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Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has an increased risk of cancer. In the present study, the relationship between T2DM and 13 types of cancer was analyzed and key methylation genes were searched. First, DNA methylation and mRNA expression were obtained data for T2DM and 13 types of cancer from The Cancer Genome Atlas and Gene Expression Omnibus. The t-test was used to screen the differentially methylated expression overlapping genes (DE-MGs) in T2DM and cancer on both methylation and expression levels. DE-MGs are weighted based on the methylation and projected into the human protein interaction network. The correlation between T2DM and each type of cancer was analyzed, and key genes were identified. The results showed that 293 DE-MGs were related to T2DM and 3307 were related to cancer. The network found that T2DM is more related to colorectal cancer (CRC) compare with the other 12 types of cancer. A total of 5 from 8 candidate genes were associated with CRC. A total of 28 clinical patients were used to validate these 5 genes. A CRC tissue sample was collected from each patient, as well as a paracancerous sample that served as a control. A total of 56 tissue samples were divided into 4 groups: control group, T2DM group, CRC group and T2DM with CRC group (combination group). Compared with the control group, the methylation level of adenylate cyclase 5 (ADCY5), neuregulin 1 and ELAV-like RNA-binding protein 4 in the combination group was significantly upregulated, and the mRNA level was significantly downregulated. Furthermore, based on the methylation level of ADCY5, the correlation coefficient between the combination group and the T2DM group was greater than that of the CRC group. In conclusion, T2DM is most likely to be associated with CRC among 13 common types of cancer based on methylation characteristics. An upregulated methylation of ADCY5 in T2DM may have a higher risk of CRC.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the epigenetic mechanism by which microRNA (miR)-152-3p regulates proliferation in non-small cell lung cancer A549 cells via neural cell adhesion molecule 1 (NCAM1). Bisulfite sequencing PCR (BSP), the gold standard for methylation detection, uses bisulfite-treated DNA to determine its pattern of methylation. Treatment of DNA with bisulfite converts cytosine residues to uracil, but leaves 5-methylcytosine residues unaffected. It was conducted and demonstrated a relatively high level of methylation in the miR-152-3p promoter region. Chromatin immunoprecipitation was combined with PCR to detect the binding of DNA methyltransferase 3B (DNMT3B) protein to miR-152-3p, which tends to occur in the core region of the miR-152-3p gene in A549 cells. Luciferase assay identified NCAM1 as the target gene of miR-152-3p. MTT, colony formation and Transwell assays indicated that miR-152-3p could decrease cell proliferation and invasion and in addition to reducing the expression level of NCAM1. Overexpression of NCAM1 could attenuate the effect of miR-152-3p. DNMT3B knockdown decreased the proliferative ability of A549 cells and increased the expression of miR-152-3p, while decreased that of NCAM1. After treatment with miR-152-3p inhibitor, these effects were attenuated and the NCAM1 expression level was upregulated. The results indicated that miR-152-3p may suppress the proliferation of A549 cells by downregulating NCAM1. In addition, DNMT3B negatively regulated the expression of miR-152-3p via modulation of the methylation level in the miR-152-3p core region, thus mediating the proliferation of lung tumor cells.

The aim of the present study was to analyse the incidence of mutations in the BCR-ABL1 kinase region in patients with newly diagnosed or treated chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), and the association between mutations clinicopathological characteristics. Samples were collected for mutation analysis from patients who exhibited tyrosine kinase inhibitor resistance following treatment or were in the accelerated or blast phase at diagnosis. The mutations in the breakpoint cluster region (BCR)-ABL proto-oncogene 1 (ABL1) kinase domain were evaluated using conventional sequencing or ultra-deep sequencing (UDS) of peripheral blood samples. Sanger sequencing and UDS of the cDNA region corresponding to the BCR-ABL1 kinase domain was performed. χ2 test was used to assess the association of categorical variables between the mutated and non-mutated groups. In addition, the Kaplan-Meier method was applied to generate the survival curves. Sequencing detected 28 different mutations in 54 of the 175 (30.86%) patients with CML. A total of 14 (8.0%) patients presented with the T315I mutation, accounting for the largest proportion in the mutated group. Eight patients (4.6%) presented with more than one mutation, three (37.5%) of whom harboured T315I coexisting with other mutations, and for nine (5.1%) patients, the results differed between conventional sequencing and UDS, with the mutations being missed by conventional sequencing. The results form this study suggested that programing mutation analysis in patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia timely may guide the choice of TKIs.

