scholarly journals Mechanistic Modeling of Gene Regulation and Metabolism Identifies Potential Targets for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renliang Sun ◽  
Yizhou Xu ◽  
Hang Zhang ◽  
Qiangzhen Yang ◽  
Ke Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Regulatory Networks ◽  
Target Genes ◽  
Therapeutic Targets ◽  
Normal Liver ◽  
Metabolic Model ◽  
Cancer Genome ◽  
Mechanistic Modeling ◽  
The Cancer Genome Atlas ◽  
Transcriptional Regulatory

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the predominant form of liver cancer and has long been among the top three cancers that cause the most deaths worldwide. Therapeutic options for HCC are limited due to the pronounced tumor heterogeneity. Thus, there is a critical need to study HCC from a systems point of view to discover effective therapeutic targets, such as through the systematic study of disease perturbation in both regulation and metabolism using a unified model. Such integration makes sense for cancers as it links one of the dominant physiological features of cancers (growth, which is driven by metabolic networks) with the primary available omics data source, transcriptomics (which is systematically integrated with metabolism through the regulatory-metabolic network model). Here, we developed an integrated transcriptional regulatory-metabolic model for HCC molecular stratification and the prediction of potential therapeutic targets. To predict transcription factors (TFs) and target genes affecting tumorigenesis, we used two algorithms to reconstruct the genome-scale transcriptional regulatory networks for HCC and normal liver tissue. which were then integrated with corresponding constraint-based metabolic models. Five key TFs affecting cancer cell growth were identified. They included the regulator CREB3L3, which has been associated with poor prognosis. Comprehensive personalized metabolic analysis based on models generated from data of liver HCC in The Cancer Genome Atlas revealed 18 genes essential for tumorigenesis in all three subtypes of patients stratified based on the non-negative matrix factorization method and two other genes (ACADSB and CMPK1) that have been strongly correlated with lower overall survival subtype. Among these 20 genes, 11 are targeted by approved drugs for cancers or cancer-related diseases, and six other genes have corresponding drugs being evaluated experimentally or investigationally. The remaining three genes represent potential targets. We also validated the stratification and prognosis results by an independent dataset of HCC cohort samples (LIRI-JP) from the International Cancer Genome Consortium database. In addition, microRNAs targeting key TFs and genes were also involved in established cancer-related pathways. Taken together, the multi-scale regulatory-metabolic model provided a new approach to assess key mechanisms of HCC cell proliferation in the context of systems and suggested potential targets.

scholarly journals Integrated regulatory-metabolic network model reveals critical mechanism and potential targets for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi-Zhou Xu ◽  
Hang Zhang ◽  
Qiang-Zhen Yang ◽  
Ren-Liang Sun ◽  
Ke Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Regulatory Networks ◽  
Learning Algorithm ◽  
Normal Liver ◽  
Metabolic Model ◽  
Cancer Cell Growth ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Metabolic Analysis ◽  
Metabolic Genes ◽  
Metabolic Models

Abstract Background HCC (Hepatocellular carcinoma), the predominant form of liver cancer, has long been the top three leading cause of death in cancer worldwide. Although researchers have spent lot of effort to identify molecular targets available for treatment, the high tumor heterogeneity makes it difficult to develop effective therapy options and the drug response remains low. Under this circumstance, the precise stratification strategies are more than required. However, previous researches generally focused on single biological level, such as genome, transcriptome, or proteome, and are not able to discover effective therapeutic targets, so the systematic study of both regulation and metabolism of HCC is needed. Methods In this paper, we use two different algorithms to reconstruct regulatory networks for both HCC and normal liver cells, then integrate them with corresponding metabolic models in order to discover TFs (transcriptional factors) affecting tumorigenesis. Furthermore, a machine learning algorithm is utilized to classify HCC samples, differentially expressed genes, altered metabolic reactions and biological pathways are identified in lowest overall survival (OS) rate sub-type compared to others. Results We classify TCGA-LIHC samples into three sub-types with significantly different OS rate, and this stratification strategy is validated in another independent dataset LIRI-JP. Then, we identify 5 key TFs affecting cancer cell growth and CREB3L3 is believed to be associated with poor prognosis. The comprehensive metabolic analysis on personalized metabolic models highlight 18 metabolic genes essential for tumorigenesis in all three sub-types of patients, besides, ACADSB and CMPK1 are highly possible to be strongly correlated with lower OS. Conclusions Among 20 metabolic genes identified through metabolic analysis, 15 of them have already been targeted by approved drugs according to DrugBank. In addition, miRNAs targeting key TFs and genes are also involved in well-known cancer related pathways. The multi-scale regulatory-metabolic model reveals the critical mechanism of HCC cell proliferation and suggests potential targets.

