scholarly journals Overexpression of NNT-AS1 Activates TGF-β Signaling to Decrease Tumor CD4 Lymphocyte Infiltration in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Yakun Wang ◽  
Lei Yang ◽  
Xichen Dong ◽  
Xin Yang ◽  
Xinxue Zhang ◽  
...  

Nicotinamide nucleotide transhydrogenase-antisense RNA1 (NNT-AS1) is a long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) that has been shown to be overexpressed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the molecular mechanism involving NNT-AS1 in HCC remains to be extensively investigated. The activation of TGF-β signaling inhibits tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and results in tumor immune evasion. We thus planned to explore the mechanism by which NNT-AS1 activates the TGF-β signaling pathway and inhibits TILs in HCC. High levels of NNT-AS1 were detected in HCC tissues by both RNAscope and real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) assays. The levels of proteins involved in TGF-β signaling and those of CD4 T lymphocytes were quantified by immunohistochemistry (IHC). HCC cell lines (HepG2 and Huh7) were used to explore the effects of NNT-AS1 on TGF-β signaling activation. In these analyses, RNAscope detection demonstrated that NNT-AS1 levels were significantly increased in HCC cancer tissues ( P = 0.0001 ). In addition, the elevated NNT-AS1 levels in cancer tissue were further confirmed by RT-qPCR analysis of HCC cancer tissues ( n = 64 ) and normal tissues ( n = 26 ) ( P = 0.0003 ). Importantly, the overall survival time of HCC patients who exhibited higher levels of NNT-AS1 expression was significantly shorter than that of HCC patients who had lower levels of NNT-AS1 expression ( P = 0.0402 ). Further mechanistic investigation indicated that NNT-AS1 inhibition significantly decreased the levels of TGF-β, TGFBR1, and SMAD5 in HCC cells. In HCC tissues, IHC detection showed that relatively high NNT-AS1 levels were associated with a reduction in infiltrated CD4 lymphocyte numbers. In conclusion, this research identifies a novel mechanism by which NNT-AS1 impairs CD4 T cell infiltration via activation of the TGF-β signaling pathway in HCC.

2006 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 237-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanna Czeczot ◽  
Dorota Scibior ◽  
Michał Skrzycki ◽  
Małgorzata Podsiad

We investigated glutathione level, activities of selenium independent GSH peroxidase, selenium dependent GSH peroxidase, GSH S-transferase, GSH reductase and the rate of lipid peroxidation expressed as the level of malondialdehyde in liver tissues obtained from patients diagnosed with cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma. GSH level was found to be lower in malignant tissues compared to adjacent normal tissues and it was higher in cancer than in cirrhotic tissue. Non-Se-GSH-Px activity was lower in cancer tissue compared with adjacent normal liver or cirrhotic tissue, while Se-GSH-Px activity in cancer was found to be similar to its activity in cirrhotic tissue and lower compared to control tissue. An increase in GST activity was observed in cirrhotic tissue compared with cancer tissue, whereas the GST activity in cancer was lower than in adjacent normal tissue. The activity of GSH-R was similar in cirrhotic and cancer tissues, but higher in cancer tissue compared to control liver tissue. An increased level of MDA was found in cancer tissue in comparison with control tissue, besides its level was higher in cancer tissue than in cirrhotic tissue. Our results show that the antioxidant system of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma is severely impaired. This is associated with changes of glutathione level and activities of GSH-dependent enzymes in liver tissue. GSH and enzymes cooperating with it are important factors in the process of liver diseases development.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Xu ◽  
Hu Tian ◽  
Chao Guang Luan ◽  
Kai Sun ◽  
peng Jin Bao ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) in China is considered as a familiar malignant tumor with poor prognosis, high metastasis and disease relapse. Telocytes(TCs) have been verified to participate in progresses of tumorigenesis, invasions and migrations by secreting functional proteins and transmitting cell-to-cell information. Extracellular signal-regulared protein kinase(ERK) signal pathway is a vital mechanism driving cell proliferation, metastasis and apoptosis, but whether this molecular signaling mechanism contributes to matrix metalloproteinase-9(MMP) expression of TCs remains unclear. Methods: Telocytes and MMP9 expression in the liver cancer tissues are measured by immunohistochemistry assay, Westen blot assay and RT-PCR technique, meanwhile primary telocytes from liver para-cancer tissues are cultured in vitro. To demonstrate the function of telocytes for hepatocellular carcinoma, the metastatic cancer animal model is established by three typs of liver cancer cell-lines in vivo. Results: In our study, we elucidate that TCs in the para-cancer tissue can promote the metastasis of HCC cells by MMP-9 expression, in vitro and in vivo. PDGF derived from HCC cells has a capacity to activate Ras/ERK signaling pathway of TC as a result of accelerating MMP-9 expression, but it’s no significant for proliferative potential and apoptotic rate of TCs. While tyrosine kinase inhibitors and miR-942-3p suppress MMP-9 expression to make loss functions of TCs. Various mutations of TCs are also tested and single nucleotide polymorphisms of MMP-9 may be the potentially molecular mechanism of increasing protein expression in the invasive process of HCC. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate two potential mechanisms between HCC cells and TCs, suggesting that TC is a novel marker and target on deciphering reasons of cancer metastasis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nan Wang ◽  
Rui Kong ◽  
Wei Han ◽  
Jie Lu

