ZNF384

Gene Summary

Gene:ZNF384; zinc finger protein 384
Aliases: NP, CIZ, NMP4, CAGH1, ERDA2, TNRC1, CAGH1A
Location:12p13.31
Summary:This gene encodes a C2H2-type zinc finger protein, which may function as a transcription factor. This gene also contains long CAG trinucleotide repeats that encode consecutive glutamine residues. The protein appears to bind and regulate the promoters of the extracellular matrix genes MMP1, MMP3, MMP7 and COL1A1. Studies in mouse suggest that nuclear matrix transcription factors (NP/NMP4) may be part of a general mechanical pathway that couples cell construction and function during extracellular matrix remodeling. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants. Recurrent rearrangements of this gene with the Ewing's sarcoma gene, EWSR1 on chromosome 22, or with the TAF15 gene on chromosome 17, or with the TCF3 (E2A) gene on chromosome 19, have been observed in acute leukemia. A related pseudogene has been identified on chromosome 7. [provided by RefSeq, Apr 2011]
Databases:OMIM, HGNC, Ensembl, GeneCard, Gene
Protein:zinc finger protein 384
Source:NCBIAccessed: 31 August, 2019

Ontology:

What does this gene/protein do?
Show (10)

Cancer Overview

Research Indicators

Publications Per Year (1994-2019)
Graph generated 31 August 2019 using data from PubMed using criteria.

Literature Analysis

Mouse over the terms for more detail; many indicate links which you can click for dedicated pages about the topic.

  • Bone Marrow
  • Cell Lineage
  • Leukaemia
  • Transcriptional Activation
  • Ewing's Sarcoma
  • Oncogene Fusion Proteins
  • Newborns
  • High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing
  • Childhood Cancer
  • tRNA Methyltransferases
  • Acute Lymphocytic Leukaemia
  • Tumor Necrosis Factor Receptor Superfamily, Member 7
  • Sequence Analysis, RNA
  • Chromosome Banding
  • Genomics
  • Whole Genome Sequencing
  • Transcriptome
  • Immunophenotyping
  • Transcription Factors
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Mutation
  • Genetic Variation
  • Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors
  • EP300
  • Precursor B-Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma
  • Acute Myeloid Leukaemia
  • Gene Rearrangement
  • FISH
  • Phenotype
  • Single Nucleotide Polymorphism
  • ZNF384
  • Leukemic Gene Expression Regulation
  • Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia
  • Recurrence
  • fms-Like Tyrosine Kinase 3
  • Chromosome 12
  • Trans-Activators
  • Gene Fusion
  • TATA-Binding Protein Associated Factors
  • Chromosome 17
  • Adolescents
  • Infant
  • Base Sequence
Tag cloud generated 31 August, 2019 using data from PubMed, MeSH and CancerIndex

Specific Cancers (5)

Data table showing topics related to specific cancers and associated disorders. Scope includes mutations and abnormal protein expression.

Note: list is not exhaustive. Number of papers are based on searches of PubMed (click on topic title for arbitrary criteria used).

Latest Publications: ZNF384 (cancer-related)

Forte M, Di Lorenzo M, Iachetta G, et al.
Nonylphenol acts on prostate adenocarcinoma cells via estrogen molecular pathways.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2019; 180:412-419 [PubMed] Related Publications
Estrogens play a role in the patho-physiology of the prostate. In the present work we studied the effects of nonylphenol (NP), a xenoestrogen, on human adenocarcinoma prostate cells (LNCaP). In order to understand molecular and cellular involvement, we observed the effects on cell cycle and we investigated the expression and the cellular localization of estrogen receptors and gene expression of cyclin D1, ki-67, c-myc, IL-8, IL-1β. We performed the same experiments with 17β-estradiol (E2), the most abundant estrogen circulating in nonpregnant humans in order to compare these two different substances. We demonstrated the ability of 1 × 10

Ibnat N, Kamaruzman NI, Ashaie M, Chowdhury EH
Transfection with p21 and p53 tumor suppressor plasmids suppressed breast tumor growth in syngeneic mouse model.
Gene. 2019; 701:32-40 [PubMed] Related Publications
Treatment of breast cancer by delivering important tumor suppressor plasmids is a promising approach in the field of clinical medicine. We transfected p21 and p53 tumor suppressor plasmids, into different breast cancer cell lines using inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) of carbonate apatite to evaluate the effect of gene expression on reducing breast cancer cell growth. In triple negative MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell line, the cytotoxicity assay upon combined delivery of p21 and p53 plasmid loaded NPs showed significant decrease in cell growth compared to distinct p21 or p53 treatments. Also, in MCF-7 and 4T1 cell lines, significant reduction in cellular growth was observed following p21 or p53 plasmid transfection. The Western blot data showed that NP loaded p21 and p53 transgene delivery in MDA-MB-231 cell line resulted in a noteworthy decrease in phosphorylated form of MAPK protein of MAPK/ERK pathway. The in vivo studies in syngeneic breast cancer mouse model demonstrated that the rate of growth and final tumor volume were reduced to a greater extent in mice that received intravenous injection of p21 + NP and p53 + NP therapeutics.