scholarly journals Dysregulation of Circadian Clock Genes as Significant Clinic Factor in the Tumorigenesis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Youfang Liang ◽  
Shaoxiang Wang ◽  
Xin Huang ◽  
Ruihuan Chai ◽  
Qian Tang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Circadian Clock ◽  
Predictive Accuracy ◽  
Clock Genes ◽  
Close Association ◽  
Therapeutic Targets ◽  
Cancer Genome ◽  
The Cancer Genome Atlas ◽  
Poor Survival ◽  
Circadian Clock Genes

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide due to its asymptomatic onset and poor survival rate. This highlights the urgent need for developing novel diagnostic markers for early HCC detection. The circadian clock is important for maintaining cellular homeostasis and is tightly associated with key tumorigenesis-associated molecular events, suggesting the so-called chronotherapy. An analysis of these core circadian genes may lead to the discovery of biological markers signaling the onset of the disease. In this study, the possible functions of 13 core circadian clock genes (CCGs) in HCC were systematically analyzed with the aim of identifying ideal biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Profiles of HCC patients with clinical and gene expression data were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas and International Cancer Genome Consortium. Various bioinformatics methods were used to investigate the roles of circadian clock genes in HCC tumorigenesis. We found that patients with high TIMELESS expression or low CRY2, PER1, and RORA expressions have poor survival. Besides, a prediction model consisting of these four CCGs, the tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage, and sex was constructed, demonstrating higher predictive accuracy than the traditional TNM-based model. In addition, pathway analysis showed that these four CCGs are involved in the cell cycle, PI3K/AKT pathway, and fatty acid metabolism. Furthermore, the network of these four CCGs-related coexpressed genes and immune infiltration was analyzed, which revealed the close association with B cells and nTreg cells. Notably, TIMELESS exhibited contrasting effects against CRY2, PER1, and RORA in most situations. In sum, our works revealed that these circadian clock genes TIMELESS, CRY2, PER1, and RORA can serve as potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers, as well as therapeutic targets, for HCC patients, which may promote HCC chronotherapy by rhythmically regulating drug sensitivity and key cellular signaling pathways.

scholarly journals Inference of phenotype-relevant transcriptional regulatory networks elucidates cancer type-specific regulatory mechanisms in a pan-cancer study

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amin Emad ◽  
Saurabh Sinha
Keyword(s):  
Regulatory Networks ◽  
Target Genes ◽  
Graphical Model ◽  
Activity Level ◽  
The Cancer Genome Atlas ◽  
Regulatory Mechanisms ◽  
Cancer Type ◽  
Transcriptional Regulatory Networks ◽  
Cancer Driver ◽  
Transcriptional Regulatory

AbstractReconstruction of transcriptional regulatory networks (TRNs) is a powerful approach to unravel the gene expression programs involved in healthy and disease states of a cell. However, these networks are usually reconstructed independent of the phenotypic (or clinical) properties of the samples. Therefore, they may confound regulatory mechanisms that are specifically related to a phenotypic property with more general mechanisms underlying the full complement of the analyzed samples. In this study, we develop a method called InPheRNo to identify “phenotype-relevant” TRNs. This method is based on a probabilistic graphical model that models the simultaneous effects of multiple transcription factors (TFs) on their target genes and the statistical relationship between the target genes’ expression and the phenotype. Extensive comparison of InPheRNo with related approaches using primary tumor samples of 18 cancer types from The Cancer Genome Atlas reveals that InPheRNo can accurately reconstruct cancer type-relevant TRNs and identify cancer driver TFs. In addition, survival analysis reveals that the activity level of TFs with many target genes could distinguish patients with poor prognosis from those with better prognosis.

scholarly journals Construction and Validation of a Combined Ferroptosis and Hypoxia Prognostic Signature for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Wen ◽  
Yongcong Yan ◽  
Juanyi Shi ◽  
Lei Hu ◽  
Weidong Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Cox Regression ◽  
Tumor Staging ◽  
Tumor Therapy ◽  
Normal Liver ◽  
Cancer Genome ◽  
Gene Set Enrichment Analysis ◽  
The Cancer Genome Atlas ◽  
Prognostic Signature ◽  
Advanced Tumor

