NEAT1/miR-200b-3p/SMAD2 axis promotes progression of melanoma.

Melanoma is a skin malignancy with a high mutation frequency of genetic alterations. MicroRNA (miR)-200b-3p is involved in various cancers, while in melanoma its bio-function remains unknown. In this study, we found that miR-200b-3p was down-regulated in melanoma tissues and cell lines compared to benign nevus cells. Overexpression of miR-200b-3p significantly inhibited the proliferation and invasion of melanoma cells. According to bioinformatics analysis and sequencing data, we supposed that SMAD family member 2 (SMAD2) was the target gene and nuclear enriched abundant transcript 1 (NEAT1) was the upstream long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) of miR-200b-3p. These predictions were verified by western blotting and quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR). Luciferase reporter assays revealed that NEAT1 up-regulated SMAD2 by directly sponging miR-200b-3p. In vitro and in vivo, we demonstrated that both NEAT1 and SMAD2 could promote the proliferation and invasion of melanoma cells, and these effects were reversed by up-regulating miR-200b-3p. In addition, NEAT1/miR-200b-3p/SMAD2 axis promoted melanoma progression by activating EMT signaling pathway and immune responses. Taken together, the NEAT1/miR-200b-3p/SMAD2 signaling pathway promotes melanoma via activation of EMT, cell invasion and is related with immune responses, which provides new insights into the molecular mechanisms and therapeutic targets for melanoma.

G-MDSCs-Derived Exosomal miRNA-143-3p Promotes Proliferation via Targeting of ITM2B in Lung Cancer.

BACKGROUND: The immune environment of lung cancer is complex, and the critical immune factors that promote lung cancer progression need to be explored. Granulocytic myeloid-derived suppressor cells (G-MDSCs) are regarded as immune suppressing cells. However, they also promote tumor progression through other ways, which needs to be explored further. Therefore, we sought to study the regulatory mechanisms underlying the cancer promoting function of G-MDSCs in lung cancer. METHODS: G-MDSCs were isolated from lung cancer tissues using flow cytometry. Exosomes were separated from the G-MDSCs supernatant by ultracentrifugation and verified using flow cytometry, Western blot, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). RNA sequencing was used to identify the differential miRNAs and genes. Real-time quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) confirmed these results. The proliferation rate was assessed using the CCK-8 assay. Lentiviral vectors were used to alter the expression of the miRNAs and genes to analyze their effects on lung cancer progression. RESULTS: G-MDSCs secreted more exosomes in the lung cancer tissues, which promoted cancer progression by accelerating proliferation. Micro RNA-143-3p (miR-143-3p) increased in G-MDSCs derived exosomes and downregulated integral membrane protein 2B (ITM2B) by targeting the 3'-untranslated region (UTR) region. Overexpression of miR-143-3p enhanced proliferation by inhibiting transcription of ITM2B to activate the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, which can be blocked by deguelin. This phenomenon was further confirmed by accelerated tumor growth and worse prognosis in mice. CONCLUSION: The key findings of this study highlight the potential of the G-MDSC-derived exosomes and the miR-143-3p/ITM2B axis as therapeutic targets and clinical indicators of lung cancer.

Preoperative CD4+CD25+/CD4+ and tumor diameter predict prognosis in male patients with bladder cancer.

Aim: The value of the peripheral blood lymphocyte subpopulation ratios and tumor diameter for prognosis in bladder cancer (BC) patients needs to be explored. Materials & methods: A total of 161 male BC patients and 68 male normal controls were retrospectively reviewed. The value of combining predictor consisted of both CD4+CD25+/CD4+ and computed tomography urography tumor diameter (CTU-D) on stage, overall survival (OS) and recurrence probability was analyzed by logistic regression, Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test. Results: The combining predictor was a statistically independent risk for stage; dramatic differences in OS and recurrence probability were found between the combining predictor-high (cut-off point >0.08) and combining predictor-low groups (cut-off point ≤0.08). Conclusion: The combining predictor could be a significant predictor for advanced stage, OS and recurrence probability in male patients with BC.

RS 504393 inhibits M-MDSCs recruiting in immune microenvironment of bladder cancer after gemcitabine treatment.

Bladder cancer (BC) is a malignant tumor of urinary epithelium. Gemcitabine is an introduced treatment for BC and also has immunomodulatory function, but the immunoregulation mechanism is not clear. In this study, we found that gemcitabine-treated BC cell recruited more monocyte-myeloid-derived suppressed cells (M-MDSCs), which played a significant role in immune suppression and contributed to cancer progression. We found that this phenomenon was induced by Chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 2 (CCL2), an M-MDSCs recruitment related monomeric polypeptide. Gemcitabine treatment promotes the generation of CCL2 and CCL2 could attach to C-C chemokine receptor type 2 (CCR2) to recruit M-MDSCs. We used RS 504393, a selective CCR2 antagonist, to inhibit the recruitment of M-MDSCs. RS 504393 improved the prognosis by blocking chemotaxis of M-MDSCs, and this finding sheds lights on how to prevent and alleviate the side effects occurred on the gemcitabine-treated BC patients.