Al-Salam S, Sudhadevi M, Awwad A, Al Bashir M
Trefoil factors peptide-3 is associated with residual invasive breast carcinoma following neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
BMC Cancer. 2019; 19(1):135 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
BACKGROUND: Breast carcinoma is the commonest cancer among UAE population and the most common cancer among females. Examination of the 5' promoter regions of trefoil factor 3 (TFF3) gene has identified putative estrogen and progesterone receptor-DNA binding domains as direct response elements to estrogen and progesterone that are linked to breast functions or steroid regulation. The study was designed to determine the role of TFF3 in breast cancer chemoresistance with the aim of establishing TFF3 expression as a biomarker for drug resistance.
METHODS: In total, 133 cases of breast carcinoma treated with neo-adjuvant therapy were collected. Tissue samples from pre-neoadjuvant therapy as well as tissues from post-neo-adjuvant therapy of those cases were collected and stained with immunohistochemistry for TFF3, Bcl2, BAX, cleaved caspase-3, AKT-1, NF kappa B and Ki-67.
RESULTS: There was increased expression of TFF3 in residual invasive carcinoma cells. There was a significant correlation between the expression of TFF3 in breast carcinoma cells and response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (p = 0.0165). There was significant co-expression of TFF3 with AKT1 (p = 0.0365), BCl2 (p = 0.0152), and NF Kappa-B (p = 0.0243) in breast carcinoma cases with residual carcinoma following neoadjuvant therapy which support the role of TFF3 in chemoresistance.
CONCLUSION: The expression of TFF3 is significantly associated with residual breast carcinoma following neoadjuvant chemotherapy suggesting its expression is associated with increased resistance to chemotherapy. This is supported by its co-expression with antiapoptotic proteins; BCl2, AKT1 and NF Kappa-B in residual breast carcinoma cells and very low proliferating index and apoptotic bodies in residual tumors.

Nicolas E, Demidova EV, Iqbal W, et al.
Interaction of germline variants in a family with a history of early-onset clear cell renal cell carcinoma.
Mol Genet Genomic Med. 2019; 7(3):e556 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
BACKGROUND: Identification of genetic factors causing predisposition to renal cell carcinoma has helped improve screening, early detection, and patient survival.
METHODS: We report the characterization of a proband with renal and thyroid cancers and a family history of renal and other cancers by whole-exome sequencing (WES), coupled with WES analysis of germline DNA from additional affected and unaffected family members.
RESULTS: This work identified multiple predicted protein-damaging variants relevant to the pattern of inherited cancer risk. Among these, the proband and an affected brother each had a heterozygous Ala45Thr variant in SDHA, a component of the succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) complex. SDH defects are associated with mitochondrial disorders and risk for various cancers; immunochemical analysis indicated loss of SDHB protein expression in the patient's tumor, compatible with SDH deficiency. Integrated analysis of public databases and structural predictions indicated that the two affected individuals also had additional variants in genes including TGFB2, TRAP1, PARP1, and EGF, each potentially relevant to cancer risk alone or in conjunction with the SDHA variant. In addition, allelic imbalances of PARP1 and TGFB2 were detected in the tumor of the proband.
CONCLUSION: Together, these data suggest the possibility of risk associated with interaction of two or more variants.

Xiao Z, Wang CQ, Zhou MH, et al.
The Antitumor Immunity and Tumor Responses of Chemotherapy with or without DC-CIK for Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer in China: A Meta-Analysis of 28 Randomized Controlled Trials.
J Immunol Res. 2018; 2018:9081938 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
Objective: DC-CIK therapy included DC-CIK cells and Ag-DC-CIK cells. To further confirm whether DC-CIK reconstructs the antitumor immunity and improves the tumor responses and reveals its optimal usage and combination with chemotherapy, we systematically reevaluated all the related studies.
Materials and Methods: All studies about DC-CIK plus chemotherapy for NSCLC were collected from the published and ongoing database as CBM, CNKI, VIP, Wanfang, ISI, Embase, MEDLINE, CENTRAL, WHO-ICTRP, Chi-CTR, and US clinical trials (established on June 2017). We evaluated their methodological bias risk according to the Cochrane evaluation handbook of RCTs (5.1.0), extracted data following the predesigned data extraction form, and synthesized the data using meta-analysis.
Results: We included 28 RCTs (phase IV) with 2242 patients, but most trials had unclear bias risk. The SMD and 95% CI of meta-analysis for CD3
Conclusions: DC-CIK therapy can simultaneously improve the antitumor immunity and tumor responses. DC-CIK therapy, especially DC-CIK cells, can improve antitumor immunity through increasing the T lymphocyte subsets, CIK cell, and NK cells in peripheral blood. The one cycle to two cycles may be optimal cycle, and the NP or GP may be optimal combination.

Zhang Y, Zhang H, Lin P, Zhang G
Glutathione S-transferase gene polymorphisms and risk of nasal or colorectal polyposis.
Biosci Rep. 2019; 39(1) [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
We observed inconsistent conclusions regarding the genetic role of glutathione S-transferase gene polymorphisms, including glutathione S-transferase M1 (

Loria R, Giliberti C, Bedini A, et al.
Very low intensity ultrasounds as a new strategy to improve selective delivery of nanoparticles-complexes in cancer cells.
J Exp Clin Cancer Res. 2019; 38(1):1 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
BACKGROUND: The possibility to combine Low Intensity UltraSound (LIUS) and Nanoparticles (NP) could represent a promising strategy for drugs delivery in tumors difficult to treat overcoming resistance to therapies. On one side the NP can carry drugs that specifically target the tumors on the other the LIUS can facilitate and direct the delivery to the tumor cells. In this study, we investigated whether Very Low Intensity UltraSound (VLIUS), at intensities lower than 120 mW/cm
METHODS: VLIUS at different intensities and exposure time were applied to tumor and normal cells to evaluate the efficiency in uptake of labeled human ferritin (HFt)-based NP, the delivery of NP complexed Firefly luciferase reported gene (lipoplex-LUC), and the tumor-killing of chemotherapeutic agent.
RESULTS: Specifically, we found that specific VLIUS intensity (120 mW/cm
CONCLUSIONS: Our data shed novel lights on the potential application of VLIUS for the design and development of novel therapeutic strategies aiming to efficiently deliver NP loaded cargos or anticancer drugs into more aggressive and unresponsive tumors niche.

