scholarly journals High Expression of VSTM2L Induced Resistance to Chemoradiotherapy in Rectal Cancer through Downstream IL-4 Signaling

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Hao Liu ◽  
Zhenzhan Zhang ◽  
Peilin Zhen ◽  
Meijuan Zhou

Background. Preoperative chemoradiotherapy (pCRT) is a common and essential therapeutic strategy for patients with locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC), but poor tumor response and therapeutic resistance to chemoradiotherapy have appeared usually among persons and affected those patients’ survival prognosis. The resistance to chemoradiotherapy in rectal cancer is difficult to predict. This study was aimed at evaluating the role of V-set and transmembrane domain containing 2 like protein (VSTM2L) in resistance to chemoradiotherapy in rectal cancer. Methods. Analysis of the GEO profiling datasets of rectal cancer patients receiving pCRT disclosed that VSTM2L as a candidate gene was significantly upregulated in nonresponders of rectal cancer with pCRT. The mRNA and protein expression of VSTM2L was detected by quantitate real-time PCR, western blotting, and immunohistochemistry in six rectal cancer biopsy tissues before pCRT. Furthermore, the rectal cancer patient-derived organoids were cultured to evaluate the association of VSTM2L expression and tumor response to CRT. Overexpression of VSTM2L in cancer cells treated with CRT was analyzed for the function of cell proliferation and viability, clone formation, DNA damage repair, and apoptosis ability. The GSEA and RNA-sequence analysis were used to find the downstream mechanism of VSTM2L overexpression in cells treated with CRT. Results. The mRNA levels of VSTM2L were significantly downregulated in normal rectal tissues compared to tumor tissues and were upregulated in nonresponders of rectal cancer patients receiving pCRT and positively correlated with poor survival prognosis from GEO datasets. High expression of VSTM2L was significantly associated with tumor regression after pCRT ( P = 0.030 ). Moreover, high expression of VSTM2L reduced γ-H2AX expression in rectal cancer patient-derived organoids treated with CRT. The overexpression of VSTM2L in colorectal cancer cells induced resistance to CRT via promoting cell proliferation and inhibiting apoptosis. The molecular mechanism revealed that the overexpression of VSTM2L induced resistance to CRT through downstream IL-4 signaling affecting the progress of cell proliferation and apoptosis. Conclusion. The high expression of VSTM2L induced resistance to CRT, and adverse survival outcomes served as a prognostic factor in patients with rectal cancer receiving pCRT, suggesting that VSTM2L high expression may be a potential resistant predictable biomarker for LARC patients receiving pCRT.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-185
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Alwers ◽  
Lina Jansen ◽  
Jakob Kather ◽  
Efrat Amitay ◽  
Hendrik Bläker ◽  
...  

Abstract Background In rectal cancer, prediction of tumor response and pathological complete response (pCR) to neoadjuvant treatment could contribute to refine selection of patients who might benefit from a delayed- or no-surgery approach. The aim of this study was to explore the association of clinical and molecular characteristics of rectal cancer with response to neoadjuvant treatment and to compare patient survival according to level of response. Methods Resected rectal cancer patients were selected from a population-based cohort study. Molecular tumor markers were determined from the surgical specimen. Tumor response and pCR were defined as downstaging in T or N stage and absence of tumor cells upon pathological examination, respectively. The associations of patient and tumor characteristics with tumor response and pCR were explored, and patient survival was determined by degree of response to neoadjuvant treatment. Results Among 1536 patients with rectal cancer, 602 (39%) received neoadjuvant treatment. Fifty-five (9%) patients presented pCR, and 239 (49%) and 250 (53%) patients showed downstaging of the T and N stages, respectively. No statistically significant associations were observed between patient or tumor characteristics and tumor response or pCR. Patients who presented any type of response to neoadjuvant treatment had significantly better cancer-specific and overall survival compared with non-responders. Conclusion In this study, patient characteristics were not associated with response to neoadjuvant treatment, and molecular characteristics determined after surgical resection of the tumor were not predictive of pCR or tumor downstaging. Future studies should include molecular biomarkers from biopsy samples before neoadjuvant treatment.



2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jung Hyun Han ◽  
Sook Jung Yun ◽  
Taek-Keun Nam ◽  
Yoo-Duk Choi ◽  
Jee-Bum Lee ◽  
...  




