Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, The First Hospital of Jiaxing, Affiliated Hospital of Jiaxing University, No. 1882 South Zhonghuan Road, Jiaxing, 314000, Zhejiang, People's Republic of China.
Department of Oncology, The First Hospital of Jiaxing, Affiliated Hospital of Jiaxing University, Jiaxing, People's Republic of China.
Mol Biotechnol. 2023 Aug;65(8):1263-1274. doi: 10.1007/s12033-022-00638-2. Epub 2022 Dec 12.
Members of the MEX3 (muscle excess 3) family, uniquely characterised as mRNA binding proteins, play emerging roles in the post-transcriptional regulation of programmed biological processes, including tumour cell death and immune mechanisms, and have been shown to be involved in a variety of diseases. However, the role of MEX3 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has not been fully elucidated. In this study, we found no significant changes in the sequence and copy number of the MEX3 gene through analysis using the COSMIC database, revealing its stability during malignancy development. Its expression in NSCLC was examined using the Oncomine™ database, and the prognosis of each member gene was analysed by Kaplan-Meier. The results showed that overexpression of MEX3A, MEX3B, MEX3C and MEX3D was associated with significantly worse OS in patients with LUAD, while overexpression of MEX3D was also associated with significantly worse OS in patients with LUSC. Afterwards, we applied the Tumour Immunology Estimation Resource (TIMER) tool to assess the correlation between different MEX3 and infiltrative immune cell infiltration. Ultimately, we found that most MEX3 members were highly expressed in NSCLC, with high expression suggesting poor prognosis and correlating with immune cell infiltration. The complexity and heterogeneity of NSCLC was understood through MEX3, setting the framework for the prognostic impact of MEX3 in NSCLC patients and the development of new targeted therapeutic strategies in the future.
MEX3（肌肉过度 3）家族成员的独特特征是作为 mRNA 结合蛋白，在程序化生物过程的转录后调控中发挥着新兴作用，包括肿瘤细胞死亡和免疫机制，并已被证明参与了多种疾病。然而，MEX3 在非小细胞肺癌（NSCLC）中的作用尚未完全阐明。在这项研究中，我们通过使用 COSMIC 数据库进行分析，发现 MEX3 基因的序列和拷贝数没有明显变化，表明其在恶性肿瘤发展过程中的稳定性。我们使用 Oncomine™数据库检查了 NSCLC 中的 MEX3 表达，并通过 Kaplan-Meier 分析了每个成员基因的预后。结果表明，MEX3A、MEX3B、MEX3C 和 MEX3D 的过度表达与 LUAD 患者的 OS 显著降低相关，而 MEX3D 的过度表达也与 LUSC 患者的 OS 显著降低相关。之后，我们应用 Tumour Immunology Estimation Resource（TIMER）工具来评估不同 MEX3 与浸润性免疫细胞浸润之间的相关性。最终，我们发现大多数 MEX3 成员在 NSCLC 中高度表达，高表达提示预后不良，并与免疫细胞浸润相关。通过 MEX3 了解 NSCLC 的复杂性和异质性，为未来 NSCLC 患者中 MEX3 的预后影响以及新的靶向治疗策略的发展奠定了框架。
