Nonradiative Energy Transfer Enables a hv < Eg Response of Perovskite Quantum Dots in Si-Based Inorganic-Organic Hybrid Solar Cells.

High performance is a crucial factor in seeking a more competitive levelized cost of electricity for the extensive popularization of c-Si solar cells. Here, CsPbBr3 quantum dots (QDs) have been first applied as the light-converting layer to enhance the full-spectrum light response, resulting in an ∼71% enhancement of power conversion efficiency within silicon-based solar cells. Remarkably, even if the photon energy is smaller than the bandgap of CsPbBr3 QDs, the long-wavelength external quantum efficiency shows a significant increase. Such surprising results can be attributed to the nonradiative energy transfer (NRET) mechanism of CsPbBr3 QDs, which can transfer long-wavelength-generated dipoles into the Si base with the assistance of a Coulomb force. Furthermore, a dipole-transferring model, which considers that the Al2O3 passivation layer would play a negative role in the NRET process, is creatively but supportively proposed. These results highlight a simple, low-cost but promising strategy to improve the performance of c-Si solar cells.

Corrigendum: Comprehensive pan-cancer analysis of the prognostic and immunological roles of the METTL3/lncRNA-SNHG1/miRNA-140-3p/UBE2C axis.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2021.765772.].

Corrigendum: LncRNA-AC02278.4 is a novel prognostic biomarker that promotes tumor growth and metastasis in lung adenocarcinoma.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2022.860961.].

Identification and validation of tumor microenvironment-related signature for predicting prognosis and immunotherapy response in patients with lung adenocarcinoma.

Mounting evidence has found that tumor microenvironment (TME) plays an important role in the tumor progression of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). However, the roles of tumor microenvironment-related genes in immunotherapy and clinical outcomes remain unclear. In this study, 6 TME-related genes (PLK1, LDHA, FURIN, FSCN1, RAB27B, and MS4A1) were identified to construct the prognostic model. The established risk scores were able to predict outcomes at 1, 3, and 5 years with greater accuracy than previously known models. Moreover, the risk score was closely associated with immune cell infiltration and the immunoregulatory genes including T cell exhaustion markers. In conclusion, the TME risk score can function as an independent prognostic biomarker and a predictor for evaluating immunotherapy response in LUAD patients, which provides recommendations for improving patients' response to immunotherapy and promoting personalized tumor immunotherapy in the future.

m6A-mediated upregulation of lncRNA-AC026356.1 promotes cancer stem cell maintenance in lung adenocarcinoma via activating Wnt signaling pathway.

LncRNA plays a pivotal role in the stemness and drug resistance of lung cancer. Here, we found that lncRNA-AC026356.1 was upregulated in stem spheres and chemo-resistant lung cancer cells. Our fish assay also shows that AC026356.1 was predominantly located in the cytoplasm of lung cancer cells and does not have protein-coding potential. Silencing AC026356.1 significantly inhibited proliferation and migration but increased apoptosis in A549-cisplatin (DDP) cells. Additionally, IGF2BP2 and the lncRNA-AC026356.1 positively regulated the proliferation and stemness of stem-like lung cancer cells. Further mechanistic investigation revealed that METTL14/IGF2BP2-mediated m6A modification and stabilization of the AC026356.1 RNA. Functional analysis corroborated that AC026356.1 acted as a downstream target of METTL14/IGF2BP2 and AC026356.1 silencing could block the oncogenicity of lung cancer stem-like cells. AC026356.1 expression was correlated with immune cell infiltration and T cell exhaustion. Compared with paired adjacent normal tissues, lung cancer specimens exhibited consistently upregulated METTL14/IGF2BP2/AC026356.1. M6A-modified METTL14/IGF2BP2/AC026356.1 loop may serve as a potential therapeutic target and prognostic predictor for lung cancer therapy and diagnosis in the clinic.

lncRNA PCBP1-AS1 mediated downregulation of ITGAL as a prognostic biomarker in lung adenocarcinoma.

Integrin alpha L (ITGAL) seemed to play a critical role in carcinogenesis and immune regulation. Nevertheless, the effects of ITGAL on non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remain elusive. The present paper intended to determine the effects of ITGAL in NSCLC via the integration of bioinformatic analyses. In this study, we found that the mRNA and protein levels of ITGAL were downregulated in NSCLC tissues. Significantly, low ITGAL expression was related to poorer prognosis and increased malignancy of NSCLC. In addition, GO analysis and KEGG pathway analysis revealed that the coexpressed genes of ITGAL were predominantly associated with various immune-associated signaling pathways, like the T cell receptor signaling pathway, Th17 cell differentiation, chemokine signaling pathway, and NF-κB signaling pathway. Our result indicated that lncRNA-mediated downregulation of integrin alpha L expression was tightly related to immunocyte infiltration, immune modulators, and chemotactic factors in NSCLC, which potentially serves as a biomarker for clinical prognosis prediction and immunotherapy of NSCLC. This is the first comprehensive analysis of ITGAL in the prognosis, immune microenvironment, and immunotherapy of lung adenocarcinoma. ITGAL are promising biomarkers for predicting clinical outcomes and immunotherapy responses in patients with NSCLC.