Urbanova M, Hirschfeldova K, Obeidova L, et al.
Two Czech patients with familial adenomatous polyposis presenting mosaicism in APC gene.
Neoplasma. 2019; 66(2):294-300 [PubMed] Related Publications
During standard molecular diagnostic procedure, two Czech families with APC (Adenomatous polyposis coli gene) mosaicism have been detected. A woman with attenuated familial adenomatous polyposis (AFAP, OMIM #175100) was recently inspected by next generation sequencing. Standard bioinformatics pipeline, restricted to variants with at least 20% of reads (for germline variants) would miss mutation p.G1412X (NM_000038.5) present in 17% of reads. This novel variant was not present in any of her two children. Another woman with a clinical manifestation of attenuated FAP was tested 16 years ago without conclusive APC mutation found when denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), protein truncation test (PTT), multiplex ligation probe amplification (MLPA) and direct Sanger sequencing were applied. Recent inspection of her son showed clear mutation p.Q1062X (NM_000038.5, NP_000029.2) leading to premature stop codon. This finding led to re-evaluation of this protein position in his mother and detection of mosaicism (11% of allele, 22% of heterozygous cells in blood), which was primarily overlooked. Mutations in both patients were confirmed by allele-specific real time PCR (AS qPCR). In both index patients it was possible to detect and quantify the mosaic allele in biological samples of polyps, adjacent colonic mucosa and buccal swabs. In cases of sporadic appearance of FAP, besides blood we plan to preferably inspect also other samples, where mosaic fraction might be under detection limit of bioinformatics pipelines (<3%). For our future routine NGS sequencing analysis we will apply our in-house somatic variant detection pipeline to minimize the false negative calls when genes with high level of de-novo mutations are analyzed.

Sharma A, McCarron P, Matchett K, et al.
Anti-Invasive and Anti-Proliferative Effects of shRNA-Loaded Poly(Lactide-Co-Glycolide) Nanoparticles Following RAN Silencing in MDA-MB231 Breast Cancer Cells.
Pharm Res. 2018; 36(2):26 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
BACKGROUND: Overexpression of the RAN GTP (RAN) gene has been shown to be linked to metastatic activity of MDA-MB231 human breast cancer cells by increasing Ras/MEK/ERK and PI3K/Akt/mTORC1 signalling. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of polymeric nanoparticles to deliver two novel shRNA sequences, targeted against the RAN gene, to MDA-MB231 cells grown in culture and to assess their effects in a range of biological assays.
METHODS: Biodegradable PLGA nanoparticles, loaded with shRNA-1 and shRNA-4, were fabricated using a double emulsion solvent evaporation technique and characterised for size, zeta potential and polydispersity index before testing on the MDA-MB231 cell line in a range of assays including cell viability, migration, invasion and gene knock down.
RESULTS: shRNA-loaded nanoparticles were successfully fabricated and delivered to MDA-MB231 cells in culture, where they effectively released their payload, causing a decrease in both cell invasion and cell migration by knocking down RAN gene expression.
CONCLUSION: Results indicate the anti-RAN shRNA-loaded nanoparticles deliver and release biological payload to MDA-MB231 cells in culture. This works paves the way for further investigations into the possible use of anti-RAN shRNA-loaded NP formulations for the treatment of breast cancer in vivo.

Rizza R, Hackmann K, Paris I, et al.
Novel BRCA1 Large Genomic Rearrangements in Italian Breast/Ovarian Cancer Patients.
Mol Diagn Ther. 2019; 23(1):121-126 [PubMed] Related Publications
BACKGROUND: In recent years, the number of patients being offered BRCA1/2 testing has changed dramatically. Advances in high-throughput sequencing technology have led many diagnostic laboratories to test next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based platforms as the main technology for clinical testing. As a consequence, the proportion of novel BRCA1/2 variants detected has greatly increased. Here, we describe two novel BRCA1 large deletions detected in Italian patients affected by hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome (HBOC).
METHODS: We applied an NGS pipeline with a reliable copy number variation (CNV) prediction algorithm. Successively, samples were investigated using the Multiplex Amplicon Quantification (MAQ) assay and array comparative genomic hybridization (CGH). In a single case, long-range polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was employed for careful detection of the breakpoint region, while the RepeatMasker program was used to identify Alu sequences at the junction point.
RESULTS: A 137.8 kb deletion, involving the first six exons of BRCA1 and the full NBR2, BRCA1P1, NBR1, and TMEM106a genes, was detected in an Italian woman diagnosed with high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma. A second rearrangement, involving the deletion of BRCA1 11-14 exons, was detected in a breast cancer patient and was fully characterized and reported according to recommended Human Genome Variation Society (HGVS) nomenclature: NG_005905.2: g.125038_143266del; NM_007294.3: c.2817_4716del; NP_009225: p.Lys862Metfs?
CONCLUSION: Although it was not possible to perform a familial segregation analysis and more direct evidence of the relationship between genotype and phenotype is necessary, both of the novel reported rearrangements cause the loss of crucial functional domains of the BRCA1 protein and this event supports their pathogenicity.

Li JF, Dai YT, Lilljebjörn H, et al.
Transcriptional landscape of B cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia based on an international study of 1,223 cases.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018; 115(50):E11711-E11720 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
Most B cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (BCP ALL) can be classified into known major genetic subtypes, while a substantial proportion of BCP ALL remains poorly characterized in relation to its underlying genomic abnormalities. We therefore initiated a large-scale international study to reanalyze and delineate the transcriptome landscape of 1,223 BCP ALL cases using RNA sequencing. Fourteen BCP ALL gene expression subgroups (G1 to G14) were identified. Apart from extending eight previously described subgroups (G1 to G8 associated with

