indicated that ITGA5 may participate in multiple biological processes and pathways. The present study revealed that ITGA genes were associated with the diagnosis and prognosis of COAD. The mRNA expression of ITGA8 may be a potential diagnosis biomarker and ITGA5 may serve as an independent prognosis indicator for COAD.

Oxysterols and Gastrointestinal Cancers Around the Clock

This review focuses on the role of oxidized sterols in three major gastrointestinal cancers (hepatocellular carcinoma, pancreatic, and colon cancer) and how the circadian clock affects the carcinogenesis by regulating the lipid metabolism and beyond. While each field of research (cancer, oxysterols, and circadian clock) is well-studied within their specialty, little is known about the intertwining mechanisms and how these influence the disease etiology in each cancer type. Oxysterols are involved in pathology of these cancers, but final conclusions about their protective or damaging effects are elusive, since the effect depends on the type of oxysterol, concentration, and the cell type. Oxysterol concentrations, the expression of key regulators liver X receptors (LXR), farnesoid X receptor (FXR), and oxysterol-binding proteins (OSBP) family are modulated in tumors and plasma of cancer patients, exposing these proteins and selected oxysterols as new potential biomarkers and drug targets. Evidence about how cholesterol/oxysterol pathways are intertwined with circadian clock is building. Identified key contact points are different forms of retinoic acid receptor related orphan receptors (ROR) and LXRs. RORs and LXRs are both regulated by sterols/oxysterols and the circadian clock and in return also regulate the same pathways, representing a complex interplay between sterol metabolism and the clock. With this in mind, in addition to classical therapies to modulate cholesterol in gastrointestinal cancers, such as the statin therapy, the time is ripe also for therapies where time and duration of the drug application is taken as an important factor for successful therapies. The final goal is the personalized approach with chronotherapy for disease management and treatment in order to increase the positive drug effects.