miR-429对乳腺癌干细胞干性维持和体内成瘤能力的影响

目的:探究miR-429在乳腺癌干性维持中所发挥的作用,并探索miR-429对乳腺癌干细胞体内成瘤能力的影响。方法:无血清悬浮培养法用于培养经流式细胞仪分选得到的CD44~+CD24~-表型乳腺癌细胞系干细胞MCF-7-S、SKBR3-S、MDA-MB-231-S及乳腺正常上皮干细胞MCF-10A-S,实时荧光定量聚合酶链式反应(qRT-PCR)用于检测miR-429在上述4株干细胞中的表达。将包含miR-429的重组慢病毒质粒及其阴性对照空载体质粒vector分别以病毒:细胞数量为15:1的比例感染MDA-MB-231细胞,经2.0μg/m L嘌呤霉素筛选,成功构建稳定表达miR-429或vector的MDA-MB-231细胞,经流式分选出上述两株稳转细胞株的CD44~+CD24~-表型干细胞MDA-MB-231-Svector和MDA-MB-231-SmiR-429。无血清悬浮培养后,镜下观察过表达miR-429对肿瘤球形成能力的影响,流式细胞术检测过表达miR-429对CD44~+CD24~-表型细胞亚群比例的影响,Western Blot检测过表达miR-429对乳腺癌干细胞干性相关因子ALDH1、SOX2和Bmi1蛋白表达的影响,将MDA-MB-231-Svector和MDA-MB-231-SmiR-429干细胞分别注射到BALB/c裸鼠右侧胸壁第二对乳腺脂肪垫中,构建乳腺癌干细胞裸鼠移植瘤模型,观察过表达miR-429对裸鼠体内成瘤能力的影响。结果:与MCF-10A-S相比,miR-429在MCF-7-S、SKBR3-S和MDA-MB-231-S细胞系中的表达水平均异常降低,其中,miR-429在MDA-MB-231-S细胞中表达最低(P0.05)。与MDA-MB-231-Svector细胞相比,经流式分选后的CD44~+CD24~-表型MDA-MB-231-SmiR-429干细胞形成的肿瘤球的大小和数量、分选时CD44~+CD24~-表型细胞亚群的比例、ALDH1、SOX2和Bmi1的蛋白表达水平以及裸鼠体内成瘤的体积和重量均显著降低(P0.05)。结论:miR-429可降低乳腺癌干细胞的干性和体内成瘤能力,其可能是抑制乳腺癌转移和耐药的关键分子。     

Roles of P67/MetAP2 as a tumor suppressor

A precise balance between growth promoting signals and growth inhibitory signals plays important roles in the maintenance of healthy mammalian cells. Any deregulation of this critical balance converts normal cells into abnormal or cancerous cells. Several macromolecules are being identified and characterized that are involved in the regulation of cell signaling pathways that connect to the cell cycle and thus they play roles as tumor promoters or tumor suppressors. In situ tumor formation needs active angiogenesis, a process that generates new blood vessels from existing ones either by splitting or sprouting. Several small molecule inhibitors and proteins have been identified as inhibitors of angiogenesis. One such protein, p67/MetAP2 also known as methionine aminopeptidase 2 (MetAP2), has been shown to bind covalently to fumagillin and its derivatives that have anti-angiogenic activity. In addition to fumagillin or its derivatives, several other small molecule inhibitors of p67/MetAP2 have been recently identified and some of these drugs are in phase III trials for cancer therapy. Although molecular details of actions toward tumor suppression by these drugs are largely unknown, a significant progress has been made to understand the structure–function relationship of p67/MetAP2 and its roles in the maintenance of the levels of phosphorylation of the ∝-subunit of eukaryotic initiation factor 2 (eIF2∝) and extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2). In this article, roles of p67/MetAP2 in the suppression of cancer development are also discussed.     

MicroRNA在肿瘤发生发展和诊断中作用的研究进展

microRNA是一类由内源基因编码的长度约为18-25个核苷酸的非编码单链RNA分子,可以与靶基因mRNA的3'非编码区结合,通过降解靶m RNA或(和)抑制靶m RNA转录后翻译调节靶蛋白的生成,从而发挥其生物学作用。目前,在人体基因组内发现的microRNA已经超过2500多个,可能调节着人类1/3的基因,在维持正常干细胞功能、调控细胞增殖分化及恶性肿瘤发生过程中均起重要作用。既往的研究表明microRNA与基因之间相互调控的失衡导致肿瘤的发生。从分子水平上研究microRNA与肿瘤发生的关系,检测microRNA与肿瘤相关基因表达情况的改变,分析肿瘤组织和血清中microRNA表达量与肿瘤分型的关系,将有利于肿瘤的病因学研究,早期发现和肿瘤治疗及预后判断。本文主要就microRNA在肿瘤发生发展和诊断中作用的研究进展进行了综述。     

Suppressor of cytokine signaling 6 in cancer development and therapy: Deciphering its emerging and suppressive roles

The suppressor of cytokine signaling 6 (SOCS6), an emerged important member of SOCS family, has attracted enhancing attention regarding its pivotal role in the development and progression of cancers. As part of negative feedback regulation, SOCS6 has been implicated in attenuating cytokine signal transduction via inhibiting the signaling cascade of activated cytokine receptors and multiple receptor tyrosine kinase signaling. Decreased SOCS6 expression is involved in diverse tumorigenic processes, such as abnormal cell proliferation, evasion of apoptosis, cancer migration, and cancer stem cell maintenance. Herein, this review summarized the mechanisms of SOCS6 regulation underlying multiple pathways. In particular, we focus on the pathological processes of cancer targeted by SOCS6 and discuss its inhibitory role during tumor progression. Also, we focused on the clinical relevance of SOCS6 in cancer biomarker and prognosis, as well as its significance in chemoresistance and radioresistance. In all, this review pave a way to assist in experimental designs and emphasize the potential clinical value of SOCS6 for cancer.     

