Spindle assembly checkpoint complex-related genes TTK and MAD2L1 are over-expressed in lung adenocarcinoma: a big data and bioinformatics analysis / 南方医科大学学报

OBJECTIVE@#To screen the key genes related to the prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma through big data analysis and explore their clinical value and potential mechanism.@*METHODS@#We analyzed GSE18842, GSE27262, and GSE33532 gene expression profile data obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). Bioinformatics methods were used to screen the differentially expressed genes in lung adenocarcinoma tissues and KEGG and GO enrichment analysis was performed, followed by PPI interaction network analysis, module analysis, differential expression analysis, and prognosis analysis. The expressions of MAD2L1 and TTK by immunohistochemistry were verified in 35 non-small cell lung cancer specimens and paired adjacent tissues.@*RESULTS@#We identified a total of 256 genes that showed significant differential expressions in lung adenocarcinoma, including 66 up-regulated and 190 down-regulated genes. Thirty-two up-regulated core genes were screened by functional analysis, and among them 29 were shown to significantly correlate with a poor prognosis of patients with lung adenocarcinoma. All the 29 genes were highly expressed in lung adenocarcinoma tissues compared with normal lung tissues and were mainly enriched in cell cycle pathways. Seven of these key genes were closely related to the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) complex and responsible for regulating cell behavior in G2/M phase. We selected SAC-related proteins TTK and MAD2L1 to test their expressions in clinical tumor samples, and detected their overexpression in lung adenocarcinoma tissues as compared with the adjacent tissues.@*CONCLUSIONS@#Seven SAC complex-related genes, including TTK and MAD2L1, are overexpressed in lung adenocarcinoma tissues with close correlation with the prognosis of the patients.

Long noncoding RNA UFC1 promotes metastasis and invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma cells via GSK-3β/β-catenin axis / 南方医科大学学报

OBJECTIVE@#To explore the role of Long noncoding RNA UFC1 (lincRNA-UFC1) in modulating the metastasis and invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells and the underlying mechanism.@*METHODS@#Human HCC cell line Huh7 was infected with the lentiviral vector carrying lincRNA-UFC1 to obtain a cell line with lincRNA-UFC1 overexpression. A short hairpin RNA (shRNA) targeting lincRNA-UFC1 was delivered in human HCC BEL-7402 cells via a lentiviral vector to obtain a cell line with lincRNA-UFC1 knockdown. Expression levels of lincRNA-UFC1 in the two HCC cell lines were detected using real-time PCR, and the changes in the cell invasion and migration in response to lincRNA-UFC1 overexpression or knockdown were analyzed using Transwell and wound-healing assays. The expressions of GSK-3β/β-catenin-related proteins in the cells were detected with Western blotting. XAV-939, a GSK-3β/β-catenin inhibitor, was used for assessing the impact of lincRNAUFC1 overexpression on the invasion and migration of the HCC cells through Transwell and wound-healing assays.@*RESULTS@#Overexpression of lincRNA-UFC1 significantly promoted the invasion and migration of Huh7 cells as compared with the control cells ( < 0.001), while lincRNA-UFC1 knockdown obviously suppressed the invasion and migration of BEL-7402 cells ( < 0.001). The results of Western blotting showed that the expressions of proteins associated with the cell invasion and migration, namely β-catenin and P-GSK-3β, were significantly upregulated in response to lincRNA-UFC1 overexpression, and were obviously lowered after lincRNA-UFC1 knockdown. Treatment of the cells with XAV-939 significantly reversed the effect of lincRNA-UFC1 overexpression on the cell invasion and migration ( < 0.001).@*CONCLUSIONS@#lincRNA-UFC1 overexpresison promotes cell invasion and migration through the GSK-3β/β-catenin axis in HCC cells .

FAT10 promotes invasion and metastasis of hepatocellular carcino-ma through activating RhoA / 中国肿瘤临床

Objective:To investigate the correlation of FAT10 expression with the malignant characteristics of hepatocellular car-cinoma (HCC), and to explore the effect of FAT10 on RhoA and cytoskeleton of HCC. Methods: Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to detect the FAT10 expression level of 108 HCC patients, and the correlation between the expression of FAT10 and the malignant characteristics of HCC patients was analyzed. We transiently transfected plasmids with overexpressed FAT10 using 7721 and HepG2 cells or interfered with FAT10 expression using siRNA in Huh7 and LM3 cells. Active-RhoA, total-RhoA, and ROCK protein expres-sion levels were detected by Western blot analysis after overexpression or interference. We also used immunofluorescence to detect changes in the cytoskeleton protein F-actin after FAT10 overexpression in 7721 cells. Results:Correlation analysis showed that both ac-tive-RhoA and FAT10 expression levels were significantly correlated with clinical malignant characteristics by using IHC (RhoA:me-tastasis, P=0.036 and recurrence, P=0.026;FAT10:metastasis, P=0.031 and recurrence P=0.004). In addition, active-RhoA expression level was correlated with FAT10 (P=0.000). Survival analysis showed that the prognoses of low-expression active RhoA (P=0.019) or FAT10 (P=0.026) groups were significantly better than those of the high-expression groups. Western blot analysis showed that FAT10 increased the expression of active-RhoA and ROCK. However, the expression of active-RhoA and ROCK decreased after FAT10 inter-ference. F-actin expression increased in the 7721 cells with overexpressed FAT10 (all P<0.01). Moreover, FAT10 facilitated F-actin ag-gregation on cell membrane and changes in F-actin. Conclusion:FAT10 is correlated with the malignant characteristics of HCC and may promote changes in HCC cytoskeleton induced by active-RhoA.

Effect of casein kinase 2β in esophageal carcinoma and its clinical significance / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the expression of casein kinase 2β in esophageal carcinoma tissues and analyze its clinical significance.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The expression of CK2β in a tissue chip containing 60 normal esophageal mucosa and 60 colorectal cancer specimens were detected immunohistochemically. Ten human esophageal carcinoma and adjacent normal tissues were examined for the expression of CK2β protein and mRNA using Western blotting and real-time quantitative PCR, respectively.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>A strong expression of CK2β was found in 85.71% of the esophageal cancer tissues; 1.79% of the cancer tissues were negative for CK2β expression, and 1.79% and 10.71% of the cancer tissues were weakly and moderately positive, respectively. In the normal mucosal tissues, 96.67% of the tissues were negative for CK2β and 3.33% showed weak CK2β expression, showing a significant difference in the distribution of CK2β between normal and esophageal carcinoma tissues (P<0.001). The expression level of CK2β in esophageal cancers was associated with the pathological stage (TNM) (P=0.010). Western blotting and real-time quantitative PCR also confirmed an increased CK2β expression in the esophageal cancer tissues.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The high expression of protein kinase CK2β is closely related to the carcinogenesis and malignancy of esophageal cancer.</p>