CircNDC80 promotes glioblastoma multiforme tumorigenesis via the miR-139-5p/ECE1 pathway

Abstract Background Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been shown to be essential for the emergence and growth of different cancers. However, further research is required to validate the function of circRNA in glioblastoma (GBM). Methods CircNDC80 expression in both normal brain tissues (NBTs) and glioma tissues was determined using real-time PCR. The impact of circNDC80 on GBM cell proliferation, migration, and invasion was then confirmed by CCK-8, colony formation, EdU incorporation, Transwell, and wound healing assays. To determine how circNDC80 affects the capacity of glioma stem cells (GSCs) to maintain their stemness and self-renewal, a CellTiter-Glo assay, clonogenic assay and extreme limiting dilution assay were utilized. To ascertain the impact of circNDC80 in vivo, intracranial xenograft models were established. Results When compared to NBT, glioblastoma tissue had a higher level of circNDC80 expression. In functional assays, circNDC80 promoted glioblastoma cell proliferation, migration, and invasion, while sustaining the stemness and fostering the self-renewal of glioma stem cells. In addition, a dual luciferase reporter assay and circRIP were used to verify that circNDC80 simultaneously affects the expression of ECE1 mRNA by sponging miR-139-5p, and a rescue experiment was used to verify the above results further. Conclusions According to our research, circNDC80 is an oncogenic factor that promotes glioblastoma through the miR-139-5p/ECE1 pathway. This implies that circNDC80 may be employed as a novel therapeutic target and a possible predictive biomarker

Impact of Diets on Response to Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors (ICIs) Therapy against Tumors

Immunotherapy has revolutionized the established therapeutics against tumors. As the major immunotherapy approach, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) achieved remarkable success in the treatment of malignancies. However, the clinical gains are far from universal and durable, because of the primary and secondary resistance of tumors to the therapy, or side effects induced by ICIs. There is an urgent need to find safe combinatorial strategies that enhance the response of ICIs for tumor treatment. Diets have an excellent safety profile and have been shown to play pleiotropic roles in tumor prevention, growth, invasion, and metastasis. Accumulating evidence suggests that dietary regimens bolster not only the tolerability but also the efficacy of tumor immunotherapy. In this review, we discussed the mechanisms by which tumor cells evade immune surveillance, focusing on describing the intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms of resistance to ICIs. We also summarized the impacts of different diets and/or nutrients on the response to ICIs therapy. Combinatory treatments of ICIs therapy with optimized diet regimens own great potential to enhance the efficacy and durable response of ICIs against tumors, which should be routinely considered in clinical settings

Risk factor analysis and nomogram establishment and verification of brain astrocytoma patients based on SEER database

Abstract Astrocytoma is a common brain tumor that can occur in any part of the central nervous system. This tumor is extremely harmful to patients, and there are no clear studies on the risk factors for astrocytoma of the brain. This study was conducted based on the SEER database to determine the risk factors affecting the survival of patients with astrocytoma of the brain. Patients diagnosed with brain astrocytoma in the SEER database from 2004 to 2015 were screened by inclusion exclusion criteria. Final screened brain astrocytoma patients were classified into low grade and high grade according to WHO classification. The risk factors affecting the survival of patients with low-grade and high-grade brain astrocytoma were analyzed by univariate Kaplan–Meier curves and log-rank tests, individually. Secondly, the data were randomly divided into training set and validation set according to the ratio of 7:3, and the training set data were analyzed by univariate and multivariate Cox regression, and the risk factors affecting the survival of patients were screened and nomogram was established to predict the survival rates of patients at 3 years and 5 years. The area under the ROC curve (AUC value), C-index, and Calibration curve are used to evaluate the sensitivity and calibration of the model. Univariate Kaplan–Meier survival curve and log-rank test showed that the risk factors affecting the prognosis of patients with low-grade astrocytoma included Age, Primary site, Tumor histological type, Grade, Tumor size, Extension, Surgery, Radiation, Chemotherapy and Tumor number; risk factors affecting the prognosis of patients with high-grade astrocytoma include Age, Primary site, Tumor histological type, Tumor size, Extension, Laterality, Surgery, Radiation, Chemotherapy and Tumor number. Through Cox regression, independent risk factors of patients with two grades were screened separately, and nomograms of risk factors for low-grade and high-grade astrocytoma were successfully established to predict the survival rate of patients at 3 and 5 years. The AUC values of low-grade astrocytoma training set patients were 0.829 and 0.801, and the C-index was 0.818 (95% CI 0.779, 0.857). The AUC values of patients in the validation set were 0.902, 0.829, and the C-index was 0.774 (95% CI 0.758, 0.790), respectively. The AUC values of high-grade astrocytoma training set patients were 0.814 and 0.806, the C-index was 0.774 (95% CI 0.758, 0.790), the AUC values of patients in the validation set were 0.802 and 0.823, and the C-index was 0.766 (95% CI 0.752, 0.780), respectively, and the calibration curves of the two levels of training set and validation set were well fitted. This study used data from the SEER database to identify risk factors affecting the survival prognosis of patients with brain astrocytoma, which can provide some guidance for clinicians

Additional file 2: Figure S1. of HOXD9 promotes epithelial–mesenchymal transition and cancer metastasis by ZEB1 regulation in hepatocellular carcinoma

Relative HOXD9 mRNA expression level in 102 liver cancerous tissues. (JPEG 653 kb