Project description:Non-coding microRNAs (miRNAs) mainly regulate the expression of targeted genes by regulating mRNA degradation or repressing their protein translation. Recent research has shown miRNAs to have remarkable potential as biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of disease. Since vascular invasion (VI) provides a direct path for solid tumor metastasis/recurrence, in this study we investigated if miRNAs can serve as a biomarker to differentiate between VI- and VI+ tumors. MiRNA microarray profiling was then performed on 172 human HCC tumors samples with or without VI from HCC patients.
Project description:Non-coding microRNAs (miRNAs) mainly regulate the expression of targeted genes by regulating mRNA degradation or repressing their protein translation. Recent research has shown miRNAs to have remarkable potential as biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of disease. Since vascular invasion (VI) provides a direct path for solid tumor metastasis/recurrence, in this study we investigated if miRNAs can serve as a biomarker to differentiate between VI- and VI+ tumors. MiRNA microarray profiling was then performed on 172 human HCC tumors samples with or without VI from HCC patients.
Project description:Vascular invasion is considered as the critical risk factors for tumor recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). To reveal the molecular mechanisms underlying macrovascular invasion (MaVI) and metastasis in HCC, we performed an iTRAQ based proteomic study to identify notably dysregulated proteins in 53 HCC patients with differential vascular invasion. In patients with MaVI, 47 proteins were significantly down-regulated in HCC tumor tissue. More importantly, 30 of them were not changed in HCC without MaVI. Gene ontology analysis of these 47 proteins shows the top 3 enriched pathways are urea cycle, gluconeogenesis and arginine biosynthetic process. We validated 9 remarkably dysregulated candidates in HCC patients with MaVI by Western blot, including 8 down-regulated proteins (CPS1, ASS1, ASL, ARG1, BHMT, DMGDH, Annexin A6 and CES1) and 1 up-regulated protein (CKAP4). Furthermore, dysregulation of CPS1, ASL and ARG1, key enzymes involved in urea cycle, together with Annexin A6 and CES1, major proteins in regulating cholesterol homeostasis and fatty acid ester metabolism were verified using immunohistochemical staining. The significant down-regulation of urea cycle generates clinically relevant proteomic signature in HCC patients with macrovascular invasion, which may provide possible insights into the molecular mechanisms of metastasis and new therapeutic targets of HCC.
Project description:Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a complex and heterogeneous tumor due to activation of multiple cellular pathways and molecular alterations. Herein, we report the first molecular classification of 89 HCC based on the expression of 358 microRNAs and integrative genomic analysis. Three main subclasses of HCC were identified : two of them were associated with beta-catenin mutations or aggressive phenotype. A subset of the subclass of aggressive tumors (8/89, 9%) showed overexpression of a cluster of microRNAs located on chr19q13.41 (C19MC locus. We showed that miR 517a, representing C19MC, promoted cell proliferation, migration and invasion in vitro and induced the development of aggressive tumors in vivo suggesting its role as a novel oncogenic driver in HCC. This SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below. Refer to individual Series
Project description:Non-coding microRNAs (miRNAs) mainly regulate the expression of targeted genes by regulating mRNA degradation or repressing their protein translation. MiRNA microarray profiling was then performed on 218 human HCC tumors samples, 10 samples from adjacent cirrhotic non-tumoral tissue, 10 samples from healthy liver and 12 HCC cell lines. In this study we investigated which miRNAs were differentially expressed in HCC compared to cirrhotic non-tumoral tissue and healthy liver.
Project description:These paired HCC and non-tumorous liver tissues were used to determine highly differentially expressed genes in HCC and non-tumorous liver tissue. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a malignancy with poor survival outcome. Genes showing extreme differential expression between paired human HCC and adjacent non-tumorous liver tissue were investigated. PLVAP was identified as a gene specifically expressed in vascular endothelial cells of HCC but not in non-tumorous liver tissues. This finding was confirmed by RT-PCR analysis of micro-dissected cells and immunohistochemical staining of tissue sections. A recombinant monoclonal anti-PLVAP Fab fragment co-expressing extracellular domain of human tissue factor (TF) was developed. The potential therapeutic effect and toxicity to treat HCC were studied using a Hep3B HCC xenograft model in SCID mice. Infusion of recombinant monoclonal anti-PLVAP Fab-TF into the tumor feeding artery induced tumor vascular thrombosis and extensive tumor necrosis at doses between 2.5 µg and 12 µg. Tumor growth was suppressed for 40 days after a single treatment. Systemic administration did not induce tumor necrosis. Little systemic toxicity was noted for this therapeutic agent. The results of this study suggest that anti-PLVAP Fab-TF may be used to treat HCC cases for which transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) is currently used, but without major drawbacks of TACE. Anti-PLVAP Fab-TF may improve therapeutic outcome and be a viable therapeutic agent in patients with more advanced disease and compromised liver function. Frozen hepatocellular carcinoma and adjacent non-tumorous liver tissues were used for gnee expression profiling study. Affymetrix U133A genechips were used for gene expression profiling. This dataset is part of the TransQST collection.
Project description:BACKGROUND. Perineural invasion (PNI) is the dominant pathway for local invasion in prostate cancer. To date, only few studies have investigated the molecular differences between prostate tumors with PNI and those without it. METHODS. To evaluate the involvement of both microRNAs and protein-coding genes in PNI, we determined their genome-wide expression with a custom microRNA microarray and Affymetrix GeneChips in 50 prostate adenocarcinomas with PNI and 7 without it. In-situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry was used to validate candidate genes. RESULTS. Unsupervised classification of the 57 adenocarcinomas revealed two clusters of tumors with distinct global microRNA expression. One cluster contained all non-PNI tumors and a subgroup of PNI tumors. Significance analysis of microarray data yielded a list of microRNAs associated with PNI. At a false discovery rate (FDR) < 10%, 19 microRNAs were higher expressed in PNI tumors than in non-PNI tumors. The most differently expressed microRNA was miR-224. In-situ hybridization showed that this microRNA is expressed by perineural cancer cells. The analysis of protein-coding genes identified 34 transcripts that were differently expressed by PNI status (FDR <10%). These transcripts were down-regulated in PNI tumors. Many of those encoded metallothioneins and proteins with mitochondrial localization and involvement in cell metabolism. Consistent with the microarray data, perineural cancer cells tended to have lower metallothionein expression by immunohistochemistry than nonperineural cancer cells. CONCLUSIONS. Although preliminary, our findings suggest that alterations in microRNA expression, mitochondrial function, and cell metabolism occur at the transition from a non-invasive prostate tumor to a tumor with PNI. Keywords: Disease State analysis