Li Xiao

Endometrial Cancer Cells Promote M2‐Like Macrophage Polarization by Delivering Exosomal miRNA‐21 under Hypoxia Condition

Increasing evidence has demonstrated that hypoxia was an aggressive feature in endometrial cancer (EC), which is significantly associated with the tumor grade, lymph node metastasis, and tumor resistance to chemotherapy. However, the relationship between hypoxia and the immune microenvironment in EC is not very clear. Exosomes are small membrane vesicles secreted from a variety of cell types which mediate cell‐to‐cell communication through transported biomolecules. Here, we investigated whether exosomes can play an immunomodulatory role in intercellular communication between EC cells and macrophages. EC KEL cells were cultured under hypoxia or normoxic condition to collect exosomes. After identification, the exosomes derived from hypoxic or normoxic KEL cells were cultured with the monocyte cell line THP‐1 to study the immunoregulation function of KEL cells. The results showed that the total number of exosomes produced by hypoxic KEL cells was significantly higher than that in normoxic condition. In addition, hypoxia markedly stimulated the increase in miRNA‐21 expression in the exosomes. After coculture, we found that exosomal miRNA‐21 could be horizontally transferred into THP‐1 cells. And then, the notably enhanced mRNA expression levels of IL‐10 and CD206 in THP‐1 cells were observed, suggestive of M2 polarization. To further study the effect of miRNA‐21‐containing exosomes, we transfected miRNA‐21 mimics or inhibitor into THP‐1 cells. The results showed that miRNA‐21 mimics promoted IL‐10 and CD206 mRNA expression levels, and the miRNA‐21 inhibitor significantly prevented the alteration induced by intake of hypoxic KEL cell‐derived exosomes. In summary, we found that endometrial cancer KEL cells in hypoxic condition promoted monocyte THP‐1 cell transformation to M2‐like polarization macrophages through delivering exosomal miRNA‐21, which may be a potential mechanism of the formation of the immune microenvironment in EC progression.

Dysregulation of KIF14 regulates the cell cycle and predicts poor prognosis in cervical cancer: a study based on integrated approaches

Cervical cancer (CC) is the most common malignant tumor in females. Although persistent high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is a leading factor that causes CC, few women with HPV infection develop CC. Therefore, many mechanisms remain to be explored, such as aberrant expression of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. To identify promising prognostic factors and interpret the relevant mechanisms of CC, the RNA sequencing profile of CC was downloaded from the Cancer Genome Atlas and the Gene Expression Omnibus databases. The GSE63514 dataset was analyzed, and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were obtained by weighted coexpression network analysis and the edgeR package in R. Fifty-three shared genes were mainly enriched in nuclear chromosome segregation and DNA replication signaling pathways. Through a protein-protein interaction network and prognosis analysis, the kinesin family member 14 (KIF14) hub gene was extracted from the set of 53 shared genes, which was overexpressed and associated with poor overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) of CC patients. Mechanistically, gene set enrichment analysis showed that KIF14 was mainly enriched in the glycolysis/gluconeogenesis signaling pathway and DNA replication signaling pathway, especially in the cell cycle signaling pathway. RT-PCR and the Human Protein Atlas database confirmed that these genes were significantly increased in CC samples. Therefore, our findings indicated the biological function of KIF14 in cervical cancer and provided new ideas for CC diagnosis and therapies.

Diagnosis of Early Cervical Cancer with a Multimodal Magnetic Resonance Image under the Artificial Intelligence Algorithm

This research was conducted to explore the value of multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) based on the alternating direction algorithm in the diagnosis of early cervical cancer. 64 patients diagnosed with early cervical cancer clinicopathologically were included, and according to the examination methods, they were divided into A group with conventional multimodal MRI examination and B group with the multimodal MRI examination under the alternating direction algorithm. The diagnostic results of two types of multimodal MRI for early cervical cancer staging were compared with the results of clinicopathological examination to judge the application value in the early diagnosis of cervical cancer. The results showed that in the 6 randomly selected samples of early cervical cancer patients, the peak signal‐to‐noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity image measurement (SSIM) of multimodal MRI images under the alternating direction algorithm were significantly higher than those of conventional multimodal MRI images and the image reconstruction was clearer under this algorithm. By comparing MRI multimodal staging, statistical analysis showed that the staging accuracy of B group was 75%, while that of A group was only 59.38%. For the results of postoperative medical examinations, the examination consistency of B group was better than that of A group, with a statistically significant difference (P < 0.05). The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) of B group was larger than that of A group; thus, sensitivity was improved and misdiagnosis was reduced significantly. Multimodal MRI under the alternating direction algorithm was superior to conventional multimodal MRI examination in the diagnosis of early cervical cancer, as the lesions were displayed more clearly, which was conducive to the detection rate of small lesions and the staging accuracy. Therefore, it could be used as an ideal MRI method for the assistant diagnosis of cervical cancer staging.