LncRNA GSCAR promotes glioma stem cell maintenance via stabilizing SOX2 expression.

Gliomas are the most aggressive type of malignant brain tumors. Recent studies have demonstrated that the existence of glioma stem cells (GSCs) is critical for glioma recurrence, metastasis, and chemo- or radio-therapy resistance. Temozolomide (TMZ) has been used as an initial therapy for gliomas. However, the overall survival time is still limiting due to the lack of effective targets and treatment options. Therefore, identifying novel biomarkers for gliomas, especially for GSCs, is important to improve the clinical outcome in the future. In this study, we identify a human-specific long non-coding RNA (lncRNA, ENSG00000250377), termed GSCAR (glioma stem cell associated lncRNA), which is highly expressed in glioma cancerous tissues and cell lines. We reveal that GSCAR positively correlates with tumor grade. Glioma patients with GSCAR high expression exhibit shortened overall survival time, compared to patients with GSCAR low expression. Furthermore, we show that GSCAR knockdown by shRNAs or antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) reduces tumor cell proliferation, migration and xenograft tumor formation abilities. Mechanistic study shows that GSCAR acts as a ceRNA (competing endogenous RNA) for miR-6760-5p to promote the expression of oncogene SRSF1 (serine and arginine rich splicing factor 1). In addition, GSCAR mediates the protein complex formation between DHX9 (DExH-Box helicase 9) and IGF2BP2 (insulin-like growth factor 2 mRNA-binding protein 2), leading to the stabilization of SOX2 (sex-determining region Y-box 2) mRNA and then the transcriptional activation of GSCAR. Depleting GSCAR reduces SOX2 expression and GSC self-renewal ability, but promotes tumor cell responses to TMZ. These findings uncover that GSCAR/miR-6760-5p/SRSF1 axis and GSCAR/DHX9-IGF2BP2/SOX2 positive feedback loop are critical for glioma progression, which could be used as prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets in the future.

The function and clinical implication of YTHDF1 in the human system development and cancer.

YTHDF1 is a well-characterized m6A reader protein that is essential for protein translation, stem cell self-renewal, and embryonic development. YTHDF1 regulates target gene expression by diverse molecular mechanisms, such as promoting protein translation or modulating the stability of mRNA. The cellular levels of YTHDF1 are precisely regulated by a complicated transcriptional, post-transcriptional, and post-translational network. Very solid evidence supports the pivotal role of YTHDF1 in embryonic development and human cancer progression. In this review, we discuss how YTHDF1 influences both the physiological and pathological biology of the central nervous, reproductive and immune systems. Therefore we focus on some relevant aspects of the regulatory role played by YTHDF1 as gene expression, complex cell networking: stem cell self-renewal, embryonic development, and human cancers progression. We propose that YTHDF1 is a promising future cancer biomarker for detection, progression, and prognosis. Targeting YTHDF1 holds therapeutic potential, as the overexpression of YTHDF1 is associated with tumor resistance to chemotherapy and immunotherapy.

MCM4 is a novel prognostic biomarker and promotes cancer cell growth in glioma.

