scholarly journals The Impact of miRNA in Colorectal Cancer Progression and Its Liver Metastases

Author(s):  
Ovidiu Balacescu ◽  
Daniel Sur ◽  
Calin Cainap ◽  
Simona Visan ◽  
Daniel Cruceriu ◽  
...  

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most commonly diagnosed malignancies with a high incidence and mortality. An essential challenge in colorectal cancer management is to identify new prognostic factors that could better estimate the evolution and treatment responses of this disease. Considering their role in cancer development, progression and metastasis, miRNAs have become an important class of molecules suitable for cancer biomarkers discovery. We performed a systematic search of studies investigating the role of miRNAs in colorectal progression and liver metastasis, published until October 2018. In this review, we present up-to-date information regarding the specific microRNAs involved in CRC development, considering their roles in alteration of Wnt/βcatenin, EGFR, TGFβ and TP53 signaling pathways. We also emphasize the role of miRNAs in controlling the epithelial-mesenchymal transition of CRC cells, a process responsible for liver metastasis in a circulating tumor cell-dependent manner. Furthermore, we discuss the role of miRNAs transported by CRC-derived exosomes in mediating liver metastases, by preparing the secondary pre-metastatic niche and in inducing liver carcinogenesis in a Dicer-dependent manner.  

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. 3711 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ovidiu Balacescu ◽  
Daniel Sur ◽  
Calin Cainap ◽  
Simona Visan ◽  
Daniel Cruceriu ◽  
...  

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most commonly diagnosed malignancies with a high incidence and mortality rate. An essential challenge in colorectal cancer management is to identify new prognostic factors that could better estimate the evolution and treatment responses of this disease. Considering their role in cancer development, progression and metastasis, miRNAs have become an important class of molecules suitable for cancer biomarkers discovery. We performed a systematic search of studies investigating the role of miRNAs in colorectal progression and liver metastasis published until October 2018. In this review, we present up-to-date information regarding the specific microRNAs involved in CRC development, considering their roles in alteration of Wnt/βcatenin, EGFR, TGFβ and TP53 signaling pathways. We also emphasize the role of miRNAs in controlling the epithelial–mesenchymal transition of CRC cells, a process responsible for liver metastasis in a circulating tumor cell-dependent manner. Furthermore, we discuss the role of miRNAs transported by CRC-derived exosomes in mediating liver metastases, by preparing the secondary pre-metastatic niche and in inducing liver carcinogenesis in a Dicer-dependent manner.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heyang Xu ◽  
Qiusheng Lan ◽  
Yongliang Huang ◽  
Yang Zhang ◽  
Yujie Zeng ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Liver metastasis is the most common cause of death in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). Phosphatase of regenerating liver-3 induces CRC metastasis by epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, which promotes CRC cell liver metastasis. Mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition (MET), the opposite of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, has been proposed as a mechanism for the establishment of metastatic neoplasms. However, the molecular mechanism of MET remains unclear. Methods: Using Immunohistochemistry, western blotting,invasion assays, real-time quantitative PCR, chromatin immunoprecipitation, luciferase reporter assays, human miRNA arrays, and xenograft mouse model, we determined the role of hepatocyte exosome-derived miR-203a-3p in CRC MET.Results: In our study, we found that miR-203a-3p derived from hepatocyte exosomes increased colorectal cancer cells E-cadherin expression, inhibited Src expression, and reduced activity. In this way miR-203a-3p induced the decreased invasion rate of CRC cells.Coclusion: MiR-203a-3p derived from hepatocyte exosomes plays an important role of CRC cells to colonize in liver.


BMC Cancer ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heyang Xu ◽  
Qiusheng Lan ◽  
Yongliang Huang ◽  
Yang Zhang ◽  
Yujie Zeng ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Liver metastasis is the most common cause of death in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). Phosphatase of regenerating liver-3 induces CRC metastasis by epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, which promotes CRC cell liver metastasis. Mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition (MET), the opposite of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, has been proposed as a mechanism for the establishment of metastatic neoplasms. However, the molecular mechanism of MET remains unclear. Methods Using Immunohistochemistry, western blotting, invasion assays, real-time quantitative PCR, chromatin immunoprecipitation, luciferase reporter assays, human miRNA arrays, and xenograft mouse model, we determined the role of hepatocyte exosome-derived miR-203a-3p in CRC MET. Results In our study, we found that miR-203a-3p derived from hepatocyte exosomes increased colorectal cancer cells E-cadherin expression, inhibited Src expression, and reduced activity. In this way miR-203a-3p induced the decreased invasion rate of CRC cells. Coclusion MiR-203a-3p derived from hepatocyte exosomes plays an important role of CRC cells to colonize in liver.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruyun Cai ◽  
Qian Lu ◽  
Da Wang

