Dual specific phosphatase 4 suppresses ferroptosis and enhances sorafenib resistance in hepatocellular carcinoma.

AIMS: This investigation aims to elucidate the mechanism underlying sorafenib-induced ferroptosis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS: The role of dual specificity phosphatase 4 (DUSP4) in sorafenib-treated HCC was investigated using comprehensive assessments both in vitro and in vivo, including Western blotting, qRT-PCR, cell viability assay, lipid reactive oxygen species (ROS) assay, immunohistochemistry, and xenograft tumor mouse model. Additionally, label-free quantitative proteomics was employed to identify potential proteins associated with DUSP4. RESULTS: Our study revealed that suppression of DUSP4 expression heightens the susceptibility of HCC cells to ferroptosis inducers, specifically sorafenib and erastin, in both in vitro and in vivo settings. Furthermore, we identified DUSP4-mediated regulation of key ferroptosis-related markers, such as ferritin light chain (FTL) and ferritin heavy chain 1 (FTH1). Notably, label-free quantitative proteomics unveiled the phosphorylation of threonine residue T148 on YTH Domain Containing 1 (YTHDC1) by DUSP4. Further investigations unraveled that YTHDC1, functioning as an mRNA nuclear export regulator, is a direct target of DUSP4, orchestrating the subcellular localization of FTL and FTH1 mRNAs. Significantly, our study highlights a strong correlation between elevated DUSP4 expression and sorafenib resistance in HCC. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings introduce DUSP4 as a negative regulator of sorafenib-induced ferroptosis. This discovery opens new avenues for the development of ferroptosis-based therapeutic strategies tailored for HCC treatment.

Event recognition method based on feature synthesizing for a zero-shot intelligent distributed optical fiber sensor.

Phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometer (Φ-OTDR) is an emergent distributed optical sensing system with the advantages of high localization accuracy and high sensitivity. It has been widely used for intrusion identification, pipeline monitoring, under-ground tunnel monitoring, etc. Deep learning-based classification methods work well for Φ-OTDR event recognition tasks with sufficient samples. However, the lack of training data samples is sometimes a serious problem for these data-driven algorithms. This paper proposes a novel feature synthesizing approach to solve this problem. A mixed class approach and a reinforcement learning-based guided training method are proposed to realize high-quality feature synthesis. Experiment results in the task of eight event classifications, including one unknown class, show that the proposed method can achieve an average classification accuracy of 42% for the unknown class and obtain its event type, meanwhile achieving a 74% average overall classification accuracy. This is 29% and 7% higher, respectively, than those of the ordinary instance synthesizing method. Moreover, this is the first time that the Φ-OTDR system can recognize a specific event and tell its event type without collecting its data sample in advance.

TRIM29 acts as a potential senescence suppressor with epigenetic activation in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Epigenetic alterations marked by DNA methylation are frequent events during the early development of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). We identified that TRIM29 is hypomethylated and overexpressed in NPC cell lines and tissues. TRIM29 silencing not only limited the growth of NPC cells in vitro and in vivo, but also induced cellular senescence, along with reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation. Mechanistically, we found that TRIM29 interacted with voltage-dependent anion-selective channel 1 (VDAC1) to activate mitophagy clearing up damaged mitochondria, which are the major source of ROS. In patients with NPC, high levels of TRIM29 expression are associated with an advanced clinical stage. Moreover, we detected hypomethylation of TRIM29 in patient nasopharyngeal swab DNA. Our findings indicate that TRIM29 depends on VDAC1 to induce mitophagy and prevents cellular senescence by decreasing ROS. Detection of aberrantly methylated TRIM29 in the nasopharyngeal swab DNA could be a promising strategy for the early detection of NPC.

Bamboo-Inspired Structurally Efficient Materials with a Large Continuous Gradient.

