Gamma-interferon inducible lysosomal thiolreductase (GILT) effect on breast tumor microenvironment through regulating CXCR6/CXCL16 axis.

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e15081-e15081
Author(s):  
YinJiao Fei ◽  
MingXing Liang ◽  
Lei Li ◽  
Yuxin Song ◽  
Zhen Liu ◽  
...  

e15081 Background: Gamma-interferon Inducible Lysosomal Thiolreductase (GILT) is constitutively expressed in most antigens endocytosed by antigen presenting cells (APCs), and its function is to catalyze the reduction of disulfide (S-S) bonds in protein substrates. The cytokine CXCL16 is one of the only two known plasma membrane chemokines which induces chemotaxis of activated T cells and bone marrow plasma cells in tumor microenvironment. It contains a free end folded by two sulfur bonds and therefore could also be a zymolyte of GILT. Previous studies found that specific receptor of CXCL16, CXCR6, was significantly overexpressed in breast cancer tissues and metastatic axillary lymph nodes. We suppose whether CXCR6/CXCL16 axis is regulated by GILT and affect tumor microenvironment, thereby eliciting specific anti-tumor immune responses in breast cancer (BC). Methods: GILT expression in BC was evaluated using publicly available data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). GILT gene was analyzed in UALCAN ( http://ualcan.path.uab.edu/analysis-prot.html ) . In vitro, Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was conducted to examine the location and relation of GILT and CXCR6. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) was performed to mine the biological pathways involved in BC related GILT regulatory network. The expression of GILT at protein and RNA levels were detected by Western Blot and RT-PCR assay. Overexpression and knockdown of GILT in BC cell lines was carried out to further analyzed the correlation between GILT and CXCL16/CXCR6. Results: TCGA database showed that GILT expression was increased in the stroma of BC compared with normal, and was correlated to shorter BC overall survival. GSEA suggested that the expression of GILT was associated with chemotactic factors. Pearson analysis and IHC showed GILT had a strong correlation with CXCL16/CXCR6 axis in the aspect of angiogenesis and immunity. qRT-PCR and Western Blot assay also revealed that GILT had high expression in BC. Besides, patients with high expression of GILT in IHC simultaneously showed high immunoreactive to macrophage markers, which was related to neovascularization and anti-tumor immune responses. Compared with the normal breast cell line MCF-10A, GILT protein had high expression in Hs578T and low expression in MDA-MB-231 cell line. GILT was overexpressed in MDA-MB-231 and knockdown in Hs578T. Result showed that high level GILT promoted the production of CXCL16/CXCR6,while GILT siRNA knockdown inhibited the production of CXCL16/CXCR6. Conclusions: GILT could catalyze CXCL16 in BC, function as a key mechanism to affect tumor microenvironment through CXCR6/CXCL16 pathway. GILT-activated CXCL16 levels showed a strong connection with unfavorable outcomes in BC, which could be a potential biomarker of prognosis and a novel therapeutic target.

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e12084-e12084
Author(s):  
Ryungsa Kim ◽  
Ami Kawai ◽  
Megumi Wakisaka ◽  
Yuri Funaoka ◽  
Sayaka Sawada ◽  
...  

