ABSTRACT: Body fluids from cancer patients are informative regarding disease conditions in tumor tissues. Thus, biomarkers detected by liquid biopsy can guide clinicians in designing personalized therapies and may serve as a proxy for treatment success. However, biomarkers that predict the existence of druggable target structures cannot be reliably defined in blood samples due to genetic tumor heterogeneity and presence of molecules from non-tumorous cells. To test the applicability of RNA signatures as liquid biopsy biomarkers, expression data from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells after inhibition of Hippo pathway effectors is investigated. We show that the oncogene yes-associated protein (YAP) transcriptionally controls a panel of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), which support HCC progression via tumor cell-intrinsic mechanisms. These lncRNAs are detectable and overexpressed in YAPS127A transgenic mouse livers as well as in a subgroup of human HCC tissue and serum samples. Using a machine learning algorithm, a 4 gene lncRNA signature is defined that correlates with the nuclear abundance of YAP in HCC tissues (CYTOR, SNHG1, SNHG17, MIR4435-2HG). Importantly, YAP accumulation in human HCCs is significantly associated with lncRNA signature serum abundance in two independent patient cohorts. Evaluation of expression data and confirmatory experiments illustrate that the lncRNA signature is a robust predictor for YAP activity in other tumor types such as lung adenocarcinoma. Liquid biopsy-based detection of lncRNAs in cancer patients is informative for the activity of transcriptional regulators and can serve as diagnostic tool that guides clinicians in the design of targeted therapies.
Project description:Body fluids from cancer patients are informative regarding disease conditions in tumor tissues. Thus, biomarkers detected by liquid biopsy can guide clinicians in designing personalized therapies and may serve as a proxy for treatment success. However, biomarkers that predict the existence of druggable target structures cannot be reliably defined in blood samples due to genetic tumor heterogeneity and presence of molecules from non-tumorous cells. To test the applicability of RNA signatures as liquid biopsy biomarkers, expression data from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells after inhibition of Hippo pathway effectors is investigated. We show that the oncogene yes-associated protein (YAP) transcriptionally controls a panel of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), which support HCC progression via tumor cell-intrinsic mechanisms. These lncRNAs are detectable and overexpressed in YAPS127A transgenic mouse livers as well as in a subgroup of human HCC tissue and serum samples. Using a machine learning algorithm, a 4 gene lncRNA signature is defined that correlates with the nuclear abundance of YAP in HCC tissues (CYTOR, SNHG1, SNHG17, MIR4435-2HG). Importantly, YAP accumulation in human HCCs is significantly associated with lncRNA signature serum abundance in two independent patient cohorts. Evaluation of expression data and confirmatory experiments illustrate that the lncRNA signature is a robust predictor for YAP activity in other tumor types such as lung adenocarcinoma. Liquid biopsy-based detection of lncRNAs in cancer patients is informative for the activity of transcriptional regulators and can serve as diagnostic tool that guides clinicians in the design of targeted therapies.
Project description:We performed a hybridization-based microarray analysis for lncRNA expression to understand the involvement of lncRNAs in HCC and to investigate differentially expressed lncRNAs in HCC, thereby characterizing their potential roles in tumor growth. The expression profiles of SMMC7721 HepG2 and Huh7 human HCC cell lines and the HL-7702 human immortalized normal hepatocyte cells were performed by the lncRNA microassay. SMMC7721, HepG2 and Huh7 human HCC cell lines were defined as the experimental group and HL-7702 cell line was used as the control.
Project description:Although many protein-coding genes have been identified to be aberrantly expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the mechanisms that account for development and progression of HCC remain unclear. In recent years, long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been shown to have critical regulatory roles in mammalian cell biology. Many lncRNAs can result in aberrant expression of gene products that may contribute to cancer biology. In this study, we first identified non-overlapping signatures of a small number of lncRNAs that are aberrantly expressed in human HCC compared with paired peritumoral tissues. Then we used real-time PCR to validate five lncRNAs whose expression was altered in HCC compared with paired peritumoral tissues. Using loss-of-function and gain-of-function approaches, we found that an lncRNA (termed lncRNA-HEIH) plays a key role in cell cycle regulation. We further demonstrated that lncRNA-HEIH bound to enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) and that this interaction was required for the repression of EZH2 target genes. Together, these results reveal insights into the molecular regulation mechanisms of HCC cell cycle regulation and lead us to propose that lncRNAs may serve as key regulatory hubs in cancer biology. A ten chip study using total RNA recovered from five separate HCC tissues and five corresponding paired non-tumor samples.