Background: Hepatoid adenocarcinoma of the stomach (HAS) has been recognized as a rare primary gastric tumor characterized by hepatocellular carcinoma-like histology. HAS often causes diagnostic confusion with conventional gastric adenocarcinoma (CGA) due to the difficulty to detect hepatoid differentiation solely based on findings from hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining. Hence, HAS should be distinguished from solid-type CGA based on their different biological behaviors. β-catenin is highly expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which is involved in the maintenance of tumor initiating cells, drug resistance, tumor progression, and metastasis. Methods and Results: Given the dearth of HAS cases, systematic examination of the expression of β-catenin in HAS remains under-explored. In this study, 14 cases were subjected to immunostaining with with AFP, β-catenin, glypican3, hepar-1 and CerbB-2. In parallel, the clinicopathological characteristics of these patients were collected. We detected statistically significant difference in the expression of β-catenin (P = 0.000), glypican3 (P = 0.019), and hepar-1 (P = 0.007) between HAS cancer tissues and the adjacent non-cancerous tissues. Furthermore, a significant correlation was observed between the expression of β-catenin in HAS cancer tissue and adjacent tissue (Pearson correlation coefficient: 0.686, P = 0.007). Moreover, in cancer tissues, a significant correlation was observed between the expression of β-catenin and survival time (Spearman correlationcoefficient= - 0.482, P = 0.003). However, we found the expression of β-catenin did not correlate with the degree of tumor differentiation and tumor size, age, gender, serum AFP levels, microinvasion, and metastasis (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Our findings establish β-catenin as a useful marker that can distinguish HAS from CGA and may improve the early diagnosis to guide the appropriate and timely treatment of HAS patients.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1785-1791
Author(s):  
Tangpeng Xu ◽  
Changli Ruan ◽  
Xu Bin ◽  
Mengxue Hu

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a serious threat to human health. miR-340 participates in HCC pathogenesis, but its specific mechanism is not completely clear. Therefore, our study assessed the mechanism by how miR-340 involves in HCC. The cancer tissues and paracancerous tissues of HCC patients were collected. miR-340 mimics/NC and Akt siRNA were transfected into HepG2 cells followed by analysis of miR-304 and EMT-related molecules expression by Real-time PCR, cell invasion and migration by Transwell assay, cell proliferation ability by CCK8 assay as well as p-Akt and p-mTOR level by Western blot. miR-340 in HCC tissues was significantly downregulated compared to adjacent tissues (P <0.001). With increased pathological grade, miR-340 expression was decreased gradually. p-Akt and p-mTOR in HCC tissues was significantly upregulated and elevated gradually with increased pathological grade. p-Akt and p-mTOR was negatively associated with miR-340 (P <0.001). After overexpression of miR-340, HepG2 cell proliferation, invasion, migration and epithelialization were significantly inhibited, and p-Akt and p-mTOR was reduced. When Akt expression was interfered with siRNA, cell proliferation and epithelialization was further inhibited. miR-340 inhibits the development of hepatocellular carcinoma through Akt signaling pathway.


