The RNA-binding protein PCBP2 facilitates gastric carcinoma growth by targeting miR-34a

Gastric carcinoma is the fourth most common cancer worldwide, with a high rate of death and low 5-year survival rate. However, the mechanism underling gastric cancer is still not fully understood. Here in the present study, we identify the RNA-binding protein PCBP2 as an oncogenic protein in human gastric carcinoma. Our results show that PCBP2 is up-regulated in human gastric cancer tissues compared to adjacent normal tissues, and that high level of PCBP2 predicts poor overall and disease-free survival. Knockdown of PCBP2 in gastric cancer cells inhibits cell proliferation and colony formation in vitro, whereas opposing results are obtained when PCBP2 is overexpressed. Our in vivo subcutaneous xenograft results also show that PCBP2 can critically regulate gastric cancer cell growth. In addition, we find that PCBP2-depletion induces apoptosis in gastric cancer cells via up-regulating expression of pro-apoptotic proteins and down-regulating anti-apoptotic proteins. Mechanically, we identify that miR-34a as a target of PCBP2, and that miR-34a is critically essential for the function of PCBP2. In summary, PCBP2 promotes gastric carcinoma development by regulating the level of miR-34a.     

Downregulation of PPP2R5E expression by miR-23a suppresses apoptosis to facilitate the growth of gastric cancer cells

PPP2R5E belongs to the phosphatase 2A regulatory subunit B family and acts as a tumor suppressor in human cancer. However, the role of PPP2R5E in the tumorigenesis of gastric cancer is unclear. Here, we declare that PPP2R5E is downregulated by miR-23a and induces cell growth inhibition and apoptosis in gastric cancer cells. Furthermore, ASO-miR-23a suppresses tumor growth derived from MGC803 cells in vivo. PPP2R5E is identified as a new target of miR-23a. Moreover, overexpression of PPP2R5E reversed the negative effects of miR-23a. We highlight the significance of miR-23a and PPP2R5E in the proliferation and apoptosis of gastric cancer cells.     

MicroRNA-34a induces apoptosis in the human glioma cell line,A172, through enhanced ROS production and NOX2 expression

Background

MicroRNA is a type of non-coding small RNA involved in regulating genes and signaling pathways through incomplete complementation with target genes. Recent research supports key roles of miRNA in the formation and development of human glioma.

Methods

The relative quantity of miR-34a was initially determined in human glioma A172 cells and glioma tissues. Next, we analyzed the impact of miR-34a on A172 cell viability with the MTT assay. The effects of miR-34a overexpression on apoptosis were confirmed with flow cytometry and Hoechst staining experiments. We further defined the target genes of miR-34a using immunofluorescence and Western blot.

Results

MiR-34a expression was significantly reduced in human glioma A172 cells and glioma tissue, compared with normal glial cells and tissue samples. Our MTT data suggest that up-regulation of miR-34a inhibits cell viability while suppression of miR-34a enhances cell viability. Flow cytometry and Hoechst staining results revealed increased rates of apoptosis in A172 human glioma cells overexpressing miR-34a. Using immunofluorescence and Western blot analyses, we identified NOX2 as a target of miR-34a in A172 cells.

Conclusion

MiR-34a serves as a tumor suppressor in human glioma mainly by decreasing NOX2 expression.     

MicroRNA-34A inhibits the growth,invasion and metastasis of gastric cancer by targeting PDGFR and MET expression

