Anillin actin-binding protein (ANLN) is crucially involved in cell proliferation and migration. Moreover, ANLN is significantly in tumor progression in several types of human malignant tumors; however, it remains unclear whether ANLN acts through common molecular pathways within different tumor microenvironments, pathogeneses, prognoses and immunotherapy contexts. Therefore, this study aimed to perform bioinformatics analysis to examine the correlation of ANLN with tumor immune infiltration, immune evasion, tumor progression, immunotherapy, and tumor prognosis. We observed increased ANLN expression in multiple tumors, which could be involved in tumor cell proliferation, migration, infiltration, and prognosis. The level of ANLN methylation and genetic alteration was associated with prognosis in numerous tumors. ANLN facilitates tumor immune evasion through different mechanisms, which involve T-cell exclusion in different cancer types and tumor-infiltrating immune cells in colon adenocarcinoma, kidney renal clear cell carcinoma, liver hepatocellular carcinoma, and prostate adenocarcinoma. Additionally, ANLN is correlated with immune or chemotherapeutic outcomes in malignant cancers. Notably, ANLN expression may be a predictive biomarker for the response to immune checkpoint inhibitors. Taken together, our findings suggest that ANLN can be used as an onco-immunological biomarker and could serve as a hallmark for tumor screening, prognosis, individualized treatment design, and follow-up.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major health concern, necessitating a deeper understanding of its prognosis and underlying mechanisms. This study aimed to investigate the mechanism and prognostic value of CD8⁺ T Cell exhaustion (CD8⁺ TEX)-related genes in HCC and construct a survival prognosis prediction model for patients with HCC. Methods: CD8⁺ TEX-related genes associated with HCC prognosis were analysed and identified, and a prognostic prediction model was constructed using the ‘least absolute shrinkage and selection operator’ Cox regression model. Immunohistochemistry was used to verify the expression of the model genes in HCC tissues. A nomogram was constructed based on risk scores and clinical features, and its predictive efficacy was verified. The expression of STAM, ANXA5, and MAD2L2 in HCC cell lines was detected by western blotting; subsequently, these genes were knocked down in HCC cell lines by small interfering RNA, and their effects on the proliferation and migration of HCC cell lines were detected by colony formation assay, cck8, wound healing, and transwell assays. Results: Six genes related to CD8⁺ TEX were included in the risk-prediction model. The prognosis of patients with HCC in the low-risk group was significantly better than that of those in the high-risk group. Cox regression analysis revealed that the risk score was an independent risk factor for the prognosis of patients with HCC. The differentially expressed genes in patients with high-risk HCC were mainly enriched in the nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-containing protein-like receptor, hypoxia-inducible factor-1, and tumour programmed cell death protein (PD)-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint pathways. The CD8⁺ TEX-related genes STAM, ANXA5, and MAD2L2 were knocked down in HCC cell lines to significantly inhibit cell proliferation and migration. The prediction results of the nomogram based on the risk score showed a good fit and application value. Conclusion: The prediction model based on CD8⁺ TEX-related genes can predict the prognosis of HCC and provide a theoretical basis for the early identification of patients with poor HCC prognosis.

Article: Molecular mechanism of morphine sulfate in promoting tumorigenesis and proliferation of human hepatocellular carcinoma cells - Panminerva Medica 2022 June;64(2):298-9 - Minerva Medica - Journals

Background: Numerous genetic sequencing projects have demonstrated that alterations in Polε (DNA polymerase epsilon ) due to various causes are associated with the development of multiple human cancers. However, the biological functions of its four core genes, POLE1/2/3/4/, in the occurrence, progression, and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) remain poorly understood to date. Methods: Multi-omics, multi-level deep mining of HCC data from TCGA and other publicly available databases by using online analysis tools from GEPIA2, TIMER2.0, DAVID, Kaplan-Meier plotter, cBioPortal and MethSurv databases, as well asthe R package to assess Polε family members in HCC for their potential biological functions. Results: We found that the four target genes were significantly upregulated in HCC (P<0.001), their high expression was associated with a lower survival rate (P<0.05), and both diagnostic ROC curves and disease-specific survival time-dependent ROC curves suggested that POLE2/3 showed better disease predictive efficacy, and the four genes were significantly associated with immune infiltration, and drug sensitivity analysis suggested that the high expression groups of four target genes showed higher drug sensitivity in some chemotherapeutic drugs(P<0.001). Conclusion: The POLE1/2/3/4are potential prognostic predictive molecules for HCC and correlate with immune infiltration,and high expression of POLE may serve as a potential predictor of the effect of targeted therapies. POLE2/3 may be the potential diagnostic biomarkers for HCC, and the expression level of POLE3 may serve as a biological predictive target for HCC chemotherapy sensitivity.

BACKGROUND Numerous genetic sequencing projects have demonstrated that alterations in Polε (DNA polymerase epsilon ) due to various causes are associated with the development of multiple human cancers. However, the biological functions of its four core genes, POLE1/2/3/4/, in the occurrence, progression, and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) remain poorly understood to date. METHODS Multi-omics, multi-level deep mining of HCC data from TCGA and other publicly available databases by using online analysis tools from GEPIA2, TIMER2.0, DAVID, Kaplan-Meier plotter, cBioPortal and MethSurv databases, as well as the R package to assess Polε family members in HCC for their potential biological functions. RESULTS We found that the four target genes were significantly upregulated in HCC (P < 0.001), their high expression was associated with a lower survival rate (P < 0.05), and both diagnostic ROC curves and disease-specific survival time-dependent ROC curves suggested that POLE2/3 showed better disease predictive efficacy, and the four genes were significantly associated with immune infiltration, and drug sensitivity analysis suggested that the high expression groups showed higher drug sensitivity in some chemotherapeutic drugs(P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS The POLE1/2/3 are potential prognostic predictive molecules for HCC and correlate with immune infiltration, and high expression of POLE may serve as a potential predictor of the effect of targeted therapies. POLE2/3 may be the potential diagnostic biomarkers for HCC, and the expression level of POLE3 may be a biological predictor of HCC chemotherapy sensitivity.