scholarly journals Single Cell Hydrodynamic Stretching and Microsieve Filtration Reveal Genetic, Phenotypic and Treatment-Related Links to Cellular Deformability

Micromachines ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 486
Author(s):  
Fenfang Li ◽  
Igor Cima ◽  
Jess Honganh Vo ◽  
Min-Han Tan ◽  
Claus Dieter Ohl
Keyword(s):  
Single Cell ◽  
Cancer Cells ◽  
Cancer Cell ◽  
Cancer Progression ◽  
Cancer Metastasis ◽  
Extensional Flow ◽  
Colorectal Cancer Cell Line ◽  
Mesenchymal Transition ◽  
Cellular Models ◽  
Cellular Deformability

Deformability is shown to correlate with the invasiveness and metastasis of cancer cells. Recent studies suggest epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) might enable cancer metastasis. However, the correlation of EMT with cancer cell deformability has not been well elucidated. Cellular deformability could also help evaluate the drug response of cancer cells. Here, we combine hydrodynamic stretching and microsieve filtration to study cellular deformability in several cellular models. Hydrodynamic stretching uses extensional flow to rapidly quantify cellular deformability and size with high throughput at the single cell level. Microsieve filtration can rapidly estimate relative deformability in cellular populations. We show that colorectal cancer cell line RKO with the mesenchymal-like feature is more flexible than the epithelial-like HCT116. In another model, the breast epithelial cells MCF10A with deletion of the TP53 gene are also significantly more deformable compared to their isogenic wildtype counterpart, indicating a potential genetic link to cellular deformability. We also find that the drug docetaxel leads to an increase in the size of A549 lung cancer cells. The ability to associate mechanical properties of cancer cells with their phenotypes and genetics using single cell hydrodynamic stretching or the microsieve may help to deepen our understanding of the basic properties of cancer progression.

scholarly journals Control of the Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition and Cancer Metastasis by Autophagy-Dependent SNAI1 Degradation

Cells ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sahib Zada ◽  
Jin Hwang ◽  
Mahmoud Ahmed ◽  
Trang Lai ◽  
Trang Pham ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Cells ◽  
Cancer Cell ◽  
Cancer Progression ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Cancer Metastasis ◽  
Epithelial To Mesenchymal Transition ◽  
Nuclear Translocation ◽  
Degradation Process ◽  
Mesenchymal Transition ◽  
Invasion And Migration

Autophagy, an intracellular degradation process, is essential for maintaining cell homeostasis by removing damaged organelles and proteins under various conditions of stress. In cancer, autophagy has conflicting functions. It plays a key role in protecting against cancerous transformation by maintaining genomic stability against genotoxic components, leading to cancerous transformation. It can also promote cancer cell survival by supplying minimal amounts of nutrients during cancer progression. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying how autophagy regulates the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and cancer metastasis are unknown. Here, we show that starvation-induced autophagy promotes Snail (SNAI1) degradation and inhibits EMT and metastasis in cancer cells. Interestingly, SNAI1 proteins were physically associated and colocalized with LC3 and SQSTM1 in cancer cells. We also found a significant decrease in the levels of EMT and metastatic proteins under starvation conditions. Furthermore, ATG7 knockdown inhibited autophagy-induced SNAI1 degradation in the cytoplasm, which was associated with a decrease in SNAI1 nuclear translocation. Moreover, cancer cell invasion and migration were significantly inhibited by starvation-induced autophagy. These findings suggest that autophagy-dependent SNAI1 degradation could specifically regulate EMT and cancer metastasis during tumorigenesis.

scholarly journals The metabolic adaptation mechanism of metastatic organotropism

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Wang ◽  
Daya Luo
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Cells ◽  
Cancer Cell ◽  
Cancer Progression ◽  
Cancer Metabolism ◽  
Cancer Metastasis ◽  
Tumour Microenvironment ◽  
Metabolic Adaptation ◽  
Adaptation Mechanism ◽  
Metastatic Sites ◽  
The Impact

