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The interplay of UBE2T and Mule in regulating Wnt/?-catenin activation to promote hepatocellular carcinoma progression.

ABSTRACT: Emerging evidence indicates the role of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in tumor relapse and therapeutic resistance in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). To identify novel targets against liver CSCs, an integrative analysis of publicly available datasets involving HCC clinical and stemness-related data was employed to select genes that play crucial roles in HCC via regulation of liver CSCs. We revealed an enrichment of an interstrand cross-link repair pathway, in which ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2 T (UBE2T) was the most significantly upregulated. Consistently, our data showed that UBE2T was upregulated in enriched liver CSC populations. Clinically, UBE2T overexpression in HCC was further confirmed at mRNA and protein levels and was correlated with advanced tumor stage and poor patient survival. UBE2T was found to be critically involved in the regulation of liver CSCs, as evidenced by increases in self-renewal, drug resistance, tumorigenicity, and metastasis abilities. Mule, an E3 ubiquitin ligase, was identified to be the direct protein binding partner of UBE2T. Rather than the canonical role of acting as a mediator to transfer ubiquitin to E3 ligases, UBE2T is surprisingly able to physically bind and regulate the protein expression of Mule via ubiquitination. Mule was found to directly degrade ?-catenin protein, and UBE2T was found to mediate liver CSC functions through direct regulation of Mule-mediated ?-catenin degradation; this effect was abolished when the E2 activity of UBE2T was impaired. In conclusion, we revealed a novel UBE2T/Mule/?-catenin signaling cascade that is involved in the regulation of liver CSCs, which provides an attractive potential therapeutic target for HCC.

SUBMITTER: Ho NPY

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7862307 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The interplay of UBE2T and Mule in regulating Wnt/β-catenin activation to promote hepatocellular carcinoma progression.

Ho Nicole Pui Yu NPY Leung Carmen Oi Ning CON Wong Tin Lok TL Lau Eunice Yuen Ting EYT Lei Martina Mang Leng MML Mok Etienne Ho Kit EHK Leung Hoi Wing HW Tong Man M Ng Irene Oi Lin IOL Yun Jing Ping JP Ma Stephanie S Lee Terence Kin Wah TKW

Cell death & disease 20210201 2

Emerging evidence indicates the role of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in tumor relapse and therapeutic resistance in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). To identify novel targets against liver CSCs, an integrative analysis of publicly available datasets involving HCC clinical and stemness-related data was employed to select genes that play crucial roles in HCC via regulation of liver CSCs. We revealed an enrichment of an interstrand cross-link repair pathway, in which ubiquitin-conjugating ...[more]

PMID: 33542213

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Project description:BackgroundHepatocellular carcinoma is a widespread cancer worldwide, ranking as the fifth most frequent cancer and the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths. According to comprehensive research, TLK2, a phosphorylated kinase, has been discovered to play a crucial role in promoting tumor development. However, the prognostic significance and influence of TLK2 on hepatocellular carcinoma tumor cells and the immune microenvironment remain unexplored, warranting further investigation. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of TLK2 in promoting the development of hepatocellular carcinoma.MethodsThe present study utilized The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and other databases as training sets to examine the expression of TLK2 and its prognostic significance. The findings were subsequently validated through cell proliferation assays and cell colony assays. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was employed to investigate the tumor-related biological processes associated with TLK2 in hepatocellular carcinoma, while the relationship between TLK2 expression and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway was analyzed via TCGA dataset analysis. Western blotting and immunofluorescence assays were used to confirm the experimental results.ResultsTLK2 showed higher expression levels in tumor tissues than in normal tissues. Alpha fetoprotein (AFP), T stage, pathological stage, and histological grade were significantly associated with TLK2 expression. High TLK2 expression correlated with worse overall survival (OS) [hazard ratio (HR) =1.62, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.14-2.29, P=0.007], progression-free survival (PFS) (HR =1.88, 95% CI: 1.40-2.52, P<0.001) and disease specific survival (DSS) (HR =1.86, 95% CI: 1.18-2.93, P=0.007) in the training and validation sets. Both univariate and multivariate analyses showed that TLK2 was an independent prognostic factor. GSEA showed that TLK2 was significantly enriched in tumor-related biological processes. TLK2 induced the activation of β-catenin signaling, resulting in sustained tumor growth. Methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) and colony formation assays demonstrated that TLK2 could promote hepatocellular carcinoma progression. Furthermore, TLK2 showed a significant association with β-catenin in the Wnt pathway.ConclusionsTLK2 represents an independent prognostic factor in hepatocellular carcinoma and can promote cancer progression via the β-catenin signaling pathway.

Dataset Information

The interplay of UBE2T and Mule in regulating Wnt/?-catenin activation to promote hepatocellular carcinoma progression.

Publications

The interplay of UBE2T and Mule in regulating Wnt/β-catenin activation to promote hepatocellular carcinoma progression.

Similar Datasets

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