Background: Gliomas account for 75% of all primary malignant brain tumors in adults and result in high mortality. Accumulated evidence has declared the minichromosome maintenance protein complex (MCM) gene family plays a critical role in modulating the cell cycle and DNA replication stress. However, the biological function and clinic characterization of nine MCM members in low-grade glioma are not yet clarified. Methods: In this study, we utilized diverse public databases, including The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA), Rembrandt, Human Protein Atlas (HPA), Linkedomics, cbioportal, Tumor and Immune System Interaction Database (TISIDB), single-sample GSEA (ssGSEA), Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER), Genomics of Drug Sensitivity in Cancer (GDSC) and Cancer Therapeutics Response Portal databases to explore the mRNA and protein expression profiles, gene mutation, clinical features, diagnosis, prognosis, signaling pathway, tumor mutational burden (TMB), immune subtype, immune cell infiltration, immune modulator and drug sensitivity of nine MCMs. Afterward, qRT-PCR was utilized to detect the expression of the MCM family in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) cell lines. The one-, three-, or five-year survival rate was predicted by utilizing a nomogram established by cox proportional hazard regression. Results: In this study, we found that nine MCMs were consistently up-regulated in glioma tissues and glioma cell lines. Elevated nine MCMs expressions were significantly correlated with a higher tumor stage, isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) mutates, 1p/19q codeletion, histological type, and primary therapy outcome. Survival analyses showed that higher expression of MCM2-MCM8 (minichromosome maintenance protein2-8) and MCM10 (minichromosome maintenance protein 10) were linked with poor overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in glioma patients. On the other hand, up-regulated MCM2-MCM8 and MCM10 were significantly associated with shorter disease-specific survival (DSS) in glioma patients. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that MCM2 (minichromosome maintenance protein2), MCM4 (minichromosome maintenance protein 4), MCM6 (minichromosome maintenance protein 6), MCM7 (minichromosome maintenance protein 7) expression and tumor grade, 1p/19q codeletion, age, and primary therapy outcome were independent factors correlated with the clinical outcome of glioma patients. More importantly, a prognostic MCMs model constructed using the above five prognostic genes could predict the overall survival of glioma patients with medium-to-high accuracy. Furthermore, functional enrichment analysis indicated that MCMs principal participated in regulating cell cycle and DNA replication. DNA copy number variation (CNV) and DNA methylation significantly affect the expression of MCMs. Finally, we uncover that MCMs expression is highly correlated with immune cell infiltration, immune modulator, TMB, and drug sensitivity. Conclusions: In summary, this finding confirmed that MCM4 is a potential target of precision therapy for patients with glioma.

A novel long noncoding RNA AC092718.4 as a prognostic biomarker and promotes lung adenocarcinoma progression.

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) reportedly play critical roles in the pathogenesis of various cancers, including lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). However, the expression level, clinical significance, and potential function of lncRNA-AC092718.4 in LUAD remain unclear. In this study, we found that AC092718.4 was highly expressed in LUAD and high expression of AC092718.4 was correlated with poor overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) in LUAD. Cox regression analysis confirmed that AC092718.4 was an independent factor for LUAD prognosis. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) results showed that AC092718.4 was involved in the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, Th17 cell differentiation, and cell apoptosis. AC092718.4 expression was correlated with immune cell infiltration. Finally, we found that the knockdown of AC092718.4 inhibited lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) cell growth and promote cell apoptosis. Our findings confirmed that AC092718.4 may serve as a potential prognostic biomarker in LUAD.

Corrigendum: Long non-coding RNA-TMPO-AS1 as ceRNA binding to let-7c-5p upregulates STRIP2 expression and predicts poor prognosis in lung adenocarcinoma.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2022.921200.].

The function and clinical implication of circular RNAs in lung cancer.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Despite the recent advent of promising new targeted therapies, lung cancer diagnostic strategies still have difficulty in identifying the disease at an early stage. Therefore, the characterizations of more sensible and specific cancer biomarkers have become an important goal for clinicians. Circular RNAs are covalently close, endogenous RNAs without 5' end caps or 3'poly (A) tails and have been characterized by high stability, abundance, and conservation as well as display cell/tissue/developmental stage-specific expressions. Numerous studies have confirmed that circRNAs act as microRNA (miRNA) sponges, RNA-binding protein, and transcriptional regulators; some circRNAs even act as translation templates that participate in multiple pathophysiological processes. Growing evidence have confirmed that circRNAs are involved in the pathogenesis of lung cancers through the regulation of proliferation and invasion, cell cycle, autophagy, apoptosis, stemness, tumor microenvironment, and chemotherapy resistance. Moreover, circRNAs have emerged as potential biomarkers for lung cancer diagnosis and prognosis and targets for developing new treatments. In this review, we will summarize recent progresses in identifying the biogenesis, biological functions, potential mechanisms, and clinical applications of these molecules for lung cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and targeted therapy.

Corrigendum: Comprehensive pan-cancer analysis of the prognostic and immunological roles of METTL3/lncRNA-SNHG1/miRNA-140-3p/UBE2C axis.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2021.765772.].

Comprehensive analysis of DTYMK for estimating the immune microenvironment, diagnosis, prognosis effect in patients with lung adenocarcinoma.

