Identification of a novel protein interaction between Elmo1 and Cdc27

Prognostic and clinical significance of subcellular CDC27 for patients with rectal adenocarcinoma treated with adjuvant chemotherapy

Rectal adenocarcinoma (READ) constitutes one-third of newly diagnosed colorectal cancer cases. Surgery, chemotherapy and concurrent chemoradiotherapy are the main treatments to improve patient outcomes for READ. However, patients with READ receiving these treatments eventually relapse, leading to a poor survival outcome. The present study collected surgical specimens from patients with READ and determined that cytoplasmic cell division cycle 27 (CDC27) expression was associated with the risk of lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis. Nuclear CDC27 expression was negatively associated with 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) and 5-year overall survival (OS) rates. Multivariate Cox proportional regression analysis showed that nuclear CDC27 was an independent prognostic factor in the patients with READ, especially in those treated with adjuvant chemotherapy. High nuclear CDC27 expression was significantly associated with poorer 5-year DFS (HR, 2.106; 95% CI, 1.275-3.570; P=0.003) and 5-year OS (HR, 2.369; 95% CI, 1.270-4.6810; P=0.005) rates. The data indicated that cytoplasmic CDC27 expression could affect tumor progression and that it plays an important role in metastasis. Nuclear CDC27 expression was markedly associated with poorer survival outcomes and was an independent prognostic factor in patients with postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy-treated READ. Thus, CDC27 expression serves as a potential prognostic marker for rectal tumor progression and chemotherapy treatment.

The importance of CDC27 in cancer: molecular pathology and clinical aspects

Background

CDC27 is one of the core components of Anaphase Promoting complex/cyclosome. The main role of this protein is defined at cellular division to control cell cycle transitions. Here we review the molecular aspects that may affect CDC27 regulation from cell cycle and mitosis to cancer pathogenesis and prognosis.

Main text

It has been suggested that CDC27 may play either like a tumor suppressor gene or oncogene in different neoplasms. Divergent variations in CDC27 DNA sequence and alterations in transcription of CDC27 have been detected in different solid tumors and hematological malignancies. Elevated CDC27 expression level may increase cell proliferation, invasiveness and metastasis in some malignancies. It has been proposed that CDC27 upregulation may increase stemness in cancer stem cells. On the other hand, downregulation of CDC27 may increase the cancer cell survival, decrease radiosensitivity and increase chemoresistancy. In addition, CDC27 downregulation may stimulate efferocytosis and improve tumor microenvironment.

Conclusion

CDC27 dysregulation, either increased or decreased activity, may aggravate neoplasms. CDC27 may be suggested as a prognostic biomarker in different malignancies.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12935-021-01860-9.

RhoG-ELMO1-RAC1 is involved in phagocytosis suppressed by mono-butyl phthalate in TM4 cells

Di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) is one of the most dominant phthalate esters and is ubiquitous in the environment. Male reproductive toxicity of DBP and its active metabolite mono-butyl phthalate (MBP) has been demonstrated in in vivo and in vitro studies. The objective of this study was to explore the roles of RhoG-ELMO1-RAC1 in phagocytosis disrupted by MBP in TM4 cells. Mouse Sertoli cell lines (TM4 cells) were maintained and treated by various levels of MBP (1, 10, and 100 μM) for 24 h. Then, cells were harvested for further experiments. Phagocytic capacity of TM4 cells was detected by flow cytometry, immunofluorescence, and oil red O staining. RAC1 activity (GTP-RAC1) was measured by RAC1 pull-down assay. Expression of mRNA and protein related to phagocytosis including ELMO1, RhoG, and RAC1 was analyzed by qRT-PCR and Western blots, respectively. MBP inhibited phagocytosis of TM4 cells and downregulated GTP-RAC1 expression and movement to membrane markedly. Furthermore, ELMO1 protein expression was downregulated in a dose-dependent manner after MBP treatments. Additionally, expression of proteins relating to phagocytosis, including RhoG and GTP-RAC1, was decreased significantly, but expression of total-RAC1 remained unchanged. GTP-RAC1 expression increased dramatically after TM4 cells were transfected with ELMO1 or RhoG plasmid, but restored under co-treatments with MBP and ELMO1/RhoG plasmid. This study suggests that MBP can reduce the phagocytosis of Sertoli cells through RhoG-ELMO1-RAC1 pathway.