Metastasis is a primary contributor to the low survival rates of patients with cancer. Enhanced migration and invasion are two key features of the metastatic transformation of cancer cells. Furthermore, despite the fact that overexpression of the monocarboxylate transporter (MCT)1 and 4 proteins has been found to promote the migration or invasion of cancer cells, previous findings have not been conclusive and have even been contradictory. The majority of these previous studies have relied on the silencing or inhibition of MCT1/4 expression or function in highly metastatic cell lines. Silencing can be transient or incomplete, and inhibition can result in off-target effects. Employing a different approach, the present study stably transfected human MCT1 and MCT4 into the non-carcinogenic murine NCTC clone 929 (L929) cell line, which had undetectable endogenous MCT1 and MCT4 expression. It was observed that overexpression of MCT4, and not MCT1, promoted the migration and invasion of L929 cells. It was also found that overexpression of an inactive form of the MCT4 transporter with a single amino acid mutation failed to promote either migration or invasion, which suggested that MCT4 activity is required. Since an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor could reverse the effect of MCT4-overexpression, it was concluded that MCT4-overexpression exert its functions through modulating the EGF/EGFR pathway.

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) on the immune function of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). A total of 114 patients with HCC were selected and their peripheral blood was collected before and 1 month after TACE treatment. Flow cytometry and reverse transcription-quantitative PCR were performed to analyze the changes in immune function in patients before and after treatment. Kaplan-Meier curves were plotted for survival analysis. The programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) and programmed cell death protein 1 (PD1) expression before TACE treatment were significantly higher in patients with poor TACE response compared with those patients with well response. Higher PD-L1 mRNA expression in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells after TACE predicted a superior prognosis. After TACE treatment, the proportion of CD4+/CD8+ cells were decreased while the expression levels of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD1) were significantly increased. To conclude, TACE could reduce the proportion of CD4+/CD8+ cells and improve the mRNA expression levels of PD1 in patients with HCC. The expression levels of PD1 and PD-L1 were closely related to the therapeutic effect of TACE and the prognosis of patients with HCC. TACE combined with immunotherapy may have potential clinical value for patients with HCC.

