JOURNAL OF CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR MEDICINE最新文献

Glucose metabolic reprogramming is a key hallmark of tumour cells, and the designed inhibitors targeting tumour glucose metabolism reprogramming may serve as an effective therapeutic strategy. The ETS Variant Transcription Factor 6 (ETV6) is a potent transcriptional repressor strongly associated with tumorgenesis. However, the precise role and underlying action mechanism of ETV6 in tumour glucose metabolism reprogramming remain unreported. In this study, we demonstrate that the ETV6-miR-429-CRKL regulatory axis contributes to metabolism reprogramming in HCC. Overexpression or knockdown of ETV6 and CRKL enhances or inhibits the Warburg effect and glycogen synthesis in HCC cells both in vitro and in vivo. In contrast, miR-429 overexpression and knockdown exert opposing effects on the Warburg effect compared to the overexpression and knockdown of ETV6 and CRKL. Moreover, miR-429 regulates the rate of glycogen production and degradation by enhancing the activities of GCS and GPa to promote glycogen synthesis, subsequently coupling with the aerobic glycolytic pathway by mediating glycogen shunting. Mechanistically, ETV6 binds to the miR-429 promoter, mediating glucose metabolic reprogramming in HCC cells by targeting CRKL via the PI3K/AKT pathway. Taken together, these findings reveal that the ETV6-miR-429-CRKL regulatory circuitry plays a crucial role in glucose metabolic reprogramming in HCC, offering novel insight and a potential target for cancer therapy.

RETRACTION: W.-L. Zhang, S.-S. Wang, Y.-P. Jiang, Y. Liu, X.-H. Yu, J.-B. Wu, K. Wang, X. Pang, P. Liao, X.-H. Liang, and Y.-L. Tang, “ Fatty Acid Synthase Contributes to Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition and Invasion of Salivary Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma Through PRRX1/Wnt/β-Catenin Pathway,” Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine 24, no. 19 (2020): 11465–11476, https://doi.org/10.1111/jcmm.15760.

The above article, published online on 20 August 2020 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) has been retracted by agreement between the journal Editor-in-Chief, Stefan N. Constantinescu; The Foundation for Cellular and Molecular Medicine; and John Wiley and Sons Ltd. The retraction has been agreed due to concerns raised by third parties. Specifically, instances of image duplication have been identified within Figures 3A and S1. The authors have acknowledged the issues, explaining that they resulted from inaccuracies during figure assembly in manuscript preparation, and have provided the corrected data. However, further post-publication review revealed that the article lacks critical details necessary for reproducing and interpreting the findings, including the sequences for FASN-shRNA, FASN overexpression, PRRX1 overexpression, and their respective negative controls, as well as the absence of a legend for Figure S1. Finally, the article does not sufficiently reference relevant prior literature related to salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma in support of the study's rationale and to contextualize the study's findings, and some cited references have since been retracted, leaving related claims unsupported. Accordingly, the article has been retracted as the editors no longer consider the article's conclusions to be reliable. The authors disagree with the retraction decision.

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) presents a significant global health challenge, with a substantial proportion of patients diagnosed with advanced or metastatic disease due to the limitations of current diagnostic imaging and the lack of validated non-invasive biomarkers. These conventional methods, including computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, often lack the sensitivity and specificity to differentiate benign from malignant small renal masses reliably or to detect minimal residual disease (MRD) post-treatment. This review explores the transformative potential of liquid biopsy, explicitly focusing on circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) fragmentomics and epigenetic signatures, to overcome these clinical hurdles. This review also explores how the analysis of ctDNA fragmentation patterns—such as size distribution, end motifs, and nucleosome footprints—provides a mutation-independent method to enhance RCC detection, even in low-shedding tumours. Concurrently, RCC-specific epigenetic alterations, particularly DNA methylation profiles, offer particular biomarkers for early detection, tumour classification, and prognostication. This Review examines evidence that integrating these multi-analyte approaches—combining fragmentomic and epigenetic data—synergistically improves diagnostic accuracy, enables sensitive MRD assessment, and allows precision monitoring of treatment response and tumour evolution. Despite existing technical and biological challenges, the convergence of ctDNA fragmentomics and epigenetic profiling heralds a new era for the non-invasive, dynamic, and personalised management of RCC, promising to improve patient outcomes through earlier intervention and tailored therapeutic strategies.

