Project description:Gene expression profiling of early stage cervical cancer tumours with and without lymph node metastasis, in order to predict lymph node metastasis before treatment. Subsequently, comparing gene expression profiles between healthy cervical tissue and early stage cervical cancer tissue. Experiment Overall Design: All patients had clinical FIGO stage IB-IIA cervical cancer, the low-risk group (N) included 19 patients without unfavourable prognostic factors (positive lymph nodes, parametrial invasion, positive margins or a combination of unfavourable prognostic factors); the high risk group (P) consisted of 16 patients with lymph node metastasis, who were treated with adjuvant radiation therapy with or without chemotherapy. Healthy cervical tissue biopsies (H) were collected from 5 non-cervical carcinoma patients who underwent hysterectomy for benign reasons. RNA pooled from all tumour tissue samples was used as reference sample. Log-ratios of five technical replicates were used for normalization.
Project description:Background: Cervical lymph node metastasis is a potent prognostic factor in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). However, lymph nodes resected by sentinel node biopsy or neck dissection are usually diagnosed by examining only one or two sections of the maximal cut surface. Accurate diagnosis of the metastasis in lymph nodes is important but depends on a heavy workload of the pathologist. In this study, we have attempted to identify novel molecular markers to find the harboring cancer cells in the lymph node and establish rapid detection method. Methods: We determined the gene expression profiles of 7 metastatic lymph nodes from patients with OSCC and 1 normal lymph node and 5 salivary glands from non-cancerous patients by microarray analysis. We found the overexpression genes in all metastatic lymph nodes. Subsequently, we examined the expression of these genes in newly 23 metastatic lymph nodes and 9 normal lymph nodes by real-time quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) assay. Moreover, the rapid detection of lymph node metastasis by these genes was examined using the reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) method. Result: Among the 4 genes identified by microarray analysis, annexin A8 (ANXA8) and desmoglein 3 (DSG3) were detected in all metastatic lymph nodes at a much higher level but not in normal lymph nodes at all by qRT-PCR. Furthermore, RT-LAMP method targeting ANXA8 rapidly detected almost lymph nodes with metastasis. Conclusions: ANXA8 could be a useful marker for detecting lymph node metastasis in OSCC. Using AB1700 system, we determined the gene expression profiles of lymph nodes with metastasis of OSCC. Normal lymph node and salivary gland tissues were used as control samples.
Project description:N4-acetylcytidine (ac4C) is a posttransciptional RNA modification regulating in various important bioprocess. However, the role in human cancer, especially lymph node metastasis, remains largely unknown. Here, we showed NAT10, as the only “writer” of ac4C mRNA modification, was highly expressed in HNSCC patients with lymph node metastasis. High NAT10 levels in lymph node of HNSCC patients predicted poor overall survival. Moreover, we found the high expression of NAT10 was positively upregulated by NRF1 transcription factor. Gain and loss-of-function displayed that NAT10 promoted cell metastasis in mice. Mechanistically, NAT10 induced ac4C modification of GLMP and stabilized its mRNA, which triggered the activation of MAPK/ERK signaling pathway. Lastly, the NAT10’s specific inhibitor Remodelin could inhibit HNSCC tumorigenesis via 4-NQO-induced murine tumor model and remodel the tumor microenvironment, including angiogenesis, CD8+ T cell and Treg recruitment. These results demonstrated that NAT10 promoted lymph node metastasis of HNSCC via ac4C-dependent stabilization of GLMP transcript, providing a potential epitranscriptomic-targeted therapeutic strategy for HNSCC.
Project description:Background: Cervical lymph node metastasis is a potent prognostic factor in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). However, lymph nodes resected by sentinel node biopsy or neck dissection are usually diagnosed by examining only one or two sections of the maximal cut surface. Accurate diagnosis of the metastasis in lymph nodes is important but depends on a heavy workload of the pathologist. In this study, we have attempted to identify novel molecular markers to find the harboring cancer cells in the lymph node and establish rapid detection method. Methods: We determined the gene expression profiles of 7 metastatic lymph nodes from patients with OSCC and 1 normal lymph node and 5 salivary glands from non-cancerous patients by microarray analysis. We found the overexpression genes in all metastatic lymph nodes. Subsequently, we examined the expression of these genes in newly 23 metastatic lymph nodes and 9 normal lymph nodes by real-time quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) assay. Moreover, the rapid detection of lymph node metastasis by these genes was examined using the reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) method. Result: Among the 4 genes identified by microarray analysis, annexin A8 (ANXA8) and desmoglein 3 (DSG3) were detected in all metastatic lymph nodes at a much higher level but not in normal lymph nodes at all by qRT-PCR. Furthermore, RT-LAMP method targeting ANXA8 rapidly detected almost lymph nodes with metastasis. Conclusions: ANXA8 could be a useful marker for detecting lymph node metastasis in OSCC.