The expression of deoxythymidylate kinase (DTYMK) is up-regulated in liver cancer. However, the underlying biological function and potential mechanisms of DTYMK driving the progression of lung adenocarcinoma remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the role of DTYMK in lung adenocarcinoma and found that the expression of DTYMK in LUAD tissues was significantly higher than that of DTYMK expression in adjacent normal tissues. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that patients with higher DTYMK expression correlated with adverse prognosis. ROC curve analysis showed that the AUC value of DTYMK was 0.914. Correlation analysis showed that DTYMK expression was associated with immune infiltration in LUAD. Finally, we determine that DTYMK regulated cell proliferation, cell migration, and cell cycle of lung adenocarcinoma in vitro. In conclusion, our data demonstrated that DTYMK was correlated with progression and immune infiltration, and could serve as a prognostic biomarker for lung adenocarcinoma.

Corrigendum: identification and validation of lncRNA-SNHG17 in lung adenocarcinoma: a novel prognostic and diagnostic indicator.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2022.929655.].

Extra Spindle Pole Bodies-Like 1 Serves as a Prognostic Biomarker and Promotes Lung Adenocarcinoma Metastasis.

Extra spindle pole bodies-like 1 (ESPL1), a cysteine endopeptidase, plays a vital role in chromosome inheritance. However, the association of ESPL1 with prognosis and immune infiltration in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) has not yet been explored. Here, we analyzed the expression level, prognostic values, diagnostic value, and immune infiltration level in LUAD using various databases. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) assays were used to detect the expression of ESPL1 in LUAD tissues and cell lines. In this study, we found that ESPL1 was upregulated in LUAD and a higher expression of ESPL1 was correlated with unfavorable prognosis in LUAD. Meanwhile, Cox hazard regression analysis results suggested that ESPL1 may be an independent prognostic factor for LUAD. Moreover, we demonstrated that ESPL1 expression was significantly correlated with immune infiltration of Th2 and dendritic cells in LUAD. We also confirmed that DNA copy number amplification and DNA hypo-methylation were positively correlated with ESPL1 expression in LUAD. Additionally, DNA copy number amplification was significantly associated with adverse clinical outcomes in LUAD. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) confirmed that ESPL1 was mainly involved in the DNA replication and glycolysis signaling pathway. Finally, we revealed that ESPL1 was highly expressed in LUAD tissues and cell lines. Knockdown of ESPL1 significantly inhibited cell migration and the invasion abilities of LUAD. Our study comprehensively confirmed that ESPL1 expression may serve as a novel prognostic biomarker for both the clinical outcome and immune cell infiltration in LUAD.

Long Non-Coding RNA-TMPO-AS1 as ceRNA Binding to let-7c-5p Upregulates STRIP2 Expression and Predicts Poor Prognosis in Lung Adenocarcinoma.

Background: Striatin-interacting protein 2 (STRIP2), also called Fam40b, has been reported to regulate tumor cell growth. But the role of STRIP2 in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) has not been discovered clearly. Thus, the aim of our study is to explore the function and underlying mechanism of STRIP2 in LUAD. Methods: Expression of STRIP2 was determined using the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), GTEx, Ualcan, and the Human Protein Altas databases. The Correlation of STRIP2 and survival was detected by PrognoScan and Kaplan-Meier plotter databases. Besides, the correlation between STRIP2 expression and tumor immune infiltration as well as immune checkpoints were analyzed by the ssGSEA method. The biological function of STRIP2 and its co-expression genes was determined by gene ontology (GO) and Genes and Genomes (KEGG), respectively. Finally, the expression level and biological function of STRIP2 in LUAD were determined by qPCR, CCK8, transwell, and wound healing assays. Results: This manuscript revealed a significantly increased expression of mRNA and protein of STRIP2 in lung adenocarcinoma compared with the adjacent normal tissues. GEO and Kaplan-Meier plotter databases showed higher STRIP2 expression levels were correlated with poor prognosis survival of LUAD. Moreover, Cox regression analysis suggested that a higher STRIP2 level served as an independent risk factor in predicting deteriorative overall survival (OS) for LUAD patients. SsGSEA results showed STRIP2 expression level was positively correlated with infiltrating levels of Th2 cells in LUAD. Lastly, GO analysis indicated the biological processes were enriched in nuclear division and positive regulation of the cell cycle. KEGG signaling pathway analysis showed STRIP2 was correlated with the MAPK signaling pathway and the TNF signaling pathway. The GSEA database showed that STRIP2 was positively associated with the epithelial-mesenchymal transition, cell cycle, and TNF signaling pathway. The QRT-PCR assay showed that STRIP2 was upregulated in LUAD cell lines. Cell proliferation and migration were inhibited in LUAD by knockdown of STRIP2. Moreover, we confirmed that the TMPO-AS1/let-7c-5p/STRIP2 network regulates STRIP2 overexpression in LUAD and is associated with poor prognosis. Conclusion: Our findings indicated that STRIP2 acted as a crucial oncogene in LUAD and was correlated with unfavorable survival and tumor infiltration inflation.

