Role of metastasis-associated protein 1 in prognosis of patients with digestive tract cancers: A meta-analysis

Membranous CD44v6 is upregulated as an early event in colorectal cancer: Downregulation is associated with circulating tumor cells and poor prognosis

Previous studies have reported that CD44 variant 6 (CD44v6) and metastasis-associated protein 1 (MTA1) are contributing factors to cancer progression. The present study aimed to evaluate the expression profiles for associations with patients' demographic data, clinicopathological characteristics, the presence of partial epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (pEMT), metastatic potential based on the presence of CK20⁺ CEA⁺ CXCR4⁺ circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and prognosis (median follow-up, 45 months). Thus, frozen tissue samples from 31 patients with stage I–III colorectal cancer (CRC), 15 benign colorectal polyps and seven normal colorectal tissues were analyzed to detect membranous (m)CD44v6 and MTA1 expression via flow cytometry. The results demonstrated that the mCD44v6 and MTA1 expression profiles were significantly correlated (r_s=+0.786, P<0.001). Notably, MTA1 expression was not associated with any of the clinicopathological characteristics assessed. The percentage of mCD44v6-positive cells within tumors was higher in the right-sided cancer lesions (P=0.014), suggesting that proximal and distal CRCs are distinct clinicopathological entities. Furthermore, downregulated mCD44v6 expression was significantly associated with the presence of CTCs (P=0.017). This association was stronger for pEMT (co-expression of N- and E-cadherin mRNAs) primary lesions (P=0.009). In addition, patients with CRC with low levels of mCD44v6 had unfavorable survival outcomes (P=0.037). Taken together, these results suggest that targeted analysis of membranous CD44v6 as opposed to membranous-cytoplasmic expression is important in determining the prognosis of patients with CRC. Furthermore, downregulated mCD44v6 expression in malignancies presenting CTCs reinforces the importance of tumor-stroma reciprocal influence during the metastatic process and encourages the assessment of relevant therapeutic strategies.

Expression and Prognostic Significance of Metastasis-Associated Protein 1 in Gastrointestinal Cancer

Background

Metastasis-associated protein 1 (MTA1) has been considered as a transcriptional regulator, which is significantly related to the prognosis in various types of tumors. However, whether MTA1 is a potential prognostic index of gastrointestinal cancer (GIC) remains controversial. The current meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the role of MTA1 expression in the prediction of the clinicopathological features and survival in GIC cases. And the results of gastric cancer were verified by immunohistochemistry (IHC).

Methods

Eligible studies assessing the relationship between MTA1 and GIC by IHC were searched in the PubMed, Cochrane, Ovid, Web of Science and CNKI databases by various search strategies. The STATA 16.0 software was applied to gather data and to analyze the potential relationship between MTA1 and GIC. The expression level of MTA1 was examined in 80 GC samples by IHC assay. SPSS 20.0 was applied for statistical analysis, and the survival curves were calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method. The data of 95% CI was displayed as “[a-b]”.

Results

According to the meta-analysis, the expression level of MTA1 was tightly associated with the tumor size (OR=1.82 [1.16–2.84], P=0.009), tumor tissue differentiation (OR=1.71 [1.24–2.37], P=0.001), depth of invasion (OR=3.12 [2.55–3.83], P<0.001), lymphatic metastasis (OR=2.99 [2.02–4.43], P<0.001), distant metastasis (OR=4.66 [1.13–19.24], P=0.034), TNM stage (OR=4.28 [2.76–6.63], P<0.001). In addition, MTA1 played the negative effects in 1- (RR=2.48 [1.45–4.25], P=0.001), 3- (RR=1.66 [1.30–2.11], P<0.001) and 5-year (RR=1.73 [1.37–2.20], P<0.001). Study in subgroup, grouped by language and tumor type, we reached similar conclusions. Further validation by IHC yielded similar conclusions. Tumor size (P=0.008), lymph node metastasis (P=0.007) and distant metastasis (P=0.023) significantly accompanied with higher expression of MAT1 in GC cases. Besides, the expression level of MTA1 was statistically significantly correlated with OS in GC cases (HR=2.061 [1.066–3.986], P=0.032), which suggested that MTA1 might be an independent prognostic marker for GC. Finally, we verified the correlation between the expression level of MTA1 and prognosis of GC in 80 GC samples.

Conclusions

MTA1 is tightly associated with metastasis-related factors and may constitute a promising prognostic factor of GIC.

