These results suggest that miR-218 sensitizes glioma cells to apoptosis by regulating ECOP-mediated suppression of NF-κB activity, which may provide novel opportunities for glioma therapy.

Triple-negative breast carcinomas (TNBC) are characterized by particularly poor outcomes, and there are no established markers significantly associated with prognosis. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are subclass of noncoding RNAs that have been recently shown to play critical roles in cancer biology. However, little is known about their mechanistic role in TNBC pathogenesis. In this report, we investigated the expression patterns of lncRNAs from TNBC tissues and matched normal tissues with Agilent Human lncRNA array. We identified 1,758 lncRNAs and 1,254 mRNAs that were differentially expressed (≥ 2-fold change), indicating that many lncRNAs are significantly upregulated or downregulated in TNBC. Among these, XR_250621.1 and NONHSAT125629 were the most upregulated and downregulated lncRNAs respectively. qRT-PCR was employed to validate the microarray analysis findings, and results were consistent with the data from the microarrays. GO and KEGG pathway analysis were applied to explore the potential lncRNAs functions, some pathways including microtubule motor activity and DNA replication were identified in TNBC pathogenesis. Our study revealed that a set of lncRNAs were differentially expressed in TNBC tissues, suggesting that they may play role in TNBC. These results shed light on lncRNAs’ biological functions and provide useful information for exploring potential therapeutic targets for breast cancer.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is regarded as the main etiological risk factor in the process of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), as it promotes an immunosuppressive microenvironment that is partially mediated by the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)/programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) signaling pathway. The tumor microenvironment (TME) of HBV-related HCC is indeed more immunosuppressive than microenvironments not associated with viruses. And compared to TME in hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected HCC, TME of HBV-related HCC is less vascularized and presents different immune components resulting in similar immunosuppression. However, few studies are focusing on the specific side effects and efficacy of PD-1/PD-L1 blockade immunotherapy in HBV-related HCC patients, as well as on the underlying mechanism. Herein, we reviewed the basic research focusing on potential TME alteration caused by HBV infection, especially in HCC patients. Moreover, we reviewed PD-1/PD-L1 blockade immunotherapy clinical trials to clarify the safety and efficacy of this newly developed treatment in the particular circumstances of HBV infection. We found that patients with HBV-related HCC displayed an acceptable safety profile similar to those of non-infected HCC patients. However, we could not determine the antiviral activity of PD-1/PD-L1 blockade because standard anti-viral therapies were conducted in all of the current clinical trials, which made it difficult to distinguish the potential influence of PD-1/PD-L1 blockade on HBV infection. Generally, the objective response rates (ORRs) of PD-1/PD-L1 blockade immunotherapy did not differ significantly between virus-positive and virus-negative patients, except that disease control rates (DCRs) were obviously lower in HBV-infected HCC patients.

Stress granules (SGs) are primarily composed of mRNAs that stall at translation initiation and usually appear in the cytoplasm under unusual physiological or pathological conditions such as hypoxia, oxidative stress, and viral infection. Recent studies have indicated that several components of SGs participate in tumourigenesis and cancer metastasis through tumour-associated signalling pathways as well as other mechanisms. Furthermore, some chemotherapy drugs have been reported to induce SGs.Thus, the roles of SGs in cancer treatment have attracted considerable interest.Importantly, disturbing the recruitment of SGs components or microtubule polymerization, as well as other strategies that can abolish SGs formation, is reported to inhibit tumour progression, suggesting that targeting SGs could be a promising strategy for cancer treatment. In this review, we summarize the relationship between SGs and cancer, as well as recent advances in targeting SGs, in the interest of providing new opportunities for cancer treatment. | INTRODUCTIONDuring the eukaryotic gene expression process, RNA translation is thought to be a key process that regulates RNA modification, stability, location, protein function, and chromatin structure (Rizvi & Smith, 2017). Stresses such as hypoxia, viral infection, heat shock, and oxidative stress can induce multiple tissue and organ damages, as well as disordered protein translation, all of which are called "integrated stress responses (ISRs)" (Anderson, Kedersha, & Ivanov, 2015). Composed of non-translated mRNAs, cytoplasmic messenger ribonucleoprotein particles (mRNPs) are components of the ISR and emerge when translation initiation is stalled, subsequently forming granules to ensure cell adaptation to stress conditions. These RNA granules can usually be divided into four types: processing bodies, stress granules (SGs), neuronal granules, and germ cell granules (Anderson & Kedersha, 2006). Among these granules, SGs are the most well studied. Given that SGs assemble when translation initiation is stalled, they usually occur in the cytoplasm, containing various RNA-binding proteins (RBPs), non-translated RNAs, types of translation initiation factors, poly(A)binding protein, and ribosomal subunits.SGs assemble immediately once stresses are encountered and are cleaned up once the stresses disappear (Reineke & Neilson, 2019).As SGs are a non-typical type of multifunctional membrane-less organelles, the formation of SGs is a highly regulated and dynamic process. SGs are usually triggered by the serine 51 phosphorylation of eukaryotic initiator factor 2A (eIF2A; Buchan & Parker, 2009;Gilks et al., 2004), which represents the initiation of 48-s ribosomal subunit disassembly and translation arrest. Considered to be one of the most pivotal components of SGs, the phosphorylation of Ras-GTPaseactivating protein SH3 domain-binding protein 1 (G3BP1) affects SG formation (Mahboubi & Stochaj, 2017). Moreover, the post-translation modifications (PTMs) of mRNPs components are also closely associated with SGs a...

