Involvement of NEDD9 in the invasion and migration of gastric cancer

Combined high NEDD9 expression and E-cadherin loss correlate with poor clinical outcome in gastric cancer

BACKGROUND AND AIM

Neural precursor cell expressed developmentally downregulated 9 (NEDD9) is a member of the Cas family. Previous studies have revealed that NEDD9 coordinates the focal adhesion kinase and Src signaling cascades that are involved in integrin-dependent adhesion and migration, invasion, cell apoptosis and life cycle, and survival, which may play a role in epithelial-mesenchymal transformation. The aim of this study was to analyze the expression of NEDD9 and E-cadherin in gastric cancer (GC) and evaluate their clinical significance.

METHODS

NEDD9 and E-cadherin expression was analyzed with immunohistochemistry using tissue microarray technique in 435 GC patients who underwent gastrectomy. The NEDD9 expression level was defined by the combination score, which was determined by multiplying the staining intensity score and the proportion score (≥5; NEDD9-high, <5; NEDD9-low). E-cadherin loss was defined as a total loss of staining. The clinicopathologic parameters, overall survival, and disease-free survival rates were analyzed according to the NEDD9 and E-cadherin expression status.

RESULTS

The combined NEDD9 and E-cadherin expression status correlated with lymphatic invasion (P = 0.001), vascular invasion (P = 0.020), and T stage (P = 0.001). Combined high NEDD9 expression and loss of E-cadherin expression status had a worse overall survival rate (P < 0.001) and served as a poor prognostic factor (Hazard ratio 2.49, 95% CI 1.25-5, P = 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

Immunohistochemical staining for NEDD9 and E-cadherin may function as a candidate prognostic marker for gastric cancer in everyday practice, especially when applied in combination.

Prognostic Significances of NEDD-9 and FOXL-1 Expression in Intestinal Type Gastric Carcinoma: an Immunohistochemical Study

BACKGROUND

Gastric cancer (GC) is mostly diagnosed at advanced stage, so prognosis is poor. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the molecular mechanism of GC development to design new targeted treatment to improve the prognosis of gastric cancer patients.

AIM OF THE WORK

To assess the prognostic value of NEDD-9 and FOXL-1 expression in intestinal type gastric cancer patients, as well as their relationship to clinicopathologic features of the disease and patients outcome.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

This is a retrospective study; we included 50 sections from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue samples which included intestinal type GC and adjacent non-neoplastic gastric mucosa in the same block that were subjected to immunohistochemistry with anti-NEDD-9 and anti-FOXL-1 antibody. Patients were retrospectively followed up for about 5 years for assessment of tumor progression and survival in relation to marker expression.

RESULTS

High NEDD-9 and low FOXL-1 expression were found in intestinal type GC more than adjacent non-neoplastic mucosa (p < 0.001). NEDD-9 high expression and FOXL-1 low expression were associated with presence of helicobacter pylori gastritis (p = 0.010, 0.049), high grade (p = 0.007, 0.004), high stage (p < 0.001), presence of distant metastases (p = 0.029, 0.021), poor DFS (p = 0.003), and OS rates (< 0.001).

CONCLUSION

NEDD-9 overexpression and FOXL-1 deficiency in intestinal type GC can help in prediction of tumor prognosis and it can guide the selection of patients for future therapies in gastric carcinoma.

