Theranostic Applications of Glycosaminoglycans in Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma.

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) makes up the majority of kidney cancers, with a poor prognosis for metastatic RCC (mRCC). Challenges faced in the management of mRCC, include a lack of reliable prognostic markers and biomarkers for precise monitoring of disease treatment, together with the potential risk of toxicity associated with more recent therapeutic options. Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are a class of carbohydrates that can be categorized into four main subclasses, viz., chondroitin sulfate, hyaluronic acid, heparan sulfate and keratan sulfate. GAGs are known to be closely associated with cancer progression and modulation of metastasis by modification of the tumor microenvironment. Alterations of expression, composition and spatiotemporal distribution of GAGs in the extracellular matrix (ECM), dysregulate ECM functions and drive cancer invasion. In this review, we focus on the clinical utility of GAGs as biomarkers for mRCC (which is important for risk stratification and strategizing effective treatment protocols), as well as potential therapeutic targets that could benefit patients afflicted with advanced RCC. Besides GAG-targeted therapies that holds promise in mRCC, other potential strategies include utilizing GAGs as drug carriers and their mimetics to counter cancer progression, and enhance immunotherapy through binding and transducing signals for immune mediators.

The natural antisense transcript HAS2-AS1 regulates breast cancer cells aggressiveness independently from hyaluronan metabolism.

Hyaluronan (HA) is a ubiquitous extracellular matrix component playing a crucial role in the regulation of cell behaviors, including cancer. Aggressive breast cancer cells tend to proliferate, migrate and metastatize. Notably, triple-negative breast cancer cells lacking the expression of estrogen receptor (ER) as well as progesterone receptor and HER2 are more aggressive than ER-positive ones. As currently no targeted therapy is available for triple-negative breast cancer, the identification of novel therapeutic targets has a high clinical priority. In ER-negative cells, tumoral behavior can be reduced by inhibiting HA synthesis or silencing the enzymes involved in its metabolism, such as HA synthase 2 (HAS2). HAS2-AS1 is a long non-coding RNA belonging to the natural antisense transcript family which is known to favor HAS2 gene expression and HA synthesis, thus bolstering malignant progression in brain, ovary, and lung tumors. As the role of HAS2-AS1 has not yet been investigated in breast cancer, in this work we report that ER-positive breast cancers had lower HAS2-AS1 expression compared to ER-negative tumors. Moreover, the survival of patients with ER-negative tumors was higher when the expression of HAS2-AS1 was elevated. Experiments with ER-negative cell lines as MDA-MB-231 and Hs 578T revealed that the overexpression of either the full-length HAS2-AS1 or its exon 2 long or short isoforms alone, strongly reduced cell viability, migration, and invasion, whereas HAS2-AS1 silencing increased cell aggressiveness. Unexpectedly, in these ER-negative cell lines, HAS2-AS1 is involved neither in the regulation of HAS2 nor in HA deposition. Finally, transcriptome analysis revealed that HAS2-AS1 modulation affected several pathways, including apoptosis, proliferation, motility, adhesion, epithelial to mesenchymal transition, and signaling, describing this long non-coding RNA as an important regulator of breast cancer cells aggressiveness.

Roles of Interferon Induced Protein with Tetratricopeptide Repeats (IFIT) Family in Cancer.

The Interferon-induced protein with tetratricopeptide repeats (IFIT) family is an important component of the antiviral immune response. There are currently four known IFIT family members in humans, namely IFIT1, IFIT2, IFIT3 and IFIT5. Recent discoveries have brought attention to the significant roles of IFITs in cancer. This review summarises current knowledge on the biological roles of different IFIT proteins in various types of malignant neoplasm, and highlights the potential use of these molecules as cancer biomarkers and prognostic factors.

Knockdown of the prognostic cancer stem cell marker Musashi-1 decreases radio-resistance while enhancing apoptosis in hormone receptor-positive breast cancer cells via p21WAF1/CIP1.

PURPOSE: While the stem cell marker Musashi-1 (MSI-1) has been identified as a key player in a wide array of malignancies, few findings exist on its prognostic relevance and relevance for cancer cell death and therapy resistance in breast cancer. METHODS: First, we determined prognostic relevance of MSI-1 in database analyses regarding multiple survival outcomes. To substantiate findings, MSI-1 was artificially downregulated in MCF-7 breast cancer cells and implications for cancer stem cell markers, cell apoptosis and apoptosis regulator p21, proliferation and radiation response were analyzed via flow cytometry and colony formation. Radiation-induced p21 expression changes were investigated using a dataset containing patient samples obtained before and after irradiation and own in vitro experiments. RESULTS: MSI-1 is a negative prognostic marker for disease-free and distant metastasis-free survival in breast cancer and tends to negatively influence overall survival. MSI-1 knockdown downregulated stem cell gene expression and proliferation, but increased p21 levels and apoptosis. Similar to the MSI-1 knockdown effect, p21 expression was strongly increased after irradiation and was expressed at even higher levels in MSI-1 knockdown cells after irradiation. Finally, combined use of MSI-1 silencing and irradiation reduced cancer cell survival. CONCLUSION: MSI-1 is a prognostic marker in breast cancer. MSI-1 silencing downregulates proliferation while increasing apoptosis. The anti-proliferation mediator p21 was upregulated independently after both MSI-1 knockdown and irradiation and even more after both treatments combined, suggesting synergistic potential. Radio-sensitization effects after combining radiation and MSI-1 knockdown underline the potential of MSI-1 as a therapeutic target.