e12084 Background: Activation of the immune response including T lymphocytes, natural killer (NK) cells, and tumor microenvironment factors (TMEFs) is important in inducing a therapeutic response after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in breast cancer. We examined the significance of systemic and local immune responses to the pathological therapeutic effect of NAC in breast cancer. Methods: From 2012 to 2018, 38 patients with stage II–III breast cancer received NAC with anthracyclines and taxanes followed by surgery. Therapeutic effects were evaluated according to the histopathology criteria for the assessment of therapeutic effects in breast cancer indicated by the Japanese Breast Cancer Society. Peripheral NK (pNK) cell activity was measured by chromium release assay. Levels of TMEFs were assessed by next-generation sequencing for CD4, CD8, NK, FOXP3, CTLA-4, PD-1, PD-L1, IL-2, IL-6, IL-12, IFN-γ, IL-10, TGF-β, and VEGF in FFPE sections collected from preoperative VAB samples and surgical specimens. Results: The stages, tumor subtypes, and therapeutic outcomes were as follows: II (N = 21), III (N = 17); luminal (N = 22), HER-2 positive (N = 12), TN (N = 4); G1a (N = 8), G1b (N = 13), G2a (N = 7), G2b (N = 4), G3 (i.e. complete) (N = 6). A G2 or better therapeutic effect were significantly associated with high post-NAC levels of NK, and potentially associated with higher CD4, CD8, and lower CTLA-4 after NAC. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that a G2 or better therapeutic effect was significantly associated with higher NK after NAC (OR = 1.07; 95% CI, 1.00–1.14; P = .0255). Disappearance of axillary lymph node metastasis was significantly associated with increased NK and pNK cell activity, as well as decreased VEGF level, and potentially associated with lower CTLA-4 after NAC. Conclusions: Increased NK cells after NAC are critical in producing a better therapeutic effect in collaboration with increased CD4 and CD8, and decreased CTLA-4 and VEGF. Systemic activation of pNK cells may improve the elimination of metastatic tumor cells in axillary lymph nodes by coordinating with release of immunosuppression derived from VEGF and activation of immune cells in the tumor microenvironment in breast cancer patients after NAC. An immune checkpoint inhibitor targeting CTLA-4 may improve NAC efficacy for breast cancer.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fangfang Liu ◽  
Thomas Hardiman ◽  
Kailiang Wu ◽  
Jelmar Quist ◽  
Patrycja Gazinska ◽  
...  

AbstractThe level of stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) in triple-negative (TNBC) and HER2-positive breast cancers convey prognostic information. The importance of systemic immunity to local immunity is unknown in breast cancer. We previously demonstrated that histological alterations in axillary lymph nodes (LNs) carry clinical relevance. Here, we capture local immune responses by scoring TILs at the primary tumor and systemic immune responses by recording the formation of secondary follicles, also known as germinal centers, in 2,857 cancer-free and involved axillary LNs on haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained sections from a retrospective cohort of 161 LN-positive triple-negative and HER2-positive breast cancer patients. Our data demonstrate that the number of germinal center formations across all cancer-free LNs, similar to high levels of TILs, is associated with a good prognosis in low TILs TNBC. This highlights the importance of assessing both primary and LN immune responses for prognostication and for future breast cancer research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 93 (1111) ◽  
pp. 20191019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongna Tan ◽  
Yaping Wu ◽  
Fengchang Bao ◽  
Jing Zhou ◽  
Jianzhong Wan ◽  
...  

Objective: To establish a radiomics nomogram by integrating clinical risk factors and radiomics features extracted from digital mammography (MG) images for pre-operative prediction of axillary lymph node (ALN) metastasis in breast cancer. Methods: 216 patients with breast cancer lesions confirmed by surgical excision pathology were divided into the primary cohort (n = 144) and validation cohort (n = 72). Radiomics features were extracted from craniocaudal (CC) view of mammograms, and radiomics features selection were performed using the methods of ANOVA F-value and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator; then a radiomics signature was constructed with the method of support vector machine. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to establish a radiomics nomogram based on the combination of radiomics signature and clinical factors. The C-index and calibration curves were derived based on the regression analysis both in the primary and validation cohorts. Results: 95 of 216 patients were confirmed with ALN metastasis by pathology, and 52 cases were diagnosed as ALN metastasis based on MG-reported criteria. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and AUC (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of MG-reported criteria were 42.7%, 90.8%, 24.1% and 0.666 (95% confidence interval: 0.591–0.741]. The radiomics nomogram, comprising progesterone receptor status, molecular subtype and radiomics signature, showed good calibration and better favorite performance for the metastatic ALN detection (AUC 0.883 and 0.863 in the primary and validation cohorts) than each independent clinical features (AUC 0.707 and 0.657 in the primary and validation cohorts) and radiomics signature (AUC 0.876 and 0.862 in the primary and validation cohorts). Conclusion: The MG-based radiomics nomogram could be used as a non-invasive and reliable tool in predicting ALN metastasis and may facilitate to assist clinicians for pre-operative decision-making. Advances in knowledge: ALN status remains among the most important breast cancer prognostic factors and is essential for making treatment decisions. However, the value of detecting metastatic ALN by MG is very limited. The studies on pre-operative ALN metastasis prediction using the method of MG-based radiomics in breast cancer are very few. Therefore, we studied whether MG-based radiomics nomogram could be used as a predictive biomarker for the detection of metastatic ALN.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Gang Wang ◽  
Dan Sun ◽  
Wenhui Li ◽  
Yan Xin

