File Download

There are no files associated with this item.

  Links for fulltext
     (May Require Subscription)
Supplementary

Conference Paper: RalA is frequently up-regulated in human hepatocellular carcinoma and promotes metastasis and cancer stemness

TitleRalA is frequently up-regulated in human hepatocellular carcinoma and promotes metastasis and cancer stemness
Authors
Issue Date2018
PublisherAmerican Association for Cancer Research. The Journal's web site is located at http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/
Citation
Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, Chicago, USA, 14-18 April 2018. In Cancer Research, 2018, v. 78 n. 13, Suppl. 1, Abstract no. 91 How to Cite?
AbstractRalA is a Ras-related small GTP binding protein A; however, its functional roles and regulatory mechanisms in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are unclear. In this study, using the RNA-Seq data from TCGA database and our in-house HKU database, we observed that RalA expression was significantly up-regulated in human HCCs (P=0.001). This RalA over-expression was validated in a separate cohort of our HCC patients. Upon clinicopathological correlation of RalA in HCC, we found that over-expression of RalA was associated with more aggressive features of HCC patients, with more frequent tumor microsatellite formation (P=0.001), venous invasion (P=0.005) and absence of tumor encapsulation (P=0.005). The over-expression also correlated with poorer overall survival of HCC patients (P<0.001). Functionally, we established RalA stable knockdown (KD) in three HCC cell lines (Hep3B, BEL7402 and MHCC-97L-Luc) and demonstrated that KD of RalA significantly inhibited cell proliferation, colony formation, migration and invasion in vitro. Conversely, ectopic expression of RalA, by transfecting the RalA dominant active form G23V construct into HCC cells, promoted HCC metastasis using transwell invasion assays. Also, with immunofluorescence assay, RalA mainly located in the cytoplasm and cell membrane. Over-expression of RalA changed the HCC cell morphology from polygonal to spindled shape, suggestive of epithelial-mesenchymal transition. We conducted in vivo study using the orthotopic liver injection model of RalA stable-KD MHCC-97L cells in nude mice, and observed that KD of RalA suppressed HCC tumorigenicity and reduced lung metastasis (P<0.001). Moreover, KD of RalA also reduced sphere formation ability of HCC cells, as well as suppressed the expression of stemness markers, including CD24, NANOG, NOTCH1, NESTIN, and EpCAM, using qPCR. For the liver cancer stem cell surface markers, the expression level of CD24 was significantly decreased in RalA KD Hep3B and BEL7402 cells by flow cytometry. Additionally, with RNA-Seq analysis of Hep3B and BEL7402 shRalA clones, 12 genes were found to be significantly altered (among them 5 were up-regulated and 7 were down-regulated) for both cell lines, when compared with in-house cohort as well as TCGA cohort. Further analysis showed that RalA expression level was positively and negatively correlated with a small group of genes. Taken together, our findings have shown that RalA is significantly up-regulated in human HCCs and its over-expression enhances HCC metastasis and cancer stemness. Further investigation of the interplay between RalA and its downstream targets will derive novel mechanistic insight regarding the oncogenic role of RalA in HCC.
Persistent Identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/260360
ISSN
2023 Impact Factor: 12.5
2023 SCImago Journal Rankings: 3.468
ISI Accession Number ID

 

