miRNA levels are associated with body mass index in endometrial cancer and may have implications for therapy.

Endometrial cancer (EC) is the most prevalent gynecological cancer in high-income countries. Its incidence is skyrocketing due to the increase in risk factors such as obesity, which represents a true pandemic. This study aimed to evaluate microRNA (miRNA) expression in obesity-related EC to identify potential associations between this specific cancer type and obesity. miRNA levels were analyzed in 84 EC patients stratified based on body mass index (BMI; ≥30 or <30) and nine noncancer women with obesity. The data were further tested in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cohort, including 384 EC patients, 235 with BMI ≥30 and 149 with BMI <30. Prediction of miRNA targets and analysis of their expression were also performed to identify the potential epigenetic networks involved in obesity modulation. In the EC cohort, BMI ≥30 was significantly associated with 11 deregulated miRNAs. The topmost deregulated miRNAs were first analyzed in 84 EC samples by single miRNA assay and then tested in the TCGA dataset. This independent validation provided further confirmation about the significant difference of three miRNAs (miR-199a-5p, miR-449a, miR-449b-5p) in normal-weight EC patients versus EC patients with obesity, resulting significantly higher expressed in the latter. Moreover, the three miRNAs were significantly correlated with grade, histological type, and overall survival. Analysis of their target genes revealed that these miRNAs may regulate obesity-related pathways. In conclusion, we identified specific miRNAs associated with BMI that are potentially involved in modulating obesity-related pathways and that may provide novel implications for the clinical management of obese EC patients.

The multifaceted landscape behind imatinib resistance in gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs): A lesson from ripretinib.

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are rare mesenchymal sarcomas and the gold-standard treatment is represented by tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Unfortunately, first-line treatment with the TKI imatinib usually promotes partial response or stable disease rather than a complete response, and resistance appears in most patients. Adaptive mechanisms are immediately relevant at the beginning of imatinib therapy, and they may represent the reason behind the low complete response rates observed in GISTs. Concurrently, resistant subclones can silently continue to grow or emerge de novo, becoming the most representative populations. Therefore, a slow evolution of the primary tumor gradually occurs during imatinib treatment, enriching heterogeneous imatinib resistant clonal subpopulations. The identification of secondary KIT/PDGFRA mutations in resistant GISTs prompted the development of novel multi-targeted TKIs, leading to the approval of sunitinib, regorafenib, and ripretinib. Although ripretinib has broad anti-KIT and -PDGFRA activity, it failed to overcome sunitinib as second-line treatment, suggesting that imatinib resistance is more multifaceted than initially thought. The present review summarizes several biological aspects suggesting that heterogeneous adaptive and resistance mechanisms can also be driven by KIT or PDGFRA downstream mediators, alternative kinases, as well as non-coding RNAs, which are not targeted by any TKI, including ripretinib. This may explain the modest effect observed with ripretinib and all anti-GIST agents in patients.

New insights into irritable bowel syndrome pathophysiological mechanisms: contribution of epigenetics.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a complex multifactorial condition including alterations of the gut-brain axis, intestinal permeability, mucosal neuro-immune interactions, and microbiota imbalance. Recent advances proposed epigenetic factors as possible regulators of several mechanisms involved in IBS pathophysiology. These epigenetic factors include biomolecular mechanisms inducing chromosome-related and heritable changes in gene expression regardless of DNA coding sequence. Accordingly, altered gut microbiota may increase the production of metabolites such as sodium butyrate, a prominent inhibitor of histone deacetylases. Patients with IBS showed an increased amount of butyrate-producing microbial phila as well as an altered profile of methylated genes and micro-RNAs (miRNAs). Importantly, gene acetylation as well as specific miRNA profiles are involved in different IBS mechanisms and may be applied for future diagnostic purposes, especially to detect increased gut permeability and visceromotor dysfunctions. In this review, we summarize current knowledge of the role of epigenetics in IBS pathophysiology.