Because of its light weight and high strength, bamboo is used in many applications around the world. Natural bamboo is built from fiber-reinforced material and exhibits a porous graded architecture that provides its remarkable mechanical performance. This porosity gradient is generated through the unique distribution of densified vascular bundles. Scientists and engineers have been trying to mimic this architecture for a very long time with much of the work focusing on the effect of fiber reinforcement. However, there still lacks quantitative studies on the role of pore gradient design on mechanical properties, in part because the fabrication of bamboo-inspired graded materials is challenging. Here, the steep and continuous porosity gradient through an ingenious cellular design in Moso bamboo is revealed. The effect of gradient design on the mechanical performance is systematically studied by using 3D-printed models. The results show that not only the magnitude of gradient but also its continuity have a significant effect. By introducing a continuous and large gradient, the maximum flexural load and energy absorption capability can be increased by 40% and 110% when comparing to the structure without gradient. These bamboo-inspired cellular architectures can offer efficient solutions for the design of damage tolerant engineering structures.

KLF16 enhances stress tolerance of colorectal carcinomas by modulating nucleolar homeostasis and translational reprogramming.

Translational reprogramming is part of the unfolded protein response (UPR) during endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, which acts to the advantage of cancer growth and development in different stress conditions, but the mechanism of ER stress-related translational reprogramming in colorectal carcinoma (CRC) progression remains unclear. Here, we identified that Krüppel-like factor 16 (KLF16) can promote CRC progression and stress tolerance through translational reprogramming. The expression of KLF16 was upregulated in CRC tissues and associated with poor prognosis for CRC patients. We found that ER stress inducers can recruit KLF16 to the nucleolus and increase its interaction with two essential proteins for nucleolar homeostasis: nucleophosmin1 (NPM1) and fibrillarin (FBL). Moreover, knockdown of KLF16 can dysregulate nucleolar homeostasis in CRC cells. Translation-reporter system and polysome profiling assays further showed that KLF16 can effectively promote cap-independent translation of ATF4, which can enhance ER-phagy and the proliferation of CRC cells. Overall, our study unveils a previously unrecognized role for KLF16 as an ER stress regulator through mediating translational reprogramming to enhance the stress tolerance of CRC cells and provides a potential therapeutic vulnerability.

A Federated Learning Multi-Task Scheduling Mechanism Based on Trusted Computing Sandbox.

At present, some studies have combined federated learning with blockchain, so that participants can conduct federated learning tasks under decentralized conditions, sharing and aggregating model parameters. However, these schemes do not take into account the trusted supervision of federated learning and the case of malicious node attacks. This paper introduces the concept of a trusted computing sandbox to solve this problem. A federated learning multi-task scheduling mechanism based on a trusted computing sandbox is designed and a decentralized trusted computing sandbox composed of computing resources provided by each participant is constructed as a state channel. The training process of the model is carried out in the channel and the malicious behavior is supervised by the smart contract, ensuring the data privacy of the participant node and the reliability of the calculation during the training process. In addition, considering the resource heterogeneity of participant nodes, the deep reinforcement learning method was used in this paper to solve the resource scheduling optimization problem in the process of constructing the state channel. The proposed algorithm aims to minimize the completion time of the system and improve the efficiency of the system while meeting the requirements of tasks on service quality as much as possible. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has better performance than the traditional heuristic algorithm and meta-heuristic algorithm.

Matrix Gla protein (MGP), GATA3, and TRPS1: a novel diagnostic panel to determine breast origin.

