CDC6 is a prognostic biomarker and correlated with immune infiltrates in glioma.

BACKGROUND: Cell division cycle 6 (CDC6) has been proven to be associated with the initiation and progression of human multiple tumors. However, it's role in glioma, which is ranked as one of the common primary malignant tumor in the central nervous system and is associated with high morbidity and mortality, is unclear. METHODS: In this study, we explored CDC6 gene expression level in pan-cancer. Furthermore, we focused on the relationships between CDC6 expression, its prognostic value, potential biological functions, and immune infiltrates in glioma patients. We also performed vitro experiments to assess the effect of CDC6 expression on proliferative, apoptotic, migrant and invasive abilities of glioma cells. RESULTS: As a result, CDC6 expression was upregulated in multiple types of cancer, including glioma. Moreover, high expression of CDC6 was significantly associated with age, IDH status, 1p/19q codeletion status, WHO grade and histological type in glioma (all p < 0.05). Meanwhile, high CDC6 expression was associated with poor overall survival (OS) in glioma patients, especially in different clinical subgroups. Furthermore, a univariate Cox analysis showed that high CDC6 expression was correlated with poor OS in glioma patients. Functional enrichment analysis indicated that CDC6 was mainly involved in pathways related to DNA transcription and cytokine activity, and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) revealed that MAPK pathway, P53 pathway and NF-κB pathway in cancer were differentially enriched in glioma patients with high CDC6 expression. Single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) showed CDC6 expression in glioma was positively correlated with Th2 cells, Macrophages and Eosinophils, and negative correlations with plasmacytoid dendritic cells, CD8 T cells and NK CD56bright cells, suggesting its role in regulating tumor immunity. Finally, CCK8 assay, flow cytometry and transwell assays showed that silencing CDC6 could significantly inhibit proliferation, migration, invasion, and promoted apoptosis of U87 cells and U251 cells (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: In conclusion, high CDC6 expression may serve as a promising biomarker for prognosis and correlated with immune infiltrates, presenting to be a potential immune therapy target in glioma.

Revealing the mechanisms of Weishi Huogu I capsules used for treating osteonecrosis of the femoral head based on systems pharmacology with one mechanism validated with in vitro experiments.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Weishi Huogu I (WH I) capsules, developed through traditional Chinese medicine, have been used to treat clinical osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) for decades. However, the mechanisms have not been systematically studied. AIM OF THE STUDY: In this study, the mechanisms of WH I capsules used in treating ONFH were examined through a systems pharmacology strategy, and one mechanism was validated with in vitro experiments. MATERIALS AND METHODS: WH I capsules compounds were identified by screening databases; then, a database of the potential active compounds was constructed after absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME) evaluation. The compounds were identified through a systematic approach in which the probability of an interaction of every candidate compound with each corresponding target in the DrugBank database was calculated. Gene Ontology (GO) and pathway enrichment analyses of the targets was performed with the Metascape and KEGG DISEASE databases. Then, a compound-target network (C-T) and target-pathway network (T-P) of WH I capsule components were constructed, and network characteristics and related information were used for systematically identifying WH I capsule multicomponent-target interactions. Furthermore, the effects of WH I capsule compounds identified through the systematic pharmacology analysis of the osteogenic transformation of human umbilical mesenchymal stem cells (HUMSCs) were validated in vitro. RESULTS: In total, 152 potentially important compounds and 176 associated targets were identified. Twenty-two crucial GO biological process (BP) or pathways were related to ONFH, mainly in regulatory modules regulating blood circulation, modulating growth, and affecting pathological processes closely related to ONFH. Furthermore, the GO enrichment analysis showed that corydine, isorhamnetin, and bicuculline were enriched in "RUNX2 regulates osteoblast differentiation", significantly increased alkaline phosphatase activity and calcium deposition and upregulated runt-related transcription factor 2 mRNA and protein expression and osteocalcin mRNA expression in HUMSCs, suggesting that these compounds promoted the mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) osteogenic transformation. CONCLUSIONS: The study showed that the pharmacological mechanisms of WH I capsule attenuation of ONFH mainly involve three therapeutic modules: blood circulation, modulating growth, and regulating pathological processes. The crosstalk between GOBPs/pathways may constitute the basis of the synergistic effects of the compounds in WH I capsules in attenuating ONFH. One of the pharmacological mechanisms in the WH I capsule effect on ONFH involves enhancement of the osteogenic transformation of MSCs, as validated in experiments performed in vitro; however, more mechanisms should be validated in further studies.

An assessment of prognostic immunity markers in breast cancer.

Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) and immunity gene signatures have been reported to be significantly prognostic in breast cancer but have not yet been applied for calculation of risk of recurrence in clinical assays. A compact set of 17 immunity genes was derived herein from an Affymetrix-derived gene expression dataset including 1951 patients (AFFY1951). The 17 immunity genes demonstrated significant prognostic stratification of estrogen receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer patients with high proliferation gene expression. Further analysis of blood and breast cancer single-cell RNA-seq datasets revealed that the 17 immunity genes were derived from TIL that were inactive in the blood and became active in tumor tissue. Expression of the 17 immunity genes was significantly (p < 2.2E-16, n = 91) correlated with TILs percentage on H&E in triple negative breast cancer. To demonstrate the impact of tumor immunity genes on prognosis, we built a Cox model to incorporate breast cancer subtypes, proliferation score and immunity score (72 gene panel) with significant prediction of outcomes (p < 0.0001, n = 1951). The 72 gene panel and its risk evaluation model were validated in two other published gene expression datasets including Illumina beads array data METABRIC (p < 0.0001, n = 1997) and whole transcriptomic mRNA-seq data TCGA (p = 0.00019, n = 996) and in our own targeted RNA-seq data TARGETSEQ (p < 0.0001, n = 303). Further examination of the 72 gene panel in single cell RNA-seq of tumors demonstrated tumor heterogeneity with more than two subtypes observed in each tumor. In conclusion, immunity gene expression was an important parameter for prognosis and should be incorporated into current multi-gene assays to improve assessment of risk of distant metastasis in breast cancer.