MicroRNA-30e-5p suppresses non-small cell lung cancer tumorigenesis by regulating USP22-mediated Sirt1/JAK/STAT3 signaling

MicroRNA-30e-5p (miR-30e-5p) is a tumor suppressor that is known to be downregulated in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, how miR-30e-5p inhibits NSCLC tumorigenesis is not known. Ubiquitin-specific peptidase 22 (USP22) is upregulated in NSCLC and promotes tumorigenesis via a Sirt1-JAK-STAT3 pathway. In this study, we investigated whether miR-30e-5p inhibits tumor growth by targeting USP22 in NSCLC. Our results reveal that miR-30e-5p expression was correlated negatively with USP22 in NSCLC tissues. Luciferase reporter assays showed that miR-30e-5p negatively regulated USP22 expression by binding to a specific sequence in the 3?UTR. MiR-30e-5p overexpression and USP22 knockdown significantly inhibited tumor growth in vivo and induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in NSCLC cells in vitro. The effects of miR-30e-5p inhibition were prevented by USP22 knockdown. MiR-30e-5p inhibited SIRT1 expression and increased expression of p53 and the phosphorylated form of STAT3 (pSTAT3). Furthermore, miR-30e-5p prevented USP22-mediated regulation of SIRT1, pSTAT3, and p53 expression. Taken together, these findings suggest that miR-30e-5p suppresses NSCLC tumorigenesis by downregulatingUSP22-mediated Sirt1/JAK/STAT3 signaling. Our study has identified miR-30e-5p as a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of NSCLC.     

Mechanism of cancer: Oncohistones in action

Oncohistones are histones with high-frequency point mutations that are associated with tumorigenesis. Although each histone variant is encoded by multiple genes, a single mutation in one allele of one gene seems to have a dominant effect over global histone H3 methylation level at the relevant amino acid residue. These oncohistones are highly tumor type specific. For example, H3K27M and H3G34V/R mutations occur only in pediatric brain cancers, whereas H3K36M and H3G34W/L have only been found in pediatric bone tumors. H1 mutations also seem to be exclusively linked to lymphomas. In this review, we discuss the occurrence, frequency and potential functional mechanisms of each oncohistone in tumorigenesis of its relevant cancer. We believe that further investigation into the mechanism regarding their tumor type specificity and cancer-related functions will shed new light on their application in cancer diagnosis and targeted therapy development.     

A nonlinear mathematical model of cell turnover, differentiation and tumorigenesis in the intestinal crypt

We present a development of a model [Tomlinson, I.P.M., Bodmer, W.F., 1995. Failure of programmed cell death and differentiation as causes of tumors: Some simple mathematical models. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92, 11130-11134.] of the relationship between cells in three compartments of the intestinal crypt: stem cells, semi-differentiated cells and fully differentiated cells. Stem and semi-differentiated cells may divide to self-renew, undergo programmed death or progress to semi-differentiated and fully differentiated cells, respectively. The probabilities of each of these events provide the most important parameters of the model. Fully differentiated cells do not divide, but a proportion undergoes programmed death in each generation. Our previous models showed that failure of programmed death--for example, in tumorigenesis--could lead either to exponential growth in cell numbers or to growth to some plateau. Our new models incorporate plausible fluctuation in the parameters of the model and introduce nonlinearity by assuming that the parameters depend on the numbers of cells in each state of differentiation. We present detailed analysis of the equilibrium conditions for various forms of these models and, where appropriate, simulate the changes in cell numbers. We find that the model is characterized by bifurcation between increase in cell numbers to stable equilibrium or explosive exponential growth; in a restricted number of cases, there may be multiple stable equilibria. Fluctuation in cell numbers undergoing programmed death, for example caused by tissue damage, generally makes exponential growth more likely, as long as the size of the fluctuation exceeds a certain critical value for a sufficiently long period of time. In most cases, once exponential growth has started, this process is irreversible. In some circumstances, exponential growth is preceded by a long plateau phase, of variable duration, mimicking equilibrium: thus apparently self-limiting lesions may not be so in practice and the duration of growth of a tumor may be impossible to predict on the basis of its size.     

Akt2 and nucleophosmin/B23 function as an oncogenic unit in human lung cancer cells

The signaling network of protein kinase B(PKB)/Akt has been implicated in survival of lung cancer cells. However, understanding the relative contribution of the different isoform of Akt network is nontrival. Here, we report that Akt2 is highly expressed in human lung adenocarcinoma cell line A549 cells. Suppression of Akt2 expression in A549 cells results in notable inhibition of cell poliferation, soft agar growth, and invasion, accompanying by a decrease of nucleophosmin/B23 protein. Overexpression of Akt1 restores cancerous growth of A549 cells in B23-knockdown (KD) cells while Akt2 overexpression did not restore proliferating potential in cells with downregulated B23, thus suggesting Akt2 requires B23 to drive proliferation of lung cancer cell. Loss of functional Akt2 and B23 has similar defects on cell proliferation, apoptotic resistance and cell cycle regulation, while loss of Akt1 has less defects on cell proliferation, survial and cell cycle progression in A549 cells. Moreover, overexpression of B23 rescues the proliferative block induced as a consequence of loss of Akt2. Thus our data suggest that Akt2/B23 functions as an oncogenic unit to drive tumorigenesis of A549 lung cancer cells.