scholarly journals Comprehensive Analysis of the Expression, Prognostic Value and Correlations with Immune Infiltration of PBX Family Members in Colorectal Cancer

Author(s):  
Yanping Hu ◽  
Yihang Shen

Abstract Background: Colorectal cancer is the third commonest cancer and the second leading cause of cancer deaths globally. The Pre-B-cell leukemia transcription factor (PBX) family plays an essential biological role in the growth and development of the organism. PBX genes have been found to be implicated in the tumorigenesis of a variety of human tumors through multiple pathways, but its function in colorectal cancer is unclear. Methods: The expression pattern, prognostic value and relationship with immune infiltration of PBX genes in patients with colorectal cancer were investigated using the Oncomine, GEPIA, Kaplan-Meier Plotter and TIMER databases. In addition, gene mutation and interaction analysis of PBX family members in colorectal cancer patients using cBioPortal and GeneMANIA databases, respectively.Results: We revealed that a significantly lower expression level of PBX1, PBX2 and PBX3 in colorectal cancer tissues than in normal tissues, and the expression levels of PBX1 and PBX2 were significantly correlated with clinical tumor stage. Furthermore, survival analysis showed that high transcript levels of PBX4 were associated with overall survival in colon cancer patients, while low levels of PBX2 predicted improved disease-free survival in rectal cancer patients. In addition, in colon and rectal cancers, PBX proteins were notably associated with infiltration of multiple immune cells, including CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, macrophages, neutrophils, B cells, and dendritic cells.Conclusion: These findings implies that PBX1 and PBX3 are potential targets for precision therapy of colorectal cancer patients and that PBX2 and PBX4 may be new prognostic markers for colorectal cancer patients.

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-20
Author(s):  
Gangga Anuraga ◽  
Wan-Chun Tang ◽  
Nam Phan ◽  
Hoang Ta ◽  
Yen-Hsi Liu ◽  
...  

Colorectal cancer (CRC) has the fourth-highest incidence of all cancer types, and its incidence has steadily increased in the last decade. The general transcription factor III (GTF3) family, comprising GTF3A, GTF3B, GTF3C1, and GTFC2, were stated to be linked with the expansion of different types of cancers; however, their messenger (m)RNA expressions and prognostic values in colorectal cancer need to be further investigated. To study the transcriptomic expression levels of GTF3 gene members in colorectal cancer in both cancerous tissues and cell lines, we first performed high-throughput screening using the Oncomine, GEPIA, and CCLE databases. We then applied the Prognoscan database to query correlations of their mRNA expressions with the disease-specific survival (DSS), overall survival (OS), and disease-free survival (DFS) status of the colorectal cancer patient. Furthermore, proteomics expressions of GTF3 family members in clinical colorectal cancer specimens were also examined using the Human Protein Atlas. Finally, genomic alterations of GTF3 family gene expressions in colorectal cancer and their signal transduction pathways were studied using cBioPortal, ClueGO, CluePedia, and MetaCore platform. Our findings revealed that GTF3 family members’ expressions were significantly correlated with the cell cycle, oxidative stress, WNT/β-catenin signaling, Rho GTPases, and G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Clinically, high GTF3A and GTF3B expressions were significantly correlated with poor prognoses in colorectal cancer patients. Collectively, our study declares that GTF3A was overexpressed in cancer tissues and cell lines, particularly colorectal cancer, and it could possibly step in as a potential prognostic biomarker.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 2528-2528
Author(s):  
Lei Xiao ◽  
Song Li ◽  
Chengfei Pu ◽  
Zhiyuan Cao ◽  
Xinyi Yang ◽  
...  

2528 Background: Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy has made significant progress in the treatment of blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma. However, the therapy faces many challenges in treating solid tumors. These challenges include physical barriers, tumor microenvironment immunosuppression, tumor heterogeneity, target specificity, and limited expansion in vivo. Methods: We designed a CAR lentivirus vector that consisted of a humanized CD19-specific single-chain variable fragment (scFv), a 4-1BB costimulatory domain, and a CD3ζ signaling domain.The lentivirus was produced by transfecting HEK-293T cells with CAR lentiviral vectors and viral packaging plasmids. Patient’s CD3 T cells was cultured in X-VIVO medium containing 125U/mL 1interleukin-2 (IL-2), and transduced with CAR lentivirus at certain MOI 24h after stimulated by anti-CD3/CD28 magnetic beads. Transduction efficiency was evaluated at 7 to 9 days after CAR lentivirus transduction, and quality controls for fungi, bacteria, mycoplasma, chlamydia, and endotoxin were performed. After infusion, serial peripheral blood samples were collected, and the expansion and the cytokine release of CART cells were detected by FACS and QPCR,respectively. The evaluation of response level for patients were performed at month 1,month 3,and month 6 by PET/CT. Results: We engineered CoupledCAR T cells with lentiviral vectors encoding an anti-GCC (guanylate cyclase 2C) CAR molecule. To verify the safety and efficacy of CoupledCAR-T cells for treating solid tumors, we conducted several clinical trials for different solid tumors, including seven patients with colorectal cancer. These seven patients failed multiple rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In the clinical trial, the metastatic colorectal cancer patients were infused with autologous anti-GCC CoupledCAR-T cells range from 4.9×105/kg to 2.9×106/kg. We observed that CoupledCAR-T cells expanded significantly in the patients and infiltrated tumor tissue sites, demonstrating enhanced anti-tumor activities. PET/CT showed significant tumor shrinkage and SUV max declined, and the ongoing responses were monitored. Patient 3 achieved complete response and the best overall response rate (ORR, include complete remission, complete metabolic response, and partial response.) was 57.1% (4/7), complete remission (CR) rate was 14.3% (1/7). Conclusions: In conclusion, the clinical data demonstrated that CoupledCAR-T cells effectively expanded, infiltrated tumor tissue sites, and kill tumor cells in patients with colorectal cancer. We used immunotherapy to achieve complete remission in patients with advanced colorectal cancer for the first time. We are recruiting more colorectal cancer patients to further test the safety and efficacy of anti-GCC CoupledCAR T cells. Since our CoupledCAR technology is a platform technology, we are expanding it to treat other solid tumors using different target tumor markers.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document