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 83-89
Author(s):  
Rong Yan ◽  
Kang Li ◽  
Dawei Yuan ◽  
Haonan Wang ◽  
Wei Chen ◽  
...  

Background: MiR-183-5p plays an important role in the pathophysiology of many tumors, while the role of MiR-183-5p in liver cancer is unclear. Methods: In this study, quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting were used to detect the expression of miR-183-5p in liver cancer cell lines, liver cancer tissues, and normal tissues adjacent to the cancer, and to explore the mechanism of miR-183-5p regulating liver cancer progression. The in vitro effects of miR-183-5p were evaluated by CCK-8, colony formation test, and wound healing test. Various databases were used to predict the target mRNA of miR-183-5p and verified by luciferase report analysis. In addition, the effects of miR-183-5p and its target gene on the survival of patients with liver cancer were also analyzed. Results: miR-183-5p was highly expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma cells and tissues, and was related to some clinicopathological features. MiR-183-5p can promote the proliferation and migration of liver cancer cells. Using the bioinformatics database, we proved that miR-183-5p is related to the survival of liver cancer patients. Insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS1) is a target of miR-183-5p, and luciferase analysis confirmed that miR-183-5p combines with the 3′-untranslated region (3′-UTR) of IRS1. Conclusion: The miR-183-5p/IRS1 axis may be a new target for liver cancer research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Jingchen Liang ◽  
Duo Wang ◽  
Guanhua Qiu ◽  
Xiaoqi Zhu ◽  
Junjie Liu ◽  
...  

Background. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of primary liver cancer that has a high level of morbidity and mortality. Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) is a novel regulatory factor of tumour proliferation, apoptosis, and metastasis. Our previous studies indicated that lncRNA FOXP4-AS1 is a functional oncogene in HCC; thus, this study is aimed at further evaluating the clinical and biological function of FOXP4-AS1 in HCC. Material and Methods. First, we detected the expression of FOXP4-AS1 in HCC tissues and paracarcinoma normal tissues by qRT-PCR. Second, the prognostic effects of FOXP4-AS1 in patients with HCC were analysed in a training group and a verification group. Subsequently, to investigate the biological effects of FOXP4-AS1 on HCC cells, downexpression tests were further conducted. Results. The expression of FOXP4-AS1 was higher in HCC tissues than adjacent nontumourous tissues, whereas the low expression of FOXP4-AS1 was correlated with optimistic treatment outcomes, which suggested that FOXP4-AS1 may be an independent prognostic biomarker for HCC. Moreover, the downregulation of FOXP4-AS1 significantly reduced the cell proliferation and clonal abilities and inhibited the invasion, migration, and angiogenesis of hepatoma cells ( P < 0.05 ). Conclusion. These results revealed the clinical significance and biological function of FOXP4-AS1 in HCC development, which may provide a new direction for finding therapeutic targets and potential prognostic biomarkers of HCC.


Author(s):  
Yang zhi Jiang ◽  
Qing Guo Tao ◽  
fei yan Zhu

BACKGROUND AIM To explore the correlation between the expression of miRNA-135a and Bach1 in colorectal cancer tissue and the patient's clinical information.  Methods   60 patients with colorectal carcinoma were treated as a control group. Real-time quantitative PCR assays and immunohistochemistry method were performed to detect the expression of miRNA-135a and Bach1 in 60 colorectal carcinomas and adjacent normal tissues, and the clinical and pathological classifications had also been investigated. The SPSS 19.00 software was used. All data represented mean±SD of three independent experiments. P&lt;0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results  miRNA-135a expression levels increased significantly in the colon cancer tissues compared with the non-tumor control tissues(P&lt;0.01). miRNA-135a expression levels were higher in stage III/IV than in stage I/II colon cancer patients. The expression level of Bach1 in colorectal cancer was significantly lower(P&lt;0.01). Bach1 and miRNA-135a were negatively correlated.  Conclusions:  The levels of miRNA-135a and Bach1 were opposite, the over-expression of miRNA-135a might downregulated the expression of Bach1, which might be involved in the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Mareike Polenkowski ◽  
Sebastian Burbano de Lara ◽  
Aldrige Allister ◽  
Thi Nguyen ◽  
Teruko Tamura ◽  
...  

