Effect of stability of PTEN on hepatocellular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: As an antioncogene gene, phosphataseandtensinhomolog (PTEN) is closely related to tumorigenesis. However, after mutation, PTEN will lose its function and no longer exert a tumor suppression effect. Through this research, we explored the impact of PTEN mutation on hepatic carcinoma (HCC) and the mechanism of PTEN for regulating HCC.

METHODS: First, bioinformatics was used to analyze the prognosis of PTEN in HCC. PTEN-related genes were then further analyzed by the LinkedOmics database, and GO and KEGG functional enrichment analysis were performed. Next, databases were utilized to predict the mutation and mutation frequency of PTEN. Eventually, CRISPR-Cas12a was applied to detect the R130Q mutation on PTEN in clinical samples of HCC. Finally, the fact that miR-92a-3p targets PTEN was identified by dual luciferase reporter gene assays, RT-qPCR, western blot, and rescue experiments.

RESULTS: Bioinformatics analysis indicated the high mutation frequency of R130Q/G/L* site on the PTEN gene. Through CRISPR-Cas12a, R130Q mutation was detected on PTEN in 26 out of 40 clinical samples of HCC.

CONCLUSIONS: On the one hand, our study revealed that CRISPR-Cas12a might play an important role in the screening and prognosis of HCC as a new clinical method to detect PTEN mutation.