scholarly journals Inhibition of BCL9 Modulates the Cellular Landscape of Tumor-Associated Macrophages in the Tumor Immune Microenvironment of Colorectal Cancer

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhuang Wei ◽  
Mengxuan Yang ◽  
Mei Feng ◽  
Zhongen Wu ◽  
Rina Rosin-Arbesfeld ◽  
...  

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are an indispensable part of the tumor microenvironment (TME), and they likely play a negative rather than positive role in cancer treatment. However, the cellular landscape and transcriptional profile regulation of TAMs in the case of tumor gene inactivation or chemical interference remains unclear. The B-cell lymphoma 9/B-cell lymphoma 9-like (BCL9/BCL9L) is a critical transcription co-factor of β-catenin. Suppression of Bcl9 inhibits tumor growth in mouse models of colorectal cancer (CRC). Here, we studied the TAMs of CRC by single-cell sequencing. Bcl9 depletion caused macrophage polarization inhibition from M0 to M2 and changed the CRC TME, which further interferes with the inflammation of M0 and M1. The transcription factor regulating these processes may be related to the Wnt signaling pathway from multiple levels. Furthermore, we also found that the cells delineated from monocyte to NK-like non-functioning cells were significantly different in the BCL9-deprived population. Combining these data, we proposed a TAM-to-NK score to evaluate the dynamic balance in TME of monocyte/TAM cells and NK-like non-functioning cells in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) clinical samples to verify the clinical significance. We demonstrated that the cell type balance and transcription differences of TAMs regulated by BCL9-driven Wnt signaling affected immune surveillance and inflammation of cancer, ultimately affecting patients’ prognosis. We thereby highlighted the potential of targeting Wnt signaling pathway through cancer immunotherapy.

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Xue ◽  
Xin Wang ◽  
Lingyan Zhang ◽  
Qingyuan Qu ◽  
Qian Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background In recent years, the B cell receptor (BCR) signaling pathway has become a “hot point” because it plays a critical role in B-cell proliferation and function. Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) is overexpressed in many subtypes of B-cell lymphoma as a downstream kinase in the BCR signaling pathway. Ibrutinib, the first generation of BTK inhibitor, has shown excellent antitumor activity in both indolent and aggressive B-cell lymphoma. Main body Ibrutinib monotherapy has been confirmed to be effective with a high response rate (RR) and well-tolerated in many B-cell lymphoma subgroups. To achieve much deeper and faster remission, combination strategies contained ibrutinib were conducted to evaluate their synergistic anti-tumor effect. Conclusions For patients with indolent B-cell lymphoma, most of them respond well with ibrutinib monotherapy. Combination strategies contained ibrutinib might be a better choice to achieve deeper and faster remission in the treatment of aggressive subtypes of B-cell lymphoma. Further investigations on the long-term efficacy and safety of the ibrutinib will provide novel strategies for individualized treatment of B-cell lymphoma.


QJM ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 114 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rowaida Mohammed Reda M. M Aboushahba ◽  
Fayda Ibrahim Abdel Motaleb ◽  
Ahmed Abdel Aziz Abou-Zeid ◽  
Enas Samir Nabil ◽  
Dalia Abdel-Wahab Mohamed ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths world-wide. There is an increasing need for the identification of novel biomarkers/targets for early diagnosis and for the development of novel chemopreventive and therapeutic agents for CRC. Recently, MACF1 gene has emerged as a potential therapeutic target in cancer as it involved in processes critical for tumor cell proliferation, invasion and metastasis. It is suggested that MACF1 may function in cancers through Wnt signaling. MiR-34a is a well-known tumor suppressor miRNA.miR-34a targets MACF1 gene as a part of the wnt signaling pathway. In this study, 40 colonic tissues were collected from CRC patients (20) and control subjects (20). miR-34a-5p was assessed by real time PCR in all study groups. The results showed highly significant decrease (P < 0.01) in miR-34a relative expression in the CRC group (median RQ 0.13) when compared to the benign group (median RQ 5.3) and the healthy control group (median RQ 19.63). miR-34a mimic and inhibitor were transfected in CaCo-2 cell line and proliferation was assessed. The transfection of the cell line with miR-34a mimic decreased cell proliferation. Our study suggests that miR-34a-5p targets MACF1 gene as a part of the wnt signaling pathway leading to the involvement in the molecular mechanisms of CRC development and progression.


Biomedicines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 1331
Author(s):  
Yung-Fu Wu ◽  
Chih-Yang Wang ◽  
Wan-Chun Tang ◽  
Yu-Cheng Lee ◽  
Hoang Dang Khoa Ta ◽  
...  

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a heterogeneous disease with changes in the genetic and epigenetic levels of various genes. The molecular assessment of CRC is gaining increasing attention, and furthermore, there is an increase in biomarker use for disease prognostication. Therefore, the identification of different gene biomarkers through messenger RNA (mRNA) abundance levels may be useful for capturing the complex effects of CRC. In this study, we demonstrate that the high mRNA levels of 10 upregulated genes (DPEP1, KRT80, FABP6, NKD2, FOXQ1, CEMIP, ETV4, TESC, FUT1, and GAS2) are observed in CRC cell lines and public CRC datasets. Moreover, we find that a high mRNA expression of DPEP1, NKD2, CEMIP, ETV4, TESC, or FUT1 is significantly correlated with a worse prognosis in CRC patients. Further investigation reveals that CTNNB1 is the key factor in the interaction of the canonical Wnt signaling pathway with 10 upregulated CRC-associated genes. In particular, we identify NKD2, FOXQ1, and CEMIP as three CTNNB1-regulated genes. Moreover, individual inhibition of the expression of three CTNNB1-regulated genes can cause the growth inhibition of CRC cells. This study reveals efficient biomarkers for the prognosis of CRC and provides a new molecular interaction network for CRC.


Author(s):  
Yue-Ju Li ◽  
Cheng-Ning Yang ◽  
Yen-Ping Kuo ◽  
Wei-Ting Lai ◽  
Tai-Sheng Wu ◽  
...  

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