Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the deadliest cancer types with a poor prognosis due to the lack of symptoms in the early stages and a delayed diagnosis. The present study aimed to identify the risk factors significantly associated with prognosis and to search for novel effective diagnostic modalities for patients with early‑stage ESCC. mRNA and methylation data of patients with ESCC and the corresponding clinical information were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, and the representation features were screened using deep learning autoencoder. The univariate Cox regression model was used to select the prognosis‑related features from the representation features. K‑means clustering was used to cluster the TCGA samples. Support vector machine classifier was constructed based on the top 75 features mostly associated with the risk subgroups obtained from K‑means clustering. Two ArrayExpress datasets were used to verify the reliability of the obtained risk subgroups. The differentially expressed genes and methylation genes (DEGs and DMGs) between the risk subgroups were analyzed, and pathway enrichment analysis was performed. A total of 500 representation features were produced. Using K‑means clustering, the TCGA samples were clustered into two risk subgroups with significantly different overall survival rates. Joint multimodal representation strategy, which showed a good model fitness (C‑index=0.760), outperformed early‑fusion autoencoder strategy. The joint representation learning‑based classification model had good robustness. A total of 1,107 DEGs and 199 DMGs were screened out between the two risk subgroups. The DEGs were involved in 70 pathways, the majority of which were correlated with metastasis and proliferation of various cancer types, including cytokine‑cytokine receptor interaction, cell adhesion molecules PPAR signaling pathway, pathways in cancer, transcriptional misregulation in cancer and ECM‑receptor interaction pathways. The two survival subgroups obtained via the joint representation learning‑based model had good robustness, and had prognostic significance for patients with ESCC.

The expression of a long noncoding RNA termed RUSC1-AS1 is dysregulated in breast cancer and laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma, and this dysregulation affects various tumor-associated biological processes. To our knowledge, the expression status and detailed roles of RUSC1-AS1 in cervical cancer as well as its regulatory mechanisms of action remain unknown. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to measure RUSC1-AS1 expression in cervical cancer, investigate the effects of RUSC1-AS1 on cervical cancer cells, and identify the mechanism underlying these effects. Herein, RUSC1-AS1 was found to be highly expressed in cervical cancer tissues and cell lines. High RUSC1-AS1 expression significantly correlated with the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage, lymph node metastasis, and shorter overall survival among the patients with cervical cancer. Functional assays revealed that interference with RUSC1-AS1 expression suppressed cervical cancer cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro; induced apoptosis in vitro; and impeded tumor growth in vivo. In addition, RUSC1-AS1 was demonstrated to act as a competing endogenous RNA of microRNA-744 (miR-744) and consequently increase B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2 or BCL2) expression levels in cervical cancer cells. Furthermore, either inhibition of miR-744 or restoration of Bcl-2 expression neutralized the effects of the RUSC1-AS1 silencing on the malignant characteristics of cervical cancer cells. Thus, RUSC1-AS1 promotes the aggressiveness of cervical cancer in vitro and in vivo by upregulating miR-744–Bcl-2 axis output. The RUSC1-AS1–miR-744–Bcl-2 pathway may be involved in cervical cancer pathogenesis and could serve as a novel target for anticancer therapies.

Lung cancer is one of the most frequently occurring and fatal cancer types worldwide. Cisplatin is widely used for chemotherapy of non‑small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the use of cisplatin has been met with the challenge of chemoresistance as a result of hypoxia, which is common in adult solid tumors and is a principal cause of a poor patient outcome. In the present study, the effects of hypoxia on the response of the NSCLC A549 cell line to the clinically relevant cytotoxic cisplatin were evaluated via regulating hypoxia inducible facor‑1α (HIF‑1α) and p53. Hypoxia exposure upregulated the expression levels of HIF‑1α and p53, and promoted glycolysis in A549 cells, which was attenuated by HIF‑1α knockdown by siRNA introduction, indicating the critical roles of HIF‑1α in regulating glycolysis under hypoxic conditions. HIF‑1α‑knockdown also sensitized A549 cells to cisplatin in hypoxia‑exposed, but not in normoxia‑exposed A549 cells, suggesting that hypoxia‑induced cisplatin resistance partially contributes toward the upregulation of HIF‑1α by hypoxia exposure. The present study also determined that hypoxia‑upregulated p53 activated its downstream target gene p21 transcriptionally and blocked the cell cycle at the G1‑G0 phase, thereby leading to inhibition of cell proliferation. As a result, activated p53 desensitized A549 cells to cisplatin potentially through increasing the non‑proliferation status of A549 cells and therefore minimizing the influence of cisplatin. Taken together, these results identified the exact effects of HIF‑1α and p53 induced by hypoxia and potentially elucidated their protective effects on A549 cells against cisplatin.