HSF1: Primary Factor in Molecular Chaperone Expression and a Major Contributor to Cancer Morbidity

Heat shock factor 1 (HSF1) is the primary component for initiation of the powerful heat shock response (HSR) in eukaryotes. The HSR is an evolutionarily conserved mechanism for responding to proteotoxic stress and involves the rapid expression of heat shock protein (HSP) molecular chaperones that promote cell viability by facilitating proteostasis. HSF1 activity is amplified in many tumor contexts in a manner that resembles a chronic state of stress, characterized by high levels of HSP gene expression as well as HSF1-mediated non-HSP gene regulation. HSF1 and its gene targets are essential for tumorigenesis across several experimental tumor models, and facilitate metastatic and resistant properties within cancer cells. Recent studies have suggested the significant potential of HSF1 as a therapeutic target and have motivated research efforts to understand the mechanisms of HSF1 regulation and develop methods for pharmacological intervention. We review what is currently known regarding the contribution of HSF1 activity to cancer pathology, its regulation and expression across human cancers, and strategies to target HSF1 for cancer therapy.

Prognostic and clinical significance of metastasis-associated gene 1 overexpression in solid cancers: A meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

In the past 2 decades, metastasis-associated gene 1 (MTA1) has attracted attention for its close association with cancer progression and its roles in chromatin remodeling processes, making it a central gene in cancer. The present meta-analysis was performed to assess MTA1 expression in solid tumors.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This analysis identified studies that evaluated the relationship between MTA1 expression and clinical characteristics or prognosis of patients with solid tumors via the PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Embase electronic databases. Fixed-effect and random-effect meta-analytical techniques were used to correlate MTA1 expression with outcome measures. The outcome variables are shown as odds ratio (OR) or hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (CI).

RESULTS

Analysis of 40 cohort studies involving 4564 cancer patients revealed a significant association of MTA1 overexpression with tumor patient age (>50 vs. <50 years: combined OR 0.73, 95% CI 0.57-0.94), tumor grade (G3/4 vs. G1/2: combined OR 1.94, 95% CI 1.48-2.53), tumor size (>3 cm vs. <3 cm: combined OR 2.35, 95% CI 1.73-3.19), T stage (T3/4 vs. T1/2: combined OR 2.11, 95% CI 1.74-2.56), lymph node metastasis (yes vs. no: combined OR 2.92, 95% CI 2.26-3.75), distant metastasis (yes vs. no: combined OR 2.26, 95% CI 1.42-3.59), TNM stage (III/IV vs. I/II: combined OR 2.50, 95% CI 1.84-3.38), vascular invasion (yes vs. no: combined OR 2.26, 95% CI 1.92-3.56), and poor overall survival time (HR 1.83; 95% CI: 1.53-2.20; P = .000).

CONCLUSIONS

Our analyses demonstrate that MTA1 was an effective predictor of a worse prognosis in tumor patients. Moreover, MTA1 may play important role in tumor progression and outcome, and targeting MTA1 may be a new strategy for anti-cancer therapy.

Expression of MTA1 in endometriosis and its relationship to the recurrence

Metastasis-associated gene 1 (MTA1) is correlated with prognosis of many tumors. However, little is known about the role of MAT1 in endometriosis and its relationship with the recurrence of endometriosis.The expression of MTA1 in normal, eutopic and ectopic endometrium was detected by immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR, respectively. The relationship of MTA1 expression with the recurrence of endometriosis was evaluated.In the normal endometrium, eutopic endometrium and ectopic endometrium, the positive rates of MTA1 expression showed a gradually increasing trend. In addition, the MTA1 expression difference between each two groups was significant (P < .0125). However, there was no significant difference between proliferative phase and secretory phase in each group (P > .05). In the ectopic endometrium, MTA1 expression in the severe phases (III-IV) was significantly higher than that in mild phases (I-II) (P < .05), indicating the expression of MTA1 correlates with r-AFS staging (P < .05). Additionally, the MTA1 mRNA level was also closely related to the stages of r-AFS, but not to the proliferative phase or secretory phase of endometrium. Logistic regression analysis showed that r-AFS stage and MTA1 overexpression were risk factors for the recurrence of endometriosis. While, postoperative pregnancy was a protective factor for its relapse.MTA1 is closely associated with the occurrence and development of Ems. Thus, MTA1 level may be used as a new indicator to predict the progression of endometriosis.