Within the family of RTKs (receptor tyrosine kinases), PDGFR (platelet-derived growth factor receptor) has been implicated in carcinogenesis and tumour development. miRNAs (microRNAs), which can target the mRNAs (messenger RNAs) of cancer-associated genes, are abnormally expressed in various cancers. In this study, our aim was to identify the miRNAs that target PDGFR-α/β and to study the functions of these miRNAs. miR-34a was predicted to target PDGFR, and luciferase reporter assays showed that miR-34a could directly target PDGFR. Meanwhile, we found that miR-34a was down-regulated in gastric cancer tissues and was associated with metastasis. Our findings showed that miR-34a could inhibit gastric cancer cell migration, invasion and proliferation, but these tumourigenic properties were only partially restored when PDGFR-α/β was overexpressed. In subsequent experiments, we found that the overexpression of both PDGFR and MET could completely restore the gastric cancer tumourigenic properties. Moreover, the cancer-associated cell signalling pathway was studied, and we found that miR-34a could inhibit Akt [PKB (protein kinase B)] phosphorylation, which was restored by the overexpression of both PDGFR and MET. In conclusion, miR-34a may act as a potential tumour suppressor in gastric cancer and is associated with the mechanisms of gastric cancer metastasis; miR-34a can inhibit gastric cancer tumourigenesis by targeting PDGFR and MET through the PI3K (phosphoinositide 3-kinase)/Akt pathway.     

Engineering human JMJD2A tudor domains for an improved understanding of histone peptide recognition

JMJD2A is a histone lysine demethylase which recognizes and demethylates H3K9me3 and H3K36me3 residues and is overexpressed in various cancers. It utilizes a tandem tudor domain to facilitate its own recruitment to histone sites, recognizing various di- and tri-methyl lysine residues with moderate affinity. In this study, we successfully engineered the tudor domain of JMJD2A to specifically bind to H4K20me3 with a 20-fold increase of affinity and improved selectivity. To reveal the molecular basis, we performed molecular dynamics and free energy decomposition analysis on the human JMJD2A tandem tudor domains bound to H4K20me2, H4K20me3, and H3K23me3 peptides to uncover the residues and conformational changes important for the enhanced binding affinity and selectivity toward H4K20me2/3. These analyses revealed new insights into understanding chromatin reader domains recognizing histone modifications and improving binding affinity and selectivity of these domains. Furthermore, we showed that the tight binding of JMJD2A to H4K20me2/3 is not sufficient to improve the efficiency of CRISPR-CAS9 mediated homology directed repair (HDR), suggesting a complicated relationship between JMJD2A and the DNA damage response beyond binding affinity toward the H4K20me2/3 mark.     

Onco-miR-24 regulates cell growth and apoptosis by targeting BCL2L11 in gastric cancer

Gastric cancer is one of the most common malignancies worldwide; however, the molecular mechanism in tumorigenesis still needs exploration. BCL2L11 belongs to the BCL-2 family, and acts as a central regulator of the intrinsic apoptotic cascade and mediates cell apoptosis.Although miRNAs have been reported to be involved in each stage of cancer development, the role of miR-24 in GC has not been reported yet. In the present study, miR-24 was found to be up-regulated while the expression of BCL2L11 was inhibited in tumor tissues of GC. Studies from both in vitro and in vivo shown that miR-24 regulates BCL2L11 expression by directly binding with 3′UTR of mRNA, thus promoting cell growth, migration while inhibiting cell apoptosis. Therefore, miR-24 is a novel onco-miRNA that can be potential drug targets for future clinical use.     

HIF1A-AS2 predicts poor prognosis and regulates cell migration and invasion in triple-negative breast cancer

The aberrant expression of hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF1A)-antisense RNA 2 (HIF1A-AS2) was found in various human cancers including breast cancer. The aim of this study was to present more evidence about the role HIF1A-AS2 on triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). In our results, HIF1A-AS2 was also found to be upregulated in TNBC tissues compared with non-TNBC tissues or adjacent normal tissues. Besides, HIF1A-AS2 expression was also elevated in TNBC cell lines compared with the normal breast epithelial cell line. Moreover, high expression of HIF1A-AS2 was associated with lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis and unfavorable histological grade in TNBC patients. Survival analysis showed a TNBC patient with high HIF1A-AS2 expression had shorter overall survival than patients with low HIF1A-AS2 expression, and HIF1A-AS2 high expression acted as an independent poor prognostic factor for overall survival in TNBC patients. The cell migration and invasion assays suggested inhibition of HIF1A-AS2 obviously depressed TNBC cell migration and invasion. In conclusion, HIF1A-AS2 serves as a novel biomarker for predicting clinical progression and prognosis in TNBC.     

