Mining Prognostic Significance of MEG3 in Human Breast Cancer Using Bioinformatics Analysis.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Maternally expressed gene 3 (MEG3) is an imprinted gene with maternal expression, which may function as a tumor suppressor by inhibiting angiogenesis. To identify the prognostic value of MEG3 in breast cancer, systematic analysis was performed in this study. METHODS: To evaluate gene alteration during breast carcinogenesis, we explored MEG3 expression using the Serial Analysis of Gene Expression Genie suite and Oncomine analysis. The prognostic roles of MEG3 in breast cancer were investigated using the PrognoScan database. The heat map and methylation status of MEG3 were determined using the UCSC Genome Browser. RESULTS: We found that MEG3 was more frequently downregulated in breast cancer than in normal tissues and this correlated with prognosis. However, estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor status were found to be positively correlated with MEG3 expression. Conversely, basal-like status, triple-negative breast cancer status, and Scarff Bloom & Richardson grade criterion were negatively correlated with MEG3 expression. Following data mining in multiple big data databases, we confirmed a positive correlation between MEG3 and heparan sulfate proteoglycan 2 (HSPG2) expression in breast cancer tissues. CONCLUSION: MEG3 could be adopted as a marker to predict the prognosis of breast cancer with HSPG2. However, large-scale and comprehensive research is needed to clarify our results.

IL22 furthers malignant transformation of rat mesenchymal stem cells, possibly in association with IL22RA1/STAT3 signaling.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) hold great promise as potential therapies for tumors through the delivery of various anticancer agents. However, exogenous tissue­derived MSCs, such as those of bone marrow, have exhibited a tendency for malignant transformation in the tumor microenvironment. This issue remains controversial and is poorly understood. In the present study, the role of interleukin 22 (IL22)/IL22 receptor subunit α 1 (IL22RA1) and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling in the malignant transformation of MSCs was investigated. Following isolation of rat MSCs and their indirect co­culture with C6 glioma cells, the transformed MSCs exhibited tumor cell characteristics. The Cancer Genome Atlas­Glioblastoma Multiforme analysis revealed that primary and recurrent glioblastomas have increased IL22RA1 expression, compared with normal tissues, whereas the expression of IL22 was low in glioblastoma and normal tissues. mRNA and protein expression levels of IL22RA1 were significantly increased in the MSCs co­cultured with C6 glioma cells. Furthermore, MSCs incubated with IL22 exhibited increased proliferation, migration and invasion. STAT3 demonstrated activation and nuclear translocation in the presence of IL22. Additionally, STAT3 small interfering RNA significantly inhibited the migration and invasion ability of MSCs, and the expression of the STAT3 downstream targets cyclin D1 and B­cell lymphoma­extra large under IL22 stimulation, indicating that IL22 also promoted MSC migration and invasion through STAT3 signaling. These data indicated that IL22 serves a critical role in the malignant transformation of rat MSCs, which is associated with an enhancement of the IL22RA1/STAT3 signaling pathway in the tumor microenvironment.

Thermal behavior and kinetic study for co-pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass with polyethylene over Cobalt modified ZSM-5 catalyst by thermogravimetric analysis.

The thermal behavior and kinetic study of lignocellulosic biomass (rice straw (RS)) and linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) pyrolysis over modified ZSM-5 catalyst were investigated using thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA). Cellulose and lignin were used as model compounds of biomass in order to investigate the reaction mechanism of lignocellulosic biomass and polyethylene co-pyrolysis. Results showed that RS&LLDPE co-pyrolysis was more complicated than that of the individual components. The activation energy (E) of RS, and RS&LLDPE pyrolysis were 79.61kJ/mol and 59.70kJ/mol respectively, suggesting that there was a positive synergistic interaction between RS and LLDPE. The addition of LLDPE with lignin co-pyrolysis obtained a lower apparent activation energy (33.39kJ/mol) compared to raw lignin pyrolysis (53.10kJ/mol). Results indicated that the Cobalt modified ZSM-5 catalyst was able to improve the reaction rate of RS and LLDPE co-pyrolysis; also the addition of Co/ZSM-5 catalyst resulted in a lower apparent activation energy during cellulose and LLDPE co-pyrolysis.

Systematic analysis of gene expression alterations and clinical outcomes of STAT3 in cancer.

Accumulated studies have provided controversial evidences of prognostic value for signal transducer and activator of transcription proteins 3 (STAT3) in cancers. To address this inconsistency, we performed a systematic analysis to determine whether STAT3 can serve as a prognostic marker in human cancers. STAT3 expression was assessed using Oncomine analysis. cBioPortal, Kaplan-Meier Plotter, and Prognoscan were performed to identify the prognostic roles of STAT3 in human cancers. The copy number alteration, mutation, interactive analysis, and visualize the altered networks were performed by cBioPortal. We found that STAT3 was more frequently overexpressed in lung, ovarian, gastric, blood and brain cancers than their normal tissues and its expression might be negatively related with the prognosis. In addition, STAT3 mutation mainly occurred in uterine cancer and existed in a hotspot in SH2 domain. Those findings suggest that STAT3 might serve as a diagnostic and therapeutic target for certain types of cancer, such as lung, ovarian, gastric, blood and brain cancers. However, future research is required to validate our findings and thus promote the clinical utility of STAT3 in those cancers prognosis evaluation.