Can Nup88 expression be associated with atypical endometrial hyperplasia and endometrial cancer? A preliminary study

POM121 overexpression is related to a poor prognosis in colorectal cancer

Background: Nuclear pore membrane protein 121 (POM121) plays a crucial role in nucleocytoplasmic transport, but its significance in tumorigenesis and the progression of colorectal cancer (CRC) remains unknown. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between POM121 and CRC.Methods: POM121 expression in colorectal tissues was analyzed at both the gene and protein levels. We investigated the connection between POM121 expression and clinicopathological features, as well as overall survival. A gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was performed, and a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed to determine the mechanism of POM121 in CRC.Results: CRC tissues displayed a striking increase in POM121 expression compared with colonitis and pericarcinomatous mucosa tissues (66.61% vs 24.36% vs 24.11%, respectively, p < 0.0167). POM121 overexpression was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, TNM stage, venous invasion, perineural invasion, preoperative CEA and CA19-9 levels, and Ki67 expression. CRC patients with high POM121 levels tended to have poor overall survival rates. POM121 may participate in the regulation of the cell cycle and DNA repair in CRC.Conclusions: Our results suggest that POM121 has the potential to serve as a novel prognostic biomarker in CRC patients.

Functional polymorphism within NUP210 encoding for nucleoporin GP210 is associated with the risk of endometriosis

OBJECTIVE

To investigate whether nucleoporin 210 (GP210, encoded by NUP210 gene) is involved in endometriosis.

DESIGN

Immunohistofluorescence analysis for assessing whether GP210 is expressed in endometrial tissues from patients and controls; genotyping and case-control study for assessing the association between rs354476 within NUP210 and risk of endometriosis; in vitro luciferase assay for assessing the functional activity of rs354476.

SETTING

University.

PATIENT(S)

Histologically diagnosed cases (n = 175) of endometriosis: minimal or mild (stage I-II) in 48 cases (28%), moderate (stage III) in 69 cases (39%), and severe (stage IV) in 58 cases (33%). Controls (n = 557) were female blood donors collected at Meyer Hospital of Florence.

INTERVENTION(S)

None.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S)

GP210 tissue expression; genotype distribution and risk of endometriosis; in vitro gene expression measurements.

RESULT(S)

GP210 had positive nuclear immunohistofluorescence staining in endometrial glandular epithelium. Carriers of the variant allele were associated with increased risks: C/T, odds ratio (OR) 1.83, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.04-3.21; T/T, OR 2.55, 95% CI 1.36-4.80. In vitro, luciferase assay showed that rs354476 is a bona fide target for hsa-miR-125b-5p.

CONCLUSION(S)

Nucleoporin GP210 is involved in endometriosis. Rs354476 polymorphism affects the regulation of NUP210 gene expression by altering the binding with hsa-miR-125b-5p, a microRNA already known as playing an important role for endometriosis. This provides the rationale for the observed increased risk of endometriosis in carriers of the variant allele.

Expression of p53 and PTEN in human primary endometrial carcinomas: Clinicopathological and immunohistochemical analysis and study of their concomitant expression

Endometrial carcinoma is a common malignancy of the female genital tract. Alterations in the expression levels of various oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes serve important roles in the carcinogenesis and biological behavior of endometrial carcinoma. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the combination and individual expression of p53 and phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) protein in human endometrial carcinoma. In addition, the correlation of these proteins with clinicopathological parameters was also assessed. Retrospective immunohistochemical analysis of the expression of p53 and PTEN tumor suppressor proteins was conducted in 99 women with endometrial carcinoma. The overall rate of p53 and PTEN positivity was 89 and 77%, respectively, according to the sum of stain intensity and scores of immunopositive cells. The sum of p53 positivity correlated strongly with PTEN expression (ρ=0.256; P=0.044). The concomitant sum of p53 and PTEN expression was identified in 45% of patients with endometrial adenocarcinoma. Notably, the sum of the immunohistochemical expression of p53 was significantly correlated with patient age (P=0.037), histologic type (P=0.008), histologic grade (P=0.002) and fallopian and/or ovarian invasion (P=0.014). Furthermore, PTEN expression was associated with myometrial invasion (ρ=−0.377; P=0.002) and clinical stage (P=0.019). In addition, concomitant p53 and PTEN expression was correlated with patient age (P=0.008) and histologic differentiation (P=0.028). The findings indicated a correlation between the expression of p53 and PTEN in endometrial adenocarcinoma, which suggested an intrinsic association between expression levels of these tumor suppressor genes. The study also suggested that concomitant p53 and PTEN expression contributed in characterizing the tumor behavior of endometrial carcinoma. Taken together, the present study suggested the combined expression of p53 and PTEN in the development of high-grade endometrial carcinoma in older patients. In addition, the findings indicated activation of different molecular pathways in the tumor progression between low-grade and high-grade endometrial carcinomas.

Multiple biological processes may be associated with tumorigenesis under NUP88-overexpressed condition

Overexpression of the nucleoporin NUP88 has been observed in a large number of tumors and has been experimentally proven to promote tumorigenesis. However, the mechanism underlying the tumor-promoting activity of overexpressed NUP88 is not clear. To investigate the potential pathways that drive tumorigenesis under NUP88 overexpressed condition, we applied a proteomic approach to identify NUP88-associated proteins at a subcellular compartment level. Gene ontology analysis revealed significant associations between NUP88 interactome and biological processes that are related to nuclear transport, RNA processing, cell cycle progression, metabolic regulation, and viral infection. Moreover, we found that NUP88 interacts with MISP, a mitotic interactor and substrate of PLK1. Interestingly, NUP88 overexpression blocks MISP phosphorylation, which is known to be critical for normal spindle formation and accurate chromosome segregation during mitosis. In conclusion, our data for the first time provide a global view of biological processes that may drive tumorigenesis under NUP88 overexpressed condition, revealing a biological effect of NUP88-MISP interaction. Furthermore, identification of NUP88-associated proteins provides a valuable database for future studies. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.