AbstractMetastasis is a complex multistep cascade of cancer cell extravasation and invasion, in which metabolism plays an important role. Recently, a metabolic adaptation mechanism of cancer metastasis has been proposed as an emerging model of the interaction between cancer cells and the host microenvironment, revealing a deep and extensive relationship between cancer metabolism and cancer metastasis. However, research on how the host microenvironment affects cancer metabolism is mostly limited to the impact of the local tumour microenvironment at the primary site. There are few studies on how differences between the primary and secondary microenvironments promote metabolic changes during cancer progression or how secondary microenvironments affect cancer cell metastasis preference. Hence, we discuss how cancer cells adapt to and colonize in the metabolic microenvironments of different metastatic sites to establish a metastatic organotropism phenotype. The mechanism is expected to accelerate the research of cancer metabolism in the secondary microenvironment, and provides theoretical support for the generation of innovative therapeutic targets for clinical metastatic diseases.

scholarly journals Characterizing Intercellular Communication of Pan-Cancer Reveals SPP1+ Tumor-Associated Macrophage Expanded in Hypoxia and Promoting Cancer Malignancy Through Single-Cell RNA-Seq Data

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinfen Wei ◽  
Zixi Chen ◽  
Meiling Hu ◽  
Ziqing He ◽  
Dawei Jiang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Single Cell ◽  
Cancer Cells ◽  
Cancer Progression ◽  
Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition ◽  
Single Cells ◽  
Matrix Remodeling ◽  
Rna Seq ◽  
Mesenchymal Transition ◽  
Tumor Associated Macrophage ◽  
Cancer Types

Hypoxia is a characteristic of tumor microenvironment (TME) and is a major contributor to tumor progression. Yet, subtype identification of tumor-associated non-malignant cells at single-cell resolution and how they influence cancer progression under hypoxia TME remain largely unexplored. Here, we used RNA-seq data of 424,194 single cells from 108 patients to identify the subtypes of cancer cells, stromal cells, and immune cells; to evaluate their hypoxia score; and also to uncover potential interaction signals between these cells in vivo across six cancer types. We identified SPP1+ tumor-associated macrophage (TAM) subpopulation potentially enhanced epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) by interaction with cancer cells through paracrine pattern. We prioritized SPP1 as a TAM-secreted factor to act on cancer cells and found a significant enhanced migration phenotype and invasion ability in A549 lung cancer cells induced by recombinant protein SPP1. Besides, prognostic analysis indicated that a higher expression of SPP1 was found to be related to worse clinical outcome in six cancer types. SPP1 expression was higher in hypoxia-high macrophages based on single-cell data, which was further validated by an in vitro experiment that SPP1 was upregulated in macrophages under hypoxia-cultured compared with normoxic conditions. Additionally, a differential analysis demonstrated that hypoxia potentially influences extracellular matrix remodeling, glycolysis, and interleukin-10 signal activation in various cancer types. Our work illuminates the clearer underlying mechanism in the intricate interaction between different cell subtypes within hypoxia TME and proposes the guidelines for the development of therapeutic targets specifically for patients with high proportion of SPP1+ TAMs in hypoxic lesions.

scholarly journals A pseudotemporal causality approach to identifying miRNA–mRNA interactions during biological processes

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andres M Cifuentes-Bernal ◽  
Vu Vh Pham ◽  
Xiaomei Li ◽  
Lin Liu ◽  
Jiuyong Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Single Cell ◽  
Cancer Progression ◽  
Cancer Metastasis ◽  
Biological Process ◽  
Supplementary Information ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Mesenchymal Transition ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Static Information ◽  
Temporal Aspect

