Donghai Zhuang¹, Li Liang¹, Hongzhan Zhang, Xianguang Feng

Oncology Research, Vol.28, No.4, pp. 399-408, 2020, DOI:10.3727/096504020X15864296270581

Abstract miRNAs play an important role in progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In this work, we assessed the function of miR-202 in human HCC and identified BCL2 as its target. We found miR-202 expression was found significantly downregulated, while BCL2 expression was markedly upregulated in HCC tissues and cell lines (HepG2, Hep3B, and HCCLM3). Both miR-202 and BCL2 were closely correlated with major vascular invasion and advanced TNM stage as well as overall survival of HCC patients. Overexpression of miR-202 significantly inhibited cell proliferation, induced apoptosis and cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase, and prevented tumor formation in a xenograft… More >

Ming Jia^*1, Yulin Xiong^†1, Maoshi Li^*, Qing Mao^*

Oncology Research, Vol.28, No.4, pp. 371-383, 2020, DOI:10.3727/096504020X15853075736554

Abstract Chemotherapy is critical for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Despite the proapoptotic effects of corosolic acid (CA) treatment, its underlying mechanism is not completely clear. The aim of this study was to determine the molecular mechanism of CA in HCC treatment. MTT assay was used to determine the IC50 of CA. Immunoprecipitation and immunofluorescence were used to detect the interaction and subcellular localization of Yes-associated protein (YAP) and mouse double minute 2 (MDM2). In addition, in vivo xenotransplantation was performed to assess the effects of CA, YAP, and MDM2 on tumorigenesis. The IC50 of CA was about 40 µM… More >

Kairui Liu^*, Xiaolin Wu^*, Xian Zang^†, Zejian Huang^*, Zeyu Lin^‡, Wenliang Tan^*, Xiang Wu^*, Wenrou Hu^*, Baoqi Li^*, Lei Zhang^*

Oncology Research, Vol.28, No.5, pp. 559-560, 2020, DOI:10.3727/096504020X16032056440102

Abstract Overexpression of the tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 4 (TRAF4) has been detected in many cancer types and is considered to foster tumor progression. However, the role of TRAF4 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains elusive. In this study, we found that TRAF4 was highly expressed in HCC cell lines and HCC tissues compared with normal liver cell lines and adjacent noncancerous tissues. TRAF4 overexpression in HCC tissues was correlated with tumor quantity and vascular invasion. In vitro studies showed that TRAF4 was associated with HCC cell migration and invasion. An in vivo study verified that TRAF4 overexpression facilitated metastasis in… More >

Junfeng Lu^*, Zhongsong Zhao^†, Yanhong Ma^‡

Oncology Research, Vol.28, No.5, pp. 509-518, 2020, DOI:10.3727/096504020X15954139263808

Abstract The present study aimed to investigate the effect of miR-186 on proliferation, migration, invasion, and epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In this work, miR-186 was downregulated in HCC tissues and cells, and low miR-186 level helped predict the occurrence of vascular invasion and poor prognosis in patients with HCC. miR-186 overexpression inhibited cell proliferation and tumor growth in nude mice, repressed migration and invasion abilities, and enhanced apoptosis in HCC cells. miR-186 also retarded progression of EMT. miR-186 directly bound to the 3 -untranslated regions of cyclin-dependent kinase 6 (CDK6) to inhibit its expression. Overexpression of CDK6 markedly… More >

FEIFEI TIAN¹, HUAN HU¹, DI WANG¹, HUAN DING¹, QINGJIA CHI², HUAPING LIANG³, WENLI ZENG^4,*

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.10, pp. 2291-2301, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.020198

Abstract This study used transcriptome and epigenetic data to predict the prognosis of immune-related genes (IRGs) Apelin (APLN) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The TCGA database has gene expression and clinical data for HCC. And DNA methylation 450 k data for HCC was download from the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) Xena browser. Performing clinical and prognostic analysis of APLN expression, results show that APLN is highly expressed in tumor samples. And it has an increasing trend with the development of clinical stage and T stage. To explore the prognostic role of APLN, the Immune-related DNA methylation (DNAm) sites… More >