Jacobson ME, Wang-Bishop L, Becker KW, Wilson JT
Delivery of 5'-triphosphate RNA with endosomolytic nanoparticles potently activates RIG-I to improve cancer immunotherapy.
Biomater Sci. 2019; 7(2):547-559 [PubMed] Related Publications
RNA agonists of the retinoic acid gene I (RIG-I) pathway have recently emerged as a promising class of cancer immunotherapeutics, but their efficacy is hindered by drug delivery barriers, including nuclease degradation, poor intracellular uptake, and minimal access to the cytosol where RIG-I is localized. Here, we explore the application of pH-responsive, endosomolytic polymer nanoparticles (NPs) to enhance the cytosolic delivery and immunostimulatory activity of synthetic 5' triphosphate, short, double-stranded RNA (3pRNA), a ligand for RIG-I. Delivery of 3pRNA with pH-responsive NPs with an active endosomal escape mechanism, but not control carriers lacking endosomolytic activity, significantly increased the activity of 3pRNA in dendritic cells, macrophages, and cancer cell lines. In a CT26 colon cancer model, activation of RIG-I via NP delivery of 3pRNA induced immunogenic cell death, triggered expression of type I interferon and pro-inflammatory cytokines, and increased CD8+ T cell infiltration into the tumor microenvironment. Consequently, intratumoral (IT) delivery of NPs loaded with 3pRNA inhibited CT26 tumor growth and enhanced the therapeutic efficacy of anti-PD-1 immune checkpoint blockade, resulting in a 30% complete response rate and generation of immunological memory that protected against tumor rechallenge. Collectively, these studies demonstrate that pH-responsive NPs can be harnessed to strongly enhance the immunostimulatory activity and therapeutic efficacy of 3pRNA and establish endosomal escape as a critical parameter in the design of carriers for immunotherapeutic targeting of the RIG-I pathway.

Karagianni F, Kataki A, Koniaris E, et al.
Distinctive expression profiles of Caveolin-1 and Notch-1 protein in patients with nasal polyps or sinonasal inverted papillomas.
Pathol Res Pract. 2018; 214(12):2004-2010 [PubMed] Related Publications
BACKGROUND: Nasal polyposis (NP) and sinonasal inverted papillomas (SIP) are considered benign lesions capable of recurrence or malignant transformation although not with the same prevalence. Since fluctuations of Caveolin-1 and Notch-1 proteins expression have been reported in many pathologies, the current study aimed to investigate their involvement in the epithelial transformation observed in SIPs compared to NP.
METHODS: Immunohistochemical expression of Caveolin-1 and Notch-1 proteins was assessed in 104 patients with sinonasal lesions (45 NP, 45 SIP and 14 NP with SIP), semiquantively (percentage times intensity). Proteins expression profiles were evaluated statistically for their correlation with patients demographic and clinicopathological variables (grade of dysplasia, inflammation, recurrence) as well as with markers of proliferation (Ki67) and apoptosis (7-AAD) as determined by flow cytometry analysis.
RESULTS: SIP lesions presented increased Caveolin-1 immunopositivity compared to NP (62.2%, vs 40.9%; p = 0.045). Cytoplasmic staining was observed only in epithelium's basal and suprabasal layers. Caveolin-1 positivity was not related to Ki67 expression, apoptosis, inflammation or dysplasia, eventhough 81.8% of highly immunopositive lesions were dysplastic (p = 0.03). Also, smokers presented significantly increased immunopositivy (p = 0.03). In contrast SIP lesions presented reduced Notch-1 expression compared to NP (68.9% vs 100%; p < 0.001). Dysplastic lesions presented low Notch-1 immunopositivity (p < 0.001). Enhancement of Notch-1 gene expression was also associated with inflammation.
CONCLUSIONS: The herein presented data suggest that the expression profiles of Caveolin-1 and Notch-1 proteins in sinonasal pathologies are distinctive and that could be explored as potential targets for the development of alternative therapeutic approaches.

Wu Q, Han T, Sheng X, et al.
Downregulation of EB virus miR-BART4 inhibits proliferation and aggressiveness while promoting radiosensitivity of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
Biomed Pharmacother. 2018; 108:741-751 [PubMed] Related Publications
OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore the role of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) miR-BART4 in occurrence and progression of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and its effect on radiosensitivity.
METHOD: The expressions of EBV and miR-BART4 in 108 cases of NPC tissues and 97 cases of chronic nasopharyngeal inflammation tissues were determined by real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and the relationship between the expression of miR-BART4 and the clinicopathological features of NPC was analyzed. Cell lines, HONEl, CNEl, CNE2, C666-1, 6-10B, and NP-69 were used to compare the expression of miR-BART4, in which the CNE2 cells were selected for further experiments. CNE2 cells were grouped into blank group, negative control (NC) group, miR-BART4 inhibitors group and miR-BART4 mimics group. Cells in above groups were under radiation of 6 Gy X ray for 12 h before grouped into control group, 6 Gy group, NC + 6 Gy group, miR-BART4 inhibitors + 6 Gy group and miR-BART4 mimics + 6 Gy group. Cell proliferation, clone formation ability, cell apoptosis, invasion and migration ability were measured by MTT assay, clone formation assay, flow cytometry (FCM), Transwell assay and scratch test, respectively. Western blot analysis was used to detect the expression of apoptosis-related proteins (cleaved caspase-3, Bax and Bcl-2) and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) marker protein E-cadherin and Vimentin. mRNA and protein expression of PTEN were detected by qRT-PCR and western blot. Bioinformatics software and luciferase activity experiments were used to verify the targeting relationship between miR-BART4 and PTEN.
RESULTS: Positive rate of EBV in NPC tissues (93.5%) was remarkably higher than that in chronic nasopharyngeal inflammation tissues (21.6%). miR-BART4 was highly expressed and mRNA and protein expression of PTEN was lowly expressed in EBV positive NPC tissues compared with EBV negative NPC tissues and chronic nasopharyngeal inflammation tissues. The expression of miR-BART4 was related to the clinical stage, lymph node metastasis and differentiation degree of NPC. Expression of miR-BART4 in CNE2, CNEl, HONEl, C666-1, 6-10B, 5-8F cells was higher than that in NP-69 cells. In CNE2 and C666-1 cell experiments, compared with blank group and NC group, miR-BART4 inhibitors group had decreased miR-BART4 expression, increased mRNA and protein expression of PTEN, cell survival rate, invasion and migration ability and increased cell apoptosis rate, which is totally contrary to the observation in miR-BART4 mimics group. The radiosensitive NPC tissues had higher miR-BART4 expression than that in radio-resistance NPC tissues. In comparison to 6 Gy group and NC + 6 Gy group, cell survival rate and clone number was inhibited, but the cell apoptosis rate was increased in miR-BART4 inhibitors +6 G group, in contrary to the observation in miR-BART4 inhibitors + 6 Gy group. Bioinformatics software and luciferase activity experiments confirmed that miR-BART4 could inhibit the expression of PTEN.
CONCLUSION: EBV may promote development and progression of NPC by up-regulating miR-BART4 expressions, consequently inhibiting its radiosensitivity, whose effect may be related to the targeting inhibition of PTEN expression.