Rac1 Signaling: From Intestinal Homeostasis to Colorectal Cancer Metastasis

The small GTPase Rac1 has been implicated in a variety of dynamic cell biological processes, including cell proliferation, cell survival, cell-cell contacts, epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT), cell motility, and invasiveness. These processes are orchestrated through the fine tuning of Rac1 activity by upstream cell surface receptors and effectors that regulate the cycling Rac1-GDP (off state)/Rac1-GTP (on state), but also through the tuning of Rac1 accumulation, activity, and subcellular localization by post translational modifications or recruitment into molecular scaffolds. Another level of regulation involves Rac1 transcripts stability and splicing. Downstream, Rac1 initiates a series of signaling networks, including regulatory complex of actin cytoskeleton remodeling, activation of protein kinases (PAKs, MAPKs) and transcription factors (NFkB, Wnt/β-catenin/TCF, STAT3, Snail), production of reactive oxygen species (NADPH oxidase holoenzymes, mitochondrial ROS). Thus, this GTPase, its regulators, and effector systems might be involved at different steps of the neoplastic progression from dysplasia to the metastatic cascade. After briefly placing Rac1 and its effector systems in the more general context of intestinal homeostasis and in wound healing after intestinal injury, the present review mainly focuses on the several levels of Rac1 signaling pathway dysregulation in colorectal carcinogenesis, their biological significance, and their clinical impact.

NEDD9 promotes invasion and migration of colorectal cancer cell line HCT116 via JNK/EMT

Neural precursor cell-expressed, developmentally-downregulated 9 (NEDD9) is a multi-domain skeleton protein that serves an important role in the cell signaling process via modulating invasion, metastasis, proliferation and apoptosis of tumor cells. The present study identified that the expression levels of NEDD9 in colorectal cancer were elevated. Therefore, the effect of downregulating the expression of NEDD9 in terms of invasion and migration of colorectal cancer cells was investigated and the role of the JNK pathway in these processes was also investigated. The data revealed that downregulation of NEDD9 and JNK inhibitors suppressed invasion and migration, decreased expression levels of phosphorylated JNK, increased the expression levels of E-cadherin and decreased the expression levels of vimentin. In summary, NEDD9 promotes invasion and migration of colorectal cancer cells via the JNK pathway.

NEDD9 Facilitates Hypoxia-Induced Gastric Cancer Cell Migration via MICAL1 Related Rac1 Activation

Aims and Hypothesis: NEDD9 is highly expressed in gastric cancer and has a significant involvement in its pathogenesis. However, the mechanism behind hypoxia-promoted cancer cell migration and its regulation because of NEDD9 is still unknown. The aim of this study is to investigate the involvement of NEDD9 in gastric cancer cell migration under hypoxia and explore the underlying potential molecular mechanisms.

Overexpression of NEDD9 in renal cell carcinoma is associated with tumor migration and invasion

Scaffold protein neural precursor cell expressed, developmentally downregulated 9 (NEDD9) is a member of the Crk-associated substrate protein family and is known to be a biomarker in multiple cancer types. It serves a critical function in regulating cell proliferation, migration, invasion and survival. The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential effects of NEDD9 in renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The expression of NEDD9 was analyzed by immunohistochemistry, western blotting and reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. NEDD9 protein and mRNA levels were significantly upregulated in RCC tissues compared with normal tissues (P<0.001). Furthermore, the NEDD9 immunostaining level was significantly associated with primary tumor stage and tumor, node, metastasis stage (P<0.05). High NEDD9 expression resulted in significantly lower survival rates for patients compared with normal NEDD9 expression (P<0.01). In addition, wound healing and transwell assays indicated that NEDD9 depletion by small interfering RNA significantly attenuated the migration and invasion of RCC cells (P<0.001). The present data suggested that NEDD9 may be a novel target for prevention and treatment of RCC metastasis and recurrence.

MicroRNA-335-5p is a potential suppressor of metastasis and invasion in gastric cancer

Background

Multiple aberrant microRNA expression has been reported in gastric cancer. Among them, microRNA-335-5p (miR-335), a microRNA regulated by DNA methylation, has been reported to possess both tumor suppressor and tumor promoter activities.