BACKGROUND: Metastatic breast carcinoma is commonly considered during differential diagnosis when metastatic disease is detected in females. In addition to the tumor morphology and documented clinical history, sensitive and specific immunohistochemical (IHC) markers such as GCDFP-15, mammaglobin, and GATA3 are helpful for determining breast origin. However, these markers are reported to show lower sensitivity in certain subtypes, such as triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using bioinformatics analyses, we identified a potential diagnostic panel to determine breast origin: matrix Gla protein (MGP), transcriptional repressor GATA binding 1 (TRPS1), and GATA-binding protein 3 (GATA3). We compared MGP, TRPS1, and GATA3 expression in different subtypes of breast carcinoma of (n = 1201) using IHC. As a newly identified marker, MGP expression was also evaluated in solid tumors (n = 2384) and normal tissues (n = 1351) from different organs. RESULTS: MGP and TRPS1 had comparable positive expression in HER2-positive (91.2% vs. 92.0%, p = 0.79) and TNBC subtypes (87.3% vs. 91.2%, p = 0.18). GATA3 expression was lower than MGP (p < 0.001) or TRPS1 (p < 0.001), especially in HER2-positive (77.0%, p < 0.001) and TNBC (43.3%, p < 0.001) subtypes. TRPS1 had the highest positivity rate (97.9%) in metaplastic TNBCs, followed by MGP (88.6%), while only 47.1% of metaplastic TNBCs were positive for GATA3. When using MGP, GATA3, and TRPS1 as a novel IHC panel, 93.0% of breast carcinomas were positive for at least two markers, and only 9 cases were negative for all three markers. MGP was detected in 36 cases (3.0%) that were negative for both GATA3 and TRPS1. MGP showed mild-to-moderate positive expression in normal hepatocytes, renal tubules, as well as 31.1% (99/318) of hepatocellular carcinomas. Rare cases (0.6-5%) had focal MGP expression in renal, ovarian, lung, urothelial, and cholangiocarcinomas. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that MGP is a newly identified sensitive IHC marker to support breast origin. MGP, TRPS1, and GATA3 could be applied as a reliable diagnostic panel to determine breast origin in clinical practice.

TBX20 inhibits colorectal cancer tumorigenesis by impairing NHEJ-mediated DNA repair.

DNA high methylation is one of driving force for colorectal carcinoma (CRC) pathogenesis. Transcription factors (TFs) can determine cell fate and play fundamental roles in multistep process of tumorigenesis. Dysregulation of DNA methylation of TFs should be vital for the progression of CRC. Here, we demonstrated that TBX20, a T-box TF family protein, was downregulated with hypermethylation of promoter in early-stage CRC tissues and correlated with a poor prognosis for CRC patients. Moreover, we identified PDZRN3 as the E3 ubiquitin ligase of TBX20 protein, which mediated the ubiquitination and degradation of TBX20. Furthermore, we revealed that TBX20 suppressed cell proliferation and tumor growth through impairing non-homologous DNA end joining (NHEJ)-mediated double-stranded break repair by binding the middle domain of both Ku70 and Ku80 and therefore inhibiting their recruitment on chromatin in CRC cells. Altogether, our results reveal the tumor-suppressive role of TBX20 by inhibiting NHEJ-mediated DNA repair in CRC cells, and provide a potential biomarker for predicting the prognosis of patients with early-stage CRC and a therapeutic target for combination therapy.

Combining serum inflammation indexes at baseline and post treatment could predict pathological efficacy to anti­PD­1 combined with neoadjuvant chemotherapy in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) have been used to predict therapeutic response in different tumors. However, no assessments of their usefulness have been performed in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients receiving anti­PD­1 combined with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. METHODS: The respective data of 64 ESCC patients receiving anti­PD­1 combined with neoadjuvant chemotherapy were analyzed. Whether NLR, LMR, PLR, and SII at baseline and post-treatment might predict pathological response to anti­PD­1 plus neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and cutoff values of these parameters were all determined by ROC curve analysis. RESULTS: NLR (cutoff = 3.173, AUC = 0.644, 95% CI 0.500-0.788, P = 0.124, sensitivity = 1.000, specificity = 0.373), LMR (cutoff = 1.622, AUC = 0.631, 95% CI 0.477-0.784, P = 0.161, sensitivity = 0.917, specificity = 0.137), PLR (cutoff = 71.108, AUC = 0.712, 95% CI 0.575-0.849, P = 0.023, sensitivity = 1.000, specificity = 0.059), and SII at baseline (cutoff = 559.266, AUC = 0.681, 95% CI 0.533-0.830, P = 0.052, sensitivity = 0.373, specificity = 1.000) seemed to be a useful predictor for distinguishing responders from non-responders. Combining NLR with SII at baseline (AUC = 0.729, 95% CI 0.600-0.858, P = 0.014, sensitivity = 0.917, specificity = 0.510), LMR and SII at baseline (AUC = 0.735, 95% CI 0.609-0.861, P = 0.012, sensitivity = 1.000 specificity = 0.471), PLR and SII at baseline (AUC = 0.716, 95% CI 0.584-0.847, P = 0.021, sensitivity = 1.000 specificity = 0.431), and LMR and PLR at post-treatment in the third period (AUC = 0.761, 95% CI 0.605-0.917, P = 0.010, sensitivity = 0.800, specificity = 0.696) might slightly increase the prediction ability to determine patients who have response or no response. Finally, combining LMR at baseline, SII at post-treatment in the second period with PLR at post-treatment in the third period could be considered a better predictor for discriminating responders and non-responders than single or dual biomarkers (AUC = 0.879, 95% CI 0.788-0.969, P = 0.0001, sensitivity = 0.909, specificity = 0.800). CONCLUSIONS: The models we constructed allowed for the accurate and efficient stratification of ESCC patients receiving anti-PD-1 plus chemotherapy and are easily applicable for clinical practice at no additional cost.