2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanxiang Chen ◽  
Yongqing Li ◽  
Shaoming Zhang ◽  
Yunshan Wang ◽  
Lili Wang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background As one of the most common cancer among women worldwide, the prognosis of patients with advanced cervical cancer remains unsatisfactory. A study indicated that transmembrane protein 33 (TMEM33) was implicated in tumor recurrence, while its role in cervical cancer has not been elucidated. Methods TMEM33 expression in cervical squamous cell carcinoma and endocervical adenocarcinoma (CESC) was primarily screened in The Cancer Genome Altas (TCGA), and further validated in Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. The Kaplan–Meier plotter analysis and Cox regression were constructed to evaluate the prognostic value of TMEM33 in CESC. Functional enrichment analysis was performed with GO, KEGG and GSEA tools. Protein-protein interaction analysis and correlated gene networks were conducted using STING and GEPIA2 websites, respectively. The expression of TMEM33 in cervical cancer cells were examined by immunoblotting and RT-qPCR. Finally, CCK-8 assay and colony formation assay were performed to investigate the role of TMEM33 in cervical cancer cell proliferation. Results TMEM33 expression was significantly elevated in CESC compared with normal tissues. High expression of TMEM33 was associated with poor prognostic clinical characteristics in CESC patients. KM-plotter analysis revealed that patients with increased TMEM33 had shorter overall survival (OS), progress free interval (PFI), and disease specific survival (DSS). Moreover, Multivariate Cox analysis further confirmed that high TMEM33 expression was an independent risk factor for OS in patients with CESC. TMEM33 was associated with immune cell infiltration, and its expression was correlated with tumorigenesis-related genes RNF4, OCIAD1, TMED5, DHX15, MED28 and LETM1. More importantly, knockdown of TMEM33 in cervical cancer cells decreased the expression of those genes and inhibited cell proliferation. Conclusions Increased TMEM33 in cervical cancer can serve as an independent prognostic marker and might play a role in tumorigenesis by promoting cell proliferation.



2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duo You ◽  
Danfeng Du ◽  
Xueke Zhao ◽  
Xinmin Li ◽  
Minfeng Ying ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: α-ketoglutarate (α-KG) is the substrate to hydoxylate collagen and hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), which are important for cancer metastasis. Previous studies showed that upregulation of collagen prolyl 4-hydroxylase in breast cancer cells stabilizes HIF-1α via depleting α-KG in breast cancer cells. We propose that mitochondrial malate enzyme 2 (ME2) may also affect HIF-1α via modulating α-KG level in breast cancer cells. Methods: ME2 protein expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry on 100 breast cancer patients and correlated with clinicopathological indicators. The effect of ME2 knockout on cancer metastasis was evaluated by an orthotopic breast cancer model. The effect of ME2 knockout or knockdown on the levels of α-KG and HIF-1α protein in breast cancer cell lines (4T1 and MDA-MB-231) was determined in vitro and in vivo.Results: The high expression of ME2 was observed in the human breast cancerous tissues compared to the matched precancerous tissues (P=0.000). The breast cancer patients with a high expression of ME2 had an inferior survival than the patients with low expression of ME2 (P=0.019). ME2 high expression in breast cancer tissues was also related with lymph node metastasis (P=0.016), pathological staging (P=0.033) and vascular cancer embolus (P=0.014). In a 4T1 orthotopic breast cancer model, ME2 knockout significantly inhibited lung metastasis. In the tumors formed by ME2 knockout 4T1 cells, α-KG level significantly increased, collagen hydroxylation level did not change significantly, but HIF-1α protein level significantly decreased, in comparison to control. In cell culture, ME2 knockout or knockdown cells demonstrated a significantly higher α-KG level but significantly lower HIF-1α protein level than control cells under hypoxia. Exogenous malate and α-KG exerted similar effect on HIF-1α in breast cancer cells to ME2 knockout or knockdown. Treatment with malate significantly decreased 4T1 breast cancer lung metastasis. ME2 expression was associated with HIF-1α level in human breast cancer samples (P=0.027).Conclusion: We provide evidence that upregulation of ME2 is associated with a poor prognosis of breast cancer patients and propose a mechanistic understanding of a link between ME2 and breast cancer metastasis.



Oncotarget ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (43) ◽  
pp. 69507-69517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenjie Sun ◽  
Guichao Li ◽  
Juefeng Wan ◽  
Ji Zhu ◽  
Weiqi Shen ◽  
...  


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document