scholarly journals Comprehensive Analysis of CDCAs Methylation and Immune Infiltrates in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongkang Wang ◽  
Yinfeng Yang ◽  
Honglei Gao ◽  
Ting Ouyang ◽  
Luyao Zhang ◽  
...  

BackgroundAs essential components of cycle growth, the cell division cycle-associated family genes (CDCAs) have crucial roles in tumor development and progression, especially in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, due to the tumor heterogeneity of HCC, little is known about the methylation variability of CDCAs in mediating phenotypic changes (e.g., immune infiltrates) in HCC. Presently, we aim to comprehensively explore the expression and prognosis of CDCAs methylation with regard to immune infiltrates of HCC.MethodsWe first identified the correlating differentially expressed genes (co-DEGs) among 19 different types of cancer cohorts (a total of 7,783 patients) and then constructed the weighted gene co-expressed and co-methylated networks. Applying the clustering analysis, significant modules of DEGs including CDCAs were selected and their functional bioinformatics analyses were performed. Besides, using DiseaseMeth and TIMER, the correlation between the methylation levels of CDCAs and tumor immune infiltrates was also analyzed. In final, to assess the influence of CDCAs methylation on clinical prognosis, Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analysis were carried out.ResultA total of 473 co-DEGs are successfully identified, while seven genes of CDCAs (CDCA1–3 and CDCA5–8) have significant over-expression in HCC. Co-expressed and co-methylated networks reveal the strong positive correlations in mRNA expression and methylation levels of CDCAs. Besides, the biological enrichment analysis of CDCAs demonstrates that they are significantly related to the immune function regulation of infiltrating immune cells in HCC. Also, the methylation analysis of CDCAs depicts the strong association with the tumor immunogenicity, i.e., low-methylation of CDCA1, CDCA2, and CDCA8 dramatically reduced the immune infiltrate levels of T cells and cytotoxic lymphocytes. Additionally, CDCA1–6 and CDCA8 with low-methylation levels significantly deteriorate the overall survival of patients in HCC.ConclusionsThe co-expressed and co-methylated gene networks of CDCAs show a powerful association with immune function regulation. And the methylation levels of CDCAs suggesting the prognostic value and infiltrating immune differences could be a novel and predictive biomarker for the response of immunotherapy.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenjun Yu ◽  
Yu Zhang ◽  
Shuai Shao ◽  
Qi Liu ◽  
Yuhan Li ◽  
...  

ObjectiveHepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common and malignant tumors with an insidious onset, difficult early diagnosis, and limited therapy options, resulting in a poor prognosis. Cell division cycle associated 2 (CDCA2), also known as Repo-Man, plays an important role in regulating mitosis and DNA repair, but the involvement of CDCA2 in HCC remains unclear.MethodsThe differentially expressed genes that were significantly upregulated in multiple RNA sequencing datasets of HCC were screened. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to identify diagnostic markers for HCC. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator Cox regression analysis was performed to screen the prognosis-related genes. The screening and analyses identified CDCA2 as the target gene in this study. The expression of CDCA2 was analyzed in public databases and clinical specimens, and CDCA2 involvement in HCC was explored by both bioinformatic analysis and in vitro experiments.ResultsThe level of CDCA2 was enhanced in HCC compared with healthy livers. Overexpression of CDCA2 positively correlated with the pathological grade and TNM stage of the diseases. Furthermore, CDCA2 was found to be an independent prognostic predictor. An excellent prognostic model of HCC was successfully constructed with CDCA2 in combination with TNM stage. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that CDCA2 was closely associated with the cell cycle, apoptosis, and p53 signaling pathway. Silencing CDCA2 in Huh7 cells resulted in significant upregulation of p53 and the downstream PUMA and NOXA and a subsequently increased apoptosis. Inhibition of p53 signaling and apoptosis was found after overexpression of CDCA2 in L02 cells. Strikingly, the proliferation of cells was not affected by CDCA2.ConclusionsCDCA2 was a novel diagnostic marker for HCC, and overexpression of this gene reflected poor pathological grade, stage, and clinical prognosis. CDCA2 promoted the pathogenesis of HCC by suppressing the p53-PUMA/NOXA signaling and the subsequent apoptosis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingmiao Shi ◽  
Chen Xue ◽  
Xin Yuan ◽  
Yuting He ◽  
Zujiang Yu

Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) ranks fourth in cancer-related mortality worldwide. N1-methyladenosine (m1A), a methylation modification on RNA, is gaining attention for its role across diverse biological processes. However, m1A-related regulatory genes expression, its relationship with clinical prognosis, and its role in HCC remain unclear. In this study, we utilized The Cancer Genome Atlas-Liver Hepatocellular Carcinoma (TCGA-LIHC) database to investigate alterations within 10 m1A-related regulatory genes and observed a high mutation frequency (23/363). Cox regression analysis and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator were used to explore the association between m1A-related regulatory genes expression and HCC patient survival and identified four regulators that were remarkably associated with HCC patient prognosis. Additionally, an independent cohort from International Cancer Genome Consortium was studied to validate our discoveries and found to be consistent with those in the TCGA dataset. In terms of mechanism, gene set enrichment analysis linked these four genes with various physiological roles in cell division, the MYC pathway, protein metabolism, and mitosis. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis revealed that PI3K/Akt signaling pathway had potential relevance to m1A-related regulatory genes in HCC. These findings indicate that m1A-related regulatory genes may play crucial roles in regulating HCC progression and be exploited for diagnostic and prognostic purposes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Cun-qing Kong ◽  
Xing-cai Chen ◽  
Guan-hua Qiu ◽  
Jing-chen Liang ◽  
Duo Wang ◽  
...  

Background. A growing number of studies have suggested that microRNAs exert an essential role in the development and occurrence of multiple tumours and act as crucial regulators in various biological processes. However, the expression and function of miRNA-140 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells are not yet adequately identified and manifested. Methods. The expression of miRNA-140 was determined in HCC tissues and adjacent nontumour tissues by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Kaplan–Meier survival analysis and Cox regression analysis were performed to explore the correlation between miRNA-140 expression level and the survival rate of patients with HCC. Additionally, overexpression experiments were conducted to investigate the biological role of miRNA-140 in HCC cells. Bioinformatics was used to predict the related target genes and pathways of miRNA-140. Results. QRT-PCR results signified that the expression level of miRNA-140 in HCC was lower than that of adjacent normal tissues ( P < 0.0001 ). Compared with the control group, the SMMC-7721 HCC cells in the miRNA-140 mimic group had a decrease in proliferation, migration, and invasion ( P < 0.05 ), whereas those in the miRNA-140 inhibitor group had an increase in proliferation, migration, and invasion ( P < 0.05 ). Cell cycle arrest occurred in the G0/1 phase. Prognosis analysis showed that the expression level of miRNA-140 was not related to the prognosis of HCC. Furthermore, the Kaplan–Meier test revealed that patients with lower miRNA-140 expression levels in liver cancer tissue had significantly shorter disease-free survival (DFS, P = 0.004 ) and overall survival (OS) times ( P = 0.010 ) after hepatectomy. Cox regression analysis further indicated that miRNA-140 was an independent risk factor that may affect the DFS ( P = 0.004 ) and OS times ( P = 0.014 ) of patients after hepatectomy. Our results suggested that miRNA-140 might be a crucial regulator involved in the HCC progression and is thus considered a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for HCC.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daw-Shyong Perng ◽  
Hung-Yu Lin ◽  
Paul Morgan ◽  
Tsung-Chin Wu ◽  
Chao-Ming Hung ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Autophagy-related proteins may predict postresection overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with combined hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma (cHCC-CC). Methods: We prospectively investigated how these proteins affect clinical prognosis in 40 patients who underwent hepatectomy for cHCC-CC from 2011 to 2019 at a Taiwanese hospital. Levels of autophagy-related proteins, namely LC3, Beclin-1, and p62, were immunohistochemically assessed in patient tumor and non-tumor tissues. Results: We noted that LC3 expression was significantly correlated with mild clinicopathological characteristics, including macrovascular invasion, lymph node metastasis, American Joint Committee on Cancer and Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stages, recurrence, and mortality. Ten patient showed tumor recurrence, and 15 patients died. Postresection 5-year OS and DFS rates were 43.7% and 57.4%, respectively. Cox regression analysis showed that high intratumoral LC3 expression was significantly associated with improved OS [hazard ratio (HR; 95% confidence interval (CI)): (1.68–26.9), p = 0.007], but multiple tumors and microvascular invasion was significantly correlated with poor OS [HR (95% CI): 0.03 (0.01–0.34), p = 0.004, and 0.07 (0.01–0.46), p = 0.006, respectively]. Furthermore, high LC3 expression and cirrhosis had improved DFS [HR (95% CI): 51.3 (2.85–922), p = 0.008, and 17.9 (1.05–306), p = 0.046, respectively]. The 5-year OS and DFS rates were respectively 61.2% and 74.6% in high LC3 expression patients and 0% and 0% in those with low LC3 expression. Conclusion: High LC3 expression in tumors is significantly associated with mild clinicopathological characteristics and favorable clinical prognosis in patients with cHCC-CC after resection.


