The burgeoning importance of PIWI-interacting RNAs in cancer progression.

PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) are a class of small noncoding RNA molecules that specifically bind to piwi protein family members to exert regulatory functions in germ cells. Recent studies have found that piRNAs, as tissue-specific molecules, both play oncogenic and tumor suppressive roles in cancer progression, including cancer cell proliferation, metastasis, chemoresistance and stemness. Additionally, the atypical manifestation of piRNAs and PIWI proteins in various malignancies presents a promising strategy for the identification of novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets in the diagnosis and management of tumors. Nonetheless, the precise functions of piRNAs in cancer progression and their underlying mechanisms have yet to be fully comprehended. This review aims to examine current research on the biogenesis and functions of piRNA and its burgeoning importance in cancer progression, thereby offering novel perspectives on the potential utilization of piRNAs and piwi proteins in the management and treatment of advanced cancer.

Iron metabolism and ferroptosis in diabetic bone loss: from mechanism to therapy.

Osteoporosis, one of the most serious and common complications of diabetes, has affected the quality of life of a large number of people in recent years. Although there are many studies on the mechanism of diabetic osteoporosis, the information is still limited and there is no consensus. Recently, researchers have proven that osteoporosis induced by diabetes mellitus may be connected to an abnormal iron metabolism and ferroptosis inside cells under high glucose situations. However, there are no comprehensive reviews reported. Understanding these mechanisms has important implications for the development and treatment of diabetic osteoporosis. Therefore, this review elaborates on the changes in bones under high glucose conditions, the consequences of an elevated glucose microenvironment on the associated cells, the impact of high glucose conditions on the iron metabolism of the associated cells, and the signaling pathways of the cells that may contribute to diabetic bone loss in the presence of an abnormal iron metabolism. Lastly, we also elucidate and discuss the therapeutic targets of diabetic bone loss with relevant medications which provides some inspiration for its cure.

Evaluation of immune microenvironment in IgG4-related sialadenitis.

IgG4-related sialadenitis is a systemic autoimmune disease that can lead to fibro-inflammatory conditions. This study aims to investigate the immune microenvironment and potential signaling pathways associated with IgG4-related sialadenitis. Datasets related to IgG4-related sialadenitis were retrieved from the GEO database. Immune cell infiltration analysis was conducted using the Cell-type Identification by Estimating Relative Subsets of RNA Transcripts (CIBERSORT) method. Differentially immune-related expressed genes (DIEG) and immune-related functional enrichment were identified. Moreover, potential treatment targets for IgG4-related sialadenitis were predicted using The Connectivity Map. Only two datasets from GEO were included for further analysis. The CIBERSORT results indicated dominant immune cell populations in IgG4-related sialadenitis, including CD8+ T cells, resting NK cells, monocytes, and naïve B cells in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Additionally, high abundance of plasma cells was observed in labial salivary gland tissues. Furthermore, a total of 42 DIEGs were identified, with tumor necrosis factor (TNF) signaling via the NF-Kappa B signaling pathway and the p53 signaling pathway being highly enriched. Autophagy inhibitors and DNA topoisomerase inhibitors were strongly associated with potential targets for the treatment of IgG4-related sialadenitis (P<0.05). This study reveals altered immune microenvironment in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and labial salivary gland tissues in IgG4-related sialadenitis. Autophagy inhibitors and DNA topoisomerase inhibitors show promise as potential targets for treating IgG4-related sialadenitis, providing a novel therapeutic strategy for this disease.

Oral Intervention of Narirutin Ameliorates the Allergic Response of Ovalbumin Allergy.

A new intervention was investigated for the induction of oral tolerance (OT) of OVA using narirutin by in vivo and in vitro experiments combined with network pharmacology and structural analysis of molecular docking. Narirutin (and its metabolism naringenin) has effects on OT by affecting B cell function, DCs, and T cell response by prediction. It was verified that narirutin could affect B cell function of secreting antibodies, thereby reducing the ability of DCs to absorb antigens by affecting GATA3, CCR7, STAT5, and MHCII expression and regulating T cell response by suppressing Th2 and improving Treg cells in vivo. Molecular docking showed that steric hindrance effects may be the reason for weaker binding energy with targets of narirutin. However, this does not mean that it has no bioactivity, for it can inhibit mast cell degranulation. This finding is interesting because it offers the possibility of using natural compounds to promote oral tolerance.