Abstract Motivation microRNAs (miRNAs) are important gene regulators and they are involved in many biological processes, including cancer progression. Therefore, correctly identifying miRNA–mRNA interactions is a crucial task. To this end, a huge number of computational methods has been developed, but they mainly use the data at one snapshot and ignore the dynamics of a biological process. The recent development of single cell data and the booming of the exploration of cell trajectories using ‘pseudotime’ concept have inspired us to develop a pseudotime-based method to infer the miRNA–mRNA relationships characterizing a biological process by taking into account the temporal aspect of the process. Results We have developed a novel approach, called pseudotime causality, to find the causal relationships between miRNAs and mRNAs during a biological process. We have applied the proposed method to both single cell and bulk sequencing datasets for Epithelia to Mesenchymal Transition, a key process in cancer metastasis. The evaluation results show that our method significantly outperforms existing methods in finding miRNA–mRNA interactions in both single cell and bulk data. The results suggest that utilizing the pseudotemporal information from the data helps reveal the gene regulation in a biological process much better than using the static information. Availability and implementation R scripts and datasets can be found at https://github.com/AndresMCB/PTC. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

scholarly journals Hybrid Epithelial/Mesenchymal State in Cancer Metastasis: Clinical Significance and Regulatory Mechanisms

Cells ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 623 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tsai-Tsen Liao ◽  
Muh-Hwa Yang
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Cells ◽  
Cancer Progression ◽  
Normal Tissue ◽  
Cancer Metastasis ◽  
Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition ◽  
Regulatory Mechanisms ◽  
Dynamic Changes ◽  
Mesenchymal Transition ◽  
Stressful Environment ◽  
Metastatic Process

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) has been well recognized for its essential role in cancer progression as well as normal tissue development. In cancer cells, activation of EMT permits the cells to acquire migratory and invasive abilities and stem-like properties. However, simple categorization of cancer cells into epithelial and mesenchymal phenotypes misleads the understanding of the complicated metastatic process, and contradictory results from different studies also indicate the limitation of application of EMT theory in cancer metastasis. Nowadays, growing evidence suggests the existence of an intermediate status between epithelial and mesenchymal phenotypes, i.e., the “hybrid epithelial-mesenchymal (hybrid E/M)” state, provides a possible explanation for those conflicting results. Appearance of hybrid E/M phenotype offers a more plastic status for cancer cells to adapt the stressful environment for proceeding metastasis. In this article, we review the biological importance of the dynamic changes between the epithelial and the mesenchymal states. The regulatory mechanisms encompassing the translational, post-translational, and epigenetic control for this complex and plastic status are also discussed.

scholarly journals The lncRNA DLX6-AS1 promoted cell proliferation, invasion, migration and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in bladder cancer via modulating Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinan Guo ◽  
Zhixin Chen ◽  
Hongtao Jiang ◽  
Zhou Yu ◽  
Junming Peng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cell Proliferation ◽  
Bladder Cancer ◽  
Cancer Cells ◽  
Cancer Cell ◽  
Cancer Progression ◽  
Bladder Cancer Cell ◽  
Mesenchymal Transition ◽  
Bladder Cancer Cells

