RNA interference targeting CD147 inhibits metastasis and invasion of human breast cancer MCF-7 cells by downregulating MMP-9/VEGF expression

EMMPRIN promotes spheroid organization and metastatic formation: comparison between monolayers and spheroids of CT26 colon carcinoma cells

Background

In vitro studies often use two-dimensional (2D) monolayers, but 3D cell organization, such as in spheroids, better mimics the complexity of solid tumors. To metastasize, cancer cells undergo the process of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) to become more invasive and pro-angiogenic, with expression of both epithelial and mesenchymal markers.

Aims

We asked whether EMMPRIN/CD147 contributes to the formation of the 3D spheroid structure, and whether spheroids, which are often used to study proliferation and drug resistance, could better model the EMT process and the metastatic properties of cells, and improve our understanding of the role of EMMPRIN in them.

Methods

We used the parental mouse CT26 colon carcinoma (CT26-WT) cells, and infected them with a lentivirus vector to knock down EMMPRIN expression (CT26-KD cells), or with an empty lentivirus vector (CT26-NC) that served as a negative control. In some cases, we repeated the experiments with the 4T1 or LLC cell lines. We compared the magnitude of change between CT26-KD and CT26-WT/NC cells in different metastatic properties in cells seeded as monolayers or as spheroids formed by the scaffold-free liquid overlay method.

Results

We show that reduced EMMPRIN expression changed the morphology of cells and their spatial organization in both 2D and 3D models. The 3D models more clearly demonstrated how reduced EMMPRIN expression inhibited proliferation and the angiogenic potential, while it enhanced drug resistance, invasiveness, and EMT status, and moreover it enhanced cell dormancy and prevented CT26-KD cells from forming metastatic-like lesions when seeded on basement membrane extract (BME). Most interestingly, this approach enabled us to identify that EMMPRIN and miR-146a-5p form a negative feedback loop, thus identifying a key mechanism for EMMPRIN activities. These results underline EMMPRIN role as a gatekeeper that prevents dormancy, and suggest that EMMPRIN links EMT characteristics to the process of spheroid formation.

Conclusions

Thus, 3D models can help identify mechanisms by which EMMPRIN facilitates tumor and metastasis progression, which might render EMMPRIN as a promising target for anti-metastatic tumor therapy.

CD147 promotes breast cancer migration and invasion by inducing epithelial-mesenchymal transition via the MAPK/ERK signaling pathway

BACKGROUND

CD147, a transmembrane glycoprotein, has been implicated in various cancer-related processes but its role in breast cancer remains poorly understood. Herein, we investigated the expression of CD147 in different breast cancer cell lines and explored its functional roles, including migration, invasion, drug resistance and modulation of key proteins associated with cancer progression.

METHODS

The expression of CD147 was assessed in MCF-10 A, BT549, MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 breast cancer cell lines using qRT-PCR and Western blotting, following which lyposome transfections were performed, leading overexpression of CD147 in BT549 cells and knockdown of CD147 in MCF-7 cells. Scratch assays and Transwell invasion and were performed to evaluate the cells' migration and invasion abilities. Sensitivity to 5-FU was determined via CCK-8 assays, and the expression of Snail1, E-cadherin, Vimentin, MMP-9 and the MAPK/ERK pathway were analyzed by qRT-PCR and Western blotting.

RESULTS

Compared with normal beast epithelial cells, CD147 was highly expressed in all breast cancer cell lines, with the highest overexpression observed in MCF-7 cells and the lowest overexpression observed in BT549 cells. Overexpression of CD147 in BT549 cells increased, migration, invasion, viability and resistance to 5-FU of BT549 cells, while CD147 knockdown in MCF-7 cells reduced these properties of MCF-7 cells. Furthermore, CD147 influenced the expression of Snail1, Vimentin, E-cadherin, and MMP-9, suggesting its involvement in epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) regulation. The MAPK/ERK pathway was activated by CD147 in BT549 cells, as indicated by increased p-MEK/MEK ratio and p-ERK/ERK ratio. In contrast, CD147 silencing in MCF-7 cells resulted in reduced p-MEK/MEK ratio and p-ERK/ERK ratio.