Yang L, Tian Y, Leong WS, et al.
Efficient and tumor-specific knockdown of MTDH gene attenuates paclitaxel resistance of breast cancer cells both in vivo and in vitro.
Breast Cancer Res. 2018; 20(1):113 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
BACKGROUND: Drug resistance of paclitaxel (TAX), the first-line chemotherapy drug for breast cancer, was reported to develop in 90% of patients with breast cancer, especially metastatic breast cancer. Investigating the mechanism of TAX resistance of breast cancer cells and developing the strategy improving its therapeutic efficiency are crucial to breast cancer cure.
METHODS AND RESULTS: We here report an elegant nanoparticle (NP)-based technique that realizes efficient breast cancer treatment of TAX. Using lentiviral vector-mediated gene knockdown, we first demonstrated that TAX therapeutic efficiency was closely correlated with metadherin (MTDH) gene expression in breast cancer cell lines. This finding was also supported by efficacy of TAX treatment in breast cancer patients from our clinical studies. Specifically, TAX treatment became more effective when MTDH expression was decreased in MCF-7 cancer cells by the blocking nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) pathway. Based on these findings, we subsequently synthesized a polymeric NP that could co-deliver MTDH-small interfering RNA (MTDH-siRNA) and TAX into the breast cancer tumors in tumor-bearing mice. The NPs were composed of a cationic copolymer, which wrapped TAX in the inside and adsorbed the negatively charged siRNA on their surface with high drug-loading efficiency and good stability.
CONCLUSIONS: NP-based co-delivery approach can effectively knock down the MTDH gene both in vitro and in vivo, which dramatically inhibits breast tumor growth, achieving effective TAX chemotherapy treatment without overt side effects. This study provides a potential therapeutic strategy for the treatment of a wide range of solid tumors highly expressing MTDH.

Aşık E, Aslan TN, Güray NT, Volkan M
Cellular uptake and apoptotic potential of rhenium labeled magnetic protein cages in MDA-MB-231 cells.
Environ Toxicol Pharmacol. 2018; 63:127-134 [PubMed] Related Publications

Georgakopoulos N, Diamantopoulos P, Micci F, et al.
An Adult Patient with Early Pre-B Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia with t(12;17)(p13;q21)/ZNF384-TAF15.
In Vivo. 2018 Sep-Oct; 32(5):1241-1245 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
This is a case report of a 46-year-old man diagnosed with early pre-B acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), bearing the translocation t(12;17)(p13;q21) as the sole chromosomal abnormality. This is a rare chromosomal abnormality that has been reported in approximately 25 cases worldwide. FISH analysis revealed a rearrangement of ZNF384 (12p13) and TAF15 (17q12) genes, which is usually associated with a pre-B ALL phenotype with co-expression of the myeloid markers CD13 and/or CD33. ZNF384 encodes a zinc finger protein, which acts as a transcription factor, regulating the expression of several matrix metalloproteinases and TAF15 belongs to the FET (FUS, EWS, and TAF15) family, consisting of RNA and DNA-binding proteins. Unlike most of the cases where CD10 expression was absent or weak, in our case CD10 was highly expressed. The prognostic significance of ZNF384/TAF15 fusion is not very clear since several reports support a generally good prognosis, while others support a poor clinical outcome. Our patient was treated with the German multicenter ALL (GMALL) protocol for B-ALL, but experienced a fulminant gram-negative sepsis and eventually died during induction therapy.

Ghosh M, Adhikary S, Ghosh KK, et al.
Genetic algorithm based cancerous gene identification from microarray data using ensemble of filter methods.
Med Biol Eng Comput. 2019; 57(1):159-176 [PubMed] Related Publications
Microarray datasets play a crucial role in cancer detection. But the high dimension of these datasets makes the classification challenging due to the presence of many irrelevant and redundant features. Hence, feature selection becomes irreplaceable in this field because of its ability to remove the unrequired features from the system. As the task of selecting the optimal number of features is an NP-hard problem, hence, some meta-heuristic search technique helps to cope up with this problem. In this paper, we propose a 2-stage model for feature selection in microarray datasets. The ranking of the genes for the different filter methods are quite diverse and effectiveness of rankings is datasets dependent. First, we develop an ensemble of filter methods by considering the union and intersection of the top-n features of ReliefF, chi-square, and symmetrical uncertainty. This ensemble allows us to combine all the information of the three rankings together in a subset. In the next stage, we use genetic algorithm (GA) on the union and intersection to get the fine-tuned results, and union performs better than the latter. Our model has been shown to be classifier independent through the use of three classifiers-multi-layer perceptron (MLP), support vector machine (SVM), and K-nearest neighbor (K-NN). We have tested our model on five cancer datasets-colon, lung, leukemia, SRBCT, and prostate. Experimental results illustrate the superiority of our model in comparison to state-of-the-art methods. Graphical abstract ᅟ.