Abstract Background Bladder cancer is the most common human urological malignancies with poor prognosis, and the pathophysiology of bladder cancer involves multi-linkages of regulatory networks in the bladder cancer cells. Recently, the long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been extensively studied for their role on bladder cancer progression. In this study, we evaluated the expression of DLX6 Antisense RNA 1 (DLX6-AS1) in the cancerous bladder tissues and studied the possible mechanisms of DLX6-AS1 in regulating bladder cancer progression. Methods Gene expression was determined by qRT-PCR; protein expression levels were evaluated by western blot assay; in vitro functional assays were used to determine cell proliferation, invasion and migration; nude mice were used to establish the tumor xenograft model. Results Our results showed the up-regulation of DLX6-AS1 in cancerous bladder cancer tissues and bladder cell lines, and high expression of DLX6-AS1 was correlated with advance TNM stage, lymphatic node metastasis and distant metastasis. The in vitro experimental data showed that DLX6-AS1 overexpression promoted bladder cancer cell growth, proliferation, invasion, migration and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT); while DLX6-AS1 inhibition exerted tumor suppressive actions on bladder cancer cells. Further results showed that DLX6-AS1 overexpression increased the activity of Wnt/β-catenin signaling, and the oncogenic role of DLX6-AS1 in bladder cancer cells was abolished by the presence of XAV939. On the other hand, DLX6-AS1 knockdown suppressed the activity of Wnt/β-catenin signaling, and the tumor-suppressive effects of DLX6-AS1 knockdown partially attenuated by lithium chloride and SB-216763 pretreatment. The in vivo tumor growth study showed that DLX6-AS1 knockdown suppressed tumor growth of T24 cells and suppressed EMT and Wnt/β-catenin signaling in the tumor tissues. Conclusion Collectively, the present study for the first time identified the up-regulation of DLX6-AS1 in clinical bladder cancer tissues and in bladder cancer cell lines. The results from in vitro and in vivo assays implied that DLX6-AS1 exerted enhanced effects on bladder cancer cell proliferation, invasion and migration partly via modulating EMT and the activity of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.

scholarly journals Suppression of Breast Cancer Cell Migration and Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition by Atmospheric Pressure Plasma

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kijung Kim ◽  
Jinseung Choung ◽  
Ung Hyun Ko ◽  
Ara Jung ◽  
Wonho Choe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Cancer Cells ◽  
Cancer Cell ◽  
Breast Cancer Cell ◽  
Atmospheric Pressure ◽  
Cancer Metastasis ◽  
Atmospheric Pressure Plasma ◽  
Mesenchymal Transition ◽  
Pressure Plasma ◽  
Anti Cancer

Atmospheric pressure plasma (APP) has emerged rapidly as a potent tool for cancer therapy thanks to its multiple anti-cancer effects. Depending on the types, APP has been shown to induce necrosis, apoptosis, or senescence in cancer cells in vitro and reduce tumor size in vivo. While recent progress in plasma medicine has led to various hypotheses for the molecular mechanism of APP, the key effector in anti-cancer processes still remains elusive. In this study, we show that APP treatment on an invasive breast cancer cell line (MDA-MB-231) dramatically alters these cells’ morphology and further suppresses migratory activity. In addition to the functional changes, epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers, such as vimentin and alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), were found to be down-regulated in MDA-MB-231 by the APP treatment. As a result, APP treatment appears to impact the invasive nature of cancer cells, motivating the possible use of APP as a therapeutic tool to suppress cancer metastasis.

scholarly journals A Pseudo-Temporal Causality Approach to Identifying miRNA-mRNA Interactions During Biological Processes

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andres M. Cifuentes-Bernal ◽  
Vu VH Pham ◽  
Xiaomei Li ◽  
Lin Liu ◽  
Jiuyong Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Single Cell ◽  
Cancer Progression ◽  
Cancer Metastasis ◽  
Biological Process ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Mesenchymal Transition ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Static Information ◽  
Temporal Aspect ◽  
Cell Trajectories

AbstractMotivationmicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important gene regulators and they are involved in many biological processes, including cancer progression. Therefore, correctly identifying miRNA-mRNA interactions is a crucial task. To this end, a huge number of computational methods has been developed, but they mainly use the data at one snapshot and ignore the dynamics of a biological process. The recent development of single cell data and the booming of the exploration of cell trajectories using “pseudo-time” concept have inspired us to develop a pseudo-time based method to infer the miRNA-mRNA relationships characterising a biological process by taking into account the temporal aspect of the process.ResultsWe have developed a novel approach, called pseudo-time causality (PTC), to find the causal relationships between miRNAs and mRNAs during a biological process. We have applied the proposed method to both single cell and bulk sequencing datasets for Epithelia to Mesenchymal Transition (EMT), a key process in cancer metastasis. The evaluation results show that our method significantly outperforms existing methods in finding miRNA-mRNA interactions in both single cell and bulk data. The results suggest that utilising the pseudo-temporal information from the data helps reveal the gene regulation in a biological process much better than using the static information.AvailabilityR scripts and datasets can be found at https://github.com/AndresMCB/PTC

scholarly journals Epigenetic Regulation of Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition in the Cancer Metastatic Cascade: Implications for Cancer Therapy

