CRISPR/Cas9-mediated activation of CDH1 suppresses metastasis of breast cancer in rats

BACKGROUND Cancer is a life-threatening disease that affects approximately 18 million individuals worldwide. Breast cancer is the most common female neoplasm globally with more than 276,480 new cases of invasive breast cancer expected to be diagnosed in women in the U.S. alone in 2020. Genetic and epigenetic factors play role in the carcinogenesis and progression of this disease. In this study, MCF-7 adenocarcinoma cells were transfected with CRISPR/Cas9 plasmid to either knock out CDK11 or to activate CDH1. Treated cells were allografted into the mammary glands of female rats (150­190 g, 6­8 weeks) to evaluate the capability of these cells to control cancer progression and metastasis. RESULTS qPCR data revealed a significant downregulation of CDK11 and upregulation of CDH1. Cell cycle analysis and apoptosis assays indicated the knockout of CDK11 and simultaneous activation of CDH1 resulted in cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase and accumulation of cells at G2. Meanwhile, the percentage of cells that underwent late apoptosis increased in both genome editing hits. Histopathological sectioning data indicated that untransfected MCF-7 cells were capable of developing tumors in the mammary gland and initiation g angiogenesis. Transfected cells significantly restricted cancer cell infiltration/invasion by minimally localizing tumors and inhibiting angiogenesis. CONCLUSIONS Although further investigation is needed, the present data indicate the potentiality of using CRISPR/Cas9-based therapy as a promising approach to treat breast cancer. Impact: these data indicate targeting cancer-related genes via any genome editing tool might represent a novel approach to combat cancer.

A study on the expression of MTSS1 in hepatocellular carcinoma / 中华普通外科杂志

Objective To explore the expression and significance of MTSS1 ( metastasis suppressor 1) in hepatocellular carcinoma.Methods MTSS1 expression was detected by immunohistochemistry in hepatocellular carcinoma, liver cirrhosis and normal liver tissues.Single-factor analysis was used to study the relationship with clinicopathological factor.Correlations between MTSS1 expression and TNM stage were analyzed with Spearman rank correlation analysis.Postoperative 5-year survival was evaluated using Kaplan-Meier survival curve analysis.Results The expression of MTSS1 in hepatocellular carcinoma was higher than normal liver tissue ( U = 168.000, P ＜ 0.05), and liver cirrhotic tissue ( U = 106.000, P ＜ 0.05); MTSS1 expression was correlated with TNM stage of hepatocellular carcinoma patients, lymph vascular invasion and tumor capsule ( separately U = 259.000, 258.500, 202.000, all P ＜ 0.05).MTSS1 expression in hepatocellular carcinoma was not correlated with patients age, gender, tumor size, AFP level, and hepatitis B surface antigen.MTSS1 expression and TNM stage of liver cancer patients was negatively correlated ( rs = - 0.383 , P ＜ 0.05 ).Postoperative 5-year survival of hepatocellular carcinoma patients with MTSS1 positive expression was significantly poorer than patients with negative and weakly positive expression (respectively 34.1% and 52.3% , x2 =6.386, P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions MTSS1 high expression may play an important role in the early hepatocellular carcinoma progression, indicating a poor prognosis.