Background: USP13 has been reported to be involved in the tumorigenesis of human cancers, however, its functional role and regulatory mechanisms in bladder cancer (BC) remain unclear. Methods: q-RT-PCR was performed to examine the expression of miR-130b-3p, miR-301b-3p and USP13 in BC tissue samples. Western blot, q-RT-PCR, bioinformatic analysis and dual-luciferase reporter assay were conducted to identify the regulatory function of miR-130b-3p/301b-3p for USP13. Co-immunoprecipitation assay was performed to assess the interaction between USP13 and PTEN protein. Cell-counting-kit 8, colony formation assay and transwell assay were performed to value the proliferative, migrative and invasive capacities of BC cells in vitro. Mouse xenograft model of BC cells was established to verify the function of USP13 in vivo. Immunohistochemistry was performed to identify the protein expression of USP13, NF-kB p65 or PTEN in clinical/xenograft tumor tissues. Results: Our present study reveals that USP13 functions as a tumor suppressor by interacting with PTEN protein and increasing its expression in bladder cancer. We found that loss of USP13 led to the downregulation of PTEN and promoted proliferative, invasive and migrative capacities of bladder cancer cells. Furthermore, we discovered that USP13 was a common target of miR-130b-3p and miR-301b-3p, and the miR-130b/301b cluster, which could be transcriptionally upregulated by NF-kB. Our data demonstrated that NF-kB activation decreased expression level of USP13 and PTEN, and promoted the tumorigenesis phenotypes of BC cells. In addition, reintroduction of USP13 partially rescued PTEN expression as well as the oncogenesis trend caused by NF-kB. Conclusion: We reported a potential regulatory loop that the NF-kB-induced miR-130b/301b overexpression decreased USP13 expression and subsequently resulted in the downregulation of PTEN protein and promoted tumorigenesis of bladder cancer. Moreover, NF-kB-mediated PTEN downregulation is very likely to facilitate the full activation of NF-kB.

The effect of competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) can regulate gene expression by competitively binding microRNAs. Fascin-1 (FSCN1) plays an important role in the regulation of cellular migration and invasion during tumor progression, but how its regulatory mechanism works through the ceRNA effect is still unclear in bladder cancer (BLCA). The role of fascin-1, miR-200b, and ZEB1-AS1 in BLCA was investigated in vitro and in vivo. The interaction between fascin-1, miR-200b, and ZEB1-AS1 was identified using bioinformatics analysis, luciferase activity assays, RNA-binding protein immunoprecipitation (RIP), quantitative PCR, and western blotting. Loss (or gain)-of-function experiments were performed to investigate the biological roles of miR-200b and ZEB1-AS1 on migration, invasion, proliferation, cell apoptosis, and cell cycle. ZEB1-AS1 functions as a competing endogenous RNA in BLCA to regulate the expression of fascin-1 through miR-200b. Moreover, the oncogenic long non-coding RNA ZEB1-AS1 was highly expressed in BLCA and positively correlated with high tumor grade, high TNM stage, and reduced survival of patients with BLCA. Moreover, ZEB1-AS1 downregulated the expression of miR-200b, promoted migration, invasion, and proliferation, and inhibited apoptosis in BLCA. Furthermore, we found TGF-β1 induced migration and invasion in BLCA by regulating the ZEB1-AS1/miR-200b/FSCN1 axis. The observations in this study identify an important regulatory mechanism of fascin-1 in BLCA, and the TGF-β1/ZEB1-AS1/miR-200b/FSCN1 axis may serve as a potential target for cancer therapeutic purposes.

The assessment of the muscle invasion of bladder cancer typically plays a crucial role in therapeutic decision-making and has significant impacts on the recurrence rate and survival rate. Although histopathology is sufficiently accurate and usually served as the gold standard for bladder cancer diagnosis, it is invasive, time-consuming, and requires intensive sample preparation by a well-trained pathologist to achieve an optimal diagnosis. Therefore, a fast and noninvasive method to accurately identify non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) and muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) is in demand. In this study, the SERS technique combined with the PLS-LDA method based on a small amount of blood serum samples is employed to distinguish healthy volunteers, NMIBC, and MIBC patients. According to the results, the overall diagnostic accuracy is 93.3%. The diagnostic accuracies are 97.8% and 93.2% for healthy versus bladder cancer groups and NMIBC versus MIBC groups, respectively. Therefore, the proposed method has demonstrated excellent performance on accurately identifying muscle invasion of bladder cancer, which can assist timely diagnosis and proper treatment for bladder cancer patients.

Urinary bladder neoplasm is one of the most common cancers worldwide. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been proven to be an important cause of cancer progression and poor prognosis. In the present study, we established bladder CSCs and identified the crucial differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between these cells and parental bladder cancer cells. Analyses of bioinformatics data and clinical samples from local hospitals showed that stearoyl CoA desaturase‐1 (SCD) was the key factor among the DEGs. A significant correlation between SCD gene expression and poor prognosis among patients with bladder cancer was observed in our data. Loss‐of‐function experiments further revealed that the SCD inhibitor A939572 and SCD gene interference reduced cell proliferation and invasion. The above data suggest that SCD may serve as a novel marker for the prediction of tumour progression and poor prognosis in patients with bladder cancer.

Background: Integrin β4 (ITGB4) participates in tumorigenesis and progression of several malignancies, but its role and related mechanisms in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) remain unclear. Methods: Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), western blot and immunohistochemistry were used to detect mRNA and protein levels of relevant genes. Biological functions of ITGB4 and methyltransferase-like 14 (METTL14) were determined by in vitro and in vivo experiments. The levels of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) in ccRCC tissues and adjacent normal tissues were calculated via total RNA m6A quantification assay. The m6A modification of ITGB4 was demonstrated via m6A RNA immunoprecipitation (MeRIP), RIP and luciferase reporter assays. Results: ITGB4 was significantly overexpressed in ccRCC tissues and high level of ITGB4 predicted poor prognosis as well as metastasis. Functionally, ITGB4 stimulated ccRCC cell migration and invasion in vitro and metastasis in vivo with epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) strengthened. Mechanically, the total levels of m6A were reduced in ccRCC tissues. METTL14, a favorable factor for ccRCC patients’ prognosis, facilitated m6A modification on ITGB4 3′UTR and subsequently accelerated ITGB4 mRNA degradation, leading to its declined expression. Furthermore, the METTL14-mediated inhibition of ITGB4 expression was dependent on the YTH domain family protein 2 (YTHDF2), which acted as an m6A reader to bind to ITGB4 mRNA and to promote its decay. In addition, we demonstrated that knockdown of METTL14 promoted ccRCC cell migration, invasiveness and metastasis as well as stimulating the EMT process and the PI3K/AKT signal by overexpressing ITGB4. Conclusion: Our study reveals that METTL14 inhibits ITGB4 expression via m6A modification to attenuate metastasis and EMT of ccRCC cells, suggesting the METTL14/ITGB4 axis as a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for ccRCC.