Multi-signal feature fusion method with an attention mechanism for the Φ-OTDR event recognition system.

Different signal representations show different unique features for classification. In this paper, a feature fusion method with attention mechanism based on multiple signal representations is proposed for Φ-OTDR event classification with buried optical fiber. Each signal representation is fused after feature extraction to get richer and better features. With the help of a layer pruning method based on attention mechanism, the network size can be kept and avoid computation increase. Experiment results show that this method with 3 signal representations can improve the recognition accuracy to 97.93%, with 3.52% improvement compared to single representation approach. It also shows higher recognition accuracy than the tradition multiple signal representations fusion methods at the input stage. Furthermore, when it is used to fuse four representations, the recognition accuracy can be further improved to 99.11%.

CircLONP2 enhances colorectal carcinoma invasion and metastasis through modulating the maturation and exosomal dissemination of microRNA-17.

BACKGROUND: Metastasis causes the vast majority of colorectal carcinoma (CRC)-related deaths. However, little is known about the specific traits and underlying mechanisms of metastasis-initiating cells in primary CRC. And whether or not circular RNAs (circRNAs) take part in this particular event remain not adequately stated yet. METHODS: A screening method based on Transwell assay was first applied to build CRC subgroups with different metastatic potential. High throughput RNA sequencing was used to find out novel metastatic drivers in CRC metastasis-initiating step. A series of in vitro and in vivo assays were further applied to elucidate the functions and underlying molecular mechanisms of circRNAs in CRC metastasis. RESULTS: A circRNA consisting of exon 8-11 of LONP2, termed as circLONP2, was upregulated in metastasis-initiating CRC subgroups. Aberrant higher expression of circLONP2 was observed in primary CRC tissues with established metastasis, and along the invasive margin in metastatic site. High expression of circLONP2 predicted unfavorable overall survival. Functional studies revealed that circLONP2 could enhance the invasiveness of CRC cells in vitro, and targeting circLONP2 through anti-sense oligonucleotide (ASO) dramatically reduced the penetrance of metastasis to foreign organs in vivo. Mechanically, circLONP2 directly interacted with and promoted the processing of primary microRNA-17 (pri-miR-17), through recruiting DiGeorge syndrome critical region gene 8 (DGCR8) and Drosha complex in DDX1-dependent manner. Meanwhile, upregulated mature miR-17-5p could be assembled into exosomes and internalized by neighboring cells to enhance their aggressiveness. CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that circLONP2 acts as key metastasis-initiating molecule during CRC progression through modulating the intracellular maturation and intercellular transfer of miR-17, resulting in dissemination of metastasis-initiating ability in primary site and acceleration of metastasis formation in foreign organs. circLONP2 could serve as an effective prognostic predictor and/or novel anti-metastasis therapeutic target in CRC treatment.

Overexpression of CEP72 Promotes Bladder Urothelial Carcinoma Cell Aggressiveness via Epigenetic CREB-Mediated Induction of SERPINE1.

