PHF19 before and post induction treatment possess favorable potency of reflecting treatment response to protease inhibitors, event-free survival, and overall survival in multiple myeloma patients.

OBJECTIVE: Plant homeodomain finger protein 19 (PHF19) regulates hematopoietic stem cell differentiation and promotes multiple myeloma (MM) progression. This study intended to explore the potency of PHF19 at baseline and post induction treatment in estimating treatment response to protease inhibitors and survival in MM patients. METHODS: This retrospective study screened 69 MM patients who received protease inhibitors with bone marrow (BM) samples available at both baseline and post induction treatment. Twenty healthy BM donors were included as healthy controls (HCs). PHF19 in plasma cells from BM was quantified by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: PHF19 at baseline and post induction treatment in MM patients were increased than in HCs. In MM patients, PHF19 was declined post induction treatment. Elevated PHF19 at baseline and post induction treatment were correlated with renal impairment, beta-2-microglobulin ≥5.5 mg/L, t (4; 14), higher international staging system (ISS) stage, and higher revised ISS (R-ISS) stage. Concerning treatment response, PHF19 at baseline and post induction treatment were negatively associated with complete response and overall response rate. Notably, abnormal PHF19 (above 95% quantile value of PHF19 in HCs) at baseline and post induction treatment were linked with shortened event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS). After adjustment, abnormal PHF19 post induction treatment was independently related to shortened EFS (hazard ratio = 2.474) and OS (hazard ratio = 3.124). CONCLUSION: PHF19 is aberrantly high and declines post induction therapy, which simultaneously reflects unfavorable treatment response to protease inhibitors as well as shorter EFS and OS in MM patients.

IER3 (IEX-1) dysregulation serves as a potential prognostic factor in acute myeloid leukemia patients.

INTRODUCTION: Immediate early response 3 (IER3) has association with hematological malignancies' risk and prognosis, such as myelodysplastic syndrome, while its relation to acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is not clear. This study aimed to explore the correlation of IER3 with AML risk, clinical characteristics, complete remission (CR), event-free survival (EFS), and overall survival (OS). METHODS: A total of 93 de novo AML patients were included in this study. In addition, 30 patients with non-hyperplasia hematologic malignancies requiring bone marrow testing (as disease controls) and 30 health donors (as health controls) were also recruited. Bone morrow samples of AML patients (before treatment), disease controls (before treatment), and health controls (at donation) were collected. IER3 in bone marrow mononuclear cells was detected by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: IER3 was increased in AML patients compared with disease controls and health donors (both P < .001), and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve showed that IER3 had certain capability of distinguishing AML patients from disease controls (area under curve (AUC): 0.735, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.650-0.820), and health donors (AUC: 0.789, 95% CI: 0.712-0.866). Meanwhile, IER3 was correlated with FLT3-ITD mutation (P = .030) and poor NCCN risk stratification (P = .031) in AML patients. Moreover, IER3 had negative association with CR in AML patients (P = .022), and showed certain potential in discriminating CR patients from non-CR patients (AUC: 0.655, 95% CI: 0.533-0.777). Besides, IER3 was negatively associated with EFS (P = .033), but not OS (P = .083) in AML patients. CONCLUSION: IER3 dysregulation serves as a potential prognostic factor in AML patients.

ITGA7 relates to disease risk, pathological feature, treatment response and survival in Ph- acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Background: This study aimed to investigate clinical involvement of ITGA7 in Philadelphia-chromosome-negative acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Ph- ALL). Methods: We sampled bone marrow (BM) from 91 Ph- ALL patients and 20 healthy donors (HDs), detecting ITGA7 expression in BM. Results: ITGA7 was highly expressed in Ph- ALL patients at differentiating values between Ph- ALL patients and HDs. Elevated ITGA7 expression was associated with CNS leukemia (CNSL) occurrence and increased percentage of BM blasts in Ph- ALL patients. Elevated ITGA7 expression was linked with lower complete remission rate (CR), worse event-free survival, and worse overall survival in Ph- ALL patients. Conclusion: ITGA7 highly expressed, correlated with CNSL occurrence and higher BM blasts, furthermore predicts lower CR rate and worse prognosis.