DC FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributor.authorZhao, L-
dc.contributor.authorChan, LK-
dc.contributor.authorHo, DWH-
dc.contributor.authorTsui, GYM-
dc.contributor.authorLam, MWL-
dc.contributor.authorKam, CS-
dc.contributor.authorSze, KMF-
dc.contributor.authorZhang, VX-
dc.contributor.authorHusain, A-
dc.contributor.authorLee, JMF-
dc.contributor.authorNg, IOL-
dc.date.accessioned2018-09-14T08:40:29Z-
dc.date.available2018-09-14T08:40:29Z-
dc.date.issued2018-
dc.identifier.citationProceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, Chicago, USA, 14-18 April 2018. In Cancer Research, 2018, v. 78 n. 13, Suppl. 1, Abstract no. 91-
dc.identifier.issn0008-5472-
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/260360-
dc.description.abstractRalA is a Ras-related small GTP binding protein A; however, its functional roles and regulatory mechanisms in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are unclear. In this study, using the RNA-Seq data from TCGA database and our in-house HKU database, we observed that RalA expression was significantly up-regulated in human HCCs (P=0.001). This RalA over-expression was validated in a separate cohort of our HCC patients. Upon clinicopathological correlation of RalA in HCC, we found that over-expression of RalA was associated with more aggressive features of HCC patients, with more frequent tumor microsatellite formation (P=0.001), venous invasion (P=0.005) and absence of tumor encapsulation (P=0.005). The over-expression also correlated with poorer overall survival of HCC patients (P<0.001). Functionally, we established RalA stable knockdown (KD) in three HCC cell lines (Hep3B, BEL7402 and MHCC-97L-Luc) and demonstrated that KD of RalA significantly inhibited cell proliferation, colony formation, migration and invasion in vitro. Conversely, ectopic expression of RalA, by transfecting the RalA dominant active form G23V construct into HCC cells, promoted HCC metastasis using transwell invasion assays. Also, with immunofluorescence assay, RalA mainly located in the cytoplasm and cell membrane. Over-expression of RalA changed the HCC cell morphology from polygonal to spindled shape, suggestive of epithelial-mesenchymal transition. We conducted in vivo study using the orthotopic liver injection model of RalA stable-KD MHCC-97L cells in nude mice, and observed that KD of RalA suppressed HCC tumorigenicity and reduced lung metastasis (P<0.001). Moreover, KD of RalA also reduced sphere formation ability of HCC cells, as well as suppressed the expression of stemness markers, including CD24, NANOG, NOTCH1, NESTIN, and EpCAM, using qPCR. For the liver cancer stem cell surface markers, the expression level of CD24 was significantly decreased in RalA KD Hep3B and BEL7402 cells by flow cytometry. Additionally, with RNA-Seq analysis of Hep3B and BEL7402 shRalA clones, 12 genes were found to be significantly altered (among them 5 were up-regulated and 7 were down-regulated) for both cell lines, when compared with in-house cohort as well as TCGA cohort. Further analysis showed that RalA expression level was positively and negatively correlated with a small group of genes. Taken together, our findings have shown that RalA is significantly up-regulated in human HCCs and its over-expression enhances HCC metastasis and cancer stemness. Further investigation of the interplay between RalA and its downstream targets will derive novel mechanistic insight regarding the oncogenic role of RalA in HCC.-
dc.languageeng-
dc.publisherAmerican Association for Cancer Research. The Journal's web site is located at http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/-
dc.relation.ispartofCancer Research-
dc.relation.ispartofAACR (American Association for Cancer Research) Annual Meeting 2018-
dc.titleRalA is frequently up-regulated in human hepatocellular carcinoma and promotes metastasis and cancer stemness-
dc.typeConference_Paper-
dc.identifier.emailZhao, L: lqzhao17@hku.hk-
dc.identifier.emailChan, LK: lkchan1@hku.hk-
dc.identifier.emailHo, DWH: dwhho@hku.hk-
dc.identifier.emailTsui, GYM: ymtsui@HKUCC-COM.hku.hk-
dc.identifier.emailSze, KMF: karensze@hkucc.hku.hk-
dc.identifier.emailZhang, VX: vanilla6@hku.hk-
dc.identifier.emailLee, JMF: joyce@pathology.hku.hk-
dc.identifier.emailNg, IOL: iolng@hku.hk-
dc.identifier.authorityChan, LK=rp02289-
dc.identifier.authorityHo, DWH=rp02285-
dc.identifier.authorityNg, IOL=rp00335-
dc.identifier.doi10.1158/1538-7445.AM2018-91-
dc.identifier.hkuros290878-
dc.identifier.volume78-
dc.identifier.issue13, Suppl. 1-
dc.identifier.spageAbstract no. 91-
dc.identifier.epageAbstract no. 91-
dc.identifier.isiWOS:000468818901166-
dc.publisher.placeUnited States-
dc.identifier.issnl0008-5472-

Export via OAI-PMH Interface in XML Formats


OR


Export to Other Non-XML Formats