Genome-wide human genetic studies have identified inherited cis-regulatory loci variants that predispose to cancers. However, the mechanisms by which these germline variants influence cancer progression, particularly through gene expression and proteostasis control, remain unclear. By analyzing genomic data from a gastric cancer (GC) case-control study (2,117 individuals), focusing on the ubiquitin-specific protease (USP) family, we identify the SNP rs72856331 (G>A) in the promoter region of the proto-oncogene USP47 as a putative susceptibility allele for GC. Mechanistically, the risk allele G is associated with enhanced USP47 expression, mediated by altered recruitment of the transcription factor GLI3 and changes in the epigenetic status at promoter. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated single-nucleotide conversion into risk allele G results in increased GLI3 binding and subsequent USP47 upregulation. The depletion of GLI3 results in a reduction of cancer-related phenotypes, similar to those observed following USP47 knockdown. Furthermore, we identify Snai1 as a deubiquitination target of USP47, explaining USP47-dependent activation of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition pathway and tumor progression. Our findings identify an important genetic predisposition that implicates the perturbation of transcription and proteostasis programs in GC, offering insights into prevention and therapeutic strategies for genetically stratified patients.

Prostate cancer is the most prevalent cancer among men worldwide and exhibits significant genetic heritability. In this study, we performed an integrative analysis combining chromatin accessibility profiling, transcriptomics, and two-stage case–control studies, alongside an unbiased phenome-wide exploration in the FinnGen cohort. This comprehensive approach identified the enhancer-associated SNP rs7077830 at chromosome 10q11 as a critical modulator of prostate cancer susceptibility. Mechanistic investigations revealed that rs7077830 exerted allele-specific enhancer activity, driving NCOA4 expression via a ZNF384-mediated enhancer–promoter interaction. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated single-nucleotide editing confirmed the direct regulatory role of rs7077830 on NCOA4 and its contribution to prostate cancer progression. Functional studies demonstrated that NCOA4 acted as a tumor suppressor by promoting ferroptosis. Furthermore, NCOA4 expression modulated sensitivity to ferroptosis-inducing agents. Strikingly, rs7077830 genotypes were directly linked to ferroptosis status in prostate cancer. These findings highlight the role of noncoding genetic variants in prostate cancer pathogenesis, provide insights into enhancer-driven ferroptosis regulation, and suggest a promising therapeutic avenue for patients with prostate cancer carrying specific rs7077830 genotypes. Significance: An enhancer mechanism mediated by a noncoding variant drives prostate cancer risk by regulating tumor suppressor expression and ferroptosis while conferring susceptibility to the potential of genotype-based precision therapeutic approaches.

Hypoxia is a hallmark of aggressive prostate cancer, but how it disrupts lineage-specific transcriptional programs to drive progression remains unclear. Here, we identify the HIF1α-PHD1-FOXA1 axis as a critical mediator of hypoxic adaptation and androgen signaling suppression. Using genome-wide profiling, we demonstrate that hypoxia reprograms HIF1α chromatin occupancy, shifting its cooperation from AR to FOXA1. Mechanistically, HIF1α physically interacts with FOXA1, destabilizing it via PHD1-mediated hydroxylation—a previously unrecognized post-translational regulatory node. Under hypoxia, loss of FOXA1 attenuates androgen-responsive transcription while activating hypoxia-inducible genes, demonstrating a dual role for this axis in hypoxia adaptation and prostate cancer progression. Genetic or pharmacological disruption of HIF1α-PHD1-FOXA1 impairs prostate cancer proliferation and migration, underscoring its translational relevance. Our findings establish oxygen-dependent FOXA1 degradation as a linchpin connecting microenvironmental stress to transcriptional plasticity in advanced prostate cancer, offering new therapeutic avenues.