The AT-hook transcription factor, AKNA, is a nuclear protein that affects a few physiological and pathological processes including cancer. Here, we investigated the role of AKNA in gastric cancer (GC). By using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and Western blot assays, AKNA was found deregulated in both GC cell lines and 32 paired GC tissues. Subsequently, Kaplan-Meier analysis and clinicopathological analysis were conducted using both 32 GC cases’ data above and RNA-Seq data of AKNA in 354 GC patients and the corresponding clinical-pathological data obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), and AKNA expression was found closely related to location, metastasis, and TNM staging of GC. Then, the potential molecular mechanisms of AKNA in GC were explored by gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), qRT-PCR, and Western blot assays. AKNA was found to be a hub gene related to homotypic cell to cell adhesion, regulation of cell to cell adhesion, leukocyte cell to cell adhesion, and regulation of T cell proliferation in GC. GO analysis revealed that AKNA involved in the regulation of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related pathways including chemokine signaling pathway, cytokine to cytokine receptor interaction, cell adhesion molecules, and jak-stat signaling pathway in GC. To explore the regulation of AKNA expression, Targetscan and TargetMiner were used to predict the possible miRNA which targeted AKNA and found the expression of AKNA was negatively correlated to miR-762 which could be sponged by circTRNC18. In conclusion, AKNA could function as a tumor suppressor by modulating EMT-related pathways in GC. The expression of AKNA might be regulated by circTRNC18/miR-762 axis. AKNA could serve as a potential biomarker and an effective target for GC diagnosis and therapy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Xiangfeng Jin ◽  
Haiqing Zhou ◽  
Jianfang Song ◽  
Hong Cui ◽  
Yiren Luo ◽  
...  

Background. The present study is aimed at evaluating the functional and clinical values of P3H4 in lung adenocarcinoma. Moreover, we also investigated the downstream pathways that P3H4 might participate in. Methods. The differential expression analysis was used to identify genes differentially expressed in lung adenocarcinoma tissues as compared with normal tissues. Survival analysis was used to test the association between P3H4 and survival time. Gene set enrichment analysis was conducted to explore the downstream pathways. CCK8 and transwell were employed to examine the impact of P3H4 on cell phenotypes. Results. P3H4 was highly upregulated in LUAD tissues at both RNA and protein levels. Moreover, the LUAD patients, who had high expression of P3H4, were also observed to have shorter disease-free survival and overall survival. These results demonstrated that P3H4 could be used as a prognostic biomarker for LUAD. Moreover, we also found that it was the copy number alterations (CNAs), not DNA methylation, that regulated the RNA expression of P3H4, indicating that its upregulation might be partially resulted from the CNAs. Furthermore, functional experiments revealed that the A549 and H1299 cells with siRNA treatment (siP3H4) exhibited significantly decreased cell proliferation after 24 hours, migratory ability, and invasiveness. Functionally, the upregulated proteins in the P3H4 high expression group were mainly enriched in tumor microenvironment-related pathways such as phagosome, focal adhesion, and ECM-receptor interaction and cancer-related pathways such as bladder cancer pathway, proteoglycans in cancer, and hippo signaling pathway. Conclusion. The present study systematically evaluated the functional and clinical values of P3H4 in LUAD, and explored the related biological pathways. P3H4 might promote LUAD progression through regulating tumor microenvironment-related pathways.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Fei Liu ◽  
Xiaopeng Yu ◽  
Guijin He