Aberrant hypermethylation of the FGFR2 gene in human gastric cancer cell lines

We have previously shown that fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2) plays an important role in gastric carcinogenesis. In this study, we assessed DNA methylation status in the promoter region of FGFR2 gene in gastric cancer cell lines, and indicated that this region was highly methylated, compared with FGFR2-expressing gastric cancer cell lines. Moreover, the restoration of FGFR2 expression by treating methylated cells with the DNA methyltransferase inhibitor 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine strongly suggests that the loss of FGFR2 expression may be due to the aberrant hypermethylation in the promoter region of the FGFR2 gene. Thus, our results suggest that the epigenetic silencing of FGFR2 through DNA methylation in gastric cancer may contribute to tumor progression.     

LncRNA PVT1 predicts prognosis and regulates tumor growth in prostate cancer

Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) plasmacytoma variant translocation 1(PVT1) was aberrantly expressed in various cancers and is associated with tumor prognosis. Here, we aim to investigate its function in prostate cancer. Small interfering RNA against PVT1 was transfected into prostate cancer cell lines and cell growth and apoptosis were analyzed. Our results showed that PVT1 was overexpressed in prostate cancer tissues and cells. Higher levels of PVT1 indicated poorer overall survival and disease-free survival. A significant association was found between PVT1 expression and tumor stage. Besides, PVT1 knockdown significantly inhibited prostate cancer growth in vivo and in vitro and promoted cell apoptosis. PVT1 knockdown also significantly upregulated the expression of cleaved caspase-3 and cleaved caspase-9, but downregulated the expression of c-Myc in prostate cancer cell lines. Our results suggest that PVT1 played an oncogenic role in prostate cancer and could be used as a potential biomarker for diagnosis of prostate cancer.     

Elevated plasma visfatin levels correlate with poor prognosis of gastric cancer patients

Visfatin is a proinflammmatory cytokine with accumulating evidence for its rise in circulation of cancer patients. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between preoperative plasma visfatin level and prognosis of gastric cancers. Preoperative plasma visfatin levels of 262 patients with gastric cancers and plasma visfatin levels of 262 healthy individuals were determined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Preoperative plasma visfatin level was substantially higher in patients than in healthy subjects. Plasma visfatin levels were associated with invasion depth, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, peritoneal dissemination, tumor size and tumor node metastasis stage. Multivariate analysis revealed that high plasma visfatin level was an independent factor for death. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that plasma visfatin level predicted death with high area under curve. Multivariate Cox regression analysis identified plasma visfatin level as an independent predictor of overall survival. Thus, our results suggest that high preoperative plasma visfatin level is associated with prognostic factors for gastric cancer as well as may play a role as prognostic biomarker in gastric cancer survival.     

High expression of heparanase-2 is an independent prognostic parameter for favorable survival in gastric cancer patients

Aim: Heparanase-2 expression has been suggested to up-regulate in several types of human cancers. However, the expression patterns of heparanase-2 in gastric cancer and its effect on prognosis of gastric cancer patients are unclear. Methods: In this study, the methods of tissue microarray, immunohistochemistry (IHC), and western blot were used to investigate heparanase-2 expression in gastric cancer and the adjacent non-cancerous tissues. Heparanase-2 expression was analyzed by immunohistochemistry in 95 clinicopathologically characterized gastric cancer cases. In addition Fisher's exact test, Kaplan–Meier plots and Cox proportional hazards regression model were used to analyze the results. Results: High expression of cytoplasmic heparanase-2 was observed in 70.5% (67/95) of gastric cancer, when compared with its normal counterpart. Overexpression of heparanase-2 was correlated with tumor size and differentiation (P < 0.05). Further analysis showed that a significant correlation between high expression of heparanase-2 and favorable prognosis (P < 0.05). In multivariate analysis, high expression of heparanase-2 was evaluated as an independent prognostic factor in gastric cancer (P < 0.05).ConclusionsOur data suggest for the first time that the high expression of heparanase-2 is associated significantly with tumor growth and differentiation. Importantly, heparanase-2 may be a potential molecular marker for predicting prognosis of gastric cancer.     