Project description:A total of 180 Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and 125 adjacent normal samples were examined. Genome-wide DNA methylation profiling was done with Illumina HumanMethylation850 Beadchip of approximately 850,000 CpG sites. Aims: To identify HCC-specific methylation based biomarkers which are suitable for liquid biopsy.
Project description:We conducted this experiment in order to investigate the different expression level of lncRNAs involved in HCC patients and the control samples. In addition, we detected the expression of lncRNA via the lncRNA microrray in the patients who undertaken the tumor resection
Project description:Liver cancer is one of the most lethal cancers worldwide. Liquid biopsy provides a noninvasive approach in detecting and monitoring cancer biomarkers to overcome current limitations associated with tissue biopsies, comprising the analysis of circulating tumor-derived material. In this study, we profiled plasma cell-free RNA-seq to identify recurrently dysregulated RNA biomarkers for the liquid biopsy of cancer.
Project description:To determine the lncRNA expression profile in HCC and matched non-tumor tissues, we used lncRNA microArray analysis form Arraystar to examine the expression of lncRNAs in HCC and matched non-tumor tissues. Goal was to determine the different gene expression between HCC and matched noncancerous tissue.
Project description:To explore the potential involvement of lncRNAs in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) oncogenesis, we conducted lncRNA and mRNA profiling in 3 pairs of human HCC and adjacent normal tissue (NT) by microarray. With abundant probes accounting for 33,045 lncRNAs and 30,215 coding transcripts in our microarray, the number of lncRNAs and coding transcripts that could be detected here is 10,149 and 14,944, respectively. From the data, thousands of lncRNAs and mRNAs were found to bedifferentially expressed (Fold Change≥2.0) in HCC tissues compared with NT and identified 624 lncRNAs and 1050 mRNAs were differentially expressed in all three HCC tissues.Bioinformatic analysis (gene ontology, pathway and network analysis) was performed for further study of these differentially expressed mRNAs.By qRT-PCR analysis in nineteen pairs HCC and adjacent normal tissues, we found that eightl ncRNAs were aberrantly expressed in HCC compared with corresponding NT, which is consistent with microarray data. Additionally, change trends of seven lncRNAs were basically identical to their nearby coding genes. In this study, to explore the potential involvement of lncRNAs in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) oncogenesis, we conducted lncRNA and mRNA profiling in 3 pairs of human HCC and adjacent normal tissue (NT) by microarray.
Project description:We performed a hybridization-based microarray analysis for lncRNA expression to understand the involvement of lncRNAs in HCC and to investigate differentially expressed lncRNAs in HCC, thereby characterizing their potential roles in tumor growth.
Project description:Sustained hepatic inflammation can contribute to cancer initiation and progression via tumor-initiating cell expansion, but underlying mechanisms remains unknown. Expression profiles of lncRNAs/mRNAs were measured in normal, chronic hepatitis, cirrhotic and cancerous livers. We found abundant disease-related lncRNAs/mRNAs deregulated across different stages of inflammation-triggered liver disease and refined a transformation gene signature to distinguish pathological liver tissues. Amongst this signature, a conserved lncRNA DANCR was silenced in normal adult liver, but overexpressed in fetal and cancerous livers. Remarkably, increased DANCR significantly correlates with poor prognosis in multiple-center cohorts and is directly induced by inflammatory pathways including NF-κB and STAT3. DANCR could suppress cell differentiation and drive expansion of tumor-initiating cells, leading to chemoresistance. Moreover, in vitro and in vivo inhibition confirms the significance of DANCR as a therapeutic target when combined with other chemotherapy. We illustrate the role of DANCR relies on the regulation of CTNNB1 in a novel miRNA-blocking manner. Our studies reveal the expression of lncRNAs/mRNAs in normal and pathological livers and suggest the importance of oncofetal lncRNA DANCR in inflammation-induced malignant transformation, offering a potential prognostic marker and a therapeutic target for HCC. In the study, 10 normal livers (NL), 10 chronic inflammatory livers (IL), 10 cirrhotic livers (CL), 13 early HCC (eHCC) and 13 advanced HCC (aHCC) samples were profiled their lncRNA/mRNA expression