BMC Cancer ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daw-Shyong Perng ◽  
Chao-Ming Hung ◽  
Hung-Yu Lin ◽  
Paul Morgan ◽  
Yao-Chun Hsu ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Autophagy-related proteins may predict postresection overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with combined hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma (cHCC-CC). Methods We prospectively investigated how these proteins affect clinical prognosis in 40 patients who underwent hepatectomy for cHCC-CC from 2011 to 2019 at a Taiwanese hospital. Levels of autophagy-related proteins, namely LC3, Beclin-1, and p62, were immunohistochemically assessed in patient tumor and non-tumor tissues. Results We noted that LC3 expression was significantly correlated with mild clinicopathological characteristics, including macrovascular invasion, lymph node metastasis, American Joint Committee on Cancer and Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stages, recurrence, and mortality. Ten patient showed tumor recurrence, and 15 patients died. Postresection 5-year OS and DFS rates were 43.7 and 57.4%, respectively. Cox regression analysis showed that high intratumoral LC3 expression was significantly associated with improved OS [hazard ratio (HR; 95% confidence interval (CI)): (1.68–26.9), p = 0.007], but multiple tumors and microvascular invasion was significantly correlated with poor OS [HR (95% CI): 0.03 (0.01–0.34), p = 0.004, and 0.07 (0.01–0.46), p = 0.006, respectively]. Furthermore, high LC3 expression and cirrhosis had improved DFS [HR (95% CI): 51.3 (2.85–922), p = 0.008, and 17.9 (1.05–306), p = 0.046, respectively]. The 5-year OS and DFS rates were respectively 61.2 and 74.6% in high LC3 expression patients and 0 and 0% in those with low LC3 expression. Conclusion High LC3 expression in tumors is significantly associated with mild clinicopathological characteristics and favorable clinical prognosis in patients with cHCC-CC after resection.


