miR-486 as an unfavorable prognostic biomarker for patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

BACKGROUND: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common malignant tumor in China. miR-486 was found to be associated with many tumors. In previous study, we aimed to investigate the expression and prognostic value of miR-486 in patients with NSCLC. METHODS: In order to measure the expression of miR-486 in 140 NSCLC patients, in situ hybridization (ISH) was made. The staining of miR-486 was scored by two independent investigators. Then, the prognostic value of miR-486 was evaluated by plotting Kaplan-Meier survival curves and making multivariate analysis. RESULTS: miR-486 was mainly expressed in the cytoplasm of tumor cells. miR-486 expression was corrected with tumor differentiation (P=0.011) but not with any other clinicopathological characteristics. However, high expression of miR-486 was significantly correlated with shortened overall survival (OS) in NSCLC patients (P=0.001), especially in stage I patients (P=0.005). Multivariate analysis revealed that miR-486 was an independent prognostic factor in NSCLC patients (P=0.002). CONCLUSIONS: miR-486 high expression predicts poor survival in patients with NSCLC. miR-486 could be used as an unfavorable prognostic biomarker for NSCLC patients.

miR-486-5p functions as an oncogene by targeting PTEN in non-small cell lung cancer.

PURPOSE: Lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, shows a poor 5-year overall survival rate. In our previous study, we demonstrated that miR-486-5p can be a potential blood-based biomarker for early diagnosis and recurrence prediction of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The aim of the present study was to investigate the possible roles and related target genes of miR-486-5p in NSCLC progression. METHODS: pcDNA3.1(+)/Pri-miR486 recombinant plasmid and miR-486-5p inhibitor were transfected into NSCLC cells and theirs effects were evaluated by qRT-PCR. Then, MTT assay and Colony formation assay were performed to determine the potential roles of miR-486-5p played on NSCLC cellular proliferation and cloning in vitro. We also initially investigated the target genes of miR-486-5p by using bioinformatic methods, qRT-PCR and western blot. RESULTS: pcDNA3.1(+)/Pri-miR486 recombinant plasmid significantly upregulated the expression of miR-486-5p, while miR-486-5p inhibitor significantly downregulated its expression. Upregulation of miR-486-5p promoted the cellular proliferation and cloning, while miR-486-5p silencing restrained the cellular proliferation and cloning. Furthermore, four potential target genes (PIK3R1, PTEN, MAP3K7 and FOXO1) of miR-486-5p were screened out. Finally, we found that upregulation of miR-486-5p in NSCLC cells significantly reduced PTEN and increased AKT expression levels, whereas miR-486-5p silencing increased PTEN and reduced AKT expression. Therefore, we believe that miR-486-5p can regulate PTEN-PI3 K/AKT signaling. CONCLUSIONS: miR-486-5p acts as an oncogene in the progression of NSCLC by influencing PTEN-PI3 K/AKT signaling. miR-486-5p may provide potential therapeutic targets for NSCLC.

Downregulation of HIF-2α Reverse the Chemotherapy Resistance of Lung Adenocarcinoma A549 Cells to Cisplatin.

BACKGROUND Cisplatin (DDP)-based systemic chemotherapy has been widely used in the treatment of postoperative or advanced NSCLC patients, however, its effective rate is only 14~40%. HIF-2α can upregulate drug-resistant-related genes expression and lead to chemotherapy resistance in many tumors. However, little is known about the relationship between HIF-2α and chemotherapy resistance of lung cancer cells. MATERIAL AND METHODS In our study, the siRNA expression vectors targeting the HIF-2α gene were designed, constructed, and transfected into A549 cells. MTT assay and western blot analysis of P-glycoprotein 1 (P-gp) were used to explore the transfer influence of HIF-2α gene silencing on the A549 cells in the cisplatin-based chemotherapy resistance. RESULTS After transfection with the siRNAHIF-2α into A549 cells, mRNA and protein expression of HIF-2α were downregulated. At the same time, expression of P-gp decreased significantly. Furthermore, the sensitivity to cisplatin significantly increased. CONCLUSIONS The constructed siRNA expression vectors can effectively suppress the expression of HIF-2α and P-gp, which then can reverse the chemotherapy resistance of A549 cells.

High expression of SLC6A10P contributes to poor prognosis in lung adenocarcinoma.