CONCLUSION

In summary, our findings suggest CD147 as a potential therapeutic target in breast cancer treatment, particularly in cases where drug resistance and metastasis are concerns, worthy of further explorations.

Role of CD147 in the development and diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary liver cancer, and the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. HCC is characterized by insidious onset, and most patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage with a poor prognosis. Identification of biomarkers for HCC onset and progression is imperative to development of effective diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. CD147 is a glycoprotein that is involved in tumor cell invasion, metastasis and angiogenesis through multiple mechanisms. In this review, we describe the molecular structure of CD147 and its role in regulating HCC invasion, metastasis and angiogenesis. We highlight its potential as a diagnostic and therapeutic target for HCC.

ACE2-Independent Alternative Receptors for SARS-CoV-2

Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), is highly contagious and remains a major public health challenge despite the availability of effective vaccines. SARS-CoV-2 enters cells through the binding of its spike receptor-binding domain (RBD) to the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor in concert with accessory receptors/molecules that facilitate viral attachment, internalization, and fusion. Although ACE2 plays a critical role in SARS-CoV-2 replication, its expression profiles are not completely associated with infection patterns, immune responses, and clinical manifestations. Additionally, SARS-CoV-2 infects cells that lack ACE2, and the infection is resistant to monoclonal antibodies against spike RBD in vitro, indicating that some human cells possess ACE2-independent alternative receptors, which can mediate SARS-CoV-2 entry. Here, we discuss these alternative receptors and their interactions with SARS-CoV-2 components for ACE2-independent viral entry. These receptors include CD147, AXL, CD209L/L-SIGN/CLEC4M, CD209/DC-SIGN/CLEC4L, CLEC4G/LSECtin, ASGR1/CLEC4H1, LDLRAD3, TMEM30A, and KREMEN1. Most of these receptors are known to be involved in the entry of other viruses and to modulate cellular functions and immune responses. The SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant exhibits altered cell tropism and an associated change in the cell entry pathway, indicating that emerging variants may use alternative receptors to escape the immune pressure against ACE2-dependent viral entry provided by vaccination against RBD. Understanding the role of ACE2-independent alternative receptors in SARS-CoV-2 viral entry and pathogenesis may provide avenues for the prevention of infection by SARS-CoV-2 variants and for the treatment of COVID-19.

CD147 Promotes Tumorigenesis via Exosome-Mediated Signaling in Rhabdomyosarcoma

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is an aggressive childhood soft-tissue tumor, with propensity for local invasion and distant metastasis. Exosomes are secreted vesicles that mediate paracrine signaling by delivering functional proteins and miRNA to recipient cells. The transmembrane protein CD147, also known as Basigin or EMMPRIN, is enriched in various tumor cells, as well as in tumor-derived exosomes, and has been correlated with poor prognosis in several types of cancer, but has not been previously investigated in RMS. We investigated the effects of CD147 on RMS cell biology and paracrine signaling, specifically its contribution to invasion and metastatic phenotype. CD147 downregulation diminishes RMS cell invasion and inhibits anchorage-independent growth in vitro. While treatment of normal fibroblasts with RMS-derived exosomes results in a significant increase in proliferation, migration, and invasion, these effects are reversed when using exosomes from CD147-downregulated RMS cells. In human RMS tissue, CD147 was expressed exclusively in metastatic tumors. Altogether, our results demonstrate that CD147 contributes to RMS tumor cell aggressiveness, and is involved in modulating the microenvironment through RMS-secreted exosomes. Targeted inhibition of CD147 reduces its expression levels within the isolated exosomes and reduces the capacity of these exosomes to enhance cellular invasive properties.

Mini-Review: Can the Metastatic Cascade Be Inhibited by Targeting CD147/EMMPRIN to Prevent Tumor Recurrence?