Crosstalk of necroptosis and pyroptosis defines tumor microenvironment characterization and predicts prognosis in clear cell renal carcinoma.

Pyroptosis and necroptosis are two recently identified forms of immunogenic cell death in the tumor microenvironment (TME), indicating a crucial involvement in tumor metastasis. However, the characteristics of necroptosis and pyroptosis that define tumor microenvironment and prognosis in ccRCC patients remain unknown. We systematically investigated the transcriptional variation and expression patterns of Necroptosis and Pyroptosis related genes (NPRGs). After screening the necroptosis-pyroptosis clusters, the potential functional annotation for clusters was explored by GSVA enrichment analysis. The Necroptosis-Pyroptosis Genes (NPG) scores were used for the prognosis model construction and validation. Then, the correlations of NPG score with clinical features, cancer stem cell (CSC) index, tumor mutation burden (TMB), TME, and Immune Checkpoint Genes (ICGs) were also individually explored to evaluate the prognosis predictive values in ccRCC. Microarray screenings identified 27 upregulated and 1 downregulated NPRGs. Ten overall survival associated NPRGs were filtered to construct the NPG prognostic model indicating a better prognostic signature for ccRCC patients with lower NPG scores (P< 0.001), which was verified using the external cohort. Univariate and multivariate analyses along with Kaplan-Meier survival analysis demonstrated that NPG score prognostic model could be applied as an independent prognostic factor, and AUC values of nomogram from 1- to 5- year overall survival with good agreement in calibration plots suggested that the proposed prognostic signature possessed good predictive capabilities in ccRCC. A high-/sNPG score is proven to be connected with tumor growth and immune-related biological processes, according to enriched GO, KEGG, and GSEA analyses. Comparing patients with a high-NPG score to those with a low-NPG score revealed significant differences in clinical characteristics, growth and recurrence of malignancies (CSC index), TME cell infiltration, and immunotherapeutic response (P< 0.005), potentially making the NPG score multifunctional in the clinical therapeutic setting. Furthermore, AIM2, CASP4, GSDMB, NOD2, and RBCK1 were also found to be highly expressed in ccRCC cell lines and tumor tissues, and GASP4 and GSDMB promote ccRCC cells' proliferation, migration, and invasion. This study firstly suggests that targeting the NPG score feature for TME characterization may lend novel insights into its clinical applications in the prognostic prediction of ccRCC.

Corrigendum: The risk of heart disease-related death among anaplastic astrocytoma patients after chemotherapy: A SEER population-based analysis.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2022.870843.].

The Risk of Heart Disease-Related Death Among Anaplastic Astrocytoma Patients After Chemotherapy: A SEER Population-Based Analysis.

Background: Despite improved overall survival outcomes, chemotherapy has brought concerns for heart disease-related death (HDRD) among cancer patients. The effect of chemotherapy on the risk of HDRD in anaplastic astrocytoma (AA) patients remains unclear. Methods: We obtained 7,129 AA patients from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database from 1975 to 2016. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analysis were conducted to evaluate the effect of chemotherapy on the HDRD risk. Based on the competing risk model, we calculated the cumulative incidences of HDRD and non-HDRD and performed univariate and multivariate regression analyses. Then, a 1:1 propensity score matching (PSM) was used to improve the comparability between AA patients with and without chemotherapy. Landmark analysis at 216 and 314 months was employed to minimize immortal time bias. Results: AA patients with chemotherapy were at a lower HDRD risk compared to those patients without chemotherapy (adjusted HR=0.782, 95%CI=0.736-0.83, P<0.001). For competing risk regression analysis, the cumulative incidence of HDRD in non-chemotherapy exceeded HDRD in the chemotherapy group (P<0.001) and multivariable analysis showed a lower HDRD risk in AA patients with chemotherapy (adjusted SHR=0.574, 95%CI=0.331-0.991, P=0.046). In the PSM-after cohort, there were no significant association between chemotherapy and the increased HDRD risk (adjusted SHR=0.595, 95%CI=0.316-1.122, P=0.11). Landmark analysis showed that AA patients who received chemotherapy had better heart disease-specific survival than those in the non-chemotherapy group (P=0.007) at the follow-up time points of 216 months. No difference was found when the follow-up time was more than 216 months. Conclusion: AA patients with chemotherapy are associated with a lower risk of HDRD compared with those without chemotherapy. Our findings may help clinicians make a decision about the management of AA patients and provide new and important evidence for applying chemotherapy in AA patients as the first-line treatment. However, more research is needed to confirm these findings and investigate the correlation of the risk of HDRD with different chemotherapy drugs and doses.