PURPOSE: To investigate the expression profile and prognostic value of SLC6A10P in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). PATIENTS AND METHODS: TCGA datasets were used to investigate the differential expression of SLC6A10P in NSCLC, lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), and lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC). Expression of SLC6A10P was measured by in situ hybridization in tissue microarrays containing 136 NSCLC (51 LUAD and 85 LUSC) patients. The prognostic value of SLC6A10P was then evaluated. RESULTS: SLC6A10P was highly expressed in tumor tissues compared with normal lung tissues. High SLC6A10P expression was associated with lymph node metastasis (NSCLC, P = 0.0054; LUAD, P = 0.0149), more advanced tumor stage (NSCLC, P = 0.0126; LUAD, P = 0.0416) and poor overall survival (NSCLC, P = 0.0248; LUAD, P = 0.0316) in NSCLC and LUAD. Multivariate analysis revealed that SLC6A10P was an independent prognostic factor in LUAD patients (P = 0.017). SLC6A10P showed no association with clinicopathological parameters and no prognostic value in LUSC. CONCLUSION: SLC6A10P is highly expressed in tumor tissues and its high expression predictspoor survival in patients with LUAD. SLC6A10P might serve as a novel therapeutic target and prognostic biomarker in LUAD patients in the future.

HIF-2α not HIF-1α overexpression confers poor prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer.

HIF-α may play an important role in the process of tumorigenesis as well as tumor progression. Although a number of investigations have established the significance of HIF-1α in several human tumors, there is still little information available on the clinical significance of HIF-2α expression in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In present study, immunohistologic expression of HIF-1α/ HIF-2α was studied in a tissue microarray of 140 Stage I-III NSCLCs and correlated with clinicopathologic parameters and clinical outcome. We found that HIF-1α/ HIF-2α showed a cytoplasmic pattern of expression in tumor cells while normal lung components showed negative or weak cytoplasmic staining. High HIF-1α and HIF-2α expression was noted in 49/140 (35.0%) and in 64/140 (45.7%) of the cases respectively. There was no direct correlation between HIF-1α and HIF-2α expression ( p = 0.200). The high HIF-2α expression was associated with histology (squamous cell carcinoma vs. adenocarcinomas) in these patients ( p = 0.001). Patients in advanced tumor stage had frequent high expression of HIF-2α ( p = 0.007), and the similar high expression was also observed in advanced T or N stage ( p = 0.030 and 0.043, respectively). HIF-1α showed a marginal association with T stage ( p = 0.084), which showed a higher expression in early tumor stage. Univariate analysis of the overall survival demonstrates that HIF-2α expression but not HIF-1α was related to poor outcome ( p = 0.005) and it retained significance in multivariate analysis ( p = 0.046). In conclusion, HIF-2α expression was related to tumor size, lymph node metastasis, tumor stage and histology. We also found a positive prognostic value of HIF-2α protein expression. HIF-2α might serve as a potential prognosis biomarker in evaluating progression and prognosis of NSCLC. We believe that our study will be of great benefit to the clinical treatment and prognostic evaluation of NSCLC.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of new fluorine substituted derivatives as angiotensin II receptor antagonists with anti-hypertension and anti-tumor effects.

The synthesis and pharmaceutical activity of new potent non-tetrazole angiotensin II (Ang II) receptor antagonists were described. These compounds were fluorine substituted derivatives of Losartan, Valsartan and Irbesartan with carboxylic acid group as replacements to the known potent tetrazole moiety at the 2'-biphenyl position. Their activities were evaluated by Ang II receptor binding assay as well as by in vivo assay. All of the synthesized compounds showed nanomolar affinity for the AT(1) receptor subtype. The vivo biological evaluation showed that compounds 1a, 2 and 4 produced a dose-dependent antihypertensive effect both in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and renal hypertensive rats (RHR). Compound 4 especially showed an efficient and long-lasting effect in reducing blood pressure which can last more than 24 h at dose of 10 mg/kg in SHR, which was much better than control Losartan and Valsartan. Compound 4 can also inhibit the prostate cancer in vitro and in vivo. So compound 4 was selected for in-depth investigation as potent, novel and long-lasting non-tetrazole anti-hypertension and anti-tumor drug candidate.