Solid tumors metastasize very early in their development, and once the metastatic cell is lodged in a remote organ, it can proliferate to generate a metastatic lesion or remain dormant for long periods. Dormant cells represent a real risk for future tumor recurrence, but because they are typically undetectable and insensitive to current modalities of treatment, it is difficult to treat them in time. We describe the metastatic cascade, which is the process that allows tumor cells to detach from the primary tumor, migrate in the tissue, intravasate and extravasate the lymphatics or a blood vessel, adhere to a remote tissue and eventually outgrow. We focus on the critical enabling role of the interactions between tumor cells and immune cells, especially macrophages, in driving the metastatic cascade, and on those stages that can potentially be targeted. In order to prevent the metastatic cascade and tumor recurrence, we would need to target a molecule that is involved in all of the steps of the process, and evidence is brought to suggest that CD147/EMMPRIN is such a protein and that targeting it blocks metastasis and prevents tumor recurrence.

Effects of Allium sativum Stem Extract on Growth and Migration in Melanoma Cells through Inhibition of VEGF, MMP-2, and MMP-9 Genes Expression

The present study investigated the effects of Allium sativum stem extract (ASE) on B16-F0 cell growth and metastasis. Evaluation of the effects of ASE on B16-F0 cells’ viability and migration showed that 0.5 mg/mL ASE inhibited B16-F0 cells’ growth by 30.2% and migration by 38.5%, which indicates that the ASE has anticancer and antimetastatic effects on B16-F0 cells. To study the anticancer and antimetastatic mechanism, mRNA levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), matrix metalloproteinases-2 (MMP-2), and matrix metalloproteinases-9 (MMP-9) expressions were evaluated with reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, and 0.25 and 0.5 mg/mL ASE was found to exert significant inhibition on mRNA expressions of VEGF, MMP-2, and MMP-9 in B16-F0 cells. Thus, ASE reduce extracellular matrix degradation through inhibitions of expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9, and also showed an angiogenesis inhibitory effect through reduction of VEGF expression. High-performance liquid chromatography analysis showed that among various polyphenols, gallic acid (2.1 mg/g) was a major compound of ASE. Overall, our results demonstrated that ASE inhibited the growth and migration of B16-F0 cells through downregulation of the VEGF, MMP-2, and MMP-9 genes expression, which indicates ASE could be applied for the prevention and treatment of melanoma.

miR-4319 inhibited retinoblastoma cells proliferation, migration, invasion and EMT progress via suppressing CD147 mediated MMPs expression

Tumor migration is the critical step that lead to the migration in retinoblastoma (RB), in which microRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles. This study aimed to investigate the role of microRNA-4319 (miR-4319) in the development of retinoblastoma by identifying its targets, as well as its underlying regulatory mechanisms. Our data shown that miR-4319 was downregulated in RB tissues and RB cell lines. Enhanced miR-4319 suppressed cell proliferation, migration, invasion and EMT progress, promoted cell apoptosis in SO-RB50 and RB-Y79 cells. Of note, extracellular matrix metalloproteinase inducer (EMMPRI/CD147) was identified as a direct target gene for miR-4319. MMPs were regulated by CD147 and participated in the miR-4319 regulatory network in SO-RB50 cells. In addition, overexpression of CD147 abrogated the inhibitory effect of miR-4319 on RB cells. In summary, miR-4319 overexpression suppressed cell proliferation, migration and invasion may through suppressing the CD147 mediated MMPs expression, suggesting that miR-4319 may serve as a potential diagnostic biomarker and treatment target for RB.

Clinical Significance of CD147 in Children with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Background

CD147/basigin (Bsg), a transmembrane glycoprotein, activates matrix metalloproteinases and promotes inflammation.

Objective

The aim of this study is to explore the clinical significance of CD147 in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Results

In addition to monocytes, the clinical analysis showed that there is no significance obtained in leucocyte, neutrophil, eosinophil, basophil, and erythrocyte between IBD and controls. Immunohistochemistry analysis showed that CD147 was increased in intestinal tissue of patients with active IBD compared to that in the control group. What is more, CD147 is involved in intestinal barrier function and intestinal inflammation, which was attributed to the fact that it has an influence on MCT4 expression, a regulator of intestinal barrier function and intestinal inflammation, in HT-29 and CaCO2 cells. Most importantly, serum level of CD147 content is higher in active IBD than that in inactive IBD or healthy control, which could be a biomarker of IBD.