Effects of root restriction on phytohormone levels in different growth stages and grapevine organs.

Phytohormones play important roles in germination, blossom, senescence, abscission of plants by a series of signal transduction and molecular regulation. The purpose of this research was to investigate the influence of root restriction (RR) cultivation on plant endogenous hormone variation tendency at different growth stages in diverse organs or tissues. 'Muscat Hamburg' (Vitis 'Muscat of Alexandria' × Vitis 'Trollinger') grapevine was used as test material. High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) was used to quantify hormone levels, qRT-PCR was used to quantify the expression of genes related to hormone biosynthesis pathway, and determined parameters of growth and photosynthetic, aiming to investigate the influence of root restriction on the formation and metabolism of phytohormones, as well as the degree of correlation between phytohormones and plant growth and photosynthetic intensity under root restriction. By measuring the photosynthetic rate of leaves at the stages of core-hardening, veraison and maturity, it was found that root restriction could reduce most photosynthetic parameters. The results also revealed that RR treatment increased abscisic acid (ABA), salicylic acid (SA), zeatin riboside (ZR), N6-(delta 2-isopentenyl)-adenine nucleoside (iPR) concentrations, while reduced auxin (IAA), 3-indolepropionic acid (IPA), 3-indolebutyric acid (IBA), gibberellin A3 (GA3), zeatin (ZT), N6-(delta 2-Isopentenyl)-adenine (iP), kinetin (KT), jasmonic acid (JA) and methyl jasmonate (MeJA) concentrations in most organs and at most developmental stages. RT-qPCR was carried out to further explore the effect of root restriction on genes expression of ABA, SA and IAA biosynthesis pathways at molecular level. Meanwhile, through correlation analysis, we found that different phytohormones contributed differently to physiological indicators, there existed strong correlation of ABA, KT, MeJA, iPR, SA, JA with leaf photosynthesis, GA3, IBA, ZR, IAA, ZT with fruit quality. In addition, we also found that the shoot growth related parameters were closely correlated with JA, IPA and iP. To sum up, our results suggested that RR treatment could significantly increase soluble solid content, regulate the growth and photosynthesis of grapevine, by affecting the biosynthesis of phytohormones. It could further prove that root restriction was a feasible technique to ameliorate the phenomenon of low quality in grape berry in southern China.

MiR-200c inhibited the proliferation of oral squamous cell carcinoma cells by targeting Akt pathway and its downstream Glut1.

OBJECTIVE: Our study aimed to investigate the functionality of miR-200c in oral squamous cell carcinoma. METHODS: Tumor tissues and adjacent tissues were obtained from oral squamous cell carcinoma patients, and blood samples were extracted from both oral squamous cell carcinoma patients and healthy controls. Expression of miR-200c in those tissues was detected by qRT-PCR. All patients were followed-up for 5 years and ROC curves as well as survival analyses were performed to evaluate the diagnostic as well as prognostic values of serum miR-200c for oral squamous cell carcinoma. miR-200c and Glut1 overexpression oral squamous cell carcinoma cell lines were constructed and cell proliferation was detected by CCK-8 assay. Glucose uptake was determined by glucose uptake assay. Interactions between miR-200c, Akt and Glut1 were explored by western blot. RESULTS: Expression of miR-200c was significantly downregulated in tumor tissues comparing with adjacent tissues in most oral squamous cell carcinoma patients. Serum level of miR-200c was lower in oral squamous cell carcinoma patients than that in healthy controls, and it was decreased with increased primary tumor stages. Serum levels of miR-200c can been used to effectively distinguish oral squamous cell carcinoma patients from healthy control, and patients with lower serum level of miR-200c showed shorter survival time. miR-200c overexpression inactivated Akt and Glut1 expression, while Akt activator and Glut1 overexpression showed no significant effects on miR-200c. Akt activator promoted Glut1 expression, but Glut1 overexpression showed no significant effects on Akt. MiR-200c inhibited cell proliferation and glucose uptake, while Akt activator and Glut1 overexpression reduced the inhibitory effect of miR-200c overexpression on cell proliferation. CONCLUSION: miR-200c can inhibit the proliferation of oral squamous cell carcinoma cells by targeting Akt pathway and its downstream Glut1.

