Junhong Li | Search PubMed

PubMed2026

MicroRNA-181a-5p promotes papillary thyroid carcinoma progress via the PTEN/AKT pathway.

The objective of this investigation was to determine the expression profile and latent mechanism of microRNA-181a-5p (miR-181a-5p) in the genesis and progression of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). MiR-181a-5p was discovered to be upregulated in PTC tissues and cells in this study, as confirmed by RT‒qPCR and The Cancer Genome Atlas database. Notably, in PTC patients, the miR-181a-5p level was linked to tumor size and thyroid capsule invasion. A series of experiments demonstrated that miR-181a-5p upregulation in PTC cells notably enhanced proliferation, motility, and invasion, whereas suppressing miR-181a-5p hindered these functions. Western blotting revealed that miR-181a-5p suppressed PTEN expression, boosting the activation of phosphorylated AKT (P-AKT). According to predictive bioinformatics research and luciferase reporter gene tests, miR-181a-5p may target a specific binding site on the PTEN 3'UTR. To sum up, this study indicated that miR-181a-5p promoted PTC progression through the PTEN/Akt pathway. This investigation reveals a potential mechanism for PTC progression and provides a foundation for clinical therapies.

MicroRNAs↗

PubMed2025

Comprehensive discovery and functional characterization of the noncanonical proteome.

The systematic identification and functional characterization of noncanonical translation products, such as novel peptides, will facilitate the understanding of the human genome and provide new insights into cell biology. Here, we constructed a high-coverage peptide sequencing reference library with 11,668,944 open reading frames and employed an ultrafiltration tandem mass spectrometry assay to identify novel peptides. Through these methods, we discovered 8945 previously unannotated peptides from normal gastric tissues, gastric cancer tissues and cell lines, nearly half of which were derived from noncoding RNAs. Moreover, our CRISPR screening revealed that 1161 peptides are involved in tumor cell proliferation. The presence and physiological function of a subset of these peptides, selected based on screening scores, amino acid length, and various indicators, were verified through Flag-knockin and multiple other methods. To further characterize the potential regulatory mechanisms involved, we constructed a framework based on artificial intelligence structure prediction and peptide‒protein interaction network analysis for the top 100 candidates and revealed that these cancer-related peptides have diverse subcellular locations and participate in organelle-specific processes. Further investigation verified the interacting partners of pep1-nc-OLMALINC, pep5-nc-TRHDE-AS1, pep-nc-ZNF436-AS1 and pep2-nc-AC027045.3, and the functions of these peptides in mitochondrial complex assembly, energy metabolism, and cholesterol metabolism, respectively. We showed that pep5-nc-TRHDE-AS1 and pep2-nc-AC027045.3 had substantial impacts on tumor growth in xenograft models. Furthermore, the dysregulation of these four peptides is closely correlated with clinical prognosis. Taken together, our study provides a comprehensive characterization of the noncanonical proteome, and highlights critical roles of these previously unannotated peptides in cancer biology.

Humans↗