Conclusion

The data suggested that increased CD147 level could be a biomarker of IBD in children.

Immunohistochemical basigin expression level in thyroid cancer tissues

BACKGROUND

Thyroid cancer (TC) is the most common endocrine malignancy; basigin (also known as BSG) plays a crucial role in tumor cell invasion, metastasis, and angiogenesis. This study was designed to identify the change of BSG expression in TC and its possible potential mechanism.

METHODS

The BSG expression levels in TC were demonstrated using data collected from in-house immunohistochemical (IHC), RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq), microarrays, and literatures. Integrated analysis was performed to determined BSG expression levels in TC comprehensively. The Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses were performed with the integration of BSG co-expressed genes and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in TC tissues to explore the potential mechanisms of BSG in TC.

RESULTS

The protein expression level of BSG was significantly higher in TC cases based on the IHC experiments. In addition, the combined SMD for BSG expression was 0.39 (p < 0.0001), the diagnostic odds ratio was 3.69, and the AUC of the sROC curve was 0.6986 using 1182 TC cases and 437 non-cancerous cases from 17 independent datasets. Furthermore, BSG co-expressed genes tended to be enriched in gene terms of the extracellular matrix (ECM), cell adhesion, and cell-cell interactions. The expression levels of nine hub BSG co-expressed genes were markedly upregulated in TC cases.

CONCLUSION

BSG expression levels were closely correlated with the progression of TC and may affect the signals of the ECM, cell adhesion, and cell-cell interactions.

CD147 regulates melanoma metastasis via the NFAT1-MMP-9 pathway

Although accumulating evidence had revealed that NFAT1 has oncogenic characteristics, the role of this molecule in melanoma cells remains unclear. Previous studies proved that CD147 plays a crucial function in melanoma cell metastasis and invasion through matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) expression; however, the details of how CD147 regulates MMP-9 expression remain elusive. In this study, we demonstrated that CD147 and NFAT1 are overexpressed in the tissues of patients with primary and metastatic melanoma, which has shown a positive correlation. Further, we observed that CD147 regulates NFAT1 activation through the [Ca²⁺ ]i-calcineurin pathway. Knockdown of NFAT1 significantly suppresses melanoma metastasis, and we demonstrated that CD147 affects melanoma metastasis in an NFAT1-dependent manner. Moreover, we verified that NFAT1 directly binds to MMP-9 promoter. Inhibition of CD147 expression significantly abrogates MMP-9 promoter luciferase gene reporter activity as well as NFAT1 association with MMP-9 promoter. Taken together, this study demonstrated that CD147 affects MMP-9 expression through regulating NFAT1 activity and provided a novel mechanism by which NFAT1 contributes to melanoma metastasis through the regulation of MMP-9.

Antitumor effects and mechanisms of pyropheophorbide‑α methyl ester‑mediated photodynamic therapy on the human osteosarcoma cell line MG‑63

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a promising treatment for osteosarcoma, and pyropheophorbide-α methyl ester (MPPa) is a second-generation photosensitizer for tumor treatment. The present study aimed to determine the efficacy and possible mechanisms of MPPa-PDT in the treatment of osteosarcoma MG-63 cells. Flow cytometry and western blotting were used to detect cell cycle-related indicators Cyclin D1, Cyclin E, Cyclin A and Cyclin B1. Cell migration and invasion abilities were detected using wound-healing and Transwell chamber assays. Cellular endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS), autophagy and apoptosis-related indicators were detected by flow cytometry and western blotting. The results demonstrated that MPPa-PDT blocked the MG-63 cell cycle and inhibited cell migration and invasion. Additionally, MPPa-PDT inhibited the activation of the Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway. MG-63 cells underwent ERS-induced apoptosis following MPPa-PDT treatment. Pretreatment with the mTOR phosphorylation inhibitor rapamycin affected the autophagy of MPPa-PDT-induced osteosarcoma MG-63 cells and enhanced apoptosis through targeting mTOR.