Giant peritoneal loose body and its protein composition: a case report

Abstract Peritoneal loose body (PLB) is a kind of lesions located in the abdominal cavity or pelvic cavity, which is rare and difficult to diagnose. The diameter of PLB is mostly 0.5–2.5 cm. Most PLBS are asymptomatic. Here we reported a case of giant PLB in the pelvis and analyzed its structure and protein composition. Surgical exploration revealed a white oval mass (4.5*4*3 cm) in the pelvic cavity. After the mass was removed, the symptoms of hematuria disappeared and the patient was discharged on the second postoperative day. Histochemical staining showed that PLB was mainly composed of collagen and scattered calcification. The protein components of PLB were detected by proteome analysis, and a variety of proteins related to collagen deposition and calcification were identified in PLB

FOXM1/KIF20A axis promotes clear cell renal cell carcinoma progression via regulating EMT signaling and affects immunotherapy response

Background: The correlation between FOXM1 and KIF20A has not been revealed in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). Methods: Public data was downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. R software was utilized for the execution of bioinformatic analysis. The expression levels of specific molecules (mRNA and protein) were detected using real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) and Western blot assays. The capacity of cell growth was assessed by employing CCK8 and colony formation assay. Cell invasion and migration ability were assessed using transwell assay. Results: In our study, we illustrated the association between FOXM1 and KIF20A. Our results indicated that both FOXM1 and KIF20A were associated with poor prognosis and clinical performance. The malignant characteristics of ccRCC cells can be significantly suppressed by inhibiting FOXM1 and KIF20A, as demonstrated by in vitro experiments. Moreover, we found that FOXM1 can upregulate KIF20A. Then, EMT signaling was identified as the underlying pathway FOXM1 and KIF20A are involved. WB results indicated that FOXM1/KIF20A axis can activate EMT signaling. Moreover, we noticed that FOXM1 and KIF20A can affect the immunotherapy response and immune microenvironment of ccRCC patients. Conclusions: Our results identified the role of the FOXM1/KIF20A axis in ccRCC progression and immunotherapy, making it the underlying target for ccRCC

Integrative analysis of the ST6GALNAC family identifies GATA2-upregulated ST6GALNAC5 as an adverse prognostic biomarker promoting prostate cancer cell invasion

Abstract Background ST6GALNAC family members function as sialyltransferases and have been implicated in cancer progression. However, their aberrant expression levels, prognostic values and specific roles in metastatic prostate cancer (PCa) remain largely unclear. Methods Two independent public datasets (TCGA-PRAD and GSE21032), containing 648 PCa samples in total, were employed to comprehensively examine the mRNA expression changes of ST6GALNAC family members in PCa, as well as their associations with clinicopathological parameters and prognosis. The dysregulation of ST6GALNAC5 was further validated in a mouse PCa model and human PCa samples from our cohort (n = 64) by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Gene Set Enrichment Analysis, Gene Ontology, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes and drug sensitivity analyses were performed to enrich the biological processes most related to ST6GALNAC5. Sulforhodamine B, transwell, luciferase reporter and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays were used to examine the PCa cell proliferation, invasion and transcriptional regulation, respectively. Results Systematical investigation of six ST6GALNAC family members in public datasets revealed that ST6GALNAC5 was the only gene consistently and significantly upregulated in metastatic PCa, and ST6GALNAC5 overexpression was also positively associated with Gleason score and predicted poor prognosis in PCa patients. IHC results showed that (1) ST6GALNAC5 protein expression was increased in prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia and further elevated in PCa from a PbCre;Pten F/F mouse model; (2) overexpressed ST6GALNAC5 protein was confirmed in human PCa samples comparing with benign prostatic hyperplasia samples from our cohort (p < 0.001); (3) ST6GALNAC5 overexpression was significantly correlated with perineural invasion of PCa. Moreover, we first found transcription factor GATA2 positively and directly regulated ST6GALNAC5 expression at transcriptional level. ST6GALNAC5 overexpression could partially reverse GATA2-depletion-induced inhibition of PCa cell invasion. The GATA2-ST6GALNAC5 signature exhibited better prediction on the poor prognosis in PCa patients than GATA2 or ST6GALNAC5 alone. Conclusions Our results indicated that GATA2-upregulated ST6GALNAC5 might serve as an adverse prognostic biomarker promoting prostate cancer cell invasion

A positive feed-forward loop between LncRNA-URRCC and EGFL7/P-AKT/FOXO3 signaling promotes proliferation and metastasis of clear cell renal cell carcinoma

Abstract Background The aberrant expression of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) has recently emerged as key molecules in human cancers; however, whether lncRNAs are implicated in the progression of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) remains unclear. Methods Candidate lncRNAs were selected using microarray analysis and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was performed to detect lncRNAs expression in human ccRCC tissues. Overexpression and knocking down experiments in vivo and in vitro were performed to uncover the biological roles of lncRNA-URRCC on ccRCC cell proliferation and invasion. Microarray, chromatin immunoprecipitation, Luciferase reporter assay and western blot were constructed to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying the functions of lncRNA-URRCC. Results The microarray analysis and qRT-PCR identified a new lncRNA, URRCC, whose expression is upregulated in RCC samples and associated with poor prognosis, leading to promote ccRCC cell proliferation and invasion. Mechanistically, URRCC enhances the expression of EGFL7 via mediating histone H3 acetylation of EGFL7 promoter, activation of P-AKT signaling, and suppressing P-AKT downstream gene, FOXO3. In return, FOXO3 could inhibit the transcription of URRCC via binding to the special region on the promoter of URRCC. Conclusions Our data suggests that targeting this newly identified feed-back loop between LncRNA-URRCC and EGFL7/P-AKT/FOXO3 signaling may enhance the efficacy of existing therapy and potentially imparts a new avenue to develop more potent therapeutic approaches to suppress RCC progression

Additional file 8 of Integrative analysis of the ST6GALNAC family identifies GATA2-upregulated ST6GALNAC5 as an adverse prognostic biomarker promoting prostate cancer cell invasion

Additional file 8: Table S4. The list of reagents and kits

Additional file 1 of Integrative analysis of the ST6GALNAC family identifies GATA2-upregulated ST6GALNAC5 as an adverse prognostic biomarker promoting prostate cancer cell invasion

Additional file 1: Table S1. The primers for plasmid construction, qRT-PCR and ChIP

Additional file 7 of Integrative analysis of the ST6GALNAC family identifies GATA2-upregulated ST6GALNAC5 as an adverse prognostic biomarker promoting prostate cancer cell invasion

Additional file 7: Table S3. The antibody list

Additional file 5 of Integrative analysis of the ST6GALNAC family identifies GATA2-upregulated ST6GALNAC5 as an adverse prognostic biomarker promoting prostate cancer cell invasion

Additional file 5: Figure S3. The genetic alterations of ST6GALNAC family members in PCa samples were analyzed in plot (A) and in individual cases (B) from the cBioPortal online database