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Aberrant expression of oncogenes and/or tumor suppressors play a fundamental effect on the pathogenesis and tumorigenicity of cervical cancer (CC). B-cell CLL/lymphoma 3 (BCL3) was previously found to be a putative proto-oncogene in human cancers and regulated signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), a critical oncogene, in CC cell line. However, its expression status, clinical significance and biological functions in CC remain largely unclear. The expressions of BCL3 and STAT3 in CC specimens were determined by immunohistochemistry. MTT, colony formation assays and flow cytometry analysis were carried out to test proliferation and cell cycle of CC cells. Here, the levels of BCL3 were overexpressed in CC compared to adjacent cervical tissues. Furthermore, high levels of BCL3 protein were confirmed by immunoblotting in CC cells as compared with normal cervical epithelial cells. The positive expression of BCL3 was correlated with adverse prognostic features and reduced survival rate. In addition, BCL3 regulated STAT3 abundance in CC cells. STAT3 was found to be upregulated and positively correlated with BCL3 expression in CC specimens. BCL3 overexpression resulted in prominent increased proliferation and cell cycle progression in Hela cells. By contrast, inhibition of BCL3 in CaSki cells remarkably suppressed proliferative ability and cell cycle progression. In vivo studies showed that knockdown of BCL3 inhibited tumor growth of CC in mice xenograft model. Notably, we confirmed that STAT3 mediated the oncogenic roles of BCL3 in CC. In conclusion, we suggest that BCL3 serves as an oncogene in CC by modulating proliferation and cell cycle progression, and its oncogenic effect is mediated by its downstream target gene, STAT3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endometrial cancer is one of the most common malignant tumours in women, and cancer stem cells are known to play an important role in its growth, invasion, metastasis, and drug resistance. Immunotherapy for endometrial cancer is still under research. In this study, a total of 547 endometrial cancer cases were randomly divided into training set (351 cases) set and test set (196 cases). The stemness index of patients was calculated using the One-Class Logistic Regression (OCLR) machine learning algorithm to explore the clinicopathological differences between index levels. Stemness subtypes were determined according to the characteristics of cancer stemness and their clinicopathological characteristics, immune features, and therapeutic effects were described. Our study suggests that endometrial cancer is classified into two stemness subtypes. Stemness subtypes, which are associated with its clinical features, may be independent prognostic factors for endometrial cancer. The stemness subtypes differed significantly in immune activity, immune cell infiltration, and the immune microenvironment, including sensitivity to chemotherapeutic drugs and potential therapeutic compounds. Algorithms were utilised to construct a stemness subtype prediction model and predictor. These findings will provide guidance for the clinical diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of endometrial cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) cardiac mesoderm enhancer-associated noncoding RNA (CARMN) is a newly discovered tumor-suppressor lncRNA in cancers. However, its role in cervical cancer (CC) remains elusive. This study was conducted to analyze the molecular mechanism of CARMN in CC cell growth and provide a novel theoretical basis for CC treatment. RT-qPCR and clinical analysis revealed that CARMN and B-cell translocation gene 2 (BTG2) were downregulated, whereas miR-92a-3p was upregulated in CC tissues and cells and their expressions were correlated with clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis. MTT assay, flow cytometry, and Transwell assays revealed that CARMN overexpression reduced proliferation, migration, and invasion and increased apoptosis rate in CC cells. Mechanically, CARMN repressed miR-92a-3p to promote BTG2 transcription. Functional rescue assays revealed that miR-92a-3p overexpression or BTG2 downregulation reversed the inhibitory role of CARMN overexpression in CC cell growth. Western blot analysis elicited that Wnt3a and b-catenin were elevated in CC cells and CARMN blocked the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway via the miR-92a-3p/BTG2 axis. Overall, our findings demonstrated that CARMN repressed miR-92a-3p to upregulate BTG2 transcription and then blocked the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, thereby suppressing CC cell growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main obstacle in the development of an effective tumor vaccine is the inherent ability of tumors to evade immune responses. Tumors often use common immune mechanisms and regulators to evade the immune system. The present study aimed to analyze the expression levels of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), programmed death-ligand (PD-L) 1, PD-L2, B7-H4, galectin-1 and galectin-3 in tissue samples from patients with endometrial carcinoma, in order to detect the immunosuppressive environment of endometrial carcinomas. The levels of IDO, PD-L1, PD-L2 and B7-H4 were analyzed by immunohistochemical methods, and the levels of galectin-1 and galectin-3 in tumor lysates were determined using ELISA. PD-L2 was expressed at low levels in the majority of tumor samples. IDO expression was detected in 38, 63 and 43% of primary endometrial carcinoma, recurrent endometrial carcinoma, and metastatic endometrial carcinoma specimens, respectively. Positive expression rates for PD-L1 were 83% in primary endometrial carcinoma, 68% in recurrent endometrial carcinoma, and 100% in metastatic endometrial carcinoma, whereas B7-H4 expression was detected in 100% of both primary endometrial carcinoma and recurrent endometrial carcinoma samples, and in 96% of metastatic endometrial carcinoma specimens. The expression levels of galectin-1 and galectin-3 were not significantly different between the normal and tumor specimens. The results of the present study suggest that the interaction between PD-1/PD-L1 and B7-H4 may be a potential target for immune intervention in the treatment of endometrial carcinoma. Furthermore, the results may provide the basis for immunosuppressant therapy in the treatment of patients with uterine cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cervical cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in women. The human wings apart-like (hWAPL) gene, which is 30,793 bp long and located on 10q23.2., is a human homologue of the WAPL gene in Drosophila melanogaster. hWAPL has the characteristics of an oncogene in uterine cervical cancer. The present study investigated the expression of the hWAPL gene in tissues, including 9 common cancers, consisting of cervical, gastric and lung cancers, liver, bladder, esophageal, endometrial, renal and rectal carcinomas, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and benign squamous epithelia. The immunohistochemical analysis was conducted using paraffin-embedded tissues obtained from 413 patients, consisting of 27 benign squamous epithelial tissue samples, and 47 cervical cancer, 30 cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN)I, 33 CINII, 38 CINIII, 29 gastric cancer, 28 liver carcinoma, 26 bladder carcinoma, 35 esophageal carcinoma, 25 endometrial, 26 renal carcinoma, 36 rectal carcinoma and 33 lung cancer tissues. The expression of hWAPL mRNA was evaluated by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction in 8 benign squamous epithelia and 11 cervical cancer tissues. Compared to benign squamous epithelia and the 8 other cancers, hWAPL protein was significantly increased in cervical cancer (P<0.001). The expression of the hWAPL protein in cervical cancer and CINIII tissues was markedly increased compared to the expression in CINI and CINII tissues (P<0.001). Despite the significant difference in the staining scores (P<0.001), no significant difference was observed in the percentage of tissues expressing hWAPL (P=0.102) between cervical cancer and CINIII. The hWAPL gene may therefore be specifically overexpressed in cervical cancer. The overexpression of hWAPL may play an important role in occurrence and development of cervical cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]