Wang R, Degirmenci V, Xin H, et al.
PEI-Coated Fe₃O₄ Nanoparticles Enable Efficient Delivery of Therapeutic siRNA Targeting REST into Glioblastoma Cells.
Int J Mol Sci. 2018; 19(8) [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
Glioblastomas (GBM) are the most frequent brain tumors lacking efficient treatment. The increasingly elucidated gene targets make siRNA-based gene therapy a promising anticancer approach, while an efficient delivery system is urgently needed. Here, polyethyleneimine (PEI)-coated Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles (NPs) have been developed and applied for siRNA delivery into GBM cells to silence repressor element 1-silencing transcription factor (REST). The prepared PEI-coated Fe₃O₄ NPs were characterized as magnetic nanoparticles with a positive charge, by transmission electronic microscopy, dynamic light-scattering analysis and a magnetometer. By gel retardation assay, the nanoparticles were found to form complexes with siRNA and the interaction proportion of NP to siRNA was 2.8:1. The cellular uptake of NP/siRNA complexes was verified by prussian blue staining, fluorescence labeling and flow cytometry in U-87 and U-251 GBM cells. Furthermore, the REST silencing examined by realtime polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Western blotting presented significant reduction of REST in transcription and translation levels. Upon the treatment of NP/siRNA targeting REST, the GBM cell viabilities were inhibited and the migration capacities were repressed remarkably, analyzed by cell counting kit-8 and transwell assay separately. In this study, we demonstrated the PEI-coated Fe₃O₄ nanoparticle as a vehicle for therapeutic siRNA delivery, at an appropriate NP/siRNA weight ratio for REST silencing in GBM cells, inhibiting cell proliferation and migration efficiently. These might represent a novel potential treatment strategy for GBM.

Jafari R, Majidi Zolbanin N, Majidi J, et al.
Anti-Mucin1 Aptamer-Conjugated Chitosan Nanoparticles for Targeted Co-Delivery of Docetaxel and IGF-1R siRNA to SKBR3 Metastatic Breast Cancer Cells
Iran Biomed J. 2019; 23(1):21-33 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
Background: Targeted co-delivery of siRNA and a chemotherapeutic drug is an attractive approach to cancer drug design and treatment. This study was carried out to design an anti-Mucin1 aptamer (Apt)-conjugated chitosan nanoparticle (NP) for targeted co-delivery of insulin-like growth factor receptor 1 (IGF-1R) Silencer siRNA and docetaxel (DTX) to SKBR3 cells.
Methods: Characterization of nano-drugs, cellular uptake of NPs, cell viability, and gene expression studies were evaluated based on metastatic breast cancer cells.
Results: The results of this study showed that NPs had spherical and smooth morphology with 110-118 nm in size and had positive zeta potential (12-14 mV). siRNA and DTX were considerably loaded into NPs. The appropriate conjugation of the Apt to the NPs was affirmed by gel electrophoresis. The Apt-conjugated NPs were observed to enhance the cellular uptake of NPs into the SKBR3 cells. Although the combination treatment significantly decreased the cell viability of SKBR3 cells, the augmentative effect was observed when Apt was conjugated to NPs. Furthermore, Apt-conjugated NPs dramatically reduced the genetic expression of IGF-1R, signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 (STAT3), matrix metalloproteinases (MMP9), and vascular growth factor (VEGF).
Conclusion: The targeted NPs may augment the targeting of pathways involved in tumorigenesis and metastasis of breast cancer. Therefore, more animal model experiments are needed to further clarify the efficacy and safety of this functionalized nanodrug.

Shen Y, Lu Q, Zhang P, et al.
The effect of TGF-β signaling on regulating proliferation of uterine leiomyoma cell via ERα signaling activated by bisphenol A, octylphenol and nonylphenol
J Cancer Res Ther. 2018; 14(Supplement):S276-S281 [PubMed] Related Publications
Objectives: To study the transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) signaling pathway in interactions with estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) signaling pathway mediating the growth of human uterine leiomyoma (UL) activated by phenolic environmental estrogens (EEs).
Methods: The subcultured UL cells were used to determine the validation of TGF-β3 for the viability of human UL cells using CCK-8 assay, mRNA expressions of ERα, and c-fos by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction method, and expressions of p-Smad3, SnoN, and c-fos proteins by Western blot assay in each treatment group.
Results: Compared with each of EEs or TGF-β3 treatment, slightly decrease in the proliferation rate of UL was detected in the coexistence of each EE with TGF-β3. Interestingly, mRNA expressions of ERα and c-fos reduced in the setting of coexistence of TGF-β3 and EEs. Somehow, the expression of p-Smad3 and c-fos proteins significantly decreased in each of E2, bisphenol A (BPA), nonylphenol (NP), and octylphenol (OP) group, as well as the expression of SnoN protein significantly reduced only in BPA and NP groups, followed by TGF-β3 treatment. With the overlaid action of ICI 182,780, the expression of p-Smad3 protein significantly increased in OP group, but slightly increased in E2, BPA, NP, and OP groups. However, compared with the control group, the expression of SnoN and c-fos proteins significantly decreased in the same setting.
Conclusion: Both ERα signaling pathway and TGF-β signaling pathway have different roles in governing UL cell proliferation. The phenolic EEs can be a promoter to the proliferation of UL cells, which is mediated by ERα signaling pathway and cross-talked with TGF-β signaling pathway.

Kim GH, Won JE, Byeon Y, et al.
Selective delivery of PLXDC1 small interfering RNA to endothelial cells for anti-angiogenesis tumor therapy using CD44-targeted chitosan nanoparticles for epithelial ovarian cancer.
Drug Deliv. 2018; 25(1):1394-1402 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
Angiogenesis plays an essential role in the growth and metastasis of tumor cells, and the modulation of angiogenesis can be an effective approach for cancer therapy. We focused on silencing the angiogenic gene PLXDC1 as an important factor for anti-angiogenesis tumor therapy. Herein, we developed PLXDC1 small interfering siRNA (siRNA)-incorporated chitosan nanoparticle (CH-NP/siRNA) coated with hyaluronic acid (HA) to target the CD44 receptor on tumor endothelial cells. This study aimed to improve targeted delivery and enhance therapeutic efficacy for tumor anti-angiogenesis. The HA-CH-NP/siRNA was 200 ± 10 nm in size with a zeta potential of 26.4 mV. The loading efficiency of siRNA to the HA-CH-NP/siRNA was up to 60%. The selective binding of HA-CH-NP/siRNA to CD44-positive tumor endothelial cells increased by 2.1-fold compared with that of the CD44 nontargeted CH-NP/siRNA. PLXDC1 silencing by the HA-CH-NP/siRNA significantly inhibited tumor growth in A2780 tumor-bearing mice compared with that in the control group (p < .01), and mRNA expression of PLXDC1 was significantly reduced in the HA-CH-NP/siRNA-treated group. Furthermore, treatment with HA-CH-NP/siRNA resulted in significant inhibition of cell proliferation (p < .001), reduced microvessel density (p < .001), and increased cell apoptosis (p < .001). This study demonstrates that HA-CH-NP/siRNA is a highly selective delivery platform for siRNA, and has broad potential to be used in anti-angiogenesis tumor therapy.