BackgroundLong non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are pervasively transcribed in the genome. They have important regulatory functions in chromatin remodeling and gene expression. Dysregulated lncRNAs have been studied in cancers, but their role in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remains largely unknown. We have conducted lncRNA expression screening and a genome-wide analysis of lncRNA and coding gene expression on primary tumor and adjacent normal tissue from four ESCC patients, tend to understand the functionality of lncRNAs in carcinogenesis of esopheagus in combination with experimental and bioinformatics approach.MethodsLncRNA array was used for coding and non-coding RNA expression. R program and Bioconductor packages (limma and RedeR) were used for differential expression and co-expression network analysis, followed by independent confirmation and functional studies of inferred onco-lncRNA ESCCAL-1 using quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction, small interfering RNA-mediated knockdown, apoptosis and invasion assays in vitro.ResultsThe global coding and lncRNA gene expression pattern is able to distinguish ESCC from adjacent normal tissue. The co-expression network from differentially expressed coding and lncRNA genes in ESCC was constructed, and the lncRNA function may be inferred from the co-expression network. LncRNA ESCCAL-1 is such an example as a predicted novel onco-lncRNA, and it is overexpressed in 65% of an independent ESCC patient cohort (n = 26). More over, knockdown of ESCCAL-1 expression increases esophageal cancer cell apoptosis and reduces the invasion in vitro.ConclusionOur study uncovered the landscape of ESCC-associated lncRNAs. The systematic analysis of coding and lncRNAs co-expression network increases our understanding of lncRNAs in biological network. ESCCAL-1 is a novel putative onco-lncRNA in esophageal cancer development.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12885-015-1179-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Gastric cancer is the fifth most common malignant tumor and second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. With the improved understanding of gastric cancer, a subset of gastric cancer patients infected with Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) has been identified. EBV-positive gastric cancer is a type of tumor with unique genomic aberrations, significant clinicopathological features, and a good prognosis. After EBV infects the human body, it first enters an incubation period in which the virus integrates its DNA into the host and expresses the latent protein and then affects DNA methylation through miRNA under the action of the latent protein, which leads to the occurrence of EBV-positive gastric cancer. With recent developments in immunotherapy, better treatment of EBV-positive gastric cancer patients appears achievable. Moreover, studies show that treatment with immunotherapy has a high effective rate in patients with EBV-positive gastric cancer. This review summarizes the research status of EBV-positive gastric cancer in recent years and indicates areas for improvement of clinical practice.

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Bmi-1, CD133, Nanog and Oct-4 have been reported as cancer stem cell (CSC) markers in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). However, the prognostic value of them in HNSCC remains controversial. Hence, this meta-analysis was conducted to access the association between the four CSC markers and survival outcome of HNSCC patients. A total of 22 articles with 27 studies met the inclusion criteria and the combined hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated. Data analysis showed that high expression of CSC markers was associated with poor overall survival (OS) (HR = 1.93; 95% CI: 1.46–2.55, P < 0.001) and disease free survival (DFS) (HR = 4.78; 95% CI: 2.95–7.75, P < 0.001) but not disease specific survival (DSS) (HR = 1.17; 95% CI: 0.74–1.84, P = 0.50) of HNSCC patients. Subgroup analysis indicted that high expression of CD133 (HR = 2.33, 95%CI: 1.42–3.83, P < 0.001), Oct-4(HR = 2.10, 95%CI: 1.36–3.22, P = 0.007) and Nanog (HR = 2.49, 95%CI: 1.66–3.72, P < 0.001) could predict poor OS in HNSCC patients respectively whereas overexpression of Bmi-1 was not related to the reduced OS in HNSCC patients (HR = 1.32, 95%CI: 0.66–2.65, P = 0.43). Therefore, we concluded that CSC markers, especially CD133, Nanog and Oct-4, might be predictive factors in HNSCC patients.