High expression of ZEB1 correlates with liver metastasis and poor prognosis in colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer, especially liver metastasis, is still a challenge worldwide. Traditional treatment such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy have been difficult to be further advanced. We need to develop new treatment methods to further improve the poor prognosis of these patients. The emergence of immunotherapy has brought light to mCRC patients, especially those with dMMR. Based on several large trials, some drugs (pembrolizumab, nivolumab) have been approved by US Food and Drug Administration to treat the patients diagnosed with dMMR tumors. However, immunotherapy has reached a bottleneck for other MSS tumors, with low response rate and poor PFS and OS. Therefore, more clinical trials are underway toward mCRC patients, especially those with MSS. This review is intended to summarize the existing clinical trials to illustrate the development of immunotherapy in mCRC patients, and to provide a new thinking for the direction and experimental design of immunotherapy in the future.

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Analysis of Co-Expression Module of Liver Metastasis Genes in Colorectal Cancer and Mining of Potential High-Expression Biomarkers

10.21203/rs.3.rs-516058/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Xuehu Wang ◽

Nie Li ◽

Yun Wang ◽

Xiaoping Yin ◽

Yongchang Zheng

Keyword(s):

Colorectal Cancer ◽

Colon Cancer ◽

Liver Metastasis ◽

High Expression ◽

Data Set ◽

Colorectal Cancer Liver Metastasis ◽

Functional Annotations ◽

Public Data ◽

Highly Correlated ◽

Expression Module

Abstract AimsThe Hub genes highly related to the disease were found from the gene co-expression module, and the potential high expression genes were analyzed to predict the liver metastasis of colorectal cancer, so as to provide reference for subsequent targeted therapy.MethodsIn this study, we used the public data set of GEO database (GSE50760) to analyze the gene co-expression of liver metastasis of colon cancer, primary colon cancer and normal colon tissue (54 cases) and 50 cases of clinical cases. The functional annotations based on GO database are enriched, and the functional annotations of five gene modules are obtained through the enrichment of biological processes. Then the data mining is carried out to find the sub-networks with high adjacency in the gene co-expression network. At the same time, these sub-networks are annotated to find oncogenes related to liver metastasis of colorectal cancer.ResultsThis experiment found that KRAS, APC, FBXW7, PIK3CA, TP53 were highly correlated with liver metastasis of colorectal cancer. Finally, two protein genes STAT1 and MAPK1 were found by MCODE, which may be highly correlated with liver metastasis of colorectal cancer. Two new genes with high expression proteins found in this experiment have potential cancer, which has not been reflected in previous studies.ConclusionAccording to clinical data, KRAS, APC, FBXW7, PIK3CA, TP53 are related to colorectal cancer liver metastasis, and the analysis of the data set shows that STAT1 and MAPK1 are not only related to colorectal cancer liver metastasis oncogene but also related to clinically obtained genes.

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The mechanism of the premetastatic niche facilitating colorectal cancer liver metastasis generated from myeloid-derived suppressor cells induced by the S1PR1–STAT3 signaling pathway

Cell Death and Disease ◽

10.1038/s41419-019-1922-5 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (10) ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Qi Lin ◽

Li Ren ◽

Mi Jian ◽

Pingping Xu ◽

Jun Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Colorectal Cancer ◽

Cell Proliferation ◽

T Cell ◽

Liver Metastasis ◽

Signaling Pathway ◽

Mouse Models ◽

Poor Prognosis ◽

Suppressor Cells ◽

Myeloid Derived Suppressor Cells ◽

Premetastatic Niche

Abstract The tumor-derived factors involved in the expansion and accumulation of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) in metastatic dissemination of colorectal cancer (CRC) to the liver has not been studied. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor 1 (S1PR1) and signal transducer and activator of transcription-3 (STAT3) in human colorectal tumors. IL-6 and interferon-γ were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Tumor growth, invasion, and migration were evaluated by MTT, transwell, and wound healing assays, respectively. Subcutaneous tumor-bearing and CRC liver metastasis (CRLM) nude mouse models were constructed. The percentage of MDSCs was measured using multicolor flow cytometry. Western blot assay was used to evaluate S1PR1 and p-STAT3 expression in MDSCs after separation from the liver and tumor by magnetic antibody. T-cell suppression assay was detected by carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester (CFSE). Aberrant co-expressed S1PR1 and p-STAT3 was correlated with metachronous liver metastasis and poor prognosis in CRC. A mutual activation loop between S1PR1 and STAT3 can enhance CRC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro and in vivo. The expression of p-STAT3 and its downstream proteins can be regulated by S1PR1. p-STAT3 was the dependent signaling pathway of S1PR1 in the promotion of cell growth and liver metastasis in CRC. The level of IL-6 and the associated MDSCs stimulated by the S1PR1–STAT3 correlated with the number of liver metastatic nodes in the CRLM mouse models and patients. Increased CD14+HLA-DR−/low MDSCs from CRLM patients inhibited autologous T-cell proliferation and predict poor prognosis. The S1PR1–STAT3–IL-6–MDSCs axis operates in both tumor cells and MDSCs involved in the promotion of growth and liver metastasis in CRC. MDSCs induced by S1PR1–STAT3 in CRC cells formed the premetastatic niche in the liver can promote organ-specific metastasis.

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