Devulapally R, Lee T, Barghava-Shah A, et al.
Ultrasound-guided delivery of thymidine kinase-nitroreductase dual therapeutic genes by PEGylated-PLGA/PIE nanoparticles for enhanced triple negative breast cancer therapy.
Nanomedicine (Lond). 2018; 13(9):1051-1066 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
AIM: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive breast cancer subtype. Since no targeted therapy is available, gene-directed enzyme prodrug therapy (GDEPT) could be an attractive strategy for treating TNBC.
MATERIALS & METHODS: Polyethylene glycol (PEG)ylated-poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)/polyethyleneimine nanoparticles (PLGA/PEI NPs) were synthesized and complexed with TK-NTR fusion gene. Ultrasound (US) and microbubble (MB) mediated sonoporation was used for efficient delivery of the TK-NTR-DNA-NP complex to TNBC tumor in vivo for cancer therapy. Therapeutic effect was evaluated by treating TNBC cells in vitro and tumor xenograft in vivo by using prodrugs ganciclovir (GCV) and CB1954.
RESULTS: TNBC cells treated with GCV/CB1954 prodrugs after transfection of TK-NTR-DNA by PEGylated-PLGA/PEI NP resulted in high apoptotic-index. US-MB image-guided delivery of TK-NTR-DNA-NP complex displayed significant expression level of TK-NTR protein and showed tumor reduction when treated with GCV/CB1954 prodrugs in TNBC xenograft in vivo.
CONCLUSION: US-MB image-guided delivery of TK-NTR gene by PEGylated-PLGA/PEI NPs could be a potential prodrug therapy for TNBC in the clinic.

Singh SK, Lillard JW, Singh R
Reversal of drug resistance by planetary ball milled (PBM) nanoparticle loaded with resveratrol and docetaxel in prostate cancer.
Cancer Lett. 2018; 427:49-62 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
The folate receptor (FR) is a valued target that is highly expressed in various cancers, which will expedite the development of ligand-receptor binding based cancer therapeutics. In the present investigation, through tissue microarray analysis, we report higher levels of folate receptor expression in prostate cancer (PCa) tissue derived from patients, which were minimal in normal tissue. For folate-receptor based targeted therapy of PCa, we generated novel planetary ball milled (PBM) nanoparticles (NPs) encapsulated with resveratrol (RES), and in combination with docetaxel (DTX) and conjugated with folic acid (FA) on the surface. The cytotoxic effect of FA-conjugated DTX-nanoparticles was found effectual that reduced the concentration of free drug (DTX) to 28 times. Flow cytometry analysis showed a significant increase in the number of apoptotic cells by 30.92% and 65.9% in the FA-conjugated RES and in combination with DTX nanoparticle formulation respectively. However, only 8.9% apoptotic cells were found with control (empty NP). The expressions of NF-kB p65, COX-2, pro (BAX, BAK) and anti-apoptotic (BCL-2, BCL-XL) genes were significantly reduced after treatment with FA-RES + DTX-NP. In addition, the FA-conjugated DTX formulation exhibited additional cytotoxic effects with the down-regulation of survivin and an increased expression of Cleaved Caspase-3 in PCa cells. Further, we observed that treating DTX resistant PCa cells with FA-RES + DTX-NP exhibited a reversal of the ABC-transporter markers thereby limiting the multidrug resistance phenotype of the cancer cells. Our results strongly suggested that FA conjugated nanoparticle drugs acted as effective inhibitors of drug efflux that effectually enhances the intracellular concentration of the drug to exhibit their cytotoxic effect.

Xia Y, Guo M, Xu T, et al.
siRNA-loaded selenium nanoparticle modified with hyaluronic acid for enhanced hepatocellular carcinoma therapy.
Int J Nanomedicine. 2018; 13:1539-1552 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
Background: Small interfering RNA (siRNA) as a new therapeutic modality holds promise for cancer treatment. However, the traditional viral carriers are prone to immunogenicity and risk of insertional mutagenesis.
Methods: In order to provide a tumor-targeted delivery carrier of siRNA in cancer therapy, the hyaluronic acid (HA)-selenium (Se)-polyethylenimine (PEI) nanoparticle (NP) was fabricated by decorating SeNP with HA as a tumor-targeting moiety and by linking the polycationic polymers polyethylenimine PEI onto the surface of SeNP. The siRNA was loaded to the surface of SeNP HA-Se-PEI via the electrostatic interaction between siRNA and PEI to prepare the functionalized SeNP HA-Se-PEI@siRNA.
Results: The HA-Se-PEI@siRNA was internalized into the HepG2 cell mainly in a clathrin-mediated endocytosis manner. Owing to the active tumor-targeted effect mediated by HA, HA-Se-PEI@siRNA achieved the obvious higher transfection efficiency, greater gene silencing ability, and stronger cytotoxicity in the HepG2 cell compared with the passive tumor-targeted NP Se-PEI@siRNA. The knockdown of hairy and enhancer of split 5 by HA-Se-PEI@siRNA induced the HepG2 cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase and apoptosis. Furthermore, the treatment with HA-Se-PEI@siRNA resulted in greater antitumor efficacy compared with the Se-PEI@siRNA in vitro and in vivo. In addition, the HA-Se-PEI@siRNA was almost no toxic to the key organs of mice.
Conclusion: These findings provided an alternative therapeutic route for targeted cancer treatments.