Increasing evidence suggest that pleckstrin-2 (PLEK2) acts as an oncogene in several malignancies. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of PLEK2 on osteosarcoma (OS) tumorigenesis and metastasis. PLEK2 expression in OS was analyzed via bioinformatics, reverse transcription-quantitative PCR, western blot and immunohistochemistry analyses. The Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), colony formation and EdU assays were performed to assess the role of PLEK2 in OS cell proliferation. The pro-metastatic effects of PLEK2 were assessed via the Transwell and wound healing assays. In addition, the PLEK2 downstream pathway was analyzed via bioinformatics analysis and verified via western blot analysis. The results demonstrated that PLEK2 expression was upregulated in both OS cell lines and specimens. The results of the CCK-8, colony formation and EdU assays demonstrated that PLEK2 promoted OS cell proliferation in vitro. The in vivo experiments further demonstrated that PLEK2 knockdown significantly suppressed OS growth. In addition, the Transwell and wound healing assays indicated that PLEK2 promoted OS invasiveness in vitro, which was induced by the activation of the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition process. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that PLEK2 can activate the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (AKT)/mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway, which was verified via western blot analysis. Taken together, the results of the present study suggest that PLEK2 may play a tumor-promoting role in OS via the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) play key roles in cancer progression. Extensive research has revealed that miR-26a is abnormally expressed and functions as a tumor suppressor in numerous types of cancer. Thus, the present study was undertaken to investigate the regulatory role and potential mechanism of action of miR-26a in breast cancer. Furthermore, the present study aimed to examine the alterations in miR-26a expression and its effects on human breast cancer cells. Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR was conducted to assess the differences in miR-26a expression between human breast cancer and normal breast specimens. A Cell Counting Kit-8 assay and cloning experiments were used to detect cell proliferation and clone formation. Wound healing and Transwell assays were performed to examine cell migration and invasion. A luciferase activity experiment was utilized to validate the association between miR-26a and family with sequence similarity 98 member A (FAM98A). Western blotting was conducted to detect the protein expression levels of FAM98A, sonic hedgehog signaling molecule (SHH), smoothened, frizzled class receptor (SMO) and GLI family zinc finger 1 (GLI1). The results indicated that miR-26a expression was decreased in breast carcinoma tissues and cell lines. Moreover, overexpression of miR-26a significantly suppressed cell proliferation, clone formation ability and metastasis, and it sensitized breast cancer cells to docetaxel. It was demonstrated that miR-26a directly targeted FAM98A, and that FAM98A, SHH, SMO and GLI1 expression levels were decreased in cells transfected with miR-26a mimics. Collectively, the results of the present study suggested that miR-26a negatively regulated the expression of FAM98A, indicating that it may play a key role in the suppression of breast carcinogenesis.

The expression and clinical significance of stomatin-like protein 2 (SLP-2) in ovarian tumors were investigated. A total of 280 cases of ovarian tissue specimens preserved from inpatients after surgical treatments in the Department of Oncology of Yidu Central Hospital of Weifang from April 2013 to May 2016 were collected, including 130 cases of malignant ovarian tumor tissue specimens (malignant tumor group), 75 cases of benign ovarian tumor tissue specimens (benign tumor group) and 75 cases of normal ovarian tissue specimens from bilateral ovariectomy for unilateral ovarian lesions (control group). Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of SLP-2 protein in the three groups. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was utilized to detect the relative expression of SLP-2 mRNA in the three groups, and the relationship between SLP-2 and clinicopathological parameters of the ovarian cancer patients was analyzed. The patients with ovarian cancer were divided into the SLP-2 high-expression group and the SLP-2 low-expression group according to the median of SLP-2 relative expression. The survival of patients was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression model. The results of immunohistochemistry showed that the positive expression rate of SLP-2 protein in the malignant tumor group was significantly higher than that in the benign tumor and control groups (P

The oncolytic herpes simplex virus (HSV) G47Δ can selectively eliminate glioblastoma cells via viral replication and temozolomide (TMZ) has been clinically used to treat glioblastoma. However, the combined effect of G47Δ and TMZ on cancer cells, particularly on breast cancer cells, remains largely unknown. The objective of the present study was to investigate the role and underlying mechanism of G47Δ and TMZ, in combination, in breast cancer cell tumorigenesis. The human breast cancer cell lines SK-BR-3 and MDA-MB-468 were treated with G47Δ and TMZ individually or in combination. Cell viability, flow cytometry, reverse transcription quantitative-PCR and western blotting were performed to investigate the synergy between G47Δ and TMZ in regulating breast cancer cell behavior in vitro. The role of G47Δ and TMZ in suppressing tumorigenesis in vivo was investigated in a xenograft mouse model. G47Δ and TMZ served a synergistic role resulting in decreased breast cancer cell viability, induction of cell cycle arrest, promotion of tumor cell apoptosis and enhancement of DNA damage response in vitro. The combined administration of G47Δ and TMZ also effectively suppressed breast cancer cell-derived tumor growth in vivo, compared with the administration of G47Δ or TMZ alone. Synergy between G47Δ and TMZ was at least partially mediated via TMZ-induced acceleration of G47Δ replication, and such a synergy in breast cancer cells in vitro and in vivo provides novel insight into the future development of a therapeutic strategy against breast cancer.

