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Epigenetic silencing of miR-144/451a cluster contributes to HCC progression via paracrine HGF/MIF-mediated TAM remodeling

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is among the malignancies with the highest mortality. The key regulators and their interactive network in HCC pathogenesis remain unclear. Along with genetic mutations, aberrant epigenetic paradigms, including deregulated microRNAs (miRNAs), exer...

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Autores principales: Zhao, Junlong, Li, Huichen, Zhao, Shoujie, Wang, Enxin, Zhu, Jun, Feng, Dayun, Zhu, Yejing, Dou, Weijia, Fan, Qingling, Hu, Jie, Jia, Lintao, Liu, Lei
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7927270/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33658044
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12943-021-01343-5
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author Zhao, Junlong
Li, Huichen
Zhao, Shoujie
Wang, Enxin
Zhu, Jun
Feng, Dayun
Zhu, Yejing
Dou, Weijia
Fan, Qingling
Hu, Jie
Jia, Lintao
Liu, Lei
author_facet Zhao, Junlong
Li, Huichen
Zhao, Shoujie
Wang, Enxin
Zhu, Jun
Feng, Dayun
Zhu, Yejing
Dou, Weijia
Fan, Qingling
Hu, Jie
Jia, Lintao
Liu, Lei
author_sort Zhao, Junlong
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND & AIMS: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is among the malignancies with the highest mortality. The key regulators and their interactive network in HCC pathogenesis remain unclear. Along with genetic mutations, aberrant epigenetic paradigms, including deregulated microRNAs (miRNAs), exert profound impacts on hepatocyte transformation and tumor microenvironment remodeling; however, the underlying mechanisms are largely uncharacterized. METHODS: We performed RNA sequencing on HCC specimens and bioinformatic analyses to identify tumor-associated miRNAs. The miRNA functional targets and their effects on tumor-infiltrating immune cells were investigated. The upstream events, particularly the epigenetic mechanisms responsible for miRNA deregulation in HCC, were explored. RESULTS: The miR-144/miR-451a cluster was downregulated in HCC and predicted a better HCC patient prognosis. These miRNAs promoted macrophage M1 polarization and antitumor activity by targeting hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF). The miR-144/miR-451a cluster and EZH2, the catalytic subunit of polycomb repressive complex (PRC2), formed a feedback circuit in which miR-144 targeted EZH2 and PRC2 epigenetically repressed the miRNA genes via histone H3K27 methylation of the promoter. The miRNA cluster was coordinately silenced by distal enhancer hypermethylation, disrupting chromatin loop formation and enhancer-promoter interactions. Clinical examinations indicated that methylation of this chromatin region is a potential HCC biomarker. CONCLUSIONS: Our study revealed novel mechanisms underlying miR-144/miR-451a cluster deregulation and the crosstalk between malignant cells and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) in HCC, providing new insights into HCC pathogenesis and diagnostic strategies. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12943-021-01343-5.
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spelling pubmed-79272702021-03-03 Epigenetic silencing of miR-144/451a cluster contributes to HCC progression via paracrine HGF/MIF-mediated TAM remodeling Zhao, Junlong Li, Huichen Zhao, Shoujie Wang, Enxin Zhu, Jun Feng, Dayun Zhu, Yejing Dou, Weijia Fan, Qingling Hu, Jie Jia, Lintao Liu, Lei Mol Cancer Research BACKGROUND & AIMS: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is among the malignancies with the highest mortality. The key regulators and their interactive network in HCC pathogenesis remain unclear. Along with genetic mutations, aberrant epigenetic paradigms, including deregulated microRNAs (miRNAs), exert profound impacts on hepatocyte transformation and tumor microenvironment remodeling; however, the underlying mechanisms are largely uncharacterized. METHODS: We performed RNA sequencing on HCC specimens and bioinformatic analyses to identify tumor-associated miRNAs. The miRNA functional targets and their effects on tumor-infiltrating immune cells were investigated. The upstream events, particularly the epigenetic mechanisms responsible for miRNA deregulation in HCC, were explored. RESULTS: The miR-144/miR-451a cluster was downregulated in HCC and predicted a better HCC patient prognosis. These miRNAs promoted macrophage M1 polarization and antitumor activity by targeting hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF). The miR-144/miR-451a cluster and EZH2, the catalytic subunit of polycomb repressive complex (PRC2), formed a feedback circuit in which miR-144 targeted EZH2 and PRC2 epigenetically repressed the miRNA genes via histone H3K27 methylation of the promoter. The miRNA cluster was coordinately silenced by distal enhancer hypermethylation, disrupting chromatin loop formation and enhancer-promoter interactions. Clinical examinations indicated that methylation of this chromatin region is a potential HCC biomarker. CONCLUSIONS: Our study revealed novel mechanisms underlying miR-144/miR-451a cluster deregulation and the crosstalk between malignant cells and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) in HCC, providing new insights into HCC pathogenesis and diagnostic strategies. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12943-021-01343-5. BioMed Central 2021-03-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7927270/ /pubmed/33658044 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12943-021-01343-5 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Zhao, Junlong
Li, Huichen
Zhao, Shoujie
Wang, Enxin
Zhu, Jun
Feng, Dayun
Zhu, Yejing
Dou, Weijia
Fan, Qingling
Hu, Jie
Jia, Lintao
Liu, Lei
Epigenetic silencing of miR-144/451a cluster contributes to HCC progression via paracrine HGF/MIF-mediated TAM remodeling
title Epigenetic silencing of miR-144/451a cluster contributes to HCC progression via paracrine HGF/MIF-mediated TAM remodeling
title_full Epigenetic silencing of miR-144/451a cluster contributes to HCC progression via paracrine HGF/MIF-mediated TAM remodeling
title_fullStr Epigenetic silencing of miR-144/451a cluster contributes to HCC progression via paracrine HGF/MIF-mediated TAM remodeling
title_full_unstemmed Epigenetic silencing of miR-144/451a cluster contributes to HCC progression via paracrine HGF/MIF-mediated TAM remodeling
title_short Epigenetic silencing of miR-144/451a cluster contributes to HCC progression via paracrine HGF/MIF-mediated TAM remodeling
title_sort epigenetic silencing of mir-144/451a cluster contributes to hcc progression via paracrine hgf/mif-mediated tam remodeling
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7927270/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33658044
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12943-021-01343-5
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