Background. We analyzed the n6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification patterns of immune cells infiltrating the tumor microenvironment of breast cancer (BC) to provide a new perspective for the early diagnosis and treatment of BC. Methods. Based on 23 m6A regulatory factors, we identified m6A-related gene characteristics and m6A modification patterns in BC through unsupervised cluster analysis. To examine the differences in biological processes among various m6A modification modes, we performed genomic variation analysis. We then quantified the relative infiltration levels of different immune cell subpopulations in the tumor microenvironment of BC using the CIBERSORT algorithm and single-sample gene set enrichment analysis. Univariate Cox analysis was used to screen for m6A characteristic genes related to prognosis. Finally, we evaluated the m6A modification pattern of patients with a single BC by constructing the m6Ascore based on principal component analysis. Results. We identified three different m6A modification patterns in 2128 BC samples. A higher abundance of the immune infiltration of the m6Acluster C was indicated by the results of CIBERSORT and the single-sample gene set enrichment analysis. Based on the m6A characteristic genes obtained through screening, the m6Ascore was determined. The BC patients were segregated into m6Ascore groups of low and high categories, which revealed significant survival benefits among patients with low m6Ascores. Additionally, the high-m6Ascore group had a higher mutation frequency and was associated with low PD-L1 expression, and the m6Ascore and tumor mutation burden showed a positive correlation. In addition, treatment effects were better in patients in the high-m6Ascore group. Conclusions. In case of a single patient with BC, the immune cell infiltration characteristics of the tumor microenvironment and the m6A methylation modification pattern could be evaluated using the m6Ascore. Our results provide a foundation for improving personalized immunotherapy of BC.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lizhe Zhu ◽  
Shibo Yu ◽  
Siyuan Jiang ◽  
Guanqun Ge ◽  
Yu Yan ◽  
...  

Abstract BackgroundThe homobox (HOX) gene family as a transcription factor encoding a specific nuclear protein is essential for embryonic development, differentiation, and homeostasis. The role of HOXB3 protein varies in different tumors. This study aims to explore the role of the HOXB3 gene in breast cancer.MethodDifferentiated expressed genes were screened by analyzing metastatic breast cancer gene chip data in TCGA and GEO database. The function of selected HOXB3 gene was also analyzed by GEPIA, Kaplan-Meier Plotter, Breast Cancer Gene-Expression Miner and metascape. Molecular biology methods such as qRT-PCR, western blot and IF was used to verify bio-informatics findings.ResultsBoth bio-informatics analyses and western blot showed that HOXB3 was lost in breast cancer compared to normal breast tissue. Survival analysis also showed that lower expression of HOXB3 was associated with poor prognosis. Bio-informatics analyses further showed that HOXB3 was positively correlated with hormone receptors. qRT-PCR, immunofluorescence and western blot also confirmed that HOXB3 had the highest expression in the immortalized breast epithelial cell line MCF-10A, lower in luminal breast cancer cell line T47D and the lowest in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) cell line MDA-MB-231. Metascape for GO analysis of GEO data provided possible mechanism that HOXB3 could positively regulate cell adhesion, inhibit cell proliferation and activate immune response in breast cancer, and considered that HOXB3 might cause cell malignant transformation through the above pathways.ConclusionIn summary, HOXB3 expression was decreased in breast cancer, especially in hormone receptor-negative breast cancer. The lower expression of HOXB3 was associated with poor prognosis. It might become a new biomarker to predict prognosis of breast cancer.


Blood ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 128 (22) ◽  
pp. 5379-5379
Author(s):  
Jian Gong ◽  
Michael Gray ◽  
Jeff Hutchins ◽  
Bruce Freimark