Thymoquinone (TQ), the principal active constituent of Nigella stativa, has demonstrated numerous biological properties and therapeutic effects on various diseases. However, its therapeutic potential against cardiac hypertrophy remains uncertain. This study aims to investigate the protective effects of TQ on stress-induced cardiac hypertrophy and elucidate the underlying mechanisms. Our findings reveal that TQ mitigates stress-induced cardiac hypertrophy in mice and AngII-induced hypertrophy in H9c2 cells. Moreover, TQ inhibits cardiomyocyte ferroptosis and apoptosis by downregulating PTGS2, Bax, and upregulating GPX4, Bcl-2, thereby alleviating cardiac hypertrophy and dysfunction. Mechanistically, the protective effects of TQ against ferroptosis and apoptosis in cardiac hypertrophy were reversed by the PPAR-γ inhibitor (GW9662). In addition, TQ treatment led to increased protein expression levels of P-PI3K and P-AKt. Taken together, our findings suggest that TQ could attenuate cardiac hypertrophy through activation of the PPAR-γ/PI3K/Akt signalling pathway.

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) remains a severe complication in premature infants requiring prolonged oxygen therapy, with vascular endothelial dysfunction recognised as a critical contributor to disease progression. Mixed lineage kinase domain-like protein (MLKL)-mediated necroptosis, an essential form of regulated cell death implicated in various pulmonary disorders, has not been fully investigated in the context of BPD. Here, we utilised a neonatal mouse model of hyperoxia exposure to elucidate the role and mechanisms of MLKL-mediated necroptosis in BPD pathogenesis. Our analysis demonstrated morphological characteristics of necroptosis in pulmonary vascular endothelial cells (ECs) under hyperoxic conditions, accompanied by significant elevation of MLKL protein levels and marked upregulation of MLKL gene expression specifically in vascular ECs. Administration of the MLKL inhibitor necrosulfonamide (NSA), either immediately postnatally or at postnatal day 7, effectively mitigated lung injury, preserved alveolar structure and partially restored pulmonary vascular growth. Moreover, MLKL conditional knockout in ECs significantly attenuated both structural and functional pulmonary abnormalities induced by hyperoxia. Collectively, our findings indicate that MLKL-mediated necroptosis in vascular ECs plays a pivotal role in hyperoxia-induced BPD. Therapeutically targeting MLKL to maintain endothelial integrity presents a promising approach to prevent or alleviate BPD in premature infants.

RETRACTION: M. Balliu, L. Guandalini, M.N. Romanelli, M. D'Amico and F. Paoletti, “ HDAC-Inhibitor (S)-8 Disrupts HDAC6-PP1 Complex Prompting A375 Melanoma Cell Growth Arrest and Apoptosis,” Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine 19, no. 1 (2015): 143–154, https://doi.org/10.1111/jcmm.12345.

The above article, published online on 06 November 2014 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), has been retracted by agreement between the journal Editor-in-Chief, Stefan N. Constantinescu; the Foundation for Cellular and Molecular Medicine; and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. The retraction has been agreed upon following an investigation into concerns raised by a third party. The investigation identified duplication involving α-tubulin bands in Figure 3A and AKT bands in Figure 3D. Furthermore, the GAPDH bands presented in Figure 7C appear to be duplicated in another article published later by two of the same authors. The authors were invited to comment on the concerns and provide supporting data. While the authors cooperated with the investigation and provided some data, the data did not correspond to the published images. Given the nature of the concerns, the editors have lost confidence in the results and conclusions. The authors disagree with the retraction.

RETRACTION: Z. Sun, S. Gao, L. Xuan, and X. Liu, “ Long Non-Coding RNA FEZF1-AS1 Induced Progression of Ovarian Cancer via Regulating miR-130a-5p/SOX4 Axis,” Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine 24, no. 7 (2020): 4275–4285. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcmm.15088.

The above article, published online on 05 March 2020 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), has been retracted by agreement between the journal Editor-in-Chief, Stefan Constantinescu; and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. A third party reported multiple instances of image duplications between this article and previously published articles. All images in Figure 2C had previously been published in [Zhu et al. 2019 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41612-z)] and reported as different samples. All images in Figures 3A, 3B, 4C, and 4D had previously been published in Li et al. 2017 [(https://doi.org/10.1038/cddis.2017.119)] and reported as different samples. The GAPDH band in Figure 5D and all bands in Figure 5H had previously been published in [Liu et al. 2017 (https://doi.org/10.1186/s12943-017-0625-8)] and all those images were manipulated and rotated. Furthermore, multiple images in Figure 5E had previously been published in Liu et al. 2017, where further manipulation and rotation had been applied to these images.

An investigation by the publisher confirmed these concerns and discovered additional instances of image duplication from other articles. Data in Figure 2D had previously been published in [Liang et al. 2018 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41419-018-0582-1)], [Wang et al. 2019 (https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.102081)] and [Liang et al. 2020 (https://doi.org/10.1186/s12943-020-01206-5)]. Images in Figure 2C had previously been published in [Zhu et al. 2019 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07998-x)] and these images had been rotated. Multiple images in Figure 5E that were also previously published in Liu et al. 2017, were also later published in [Li et al. 2021 (https://doi.org/10.2147/OTT.S302800)].