Abstract Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers in the world, and liver metastasis is the leading cause of colorectal cancer-related deaths. However, the mechanism of liver metastasis in CRC hasn’t been clearly elucidated.Methods: Three datasets from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database were analyzed to obtain differentially expressed genes (DEGs), which were subjected to functional enrichment analysis and protein-protein interaction analysis. Subsequently, mRNA-miRNA network was constructed and the associated DEGs and DEMs were performed for prognostic analysis. Finally, we did infiltration analysis of GAS1-associated immune cells. Results: We obtained 325 DEGs and 9 differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) between primary CRC and liver metastases. Enrichment analysis and protein-protein interactions (PPI) further revealed the involvement of DEGs in the formation of the inflammatory microenvironment and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) during the liver metastases process in CRC. Survival analysis demonstrated that low-expressed GAS1 as well as low-expressed hsa-miR-33b-5p was a favorable prognostic indicator of overall survival. Further exploration of GAS1 revealed that its expression was interrelated with the infiltration of immune cells in tumor tissues. Conclusions: In summary, DEGs, DEMs and their interactions found in liver metastasis of CRC may provide a basis for further understanding of the mechanism of CRC metastasis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruyun Cai ◽  
Qian Lu ◽  
Da Wang

Abstract Background Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers in the world, and liver metastasis is the leading cause of colorectal cancer-related deaths. However, the mechanism of liver metastasis in CRC has not been clearly elucidated. Methods Three datasets from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database were analyzed to obtain differentially expressed genes (DEGs), which were subjected to functional enrichment analysis and protein-protein interaction analysis. Subsequently, mRNA-miRNA network was constructed, and the associated DEGs and DEMs were performed for prognostic analysis. Finally, we did infiltration analysis of growth arrest specific 1 (GAS1)-associated immune cells. Results We obtained 325 DEGs and 9 differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) between primary CRC and liver metastases. Enrichment analysis and protein-protein interactions (PPI) further revealed the involvement of DEGs in the formation of the inflammatory microenvironment and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) during the liver metastases process in CRC. Survival analysis demonstrated that low-expressed GAS1 as well as low-expressed hsa-miR-33b-5p was a favorable prognostic indicator of overall survival. Further exploration of GAS1 revealed that its expression was interrelated with the infiltration of immune cells in tumor tissues. Conclusions In summary, DEGs, DEMs, and their interactions found in liver metastasis of CRC may provide a basis for further understanding of the mechanism of CRC metastasis.


2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 564-564
Author(s):  
Yuji Toiyama ◽  
Keun Hur ◽  
Yoshinaga Okugawa ◽  
C. Richard Boland ◽  
Ajay Goel