Abstract Introduction: Phosphatidylserine (PS) is a phospholipid normally residing in the inner leaflet of the plasma membrane that becomes exposed on vascular endothelial cells and tumor cells in the tumor microenvironment, particularly in response to chemotherapy and irradiation. Binding of antibodies targeting PS on the tumor endothelial cells and tumors induces the recruitment of immune cells and engages the immune system to destroy tumor and associated vasculature and by blocking the immunosuppressive action of PS. Recent studies have demonstrated that PS-targeting antibodies enhance the anti-tumor activity of immune checkpoint antibody blockade to CTLA-4 and PD-1 in mouse breast and melanoma tumor models (Freimark et al. Cancer Immunol. Res. 2016; Gray et al. Breast Cancer Res 2016). Ibrutinib is an approved anticancer drug targeting B-cell malignancies that is a selective, covalent inhibitor of the enzyme Bruton's tyrosine kinase(BTK) in B-cell tumors. Data from recent mouse tumor studies demonstrate that ibrutinib in combination with anti-PD-1 antibody blockade inhibits growth of solid tumors (lacking BTK expression) suggesting that ibrutinib may inhibit kinases of the immune system such as interleukin-2 inducible T-cell kinase (ITK), to enhance specific anti-tumor responses (Sagiv-Barfli et al. PNAS 20 2015). Methods: The present study was conducted to evaluate the anti-tumor effects of combination therapy including PS-targeting antibody mouse chimeric 1N11 (mch1N11), ibrutinib (32765) and anti-PD-1 antibody using C57BL/6 mice bearing triple negative E0771 breast tumors. Tumors were staged to an initial volume of ~100mm3and randomized to treatment groups (N=10) with mch1N11 or isotype at 10 mg/kg qw, anti-PD-1 at 2.5 mg/kg qw or ibrunitib 6 mg/kg or vehicle qd x 8. Tumor volumes were measured twice per week to determine tumor growth inhibition (TGI) relative to control treated animals until a maximum volume of 1500-2000mm3. The in vitro sensitivity of E0771 tumor cells to ibrutinib was compared to drug sensitive Jeko-1 lymphoma cells in a 72 hour growth and viability assay. Results: The E0771 cell line is resistant in vitroto 10 mM ibrutinib compared to the drug-sensitive Jeko-1 cell line (Figure 1). Mice bearing E0771 tumors treated with mch1N11, ibrutinib and anti-PD-1 alone had 22.2%, 23.5% and 32.6% TGI respectively. Combination of two agents increased the TGI for mch1N11 and ibrutinib to 30.5%, ibrutinib and anti-PD-1 to 34.5%, mch1N11 and anti-PD-1 to 36.1%. A triple combination therapy had statistically greater TGI compared to control treated mice (59.9%, p = 0.0084) and was greater than single and double combination therapies. Conclusion:Treatment of solid tumors with a combination of inhibitors that target PS, ITK and the PD-1/PD-L1 axis in the tumor microenvironment provides a novel treatment for solid tumors, including triple negative breast cancer. Figure 1 Figure 1. Figure 2 Figure 2. Disclosures Gong: Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: Employment. Gray:Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: Employment. Hutchins:Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: Employment. Freimark:Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: Employment.


PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e7976 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaozong Wang ◽  
Baorong Song ◽  
Leilei Zhu ◽  
Xia Zhang

Background Dysregulated long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) may serve as potential biomarkers of cancers including breast cancer (BRCA). This study aimed to identify lncRNAs with strong prognostic value for BRCA. Methods LncRNA expression profiles of 929 tissue samples were downloaded from TANRIC database. We performed differential expression analysis between paired BRCA and adjacent normal tissues. Survival analysis was used to identify lncRNAs with prognostic value. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed to confirm the independent prognostic value of potential lncRNAs. Dysregulated signaling pathways associated with lncRNA expression were evaluated using gene set enrichment analysis. Results We found that a total of 398 lncRNAs were significantly differentially expressed between BRCA and adjacent normal tissues (adjusted P value <= 0.0001 and |logFC| >= 1). Additionally, 381 potential lncRNAs were correlated Overall Survival (OS) (P value < 0.05). A total of 48 lncRNAs remained when differentially expressed lncRNAs overlapped with lncRNAs that had prognostic value. Among the 48 lncRNAs, one lncRNA (LINC01614) had stronger prognostic value and was highly expressed in BRCA tissues. LINC01614 expression was validated as an independent prognostic factor using univariate and multivariate analyses. Higher LINC01614 expression was observed in several molecular subgroups including estrogen receptors+, progesterone receptors+ and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)+ subgroup, respectively. Also, BRCA carrying one of four gene mutations had higher expression of LINC01614 including AOAH, CIT, HER2 and ODZ1. Higher expression of LINC01614 was positively correlated with several gene sets including TGF-β1 response, CDH1 signals and cell adhesion pathways. Conclusions A novel lncRNA LINC01614 was identified as a potential biomarker for prognosis prediction of BRCA. This study emphasized the importance of LINC01614 and further research should be focused on it.


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