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiu-Luo Liu ◽  
Maochao Luo ◽  
Canhua Huang ◽  
Hai-Ning Chen ◽  
Zong-Guang Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Cells ◽  
Cancer Progression ◽  
Epigenetic Regulation ◽  
Cancer Metastasis ◽  
Epithelial To Mesenchymal Transition ◽  
Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition ◽  
Mesenchymal Transition ◽  
Metastatic Cascade ◽  
Subsequent Transformation ◽  
Metastatic Cells

Metastasis is the end stage of cancer progression and the direct cause of most cancer-related deaths. The spreading of cancer cells from the primary site to distant organs is a multistep process known as the metastatic cascade, including local invasion, intravasation, survival in the circulation, extravasation, and colonization. Each of these steps is driven by the acquisition of genetic and/or epigenetic alterations within cancer cells, leading to subsequent transformation of metastatic cells. Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT), a cellular process mediating the conversion of cell from epithelial to mesenchymal phenotype, and its reverse transformation, termed mesenchymal–epithelial transition (MET), together endow metastatic cells with traits needed to generate overt metastases in different scenarios. The dynamic shift between these two phenotypes and their transitional state, termed partial EMT, emphasizes the plasticity of EMT. Recent advances attributed this plasticity to epigenetic regulation, which has implications for the therapeutic targeting of cancer metastasis. In this review, we will discuss the association between epigenetic events and the multifaceted nature of EMT, which may provide insights into the steps of the cancer metastatic cascade.

scholarly journals Upregulation of LGALS1 is associated with oral cancer metastasis

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 175883591879462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ji-Min Li ◽  
Chien-Wei Tseng ◽  
Chi-Chen Lin ◽  
Ching-Hsuan Law ◽  
Yu-An Chien ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oral Cancer ◽  
Cancer Cells ◽  
Cancer Progression ◽  
Cancer Metastasis ◽  
Mapk Pathway ◽  
Cancer Tissue ◽  
Mesenchymal Transition ◽  
Oral Cancer Cells

Background: Oral cancer metastasis is a devastating process that contributes to poor prognosis and high mortality, yet its detailed underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we aimed to evaluate metastasis-specific markers in oral cancer and to provide comprehensive recognition concerning functional roles of the specific target in oral cancer metastasis. Methods: Lectin, galactoside-binding, soluble, 1 (LGALS1) was identified by secretomic analysis. LGALS1 expression of patient samples with oral cancer on the tissue microarray were examined by immunochemical (IHC) staining. Small interfering RNA (siRNA)-mediated knockdown of LGALS1 revealed the role of LGALS1 in oral cancer metastasis in vitro and in vivo. Results: LGALS1 was observed to be upregulated in highly invasive oral cancer cells, and elevated LGALS1 expression was correlated with cancer progression and lymph node metastasis in oral cancer tissue specimens. Functionally, silencing LGALS1 resulted in suppressed cell growth, wound healing, cell migration, and cell invasion in oral cancer cells in vitro. Knockdown of LGALS1 in highly invasive oral cancer cells dramatically inhibited lung metastasis in an in vivo mouse model. Mechanistic studies suggested p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) phosphorylation, upregulated MMP-9, and mesenchymal phenotypes of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in highly invasive oral cancer cells, whereas siRNA against LGALS1 resulted in the inactivation of p38 MAPK pathway, downregulated MMP-9, and EMT inhibition. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that elevated LGALS1 is strongly correlated with oral cancer progression and metastasis, and that it could potentially serve as a prognostic biomarker and an innovative target for oral cancer therapy.

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