Background: Ferroptosis, as a unique programmed cell death modality, has been found to be closely related to the occurrence and development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Hypoxia signaling pathway has been found to be extensively involved in the transformation and growth of HCC and to inhibit anti-tumor therapy through various approaches. However, there is no high-throughput study to explore the potential link between ferroptosis and hypoxia, as well as their combined effect on the prognosis of HCC.Methods: We included 370 patients in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and 231 patients in the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) database. Univariate COX regression and Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator approach were used to construct ferroptosis-related genes (FRGs) and hypoxia-related genes (HRGs) prognostic signature (FHPS). Kaplan–Meier method and Receiver Operating Characteristic curves were analyzed to evaluate the predictive capability of FHPS. CIBERSOR and single-sample Gene Set Enrichment Analysis were used to explore the connection between FHPS and tumor immune microenvironment. Immunohistochemical staining was used to compare the protein expression of prognostic FRGs and HRGs between normal liver tissue and HCC tissue. In addition, the nomogram was established to facilitate the clinical application of FHPS.Results: Ten FRGs and HRGs were used to establish the FHPS. We found consistent results in the TCGA training cohort, as well as in the independent ICGC validation cohort, that patients in the high-FHPS subgroup had advanced tumor staging, shorter survival time, and higher mortality. Moreover, patients in the high-FHPS subgroup showed ferroptosis suppressive, high hypoxia, and immunosuppression status. Finally, the nomogram showed a strong prognostic capability to predict overall survival (OS) for HCC patients.Conclusion: We developed a novel prognostic signature combining ferroptosis and hypoxia to predict OS, ferroptosis, hypoxia, and immune status, which provides a new idea for individualized treatment of HCC patients.

scholarly journals Inference of phenotype-relevant transcriptional regulatory networks elucidates cancer type-specific regulatory mechanisms in a pan-cancer study

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amin Emad ◽  
Saurabh Sinha
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Regulatory Networks ◽  
Target Genes ◽  
Graphical Model ◽  
Activity Level ◽  
The Cancer Genome Atlas ◽  
Regulatory Mechanisms ◽  
Cancer Type ◽  
Transcriptional Regulatory Networks ◽  
Transcriptional Regulatory

ABSTRACTReconstruction of transcriptional regulatory networks (TRNs) is a powerful approach to unravel the gene expression programs involved in healthy and disease states of a cell. However, these networks are usually reconstructed independent of the phenotypic properties of the samples and therefore cannot identify regulatory mechanisms that are related to a phenotypic outcome of interest. In this study, we developed a new method called InPheRNo to identify ‘phenotype-relevant’ transcriptional regulatory networks. This method is based on a probabilistic graphical model whose conditional probability distributions model the simultaneous effects of multiple transcription factors (TFs) on their target genes as well as the statistical relationship between target gene expression and phenotype. Extensive comparison of InPheRNo with related approaches using primary tumor samples of 18 cancer types from The Cancer Genome Atlas revealed that InPheRNo can accurately reconstruct cancer type-relevant TRNs and identify cancer driver TFs. In addition, survival analysis revealed that the activity level of TFs with many target genes could distinguish patients with good prognosis from those with poor prognosis.

scholarly journals Construction and analysis of macrophage infiltration related circRNA-miRNA-mRNA regulatory networks in hepatocellular carcinoma

PeerJ ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. e10198
Author(s):  
Yuhan Chen ◽  
Yalin Li ◽  
Guanglei Zheng ◽  
Peitao Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Regulatory Network ◽  
Regulatory Networks ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Cancer Genome ◽  
The Cancer Genome Atlas ◽  
Macrophage Infiltration ◽  
Luciferase Assay ◽  
Good Survival ◽  
Mechanism Study

Background Macrophage play a crucial role in regulating tumor progression. This study intended to investigate the circular RNA (circRNA) regulatory network associated with macrophage infiltration in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods The immune cell fractions of HCC from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium were calculated by Estimation of the Proportion of Immune and Cancer cells algorithm. The differentially expressed mRNAs (DEmRNAs), microRNAs (DEmiRNAs) and circRNAs (DEcircRNAs) were identified from HCC and adjacent non-tumor cases of TCGA or Gene Expression Omnibus database. The DEmRNAs related to macrophage were selected by weighted gene co-expression network analysis and then utilized to generate the circRNA-miRNA-mRNA network. A hub circRNA regulatory network was established based on the co-expressed DEmiRNAs and DEmRNAs owning contrary correlation with the clinical characteristics, survival and macrophage infiltration level. A gene signature based on the DEmRNAs in hub network was also generated for further evaluation. The circRNA binding bite for miRNA was detected by luciferase assay. Results High macrophage fraction predicted good survival for HCC. A circRNA-miRNA-mRNA network was constructed by 27 macrophage related DEmRNAs, 21 DEmiRNAs, and 15 DEcircRNAs. Among this network, the expression of hsa-miR-139-5p was negatively correlated with CDCA8, KPNA2, PRC1 or TOP2A. Hsa-miR-139-5p low or targeted DEmRNA high expression was associated with low macrophage infiltration, high grade, advanced stage and poor prognosis of HCC. Additionally, the risk score generated by 4-DEmRNA signature could reflect the macrophage infiltration status and function as an independent prognostic factor for HCC. Finally, hsa_circ_0007456 acting on hsa-miR-139-5p related network was viewed as the hub circRNA regulatory network. Taken together, some circRNA regulatory networks may be associated with macrophage infiltration, which provides clues for mechanism study and therapeutic strategies of HCC.