The retraction has been agreed to because the evidence of image re-use and manipulation with multiple previously published articles fundamentally compromises the editors’ confidence in the results presented. The authors did not respond to our notice regarding the retraction.

Periodontitis is one of the most common oral inflammatory diseases. Baiyaojian decoction, known for its prominent immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory properties, shows significant potential in treating periodontitis, though its molecular mechanisms remain unknown. The active ingredients and therapeutic targets were determined by integrating multiple databases. The protein–protein interaction network was constructed by the STRING platform. Bulk RNA seq data of GSE16134 were included and GO enrichment, GSEA and CIBERSORT algorithm were employed to investigate the immune microenvironment in periodontitis. Single-cell RNA seq data of GSE152042 and GSE171213 were integrated by harmony; the cell–cell communication network was analysed by CellChat, and the differentiation trajectory was constructed by monocle3. Molecular docking was carried out using AutoDockTools, AutoDock Vina and PyMOL. Experimental validation was performed via qRT-PCR, CCK-8 assay, flow cytometry and ELISA. Twenty-seven active ingredients and 207 therapeutic targets were obtained. Thirty-one core therapeutic targets were identified. The infiltration of plasma cells, neutrophils, macrophages and mast cells was significantly enhanced in periodontitis tissues. Twenty-eight of 31 core therapeutic targets were involved in their infiltration, differentiation and pro-inflammatory activities. Molecular docking suggested stable bindings between ingredients and therapeutic targets. Experimental validation confirmed the elevated infiltration of above immune cells and demonstrated the anti-inflammatory properties and target modulation capabilities of key ingredients including Coumestrol, Diosmetin and Gallicin. Baiyaojian decoction may exert immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory effects to treat periodontitis through multi-ingredient and multi-target mechanisms.

Growth factors, including recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP2), have been clinically utilised for large bone augmentation with good outcomes. Nevertheless, long-term healing, swelling, safety concerns, and high cost limit their use. Exosomes, nanoscale extracellular vesicles, have emerged as promising regenerative alternatives. This study assessed the osteogenic potential of periodontal-specific exosomes (Px) on bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) compared to rhBMP2. Px were morphologically characterised by TEM and quantified via BCA assay. BMSCs were treated with Px at 1:10, 1:50, and 1:100 dilutions (100, 20, and 10 μg/mL) and compared to rhBMP2 (100 ng/mL). Px uptake was evaluated using PKH26 labeling. Functional assays included viability, migration, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, alizarin red (ARS) mineralization, collagen, osteocalcin secretion, and RT-PCR analysis of osteogenic genes. Px exhibited spheroidal to cup-shaped morphology and internalisation in BMSCs up to 18 days. Compared to rhBMP2, Px promoted viability (1.14-fold), migration (1.78-fold) up to 1.14 and 1.78-fold, ALP (1.48-, 4.11-fold), ARS (1.43-, 14.71-fold), collagen (1.40-, 3.58-fold), and osteocalcin (1.86-, 5.2-fold). Gene expression demonstrated significant upregulation of ALP (1.73-fold), RUNX2 (1.70-fold), OCN (1.36-fold), and OPN (1.35-fold). Overall, Px significantly enhanced BMSC osteogenesis compared to rhBMP2, highlighting their potential as a cell-free nanotherapeutic in bone tissue engineering.

Helicobacter pylori poses a significant risk for gastric cancer (GC) development. H. pylori exploits carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion molecules (CEACAMs) on GC cells (GCCs) to colonise the gastric epithelium. CEACAM1, CEACAM5 and CEACAM6 are known to interact with H. pylori. We explored the role of H. pylori in altering CEACAM levels in GCCs and the paracrine effect of infected GCCs on neighbouring uninfected GCCs and macrophages. H. pylori significantly upregulated CEACAM6. Elevated CEACAM6 in GCCs promoted cell proliferation, cell migration and cell invasion. The effect was further enhanced after infection with H. pylori. Similarly, soluble factors released by CEACAM6-transfected GCCs promoted the tumorigenic potential of uninfected GCCs. Macrophages are crucial for GC development and progression. Therefore, it was intriguing to know how CEACAM6 could influence the polarisation of macrophages during H. pylori infection. To study this, we co-cultured macrophages with either the empty vector or CEACAM6-expressing GCCs and found that H. pylori infection increased the M2 polarisation of macrophages co-incubated with CEACAM6-expressing GCCs. In summary, CEACAM6 was found to promote GC aggressiveness and alter macrophage polarisation. This information could be harnessed to develop future therapeutics for targeting GC.