A vital constituent of the centrosome involved in regulating the activity of the organelle during the cell cycle is centrosomal protein (CEP)-72, whose function in the case of human cancer yet lacks clarity. The expression dynamics of CEP72 and its clinical impact were examined in a large cohort of bladder tissues. Several experiments at both the in vitro and in vivo levels on urothelial carcinoma of the bladder (UCB) cells were conducted to understand the role of this molecule along with the mechanisms. Overexpression of CEP72 in UCB was linked with the acquisition of an aggressive phenotype, which was associated with poor prognosis. In UCB cell lines, knockdown of CEP72 using shRNA was sufficient to inhibit cell invasiveness/metastasis, whereas ectopic overexpression of CEP72 promoted cell invasiveness and/or metastasis both in vitro and in vivo. CEP72 was demonstrated to induce UCB cell aggressiveness via up-regulation of an important target downstream, the serpin family member 1 gene (SERPINE1) (alias plasminogen activator inhibitor, PAI1), ultimately leading to increased cancer cell invasiveness. Particularly, overexpression of CEP72 was associated with a sizable increase in cAMP response element-binding protein binding at the SERPINE1 promoter, leading to increased SERPINE1 transcription. Such observations are suggestive of the potential use of CEP72 as a therapeutic tool for UCB.

Tumor necrosis as a poor prognostic predictor on postoperative survival of patients with solitary small hepatocellular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Small hepatocellular carcinoma (sHCC) is a special subtype of HCC with the maximum tumor diameter ≤ 3 cm and excellent long-term outcomes. Surgical resection or radiofrequency ablation provides the greatest chance for cure; however, many patients still undergo tumor recurrence after primary treatment. To date, there is no clinical applicable method to assess biological aggressiveness in solitary sHCC. METHODS: In the current study, we retrospectively evaluated tumor necrosis of 335 patients with solitary sHCC treated with hepatectomy between December 1998 and 2010 from Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center. RESULTS: The presence of tumor necrosis was observed in 157 of 335 (46.9%) sHCC patients. Further correlation analysis showed that tumor necrosis was significantly correlated with tumor size and vascular invasion (P = 0.026, 0.003, respectively). The presence of tumor necrosis was associated closely with poorer cancer-specific overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) as evidenced by univariate (P <  0.001; hazard ratio, 2.821; 95% CI, 1.643-4.842) and multivariate analysis (P = 0.005; hazard ratio, 2.208; 95% CI, 1.272-3.833). Notably, the combined model by tumor necrosis, vascular invasion and tumor size can significantly stratify the risk for RFS and OS and improve the ability to discriminate sHCC patients' outcomes (P <  0.0001 for both). CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide evidence that tumor necrosis has the potential to be a parameter for cancer aggressiveness in solitary sHCC. The combined prognostic model may be a useful tool to identify solitary sHCC patients with worse outcomes.

Prognostic Role of the Immunoscore for Patients with Urothelial Carcinoma of the Bladder Who Underwent Radical Cystectomy.

BACKGROUND: Increasing evidence suggests that cancer progression is strongly influenced by the host immune response, which is represented by immune cell infiltrates. The T-lymphocyte-based Immunoscore is reported to be a reliable prognostic factor in colon cancer, but its significance in urothelial carcinoma of the bladder (UCB) is at an early stage of exploration. This study aimed to determine whether the tumor immune infiltrate, as evaluated by the Immunoscore, could act as a useful prognostic marker for UCB patients who have undergone radical cystectomy (RC). METHODS: In this study, immunohistochemistry was used to examine the Immunoscore of 221 UCB patients who underwent RC. The Immunoscore of the patients was determined by the densities of CD3+ and CD8+ T cells at the tumor center and the invasive margin. RESULTS: A highly significant association between a low Immunoscore and a shortened patient survival (P < 0.001, log-rank test) was demonstrated. In different subsets of UCB patients, a low Immunoscore also was a prognostic indicator of pT ≤ 2, pN(-)-status tumors, negative vascular invasion, or both (P < 0.05). Importantly, the Immunoscore together with the patient's pT status provided significant independent prognostic parameters in the multivariate analysis (P < 0.05). Furthermore, a significant correlation (P = 0.003) of a low Immunoscore with an increased UCB labeling index of Ki-67 (a cell proliferation marker) was observed in this UCB cohort. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that the Immunoscore, as examined by immunohistochemistry, might serve as a novel prognostic marker for UCB patients who have undergone RC.