LncRNA MVIH knockdown inhibits the malignancy progression through downregulating miR-505 mediated HMGB1 and CCNE2 in acute myeloid leukemia.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate the regulatory role of long non-coding RNA associated with microvascular invasion in hepatocellular carcinoma (lnc-MVIH) in the progression of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and the underlying mechanism. METHODS: Lnc-MVIH expression was detected in AML cell lines AML-193, KG-1, HL-60, OCI-AML2 and primary normal bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMC). The effect of lnc-MVIH knockdown on cell proliferation, apoptosis and miR-505 expression were detected by transfection of lnc-MVIH shRNA and control shRNA into KG-1 cells. And the effect of miR-505 knockdown on lnc-MVIH, cell proliferation, cell apoptosis as well as potential miR-505 target genes [high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) and cyclin E2 (CCNE2)] in lnc-MVIH knockdown treated KG-1 cells was assessed by transfection of lnc-MVIH shRNA and lnc-MVIH shRNA & miR-505 shRNA into KG-1 cells. RESULTS: Lnc-MVIH expression was elevated in AML-193, KG-1, OCI-AML2 cell lines, but similar in HL-60 cell line compared with primary normal BMMC. Lnc-MVIH knockdown inhibited cell proliferation but promoted cell apoptosis in KG-1 cells, meanwhile miR-505 expression was increased by lnc-MVIH knockdown in KG-1 cells. And in rescue experiments, miR-505 knockdown had no effect on expression of lnc-MVIH, while it increased the expressions of HMGB1 and CCNE2, promoted cell proliferation, inhibited cell apoptosis in lnc-MVIH knockdown treated KG-1 cells. CONCLUSIONS: Lnc-MVIH knockdown inhibits cell proliferation but promotes cell apoptosis via regulating miR-505 mediated HMGB1 and CCNE2 in AML.

[Influence of Leukodeplated Blood Transfusion on Cellular Immunity of Acute Leukemia Patients].

OBJECTIVE: To study the influence of leukodeplated blood transfusion on cellular immunity of patients with acute leuemia, so as to provide support for application of leuko-deplated blood transfusion in clinic. METHODS: A total of 100 AL patients from January 2012 to December 2015 were chosen, and were divided into 2 groups: leukodeplated blood transfusion group(50 cases) and routine blood transfusion group(RBT) as control (50 cases). The effective rate, side effects, peripheral blood T cells and expression level of TLR2 and TLR4 were compared between 2 groups. RESULTS: The expression levels CD3(+), CD4(+), CD8(+), CD4(+)/CD8(+) of TLR2 and TLR4 in control group were (52.18±2.14)%, （27.28±1.19）%,（24.21±1.65）%,1.22±0.18,0.62±0.04 and 0.57±0.05, respectively, after treatment; while these indicators in LdBT group were （52.18±2.14）%,（30.97±2.01）%,（27.08±1.55）%,1.39±0.24,0.91±0.06 and 0.87±0.07, respectively, and above-mentioned indicators in LdBT group were significantly higher than those in control group（P<0.05）. Compared with these indicators before treatment, CD3(+), CD4(+), CD8(+) and CD4(+)/CD8(+) in the patients increased significantly（P<0.05）. The efficiency was 92.00% (46/50) in LdBT group, and 84.00% (42/50) in control group, without statistically significant difference（P>0.05）. The rate of side effects in study group was 6% (3/50), 18% (9/50) in control group, with statistically significance difference （P<0.05）. CONCLUSION: Leukodeplated blood transfusion can improve the cellular immunity of AL patients, and reduce the rate of side effects.

Emodin regulating excision repair cross-complementation group 1 through fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 signaling.