Author(s):  
Philip J. Johnson ◽  
Sofi Dhanaraj ◽  
Sarah Berhane ◽  
Laura Bonnett ◽  
Yuk Ting Ma

Abstract Background The neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio (NLR), a presumed measure of the balance between neutrophil-associated pro-tumour inflammation and lymphocyte-dependent antitumour immune function, has been suggested as a prognostic factor for several cancers, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods In this study, a prospectively accrued cohort of 781 patients (493 HCC and 288 chronic liver disease (CLD) without HCC) were followed-up for more than 6 years. NLR levels between HCC and CLD patients were compared, and the effect of baseline NLR on overall survival amongst HCC patients was assessed via multivariable Cox regression analysis. Results On entry into the study (‘baseline’), there was no clinically significant difference in the NLR values between CLD and HCC patients. Amongst HCC patients, NLR levels closest to last visit/death were significantly higher compared to baseline. Multivariable Cox regression analysis showed that NLR was an independent prognostic factor, even after adjustment for the HCC stage. Conclusion NLR is a significant independent factor influencing survival in HCC patients, hence offering an additional dimension in prognostic models.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Shuai He ◽  
Jin-Feng Li ◽  
Hao Tian ◽  
Ye Sang ◽  
Xiao-Jing Yang ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND: Early recurrence is the main obstacle for long-term survival of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients after curative resection. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to develop a long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) based signature to predict early recurrence. METHODS: Using bioinformatics analysis and quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR), we screened for lncRNA candidates that were abnormally expressed in HCC. The expression levels of candidate lncRNAs were analyzed in HCC tissues from 160 patients who underwent curative resection, and a risk model for the prediction of recurrence within 1 year (early recurrence) of HCCs was constructed with linear support vector machine (SVM). RESULTS: A lncRNA-based classifier (Clnc), which contained nine differentially expressed lncRNAs including AF339810, AK026286, BC020899, HEIH, HULC, MALAT1, PVT1, uc003fpg, and ZFAS1 was constructed. In the test set, this classifier reliably predicted early recurrence (AUC, 0.675; sensitivity, 72.0%; specificity, 63.1%) with an odds ratio of 4.390 (95% CI, 2.120–9.090). Clnc showed higher accuracy than traditional clinical features, including tumor size, portal vein tumor thrombus (PVTT) in predicting early recurrence (AUC, 0.675 vs 0.523 vs 0.541), and had much higher sensitivity than Barcelona Clinical Liver Cancer (BCLC; 72.0% vs 50.0%), albeit their AUCs were comparable (0.675 vs 0.678). Moreover, combining Clnc with BCLC significantly increased the AUC, compared with Clnc or BCLC alone in predicting early recurrence (all P< 0.05). Finally, logistic and Cox regression analysis suggested that Clnc was an independent prognostic factor and associated with the early recurrence and recurrence-free survival of HCC patients after resection, respectively (all P= 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our lncRNA-based classifier Clnc can predict early recurrence of patients undergoing surgical resection of HCC.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinxin Chen ◽  
Wenxia Qiu ◽  
Xuekun Xie ◽  
Zefeng Chen ◽  
Zhiwei Han ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: This work was designed to establish and verify our nomograms integrating clinicopathological characteristics with hematological biomarkers to predict both disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) in solitary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients following hepatectomy.Methods: We scrutinized the data retrospectively from 414 patients with a clinicopathological diagnosis of solitary HCC from Guangxi Medical University Cancer Hospital (Nanning, China) between January 2004 and December 2012. Following the random separation of the samples in a 7:3 ratio into the training set and validation set, the former set was assessed by Cox regression analysis to develop two nomograms to predict the 1-year and 3-year DFS and OS (3-years and 5-years). This was followed by discrimination and calibration estimation employing Harrell’s C-index (C-index) and calibration curves, while the internal validation was also assessed.Results: In the training cohort, the tumor diameter, tumor capsule, macrovascular invasion, and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) were included in the DFS nomogram. Age, tumor diameter, tumor capsule, macrovascular invasion, microvascular invasion, and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) were included in the OS nomogram. The C-index was 0.691 (95% CI: 0.644-0.738) for the DFS-nomogram and 0.713 (95% CI: 0.670-0.756) for the OS-nomogram. The survival probability calibration curves displayed a fine agreement between the predicted and observed ranges in both data sets. Conclusion: Our nomograms combined clinicopathological features with hematological biomarkers to emerge effective in predicting the DFS and OS in solitary HCC patients following curative liver resection. Therefore, the potential utility of our nomograms for guiding individualized treatment clinically and monitor the recurrence monitoring in these patients.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Rongjie Zhang ◽  
Yan Chen ◽  
Ge Zhou ◽  
Baoguo Sun ◽  
Yue Li ◽  
...  