[Celecoxib enhances the chemotherapy sensitivity of KB/VCR cell lines to vincristine].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the influence of celecoxib, cycloxygenase-2 (COX-2) selective inhibitor, upon the proliferation of KB/VCR cells, and analyze the effect of celecoxib on the expression of P-glycoprotein (P-gp). METHODS: MTT method was employed to study the inhibitory effect of celecoxib on KB/VCR cells, which were divided into vincristine (VCR) group, Celecoxib group, Celecoxib + VCR group, Celecoxib + VCR + prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) group. Western blot was employed to detect the expression of P-gp, Bcl-2 and Bcl-X(L). Flow cytometry was used to evaluate the apoptosis of KB/VCR cells. All of the data were statistically analyzed using SPSS 13.0 software package. RESULTS: The growth inhibition rate of KB/VCR cells in Celecoxib+VCR group was significantly higher than that in Celecoxib group, VCR group and Celecoxib + VCR + PGE2 group (P < 0.01). The expression of P-gp in Celecoxib + VCR group and Celecoxib group were markedly lower, compared with those in VCR group and Celecoxib + VCR + PGE2 group (P < 0.01). The expression of Bcl-2, Bcl-XL in Celecoxib+VCR group, Celecoxib+VCR+PGE2 group and Celecoxib group were significantly lower than those in VCR group (P < 0.01). The apoptosis rate of Celecoxib + VCR group, Celecoxib + VCR + PGE2 group were significantly higher than those in VCR group and Celecoxib group (P < 0.01). The apoptosis rate of Celecoxib+VCR+PGE2 group were significantly lower than those in Celecoxib+VCR group (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Celecoxib could enhance the toxicity of VCR against KB/VCR cells. The mechanism probably correlates with the downregulation of celecoxib on the expression of P-gp and the increase of apoptosis.

[Celecoxib enhances chemosensitivity of oral cancer cells by blocking cell cycle progression in vitro].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of celecoxib in enhancing the chemosensitivity of oral cancer cells and the correlation of this effect with cell cycle arrest. METHODS: KB/VCR cell line was treated with celecoxib (10, 20, 40, and 80 µmol/L) and/or VCR (0.375, 0.75, 1.5, and 3 µmol/L), and the growth inhibition rates of KB/VCR cells were assessed with MTT assay. Flow cytometry was employed to analyze the distribution of cell cycle. Western blotting was performed to detect the expression of P-glycoprotein (P-gp) and the cell cycle related proteins Cyclin D1 and p21(WAF1/CIP1). RESULTS: Low concentrations of celecoxib (<20 µmol/L) produced no obvious effect on the proliferation of the cells. But at 10 µmol/L, celecoxib significantly enhanced the toxicity of VCR in a time-dependent manner, and the combined treatments for 24, 48, and 72 h caused growth inhibition rates of (37.53∓2.05)%, (46.67∓3.17)% and (54.02∓1.53)%, respectively, significantly higher than those following treatments with celecoxib or VCR alone (P<0.01). Compared with the cells treated with VCR alone , the cells with combined treatments showed a significantly increased cell percentage in G0/G1 phase [(56.08∓0.46)%] with decrease percentages in S phase [(22.83∓0.20)%] and G2/M phase [(21.09%∓0.66)%]. The combined treatment also significantly down-regulated cyclin D1, up-regulated p21(WAF1/CIP1), and reduced P-gp expressions in the cells. CONCLUSIONS: Celecoxib enhances the chemosensitivity of KB/VCR cells by down-regulating P-gp expression, which is partially mediated by modification of cyclin D1 and p21(WAF1/CIP1) to result in cell cycle arrest.