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common malignant tumor of the oral cavity. Emerging evidence indicates that long non-coding (lnc)RNAs play a key role in the cellular processes of tumor cells, including glycolysis, growth and movement. Here, the purpose of this study was to explore the biological functions and potential mechanism of lncRNA metastasis associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) in OSCC. OSCC tissues and adjacent matched paraneoplastic normal tissues were collected from 20 OSCC patients. The expression of MALAT1 and miR-101 in OSCC tissues and cell lines (HSC3, SCC9, SCC15 and SCC25) were determined by real-time-polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Caspase-3, xaspase-8 and EZH2 protein levels were determined by western blot analysis. MALAT1-mediated miRNAs were verified by bioinformatics analysis of StarBase and Luciferase reporter assay. Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) and Transwell assays were used for investigating MALAT1 effect on cell proliferation and invasion in the OSCC cells. qPCR analysis indicated that MALAT1 expression was obviously increased, and miR-101 was decreased in the OSCC tissues and cell lines. Functional studies revealed that overexpression of MALAT1 promoted OSCC cell proliferation and invasion. Further experiments revealed that miR-101 was a target of MALAT1 and that the miR-101 inhibitor abolished the effect of MALAT1 on OSCC cell proliferation and invasion. Enhancer of zeste 2 polycomb repressive complex 2 subunit (EZH2) acted as a downstream effecter of MALAT1 in the OSCC cells. Collectively, these findings revealed that upregulation of MALAT1 facilitated OSCC proliferation and invasion by targeting the miR-101/EZH2 axis.

Neuroblastoma (NB) is the most common type of extracranial solid tumor found in children. Despite several treatment options, patients with advanced stage disease have a poor prognosis. Previous studies have reported that enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have abnormal expression levels in NB and participate in tumorigenesis and NB development. However, the association between EZH2 and lncRNAs remain unclear. In the present study, RNA immunoprecipitation-sequencing (RIP-seq) was used to analyze the lncRNAs binding to EZH2. Following EZH2 knockdown via short hairpin RNA, RNA-seq was performed in shEZH2 and control groups in SH-SY5Y cells. Chromatin IP (ChIP)-seq was used to determine the genes that may be regulated by EZH2. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analyses were performed to identify the signaling pathways involved in NB. The results from RIP-seq identified 94 lncRNAs, including SNHG7, SNHG22, KTN-AS1 and Linc00843. Furthermore, results from RNA-seq demonstrated that, following EZH2 knockdown, 448 genes were up- and 571 genes were downregulated, with 32 lncRNAs up- and 35 downregulated and differentially expressed compared with control groups. Certain lncRNAs, including MALAT1, H19, Linc01021 and SNHG5, were differentially expressed in EZH2-knockdown group compared with the control group. ChIP-seq identified EZH2 located in the promoter region of 138 lncRNAs including CASC16, CASC15, LINC00694 and TBX5-AS1. In summary, the present study demonstrated that certain lncRNAs directly bound EZH2 and regulated EZH2 expression levels. A number of these lncRNAs that are associated with EZH2 may participate in NB tumorigenesis.

The diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma requires the accurate classification of cervical squamous lesions in the ThinPrep cytologic test (TCT). It primarily relies on a pathologist's interpretation under a microscope. Deep convolutional neural networks (DCNN) have played an increasingly important role in digital pathology. However, they have not been applied to diverse datasets and externally validated. In the present study, a DCNN model based on VGG16 and an ensemble training strategy (ETS) based on 5-fold cross-validation was employed to automatically classify normal and abnormal cervical squamous cells from a multi-center dataset. First, we collected a dataset comprising 82 TCT samples from four hospitals and fine-tuned our model twice on the dataset with and without the ETS. Then, we compared the classifications obtained from the models with those provided by two skilled pathologists to discriminate the performance of the models in terms of classification accuracy and efficiency. Finally, paired sample t-tests were used to validate the consistency between the classification provided by the proposed methods and that of the pathologists. The results showed that ETS slightly, though not significantly, improved the classification accuracy compared with that of the pathologists: P0=0.387>0.05 (DCNN without ETS vs. DCNN with ETS), P1=0.771>0.05 (DCNN with ETS vs. pathologist 1), P2=0.489>0.05 (DCNN with ETS vs. pathologist 2). The DCNN model was almost 6-fold faster than that of the pathologists. The accuracy of our automated scheme was similar to that of the pathologists, but a higher efficiency in the accurate identification of cervical squamous lesions was provided by the scheme. This result allows for wider and more efficient screening and may provide a replacement for pathologists in the future. Future research should address the viability of the practical implementation of such DCNN models in the laboratory setting.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains an intractable disease despite numerous advancements made in the available treatments over recent decades. Therefore, investigation of the underlying pathogenesis of HCC is urgently required. Our previous microarray result showed that SCIN was generally downregulated in 23 paired tumor/normal tissues. Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR, western blotting and immunohistochemistry were performed in the present study in order to detect the expression of scinderin (SCIN). Lentivirus-mediated gene delivery was used in order to produce SCIN-manipulated cell lines. MTT and crystal violet assays were performed in order to investigate cell growth, and fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis was used in order to determine cell cycle distribution. SCIN was downregulated in HCC samples, and low SCIN expression predicted the poor prognosis of patients with HCC. Notably, SCIN may have the potential to serve as an independent risk factor for overall survival (3-year overall survival rate of 28.6 and 10.3% in high SCIN expression and low SCIN expression groups, respectively) and disease-free survival (3-year recurrence rate of 71.4 and 84.6% in high SCIN expression and low SCIN expression groups, respectively) in HCC. SCIN inhibited HCC cell proliferation both in vitro and in subcutaneous tumor formation assay. Furthermore, SCIN decreased the levels of phosphorylated STAT3, thereby downregulating cyclin A1 levels in HCC cells. The results of the present study demonstrate the tumor suppressive role of SCIN in HCC, providing a candidate strategy to treat this disease.

Thyroid cancer (TC) is one of the most common types of malignancy of the endocrine-system. At present, there is a lack of effective methods to predict neck lymph node metastasis (LNM) in TC. The present study compared the expression profiles from The Cancer Genome Atlas between N1M0 and N0M0 subgroups in each T1-4 stages TC in order to identify the four groups of TC LNM-associated differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Subsequently, DEGs were combined to obtain a total of 493 integrated DEGs by using the method of Robust Rank Aggregation. Furthermore, the underlying mechanisms of LNM were investigated. The results from Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analyses demonstrated that the identified DEGs may promote LNM via numerous pathways, including extracellular matrix-receptor interaction, PI3K-AKT signaling pathway and focal adhesion. Following construction of a protein-protein interaction network, the significance score for each gene was calculated and seven hub genes were screened, including interleukin 6, actinin α2, collagen type I α 1 chain, actin α1, calbindin 2, thrombospondin 1 and parathyroid hormone. These genes were predicted to serve crucial roles in TC with LNM. The results from the present study could therefore improve the understanding of LNM in TC. In addition, the seven DEGs identified may be considered as potential novel targets for the development of biomarkers that could be used in the diagnosis and therapy of TC.

Mitotically-associated long non-coding RNA (MANCR) is involved in malignant breast cancer. The present study analyzed the role of MANCR in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). MANCR was found to be upregulated in HCC and high expression level of MANCR in cancer tissues predicted poor survival of HCC patients. MicroRNA (miR)-122a was downregulated HCC and was inversely correlated with MANCR only in cancer tissues. MANCR overexpression resulted in downregulation of miR-122a, while miR-122a overexpression showed no obvious effects on MANCR expression. MANCR overexpression showed no significant effects on HCC cell proliferation but led to promoted cell migration and invasion. miR-122a overexpression led to inhibited migration and invasion of HCC cells and attenuated the effects of MANCR overexpression. Therefore, lncRNA MANCR may promote cancer cell proliferation in HCC by downregulating miR-122a.

Cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells are a group of heterogeneous immune cells which can be isolated from human peripheral blood mononuclear cells and have demonstrated therapeutic benefit both in hematologic malignancies and solid tumors, including colorectal cancer. However, poor tumor-targeted migration has limited the clinical efficacy of CIK cell treatment. The chemokine-chemokine receptor (CK-CKR) axis serves a role in the tumor-directed trafficking capacity of immune cells. Investigating the relationship between CKR profiles on the surface of CIK cells and chemokine expression levels in the tumor microenvironment may improve CIK cell therapy. In the present study, the spectrum of chemokine expression levels in tumor tissues from patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) and CKR expression profiles in CIK cells obtained from the same individuals with CRC were investigated. The results showed that chemokine expression levels in tumor tissues exhibited variability and cell line heterogeneity. However, the expression levels of a number of chemokines were similar in different CRC donors and cell lines. Expression levels of CXCLL10, CXCL11 and CCL3 were significantly higher in most tumor tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues and highly expressed in most CRC cell lines. In accordance with chemokine expression levels, CKR profiles on the surface of CIK cells also showed donor-to-donor variability. However, concordant expression profiles of CKRs were identified in different patients with CRC. CXCR3 and CXCR4 were highly expressed on the surface of CIK cells through the culture process. Importantly, the expression levels of all CKRs, especially CCR4, CXCR4 and CXCR3, were notably decreased during the course of CIK cell expansion. The changing trend of CKR profiles were not correlated with the chemokine expression profiles in CRC tissues (CCL3, CXCL12 and CXCL10/CXCL11 were highly expressed in CRC tissue). Re-stimulating CIK cells using chemokines (CCL21 and CXCL11) at the proper time point increased corresponding CKR expression levels on the surface of CIK cells and enhance tumor-targeted trafficking in vitro. These results demonstrated that modification of the CK-CKR axis using exogenous recombinant chemokines at the proper time point enhanced CIK cell trafficking ability and improved CIK antitumor effects.

Few studies have evaluated Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway activation in different types of ovarian tumors including benign, borderline and malignant ovarian tumors. The present study investigated the expression of Hh signaling pathway components (SHH, SMO, PTCH, and GLI1) in 193 ovarian epithelial tumor specimens (including 147 malignant epithelial ovarian cancers, 30 borderline ovarian tumors, 16 benign ovarian epithelial tumors) and 11 normal ovarian epithelial tissues by immunohistochemistry. The results demonstrated widespread expression of Hh pathway molecules in ovarian tumors. However, there was no significant difference in the expression intensity of SHH among the four groups (P>0.05). Statistically significant differences were identified in the expression intensity of the SMO, PICH and GLI1 among groups (P

Primary pulmonary mucinous adenocarcinoma (PPMA) is an uncommon subtype of lung adenocarcinoma. The present study attempted to clarify the diagnosis, clinicopathological characteristics, and pathologic significance of epithelial growth factor receptor (EGFR) and Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene (KRAS) mutations and the prognosis of PPMA. A total of 29 patients with PPMA from among 1,469 surgically resected patients with lung adenocarcinoma were enrolled. All of the tumours expressed CK7 and 5 cases exhibited co-expression with CK20. A total of 8 cases expressed EGFR, 14 cases expressed P53 and 2 cases expressed CEA. The majority of mucinous adenocarcinomas expressed thyroid transcription factor 1, Napsin A, Villin and Cam5.2 proteins. KRAS mutations were observed in 62% of patients and were more prevalent in the lower lung lobe and in patients with invasive mucinous adenocarcinoma. A total of 2 cases exhibited an EGFR mutation, and the co-mutation of KRAS and EGFR was only detected in 1 case. The relapse-free and overall survival rates at 5 years were 70.4, and 81.5%, respectively. The results may assist to identify a molecular target and supply important information for a therapeutic strategy for patients with PPMA.