Correction to: Prognostic Role of the Immunoscore for Patients with Urothelial Carcinoma of the Bladder Who Underwent Radical Cystectomy.

In the original article, the word IMMUNOSCORE® was not displayed to reflect its trademark status. At every mention, IMMUNOSCORE® should be in all caps and with a registered trademark symbol.

Eukaryotic Initiation Factor 5A2 Contributes to the Maintenance of CD133(+) Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells via the c-Myc/microRNA-29b Axis.

Cancer stem cells (CSCs)/cancer-initiating cells (CICs) are suggested responsible for driving cancer resistance to conventional therapies and for cancer recurrence and/or metastasis. CD133 is served as a key biomarker to identify and characterize this subpopulation of cells in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Our previous study indicated that overexpression of eukaryotic initiation factor 5A2 (EIF5A2) promotes HCC cell metastasis and angiogenesis. In this study, we demonstrated that EIF5A2 might play a crucial role in CSCs regulation and investigated its potential molecular mechanisms. Using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction assay, we observed that the expression of EIF5A2 positively correlated with CD133 levels in a cohort of cancerous and noncancerous liver tissues and cells. Next, HCC cells with high expression of EIF5A2 have a strong capacity to form undifferentiated tumor spheres in vitro and show elevated levels of stem cell-related genes, leading to an increased ability to develop tumors when subcutaneously injected into nude mice. Furthermore, differential microRNA expression was profiling between two EIF5A2-depleted HCC cell lines and their control one identified a decreased expression of miR-29b in EIF5A2-depleted cell lines. Further functional studies illustrated that downregulated miR-29b level is responsible for EIF5A2-maintained HCC cell stemness either in vitro or in vivo. Moreover, enforced expression of EIF5A2 in HCC cells largely enhanced the binding of c-Myc on the promoter of miR-29b and downregulation of miR-29b by EIF5A2 was dependent on c-Myc. Our findings, collectively, reveal that EIF5A2 contributes to the maintenance of CD133+ HCC cells via the c-Myc/miR-29b axis. Stem Cells 2018;36:180-191.

WWC2 is an independent prognostic factor and prevents invasion via Hippo signalling in hepatocellular carcinoma.

WWC family proteins negatively regulate HEK293 cell proliferation and organ growth by suppressing the transcriptional activity of Yes-associated protein (YAP), a major effector of the Hippo pathway. The function of the scaffolding protein WWC1 (also called KIBRA) has been intensively studied in cells and animal models. However, the expression and clinicopathologic significance of WWC2 in cancer are poorly characterized. This study aimed to clarify the biological function and mechanism of action of WWC2 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Retrospective analysis revealed WWC2 was significantly down-regulated in 95 clinical HCC tissues compared to the paired adjacent non-cancerous tissues. Moreover, loss of WWC2 expression was significantly associated with advanced clinicopathological features, including venous infiltration, larger tumour size and advanced TNM stage. Positive WWC2 expression was associated with significantly better 5-year overall survival, and WWC2 was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival in HCC. Moreover, we confirmed WWC2 inhibits HCC cell invasive ability in vitro. Elevated YAP expression was also observed in the same cohort of HCC tissues. Pearson's correlation coefficient analysis indicated WWC2 expression correlated inversely with nuclear YAP protein expression in HCC. Mechanistically, we confirmed overexpression of WWC2 suppresses the invasive and metastatic potential of HCC cells by activating large tumour suppressor 1 and 2 kinases (LATS1/2), which in turn phosphorylates the transcriptional co-activator YAP. Overall, this study indicates WWC2 functions as a tumour suppressor by negatively regulating the Hippo signalling pathway and may serve as a prognostic marker in HCC.