Objectives. The purpose of this study was to identify the molecular mechanism and prognosis-related genes of Jianpi Jiedu decoction in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma. Methods. The gene expression data of hepatocellular carcinoma samples and normal tissue samples were downloaded from TCGA database, and the potential targets of drug composition of Jianpi Jiedu decoction were obtained from TCMSP database. The genes were screened out in order to obtain the expression of these target genes in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. The differential expression of target genes was analyzed by R software, and the genes related to prognosis were screened by univariate Cox regression analysis. Then, the LASSO model was constructed for risk assessment and survival analysis between different risk groups. At the same time, independent prognostic analysis, GSEA analysis, and prognostic analysis of single gene in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma were performed. Results. 174 compounds of traditional Chinese medicine were screened by TCMSP database, corresponding to 122 potential targets. 39 upregulated genes and 9 downregulated genes were screened out. A total of 20 candidate prognostic related genes were screened out by univariate Cox analysis, of which 12 prognostic genes were involved in the construction of the LASSO regression model. There was a significant difference in survival time between the high-risk group and low-risk group ( p < 0.05 ). Among the genes related to prognosis, the expression levels of CCNB1, NQO1, NUF2, and CHEK1 were high in tumor tissues ( p < 0.05 ). Survival analysis showed that the high expression levels of these four genes were significantly correlated with poor prognosis of HCC ( p < 0.05 ). GSEA analysis showed that the main KEGG enrichment pathways were lysine degradation, folate carbon pool, citrate cycle, and transcription factors. Conclusions. In the study, we found that therapy target genes of Jianpi Jiedu decoction were mainly involved in metabolism and apoptosis in hepatocellular carcinoma, and there was a close relationship between the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma and the genes of CCNB1, NQO1, NUF2, and CHEK1.


2022 ◽  
Vol 2022 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Dan Chen ◽  
Xiaoting Li ◽  
Hui Li ◽  
Kai Wang ◽  
Xianghua Tian

Background. As the most common hepatic malignancy, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has a high incidence; therefore, in this paper, the immune-related genes were sought as biomarkers in liver cancer. Methods. In this study, a differential expression analysis of lncRNA and mRNA in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset between the HCC group and the normal control group was performed. Enrichment analysis was used to screen immune-related differentially expressed genes. Cox regression analysis and survival analysis were used to determine prognostic genes of HCC, whose expression was detected by molecular experiments. Finally, important immune cells were identified by immune cell infiltration and detected by flow cytometry. Results. Compared with the normal group, 1613 differentially expressed mRNAs (DEmRs) and 1237 differentially expressed lncRNAs (DElncRs) were found in HCC. Among them, 143 immune-related DEmRs and 39 immune-related DElncRs were screened out. These genes were mainly related to MAPK cascade, PI3K-AKT signaling pathway, and TGF-beta. Through Cox regression analysis and survival analysis, MMP9, SPP1, HAGLR, LINC02202, and RP11-598F7.3 were finally determined as the potential diagnostic biomarkers for HCC. The gene expression was verified by RT-qPCR and western blot. In addition, CD4 + memory resting T cells and CD8 + T cells were identified as protective factors for overall survival of HCC, and they were found highly expressed in HCC through flow cytometry. Conclusion. The study explored the dysregulation mechanism and potential biomarkers of immune-related genes and further identified the influence of immune cells on the prognosis of HCC, providing a theoretical basis for the prognosis prediction and immunotherapy in HCC patients.


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