Fengwu Qiu

Paired box 9 (PAX9) is a transcription factor of the PAX family functioning as both a transcriptional activator and a repressor. At this stage it has been demonstrated that the PAX9 gene is a key gene in embryonic development, but its function in a variety of cancers is still unknown. PAX9 was found to be overexpressed in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) samples according to the TCGA database on the Bioinformatics website. At the same time, it was found that PAX9 expression was higher in lung cancer cell lines compared to normal lung epithelial cell lines by qRT-PCR and Western Blot. To investigate the role of PAX9 in LUAD, an A549 cell line with stable knockdown of PAX9 was constructed. It was demonstrated by EdU assay that PAX9 could promote the proliferation of A549 cells by promoting cell cycle changes. In parallel, wound healing assay and transwell assay were performed, and the results showed that knockdown of PAX9 significantly inhibited the migration and invasion ability of A549 cell line. Our results showed that in A549 cell lines, the higher expression of PAX9, the higher ability of proliferation, migration and invasion. Our study may provide new therapeutic ideas for the future treatment of LUAD.

Increasing evidence suggests that RHBDD2 is involved in the development and progression of a variety of tumors, but its role in colorectal adenocarcinoma (COAD) remains unclear. Therefore, the aim of our study was to investigate the exact role of RHBDD2 in COAD. The expression levels of RHBDD2 in COAD were analyzed based on The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Survival analysis of RHBDD2 in COAD was analyzed using the TCGA dataset. In addition, the functional role of RHBDD2 was detected by GO, KEGG, and immune infiltration analysis. The results showed that RHBDD2 was significantly upregulated in COAD samples. High RHBDD2 expression in COAD was significantly correlated with T, N, and M stages and pathological stage. Elevated RHBDD2 expression was unfavorable for overall survival (OS), progression-free interval (PFI), and disease-specific survival (DSS). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis showed that RHBDD2 may serve as a potential diagnostic biomarker for COAD patients. In addition, RHBDD2 was significantly correlated with the level of immune cell infiltration. The current study suggests that elevated RHBDD2 expression is closely associated with poor prognosis and immune cell infiltration in COAD, and may serve as a promising independent prognostic biomarker and potential therapeutic target.

Numerous new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed among women each year, rendering breast cancer the most common and rapidly expanding form of cancer in females globally. NDUFAF6 encodes a protein that localizes to mitochondria and contains a predicted phytoene synthase domain. Mutations in NDUFAF6 are associated with complex I enzymatic deficiency. This study explored the role of NDUFAF6 in breast cancer development and prognosis using informatic analysis. Through the online website TIMER, we evaluated the transcription profile of NDUFAF6 across pan-cancer and breast cancer respectively. We investigated that NDUFAF6 mRNA was overexpressed in breast cancer and other 18 cancers. NDUFAF6 expression also related to the subtype, pathological stage and prognosis of breast cancer. The GSEA showed NDUFAF6 correlated with cell cycle and tumor cell adhesion molecules. NDUFAF6 expression may associate with the proliferation and migration ability of breast cancer cells. Subsequently, the association between the NDUFAF6 expression level and immune cell infiltration was analyzed using the XIANTAO and TIMER tools. The results revealed a negative correlation between NDUFAF6 and most immune infiltrating cells. This study indicated that NDUFAF6 may role in the progression of breast cancer and potentially been one of the markers for diagnosis.

Two kinds of cell-permeable organic fluorescent probes with high photostability were developed for lysosomes and mitochondria. With these probes, we first observed dynamic physical lysosome-mitochondrion interactions for over 13 min in live-cell dual-color super-resolution imaging.