Dong Yan^1,#, Chunxiao Li^2,#, Yantong Zhou², Xue Yan¹, Weihua Zhi¹, Haili Qian^2,*, Yue Han^1,*

Oncologie, Vol.24, No.1, pp. 101-111, 2022, DOI:10.32604/oncologie.2022.020357

Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most deadly types of cancer. Sorafenib is currently the only available first-line molecular targeted drug approved by the FDA for HCC. However, primary and secondary resistance is often encountered with treatment with sorafenib. Genomic alterations found in HCC represent potential targets to develop new drugs or new combinational strategies against this type of cancer. Here we analyzed genomic alterations from the TCGA database of HCC samples and the corresponding targeted drugs available to the clinic to identify candidate drugs that might hold promise when used in combination with sorafenib. Our results revealed that… More >

FEI CHEN^1,2, LIANG WANG^3,*, YUHONG LI^1,2,*

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.7, pp. 1687-1696, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.018078

Abstract Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are vital regulators in tumorigenesis and metastasis. However, the pathological role of lncRNAs in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is still unclear. In this study, we filtered out three lncRNAs from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data that were screened for basic expression and clinical research. We selected lncRNA-NEAT1 for further study to explore its function in HCC progression and its regulatory mechanism. We identified three differentially expressed lncRNAs (DElncRNAs) in tumor and adjacent normal tissues from the TCGA library using data mining methods: lncRNA-NEAT1, lncRNA-MAGI2-AS3 and lncRNA-HCG11. Their basic expression levels were detected by qPCR. Then, we… More >

YAO XU^1,#, BIN WU^2,#, JING YANG³, SHENG ZHANG², LONGGEN LIU⁴, SUOBAO XU^2,*, JIAKAI JIANG^2,*

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.6, pp. 1483-1491, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.017745

Abstract To study the roles and association of murine double minute gene 2 (MDM2) and fructose-1,6-biphosphatase (FBP1) in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), growth response of human HCC cells was assessed using proliferation and apoptosis assay. Pro-survival AKT signaling associated proteins (p-AKT, survivin and cleaved caspase 3) were assessed using western blotting. The correlation between MDM2 and FBP1 was assessed using co-immunoprecipitation combined with ubiquitination assay. Our data suggested that low expression of FBP1 was correlated with high levels of MDM2 in HCC cell lines (Huh7 and Hep3B). Overexpression of FBP1 resulted in anti-proliferation, pro-apoptosis, the up-regulation of cleaved caspase 3 while… More >

JIAN XU^1,#, HAILONG GE^1,#, CHEN CHAO¹, FENG MO¹, YU WANG¹, DENGKUI ZHANG¹, XIAOXIAO ZHENG², LI ZHENG², XUEMEI LU², WEI CHEN², QUN XU^1,*, WEIXIN YU^1,*

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.6, pp. 1493-1503, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.016962

Abstract Although sorafenib has been found to prolong the survival time of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), sorafenib resistance remains an important challenge. Increasing studies have demonstrated that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) contribute to drug resistance in a wide number of cancers. Human periodontal ligament stem cell (PDLSC) osteogenesis impairment-related lncRNA (POIR) is a recently defined lncRNA for which little is known regarding its function. Our study aimed to reveal the role of POIR in the development of HCC cell sorafenib resistance. The level of POIR expression in patients and tumor cells was examined by Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR)… More >

RUI XU¹, QIBIAO WU¹, YUHAN GONG², YONGZHE WU¹, QINGJIA CHI^1,*, DA SUN^3,*

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.5, pp. 1261-1288, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.018427

Abstract There is currently no effective solution to the problem of poor prognosis and recurrence of HCC. The technology of immunotherapy and prognosis of genetic material has made continuous progress in recent years. In the study, a 5-gene signature was established for the prognosis of HCC through biological information, and the immune infiltration of HCC patients was studied. After studied HCC patients’ immune infiltration, the paper screened the differential target genes of miR-126-3p in HCC downloaded from TCGA database, and uses WGCNA method to select the modular genes highly relevant to M2 macrophage. Then we use LASSO and COX regression analysis… More >