564 Background: Distant metastasis is the major causes of death in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a key process that converts polarized immotile epithelial cells into motile, invasive mesenchymal cells, enabling cancer cells to gain stem cell characteristics and an aggressive malignant phenotype such as metastasis. Mir-203 has been shown to directly suppress EMT activators such as ZEB2 and SNAI1/2. However, in spite of the key functional role of miR-203 in cancer metastasis, no previous studies have investigated the clinical significance of miR-203 in patients with CRC. Methods: To examine whether CRCs secret miR-203 in vitro and vivo,we first determined extracellular miR-203 levels in CRC cell culture media. Then, we quantified miR-203 levels in serum from mice with or without metastasis. Next, we investigated miR-203 expression in 58 pairs of primary CRC (pCRC) and corresponding matching liver metastasis (LM), as well as 186 serum and 154 matched tissue specimens from CRC patients. Results: HT-29 cells released miR-203 into culture media, which was dependent on cell number and duration of culture. In addition, high serum miR-203 levels were observed in mice with liver metastasis compared to control animals (p=0.0181). Mir-203 expression was significantly upregulated in LM compared to matching pCRC tissues (p=0.0002). Serum miR-203 was significantly upregulated in a tumor stage-dependent manner (p=0.0070), and high miR-203 expression was associated with poor survival in CRC patients (p<0.0001). In contrast to serum, no significant association between miR-203 expression in CRC tissues and clinicopathological findings was recognized. High serum miR-203 expression was an independent risk factor for poor prognosis (HR=2.1) as well as metastasis to lymph nodes (OR=2.5), liver (OR=6.2), peritoneum (OR=7.2), and distant organs (OR=4.4), respectively. Conclusions: High levels of serum miR-203, which may be derived from several metastatic sites, are associated with poor survival and metastasis, suggesting it is a promising non-invasive prognostic and metastasis-predictive biomarker in patients with CRC.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chong Zhang ◽  
Xiang-Yu Wang ◽  
Peng Zhang ◽  
Tao-Chen He ◽  
Jia-Hao Han ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Metastasis and metabolic deregulation are two of the major hallmarks of cancer. Recent studies have revealed the critical driving role of metabolic reprogramming of tumor cells to promote colorectal cancer (CRC) metastasis. However, little is known about the metabolic alterations of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in the pre-metastatic niche and how these changes facilitate CRC metastasis.Methods: Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and Isobaric Tags for Relative and Absolute Quantitation (i-TRAQ) method were performed to identify the comparative metabolites and proteins expression in CAFs treated with exosomes derived from CRC cells, respectively. Tissue Microarray (TMA) was used to evaluate the level of HSPC111 in patient’s primary CRC tissues with or without liver metastasis. Co-immunoprecipitation (Co-IP), RNA-seq, chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) migration and wound healing assay and immunofluorescence staining were employed to explore the expression regulation mechanism of exosomal HSPC111 in CAFs. Xenograft models were used to determine whether exosomal HSPC111 can remolding pre-metastatic niche of CAFs to promote CRC liver metastasis (CRLM) in vivo.Results: Here, we demonstrate that CRC cell-secreted exosomal HSPC111 induces a lipid metabolism reprogramming process in CAFs. Importantly, our results indicate that CRC patients with liver metastasis had significantly high level of HSPC111 in CRC tissues than CRC patients without liver metastasis. Mechanistically, HSPC111 upregulate the level of acetyl-CoA and histone acetylation by phosphorylating of ATP-citrate lyase (ACLY) in CAFs. This lipid metabolism reprogramming in CAFs facilitates CXCL5 secretion in vitro and pre-metastatic niche formation in the liver to promote CRLM in an exosomal HSPC111-dependent manner in vivo. In addition, conditioned medium (CM) from CAFs induce EMT of CRC cells by down-regulating E-cadherin levels and up-regulating Vimentin and Snail levels, which could be abolished by CXCL5-neutralizing antibody and CXCR2 inhibitor navarixin. Moreover, the HSPC111-ACLY association in CAFs was reinforced by CXCL5-CXCR2 axis, further promoting exosomal HSPC111 secretion from CRC cells to form a feedforward regulatory loop.Conclusion: Our present study reveals a novel insight into the pro-metastatic role of lipid metabolism reprogramming in CAFs and suggests the CXCL5-CXCR2 axis may be a promising target for halting CRLM.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 2418
Author(s):  
Xuezhen Zeng ◽  
Simon E. Ward ◽  
Jingying Zhou ◽  
Alfred S. L. Cheng

A drastic difference exists between the 5-year survival rates of colorectal cancer patients with localized cancer and distal organ metastasis. The liver is the most favorable organ for cancer metastases from the colorectum. Beyond the liver-colon anatomic relationship, emerging evidence highlights the impact of liver immune microenvironment on colorectal liver metastasis. Prior to cancer cell dissemination, hepatocytes secrete multiple factors to recruit or activate immune cells and stromal cells in the liver to form a favorable premetastatic niche. The liver-resident cells including Kupffer cells, hepatic stellate cells, and liver-sinusoidal endothelial cells are co-opted by the recruited cells, such as myeloid-derived suppressor cells and tumor-associated macrophages, to establish an immunosuppressive liver microenvironment suitable for tumor cell colonization and outgrowth. Current treatments including radical surgery, systemic therapy, and localized therapy have only achieved good clinical outcomes in a minority of colorectal cancer patients with liver metastasis, which is further hampered by high recurrence rate. Better understanding of the mechanisms governing the metastasis-prone liver immune microenvironment should open new immuno-oncology avenues for liver metastasis intervention.


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