Low expression of acyl-CoA thioesterase 13 is associated with poor prognosis in ovarian serous cystadenocarcinoma

Objective: Acyl-CoA thioesterase 13 (ACOT13) encodes a member of the thioesterase superfamily. It has not been reported in ovarian cancer. This research aimed at evaluating the expression and prognostic value of ACOT13 in ovarian serous cystadenocarcinoma (OSC). Methods: We extracted and analyzed TCGA, GEPIA, THPA, GTEx, miRWalk, and GDSC databases to investigate the potential carcinogenic mechanism of ACOT13 in OSC, including the correlation of ACOT13 with prognosis, immune checkpoint, tumor mutational burden (TMB), and 50% inhibition concentration (IC50) score. The incidence of endpoint events was compared with Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. Independent prognostic factors for OSC were evaluated with univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses, and a nomogram was established. Results: The expression of ACOT13 was increased in OSC and correlated with tumor stage, with higher expression in stages I and II than in stages III and IV. Besides, it was observed that low expression of ACOT13 is correlated with poor overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and disease-specific survival (DSS) in patients with OSC. There was a positive correlation between ACOT13 expression and immune checkpoint sialic acid-binding Ig-like lectin (SIGLEC) 15 and TMB. Patients with low ACOT13 expression had higher cisplatin IC50 scores. Conclusion: ACOT13 is an independent prognostic factor and a promising clinical target for OSC. In the future, the carcinogenic mechanism and clinical application value of ACOT13 in ovarian cancer need to be further studied.

Identification of ACOT13 and PTGER2 as novel candidate genes of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease through whole exome sequencing

Background

Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is the most common monogenic kidney disorder. Half of the patients would slowly progress to end-stage renal disease. However, the potential target for ADPKD treatment is still lacking.

Methods

Four ADPKD patients and two healthy family members were included in this study. The peripheral blood samples were obtained and tested by the whole exome sequencing (WES). The autosomal mutations in ADPKD patients were retained as candidate sites. The Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment, and protein–protein interaction network (PPI) analyses were performed by clusterProfiler R package. A dataset containing 18 ADPKD patients and three normal samples were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and analyzed using the limma R package.

Results

A total of six mutant genes were identified based on the dominant genetic pattern and most of them had not been reported to be associated with ADPKD. Furthermore, 19 harmful genes were selected according to the harmfulness of mutation. GO and KEGG enrichment analyses showed that the processes of single-organism cellular process, response to stimulus, plasma membrane, cell periphery, and anion binding as well as cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) signaling pathway and pathways in cancer were significantly enriched. Through integrating PPI and gene expression analyses, acyl-CoA thioesterase 13 (ACOT13), which has not been reported to be related to ADPKD, and prostaglandin E receptor 2 (PTGER2) were identified as potential genes associated with ADPKD.

Conclusions

Through combination of WES, gene expression, and PPI network analyses, we identified ACOT13 and PTGER2 as potential ADPKD-related genes.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40001-021-00613-8.

gga-miRNA-18b-3p Inhibits Intramuscular Adipocytes Differentiation in Chicken by Targeting the ACOT13 Gene

Intramuscular fat (IMF) is the most important evaluating indicator of chicken meat quality, the content of which is positively correlated with tenderness, flavor, and succulence of the meat. Chicken IMF deposition process is regulated by many factors, including genetic, nutrition, and environment. Although large number of omics' studies focused on the IMF deposition process, the molecular mechanism of chicken IMF deposition is still poorly understood. In order to study the role of miRNAs in chicken intramuscular adipogenesis, the intramuscular adipocyte differentiation model (IMF-preadipocytes and IMF-adipocytes) was established and subject to miRNA-Seq. A total of 117 differentially expressed miRNAs between two groups were obtained. Target genes prediction and functional enrichment analysis revealed that eight pathways involved in lipid metabolism related processes, such as fatty acid metabolism and fatty acid elongation. Meanwhile a putative miRNA, gga-miR-18b-3p, was identified be served a function in the intramuscular adipocyte differentiation. Luciferase assay suggested that the gga-miR-18b-3p targeted to the 3'UTR of ACOT13. Subsequent functional experiments demonstrated that gga-miR-18b-3p acted as an inhibitor of intramuscular adipocyte differentiation by targeting ACOT13. Our findings laid a new theoretical foundation for the study of lipid metabolism, and also provided a potential target to improve the meat quality in the poultry industry.