Depression of MAD2 inhibits apoptosis of gastric cancer cells by upregulating Bcl-2 and interfering mitochondrion pathway

Mitotic arrest deficient 2 (MAD2) is an essential component of the mitotic spindle checkpoint pathway. It was previously shown to be associated with drug resistance of tumor cells. To further explore the roles of MAD2 in responses of gastric cancer cells to chemotherapy drugs, we constructed the siRNA vectors of MAD2 and transfected them into gastric cancer SGC7901 cells to inhibit expression of MAD2. MTT assay showed that the downregulation of MAD2 increased the resistance of SGC7901 cells to spindle inhibitors and DNA damaging agents. The apoptosis rates of gastric cancer cells transfected with MAD2-siRNA were 10.7% and 10%, respectively, after treated by 1.0microg/ml VCR and cisplatin. In contrast, the apoptosis rates of SGC7901 and SGC7901/psilencer3.1 induced by VCR were 43.2%, 38.7%; and that induced by cispaltin were 34.1%, 31.4%. The ratio of Bcl-2 to Bax was much higher in the MAD2-siRNA transfectants compared with the SGC7901/psilencer. In SGC7901/psilencer, cytochrome c and cleaved caspase 3 protein levels increased along with the exposure time increased. However, these protein levels of SGC7901/MAD2-siRNA had no changes during the drug treatment. These results indicate that down regulation of MAD2 could promote the drug resistance of gastric cancer cells and inhibit anticancer drugs induced-apoptosis by upregulating Bcl-2 and interfering the mitochondrion apoptosis pathway.     

CRKL promotes cell proliferation in gastric cancer and is negatively regulated by miR-126

V-crk avian sarcoma virus CT10 oncogene homolog-like (CRKL) is a member of CRK family and act as an adaptor protein participating in intra-cellular signal transduction. The role of CRKL in gastric cancer (GC) remains unclear. In this study, we show that CRKL was aberrantly highly expressed in both GC tumor specimens and cell lines (SGC-7901, MKN-45, MKN-28 and SUN-16). The expression of CRKL was significantly correlated with GC clinicopathologic features including tumor size, local invasion, lymph node metastasis and TNM stages. Knock-down of CRKL in SGC-7901 cells induced a suppression of cell proliferation along with a significant arrest of cell cycle in G0/G1 phase, however, no significant influence was observed on cell apoptosis. We validate that miR-126, a suppressor in GC, was a negative regulator of CRKL by directly combining with the 3′ untranslated region of CRKL mRNA, and over-expression of miR-126 inhibited the protein expression of CRKL significantly. These results suggest that CRKL may function as an oncogene in GC by promoting the GC cell proliferation, which provides us a likely biomarker and a potential target for GC prevention, diagnosis and therapeutic treatment. Moreover, the targeting relationship between CRKL and miR-126 partly reveals the mechanism of miR-126 on GC suppression.     

Harmine induces apoptosis and inhibits tumor cell proliferation,migration and invasion through down-regulation of cyclooxygenase-2 expression in gastric cancer

Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) plays an important role in the carcinogenesis and progression of gastric cancer. Harmine is reported as a promising drug candidate for cancer therapy; however, effects and action mechanism of harmine on the human gastric cancer cells remain unclear. This study evaluated the anti-tumor effects of harmine on human gastric cancer both in vitro and in vivo. The cell proliferation was determined using MTT colorimetric assay. Apoptosis was measured by DAPI staining and flow cytometry analysis. The wound healing and transwell invasion assays were performed to evaluate the effects of harmine on the migration and invasion of gastric cancer cells. The expression of COX-2, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), Bcl-2, Bax and matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) was detected by Western blot analysis. Our results showed that harmine significantly inhibited cellular proliferation, migration, invasion and induced apoptosis in vitro, as well as inhibited tumor growth in vivo. In addition, harmine significantly inhibited the expression of COX-2, PCNA, Bcl-2 and MMP-2 as well as increased Bax expression in gastric cancer cells. These results collectively indicate that harmine induces apoptosis and inhibits proliferation, migration and invasion of human gastric cancer cells, which may be mediated by down-regulation of COX-2 expression.