Results

Herein, we show that miR-335 levels are reduced in gastric cancer and significantly associate with lymph node metastasis, depth of tumor invasion, and ultimately poor patient survival in a cohort of Amerindian/Hispanic patients. In two gastric cancer cell lines AGS and, Hs 746T the exogenous miR-335 decreases migration, invasion, viability, and anchorage-independent cell growth capacities. Performing a PCR array on cells transfected with miR-335, 19 (30.6%) out of 62 genes involved in metastasis and tumor invasion showed decreased transcription levels. Network enrichment analysis narrowed these genes to nine (PLAUR, CDH11, COL4A2, CTGF, CTSK, MMP7, PDGFA, TIMP1, and TIMP2). Elevated levels of PLAUR, a validated target gene, and CDH11 were confirmed in tumors with low expression of miR-335. The 3′UTR of CDH11 was identified to be directly targeted by miR-335. Downregulation of miR-335 was also demonstrated in plasma samples from gastric cancer patients and inversely correlated with DNA methylation of promoter region (Z = 1.96, p = 0.029). DNA methylation, evaluated by methylation-specific PCR assay, was found in plasma from 23 (56.1%) out of 41 gastric cancer patients but in only 9 (30%) out of 30 healthy donors (p = 0.029, Pearson’s correlation). Taken in consideration, our results of the association with depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis, and poor prognosis together with functional assays on cell migration, invasion, and tumorigenicity are in accordance with the downregulation of miR-335 in gastric cancer.

Conclusions

Comprehensive evaluation of metastasis and invasion pathway identified a subset of associated genes and confirmed PLAUR and CDH11, both targets of miR-335, to be overexpressed in gastric cancer tissues. DNA methylation of miR-335 may be a promissory strategy for non-invasive approach to gastric cancer.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s13148-017-0413-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

DIMT1 overexpression correlates with progression and prognosis in gastric carcinoma

We investigated the expression of dimethyladenosine transferase 1 homolog (DIMT1) in human gastric carcinoma (GC) tissues, pericarcinoma histologically normal tissues, and normal gastric tissues and explored its clinical significance. Immunohistochemistry staining was used to detect the expression of DIMT1, and the findings were compared with clinicopathological features of patients with GC. The result also was ascertained by Western blotting. The Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test were used to compare the overall survival rate and time in the DIMT1 low-level and high-level expression groups. Immunohistochemical staining indicated that the expression of DIMT1 in GC tissues (65/75; 86.7%) was significantly more common (P<.001) than that in pericarcinoma histologically normal tissues (14/75; 18.7%) and normal gastric tissues (2/12; 16.7%). High expression of DIMT1 correlated closely with differentiation (P=.023), invasion (P=.042), lymph node metastasis (P=.008), distant metastasis (P=.006), and TNM stage (P=.013). Western blotting showed that DIMT1 expression correlated positively with TNM stage and implied that more advanced TNM stage was accompanied by higher expression of DIMT1 (P<.001). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that high DIMT1 expression correlated significantly (P<.001) with a poor prognosis. Our data suggest that DIMT1 is a useful molecular biomarker to predict tumor progression and prognosis in patients with GC.

High expression of HEF1 predicts a poorer prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma: A retrospective study

Human enhancer of filamentation 1 (HEF1), a scaffold protein, is highly expressed in a variety of cancer types and is involved cancer cell growth, migration and invasion. The prognostic value of HEF1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains to be elucidated. The aim of the present study was to assess the association between the expression of HEF1, the clinical/pathological parameters and survival in HCC. In the present study, immunohistochemistry was performed to investigate the protein expression of HEF1 in 123 hepatocellular carcinoma tissues and their adjacent normal liver tissues. Spearman's rank correlation, Kaplan-Meier plots and Cox regression model were used to analyze the data. Overexpression of HEF1 protein was observed in HCC tissue when compared with their adjacent non-malignant liver tissue. High expression of HEF1 correlated with higher advanced tumor, node, metastasis (TNM) stage and vascular invasion (P<0.05). In univariate and multivariate analysis, the expression of HEF1 was identified as an independent prognostic factor in the 123 patients with HCC. In subgroup analysis, high expression of HEF1 correlated with a poorer prognosis in advanced (TNM III+IV) stages (P<0.05). These findings demonstrated the potential value of detecting the expression of HEF1 by immunohistochemistry as a prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for patients with HCC.