Springer SU, Chen CH, Rodriguez Pena MDC, et al.
Non-invasive detection of urothelial cancer through the analysis of driver gene mutations and aneuploidy.
Elife. 2018; 7 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
Current non-invasive approaches for detection of urothelial cancers are suboptimal. We developed a test to detect urothelial neoplasms using DNA recovered from cells shed into urine. UroSEEK incorporates massive parallel sequencing assays for mutations in 11 genes and copy number changes on 39 chromosome arms. In 570 patients at risk for bladder cancer (BC), UroSEEK was positive in 83% of those who developed BC. Combined with cytology, UroSEEK detected 95% of patients who developed BC. Of 56 patients with upper tract urothelial cancer, 75% tested positive by UroSEEK, including 79% of those with non-invasive tumors. UroSEEK detected genetic abnormalities in 68% of urines obtained from BC patients under surveillance who demonstrated clinical evidence of recurrence. The advantages of UroSEEK over cytology were evident in low-grade BCs; UroSEEK detected 67% of cases whereas cytology detected none. These results establish the foundation for a new non-invasive approach for detection of urothelial cancer.

Kinugawa Y, Uehara T, Matsuda K, et al.
Promoter hypomethylation of SKI in autoimmune pancreatitis.
Pathol Res Pract. 2018; 214(4):492-497 [PubMed] Related Publications
The relationship between methylation abnormality and autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP)-a representative IgG4-related disease-has not yet been elucidated. We identified SKI might have a significant methylation abnormality in AIP through methylation array analysis using the Illumina Infinium Human Methylation 450K BeadChip array, and investigated the relationship of SKI with AIP clinicopathological features. The methylation rate of SKI was assessed by quantitative SYBR green methylation-specific PCR, and the degree of SKI expression in tissue specimens was assessed by immunohistochemistry in 10 AIP cases, 14 cases of obstructive pancreatitis area in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) without a history of AIP, and 9 normal pancreas (NP) cases. The SKI methylation ratio was significantly lower in AIP than in PDA and NP. Additionally, the immunohistochemical staining-index (SI) score for SKI was significantly higher in AIP than NP, although there was no significant difference between AIP and PDA. There was a strong negative correlation between SI score and SKI methylation ratio, and between the serum concentrations of IgG4 and the SKI methylation ratio. There was a moderate positive correlation between the serum concentrations of IgG4 and SI. SKI is thought to be an oncogene indicating that SKI hypomethylation and carcinogenesis might be linked to AIP. Furthermore, the correlation between serum concentrations of IgG4 and SKI methylation levels suggest SKI might be involved in the pathogenesis of AIP. However, the role of SKI has not been clearly elucidated. Further studies are needed to understand further the function of SKI.

Repass J,
Replication Study:
Elife. 2018; 7 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
As part of the Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology, we published a Registered Report (Repass et al., 2016), that described how we intended to replicate an experiment from the paper '

McClure BJ, Heatley SL, Kok CH, et al.
Pre-B acute lymphoblastic leukaemia recurrent fusion, EP300-ZNF384, is associated with a distinct gene expression.
Br J Cancer. 2018; 118(7):1000-1004 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
BACKGROUND: Zinc-finger protein 384 (ZNF384) fusions are an emerging subtype of precursor B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (pre-B-ALL) and here we further characterised their prevalence, survival outcomes and transcriptome.
METHODS: Bone marrow mononuclear cells from 274 BCR-ABL1-negative pre-B-ALL patients were immunophenotyped and transcriptome molecularly characterised. Transcriptomic data was analysed by principal component analysis and gene-set enrichment analysis to identify gene and pathway expression changes.
RESULTS: We exclusively detect E1A-associated protein p300 (EP300)-ZNF384 in 5.7% of BCR-ABL1-negative adolescent/young adult (AYA)/adult pre-B-ALL patients. EP300-ZNF384 patients do not appear to be a high-risk subgroup. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that EP300-ZNF384 samples have a distinct gene expression profile that results in the up-regulation of Janus kinase/signal transducers and activators of transcription (JAK/STAT) and cell adhesion pathways and down-regulation of cell cycle and DNA repair pathways.
CONCLUSIONS: Importantly, this report contributes to a better overview of the incidence of EP300-ZNF384 patients and show that they have a distinct gene signature with concurrent up-regulation of JAK-STAT pathway, reduced expression of B-cell regulators and reduced DNA repair capacity.

Hong SS, Zhang MX, Zhang M, et al.
Follicle-stimulating hormone peptide-conjugated nanoparticles for targeted shRNA delivery lead to effective gro-α silencing and antitumor activity against ovarian cancer.
Drug Deliv. 2018; 25(1):576-584 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
The distinct hormone molecules and receptors, such as follicle-stimulating hormone receptor (FSHR) in ovarian cancer, provide opportunities for more precisely targeted therapy. We previously developed FSHR-mediated nanoparticles and found that FSH peptides on the surface of nanoparticles improved the delivery of short interfering RNA (siRNA) into ovarian cancer cells. However, the high toxicity of the nanoparticles and the transient silencing of the siRNA in vivo limited further study. Here, we developed FSH peptide-conjugated nanoparticles with an increased amount of polyethylene glycol (PEG) grafting and encapsulated short hairpin RNA (shRNA) to silence the target gene, growth-regulated oncogene α (gro-α). The nanoparticle complexes exhibited good stability over three weeks. Expression of the target gene, gro-α, was significantly down-regulated by gro-α shRNA-loaded nanoparticles conjugated with FSH peptides (FSH33-G-NP) in FSHR-positive HEY cells. Cell proliferation, migration, and invasion were also inhibited by FSH33-G-NP. Tumor growth was delayed significantly in the mice treated with FSH33-G-NP. No significant loss of body weight or severe toxic effects were observed in any groups. In conclusion, gro-α shRNA-loaded nanoparticles conjugated with FSH peptides overcame the drawbacks of the in vivo application of RNAi therapeutics and polymer-based nanocarriers and showed safe antitumor efficacy. Our study might contribute to the application of FSHR-based targeted therapy and imaging in cancer.

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