scholarly journals Exploration and validation of a novel prognostic signature based on comprehensive bioinformatics analysis in hepatocellular carcinoma

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaofei Wang ◽  
Jie Qiao ◽  
Rongqi Wang
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Overall Survival ◽  
Risk Score ◽  
Expression Profiles ◽  
Univariate Analysis ◽  
Cancer Genome ◽  
The Cancer Genome Atlas ◽  
Good Prediction ◽  
Expression Levels

Abstract The present study aimed to construct a novel signature for indicating the prognostic outcomes of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Gene expression profiles were downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) databases. The prognosis-related genes with differential expression were identified with weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), univariate analysis, the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO). With the stepwise regression analysis, a risk score was constructed based on the expression levels of five genes: Risk score = (−0.7736* CCNB2) + (1.0083* DYNC1LI1) + (−0.6755* KIF11) + (0.9588* SPC25) + (1.5237* KIF18A), which can be applied as a signature for predicting the prognosis of HCC patients. The prediction capacity of the risk score for overall survival was validated with both TCGA and ICGC cohorts. The 1-, 3- and 5-year ROC curves were plotted, in which the AUC was 0.842, 0.726 and 0.699 in TCGA cohort and 0.734, 0.691 and 0.700 in ICGC cohort, respectively. Moreover, the expression levels of the five genes were determined in clinical tumor and normal specimens with immunohistochemistry. The novel signature has exhibited good prediction efficacy for the overall survival of HCC patients.

scholarly journals Hypoxic Characteristic in the Immunosuppressive Microenvironment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhuomao Mo ◽  
Daiyuan Liu ◽  
Dade Rong ◽  
Shijun Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Cox Regression ◽  
Cancer Genome ◽  
Gene Set Enrichment Analysis ◽  
The Cancer Genome Atlas ◽  
Cell Infiltration ◽  
Immune Checkpoints ◽  
Immune Cell Infiltration ◽  
Immunosuppressive Microenvironment

Background: Generally, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) exists in an immunosuppressive microenvironment that promotes tumor evasion. Hypoxia can impact intercellular crosstalk in the tumor microenvironment. This study aimed to explore and elucidate the underlying relationship between hypoxia and immunotherapy in patients with HCC.Methods: HCC genomic and clinicopathological datasets were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA-LIHC), Gene Expression Omnibus databases (GSE14520) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC-LIRI). The TCGA-LIHC cases were divided into clusters based on single sample gene set enrichment analysis and hierarchical clustering. After identifying patients with immunosuppressive microenvironment with different hypoxic conditions, correlations between immunological characteristics and hypoxia clusters were investigated. Subsequently, a hypoxia-associated score was established by differential expression, univariable Cox regression, and lasso regression analyses. The score was verified by survival and receiver operating characteristic curve analyses. The GSE14520 cohort was used to validate the findings of immune cell infiltration and immune checkpoints expression, while the ICGC-LIRI cohort was employed to verify the hypoxia-associated score.Results: We identified hypoxic patients with immunosuppressive HCC. This cluster exhibited higher immune cell infiltration and immune checkpoint expression in the TCGA cohort, while similar significant differences were observed in the GEO cohort. The hypoxia-associated score was composed of five genes (ephrin A3, dihydropyrimidinase like 4, solute carrier family 2 member 5, stanniocalcin 2, and lysyl oxidase). In both two cohorts, survival analysis revealed significant differences between the high-risk and low-risk groups. In addition, compared to other clinical parameters, the established score had the highest predictive performance at both 3 and 5 years in two cohorts.Conclusion: This study provides further evidence of the link between hypoxic signals in patients and immunosuppression in HCC. Defining hypoxia-associated HCC subtypes may help reveal potential regulatory mechanisms between hypoxia and the immunosuppressive microenvironment, and our hypoxia-associated score could exhibit potential implications for future predictive models.

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