AIM: To investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying the reversal effect of emodin on platinum resistance in hepatocellular carcinoma. METHODS: After the addition of 10 µmol/L emodin to HepG2/oxaliplatin (OXA) cells, the inhibition rate (IR), 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) and reversal index (IC50 in experimental group/IC50 in control group) were calculated. For HepG2, HepG2/OXA, HepG2/OXA/T, each cell line was divided into a control group, OXA group, OXA + fibroblast growth factor 7 (FGF7) group and OXA + emodin group, and the final concentrations of FGF7, emodin and OXA in each group were 5 ng/mL, 10 µg/mL and 10 µmol/L, respectively. Single-cell gel electrophoresis was conducted to detect DNA damage, and the fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2), phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (p-ERK1/2) and excision repair cross-complementing gene 1 (ERCC1) protein expression levels in each group were examined by Western blotting. RESULTS: Compared with the IC50 of 120.78 µmol/L in HepG2/OXA cells, the IC50 decreased to 39.65 µmol/L after treatment with 10 µmol/L emodin; thus, the reversal index was 3.05. Compared with the control group, the tail length and Olive tail length in the OXA group, OXA + FGF7 group and OXA + emodin group were significantly increased, and the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.01). The tail length and Olive tail length were lower in the OXA + FGF7 group than in the OXA group, and this difference was also statistically significant. Compared with the OXA + FGF7 group, the tail extent, the Olive tail moment and the percentage of tail DNA were significantly increased in the OXA + emodin group, and these differences were statistically significant (P < 0.01). In comparison with its parental cell line HepG2, the HepG2/OXA cells demonstrated significantly increased FGFR2, p-ERK1/2 and ERCC1 expression levels, whereas the expression of all three molecules was significantly inhibited in HepG2/OXA/T cells, in which FGFR2 was silenced by FGFR2 shRNA. In the examined HepG2 cells, the FGFR2, p-ERK1/2 and ERCC1 expression levels demonstrated increasing trends in the OXA group and OXA + FGF7 group. Compared with the OXA group and OXA + FGF7 group, the FGFR2, p-ERK1/2, and ERCC1 expression levels were significantly lower in the OXA + emodin group, and these differences were statistically significant. In the HepG2/OXA/T cell line that was transfected with FGFR2 shRNA, the FGFR2, p-ERK1/2 and ERCC1 expression levels were significantly inhibited, but there were no significant differences in these expression levels among the OXA, OXA + FGF7 and OXA + emodin groups. CONCLUSION: Emodin markedly reversed OXA resistance by enhancing OXA DNA damage in HepG2/OXA cells, and the molecular mechanism was related to the inhibitory effect on ERCC1 expression being mediated by the FGFR2/ERK1/2 signaling pathway.

The fibroblast growth factor receptor 2-mediated extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 signaling pathway plays is important in regulating excision repair cross-complementary gene 1 expression in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Excision repair cross-complementary gene 1 (ERCC1) is a downstream regulatory target of fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2); however, the mechanism of its action has not been elucidated. The cascades downstream of FGFR2 include the PKC, Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK, JAK/STAT and PI3K pathways. ERCC1 is considered to be a closely related downstream target gene of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)1/2, since ERCC1 mRNA and protein levels may be inhibited by the ERK inhibitor U0126. It was hypothesized that FGFR2, which specifically binds with fibroblast growth factor 7 (FGF7), may regulate ERCC1 gene expression through the ERK signaling pathway. The aim of the present study was to explore the association between the regulatory effect of FGFR2 on ERCC1 gene expression and the p-ERK1/2 signaling pathway in a drug-resistant hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell line. The drug-resistant cell line HepG2/OXA and its parental cell line HepG2 were transfected with Bek shRNA in the logarithmic growth phase. Transfected and untransfected HepG2 and HepG2/OXA cells were then stimulated with FGF7 and changes in the protein expression of FGFR2, p-ERK1/2 and ERCC1 was detected with western blot analysis. Following transfection, HepG2/T and HepG2/OXA/T cells were observed to grow stably in a screening medium containing puromycin. The western blot analysis demonstrated a significant decrease in the protein expressions of FGFR2, p-ERK1/2 and ERCC1 in HepG2/T and HepG2/OXA/T cells as compared to untransfected cells. Expression of FGFR2, p-ERK1/2 and ERCC1 in HepG2/OXA cells was significantly increased compared to the parental HepG2 cells. Following stimulation with FGF7, the expression of FGFR2, p-ERK1/2 and ERCC1 was increased, with significant differences between HepG2 and HepG2/OXA cells in the expression of p-ERK1/2 and ERCC1. No differences were detected in the protein levels following Bek shRNA transfection in HepG2/T and HepG2/OXA/T cells. In conclusion, the FGFR2-mediated ERK1/2 signaling pathway in HCC cells plays an important role in the regulation of ERCC1 expression.