Project description:Secreted extracellular vesicles are known to influence the tumor microenvironment and promote metastasis. In this work, we have analyzed the involvement of extracellular vesicles in establishing the lymph node pre-metastatic niche by melanoma cells. We found that small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) derived from highly metastatic melanoma cell lines spread broadly through the lymphatic system and are taken up by lymphatic endothelial cells reinforcing lymph node metastasis. Melanoma-derived sEVs induce lymphangiogenesis, a hallmark of pre-metastatic niche formation, in vitro and in lymphoreporter mice in vivo. Analysis of involved factors demonstrated that the neural growth factor receptor (NGFR) is secreted in melanoma-derived small extracellular vesicles and shuttled to lymphatic endothelial cells inducing lymphangiogenesis and tumor cell adhesion through the activation of ERK and NF-B pathways and ICAM1 expression. Importantly, ablation or inhibition of NGFR in sEVs reversed the lymphangiogenic phenotype, decreased melanoma lymph node metastasis and extended mice survival. Importantly, analysis of NGFR expression in lymph node metastases and matched primary tumors shows that levels of MITF+NGFR+ lymph node metastatic cells are correlated with disease outcome. Our data support that NGFR is secreted in sEVs favoring lymph node pre-metastatic niche formation and lymph node metastasis in melanoma.
Project description:Secreted extracellular vesicles are known to influence the tumor microenvironment and promote metastasis. In this work, we have analyzed the involvement of extracellular vesicles in the establishment of lymph node pre-metastatic niches by melanoma cells. We found that small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) derived from highly metastatic melanoma cell lines spread broadly through the lymphatic system and were taken up by lymphatic endothelial cells, reinforcing lymph node metastasis. Melanoma-derived sEVs induce lymphangiogenesis, a hallmark of pre-metastatic niche formation, in vitro and in lymphoreporter mice in vivo. We found that neural growth factor receptor (NGFR) is secreted in melanoma-derived small extracellular vesicles and shuttled to lymphatic endothelial cells, inducing lymphangiogenesis and tumor cell adhesion through the activation of ERK and NF-B pathways and ICAM1 expression. Importantly, ablation or inhibition of NGFR in sEVs reversed the lymphangiogenic phenotype, decreased melanoma lymph node metastasis and extended the survival. Importantly, analysis of NGFR expression in lymph node metastases and matched primary tumors shows that levels of MITF+NGFR+ lymph node metastatic cells are correlated with disease outcome. Our data support the idea that NGFR secreted in sEVs favors lymph node pre-metastatic niche formation and lymph node metastasis in melanoma
Project description:Gene expression profiling of early stage cervical cancer tumours with and without lymph node metastasis, in order to predict lymph node metastasis before treatment. Subsequently, comparing gene expression profiles between healthy cervical tissue and early stage cervical cancer tissue. Keywords: Disease stage analysis
Project description:Increasing evidence has demonstrated a significant role for long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in tumorigenesis. However, their functions in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) metastasis remain largely unknown. In this study, a model compared high and low metastatic NPC cell lines (5-8F vs. 6-10B and S18 vs. S26)was constructed to determine the expression profile of lncRNAs using the microarray analysis, and we found 167 lncRNAs and 209 mRNAs were differentially expressed. Validationof 26 significantly dysregulated lncRNAs by qRT-PCR showed the expression patterns of 22 lncRNAs were in accordance with the microarray data. Furthermore, the expression level of ENST00000470135, which was the most upregulated lncRNA in high metastatic cell lines, was significantly higher in NPC cell lines and tissues with lymph node metastasis(LNM)and knocking down ENST00000470135 suppressed the migration, invasion and proliferation of NPC cells in vitro. In conclusion, our study revealed expression patterns of lncRNAs in NPC metastasis. The dysregulated lncRNAs may act as novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets for NPC.
Project description:Controlling metastatic lesions is an important part of improving cancer prognosis, in addition to controlling the primary lesion. There have been many histological examinations of primary and metastatic lesions, but little basic research using cell strains from primary and metastatic lesions belonging to the same patient. In this study, we successfully established a cell strain derived from lower gingival carcinoma (WK2) and a strain derived from secondary cervical lymph node metastasis (WK3F) through primary cultures of tissue from a patient with oral squamous cell carcinoma. We then investigated the biological characteristics of the cancer cell strains from these primary and metastatic lesions, and analyzed metastasis-related genes. Comparing the biological characteristics in vitro showed WK3F to have higher cell proliferation ability and shorter cell doubling time than WK2. It also showed increased cell migratory ability, and high invasive and self-replication abilities. Heterotransplantation into nude mice resulted in high tumor formation rates in the tongue and high metastasis rates in the cervical lymph nodes. Changes in WK2 and WK3F gene expression were comprehensively analyzed with the microarray method. Genes with increased expression in WK3F compared to WK2 were extracted when Z-score ≥ 2.0 and ratio ≥ 5.0, while genes with reduced expression in WK3F compared to WK2 were extracted when Z-score ≤ -2.0 and ratio ≤ 0.2. As a result, differences were found in 604 genes. From these, MAGEC1 (88.0 times), MMP-7 (18.6 times), SNAI1 (6.6 times), MACC1 (6.2 times), and HTRA1 (0.012 times) were selected as metastasis-related candidate genes. The results suggest that these molecules could be important to clarifying the mechanism of metastasis, and could become therapeutic targets. We successfully established a cell strain derived from lower gingival carcinoma (WK2) and a strain derived from secondary cervical lymph node metastasis (WK3F) through primary cultures of tissue from a patient with oral squamous cell carcinoma. Changes in WK2 and WK3F gene expression were comprehensively analyzed with the microarray method.