Over-Expression of Long Non-Coding RNA-AC099850.3 Correlates With Tumor Progression and Poor Prognosis in Lung Adenocarcinoma.

Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the most common histological lung cancer, and it is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been implicated in the initiation and progression of various cancers. LncRNA-AC099850.3 is a novel lncRNA that is abnormally expressed in diverse cancer types including LUAD. However, the clinical significance, prognostic value, diagnostic value, immune role, and potential biological function of AC099850.3 LUAD remain elusive. In this study, we found that AC099850.3 was highly expressed in LUAD and associated with an advanced tumor stage, poor prognosis, and immune infiltration. Receiver operating curve analysis revealed the significant diagnostic ability of AC099850.3 (AUC=0.888). Functionally, the knockdown of AC099850.3 restrained LUAD cell proliferation and migration in vitro. Finally, we constructed a competitive endogenous RNAs (ceRNA) network that included hsa-miR-101-3p and 4 mRNAs (ESPL1, AURKB, BUB3, and FAM83D) specific to AC099850.3 in LUAD. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that a lower expression of miR-101-3p and a higher expression of ESPL1, AURKB, BUB3, and FAM83D, were associated with adverse clinical outcomes in patients with LUAD. This finding provided a comprehensive view of the AC099850.3-mediated ceRNA network in LUAD, thereby highlighting its potential role in the diagnosis and prognosis of LUAD.

Long Non-Coding RNA AP000695.2 Acts as a Novel Prognostic Biomarker and Regulates the Cell Growth and Migration of Lung Adenocarcinoma.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are tumor-associated biological molecules and have been found to be implicated in the progression of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). LncRNA-AP000695.2 (ENSG00000248538) is a long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) that is widely increased in many tumor types including lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). However, the aberrant expression profile, clinical significance, and biological function of AP000695.2 in human lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) need to be further investigated. This study mines key prognostic AP000695.2 and elucidates its potential role and molecular mechanism in regulating the proliferation and metastasis of LUAD. Here, we discovered that AP000695.2 was significantly upregulated in lung adenocarcinoma tissues compared with healthy adjacent lung tissue and higher in LUAD cell lines than in normal human bronchial epithelial cell lines. A higher expression of AP000695.2 was positively correlated with aggressive clinicopathological characteristics, and AP000695.2 served as an independent prognostic indicator for the overall survival, disease-free survival, and progression-free survival in patients with LUAD. Receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis revealed the significant diagnostic ability of AP000695.2 (AUC = 0.838). Our in vivo data confirmed that AP000695.2 promotes the proliferation, migration, and invasion of LUAD cells. GSEA results suggested that AP000695.2 co-expressed genes were mainly enriched in immune-related biological processes such as JAK-STAT signaling pathway and toll-like receptor signaling pathway. Single-sample GSEA analysis showed that AP000695.2 is correlated with tumor-infiltrating immune cells in lung adenocarcinoma. Our findings confirmed that AP000695.2 was involved in the progression of lung adenocarcinoma, providing a novel prognostic indicator and promising diagnostic biomarker in the future.

LncRNA-AL035458.2/hsa-miR-181a-5p Axis-Mediated High Expression of NCAPG2 Correlates With Tumor Immune Infiltration and Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Progression.

Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the most common histological lung cancer, and it is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. NCAPG2 (non-SMC condensin II complex subunit G2) has been shown to be upregulated in various human cancers. Nevertheless, the underlying biological function and potential mechanisms of NCAPG2 driving the progression of LUAD remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the role of NCAPG2 in LUAD and found that the expression of NCAPG2 in LUAD tissues was significantly higher than that of NCAPG2 expression in adjacent normal tissues. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that patients with higher NCAPG2 expression correlated with unfavorable clinical outcomes. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that the AUC value of NCAPG2 was 0.914. Correlation analysis showed that NCAPG2 expression was associated with immune infiltration in LUAD. Finally, we found that AL139385.1 was upregulated in LUAD cancer tissues and cell lines. Knockdown of NCAPG2 inhibited cell proliferation, cell migration, and cell invasion of LUAD in vitro. More importantly, we established the AL035458.2/hsa-miR-181a-5p axis as the most likely upstream ncRNA-related pathway of NCAPG2 in LUAD. In conclusion, our data demonstrated that ncRNA-mediated high expression of NCAPG2 was correlated with progression and immune infiltration, and could serve as a prognostic biomarker for LUAD.