Identification of cancer-specific target molecules and biomarkers may be useful in the development of novel treatment and immunotherapeutic strategies. We have recently demonstrated that the expression of long noncoding (lnc) RNAs can be cancer-type specific due to abnormal chromatin remodeling and alternative splicing. Furthermore, we identified and determined that the functional small protein C20orf204-189AA encoded by long intergenic noncoding RNA Linc00176 that is expressed predominantly in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), enhances transcription of ribosomal RNAs and supports growth of HCC. In this study we combined RNA-sequencing and polysome profiling to identify novel micropeptides that originate from HCC-specific lncRNAs. We identified nine lncRNAs that are expressed exclusively in HCC cells but not in the liver or other normal tissues. Here, DNase-sequencing data revealed that the altered chromatin structure plays a key role in the HCC-specific expression of lncRNAs. Three out of nine HCC-specific lncRNAs contain at least one open reading frame (ORF) longer than 50 amino acid (aa) and enriched in the polysome fraction, suggesting that they are translated. We generated a peptide specific antibody to characterize one candidate, NONHSAT013026.2/Linc013026. We show that Linc013026 encodes a 68 amino acid micropeptide that is mainly localized at the perinuclear region. Linc013026-68AA is expressed in a subset of HCC cells and plays a role in cell proliferation, suggesting that Linc013026-68AA may be used as a HCC-specific target molecule. Our finding also sheds light on the role of the previously ignored ’dark proteome’, that originates from noncoding regions in the maintenance of cancer.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zonggao Shi ◽  
Jeffrey J. Johnson ◽  
M. Sharon Stack

The noncoding RNA designated as microRNA (miRNA) is a large group of small single-stranded regulatory RNA and has generated wide-spread interest in human disease studies. To facilitate delineating the role of microRNAs in cancer pathology, we sought to explore the feasibility of detecting microRNA expression in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues. Using FFPE materials, we have compared fluorescentin situhybridization (FISH) procedures to detect miR-146a with (a) different synthetic probes: regular custom DNA oligonucleotides versus locked nucleic acid (LNA) incorporated DNA oligonucleotides; (b) different reporters for the probes: biotin versus digoxigenin (DIG); (c) different visualization: traditional versus tyramide signal amplification (TSA) system; (d) different blocking reagents for endogenous peroxidase. Finally, we performed miR-146a FISH on a commercially available oral cancer tissue microarray, which contains 40 cases of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and 10 cases of normal epithelia from the human oral cavity. A sample FISH protocol for detecting miR-146a is provided. In summary, we have established reliablein situhybridization procedures for detecting the expression of microRNA in FFPE oral cancer tissues. This method is an important tool for studies on the involvement of microRNA in oral cancer pathology and may have potential prognostic or diagnostic value.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gang Hu ◽  
Shusen Zhai ◽  
Sheng Yu ◽  
Zhen Huang ◽  
Ran Gao

Abstract Background Circular RNA circRHOBTB3 has been characterized as a tumor suppressor in gastric cancer, while its role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is unknown. This study was carried out to analyze the role of circRHOBTB3 in HCC. Methods In this study, circRHOBTB3, mature miR-18a, and miR-18a precursor in HCC and paired non-cancer tissues were detected by RT-qPCR. The role of circRHOBTB3 in the production of mature miR-18a was explored by transfecting circRHOBTB3 expression vector into HCC cells, followed by RT-qPCR to determine the expression of mature miR-18a and miR-18a precursor. The role of circRHOBTB3 and miR-18a in HCC cell proliferation was studied using CCK-8 assay. Results CircRHOBTB3 was under-expressed in HCC compared to normal tissues. In HCC cells, circRHOBTB3 overexpression decreased mature miR-18a level but not miR-18a precursor. Cell proliferation analysis showed that circRHOBTB3 overexpression decreased cell proliferation while miR-18a overexpression increased cell proliferation. Moreover, circRHOBTB3 suppressed the role of miR-18a in cell proliferation. Conclusions CircRHOBTB3 is downregulated in HCC and may suppress cell proliferation by reducing miR-18a production.


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