Overexpression of p53R2 is associated with poor prognosis in lung sarcomatoid carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: This study aimmed to evaluate the expression of p53-inducible RR small subunit 2 homologue (p53R2) in Lung sarcomatoid carcinoma (LSC) and its association with clinicopathological parameters and prognosis. METHODS: In this study, clinicopathological factors and prognostic significance of the expression of p53R2 was investigated by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in 100 cases of LSC. RESULTS: The results showed that the expression of p53R2 was significantly correlated with clinical stage (P<0.05). But there was no statistically correlation with gender, age, smoking, tumor size, pT stage, pN stage, pM stage, therapy and relapse. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that the expression of p53R2, clinical stage, pT stage, pN stage, pM stage and tumor size were closely related to patients' survival, and the analysis also revealed that patients with low expression of p53R2 had a longer overall survival than that with high expression (Mean overall survival: 84.8 months vs. 34.7 months, P<0.05). Further multivariate analysis indicated that the expression of p53R2 was identified as an independent prognostic factor in the prediction of the overall survival for patients with LSC (HR = 3.217, P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The expression of p53R2 was inversely associated with the proliferation and progression of LSC, and the results indicated that the high expression of p53R2 was an independent factor for unfavorable prognosis of patients with LSC.

p53R2 as a novel prognostic biomarker in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: p53R2 is a target of p53 gene, which is essential for DNA repair, mitochondrial DNA synthesis, protection against oxidative stress, chromosomal instability, chronic inflammation and tumorigenesis. This study is aimed to investigate the expression of ribonucleotide reductase (RR) subunit p53R2 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma and its significance in the prognosis. METHODS: The expression levels of p53R2 in 201 patients with NPC were examined by immunohistochemical assay. The correlations of p53R2 expression and clinicopathological features of nasopharyngeal carcinoma patient were analysed by chi-square test. The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox multivariate regression model were used to analyze the prognostic significance of the patients with NPC. RESULTS: Immunohistochemical results showed that p53R2 was positively expressed in 92.5% (186/201) of nasopharyngeal carcinoma and the high expression rate was 38.3% (77/201). Further analysis observed that the negative correlation between expression of p53R2 and pT status had statistical significance (P < 0.05). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis found that the mean survival time of patients with high expression of p53R2 was 143.32 months, while the patients with low expression level of p53R2 was 121.63 months (P < 0.05). Cox regression analysis suggested that p53R2 protein expression could be used as an independent prognostic factor for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: This study drew a conclusion that p53R2 could be used as a prognostic biomarker indicative of the favorable outcome for patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

CLDN14 is epigenetically silenced by EZH2-mediated H3K27ME3 and is a novel prognostic biomarker in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Trimethylation of lysine 27 on histone H3 (H3K27ME3) is a transcription-suppressive histone mark mediated by enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2). We have previously suggested that EZH2-mediated H3K27ME3 plays a critical oncogenic role in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) aggressiveness. However, the direct downstream targets of EZH2-H3K27ME3 and the molecular mechanisms by which regulates HCC pathogenesis remain unclear. In this study, we used chromatin immunoprecipitation together with high-throughput sequencing (ChIP-seq) and gene expression profiling by microarray analysis to assess genome-wide chromatin occupancy of H3K27ME3 in HCC cells. We identified that claudin14 (CLDN14) is a potentially direct target for EZH2-mediated H3K27ME3 in HCC. In a large cohort of clinical HCC tissues, we found that low expression of CLDN14 was significantly associated with advanced tumor stage and determined to be an independent predictor of shortened survival of HCC patients. Next, functional experiment demonstrated that depletion of CLDN14 substantially restored EZH2-silenced HCC cells motility and invasive capacities and supported cell epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Furthermore, downregulation of CLDN14 dramatically re-enhanced the wnt/ß-catenin signaling activity in EZH2-silenced HCC cells by increasing the levels of active ß-catenin and promoting the nuclear localization of ß-catenin. These results, collectively, uncover that CLDN14 is a novel direct target of EZH2-mediated H3K27ME3, and provide an explanation for the aggressive nature of HCC with downregulation of CLDN14 and the underling mechanism that links the tumor suppressor CLDN14 to the wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway.